How To Get Away With Murder Recap: “You’re All Mean Girls”

Annalise Keating is back. After promising to get help for her alcohol addiction, Annalise (Viola Davis) has resumed her post at Middleton, and the bar has reinstated her license. She wastes no time getting back into the swing of things on campus. The Keating Five (and Simon Drake) may have just taken an exam, but they're already working on a new case. This week, they're defending a female veteran, Danny, who apparently slit a man's throat at a bar. Simon (Behzad Dabu) earns first chair on the case after proposing that the defense team argue Danny's actions were because she suffered from PTSD. But his time in the spotlight is short-lived, as Michaela discovers Danny's war story isn't true — she was in the records office, filing reports of soldiers' deaths and accidents, not on the front lines. It's not great for Simon. And the Keating Five, despite being mediocre students, are quick to rub things in his face. Eventually, Simon tells them, "You're all mean girls," as Michaela (Aja Naomi King) gleefully tells him they sabotaged the case. (Incredibly, this line comes after she says "You can't sit with us" to Laurel (Karla Souza) earlier in the episode — shoutout to the HTGAWM writers on this one.)

After calling for a meeting with the judge to avoid being punished for her client's perjury (she is on probation, after all), Annalise works out a deal with the ADA. Danny will plead guilty to misdemeanor reckless endangerment and go to the Veterans Treatment Court for substance abuse. Annalise tells her client it's a "chance to get better," since she clearly has some things to work through.

Simon isn't the only thorn in everyone's side, though. Annalise and Bonnie (Liza Weil) still have to figure out what to do about Frank (Charlie Weber) after he abandoned Bonnie. Annalise tries to shame Bonnie for sleeping with him — a detail that's obvious to everyone in the Keating house. But Bonnie doesn't miss a beat, even with Annalise's putdowns. It turns out that when Frank confessed to killing Wes' father, Bonnie recorded it. Annalise quickly shuts down the idea of taking the recording to the police since going to the authorities could inspire Frank to tell them about Sam's death. And since Frank isn't on the police's radar, there's another suspect in mind for Mahoney's murder: Wes (Alfred Enoch). A frantic Meggy (Corbin Reid) calls Laurel, saying she went to Wes' apartment and saw the police at his door. Laurel instructs Meggy to tell the police Wes is at the library. Meggy does seem a bit suspicious in this scene — it's probably not a great sign when your boyfriend wants to evade the police — but she doesn't press the issue. Later, we see Wes lie to her about what happened, reiterating his original statement to the cops. He tells her he asked Mahoney for directions before he was shot. (It's not the first time Wes has lied to Meggy about his parents: At a dinner with her father, he claimed his mother died of cancer.) Annalise assumes the police are after Wes because Frank tipped them off, but Bonnie refuses to believe that's true. She reiterates that Frank told her he wanted to come home. It turns out she's right — at the end of the episode, we see Frank driving toward Philadelphia.

In the end, Wes is safe, too — a news report shows that Mahoney's other son, Charles, is being held for his father's murder. The reason the police found Charles? Frank planted the weapon he used to shoot Mahoney, framing Charles (and shifting suspicion away from both himself and Wes). All's well that ends well — and in the end of this episode, it looks like all has ended well for four of the Keating Five. Michaela finally admits that she likes Asher (Matt McGorry), and that he's more than a "meat stick" to her.

Plus, Laurel and Wes finally hook up after she tells him she's not in love with Frank. (As much as I ship Laurel and Wes, his breakup with Meggy was harsh — she says "I love you" for the first time, and his response is "You should go. I can't do this anymore." Damn, Wes.) Connor (Jack Falahee), meanwhile, is nowhere to be seen in this sex montage, as all of the other members of Annalise's group are all hooking up. It's impossible not to feel sad for him — but if he and Oliver (Conrad Ricamora) do get back together, it would also interfere with the increasingly hilarious roommate situation he and Michaela have going on. As for who's under the sheet, we know it's not Asher. In the flash-forward scenes, Michaela goes to Asher's dorm after hearing an unidentified male died in the fire at Annalise's house. Luckily, Asher isn't at the Keating residence — he's just drunk with some of the other Middleton students. It's looking more and more likely that Connor (or Frank or Nate, but more likely Connor) won't come out alive.