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'How To Get Away With Murder' Review: Season 1, Episode 7

By William Peacock, Esq. on November 07, 2014 | Last updated on March 21, 2019

Ah "HTGAWM." Two weeks ago, I was mocking your mediocrity. Now? Actually I still am, but hey -- last night's was a good episode. If you're just now catching up on the show, note that everything after this handy italic paragraph is spoiler-laden: Watch Episode 7 first. And if you haven't read our previous recaps, you've got some homework to do.

Client of the week? This week it was all about Rebecca ("Goth Girl"). There were motions and staged courtroom drama, the appearance of the guy who played Richard Fish in "Ally McBeal," a two-timing prosecutor, and an assumingly fake rape allegation tossed in for fun. Four of the Keating Five had sex, with the uptight Michaela getting a surprise prenup instead.

Oh, and as we predicted, Mr. Keating is probably the murderer (of Lyla, the dead student that he was boning). Fun shocker: She was pregnant at the time of death! (Motive!) But who killed Keating, with the trophy, in the office? (Probably Goth Girl, but I'm saying there's a 10 percent chance it was Wait-List Wes and she just got unlucky with the blood splatter.)

Law School: Nothing to See Here

Wait-List Wes ("WLW") mentioned having finals coming up, but it was just a way to play hard-to-get so that Goth Girl would pay more attention to him. (It worked. ;-0.) And Laurel considered leaving the Keating Five for legal aid because she finds Three Piece Suit too attractive. Instead, she slept with him on the Keatings' porch. This is how every professional conflict should be resolved.

Law Practice: Battle of the Experts

"Shell out enough cash and you can get them to say anything," Professor Analise Keating declared.

So true. Every personal injury lawyer has a doctor or two on speed dial -- the designated "he's really injured" guy. Heck, one time, I saw a case where both sides accidentally hired the same guy. Good times.

So, Griffin (the celibate quarterback) hired the dude from "Ally McBeal," who himself hired an expert to say that there were long fingernail marks on the victim's neck. For the first time I can remember, I didn't disagree with Prof. Keating here: If you want to battle an expert, discredit his work and line up your own expert. Of course, prosecutors don't usually walk in with sealed files that say "don't hire this guy ever again" and hand them over to you.

After a lot of back-and-forth that turned out to be pointless (and a double-switch by the prosecutor who struck a plea deal with the QB -- a deal that tanked after Goth Girl made a seemingly false rape allegation), the body was exhumed: The marks were ant bites but (gasp!) she was pregnant.

Sorry Mr. Keating. Your efforts to seduce your wife moments before were just blocked by the murder of your younger, deader student paramour.

Oh, and her being pregnant when your wife mentioned multiple miscarriages earlier in the episode? That has to sting.

Hollywood: (Not) Building Characters and Awkward Sex Scenes

Can we all agree that Connor is a one-dimensional slutty gay character? Another episode, more hookups via Humpr, plus a second rendezvous in a courthouse bathroom stall with a man he previously slept with but whose name he forgot. Oh, but he misses Oliver (the hacker-nerd whom he cheated on).

Ditto for Michaela: She's an ice princess who gets a prenup from her fiance (whom Connor also once frolicked with).

Ditto for Laurel: She is still the indecisive girl -- can't choose a law school clinic or lover.

Ditto for Wait List: Still a puppy dog, still trying to save Goth Girl. We find out that his mother committed suicide when he was 12 (aww, puppy!) and that he really doesn't like it when Goth Girl makes fake rape allegations because lying is wrong. They took the one-dimensional noble, caring character and made him sadder and more noble. Oh, and he seals the deal with Goth Girl right after that.

Speaking of sealing the deal, how the heck are you going to build up the sexual tension for seven episodes, then deliver the payoff scene interspersed with scenes of the autopsy of the dead girl?

I get it: They want to show what's at stake in the autopsy (Goth Girl's freedom, WLW's sex life) by contrasting it with sexy sex, but if you're been watching the show and buying in to the WLW/GG relationship, you don't want to see it consummated in between slices of dead, rotting, waterlogged flesh. Next time they kiss, you're going to get mental images of the dead girl -- just saying.

Are you like me, swinging wildly between watching and hate-watching "HTGAWM"? Are you wondering how in the heck this is going to go to a full 15 or 16 episodes when we're only two weeks away from Mr. Keating's death? Bum bum bum ... drama! Share your thoughts with us @FindLawLP so that we know that we're not the only adults watching this thing.

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