Photo: Courtesy of ABC. Against all odds, quiet young Wes did not actually start his murder career at the tender age of 12. This show has standards, okay? Granted, they’re low enough to green-light a “What. Happened. To Annalise’s. BABY?!” promo for next week, featuring Viola Davis suffering complications on a hospital bed. That’s a no-brainer and just good marketing. But a child killer? Nah. Too far.
The truth about Wes’ mother Rose has almost completely come to light now that the expansive pool of her flashback blood has seeped into all the rooms of their shabby apartment and perhaps beyond. Shockingly, the police report got it right: Rose, the key witness in an evil millionaire’s murder trial, stabbed herself in the neck after Annalise implied that Rose's son’s life would be threatened should she not show up in court. Annalise almost called 911, but decided to escape instead. Moments later, little Cristophe (modern-day Wes) came home, yelped, “Mommy, no!” and yanked out the knife as Annalise hulked around the corner, clutching her pregnant belly in shock while trying not to breathe audibly. Wes called 911, and that’s when the 12-year-old with no idea what kind of trophy-wielding, gun-slinging get-away-with-murderer he’d one day become delivered the understatement of the series: “Something bad happened.”
I say “almost completely” because what if there’s another twist? I’m wondering if Annalise’s evil client Wallace Mahoney (Adam Arkin) could be Wes’ father, having raped his company’s cleaning lady Rose 12 years prior. “You don’t know what that man is capable of,” she warned Annalise with eyes of fire while winding up to take her own life. “We are not things to be owned and used!”
Photo: Courtesy of ABC. To complicate things further: Eve (Famke Janssen), our favorite ex-lesbian lover of Annalise’s that we know about, shows up in the 2005 flashbacks to help with Rose’s case. She’s the lawyer who signed little Christophe’s immigration documents, which is why present-day Wes shows up at her New York apartment by episode’s end, looking for answers. But back then, Eve hadn’t seen Annalise in three years. She pregnancy-shames her — “Please tell me you just got fat” — not because she hates babies or anything, but because she’s still hurt that Annalise left her for her therapist, Sam. Annalise, of course, welcomes the guilt trip in her own way by repeatedly fanning the flames (“I know you never forgave me”), ordering wine, and even getting Eve involved in the first place. Their relationship is so intense and strange, but there’s an understanding these two share that Annalise and Nate the beefy cop do not. I hate to say that, because I would never want to NOT watch Nate’s heavage subtly dance up and down his sheets while he breathes in bed. That would be a travesty. I’m just saying. Annalise and Eve always have it going on even when they don’t.
Amidst all the flashbacks, I’d almost forgotten about that 2016 lives everyone’s still leading. But here’s Wes, seeking solace from the law school’s therapist (obligatory LOL that they’re still in law school) instead of his one friend in the world, Laurel. In trying to rack his brain for the truth about his past, Wes comes dangerously close to telling his doc that he's actually murdered rather recently. At one point his therapist says, “Your relationship with Annalise is very muddy and feels maternal,” which is another profound understatement of the century, but at least someone’s mentioning it! To wit, Wes and Annalise spend major screen time this week creeping around each other’s residences like total weirdos who could honestly just SPEAK TO EACH OTHER instead of passive-aggressively communicating through their strung-out medium, Laurel. Would that be so hard?
Photo: Courtesy of ABC.Laurel’s not getting any satisfying answers from anyone these days. She definitively breaks up with Frank, even after he claims the reason he took so long to tell her about the two women he murdered is because…he loves her. Nope! Cute sentiment, but Laurel is out. “You think that’s the type of person I want to love me? It’s not, and the truth is I don’t love you back,” she cries softly. She claims she won’t tell the others about his murders because it would only freak them out even more. Neither of them know — well, at least Laurel doesn’t, Frank and Bonnie seem to be in cahoots at the moment — that Bonnie is recording them in the basement! Which means Annalise will know that Laurel knows about all their dirty laundry, as if Annalise didn't already know everything that’s ever happened to all humans in her purview. That’s her job. She’s a psychic attorney. Oh, and she’s shown teaching class this week for at least 15 seconds so LOL again.
Slumber party! The Keating Five minus Wes can’t take any chances now that serial killer Philip is on the loose and won’t stop sending them incriminating videos, so Asher lunges, seductively — in a dinosaur onesie!!! — at the chance to bake some pizza bites and not be so lonely for one night in his life. He later punks everyone by filming them sleeping. Could Asher be the one orchestrating this whole Philip scare just for these brief flashes of friendship? Where is Philip, anyway?
I’m sorry I asked: Philip is somehow in Wes’ apartment when Annalise comes in, having noticed a light under the door and thought yep, totally normal to just barge in unannounced. Muddy maternal ish and all. As she searches the depths of his squalor, I’m terrified she’s about to find a self-slain Wes in the bathroom just for symmetry’s sake and because seriously when is the Wes madness going to end? But instead, Philip himself (I think, hard to tell, so dark, so twisted) runs out of the bathroom and throws Annalise to the ground. She’s survived much worse…
Next week we’ll find out what happened to Annalise’s baby, “Who’s involved in the WILDEST HOOKUP IN MURDER HISTORY!” and “One. Massive. Family. Secret.” If Wes really does turn out to be a secret multimillion-dollar baby, then maybe Wallace Mahoney is the firm’s next target for season 3. And once Annalise grants the puppy his inheritance, they can all transfer to Stanford with her sincerest blessings. Yeah. Right!
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