This article contains spoilers about the winter finale of How To Get Away With Murder.
We had a lot of theories about who would die in this episode — and when we finally found out what did happen, it was something we never saw coming.
Leading up to tonight's episode, we thought for sure that all of the Keating Five were safe from being on the stretcher. Laurel (Karla Souza) was hurt in the fire, but we knew she was still alive, and pregnant, thanks to flash-forward scenes at the hospital. And it couldn't be Michaela (Aja Naomi King), since the other body belonged to an unidentified male.
We thought that Asher (Matt McGorry), Connor (Jack Falahee), and Wes (Alfred Enoch) were all safe, too. Asher didn't go to Annalise's (Viola Davis) house, and Connor was with Thomas (Matthew Risch). And the flash-forward scenes showed Wes at the police station, ready to turn on Annalise in exchange for blanket immunity. But it turns out, we had it all wrong.
The flash-forwards did show Wes at the police station — but it turned out, that was before the body was pulled from Annalise's house. Which is confusing, because we also saw flash-forwards of Annalise being held in jail, which was after she was arrested following the fire. Like so many others, we truly thought the Keating Five would make it — but it turns out that wasn't the case.
When we saw Frank (Charlie Weber) call Bonnie (Liza Weil) after the fire, all bets were on Nate (Billy Brown) being the one on the stretcher, especially considering the fact that he was in the house when it suddenly erupted in flames. In the last few minutes of the show, we hear that the body belongs to an African-American male — but then Nate walks into the room! And if it's not him, well, yes — it's Wes under the sheet.
Personally, I was disappointed in myself for not seeing this coming. I thought for sure that all of the Keating Five were safe, and that either Frank or Nate would be lost in the flames. The show made us think that one character would be revealed "safe" each week, but that wasn't true after all.
Wes's death has immediate implications — for the Mahoney trial, for example, and for Laurel, who's pregnant and now alone. It's also going to be devastating for Annalise, after everything she did for him: getting him off the Middleton waitlist, helping him cover up Sam's murder, and forgiving him for literally shooting her. It's also going to have longterm implications, both on the other students and probably on Annalise's career, since the body was taken from her house.
Of course, there are still plenty of unanswered questions we have about the episode. How did Nate emerge from the house unharmed, if it caught on fire shortly after he went in looking for Annalise? Did he start the fire to help her cover any evidence the district attorney's office might be looking for? And if Wes was already dead before the fire, as Nate told Annalise, how did he die?
As for the rest of the episode, all of the students passed the midterm exam for Annalise's legal clinic, in which they had to present a mock defense for historic serial killer Ted Bundy. Before the fire goes down, Bonnie convinces Frank not to kill himself.
Michaela has reconnected with her mom (thanks to Asher accidentally telling her where Michaela lived), but there's a lot of tension between them. And Nate is not taking any shit from Annalise — he calls her a bitch and tells her to "keep your damn mess away from me."
And Annalise, alas, has fallen off the wagon and is back to drinking vodka. She starts a fire to burn documents related to the Mahoney case. In her drunken state, she even smashes a laptop with the trophy that was also Wes' murder weapon against Sam. Annalise tells Bonnie the district attorney's office is investigating her, and she asks Oliver to hack into the D.A.'s office, too. (It's still not clear whose phone Annalise wants wiped after the fire.)
Oh, and Bonnie and Annalise kissed. That might be an even more surprising twist than Wes' death, to be honest. Let's just say, there will be a lot to unpack when the show comes back in January.
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