Skip to main content

A Lawyer's Guide to HTGAWM Season 2, Episode 5: Blame Bonnie

By Casey C. Sullivan, Esq. on October 23, 2015 | Last updated on March 21, 2019

Some of How to Get Away With Murder's least interesting characters moved from the margins to the center last night -- and at least one of them ended up coming out more interesting.

Thursday's episode of HTGAWM was full of douche-face Asher and "Bon Bon" Bonnie, a bit of day drinking, a lot of scheming, and an unfortunate amount of child porn. As is usually the case, they got much of the law wrong. Here's your spoiler-filled recap.

Trouble in the Keating Five: Asher Goes Rogue

Asher, dough-faced and silver-spooned, has always been the outsider in the Keating Five. Heck, he couldn't even bother to help the other kids kill Sam. And now he's even more on the outskirts, what with his deal to sell Annalise to the D.A. in exchange for immunity for his youthful Trotter Lake indiscretion. Which brings us to the episode's real opener.

You'll remember that last week's episode ended with Bonnie claiming she killed Sam. This week's show opens with her teary-eyed tail that Sam tried to rape her. It's not very convincing, mostly because the viewer knows it's fake. But Asher seems at least slightly swayed, willing to stall a bit before turning on Annalise. Sure, he also runs to the D.A. to declare "I know who killed Sam," but he pulls back for a minute when he sees that his own father might be selling him out.

To really seal the deal, Annalise barges in to Asher's apartment. She jumps on his computer and promptly begins playing the very disturbing intro to some child porn, which she claims features Bonnie. (Also, Annalise, possessing child porn is a major federal felony. So is transferring it to someone else's computer.) The implication: sell us out and you'll be victimizing her all over again.

Will he or won't he turn on Annalise and the crew? The episode is a pendulum. At the very end, in another of flash forward, we see Asher and Bonnie fleeing the Hapstall mansion, the dead D.A. Parks and the dying Annalise. Bonnie stops to wash the blood off, he runs to the police.

Enough already, Asher. Pick a side!

The Menendez Trial

Besides murder, the show is ostensibly about a criminal defense firm, right? (They seem to have largely abandoned the law school trope.) To remind us, there's a minute or two of criminal defense this week. The Hapstall twins are fighting to get testimony from their now-dead aunt excluded. A little hacking from Oliver and they've found everything they need: a police recording of her saying she heard nothing and going on a racist rant about "those Orientals and those mulattos."

Here's where it becomes obvious that the show has no legal consultant. The judge scolds D.A. Park for submitting a motion two minutes before deadline, as though that wasn't standard. When Annalise introduces the police recording, the judge is irate that Annalise brought in evidence that wasn't in discovery. She doesn't seem to mind that the prosecutor had withheld material exculpatory evidence -- something that, on its own, could result in a mistrial.

Someone Please Shoot EGGS 911

On the EGGS 911 / Rebecca front, Wes, Levi, and Nate are still digging around trying to find Rebecca's body. They track down the caretaker at the cemetery where they think Frank ditched her body. Some bad acting and a gun later, they're told to sniff around the caretaker's storage shed. Frank plants an absurd amount of meth in Levi's car, having him hauled off to jail, while Wes and the gang head to the storage shed. Sadly, there's no dismembered Rebecca there, just a ton of cash.

Who Shot Annalise?

We still don't know who tried to kill Annalise, but we're starting to wish they'd done a better job.

Related Resources:

Copied to clipboard