How to Get Away With Murder boss reveals who actually survived those fall finale twists

Warning: This story contains major spoilers from the fall finale of How to Get Away with Murder. Read at your own risk!

How to Get Away With Murder finally revealed what happened on that fateful night — and some fans might honestly be happy about it.

During the season 4 fall finale, the K4’s arrogant former classmate Simon Drake (Behzad Dabu) was revealed to be the flash-forward victim. In their quest to take down Jorge Castillo’s company, they planned to frame Simon, who overheard them scheming and grabbed Laurel’s (Karla Souza) gun, subsequently tripping over a chair and shooting himself in the head.

Knowing that Annalise (Viola Davis) found out what they were doing, Laurel then headed for her motel, but suffered a miscarriage while stuck on the elevator — a result of Frank (Charlie Weber) accidentally hitting her stomach earlier in the hour while choking out Connor (Jack Falahee). Annalise seemed to be able to revive the premature baby as viewers heard a cry in the closing moments of the hour. Who died? Who survived? EW turned to executive producer Pete Nowalk to get the scoop:

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Can you confirm whether Simon is dead?
PETE NOWALK: I cannot confirm that. The dilemma is they did not want Simon to die, clearly, before all this happened, but it might be more helpful if he does die. That is the big question for our characters. It gives them quite a moral debate within themselves.

Asher (Matt McGorry) is in jail for Simon’s death. What can you tease for how he’s handling this and what’s next?
The question for Asher is, what did he tell that detective that got him arrested? Did he tell him the truth? Did he confess? Did he tell him part of the truth? Or did he lie and they caught him in a lie? Whether he stays in jail or not is going to be the big question of the next episode. What I do like about all the characters, even though it’s different from season to season, is they are learning how to handle these situations. They’re all thinking ahead, like Annalise has taught them to. Asher is doing that as well.

We heard a baby cry at the end of the hour. So was Annalise able to save the baby?
Yes, I will give you that. That baby cry is real! It is a heroic moment for Annalise. It’s just a sense of relief. When we saw her outside that elevator, she’s probably as raw and instinctive as we’ve ever seen her, so I think we should feel happy about that baby cry.

Did that flash-forward with Laurel actually take place that night? Because Isaac (Jimmy Smits) mentioned they had found Laurel with a lot of drugs in her system in the premiere, which is not something that we saw in the fall finale.
That’s a great question. I’ll tell you what happened, but this is so boring: We only aired eight episodes before our break this year, where usually we air nine. That’s just because of where Thanksgiving fell. And it really hurt my brain to be like, “Wait, we’re not going to catch up to all those moments? We’re not going to give the audience answers? They’re going to hate us.” But I literally didn’t have enough minutes to squeeze it all in. You’ll see Laurel, you’ll see all those flash-forward moments, you know, like Michaela and Isaac together, what is Isaac doing at the hospital anyway, what the drugs were in Laurel’s system — you’ll get all of that in our premiere in January.

Dominic (Nicholas Gonzalez) overheard Connor mentioning the drive with the Antares information. Will Laurel’s father then know the truth of what’s happening?
Yeah, Laurel’s dad is a smart cookie, so I think he’s going to find out a lot of things, it’s just like, when? There’s also a version where he knew about things already. Dominic being there is not a good thing.

Will we see both Jorge (Esai Morales) and Dominic more when the show returns?
We’re going to pick up right where we left off pretty much when we come back. Dominic is still standing there at the bottom of the stairs with Connor very nearby, which should make you scared. Dominic is obviously working for the dad, so we assume that he’s going to find out, and what he does about that is going to be big.

Bonnie (Liza Weil) told Annalise that she loved her. Was it real or was it a manipulation?
I do think it was real, and we’re going to get to the heart of that in future episodes of what does that love look like. But I do think Bonnie is contrite and lonely and in need of Annalise. Actually, one of my favorite scenes in that episode was between Bonnie and Nate. I like how funny they are with each other, but I think Bonnie is just lost.

How will Michaela (Aja Naomi King) handle all this?
She’s going to feel a lot of guilt about Simon, a lot of guilt about Laurel. What I like about Michaela that’s different from how we first met her in the first season is she really took control of that situation as the Boss Bitch. So Michaela is probably the strongest of the students right now.

Should the K4 worry about Connor coming forward about what happened, since he’s the weakest the link?
Yeah, they all worry about who is going to be the first one to crack. Also, they’re looking for a leader basically, since they haven’t had one, and we’ll see if anyone steps up and does that.

Will you be exploring Annalise and Isaac’s feelings for one another?
Yeah, their relationship is really complicated. He’s going to get involved in these flash-forwards somehow, and that’s going to further complicate this relationship. They are two people who — as Annalise says, “I’m a drunk, you’re an addict” — experience darkness and the dark side in a very specific way that draws them to each other.

What’s the driving force of the back half of the season, both for where Simon’s shooting takes us, but also the class-action lawsuit and what danger that puts Annalise in?
The danger right now is that she’s going to be screwed, and that class action is going to be screwed, because of the mess with the Wes murder, the baby, and Jorge. She has to be really above-board to help all these people. That’s a version of the person she wants to be and is really struggling to be. The danger is really, is she going to disappoint all these people? Is she going to ruin her reputation even further? Also, is she going to be caught for all the things they ever did? She’s always just clawing her way to air and some people are trying to pull her back down. What the kids did is really unforgivable in terms of that, because she was really almost getting her life together.

How are the kids dealing in the back half of the season?
They are traumatized, but trying to keep the pieces together. Oliver is the only one who has not been through this, so I think there’s a lot of fun dynamics between how Oliver deals versus how they deal, and if they can all support each other through it.

How to Get Away With Murder will return Thursday, Jan. 18, at 10 p.m. ET on ABC.