How to Get Away With Murder

He’s Dead Season 4 Episode 9 Editor’s Rating 4 stars ****

How to Get Away With Murder

He’s Dead Season 4 Episode 9 Editor’s Rating 4 stars ****

I’m exhausted. I feel like I watched over 2,000 scenes in How to Get Away With Murder tonight and each one was only 15 seconds long. This must violate some screenwriting dictum or rule. I feel like Shonda herself stands over her writers and shouts,“FASTER! FASTER, YOU FOOLS! MORE SCENES! MORE PAGES! GO! GO!” Guys, so much happened. This episode is like watching a clip show, but instead of clips that we’ve all seen before, it’s crammed with tons of brand-new information. Also, they made us look at that li’l sad baby so many times. I can’t look at that tiny baby again.

Let’s get into it.

It’s also been a while since we last checked in with the Keating Gang and who was crying in an elevator. Thankfully, Connor is here to catch us (and Michaela) up: Simon’s dead, Laurel’s probably dead, and all of this was for nothing. That’s a pretty good place to start the second half of the season. Everything is on fire and we’re all gonna die. Annalise doesn’t know there was a shooting and Connor doesn’t know where the baby is. So there’s a lot of very emotional phone conversations in the dark outside of hospitals and law offices. Everyone fill each other in and we’ll wait.

Connor runs over to Nate’s house to get him to help and Bonnie is sleeping on the couch with artfully mussed hair. This feels like a really low-key version of The Avengers assembling.

When Frank shows up to the hospital, he’s freaking out. Annalise tells him that he let it happen because everyone has decided to cut into each other emotionally this episode. A nurse arrives to let them know the baby is in the NICU, but she can’t reveal anymore information because they’re not family. Frank says that he’s the father.

That is a black baby.

That’s a whole-ass black baby.

Frank, that ain’t your baby, but we’re all gonna pretend so Annalise can get into the NICU with you. Suddenly, some officers from the department of human services show up to question them about any changes in Laurel’s behavior. I mean … everything she’s done this entire season? Oh, we’re pretending they’re humans and they don’t ascribe to “seasons” of television. I see. The officers want to know why Frank’s name wasn’t on the birth certificate, if Laurel was on any drugs, or if she had a history of drug use. Then Annalise sees the thing that’s going to mess this whole thing up: Laurel’s dad.

It was only a matter of time before this motherfucker showed up and ruined everything. He’s gotten a judge to give him custody and everyone knows that isn’t Frank’s baby. The officer from DHS got the results of the paternity test and … Frank isn’t the father. Annalise hisses that if they keep Laurel on this psych hold and let her father have custody of the baby, the hospital could have a malpractice suit on their hands. Frank goes to wake Laurel up.

Then Annalise calls Jimmy Smits to help her go through the documents and get Laurel off a psych hold. Laurel’s father said she was on cocaine and had a history of harmful mental illness. Laurel’s father is terrible.

Meanwhile, Michaela and Oliver are trying to figure out what Asher said to the detectives that got him locked up. Then we get a head-spinning montage where Michaela and Oliver tell the detectives a story that they think will get Asher off the hook while Nate visits Asher in jail to get the whole story. Asher told the police that he touched the gun because they always find DNA evidence. Why not own up to it? Michaela and Oliver’s version makes Simon out to be the aggressor and puts the blame for the whole situation on him. Dead men tell no tales, right? We’ll see about that later, hmmm??!?!?!

While Michaela is leaving, Teagan stops her in the elevator and asks exactly how Simon got her keycard. She tells Michaela that she isn’t as good a liar as she thinks.

Laurel finally wakes up and demands to see her baby. Annalise and Jimmy Smits try to ask one of the DHS officers what’s going on when they see Laurel’s baby being wheeled out with Laurel’s dad leading the charge. Annalise charges Laurel’s dad to stop the baby from being transferred into his care. Michaela is stopped by Connor on her way into the hospital and Connor tells her that none of this would have happened if she just told Laurel “no.” I feel like this is a “blame everyone” kind of situation.

Annalise runs into Laurel’s dad and tells him that he’ll never get Laurel to trust him again if he does this. Laurel will never recover if he gets away with this. He turns around and says, “Tough titty, Ms. Keating.” The hospital straps Laurel down and drugs her up. Jimmy Smits stumbles upon Michaela looking at the nursery and he thinks she’s Annalise. Bonnie walks into the crime scene at the law office.

WE’VE NOW SEEN ALL THE PARTS FROM ALL THE OTHER EPISODES. WE’VE PIECED IT TOGETHER. THE TIMELINES HAVE CONVERGED. THE AVENGERS HAVE ASSEMBLED.

Bonnie goes to see Oliver to find the hard drive. It’s the only thing that could incriminate all of them, but Oliver doesn’t know what happened to Laurel.

Back at the hospital, Laurel remembers that Dominick called to warn her not to go through with the plan the night before. Laurel says she doesn’t deserve to be anyone’s mother if she was stupid enough to go with the plan. At the law office, Teagan is being questioned by Dominick and she tells him that Oliver is the other tech person who works in the office and that he was at the party last night.

Bonnie shows up at the hospital with Laurel’s bag, but the hard drive isn’t there and it’s not in evidence. Because Laurel’s dad took the baby, Annalise explains, he must think they still have the hard drive. It’s time for them to start playing five-dimensional chess and figure out how to stay ahead of Laurel’s dad.

Annalise tries to get Jimmy Smits to give another psych report to Laurel, but he’s more concerned with how everything could trigger Annalise. Annalise doesn’t wanna hear it. She’s in NO MOOD so she screams that he’s the reason why his daughter killed herself. UM WHAT? That escalated QUICKLY.

Nate and Bonnie have Simon’s laptop in the police station and there’s all kinds of evidence that he was snooping in Laurel’s dad’s files. Bonnie snaps that they can’t keep holding Asher because she’s his ex-girlfriend. Oh, now she wants to acknowledge the relationship?

Asher shows up and reveals that Simon is alive. He’s in a coma, but he’s alive. The Keating Gang immediately start scheming to make sure Simon never wakes up. Oliver realizes for the umpteenth time that the Keating Gang are evil. How many times can you come to this realization, Oliver? Has it really not sunk in yet?

Meanwhile, Laurel comes up with a plan and Annalise is not into that either. She wants to find Dominick and have him get the baby back … somehow. But unfortunately, Frank picked up Dominick in the parking lot as he was getting close to the Keating Gang. Frank decided to torture him and Dominick taunted him a little too much and now Dominick is dead. Laurel finds out when she tries to call Dominick and his phone rings in Frank’s pocket.

The Keating Gang get together in the lobby once again to bicker, when suddenly Frank comes up and reveals that Wes left a message on Dominick’s phone. And he said that they’re all in trouble.

WHEW. That was and will continue to be A LOT.

How to Get Away With Murder Recap: Baby Drama