What to Expect From How To Get Away With Murder Season 1 Episode 2



How to Get Away With Murder (HTGAWM) blazed into Thursday night television last week. The show’s pilot got 14 million viewers, a full three million more than its Shondaland counterpart, Scandal. From all accounts, these are the best numbers ABC has had in years.
To be honest, I wasn’t really planning on watching this show last Thursday. Although I love Viola Davis, I was fully prepared to catch it some other time so I could get some work done, away from the television. But I was live-tweeting Scandal and then HTGWM started right after. Shonda didn’t give me time to breathe!
By the time I realised what was going on Viola had stomped onto the screen in a fierce oxblood leather jacket. I was hooked. It’s almost impossible to take notes or live-tweet during this show. If you glance away from the screen even for one second, you run the risk of missing something central to the plot.
So, if you missed the show last week. Here’s my best shot at a recap of what happened and what you can expect this week
Gonna give it the ol’ college try.
The show opens on a dark stormy night. We see a group of twenty-somethings who appear to be moving a body that’s wrapped with a rug. One of them has a small statue in their hand and you can tell it’s important to these people. They flip a coin to figure out what to do with the body.
Cut to a scene at Middleton Law School where Annalise Keating, played by Viola Davis, is leading her young charges down a slippery slope called Defense Law 101 or as she calls it, “How to Get Away With Murder.” To say that Annalise is a no-nonsense kind of professor would be a gross understatement. One that would probably make you the victim of one of her verbal smackdowns.


She presents her students with a case and a challenge. Each student will have to present a defense of the client. The catch is that each defense has to be different. The person who presents the best defense will be brought into Keating’s law firm and -get this- one of the tokens of winning is a grecian-looking figurine. It’s the same statue we saw in the opening scene.


The oxblood peplum jacket! - oh and the statue!
Here’s the case: the assistant to a wealthy CEO has charged with killing her boss by giving him asprin to which he is allergic. The boss is also her lover. The wife knew her husband was banging the secretary and turned a blind eye- or did she?
Memorable moments from the pilot: Wes, the naive ingenue of the cast, walks in to find Annalise getting head from a brawny dude, who we later find out is the detective investigating the case. Later, Annalise, in a bone-chilling, ruthless attempt to win, after her initial defense was shot down, puts Mr Burly Police Officer on the stand. She then railroads him into into discrediting the entire police force - and the prosecution- by admitting that video evidence is sometimes tampered with.
Are you seeing the type of woman we’re dealing with! I love her!
Last minute cliff hanger: the body in the rug is probably Annalise’s husband. *gasp*

Ok, let’s check out the preview of what’s going to happen this week:



What we can expect:

Annalise Keating continuing to slay us with her fashion: I already know that I’m going to love that all-black number she’s rocking in the first couple seconds of the preview. Also, Viola and this swoop bang. WERK!
More details on what happened to her husband and the missing girl: In the first episode, Annalise and her husband watched a news report of a female student who had gone missing. But I paid that no mind, since there was there was so much else going on. That was a big mistake. Turns out that the girl who was missing and later found dead may have been involved with Annalise’s husband, who was also later found dead (?) It’s confusing and I’m hoping we get some clarity from tonight’s episode.

Annalise may have a secret baby: ... and that secret baby may be her student Wes, the bumbling ingenue, voice of the audience and formerly of Hogwarts. (!!!!) I can't seem to embed that particular sneak peek here but you can watch it at this link.
We’ll learn more about Annalise? Maybe, maybe not: Annalise Keating is a morally ambiguous character. You wonder if there are any scruples that would stand in the way of her successfully defending a client.

Not gonna lie, this was really awkward.
But who is she under that steely facade? She showed a rare moment of vulnerability when she cried in front of Wes, last week, while caressing his shoulders - which was weird but that’s not the point.

It’s telling that the the preview features two lines from Annalise that are notes on the themes of deception and revelation: “Do you really ever know who anyone really is.” and “We’re all capable of terrible things”
Will we find out some of the terrible things Annalise is capable of in this episode? Maybe. But I doubt that we’ll find out who she really is.
Did you watch the first episode of How to Get Away with Murder. Will you be watching tonight.? Tune in with me on Twitter where I’ll be attempting to livetweet the show. Don’t expect me to be too consistent, though. I don’t want to miss any juicy details!
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