Oliver could be a goner, Bonnie has a death wish, and Eve knows why Wes is so important to Annalise. We still don’t, but it’s something big and decidedly not sexy, unlike confirmed assisted murderer Nate, who is both. “I Want You To Die” saw a few characters break loose from pre-established molds just four days before Annalise turns up shot in their clients’ mansion.
Bye, Felicia (née Oliver)? “You don’t get to act crazy anymore!” the increasingly conscientious Connor yells at his adorable hacker boyfriend. “What if I want to?” Ollie implores. The way he sees it, there’s no reason he should sit at home ruminating on his HIV and self-esteem issues when there’s a fast-paced murder office down the street full of really fun weirdos with even bigger problems who are already using him for his IT skills. (IKR?) Time to get down to business: Ollie sets Connor up on a Dude4Dude date to snare Phillip, the secret child of the Hapstall twins’ racist aunt. Thing is, Phillip’s been spying on both of them via webcam, so he knows he’s being set up. Instead of meeting Connor at the empanada/gelato coffee shop, Phillip follows Ollie home and utters the line that will haunt us all week: “How’s your night going?” Shudder. But at least Oliver’s in seemingly the best mood of his life just before it may end, happily muttering lines from Asher’s “Bye, Felicia” frat boy rap video (an instant classic) while putting away groceries. Plus, he got a heartfelt “Thank you for your hard work” from that nice dictator Annalise, which has gotta be worth at least $20K in karma and spilled milk.
What is love? Bonnie, don’t hurt me. Also out of character, a very drunk Bonnie attempts to stand up against Annalise after realizing Annalise shared her childhood sexual abuse with Asher. Things get very heated, but it’s like they’re having two different fights and also maybe they’re the same person? Example Annalise line: “You killed a girl in my basement and put a plastic bag over her head.” Example Bonnie line: “You don’t know how to love anyone.” There’s a lot to unpack here, but essentially Annalise insists she LOVES Bonnie because she’s keeping her out of a jail cell, and Bonnie HATES Annalise for having pinched her entire existence into a tiny dark box that Annalise controls with her thumbs. “I want you to die,” she informs the boss. So we’ve got a motive! What’s really tragic here to me is that 1) Bonnie’s past ruined her life way before Annalise ever could, and 2) She’d rather go on trial for Sam’s murder — or any future murder, for that matter — than have to suffer any longer in the now-transparent box where everyone will know her secrets.
Bye, Felicia (née Oliver)? “You don’t get to act crazy anymore!” the increasingly conscientious Connor yells at his adorable hacker boyfriend. “What if I want to?” Ollie implores. The way he sees it, there’s no reason he should sit at home ruminating on his HIV and self-esteem issues when there’s a fast-paced murder office down the street full of really fun weirdos with even bigger problems who are already using him for his IT skills. (IKR?) Time to get down to business: Ollie sets Connor up on a Dude4Dude date to snare Phillip, the secret child of the Hapstall twins’ racist aunt. Thing is, Phillip’s been spying on both of them via webcam, so he knows he’s being set up. Instead of meeting Connor at the empanada/gelato coffee shop, Phillip follows Ollie home and utters the line that will haunt us all week: “How’s your night going?” Shudder. But at least Oliver’s in seemingly the best mood of his life just before it may end, happily muttering lines from Asher’s “Bye, Felicia” frat boy rap video (an instant classic) while putting away groceries. Plus, he got a heartfelt “Thank you for your hard work” from that nice dictator Annalise, which has gotta be worth at least $20K in karma and spilled milk.
What is love? Bonnie, don’t hurt me. Also out of character, a very drunk Bonnie attempts to stand up against Annalise after realizing Annalise shared her childhood sexual abuse with Asher. Things get very heated, but it’s like they’re having two different fights and also maybe they’re the same person? Example Annalise line: “You killed a girl in my basement and put a plastic bag over her head.” Example Bonnie line: “You don’t know how to love anyone.” There’s a lot to unpack here, but essentially Annalise insists she LOVES Bonnie because she’s keeping her out of a jail cell, and Bonnie HATES Annalise for having pinched her entire existence into a tiny dark box that Annalise controls with her thumbs. “I want you to die,” she informs the boss. So we’ve got a motive! What’s really tragic here to me is that 1) Bonnie’s past ruined her life way before Annalise ever could, and 2) She’d rather go on trial for Sam’s murder — or any future murder, for that matter — than have to suffer any longer in the now-transparent box where everyone will know her secrets.
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Annalise is all about Eve. Until she runs into drunk Bonnie back at the Murder Office and must activate her throaty scream of dragon fire once again, Annalise spends much of the episode softening up, indulging in the sensuous dark chocolate caramel Euro-world of her former lover Eve (Famke Janssen). Who is this Annalise doppelgänger lazing around with champagne, ignoring multiple work calls, dreaming of running away to Paris, and ordering tater skins and mozz sticks at a dive bar? Because I love her! For the record, Eve didn’t actually throw the hearing against Nate for slipping kill-pills to his wife. After Nia’s nurse broke down on the stand — “It’s taking away their pain, why shouldn’t that be legal?” — Eve had a hunch Nate could waltz into the hospital and get the nurse to tamper with the blood sample’s paperwork. It worked, but it damn well might not have, you know? Then Nate would’ve gone to jail and poof! Livin’ large in Paris on all that “Sam money”. Instead, Nate remains free to poke in and out of Annalise’s consciousness for the near future as she and only she sees fit. Meanwhile, Eve probes deep into Annalise’s soul with her smooth candy eyes, wondering why Wes of all people is so important to her that she refuses to sleep with him but will protect him at all costs — both out-of-character moves for the leading lawyer. Well… he’s more than just a student, she tells Eve. “It’s him.” Aggggh! Who???
Laurel wins the secret trophy emoji. Afraid of being viewed by Annalise only as the chica boning her superior, Laurel revs up that raging introverted intuition of hers and pours herself into work. She figures out that the case of the week’s suicide victim was likely attending AA meetings instead of church multiple nights a week (a very duh revelation, but it still counts), then swears up and down that her instinct about the prosecutor sleeping with his client is correct — and it is! Well, what do you want, sweetie, a trophy? It’s in the basement covered in DNA and dust. Here, catch this verbal scrap Annalise is throwing at you instead. “Me not paying attention to you is the best compliment you could get.”
Wes has got a gun. Usually he’s just a little boy in a man’s body wearing a towel, but this week he’s added a new accessory to his meager dresser’s worth of belongings: the handgun Levi left behind. In the flash-forward to FOUR DAYS LATER, Wes is holding the same gun while Annalise lies shot in the parlor of the Hapstall mansion. He and Laurel attempt to stop Michaela and Connor from fleeing the scene without them (“We know better this time,” says Connor). So the Keating Four are split into pairs as — whoa — the corpse of that bitch Emily Sinclair drops from the sky! They all look up, and it’s BONNIE, just chilling on the top turret like she owns the place. This doesn’t necessarily mean that Wes shoots Annalise or Bonnie kills Sinclair. The silly show is probably trying to Laurel us into the courtroom with its twisted lies. Here’s another possibly empty clue as to what will happen that night, though: When Annalise suggests “If you want to protect us, kill Emily Sinclair," Frank gets that scheming twinkle in his eye, as if to confirm that yeah, sure, he just might. It’s equally possible that this was the moment Frank started craving a Snickers. Or maybe, just maybe, the twinkle meant both.
Laurel wins the secret trophy emoji. Afraid of being viewed by Annalise only as the chica boning her superior, Laurel revs up that raging introverted intuition of hers and pours herself into work. She figures out that the case of the week’s suicide victim was likely attending AA meetings instead of church multiple nights a week (a very duh revelation, but it still counts), then swears up and down that her instinct about the prosecutor sleeping with his client is correct — and it is! Well, what do you want, sweetie, a trophy? It’s in the basement covered in DNA and dust. Here, catch this verbal scrap Annalise is throwing at you instead. “Me not paying attention to you is the best compliment you could get.”
Wes has got a gun. Usually he’s just a little boy in a man’s body wearing a towel, but this week he’s added a new accessory to his meager dresser’s worth of belongings: the handgun Levi left behind. In the flash-forward to FOUR DAYS LATER, Wes is holding the same gun while Annalise lies shot in the parlor of the Hapstall mansion. He and Laurel attempt to stop Michaela and Connor from fleeing the scene without them (“We know better this time,” says Connor). So the Keating Four are split into pairs as — whoa — the corpse of that bitch Emily Sinclair drops from the sky! They all look up, and it’s BONNIE, just chilling on the top turret like she owns the place. This doesn’t necessarily mean that Wes shoots Annalise or Bonnie kills Sinclair. The silly show is probably trying to Laurel us into the courtroom with its twisted lies. Here’s another possibly empty clue as to what will happen that night, though: When Annalise suggests “If you want to protect us, kill Emily Sinclair," Frank gets that scheming twinkle in his eye, as if to confirm that yeah, sure, he just might. It’s equally possible that this was the moment Frank started craving a Snickers. Or maybe, just maybe, the twinkle meant both.
Just for fun:
Annalise’s Top 5 Fiercest Lines/Moments
5. Insinuating that Mother Theresa might have had an “inflated sense of self-worth” while using her as an example in class.
4. To Laurel: “Go back to the office and stop being needy.”
3. To her delusional client Dale: “You’re a stalker, you’re pathetic, and you’re fired.”
2. The flash of recognition when what Eve says is exactly what she’s thinking: “I may be just a tiny bit happy that Nate killed his wife, ‘cause it means I get to see you again.”
1. To Emily Sinclair: “You’re messing with the wrong bitch.”
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