How to Get away With Murder is counting down to who Laurel’s baby-daddy is, but will they give this topic the attention unplanned pregnancy deserves?
This season, How to Get Away with Murder is teasing us with a number of life and death scenarios. We have the weekly, death-watch countdown to “Who is under the blanket?” Then, we have Laurel and her baby.
How to Get Away with Murder could do a number of things with the dilemma of Laurel’s baby, but the question is which one will they choose? Will they take the easy way out?
Scenario A – Wes is the baby-daddy
There’s lots of potential with this scenario, as Wes has revealed his feelings for Laurel. If the show is going for the parenthood route, Laurel and Wes are the most stable amongst the Keating Five. They would take the raising of a child most seriously.
Now here’s the real question, why is Laurel even pregnant in the first place? Assuming Wes is the father, did the two of them decide unprotected sex was a great option? Granted, no method of contraception is foolproof, but did they really just throw caution to the wind, or were they absent that day in health class?
If they are the parents, do we see them raising the child, or do we see them putting the child up for adoption? Wes has no family to lean on for support. As for Laurel’s, this is not the career track and perfect family they had envisioned.
Scenario B – Frank is the baby daddy
In our Frank scenario we have a lot of potential complications. Can we say that daddy is a thrice over murderer? Yes, we can. The odds are stacked against you kid! Frank even seems to know this when he talks to Bonnie about wanting a family. It’s a pipe dream, a nice one, but still a dream.
Putting aside the fact that dad is all sorts of screwed up, with serious anger issues, is a raising a child something that Frank is up for long-term? Sure, he has lots of extended family, but is working with them something that Laurel will want?
On top of that, as was the case with Wes, did these two really think no contraception was a good idea? Frank does not seem like the kind of guy who randomly is paying child support on a bunch of mini-me’s. If anything, given his history, he’s not one to start a family without stability in the plan.
Scenario C – Adoption or abortion
Adoption seems an unlikely choice. Having been raised in varying capacities in the system, Wes and Frank seem unlikely to want their child exposed to any kind of placement scenario where they don’t have full control. Sure, there’s open adoption, but they wouldn’t have the final say, and they are totally final say kind of guys.
Laurel, for her part, is a total control freak. She’d want to leave nothing to chance (which honestly is why we find it surprising that she’s even pregnant to start with). It seems doubtful that she’d be up for anyone other than herself raising this child.
There are few network TV series where characters have had a frank discussion about abortion. Fewer still have a character go through with one. Most series take the “easy” way out, and have the character have a miscarriage thereby avoiding fan backlash on a controversial topic. Should How to get Away with Murder opt to deal with this issue head on, it would be fairly unusual. Then again, the series isn’t afraid to tackle tough topics, so maybe this is just one more.
Scenario D – Death
This scenario is the direction that we think the series will ultimately take. We’ve already been set up for this outcome with Laurel being seriously injured. Severe trauma in early pregnancy certainly can lead to miscarriage.
For the reasons we already talked about, a baby would just prove to be too inconvenient to future plot-lines, not to mention the budgetary issues of having a never ending pair of rotating twins on the set.
There are only two surprise twists the show may pull off here. Twist number one is that both Laurel and the baby die. Assuming one of the Keating Five is under the sheet, that would mean opening up space for two new cast members.
Twist number two is that the baby’s father is the guy under the sheet. Assuming Laurel survives we get to find out if 1) she even knew she was pregnant, and 2) if the show might be up for that frank discussion about abortion we mentioned in Scenario C.
Whatever way this is going to go down, time is running out. We’ll know before the show takes its hiatus just before Thanksgiving.