How to Get Away with Murder: “It's All Her Fault”

How to Get Away with Murder is starting to look more and more like Scandal, but these kids are gladiators-in-training. I can sort of imagine Olivia Pope, once upon a time, sitting in Professor Keating’s class, soaking in mounds of information, only to crave an outside challenge and cases specific to politics, hence OPA. But, I digress.

The Criminal 100 student’s are introduced to a new case study—the very real murder of Marjorie St. Vincent. Her ex husband, Max St. Vincent, becomes Keating’s new client as the five gladiators-in-training (never mind the rest of the class) imagine themselves as the victim. Seriously, Connor (Jack Falahee) laying on the bloody bed, contaminating the scene of the crime (any Dexter fan knows how inappropriate that is), while Max St. Vincent acts out exactly how he allegedly murdered his wife—16 stabs to the body— was one of the most disturbing and eerie things I have seen on TV in a while. Props, Shonda.

The flash forward scenes are getting a bit confusing to follow. We are given the exact same dialogue as last week, where they are flipping a coin to hide the body, only Wes tells the group it landed on heads. I enjoyed having that bout of information last week; however, as a viewer, I am much more interested in how Rhimes is planning to successfully intertwine a very present story line with these flashback snippets. If she pulls it off, it will be noteworthy.

In one flashback, Wes finds that the report and the supplement name different detectives who found the hunting knife St. Vincent allegedly used to kill Marjorie. This dismisses the weapon. Connor uses his sex “twink” (no idea what that meant) to find out that the witness attesting to the St. Vincent’s unhappy marriage made a toast to the blissfully happy couple two months prior. The character witness, St. Vincent’s daughter, Eloise, discovers that her mother (Max’s first wife) did not die in a car accident, but was brutally murdered with one deeply-incised wound cause by, of course, a hunting knife. Oh, and actually, Max St. Vincent is Stewart from Switzerland who was acquitted of his wife’s murder. With Lauren’s meaningful discovery that St. Vincent is a hunter, Keating and her gladiators-in-training prove that while St. Vincent/ Stewart murdered his first wife, there is no way he could have murdered his second one—it was too sloppy of a job. When Eloise found out about her mom, she sent the files to the jury from Switzerland, and then murdered Marjorie so that her father would be accused of it. Of course Max knew all of this, but was willing to take the fall for his daughter.

There was a ludicrous, almost magical realism (think Gabriel Garcia Marquez) to this case had. Seriously.

But it also shows the importance of family/relationships to Shonda Rhimes. Similar to last weeks Scandal, where the high-profile Senator was willing to lie and say she was sexually assaulted by the Congressman in order for her assistant to not have to, Max St. Vincent was willing to take the stand, and risk being accused of murder so that his daughter would avoid scrutiny.

During all of this, the Lila Stangard murder has been ruled a homicide, and Annalise Keating is becoming weary with the thought that her husband may have been involved. She enlists her detective boyfriend to do some digging, and find out if her husband’s alibi checks out. In order to not alert her husband that anything is awry, Sam and Annalise have very non-romantic sex, after which she rolls over and cries. Meanwhile, Rebecca—Wes’s neighbor whose role I highly underestimated—is arrested in connection with Lila’s murder. Wes remembers she used his shower, and dropped something there, so he pries loose boards in his bathroom and finds a phone. Of course, it is locked.

Flash forward (ugh!) to the present where Wes has bought a prepaid phone, and is going to visit someone in room 203. It’s Rebecca. Wes says something along the lines of, “It’s done” and they kiss. It will be interesting to see what has happened in the past 3 months.

Other thoughts on “It’s All Her Fault”:

•Is the murder of Lila Stangard the premise of the whole first season? If it is, knowing Shonda, there will be a few unexpected twists and turns. But right now I feel like we already know too much.
•Did Rebecca kill Lila? I feel like there’s a few more parties we have not been introduced to yet.
•Asher Millstone (Matt McGory, AKA Ben from Orange is the New Black) is a wise crack, and I like it.
•It took me until this episode to realize that Wes is DEAN THOMAS from Harry Potter! Shout-out to the Gryffindors!

Best Lines from “It’s All Her Fault”

•“You won your case, got laid. So how else can I be of service to you?”—Detective Nate
•“Do you know who anyone really is?”—Annalise Keating
•“Because all black people are related?”—Michaela

What were your thoughts on “It’s All Her Fault?” Comment below!

Lesley Brock is a Nashville-based freelance writer and a regular contributor to Paste. You can follow her on Twitter.

How to Get Away with Murder: “It’s All Her Fault”

(Episode 1.02)