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'How to Get Away With Murder' Review: Season 1, Episode 13

By Mark Wilson, Esq. on February 20, 2015 | Last updated on March 21, 2019

The Special Guest Star parade continues in this week's episode of "How To Get Away With Murder" as Annalise's mother, played by Emmy winner Cicely Tyson, pays a visit. Basically everyone thinks she should get another Emmy for her performance here as well. (Turns out there are skeletons right next to Sam's old suits in Annalise's closet.)

This episode sets us up for the two-hour season finale next week -- and it pulls no punches setting us up for the big question: Has Goth Girl been punking The Gang the entire time?

Family Matters

Even though Annalise spends most of this episode either in bed, or out of bed but in her pajamas, we learn a whole heck of a lot about the Annalise (or should we say Anna Mae) Keating story. Annalise's mother Ophelia Harkness comes to visit, and the baggage she's bringing isn't limited to her wheelie suitcase.

The writers manipulated us good; at first, we didn't like Mama's dismissiveness and sense of entitlement, but by the end, it becomes clear that Mama really was doing everything right all along. Striking down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger includes Mama as well as Samuel L. Jackson.

The Big Girl Vodka Chair

Meanwhile, over in Case of the Week, Bonnie gets to sit in the Big Girl Vodka Chair and order people around for once. With Annalise stuck in bed with chronic post-nasal drip, it's up to Bonnie to solve this case of reverse sexual harassment (what!) after a male patient accuses a female nurse of raping him while he was unconscious after a medical procedure.

Thankfully for Bonnie, everyone in this episode turns out to be gay -- except Bonnie and "OITNB" Guy, which just confirms to us that Bonnie hates herself. (Although, if the alleged victim were gay, wouldn't that tend to support the prosecution's case that the sex wasn't consensual?)

And the "C" story focuses on The Mystery of Rudy Walters, who is not buried under the floorboards as we'd hoped but is instead just plain old crazy. The plot thickens as Wes and Laurel come to the (not so) startling conclusion that Goth Girl has been playing them this entire time. Could it really be that Goth Girl killed Lila, then had Rudy institutionalized, then convinced the Gang to kill Sam and frame Detective Lahey? Yes. Totally. Don't look so surprised. You thought the show was about how the Gang got away with murder? It's about how Goth Girl got away with murder -- and it didn't take any legal fancy-talkin', either.

Episode Superlatives

Best Quote: "Your boss came outta my V and her daddy's P." -- Mama, explaining to the Gang why she's a "VIP" in Annalise's house.

Best Lifetime Original Movie We Never Got to See: Once again, Mama delivers as she explains to Annalise why, exactly, the family house burned down. (Turns out she was no fan of Uncle Clyde, either.)

Longest Con: You never really trusted Goth Girl, did you? It seems pretty clear that she engineered all of this from the beginning, like Keyser Soze but with more eyeliner. The only question is her motive, which will take two more hours to figure out.

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