Riverdale: The Riverdale-ian Candidate
Mar 23, 2018
by Susan Velazquez · October 9, 2016
Previously on How to Get Away with Murder:
Let’s learn how to get away with murder, folks!
There are no new clues in this episode’s flashforward. All we see is Oliver sneaking into a computer lab to erase Annalise’s phone as Annalise is booked and takes her mug shot photo.
In the present, Nate makes Annalise a healthy breakfast smoothie and suggests filing a missing person’s report on Frank. Annalise insists on handling Fugitive Frank on her own and suggests maybe they keep their relationship and his police work separate for now.
Ha! As if! We all know that the reason Annalise is with Nate is because she can use his police connections for her shady lawyering.
At school, the university president AKA Dexter‘s Maria LaGuerta (I have just been informed I missed the casting connection) tries to make nice with Annalise. Annalise is all, “Um, you just tried to fire me, so goodbye perhaps?” President Maria is all, “I swear I’m on your side so if you just do everything I say, I will totally make sure you keep your job! Sistas are doing it for themselves, right? #femalesolidarity!” Annalise is all, “Okay, you must think I was born yesterday. I suppose you want to sell me the Brooklyn Bridge too, huh?” Finally, President Maria just begs Annalise to keep a low profile until the bad publicity dies down.
Annalise is all, “Sure… right after I defend my totally heinous and pervy client who covered up a call girl’s overdose in a very public trial. Kthnxbaiiiiiiiii!”
Annalise’s pro bono clinic is no longer taking wrongfully deported fathers or severely abused life parolees. She’s back to getting morally repugnant defendants off the hook and further crushing my belief in the American justice system.
As I mentioned, this week’s client is a sleazy guy who hired call girls and rated them on his blog. When one OD’d, he simply dumped the body along with yesterday’s trash. To top it off, the prosecution uncovers a selfie of the Perv Client with the passed out girl minutes before he dumped the body.
Annalise’s class is disgusted with their client, especially Michaela, who is Annalise’s assistant for the week. Annalise reminds them that sometimes lawyers represent people who suck, and it’s still their job to win for them. Annalise tries to cop a plea deal with the ADA, but the ADA smugly informs Annalise that no one will broker any pleas with her anymore because everyone is sick of her shady lawyering. So now, Annalise has to win the case or else Perv Client goes to jail! Dun dun dun.
Sorry, I’m just trying to work up any emotions that would make me care whether a horrible person has to suffer the consequences of his actions.
Meanwhile, Laurel goes to make nice with her father so he’ll use his contacts to find Frank. To her dismay, Mr. Castillo doesn’t just want to make nice, he wants to make up! And since he’s a cold, uncaring business man, the only way to reconnect an estranged father and daughter is to bring in an HR mediator.
Laurel refuses to play along and lists all her father’s faults: he left her mother when she was in the middle of a nervous breakdown, married Laurel’s stepmother a month after said breakdown, and refused to pay the ransom when Laurel got kidnapped as a teenager.
Okay, definitely not a Father of the Year winner there.
Mr. Castillo begs for a second chance, but Laurel tells her dad to only contact her if he’s willing to help find Fugitive Frank.
Meanwhile, Oliver reports to Annalise that he noted that Perv Client withdrew $20,000 in cash from his account. Glad to see that Oliver is earning his salary here. Annalise and Bonnie confront Perv Client, and he reveals he’s being blackmailed by his previous lawyer. You see, while he didn’t kill the call girl, he did kill a teenage runaway who cruelly sexually rejected him. Annalise and Bonnie are disgusted; Bonnie points out that she could have ended up as a dead runaway if Annalise didn’t rescue her from Bonnie’s sexually abusive father.
Nevertheless, they’re hired to defend him and try to figure out a way to get him off the current case and prevent anyone else from finding about the dead runaway, all without striking a plea deal. Yikes.
Due to the sensitive nature of the case, Annalise kicks Michaela off the case without saying why. Annoyed, Michaela steals the $20,000 and takes Asher, Oliver, and Connor to Atlantic City for some good time gambling!
Mr. Castillo visits Laurel’s hotel room and brings cake. Laurel is ready to forgive him because it’s hard to be angry at a man who brings you cake. Mr. Castillo is unhappy that Laurel is obsessed with Frank, and worries her daddy issues caused her to have terrible taste in men. However, he’s willing to help track Frank down if it makes Laurel happy—so long as he can put a couple of properties in Laurel’s name for tax reasons. Laurel is angry, but then Frank finally calls back. He tells Laurel that he knows Annalise is using her to get to him, and just wants to be left alone. Laurel tries to keep him on the line, but he hangs up. She decides to make nice with her dad to find Frank.
Back in Atlantic City, Michaela is on a winning streak, and for a moment, it looks like Oliver might be on one too. A handsome gay guido flirts with him, much to Connor’s dismay. Asher tries to give him a pep talk about chasing after his true love, but Connor sighs that he can’t force Oliver to love him, and he wants Oliver to be happy.
Connor gets the chance to put his money where his mouth is when the Gay Guido hits on him. Gay Guido explains that Asian guys aren’t his type, and Connor pulls out his soap box and lectures Gay Guido on racism in the gay community.
It’s a Very Special Message that Oliver completely misses. Instead, he thinks Connor chased away Gay Guido because he was jealous. Not wanting to upset Oliver about the racist Gay Guido, Connor apologizes.
Michaela loses all of the money she gambled with, and has to pawn her engagement ring to replace it. In a way, it’s a form of closure for Michaela, who found out that her ex-fiancé Aiden is now engaged to another woman.
Annalise breaks her “keeping romance and work separate” rule and accepts Nate’s help in her case. They pin the death of the runaway girl on Perv Client’s violent cell mate and are able to prove that the DA is biased against Annalise. The judge agrees to give Perv Client a short sentence in exchange for information about the runaway and pleading guilty to letting the call girl OD. Perv Client complains that he hired Annalise because she was going to guarantee him no jail time.
Outraged by his ungrateful attitude, Annalise bitch slaps him.
Wes calls to check in on Laurel, which finally breaks the facade of perky, cheerful Meggy. She warns Wes that she doesn’t want to to watch him crush on another girl, but Wes swears he’s devoted to Meggy.
Yep, he’s going to cheat by episode 5.
Laurel’s father tells her Frank’s location, but when she returns to Casa Keating, she lies that she couldn’t get her father’s help. Annalise is disheartened, but the good news is that she attracted some positive publicity for closing the runaway’s missing person’s case. However, President Maria is not happy.
In the future, Bonnie finds Oliver in the crowd in front of Casa Keating. She gets them past the police tape so Oliver can drop Annalise’s phone under an ambulance and pretend it was just left behind when she was arrested. The fireman announce that they found another person in the house—alive.
Bonnie and Oliver look worried.
What We Learned about Getting Away with Murder:
Tags: A Very Special Message on Racismabcconnor and oliver are awkwardfather daughter timeFugitive Frankgood time gamblinghow to get away with murderlaurel's big bad dadmr. castillo: father of the yearperv clientshady lawyeringyou can't keep annalise down
Susan Velazquez
Susan is a recent college grad and writer who enjoys all things from the 1980s, snarking on dumb television, and reveling in celebrity gossip. Oh, and she has serious interests like reading historical fiction, getting involved in social issues, and consuming French fries.
Mar 23, 2018
May 12, 2018
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