'How To Get Away With Murder' Review: Season 1, Episode 8

By Mark Wilson, Esq. on November 14, 2014 | Last updated on March 21, 2019

As ABC's "How To Get Away With Murder" ramps up toward its "Winter Finale" (which seems like a new method of normalizing the "it's reruns until February" phenomenon), things kick into high gear. The scandal multiplies to levels not even seen on "Scandal," and we're only one week away from finding out who killed Sam! Spoilers follow. You know the drill.

This Week's Murder: Fairly Irrelevant

This week's murder was phoned in, basically filler between the more salacious bits. Mom killed the nanny? Meh. Father and son bonded over mutual STDs? Whatever. Each weekly murder is supposed to teach us a new legal concept, but we didn't learn much this week. Something, something, lack of capacity? Prof. Keating didn't even mention the cases where sleepwalking was used as a defense to negate mens rea or actus reus. Then again, she's probably preoccupied, what with her husband sleeping with the dead girl.

And because this week's murder wasn't so important, the Keating Five had ample time to study for some kind of exams. Connor showed up with a copy of the professor's exam from last year -- what a sneaky thief! It's almost as if law schools didn't openly provide copies of professors' past exams in the library somewhere (good thing Connor didn't tell them; that way he can look cool).

Interpersonal Dynamics Turn Sour

Last episode's startling revelation: Dead Girl (Lila) was pregnant! Prof. Keating tells Wait List Wes this startling detail, and says, "Now don't you tell anyone." What does he do? Naturally, he cranks the "Sweet Valley High" up to 11 and now everyone knows. Wes needs to take a Professional Responsibility class, and fast.

So, let's see: Prof. Keating is mad at Sam for sleeping with, impregnating, and probably killing Lila. Ex-Detective Lahey is mad at Prof. Keating for Bonnie getting him fired. Michaela is mad that "OITNB" Guy has had the trophy for weeks. Prof. Keating is also mad at Bonnie (Blonde Lawyer) because Bonnie knew that Dead Girl was pregnant and knew that Sam knew and maybe kissed him some. Now she's fired.

Got that?

Oh, and we'd be remiss if we didn't mention the interaction between Michaela and her putative mother-in-law, the latter of whom appears to be a terrifying cyborg who seeks out and destroys daughters-in-law. Yikes!

Episode Superlatives

Best Quote: Annalise asks Connor, "Are you good for anything or can you only do your job when you're screwing evidence out of someone?" (Answer: It's looking like "no.")

Smartest Thing Anyone's Done So Far: Not letting Goth Girl hang around the house when Prof. Keating isn't home. She tried to rummage around, looking for DNA, but Sam was too smart for that. He told her to hit the road.

Sweetest Doomed Friendship: Dead Girl and Goth Girl liked to hang out on the roof, snorting cocaine and talking about boys. Those were the days.

What did you think of this week's episode? Think you know #WhoKilledSam? Let us know via Twitter (@FindLawLP) or Facebook (FindLaw for Legal Professionals).

Related Resources:

Copied to clipboard