How To Get Away With Murder Season Five Premiere | Review

Hello and welcome back to The nerd shelf!

Today's post is going to be on my review of the season five premiere of How to get away with murder. How to get away with murder is one of my favorite shows, and I look forward to it every week. It's a Shondaland show so if you like any of Shonda Rimes other shows you will love this one. It's, in my opinion, the best Shondaland show that wasn't created by Shonda herself. Well, it's between this one and Station 19 but that's a spinoff so I feel like it doesn't really count haha.

If you don't know the show is about Annalise Keating (Viola Davis), a law professor at a prestigious Philadelphia university who, with five of her students, becomes entwined in a murder plot. If you like a legal drama, if you like a mystery, if you like a thriller, this show is for you. It will keep you on your toes with the format of the show, and it will keep you guessing what's going to come next.

SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

It's finally that time of the year when TGIT comes back. I watch and love all of the Shondaland shows so it's like an event in my apartment when these shows come back for another season. The last season of How to get away with murder was really good but it felt somewhat repetitive, and I felt like we should have gotten answers about Wes death in the season before. But in the end, I loved it. This season I went into it with a whole different attitude. It felt fresh and new, and a little bit lighter and I love that.

So Annalise is back at the University as a teacher, finally. I love that they are getting back to this, it makes me feel nostalgic about how it was in the beginning. Not that it has ever been without drama but you know what I mean. I like Annalise as a teacher, although I don't know how someone that has gone through law school would feel about that. The classroom is full, people are standing because they don't have a seat. Annalise comes in and has this monologue about how this class isn't a normal class, it's a sacrifice. And if we have seen anything from the last four season we know that that's true. She talks about changing the world. Everyone is excited and they want to be in this class, they want to learn and work with the woman who went to the supreme court and won. But there are too many people and Annalise can only take 24 students. Everyone gets thirty seconds to convince Annalise that they have a passion, that they have something that they want, and will do anything to change.
We see all of our favorites, Connor (Jack Falahee), Michaela (Aja Naomi King), Asher (Matt McGorry) and Laurel (Karla Souza) along with the new face that we got in the season four finale, Gabriel Maddox (Rome Flynn). In the end Connor, Michaela and Laurel are in the final 24 and there is only one spot left. Annalise has to choose between Asher and Gabriel and she chooses Gabriel. Asher does not like this but I think she did the right thing. His passion was immigration but the only reason that's his passion is that is because of what happened last season with Simon. He picked it because he's pissed at Michaela.

Annalise is going to job interviews and one of those is at Caplan & Gold. Tegan (Amirah Vann) is there and she doesn't want Annalise to take the job even though she was the one who recommended her. Caplan & Gold has a new managing partner, Emmett Crawford (Timothy Hutton), who wants to clean up the whole mess with Jorge. She is getting offers from everywhere and she's getting exactly what she wants in her contract. Every firm wants her because of her supreme court win until the governor interferes and threatens to look closer at everyone's clients. Annalise goes to Caplan & Gold to convince them two pay for her clinic. Emmett tries to negotiate so Annalise walks out. There's this great scene of Annalise when she gets to the garage. As soon as no one can see her she shows how much she is doubting her decision. She almost walks back in but then she just walks to her car instead. And she was right to. Emmett calls her and tells her to come back. When she goes to sign her contract he tells her to prove everyone else wrong, he was the only one who wanted this deal. And then we see Tegan looking at Annalise in her new office and she looks worried. I don't know what to make of this yet but anything can happen in this show.

Bonnie (Liza Weil) is still at the DA's office and she is flirting hardcore with Miller (John Hensley). Nate (Billy Brown) walks in on them and when Miller leaves he calls Bonnie on it. She tells him that she's playing him to find out if he has the files that Denver had on them. Little does she know that Nate has them now. Why hasn't he shared them with everyone? I don't get it. Is he going to be a villain now? I don't like it. He's so friendly with them so I don't like it. Is he trying to play them? Like what the fuck is going on??? Nate steals a cup from Bonnie to take it to a friend of his to get her DNA tested to the file. And it matches. Bonnie has a kid out there and we are supposed to believe that it's Gabriel. I don't know. It feels like they want us to think that too much that it won't be that. Maybe it's someone else that we haven't seen yet. At this point, I don't think that it's him.
  Bonnie is helping Miller with a speech and she confronts him on why he hasn't made a move on her yet. This scene made me kind of uncomfortable. I don't know if it is because I don't really like Bonnie or not. Sorry if you like Bonnie, I think she's one of those polarising characters that you either hate or love. I'm leaning more towards hate. There might have been seasons where I was hoping that it was her who was dead. She's just so frustrating to me. The things she does just get on my nerves. Like last season, she went to Annalise's therapist just to get information on her because she was butthurt about getting fired. Guess what Bonnie, she fired EVERYONE. Just why. She seems fine now but those flashforwards... I don't know.

Laurel is living with Frank (Charlie Weber). She is using him. He takes care of Christopher for her, he's in love with her and he fucking proposes to her? She says no. She is not in love with him. She's just using him for sex. I'm not into the Frank Laurel relationship. They're hot together but no. I'm still not over Wes and neither is Laurel.
Frank is still trying to get into Annalise's good graces. She can't get rid of him if she tried. He will just work for her if she likes it or not. He's gathering information on her students for her but she doesn't want to know anything about them. He's suspicious of Gabriel and he knows that he is someone's kid. Again we are led to believe that it's Bonnie's kid but I don't know. Frank was the one on the phone in last season finale who said "the kids here". But who was he talking to? In the end, we see him playing basketball against Gabriel.

Laurels mom sends her a package with her baptism gown in it. Or she says it is her mom who sent it. Laurel looks weird though when they say that that means that she didn't kill her. I heard a theory that maybe Laurel sent it to herself. But I don't know what I think at this point. They focus a lot on the scratches on her arms throughout the episode. How long has it been though, like why haven't they healed yet? Or will they heal? But that makes me lean towards the theory that Laurels mom is dead after all. They are having a baptism for Christopher and Annalise is the godmother. Now, Laurel made Frank the godfather even though she denied his proposal, and he AGREED. What?!

Michaela wants to get in touch with Marcus. She texts and calls him. She's very desperate. But Marcus rejects her and she makes a pact with Laurel to be abstinent. I don't see how that will go well. She seems to still dislike Annalise. So why does she want to be in her class so bad? Does she just want to show her how good she is? Or is it that she still looks up to her as a lawyer and not as a person? I think the last one might be it but again I don't know.

Asher is still very pissed at Michaela, not only for cheating on him but for what she did to Simon. He's just angry and bitter. When Annalise chooses Gabriel over him for the class he's not happy. I get why, but she told them that she's not going to favor anyone. Annalise calls him on just being pissed at Michaela and leaves him with some things to think about. Asher has slowly grown into one of my favorite characters over the years. In the beginning, he was just annoying and now he is someone that I enjoy so I don't like to see him this bitter.

Connor and Oliver (Conrad Ricamora) are planning their wedding. Connor is letting Oliver decide everything and he ends up at a house along with Laurel and Michaela. It's not the nicest house and they think it's for the wedding but no. Oliver thinks that they should all live together in it. They all seem pretty reluctant at first but in the end, they agree. I like it. I'm really looking forward to seeing them all live together. It's also kind of my dream to live in a house with a bunch of friends.

Okay, Gabriel. I don't know how I feel about him yet. The actor is HOT. But the character seems pretty cocky. He lies to Annalise to get into her class. When he's arguing about his passion he's just playing on emotions. Annalise wants him to go on facts more and he basically throws her ex-husbands death in her face. I really thought that she would throw him out of the classroom then and there. But she didn't. I don't know who his kid is. I heard some theories about it being Annalise's kid but we saw that he died. So who is the parent? I don't know yet.

Okay lastly let's talk about the flashforward. We see Annalise and Frank at Connors and Oliver's wedding but we never see Connor and Oliver. Frank tells her something and she slaps him. Then we zoom out into the snow where we see a shit tone of blood. A baby is sitting next to whoever is bleeding and it's crying. I think it's Cristopher. And then Bonnie walks up and smothers the one who's bleeding. Now, who the fuck is it that's dying this season. There have been rumors (or maybe it has been confirmed by the showrunner?) that we are getting a big death in this season which means that one of the main characters are dying. I think that the one who's bleeding sounds like a woman, but again I'm not sure. I think it might be Michaela. What we do know is that it isn't Frank, Annalise or Bonnie. I swear to god if it's Laurel I will quit this show (I probably won't but you know what I mean). Laurel is my favorite and you can't take both of Christopher's parents away. Please show don't kill Laurel!

Okay, my final thoughts on this episode are that it was a great season premiere. I loved it and I feel like I'm spiraling down a dark hole trying to figure out who the one in the snow is, and that's what I love the most about this show.

/Johanna