'How To Get Away With Murder' Recap: House of Buggin'

Warning: This recap for the “Hi, I’m Philip” episode of How To Get Away With Murder contains spoilers.

How To Get Away With Murder is a show about getting away with murder, but it also addresses a few other key topics. Those topics include but are not limited to: The legal system; wigs; drinking vodka alone while sitting beside a lamp; wig maintenance; orgy etiquette; minority representation; industrial chillwave music; gay hookup apps; Marcia Gay Harden; and especially heartache and heartache’s homely cousin, longing. It’s this latter one that’s used almost as spackle between the bricks of murder that are the foundation of this show.

This week’s episode, “Hi, I’m Philip,” sure had its fair share of twist-laden murder schemes, but it was also filled to the brim with people needing each other in deep, carnal ways. Yes, everybody had sex at the same time, that is nothing unusual. But the episode’s true emotional heft came from characters simply showing up at the front doors of other characters and asking to be wanted. Because it doesn’t matter how flashy or quippy or attractive a lifestyle can be, ultimately you just want another person next to you. A living person, hopefully.

“Hi, I’m Philip” introduced some key revelations in the ongoing saga of the Hapstall family, and it paved the way toward finding out what exactly will happen in those green flash-forwards (next week!). But it was the emotional beats that truly made this episode soar. Let’s talk about it!

We began with a quick tease of those green flash-forwards that will allegedly be solved next week: Bonnie taking Wes’s gun and marching out of the room with purpose. Was SHE the one who was about to shoot Annalise? This show really wanted us to think that! And to make that point even clearer, we were then whisked back to present day where Bonnie was taking a seated shame shower following her drunken shout-fest with Annalise.

Obviously Bonnie was still pretty mad at Annalise for spilling all of her secrets to the grad student she was having sexual relations with. She had even said “I wish you had died,” and I guess that means Bonnie will 100% murder Annalise in cold blood. (Bonnie will not murder Annalise in cold blood).

For her part, Annalise didn’t seem quite so upset about this drama with Bonnie. In fact, she had on her cute robe and was sending flattering selfies to a contact in her phone labeled “Mama.” Except guess who showed up at her front door in response? NATE. Yep, he’d made a house call. (Although, part of me wished Annalise really HAD sent that selfie to Cicely Tyson, because I miss her.) And though Nate was still angry, he was also clearly horny. Alas, Annalise made him sleep on the couch. Makeup sex can’t happen in the cold open, sorry Nate.

Oliver, meanwhile, had gone missing. We knew he’d been confronted in his own kitchen by creepy Philip and had spilled all the milk and looked VERY scared. And when Connor came home to find all the doors still ajar and milk all over the ground, he had every reason to panic. There had clearly been a hacker-napping! But then guess who showed up to Annalise’s a little bit later?

Oliver and Philip! I guess they’d gone dutch on a nice dinner somewhere. Why did Oliver leave the house with all that milk on the floor and the refrigerator door open? Does he have mental problems now? I can’t answer this question. Anyway, then Philip admitted that he had back-stalked Oliver after Oliver had stalked him first, and he insisted he was not related in any way to the Hapstalls, and he was thinking about suing everybody now. So Annalise just apologized and tried to do damage control. But uh, he was clearly a creep no matter who he was, so nobody was feeling too guilty about it.

Bonnie took the rest of the episode off to continue taking seated shame showers, so it was kind of cute when Annalise hand-picked Laurel to be the new Bonnie. This meant she was constantly at Annalise’s beck and call, and she ended up doing a pretty good job! Nowhere near as icy and shark-like as Bonnie, but what are you going to do. Sometimes you have to roll with the not-Bonnies that life throws at you.

The most pressing part of the Hapstall case this week was that prosecutor lady Emily Sinclair had begun dangling very tantalizing plea deals in front of the siblings, and they were just dumb enough to want to take them. So for basically the entire episode Annalise was batting away these plea deals, so confident was she that she could exonerate them completely. Still, these rubes were just very tired of the case already and pretty much WANTED to go to jail. Which, fair. I’m sure it has its perks.

Probably the best part of this episode (and maybe one of the best parts of this series so far) was when Asher realized that Emily Sinclair had most likely illegally wire-tapped Annalise’s house. So the entire team ransacked dozens of banker’s boxes looking for the mic, but had to do it in silence (with the occasional passed note). But Asher’s the one who ended up finding it… hidden in a fountain pen. So Emily’s days of one-upping them at every turn were suddenly over! (Also his dance of victory was equal parts charming and alarming).

I loved how Annalise decided to use Emily’s bug against her, by leading a false discussion about how the Hapstalls had confessed in private and told her where the gun was hidden.

This of course led to Emily suddenly procuring an illegal warrant to search the Hapstall mansion… only to come up empty and embarrassed. CLOWNED. Her case was falling apart by the minute!

But things came to a climax when the Hapstall daughter decided to accept a plea deal anyway (ostensibly to keep her brother safe from serving time). It ended up being a race against the clock to prove that a mysterious DNA sample at the crime scene matched Philip’s. Frank was able to expedite a DNA test (by bribing the nurse with money from his giant suitcase of cash) and then race to the courthouse to show the daughter just in time for her to retract her plea agreement!

So yeah. Annalise now had an actual suspect in the murder trial that would exonerate the siblings, PLUS there was the added revelation that Philip was the product of incest between his parents (who were siblings), so that was a cute fun fact about him. All in all, it was not a great day for Emily Sinclair.

Better luck next time, hater.

Then it came to the part of the episode when everyone took a break from being angry and lawyer-y, and started having sex with each other! Like, Frank put on an apron and a tank top and fed marinara sauce to Laurel, and meanwhile Nate showed back up at Annalise’s and did this:

I loved her reaction:

Relatable! They were back ON. Sure, Annalise may have framed him for murder while his wife lay dying in a hospital bed, but the heart wants what it wants when it’s horny, you know?

I don’t even need to tell you what Frank was doing to Laurel in this shot. But he did tell her “it tastes like my sauce” in case you wanted to vom.

Also Connor and Oliver had sex in Annalise’s LECTURE HALL. Yes, in the exact same room where she yells at everyone about case law. Ugh, that is unsanitary, but at least they were having fun.

Also Michaela finally did sex to Caleb Hapstall, which she also seemed to enjoy. But at the end of it he started looking real guilty, and he led her to a cubbyhole in his sister’s painting room.

And there was a gun in it! So the new twist was that she HAD been involved in her parents’ murders after all! And if that weren’t crystal clear enough, we were treated to this final sting:

Yep, she was in league with Philip all along. So in other words this plotline was a classic case of an innocent-seeming person accused of murder proven innocent even though they were not innocent it turns out. A triple reverse twist or whatever. Guys, I’m dizzy.

“Hi, I’m Philip” benefited greatly from tying up the Hapstall court case neatly so that we could get to the part we actually care about: That green flash-forward! How exactly do we get from the regular everyday life of Annalise and her constituents to that bad night in nightmare manor? Next week promises answers and, if past precedent is any indication, EVEN MORE QUESTIONS. But this was just the fun, crucial, and, yes, sexy interlude we needed to get amped for the endgame. Buckle up!

What did YOU think of “Hi, I’m Philip”?

How To Get Away With Murder airs Thursdays at 10 p.m. on ABC.