How to Get Away with Murder 1.15: Season Finale “It’s All My Fault”

How To Get Away With Murder finally proved that it knew where it was going all along: the twists are shocking, sure, but it pulled through with a logical conclusion to the question of who killed Lila Standgard (Megan West).

Rebecca (Katie Findlay) was lying, and Sam (Tom Verica) has plenty of opportunity, as we see in more flashbacks, but neither of them killed her. Not exactly, anyway.

Following up on their kidnapping of Rebecca, Keating (Viola Davis) and her team hold a mock trail of sorts, intending to sort out Rebecca’s part in Lila’s murder once and for all. Once all their accusations are presented, Keating pokes holes in all of them and—correctly—labels the entire case as speculation. But if they let Rebecca go, she’ll involve the police.

Meanwhile, Keating takes time off in order to lie as a witness. She changes her story, saying that Nate (Billy Brown) followed her home on the night of her husband’s death and met Sam. This sheds a little reasonable doubt on his arrest by offering a potential reason for his fingerprint to be on Sam’s ring. It’s shaky, but she can make it stick.

Rebecca proves to be an uncooperative kidnapping victim. On top of her scream at the opening of the episode, she is able to steal Michaela’s (Aja Naomi King) phone and send a cryptic text to an unnamed friend.

Various character-based subplots are thrown in, too, allowing the various students to prove that they have lives apart from constantly covering up murders. Connor (Jack Falahee) finds out his boyfriend Oliver (Conrad Ricamora) is HIV positive. Michaela talks to her would-be mother-in-law, shutting her down and walking away with more self-awareness then we’ve seen in her before. And, in a less fulfilling character subplot, Laurel (Karla Souza) shuts down Frank’s advances yet again.

Laurel (Karla Souza) says no once again.

Back at the case, we start getting answers. Keating talks to Rebecca and can’t crack her. So she calls in Wes (Alfred Enoch), who gets the real story.

Rebecca dosed Rudy with PCP and a worse drug, Purple X, in order to ensure he wouldn’t go to the police. She didn’t want him telling anyone she was wet, which happened when she found Lila dead and hid in the water tank so that she wouldn’t be caught with the body. She’s innocent.

With this, Keating calls off their trial. She isn’t convinced Rebecca’s telling the truth, but, according to her, “there’s no truth in the court room; there’s just your version of what happened verses theirs.” She isn’t convinced of anything, so Rebecca can’t be considered guilty.

But then Rebecca goes missing.

Was it you, Wes?

No one admits to letting her go, but as the last person to see her, Wes looks the guiltiest. As the others leave to enjoy what they assume is the final free day before Rebecca turns them in for murder, Keating stays to talk to Wes. She believes he didn’t let her go. Together, they tell themselves that Sam was guilty of Lila’s murder, knowing it’s the only way to stay sane.

And then the show flashes back to the actual murder. It turns out Sam is definitely guilty, but he didn’t physically strangle her. He’s the accomplice who called a hit from the true killer: Frank.

The menacing Frank.

Frank (Charlie Weber) has been revealing his cold-blooded side with every murder cover-up this season, but now we know he’s willing to commit them, too. He owed Sam a favor, and so he’s been hiding his involvement all along. It makes a lot of sense, and he’s getting away with it. No one suspects him so far.

There’s even a flashback insinuating that Frank did something to Sam’s nosy sister Hannah, who we haven’t seen recently. Here’s hoping she isn’t dead, too; I would hate to lose a character played by an actor as good as Marcia Gay Harden.

And there’s another plot twist to end the season on: Rebecca is lying dead in the basement.

Frank denies killing her, and since everyone has a decent motive and opportunity to do the deed, it looks like we have another murder to unravel next season. This show can be confusing and sometimes spins its wheels, but it still delivers on the twisted, drama-filled murder mystery most of you crime-lovers need.

To my view, this is a satisfying ending to a fun show. It makes sense. It sets up mysteries that we’ll get to see in the fall. And it reveals Frank is a stone-cold killer.


Adam Rowe is an information writer and science history enthusiast who runs 70sscifiart.tumblr.com. Follow him @AdamRRowe.

Comments

  1. Jean Feingold

    The more I watched this show, the less I liked it. It is a true waste of a great cast. I won’t be back next season.

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