The series premiere of How To Get Away With Murder aired tonight and proved to be a show that’s going to keep us tuning in again next week.
The episode opens up with what appears to be a bonfire at a school pep rally. The scene shoots to a group of students (Connor, Asher, Michaela, Laurel and Wes) in the woods all huddled around a dead body. They are clearly shaken and immediately begin to rattle off how to get themselves out of this situation. What are the pros and cons of taking the murder weapon? Do they take or abandon the body? No one can agree on a way to handle the situation so Wes steps in and gives his best option for deciding: Heads or Tails.
Ladies and gentlemen, these are our future lawyers.
The quarter is in the air and the screen cuts to black and it’s 3 months earlier on Wes’s first day of law school. He is headed into Criminology 101 but as he walks in the camera zooms in on a missing person poster with the name Lila Standgard and a girl’s photo plastered all over the wall.
There’s lots of chatter before the first class regarding the notorious workload and intensity of the course. Talking stops when Professor Annalise Keating bursts into the room. Her opening speech is a bit over the top but we’ll let it slide since Viola Davis is already crushing the scene. Annalise gets right into lecture and asks a series of questions about an attempted murder case by the “The Aspirin Assassin.” We wish they didn’t have to go and name her this. She didn’t actually kill anyone so she isn’t even an assassin.
Connor, Asher and Michaela are all called on and smugly pass with flying colors. A question shoots to Wes only for us to find that not only didn’t he do the assignment but also he was only accepted into the school two days prior. He can’t answer the question but not to worry because Laurel chimes in with the right answer. Annalise was far from impressed that Laurel took this learning opportunity away from Wes. Basically, the girl tried to be a smarty pants and got shot down!
From the Q&A we learn that Arthur Kaufman, the CEO of a prestigious advertising agency, ingested aspirin, a pill in which he is highly allergic. The aspirin was believed to have been planted in his bottle full of blood pressure pills by his assistant/mistress, Gina.
Annalise reveals that she has taken Gina on as a client and brings the students to her office in order to question her. At her office, Annalise announces a competition she holds each year that will help her decide which four students will work for her that year. She also mentions a bonus prize to one student who gets the “immunity idol” which grants the winner the ability to skip one exam. The screen flashes back to present day and we recognize the idol as the murder weapon the group was discussing.
Wes wants to prove himself after his mess up in class and is up all night trying to find a defense for Gina but he is distracted by the loud music the cute girl next door is listening to. The girl (we later learn is named Rebecca) is pretty rude and we can feel the sexual tension already. First love interest of the show, we’re calling it.
The next morning the students are all giving their defense strategies and Wes was singled out to go last. He goes with the self-defense route and claims Gina had Stockholm syndrome as an assistant to an abusive boss. It seems like a ridiculous theory but Annalise actually puts him through to the next round.
In court, Annalise is questioning Arthur’s first assistant when Michaela comes in late with some information about the assistant being colorblind which proves her statements about seeing a yellow pill to be false. 50 points to Michaela!
Later that night, Wes thinks he found a new way to nail the case and in an effort to prove himself to his professor he goes to her office to tell her. Wouldn’t calling her suffice? Popping up on a professor after hours never seems like a good idea in television shows and low and behold he walks right in on Annalise with a man who isn’t her husband.
Connor goes to a bar and picks a guy who works in IT at Arthur’s ad firm in order to gain information on Arthur. He ends up getting emails between Arthur and another employee that puts the employee in deep water.
Laurel is in the bathroom and spies on Gina and Agnes in the bathroom and sees an exchange that makes her believe that Arthur’s wife and mistress may have been working together in trying to kill Arthur. Frank doesn’t seem impressed, though, and Laurel learns a lesson in money doing the talking.
The next day at the trial, Annalise calls Nate to the stand AKA the man Wes caught her with a few nights before. Evidence in the case pointed to Gina buying aspirin and now Annalise is ripping into Nate and gets him to confess to the police force tampering with evidence in the past and it ends up clearing Gina’s name.
With each passing scene we’re really getting to see how ruthless Annalise can be.
Back to present day, the gang all decide to torch the body and return the murder weapon to its rightful place after soaking it in bleach. Before the body is set on fire, we get a glimpse of the victim and can see it’s Annalise’s husband, Sam Keating.
After the trial, it’s finally time for Annalise to pick the four students who will be joining her firm. Connor, Michaela, Laurel and Asher all get the reward plus the surprise pick: Wes.