HOW TO GET AWAY WITH MURDER delivered on its midseason finale promise and revealed who shot Annalise, but the road to that moment was full of twists and turns.
First we began with Michaela and Caleb telling Connor about the gun and asking him to help them get rid of it. Meanwhile, Annalise was examining the photo of the painting and asked to speak to Catherine. But when Catherine learned that Caleb had found the gun, she ran away and Annalise was unimpressed. When Caleb wondered if Philip had planted the gun to frame them, Annalise showed him the photo of Philip and Catherine’s painting. She then told Caleb that he needed to separate himself from his sister because it looked like she was guilty.
Meanwhile, Asher tried to get in touch with his father once his secrets were exposed in the press, but Bonnie delivered the bad news that his father had hung himself. Later, he met with his mother, who accused Asher of being happy with this turn of events. “I don’t want anything to do with you,” she told him.
Back at Annalise’s office, Bonnie lamented to Frank that they had become the kind of people that other people should be protected from. At the Hapstall house, Annalise seemed to feel remorse for what happened to Asher’s father and her part in it.
Earlier in the day, Sinclair confronted Nate and his boss about fabricating a criminal record for Phillip, but without any proof he left the meeting. He did, however, explode at Sinclair when she provoked him. When Annalise called him for more help with Philip, he told her he was probably going to be fired. Later, Nate called Annalise with more news about “another Sinclair problem” — news that left her reeling. So Annalise told her students and Caleb that Sinclair was on her way and they were going to tell her the truth about the gun. She told Caleb to head to Michaela’s apartment so she could walk Sinclair through what happened. But Caleb didn’t want to abandon her sister, so Michaela offered to stay at the mansion while Caleb headed out.
It turned out that Sinclair wasn’t the one who just arrived at the house, it was Bonnie, with Sinclair’s body in her trunk. “I’m so sorry,” she told Annalise. “Stop, she did this to herself,” Annalise replied.
And that’s when we flashed back to the scene in the precinct with Sinclair and Nate. Later, we saw Nate’s call with Annalise again about getting fired. But when his Captain told him that Sinclair had filed a harassment claim against him, Nate rebutted that he wanted to file a racial discrimination claim. Shortly after, Nate met with Sinclair, who said she wanted to bury the hatchet if he would help her take down Annalise. When we next saw Sinclair, Asher was confronting her about his father. When she told him that his father got what he deserved, he ran over her with his car.
Enter Asher’s white knight — Bonnie — who told him that Sinclair was dead. And it turns out that Bonnie had interrupted Nate’s call with Annalise (where he told her about Sinclair’s offer and the fact that Philip had been released) to deliver the news about Sinclair. With the situation spiralling out of control, Annalise tried to figure out her next move. So she called her own fixer — Frank — and asked him for the pills they had procured at Nia’s request.
And we’re back to the present time, where Bonnie showed Annalise Sinclair’s body. Asher pulled up and Annalise suggested they get Sinclair’s body inside. That’s when the other students found out about Sinclair and the cover-up in progress. Annalise told them that they were going to make it look like an accident, but Connor wanted to leave. So Annalise told Asher that the other students had killed Sam in order to buy their silence about Sinclair.
Annalise’s plan was to frame Catherine for Sinclair’s murder and that’s who Frank was chasing down on Annalise’s orders. After overhearing Annalise’s call with Frank, Wes called Nate to tell him about Annalise’s desire to protect him about Sinclair. Sinclair’s body was thrown over the railing as Philip headed to Catherine’s motel room to rendezvous with her. But Frank had gotten to her.
Asher was convinced their plan wouldn’t cover up what he did to Sinclair, so Bonnie told the others to put him in the car. And when it was all said and done Annalise told Bonnie to leave the gun as she put the rest of the plan into effect.
Then we were back at the the gas station bathroom from another episode flashback, where Bonnie was washing off the blood. But Asher hadn’t bailed, he was just buying a car wash ticket. Frank, meanwhile, was drugging an already unconscious Catherine as Philip was leaving a message for her, saying he had arrived at the mansion.
So who shot Annalise? She called the police to announce that Catherine had shot her and then she asked Connor to shoot her. Cue an emotional confrontation where Michaela begged Connor not to go through with it. “I hate you so much,” Connor said before he walked away. So Annalise begged one of the others to shoot her, but they all refused. Wes announced that Nate was coming so that he could help. “Maybe we should go to jail, for everything,” Laurel said. “Maybe that’s okay”.
As Annalise’s plan was falling apart in front of her eyes she blurted out that Rebecca was dead and had been dead this entire time. Furious, Wes shot her in the stomach, not in the leg as she had requested.
“Christophe,” Annalise breathed out, over and over again. Flashback to 10 years earlier, when a young boy named Christophe (who we suspect is Wes) was being interviewed by a police officer. “Is she dead?” the boy asked the cop, asking her to tell him the truth. “You think I’m going to freak out if I know [my mom] hurt herself.” And who was watching this scene behind the mirror? Annalise and Eve. “Good God, Annalise, what do we do?” Eve asked.
HOW TO GET AWAY WITH MURDER will return with all new episodes on February 11 at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT on ABC.