Author: Paige Phelan

ABC/Mitchell Haaseth

How to Get Away With Murderis going home for the holidays.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year for the students of Middleton Law School — well, for all of those who aren’t currently involved in the investigation into the death disappearance of their professor’s husband.  

While the calendar just turned February, Thursday’s How to Get Away With Murder finds the notorious Keating cabal returning from their holiday break. Was it the “Best Christmas Ever,” as the episode title suggests? With the dastardly deeds of Murder Night still hanging over their heads, yuletide cheer seems in short supply as the students face their families for the first time since beginning law school.

Read more ‘How to Get Away With Murder’s’ Marcia Gay Harden: Hannah’s a “Bloodhound”

“[The writers] did a really good job showing snapshots into the families of each character and what their home lives look like and it’s really fascinating,” Jack Falahee (Connor) tells The Hollywood Reporter.

“You see a scene with Connor and his family and you see he’s not doing well and it’s sort of chalked up to the rigors and stressors of law school.” Falahee adds of his struggling character’s trip home. “You see these kids interact with their family and maybe feel like they can’t talk to them about something very significant that has happened to them.”

Of course, these visits home reveal much more than just each character’s family affairs. “I think you see whether or not they have something to fall back on, if they have a plan B, and if they don’t, well shit!”says explains Karla Souza, who plays the newly in-charge Laurel.

For Michaela (Aja Naomi King), that plan B may just involve her fiancé, and the prenuptial she reluctantly signed. “At that moment when she was signing the prenup she knew she needed some allies, some real allies, and that’s a powerful family that she could marry into that could be able to protect her,” she says.

Two people who don’t seem to have that family — or a plan B — to fall back onto are Keating disciple Wes (Alfred Enoch) and his maybe-murderer girlfriend Rebecca (Katie Findlay).

“It sort of juxtaposes Wes and Rebecca and the rest of the kids because you get to see everyone else go home,” Findlay previews of the lovers’ holiday hideaway. “Really you get a sense of the lack of home to go to with them. They have each other, they have an apartment, the heat’s on.”

Read more ‘How to Get Away With Murder’ Creator Says Holes in Murder Night Will Be Revealed

Wes and Rebecca may not be the only ones who don’t go home as bro-tastic Asher (Matt McGorry) also finds himself in a complicated situation for the holidays. “[Asher] has a very strong moral compass and has essentially become estranged from his father for something his father did many, many years in the past,” McGorry says, referring to a revelation about the elder Judge Millstone.

“Ultimately, [Asher] has a good heart,” McGorry said. “Even if it’s a douchey heart.” Is it possible that douchey heart could land him back in the arms of one-night stand Bonnie (Liza Weil)? Although the feisty associate initially turned him down, Weil hasn’t written the relationship off just yet.

“We’ve seen Asher have moments of being incredibly sweet and kind and I think if that gaze is put on Bonnie, she may be surprised her response to that,” she says.

However, Charlie Weber, the man behind Bonnie’s mysterious colleague Frank, the episode goes beyond the students’ families at home to really delve into the co-dependent “family dynamic” of the entire Keating firm.

“You’re going to see that we don’t have anybody,” he says. “And it’s why we take our life there so seriously and I think it taps into the loyalty and with Frank almost this blind loyalty […] to the matriarch of [his] life.”

Read more ‘How to Get Away With Murder’: 8 Things to Know About Its Return

Series star Viola Davis (Annalise Keating) stressed the importance of the group’s familial nature — and her place as matriarch — especially now that they’ve colluded together to dispose of her husband. “Those kids are basically her children and I think that she feels responsible in some way, keeping the ball rolling,” Davis says of her “passionate and fervent” campaign to defend her students. “It’s her way of fulfilling her end of the responsibility … and in her twisted way of logic, that is her way of protecting and showing love.”

“You’ll see more of where all of that is rooted from — that twisted sense of love and what it means to love and what it means to protect — that is rooted in a past where there was trauma,” Davis added.

Could upcoming guest-star Cicely Tyson be part of that past? Davis would only offer that the prolific actress is “breathtaking in the episode.” “She is everything that I absolutely believed that she was when I was 7 years old and I saw An Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman. She is just luminescent. I just think that people are going to be so moved by her performance in this,” Davis said.

Excited to find out about what’s waiting at home for these characters? Sound off in the comments below. How to Get Away With Murder airs Thursdays at 10 p.m. on ABC.

Twitter: @NotPhelan

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[Warning: This story contains major spoilers from the midseason premiere episode, “Hello, Rashkolnikov” of ABC’s How To Get Away With Murder]

How to Get Away With Murder has finally entered the era of “AMN” — After Murder Night — but the problems are just beginning for ABC’s most complex law professor and her students.

Thursday’s midseason return was a night of big reveals and tested loyalties: the late Sam (Tom Verica) is revealed to be the father of Lila’s baby; Rebecca (Katie Findlay) is no longer on trial; and Annalise Keating (Viola Davis) was far more involved in the Murder Night than that initial “thank you.”

In a one of the final flashes to the climactic Murder Night, Annalise tells Wes (Alfred Enoch) exactly how to dispose of her cheating husband’s body and proceeds to create her own narrative, a dalliance with her boyfriend Nate (Billy Brown) — tearful phone calls included.

Read more ‘How to Get Away With Murder’ Creator Says Holes in Murder Night Will Be Revealed

The investigation into Sam’s disappearance also has Annalise pointing a finger at her presumed-missing husband as Lila’s killer, prompting the team to work tirelessly to prove Sam is the baby’s father (“You look relieved for a woman who just found out her husband is the father of anther woman’s baby,” Frank (Charlie Weber) tells an almost joyful Keating) and get the charges against Rebecca (Katie Findlay) dropped.

Meanwhile, police investigating Sam’s the disappearance prompts a rattled and unraveling Connor (Jack Falahee) and Michaela (Aja Naomi King) to flip on their guiltier peers, only to be stopped just short of confessing by Annalise with a promise: she will help them get away with it.

However, even with the legal help of their professor, there are still four pieces of evidence standing in the way of the Keating Five’s freedom. The Hollywood Reporter caught up with the cast to sound off on the evidence that connects the Keating Five to Sam’s slaying — and how that plays into the remainder of the season.

Michaela’s Engagement Ring

For the Keating Five, everything seemed to be going along as planned, until Michaela realized she lost her engagement ring. It was the first in a series of missteps for the ragtag crew and one of the most incriminating, for Michaela at least.

“If I remember correctly there was a random night, you know, this is where it all began, those gray gloves that I had — those black gloves with the little bedazzled diamonds on them that I wore all through Murder Night — I couldn’t fit my fingers in them with my ring on,” King says. “So I think I said to Pete [Nowalk, series creator] when we were shooting one night like, ‘Oh, what if I don’t have my ring? What if something happened to it and we plant a little Easter egg in here where I take my gloves of at some point and my ring’s not there?’ ” For eagle-eyed Murder viewers, however, that’s old news as the plot point could have been detected within the first two episodes of the series.

Read more ‘How to Get Away With Murder’: 8 Things to Know About Its Return

Justice Scales

Astute viewers may also have noticed a slight difference in the justice trophy the students vie to win each week and the one that was used to murder Sam — the hanging scales are missing. “I don’t know if you noticed, but Justice lost its scales, so they sort of wrote that back in,” Karla Souza (Laurel) explained. “Things happen without us even planning it.”

Of course, with Laurel in charge of returning the trophy to Asher and enlisting Frank’s help, is it possible that the trail leads back to one of them? “If we [told you] we wouldn’t have a job,” Souza joked. Added King: “We are all aware of the heightened circumstances in our lives and need to find some solutions for them.”

Sam’s Wedding Ring

After following Annalise’s instructions nearly to the letter, Wes returns to give his professor one last memento of her marriage: Sam’s wedding ring.

“It’s not a straightforward relationship and it never will be,” Enoch says of Wes’ strangely intimate relationship with Annalise. “He realizes they’re bound together.”

Davis, on the other hand, thinks that their connection goes beyond just the events of that night. “For me, Wes just represents her looking at herself,” the SAG Award winner explains. “People who have had a hard path, once they get in a position of power, they, especially a teacher […] see in someone else who’s had that hard path, there’s a connection that’s higher than your teacher-student connection. It’s almost a maternal one. If she were in a healthier state of mind, she could be a really great mentor to Wes.”

However, with the ring hidden in her vanity, Annalise is at risk of another man in her life discovering the token — her ex-cop boyfriend Nate (Billy Brown). Would he risk his relationship with Annalise to pursue the truth? “The detective in Nate has to balance the man to discern what part of the truth I hold on to [… but] Nate’s driven by discovering the truth and going to any lengths to find that truth,” Brown said.

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Sam’s Body

The biggest loose end still out there is also the most damning for the Keating Five. Rather than throwing the body in an incinerator as they were instructed, the killer students disposed of the body in a Dumpster. If every Law & Order episode is to be believed, it’s not a question of if the body will be found but when.

“If you watch real murder TV shows, people plan, for months a murder, and even those people either get caught or miss a little thing here,” Souza said of floating results of their savage deed. “It’s just a matter of time.” While the cast would never spoil a major plot point like Sam’s body potentially being discovered, Souza would only laugh off the idea: “I think, maybe!”

Of course, there is one new person who will likely spearhead the search for Sam and his remains: his sister, Hannah — played by Marcia Gay Harden, who made her debut Thursday. “She’s a woman who never really embraced [Annalise] in the family,” Davis says. “She’s the wrench.”

What did you think of How to Get Away With Murder‘s return? Sound off in the comments section, below. Murder airs Thursdays at 10 p.m. on ABC.

Twitter: @NotPhelan

ABC/Mitchell Haaseth

Murder Night has finally turned into day for Annalise Keating (Viola Davis) and her accomplices students — and in the light, everything changes.

Following a brutal hiatus, How to Get Away With Murder and the rest of ABC’s Shondaland TGIT lineup returns Thursday and Pete Nowalk‘s freshman drama picks up right where November’s midseason finale left off. The return finds the Keating Five struggling with the pressures of law school, finals, and, oh yeah, killing their professor’s adulterous husband and disposing of his body.

Could there be more to the story? Obviously. The Hollywood Reporter hit the set of ABC’s breakout drama to catch up with the cast for a preview of what to expect from the freshman series’ six remaining episodes.

Read more ‘How to Get Away With Murder’ Creator Says Holes in Murder Night Will Be Revealed

The show is moving forward — in time, that is.

After spending the first half of its freshman semester season flashing forward to its climactic Murder Night, the show is doing a mini-reboot, to hear series creator Nowalk tell it, and finally moving into the future. Although the midseason premiere, screened for the press including THR, does flashback a bit — and reveals more about a certain character’s involvement — the constant time shifts are over. “We don’t pop back anymore,” Liza Weil (Bonnie) says. “There’s just not as much poppy-poppy. We’re caught up in time.” Adds fellow Keating associate Charlie Weber (Frank): “[It] changes the tone to some degree.”

However, the consequences of that night are here to stay.

The events of the Murder Night and the characters’ actions that evening will have lasting consequences for everyone, though some will unravel more than others. “All of the sudden, everything is at risk, everything could be snatched away, everyone is fighting very hard to keep that, to keep their lives intact,” Alfred Enoch (Wes) says. Adds Weber adds, “Masks have come off of a lot of us and you just kind of get to see these people for what they are and what they do.”

The lies and the secrets are pilling up.

Killing a man and covering it up is no easy task, as the guilty students will soon find out for themselves. “They’ve committed a murder, so that’s not great, and they’ve all sort of fabricated lies to different people and it’s sort of like a spiderweb,” Jack Falahee (Connor) says of the complicated mess the Keating Five find themselves in. “[There’s] a lot of different things going on, a lot of different lies being told, [secrets] being kept from other people.”

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People will have to assume new roles.

In the aftermath of Murder Night, everyone has changed. For Karla Souza’s Laurel, it’s all about taking control of the situation and stepping up to do what needs to be done. “I think they all grow up in [the midseason premiere]; they all become adults … because of what happened,” she says. Of course that’s not the only thing changing. “People who used to be in control … suddenly reverse and all the people who were tentative and, maybe, shy become the captains of the ship.”

New alliances (and enemies) will form.

“The second half of the season is going to explore the alliances being made and enemies and how these relationships shift given that we’ve all sort of committed this murder together,” Falahee explains. Not to mention, that there are still members of the Keating team that don’t know about the slaying yet — including Matt McGory‘s Asher, his love interest, Bonnie as well as her colleague Frank.

Everyone is close to cracking.

When asked which character was most likely to break down or give in to the pressure of holding on to such a violent secret, the cast — like their characters — was divided. “I think we all have that potential and it shifts from week to week,” says Weil, whose character still isn’t on even footing with Annalise in the wake of her actions in winter finale. “That’s really the interesting thing about these last episodes is that dynamic shifts from episode to episode and sometimes a few within an episode and you think people are going have moments of completely losing it and shifting loyalty and then it’s on somebody else.”

See more A Day in the Life of Shondaland MVP Tom Verica

Even Annalise isn’t immune from the pressure.

With all the stress and life-altering events on her plate, is Annalise heading for a breakdown of her own? The answer to that is a definitive yes, Davis says. “It’s going to be gradual. You’ll see it, it’s coming,” Davis teased of her character’s journey in the next few episodes. The newly minted SAG Award winner added that she encouraged the writers to have the characters — including Annalise — reflect the show’s increasing stakes. “I always say that a person acts their nature, not their morals,” she says. “So often I see women on television, and they’re either really sexually promiscuous or strong — because now we want to see the ‘new’ woman — but I don’t really see the consequences a lot of times.”

It’s almost impossible to prepare for what’s to come.

When tasked with describing the season’s remaining episodes, the cast threw around words like “suspenseful,” “dark” and “harrowing.” Weber went so far to note that after one particular table read, “People were crying, there were mouths open. Shock, literally tears, to the point where some of us got phone calls to not freak out when we read the script.” McGory agreed. “I yelled a little bit. I looked at one specific person and was like [drops jaw] … one specific person makes things happen.”

How to Get Away With Murder airs Thursdays at 10 p.m. on ABC. What are you looking forward to? Sound off in the comments section, below, and come back to THR’s The Live Feed after the episode for more from the cast.

Twitter: @NotPhelan