Will Annalise and co. actually get away with murder? See if they make the grade and beware of spoilers!
Many people are desperately hoping to find out who killed Lila on the How to Get Away with Murder season finale. But there’s also another question that’s left to be answered: Will Murder Inc. get away with murder? We’ve compiled a report card to determine how well Annalise’s clean-up crew is following her lessons on how to get away with murder.
Lesson 1: Bury the Evidence
This is probably the hardest lesson to follow. As the murder was not preordained, it was executed messily, leaving many loose ends to hastily tie and a huge mess to frantically clean.
Annalise did a great job wiping the floor with who knows what, making sure there are no traces of blood, even with a UV light. The murder weapon is hiding in plain sight, which is probably okay as long as it was also scrubbed clean with whatever Annalise used on the floor.
It seems, however, that the team has taken ‘burying the evidence’ too literally. Frank disposed of Connor’s car, but that doesn’t necessarily work in Murder Inc.’s favor. The police know his car was at Annalise/Sam’s house the night Sam was killed. How coincidental that said car is now missing, after Sam’s missing persons case has turned into a murder case.
As well, the rug that has always been on the floor of Annalise and Sam’s house is gone, and carpet fibers were found on Sam’s body. It’s a bit odd that the rug disappears around the same time Sam is murdered.
Moreover, debris from the woods was also found on Sam’s body, and after some tests, will be able to lead police to the same wood the students brought Sam. And let’s not forget that Michaela lost her ring at some point while they were in the woods. We can probably assume the police will find it, thus tying her to one of the crime scenes.
To top it all off though, the biggest evidence of all was the most poorly buried. If Sam’s body had not been found, most of the cleaning up mentioned above would not have been necessary. If they had all listened to Wes and burned the body, the investigation would have been a missing persons case much longer, giving them more time to figure out what to do.
Grade: D
Lesson 2: Everyone Lies
Everyone in the show has lied more than a few times. Connor lies to Oliver all the time (the main lie of course being that his odd behavior is due to a drug problem), Michaela lies to her fiancé, Laurel lies to herself, Annalise lies to everyone, and Wes… Well, he probably doesn’t lie enough.
Wes isn’t always truthful to the rest of Murder Inc. but he tells Annalise and Rebecca almost everything. It’s still not entirely clear whose side Annalise is on. Does she really want to help her students, or is she only helping them until their safety is no longer in her best interest? They have to be careful with how much they tell Annalise, who knows how long she’ll help them for and what she’ll use against them later.
As for Rebecca, it’s becoming clearer that maybe she’s not as innocent as initially thought. Wes keeps catching her in lies and she hardly ever does what she’s told, often putting the others at risk. Rebecca hasn’t proven herself to be trustworthy yet, so Wes is better off keeping her at arms length for now.
It’s true that there’s a lot of lying going around, but not enough of it. Moreover, some of the lies being told aren’t very good and are being unravelled.
Grade: C
Lesson 3: Feign Ignorance
To some extent, everyone on How to Get Away with Murder is pretending they don’t know anything. Annalise pretends she didn’t know Sam was already dead, and all the students pretend they don’t know anything about Sam, his disappearance, or his death. To outsiders, they are playing up the ignorance as much as they can. The interrogations with police were consistent with each other and vague enough to hopefully keep them out of trouble for now.
Two standouts are definitely Frank and Asher. No matter how much Laurel talks to Frank, he tells her nothing (or close to it). Whenever a job needs doing, he’s on it and does a great job not discussing with anyone what he’ll do. As for Asher, he’s mostly doing a great job being ignorant because he genuinely doesn’t know anything.
Annalise, however, made a mistake in telling Hannah Keating all that she did. She definitely should have kept the pretense up for longer, because now we have a very angry sister who will say anything, true or not, in her blind rage.
Grade: B
Lesson 4: Fifth Amendment
It’s a very simple concept. Keep your mouth shut from beginning to end and nobody has any ammunition to use against you. Except the How to Get Away with Murder crew seems to have a difficult time with this.
As stated above, for the most part, the group is doing well keeping their mouths shut around others. But around each other, not so much. Everyone tells Annalise too much (who knows where her head is at?), Laurel tells Frank too much, Wes tells Rebecca too much, and Connor and Michaela talk too much in general (they were going to go to the police and tell them everything!). Bonnie is split down the middle, having said some things that were better kept a secret, but keeping others close to her chest. Then there’s Rudy, who only says one word.
The less anyone knows the easier it is to feign ignorance, because it’ll be true. At the rate these guys are going though, it’s only a matter of time before someone slips something too big to someone important.
Grade: C
Lesson 5: Introduce a New Suspect
This lesson is difficult to put into practice when it seems like half of the characters are helping cover up the murder. Who can you blame when so many people are helping you out? Then again, perhaps that makes it easier. With fewer choices there’s less to consider.
Last week, Frank did his part drawing attention away from Annalise and the students by planting evidence on someone else, thus introducing a new suspect. Unfortunately for Annalise, her paramour Nate is the victim, or rather, the suspect. Although Annalise did not explicitly ask Frank to frame Nate, we can assume she won’t go out of her way to help him. We’ve already seen that she is more than willing to hurt those she cares about to protect herself.
Nate has reasonable motive to have killed Sam, a means to do it, and not a great alibi. As suspect’s go, he’s a great choice.
Grade: A
While Murder Inc. is strong in some areas, they still have a lot to learn if they have any hope of not getting caught. It’s high time they started putting these lessons into practice. Before it’s too late.
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