HOW TO GET AWAY WITH MURDER: IT'S ALL HER FAULT (TV)
Summary
One in this series of legal dramas about a hard-nosed Philadelphia law professor who recruits her students to work in her firm – leading to their entanglement in a variety of ethically questionable schemes.
In the present-day Michaela freaks out as Sam’s body is reduced to cinders, worried that Wes may have surrendered them to the police -- intentionally or otherwise. He returns, explaining that he went back to retrieve the trophy. Two and a half months earlier, Annalise is suspicious about Sam in reference to the discover of Lila’s body. She lectures her class about the inherently deceptive nature of clients and how they must learn not to trust each other. She segues into talking about another case, that of Marjorie St. Vincent, heir to a fortune derived from a large department store chain who was recently murdered. Her husband Max is the prime suspect in her murder, and she and the class speak to him about his marriage and he shows them the bedroom where Marjorie was found dead. The students take photos and Max has Connor help him reenact the actions he supposedly took, highlighting the method by which he is accused of stabbing Marjorie to death. Later, Annalise confronts Wes in private, believing that he may be having second thoughts about joining her firm. He says that he is not, and she sends him to fetch the secondary arrest report from the police in order to fill gaps in their files about Max’s arrest. He inadvertently discovers from the police records manager that the district attorney’s office has been interested in the case.
Rebecca’s shower breaks in the middle of the night and Wes allows her to come over to use his. It is revealed that Wes lied about the results of the coin flip in order to get the others to go back for Sam’s body. Back in the past, Lila’s death is declared by investigators to be a homicide. Wes sees a news report about it and notices that they mention that Griffin was interviewed. Wes reports to Annalise that he found a discrepancy between the supplemental arrest report and the records supplied to them by the prosecution, specifically in the identities of the officers who found what they believe to be the murder weapon. In court, Annalise cross-examines officer Jake Dorsey and says his name in the report was replaced by that of a “Chad Mullins.” Annalise reveals that Mullins is under investigation for drinking while on duty, which may explain why the report was altered. Connor uses his budding relationship with Oliver to hack into the computer of Marjorie’s friend in order to discredit her testimony on the stand. Frank has Michaela and Asher help him dig through Max’s neighbor’s trash, discovering a receipt from a strip club buried within. They use this as blackmail to get the neighbor to testify that he saw Max taking a walk at the time that the murder took place.
As the trial lets out for the day, Annalise runs into Nate in the courtroom. He warns her not to keep “embarrassing” police officers on the stand, believing that there could be grave consequences for going too far. He is particularly upset that she called him to the stand for Gina’s case and wants to end their affair. He threatens to tell her husband about the affair if she calls him again and walks off. In the present, Wes is shown to purchase a prepaid cell phone from the convenience store, which he uses to call an unknown party, telling them that they are disposing of Sam’s body and that they will be “protected.” In the past, Annalise secretly looks through Sam’s phone and accesses emails sent to him from Lila; they are mostly of an academic nature, but she notices that she signs them as “L.” Wes runs into Rebecca and mentions that he saw Griffin on the news and offers condolences about Lila’s death. Rebecca states that Lila was not her friend and blows off his advice before rushing to work. Laurel drops off paperwork for Annalise with Bonnie, and discusses her misgivings about the job, believing that she was only selected due to Frank finding her attractive. Bonnie tells her that she doesn’t care about Laurel’s “personal drama” and should focus her energies on getting Annalise to acknowledge her.
Annalsie teaches her class about the importance of pre-trial preparations. Max’s daughter Eloise comes down to act as a witness and Annalise and her team prepare her for the trial. Once on the stand, she testifies that her father is a good man despite his obvious eccentricities, and that he loved her and Marjorie too much to have hurt either of them. The prosecution cross-examines Eloise and offers evidence suggesting that Max’s first wife was murdered in a similar fashion as Marjorie, and did not die in a car accident as Max asserts. They further claim that Max adopted an entirely new identity upon moving to the United States and started over with Marjorie. Eloise is furious, believing that her father lied to her; Annalise works to salvage the case. That night she angrily confronts Sam about Lila, asking him directly if he was sleeping with her; he denies this. She apologizes for her outburst and admits that she fears she will lose her latest case. Everyone scrambles to brainstorm defense strategies for Annalise, but Laurel comes up with the novel idea to use Max’s many years of hunting experience as an asset in the trial. Annalise brings this up and has him demonstrate humane animal slaughter techniques for the court. She then surprises everyone by having Max admit to killing his first wife using this technique. In conference with the judge and prosecution, it becomes clear that Annalise is moving for a mistrial due to double jeopardy laws being applicable due to Max’s first murder, of which he was already acquitted in another country. Annalise then calls the former chief medical examiner of Philadelphia to the stand to compare the autopsy reports of the two murders. She notes that the first murder was far more precise than the second, indicating that they were likely committed by different perpetrators.
During a break in the trial, Wes tells Annalise that he thinks that Eloise murdered Marjorie, believing that she already learned about the first murder and committed the second in order to frame Max. It turns out that Annalise previously learned from Frank that Eloise was the one who informed the prosecution of the first murder, and that the entire thing has been an elaborate revenge plot orchestrated by her. However, she tells Wes that this is beyond the scope of their involvement with the case. The jury finds Max not guilty, and Annalise and her team are met with a mob that is upset about the verdict. Max is fully aware that Eloise killed Marjorie and says he will devise a way to “punish” her for it. Connor visits Oliver to attempt to make up for not taking him out to dinner like he promised. Oliver is still mad at him but gives him another chance. Sam prepares a romantic dinner for Annalise to celebrate her win. While she is alone she checks his phone again, but finds that all of Lila’s emails have been erased. She excuses herself from the dinner, claiming that a work-related matter has just come up. She tracks down Nate and voices her suspicions that Sam could be responsible for Lila’s death. He tells her that her suspicions are unfounded and asks her not to trouble him with the matter again. However, he changes his mind after she begs him to help her. She returns to Sam and deflects his request to talk frankly about Lila, and they have sex.
Wes comes home to find Rebecca being arrested by the police and taken from her apartment. He advises her to tell the police nothing as she is led away. He learns from a news report that Griffin has been arrested as well, and that Rebecca has a history of drug-related charges, including the sale of highly illegal narcotics. Upon inspecting his bathroom he discovers that Rebecca hid a phone in the sink’s cabinet. In the present, Wes goes to a motel and meets Rebecca in a room; she is the person that he spoke with on the phone earlier. He tells her that the body has been disposed of and that she is now safe; it is apparent that the two of them are now romantically involved. Includes commercials.
Details
- NETWORK: ABC
- DATE: November 30, 1999 10:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 0:59:57
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: 117137
- GENRE: Drama, legal
- SUBJECT HEADING: African-American Collection - Drama; Drama, legal
- SERIES RUN: ABC - TV series, 2014-2020
- COMMERCIALS:
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- TV – Commercials – Allstate insurance
- TV – Commercials – Applebee’s restaurants
- TV – Commercials – Berocca vitamin supplement
- TV – Commercials – Capital One credit cards
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- TV – Commercials – TJ Maxx apparel
- TV – Commercials – The Home Depot home improvement stores
- TV – Commercials – Toyota automobiles
- TV – Commercials – “Annabelle” motion picture
- TV – Commercials – “Gone Girl” motion picture
- TV – Commercials – “Interstellar” motion picture
- TV – Commercials – “The Book of Life” motion picture
- TV – Commercials – “The Equalizer” motion picture
- TV – Commercials – “The Judge” motion picture
- TV – Promos – “ABC World News Tonight”
- TV – Promos – “Blackish”
- TV – Promos – “Cristela”
- TV – Promos – “Dancing With the Stars”
- TV – Promos – “Forever”
- TV – Promos – “How to Get Away with Murder”
- TV – Promos – “Jimmy Kimmel Live”
- TV – Promos – “Last Man Standing”
- TV – Promos – “Once Upon a Time”
- TV – Promos – “Resurrection”
- TV – Promos – “Selfie”
CREDITS
- Peter Norwalk … Executive Producer, Created by, Writer
- Bill D'Elia … Executive Producer, Director
- Betsy Beers … Executive Producer
- Shonda Rhimes … Executive Producer
- Michael Foley … Co-Executive Producer
- Rob Fresco … Co-Executive Producer
- Ann Kindberg … Co-Executive Producer
- Erika Green Swafford … Supervising Producer
- Scott Collins … Producer
- Tracy A. Bellomo … Producer
- Doug Stockstill … Co-Producer
- Scott Printz … Co-Producer
- Noah Evslin … Co-Producer
- Holden Chang … Associate Producer
- Photek … Music by
- Viola Davis … Cast, Annalise Keating
- Billy Brown … Cast, Nate Lahey
- Alfred Enoch … Cast, Wes Gibbins
- Jack Falahee … Cast, Connor Walsh
- Katie Findlay … Cast, Rebecca Sutter
- Aja Naomi King … Cast, Michaela Pratt
- Matt McGorry … Cast, Asher Millstone
- Karla Souza … Cast, Laurel Castillo
- Charlie Weber … Cast, Frank Delfino
- Liza Weil … Cast, Bonnie Winterbottom
- Tom Verica … Cast, Sam Keating
- Conrad Ricamora … Cast, Oliver
- Laura Coover … Cast, Eloise St. Vincent
- Steven Weber … Cast, Max St. Vincent
- Tye Alexander … Cast, Officer Jake Dorsey
- Jill Remez … Cast, Prosecutor Linda Blair
- Wes Armstrong … Cast, Bill
- John Eric Montana … Cast, Judge
- Suzanne Sena … Cast, Best Friend
- Lynn Ann Leveridge … Cast, Medical Examiner
- Missy Doty … Cast, Receptionist
- Danielle Barbosa … Cast, Angry Spectator #1
- Hugh Holub … Cast, Angry Spectator #2
- Cheryl Getuiza … Cast, Reporter #1
- Lee Lourdes … Cast, Reporter #2