How to Get Away with Murder - S1E13 - Mama’s Here Now
Previously on HTGAWM, ‘She’s a Murderer!’
Last week we left off with Nate being framed and arrested for the murder of Sam Keating.
This week we are introduced to Annalise’s mom waltzing in to her home, surprising Bonnie and Frank. She goes upstairs to Annalise’s room and starts doing what most moms do best, criticizing your life choices and cleaning up the mess around you while she does it. Making you feel even smaller and worthless than you did when you built up the courage to ask for her help. After a few minutes of trying to pry Annalise out of bed and her not obliging, Mama notices that this is more serious than she thought and just wraps her arms around Annalise to comfort her.
Meanwhile the interns are downstairs and Bonnie introduces them to their newest client - a case she will be handling. A nurse that has been accused of raping a man under her care after a surgery. Bonnie starts the argument that the man in question is only seeking a financial payout from the nurse’s (Jolene) institution. Jolene is a very mousy and meek woman from her appearance, and it’s hard to believe she would have done such an act. It’s also easy to see she’s someone who it would seem easy to pin something on. During her opening argument, Bonnie slips up and says to the jury they should find Jolene guilty. She quickly corrects herself. After a recess, the prosecution is examining a witness and asks about bruising that appeared on the man’s testicles after the alleged attack. Bonnie gets her turn and presents medical records stating he was on a blood thinner, and after a surgery could cause various bruising all over the body, including the testicular area.
Later there is a witness who claims he saw Jolene raping the man. Bonnie quickly gets Frank to find a way to discredit him. Turns out, he had a small form of a stroke on the same day. That throws his witness statement out the window.
We come back to Annalise’s house where her mother is going through Sam’s closet collecting his suits to give to the donation box at her church. Annalise stops her, saying she isn’t ready to give up his things and they aren’t just some hand-me-downs. Her mother then brings up the fact that their house burned down and that donation box kept her fed and clothed. We discover Annalise is not her given name - it’s Anna Mae. She changed it and her mother isn’t happy about it.
Back in court, a man presents computer history of Jolene to the jury. She posted to a questionable website about her escapade with the plaintiff, detailing her sex act with him and admitting that he was a patient. This of course hurts Bonnie’s case. Jolene tells Bonnie that the sex was consensual and stands firm on the fact she did not rape him. Conner then has Aiden do some recon on the plaintiff and they discover that he is gay. Bonnie presents pictures from a gay social media dating app called “Humper”. The judge along with the plaintiff’s attorney are appalled that she brought this up to the court and tells her that its borderline discrimination. The hospital rep confronts Bonnie outside the court room and demands she get Jolene to settle. Bonnie refuses and storms off.
Back at Annalise’s house Bonnie and Frank have some drinks, deliberating about the case and if she should go ask Annalise for help. Bonnie’s pride gets in the way and she refuses. She then confronts Frank about why he lied to her face about what really happened to Sam. Frank admits that Annalise told him not to tell Bonnie and what Annalise says, goes.
Rebecca is questioned by the police about her contact with Nate the night of the murder. She tells them Nate asked her to plant evidence, she refused and Nate said he would find another way.
At Annalise’s, her mom is cooking and she and Annalise get into an argument. We discover Annalise was raped by her uncle and Annalise confronts her mom about whether or not she knew about it. All her mother will say is that he is dead and God gave him what he deserved. Annalise has a moment of anger and throws a bottle at the wall. Her mother tells Annalise she too was raped by her first boss, who was a reverend - that men take from women, it’s just what they do. You can’t wallow in self-pity to a shrink and then go off and marry him because life didn’t go the way you wanted it to.
Back in the court room Bonnie enlists Aiden’s help to find out something about the hospital’s lawyer. Bonnie pulls a Hail Mary play and acts as though she is having Jolene settle. Upon the judge wrapping things up, we discover the hospital’s lawyer and the plaintiff are lovers. The lawyer knew what sort of cases the hospital would make a huge payout on and knew the type of person that Jolene was, and it made her an easy target. The two men had set up a joint bank account prior to this case in preparation of winning and splitting the settlement money. The plaintiff drops all charges.
Asher talks up Bonnie’s big win and she just cuts him off and kisses him. Going back to the interns, Conner introduces Aiden to Laurel, Michaela and Wes. Rebecca calls Wes and he blows her off. Laurel comes out to talk to Wes and he tells her he went to the police station and got Rudy’s (the old tenant of his apartment) arrest record. It said that he was arrested the night of Lila’s murder, and it was from a drug overdose. He’s now in a mental hospital. Rebecca told Wes that he had a nervous breakdown and that’s why she called the police. Wes is now thinking that Rebecca really might have had something to do with Lila’s murder and this was part of her cover up. Guilt sets in over Nate being in jail.
Annalise’s mom tells her that she’s leaving and hugs her. She sits down to fix Annalise’s hair and starts telling her stories about their old house, the one that burned down. She tells her about how she knew when her uncle raped her. And that he was the reason that their house burned down and he burned down with it. She then explained that she waited until he fell asleep one night with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth and a bottle of hooch next to him. She had taken a long match and lit the hooch and blamed it on the cigarettes, saved her kids and ran. She sacrificed the house she loved so much to get revenge on the man that hurt her little girl. This was a huge shock to Annalise.
Laurel and Wes go to the mental hospital, Laurel claiming to be Rudy’s sister, Wes her husband. She even got a fake ID to back up the lie. They are determined to find out what really happened. Meanwhile Michaela attends Nate’s arraignment and Annalise shows up. She tells Michaela that it’s my job to fix it, not hers and tells her to report to class. Annalise goes into an interrogation room to speak with Nate. She sticks to her story because she knows there is a camera recording everything but slips him a note that says to fire his lawyer and call a number. Most likely another lawyer she trusts to get him off. He is innocent, so let’s hope this lawyer is good enough to prove it.
Back at the mental hospital, Laurel and Wes ask Rudy questions. Wes shows him a picture of Rebecca and all Rudy says is “Wet, Wet, Wet”. It clicked for Wes. The water tank. The episode ends with Rebecca looking up the GPS location of Wes’ phone, since he’s been ignoring her calls. She sees he’s at the mental hospital and just has a somber look on her face as she sits back in her chair.
This was a curve ball episode. Bonnie has definitely started to grow some balls recently. She’s coming out of her shell more, most likely from anger and betrayal about what has happened to Sam and how Annalise and Frank handled it with her. Just as we think that Sam really was Lila’s killer we get all this thrown at us. Is Rebecca really hiding something? Is Wes crossing a line? We will have to wait until next week to get more pieces to this puzzle. It looks like there are a bunch more too!
