How To Get Away With Murder Season 4, Episode 5 Recap: "I Love Her"

After supporting Annalise (Viola Davis) for all these years, Bonnie (Liza Weil) is finally claiming her power — even if that includes admitting her love for Annalise.

This week's episode of How to Get Away with Murder opens with Bonnie running through the rain. It turns out, she's headed to Isaac's (Jimmy Smits) office, where she's been seeing the therapist under a fake name. She tells him about her complicated relationship with "Mae," a.k.a. Anna Mae, a.k.a. Annalise. Apparently, the late-night emergency appointment came after she unexpectedly ran into "Mae."

But before we can understand why Bonnie is so distraught in the present day, the show takes us back to 2002, when Annalise and Bonnie first met. Annalise was on the legal team defending a congressman who'd raped Bonnie repeatedly when she was just 14 years old.

Bonnie was composed on the stand, revealing details about her father without showing emotion. It turns out that not only was Bonnie's dad abusing her, but he was also aiding in her abuse at the hands of other men. When Bonnie was 14, her father took her to the congressman's office and left her there, multiple times, and she was raped. The abuse only ended when she became pregnant at age 15 — but because "dozens" of men were assaulting her at the time, she had no idea who her baby's father even was.

Annalise tore into Bonnie on the stand, though. She suggested that Bonnie was having false memories because she'd been raped by so many white men. She even suggested that Bonnie was never pregnant, because she never saw her baby (Bonnie passed out while in labor, only to wake up and have her father tell her the baby was dead). Not long after, Annalise felt so guilty about the way she treated Bonnie that she quit her job, which is what led her to Middleton in the first place.

It's also what led her to develop a professional relationship with Bonnie. Annalise went to find Bonnie outside her waitressing gig, suggesting she become a law student at Middleton. We also see Sam (Tom Verica) welcoming her into the Keating home, so it looks like Bonnie was living with the Keatings while going through law school.

All that to say: Bonnie and Annalise's relationship goes way back, which is why she was so hurt to receive a letter of dismissal along with the Keating Four at the so-called last supper in the season premiere. And as Bonnie explains to Isaac, that pain makes her want to hurt Annalise — which she's doing a great job at, thanks to her new position at the D.A.'s office.

Annalise has been meeting with inmates unofficially to get them to sign onto her class action lawsuit. It's not difficult for her to convince them to participate, after she explains to them that their cases will be retried if she's successful (not to mention the fact that they could be entitled to damages). But Bonnie outsmarts Annalise, offering the inmates a better deal through the D.A.'s office. Annalise's brief moment of being joyful — her short-lived victory dance was truly memorable — doesn't last long, when she starts receiving a string of calls from inmates informing her they won't be participating in the suit.

Of course, Annalise knows who's behind the sudden changes of heart, and she confronts Bonnie in a parking lot. Bonnie accuses Annalise of thinking of her as "trash," taken out with the interns despite their history together. Annalise, meanwhile, maintains that the class action suit isn't about the two of them, and that she only wants to help the less fortunate. Both sides are sympathetic, and the scene is truly heartbreaking to watch.

Still, the biggest twist in the Bonnie-Annalise drama comes when Isaac figures out that "Mae" is actually Annalise. We still don't know how he's involved with Laurel's (Karla Souza) hospital stay, but it's safe to say he's going to become very wrapped up in the Keating drama. It does seem like he's actually a pretty good therapist, though. Before realising who "Mae" is, Isaac makes Bonnie say "I love her" repeatedly, saying admitting it will be the first step toward moving on.

As for the Keating Four, Michaela (Aja Naomi King) seems to be the only one who's still truly dedicated to her legal career. She's doing so well at Caplan & Gold that Tegan (Amirah Vann) gives her a pair of Christian Louboutins, in fact. But her intentions aren't all self-serving — Michaela still enlists Oliver (Conrad Ricamora) to help her access the Antares files on Tegan's computer. They find a cease and desist letter the firm sent Trent, the Antares employee who died. When they show it to Laurel, she quickly realises her father must have had Trent killed when he threatened to blow the whistle on Antares' illicit activity.

Meanwhile, Simon (Behzad Dabu) is still interning at Caplan & Gold, too. And he just so happens to be in the office while Michaela and Oliver are hacking into Tegan's computer. Oliver tries to ease his suspicion by inviting Simon out to drinks, but there's a reason this scene made it into the episode. Could Simon secretly be linked to Laurel's dad, too? It could help explain why he's been on the periphery of the show for so long, and why he's always had it out for the former Keating interns.

And even though he doesn't have an internship, Asher (Matt McGorry) is still busy with a law school-related task: helping Frank (Charlie Weber) study for the LSATs. After Frank plants the idea in Asher's head that Michaela could be lying about working late, Asher calls Michaela from outside Wes' apartment, where he sees her through the window, talking to Laurel about the letter to Trent. (Once again, Asher is stuck on the outside of the Keating group's activities.) She tells him she's still at the office, and it seems like those lies are going to catch up to her sooner rather than later. Although, couldn't Asher have just tracked Michaela through Find My iPhone to figure out she was lying, instead of going through the trouble of going to Wes' apartment?

As for Connor, it looks like he's finally found something productive to do now that he's no longer a law student. After he shows up at Annalise's motel room because, well, why not, Annalise tells him about the class action suit, saying she needs help. It's a little messed up that he's the one to help her after the way he acted at the dismissal dinner, but then again, what isn't messed up for the Keating Four?

Oh, and as for Laurel's baby — we don't see a flash forward to the hospital this week, but there is another major clue. Frank asks if the baby could be his, and we learn that Laurel did sleep with Frank once while she was with Wes. So Frank's question seems pretty likely to be true.