How to Get Away with Murder Season Finale Recap: Anna Mae

(ABC/Nicole Wilder) ALFRED ENOCH

Who says you can’t go home?

Annalise heads back to Memphis in the season finale of How to Get Away with Murder. She visits with her mama to escape the craziness of her life. That doesn’t work. During the trip she also finds another thing she can’t elude is her past and the secrets within it.

How to Get Away With Murder cast season 1 finale
(ABC/Nicole Wilder)
JACK FALAHEE, AJA NAOMI KING, KARLA SOUZA, CONRAD RICAMORA, ALFRED ENOCH, MATT MCGORRY

Making matters worse, Anna Mae gets news that her mom has reconciled with her father. Needless to say she wasn’t pleased. You can feel the tension between Annalise and her dad with bad memories flooding back. Annalise tells her mom she did have a baby, but he died. Given her reaction, Mom clearly didn’t know. She wants her to write a letter to the child. Annalise then buries the written goodbye into the ground as a proper burial and a way to give her peace.

It’s another heartbreaking scene to watch, as well as another example how mother knows best. We find out the baby’s name was Sam. Annalise’s dad apologizes for hurting her, and tells his daughter that he loves her mother and how she reminds her of who he was. Emotions are still raw between the two.

We flash back to 10 year’s ago, to Frank’s late night-liaison that isn’t so random. The mysterious lady he picked up at the bar offers him a suitcase full of money to complete a job. Next, a scene where Frank contemplates the offer and then back to where Annalise is berating him. It makes the decision to bug her hotel room easier.

With the bug, the mystery woman was able to hear the conversation between Eve and Annalise before she went ahead with plans to go to authorities with information that would affect the Mahoney case. The woman then makes a phone call to Mahoney. He tells her to take care of it. We then cut back to Annalise’s car accident and the revelation that Mahoney really orchestrated the whole ordeal. Frank indirectly led to Annalise losing her baby.

How to Get Away with Murder Season 1 Finale Frank
(ABC/Nicole Wilder)
CHARLIE WEBER

In present day, Nate informs the group that the district attorney’s office is getting a warrant for Annalise.  The kids are concerned and find out where she went. Nate goes to retrieve Annalise and try to fix the issues at home. Mom won’t let him leave without a good meal with Annalise’s family.

Michaela has the idea to get Oliver to hack the system to see what Annalise is being charged with. The situation gets the Keating clan thinking there is a rat in the group. They look at footage that shows Caleb was in fact the informant. Annalise calls Nate for help after finding this out. She goes to the assistant district attorney’s office to address the situation head-on. She plays it as though Caleb is the serial killer.

Back to the scene with Philip and Annalise. During the struggle, Philip said Caleb killed his mother. Caleb was wearing a fitness tracker, which proves he was at the exact location the mom was when she was found. Nate goes to Catherine with Philip on the phone to convince her to testify against Caleb in court. Catherine was apparently so blinded by love for Caleb that she would protect him by not revealing what she knew. She would visit his room often where they wouldn’t have sex, but do everything but. The story goes that Caleb covered everything up and planted everything to come off the victim.

Once again Annalise wins the game of chess. At least for now.

(ABC/Nicole Wilder) CONRAD RICAMORA
(ABC/Nicole Wilder)
CONRAD RICAMORA

Cut to a trail of blood leading to Caleb, murdered in a bathtub! I’ll let you take a minute to digest this.

It turns out Connor was accepted to Stanford. Oliver called Stanford pretending to be Connor and saying he doesn’t want to go. Not cool, Oliver.

Back to the flashback where Sam is telling Frank what happened with Annalise losing her child. Frank confesses to Sam about everything. Sam says Annalise can never know and threatens to ruin him if he tells her. In the present, Bonnie revisiting that same day.

Despite Bonnie’s best effort, Annalise wants Frank gone. Laurel goes to Frank’s place at the same time. He is nowhere to be found.

(ABC/Nicole Wilder) ALFRED ENOCH
(ABC/Nicole Wilder)
ALFRED ENOCH

Even though Laurel advised against it, Wes finds Mahoney and tells him he is his son — at that exact moment Mahoney is shot in the head! The body count continues to grow.

So what do you think, HTGAWM fans? How did Caleb die? Who shot Mahoney? Just how far does Annalise’s love of Michael Jackson and Whitney Houston go? Hopefully, we’ll get answers to at least the first two questions when How to Get Away with Murder returns for Season 3 in the fall.