How to Get Away With Murder began season 3 last night, and murder may be the least shocking thing about this year’s season opener.
After two seasons we’ve come to expect a couple of things from How to Get Away with Murder. For starters, those things have included moral ambiguity, saving the collective asses of the Keating Five, and Annalise taking on a deeply flawed client that the students will spend the better part of the year defending.
Additionally, we usually get “ice water in her veins” Annalise, and her willing minions Frank and Bonnie. Lastly, let’s not forget, the hallmark skipping back and forth in time revealing tidbits of information at a maddening pace.
Things were a little different this time around. We still got the usual flash forward and flash back, but pretty much everything else was turned on its head.
Annalise and the students seem to now have a relationship based on honesty and trust. Frank has gone rogue big time. This season’s cliffhanger is, of course, centered around a murder, only this time it’s going to be one of the characters we love, not a client that we have no emotional attachment to.
Let’s take a look at the top “wow moments” of the HTGAWM season 3 premiere.
Moving on from Mahoney
No one is investigating the Mahoney murder in so far as any connection with Annalise, Wes, and Frank go. Annalise leads us to believe that Frank did it in an act of revenge, and he is now on the run. We’re going to go out on a limb here and say that despite the circumstantial evidence, Frank isn’t the triggerman.
Regardless of who pulled the trigger, some unnamed person wants the world to know that Annalise is a killer. The questions are who is doing it, and which murder are they referring to, because there are oh so many. Does this nut job mean that Annalise is the literal or figurative killer? IS the nutjob Frank? Posters don’t really seem like Frank’s style.
Coliver
Yeah, so that happened. The healthiest relationship on the show was just ended because Oliver declared it an unhealthy relationship. Can we say irony? I think we can.
On top of that, Oliver is now in Annalise’s employ. Despite her protestations that she’ll keep him out of the really lurid stuff, we all know it’s not going to happen. Oliver is curious, smart, and resourceful, but more dangerously, he’s naive. We’re thinking the person under that blanket is Oliver.
Annalise the human
Annalise is suddenly warm and fuzzy with the Keating Five. She’s actually, legitimately proud of her brood like a parent. She even goes so far as to create a legal clinic class for them because their GPAs are in the toilet thanks to her.
It’s hard to know what to make of this woman who picks Michaela up from a DWI, gives Asher tough love about getting a job, and tells Wes good job for submitting opening arguments in advance of being selected for the deportment case.
Ships ahoy
Michaela and Asher are still going strong. It looks like things have gone beyond a one-time event. Laurel and Wes obviously still have a connection, even though Wes has taken up with Maggie, and Laurel might still have latent feelings for Frank. Nate and Annalise are back in each other’s arms, and we got Nate’s gratuitous abs to gawk at. Now if we could just patch up Coliver…
Newbies
There’s a new top student in town, and he’s gunning for the Keating Five. What will be revealed about the passive aggressive Mr. Drake in future episodes? Which one of the Keating Five does he want to know down the most?
We also have a new head of the university. She lays down the law about the changes on campus. Annalise’s failings aren’t personal; it’s business. Given that Annalise is now ducking her calls, is this an adult that can finally stand up to Annalise?
Finally, there’s Maggie. We hate her, we don’t know why, but we do. She’s too nice; it’s a sign.
How to get Away With Murder will be back on Thursday at 10:00/9:00 p.m., and we are hooked!