On  How to Get Away With Murder's third episode of Season 3; “Always Bet Black”, we get to explore Laurel’s family back-story, Wes’s “good” relationship, and a new case at the legal clinic.


Annalise is still getting heat from the university to go on a compulsory suspension but our girl is still not backing down. She’s taking a new case at the clinic with this pervert – uhh I mean guy (Toby) who hires escorts then rates them online based on three factors - breast size, pubic hair and vocal enthusiasm. He has been charged with manslaughter for dumping a drugged girl by the dumpster and leaving her to die.

Bonnie has her reservations about taking this case but Annalise presses on. The case gets a little tricky when new evidence comes to light – Toby had taken a selfie with the unconscious girl before dumping her body. Annalise is forced to make a deal but considering her penchant for double-crossing prosecutors, the DA office is having none of it.

But the case gets worse when Oliver finds out that their broke client withdrew $200,000 from
his account. An enraged Annalise and Bonnie confront him but the case gets worse – he is giving his ex-lawyer hush money. What for you may ask? Well this angel of a person had killed a girl (Janie) he picked from the street, gave some coke and wacked in the head with a baseball bat for refusing to sleep with him because he’s fat.  But that’s not all. Toby dumped her body in a broken freezer at an abandoned warehouse somewhere in Philly.


Bonnie has had enough. She wants Annalise to call in an anonymous tip but Annalise can’t because Toby will know it was them. Bonnie points out to Annalise that the girl’s mother is still looking for her and she (Bonnie) could have been Janie if someone hadn’t done the right thing and got her out of an abusive home. Bonnie seems to have developed a conscience and mild amesia overnight – she seems to be forgetting that she also killed someone’s child and hid the body.



ABC/Nicole Wilder


Annalise confided in her police beau Nate (who may very well now be a part of the club) and he gave her a way out. She made the court believe that it was Toby’s cellmate who killed the girl, hid her body and bragged about it to his cellie. She also goes ahead in possibly ruining the prosecutor’s career by saying she wanted to inform her of the situation but  they refused to hear her out – prosecutorial misconduct she called it. She got her client 3 years in prison as opposed to the life he deserves and Toby had the nerve to complain. Annalise gave him a much needed slap across the face and said “You killed two innocent women and you think you still get to complain? SAY YOU’LL TAKE THE DEAL. SAY IT”.

Pretty sure it’s unethical to force your client to accept a deal (chunk that up to the other unethical and illegal things Annalise has done). Also certain that if they were in a private place, insecure Toby would have also tried to use a bat on Annalise for bullying him. The good news is: the publicity from owning the case seemed to have put her in a good light at the University so maybe the suspension will be lifted – not like Annalise cares anyway.

Meanwhile Annalise sent Laurel to go see her “bad” father about Frank. Laurel gets there looking dapper in a pant suit but her father already knows why she’s there because he had been listening in on her phone conversations. Her father won’t give her information easily, he uses the opportunity to try and bond with his daughter in a way that was very entertaining. Laurel revealed during their conflict resolution dialogue that her father had left her mother in the middle of a mental illness crisis, remarried a month later and also refused to pay her ransom when she was kidnapped at 16.

So much drama.

ABC/Nicole Wilder


Mr Castillo says he will give his Laurel Frank’s location if she signs some legal documents. Laurel says no to this. But Frank calls her in the middle of the night to say he’s not buying any of her voicemails. Laurel hangs up to protect him and the next morning, makes the deal with her father. The thing is, she tells Annalise that she couldn’t sign the document so she doesn’t know where Frank is. We know that’s going to come back to bite her in her behind.

On lighter drama notes, Bonnie finds out Michaela and Asher are a thing and doesn’t seem fazed at all. Michaela finds out her gay ex-fiancée is engaged to Michaela 2.0 and reacts by taking 20 grand out of Toby’s money and playing it at the casino with Asher, Oliver and Connor as unwilling accomplice. She ends up losing the entire money and has to sell her engagement ring for 21 grand at a 24/7 pawn shop.

Wes’ girlfriend thinks he has feelings for Laurel because he keeps stressing about her, sending her messages and his face apparently looks happy when her name comes up. But Wes assures her that she; the perfectly normal Girl Scout girlfriend is the only good thing in his life.

Flash forward to six weeks: Oliver has wiped Annalise’s phone and planted it around the ambulance so it seems like Annalise dropped it by accident. The fire department found another body in Annalise’s burning house. And there’s a pulse

Amidst all the mysteries, the question of who is actually putting up those murderer flyers seems a little irrelevant. No surprise if it’s one of the Keating Five blowing off steam.

Favorite moments of the episode? Laurel bonding with her dad and basically feeding him food that’s bad for his health.


What was your favorite?