'How To Get Away With Murder' Recap: Psych Ward Blues
Warning: This recap for the “She Hates Us” episode of How To Get Away With Murder contains spoilers.
While it’s true that being committed to a mental institution can be both difficult and inconvenient, do you know what’s even more difficult and inconvenient than being committed to a mental institution? NOT being committed to a mental institution. Few things are as horrible as everyday life, what with all the responsibilities and routines and social media feeds and, I don’t know, caucuses? Just imagine a nice, clean, locked room with a chic night shirt and a staff that will bring you pills. Psych wards are the ultimate staycation, and unlike, say, a minimum security prison, a stint in a psych ward won’t show up as easily in a background check, so the Long John Silver’s might still hire you after all. So yeah, when it comes to mental institutions, I’d even be fine with a dark and haunted one, demonic nuns, whatever. Sign me up. Nothing is less chill than being “mentally healthy” so let’s do this.
On this week’s episode of How To Get Away With Murder, Annalise herself openly fantasized about spending some time in a locked facility, and that is because for the past few months she’d been spending all her time working, murdering, getting shot, and donning a series of wigs that, while fabulous, were simply not able to hide how unfabulous she’d been feeling on the inside. So while “She Hates Us” was a comparably non-stressful episode of this show, it still embraced the fallout of just how far these characters had pushed themselves mentally these past few months. Let’s talk about it!
We began with the unmistakable sounds of sloppy vomiting. But no, this wasn’t just someone trying to get through an episode of Vinyl, these sounds were being made by a pregnant woman! Specifically Annalise, ten years ago.
Back then things were simpler. Annalise was just a happily married expectant mother in a Poetic Justice wig, and her interns hadn’t yet conspired to cover up several murders. Salad days.
This intern looked familiar:
Bonnie! Though far more shy and mousey than modern day Bonnie, Flashback Bonnie was already the smartest one in the room and had Annalise’s full trust. Now if she would just do something about that hair and fleshtone cable knit sweater, she’d really become somebody someday!
Awful Sam was still alive then also, and I loved when he crouched down to talk to the unborn baby and Annalise sorta looked shiftily off to the side like “Guy, it’s not yours.” Definitely hoping for some kind of revelation along those lines soon. (Also, WHERE did that baby go?)
Back in modern times, Wes went to the doctor looking for sleeping pills and one unfortunate suicide joke later found himself LOCKED UP. That’s right, straight-up institutionalized. Turns out doctors don’t love suicide jokes. It is their least favorite kind of joke, right up there with knock-knock jokes and punnery. So Wes was going to be enjoying a forced time-out this week. Luckyyyy.
Asher was not ingratiating himself upon his hosts very well. He was still sleeping and drooling on Oliver’s couch, and then also tooting in mixed company! Asher is an animal sometimes.
During this week’s court case, a man was accused of manslaughter, but the victim’s mother stood up and demanded that she get to work something out with the killer one on one. Like all TV judges, this one was like “I’ll allow it.” In other words, this was not going to be a documentary about how the legal justice system works.
I can’t even get into Frank’s flashback wig at this time.
Laurel paid Wes a visit at the psych ward and tried to get him out of there, but when the busybody doctor came in, Laurel got TOLD OFF. It was like that lady doctor had nothing better to do with her day than just sit there and make Wes tell her all his innermost secrets. Maybe just ask him out already? Jeez.
Yeah, see, Annalise was REAL jealous of Wes. She had taken a few weeks off of work to deal with getting shot in the stomach, but that was still not enough time. Not when there’s delicious pudding and all-day sudoko to be had.
At some point Asher started to get the point that everybody hates him because he sucks. Here is a tip to anybody who thinks they can talk trash about their friends when they walk out of the room: That friend is probably just standing around the corner listening and frowning. So Asher heard everything and he was sad.
Annalise’s client ended up admitting that the guy he’d accidentally killed in a fight had been INTENTIONALLY murdered. He felt real bad about it now. And surprise, surprise, the victim’s mother was STILL super eager to forgive him and get him a lesser sentence. Her reasoning was that I guess it would cause her more pain to know that her son’s killer was in prison (?). I will not lie, this plotline was not great. Like, cool, lady, you’re so chill and forgiving, but what about how the rest of us would then have to deal with an actual murderer walking around? Relax and go home.
At this point everyone was just totally ticked at Annalise for being surly and mean, but especially for letting Wes wallow in a psych ward while she did nothing. So Michaela and the gang told Annalise OFF.
Even Asher took a break from farting to join the cause. So, suddenly Annalise’s entire gang of interns were OUTTA THERE. It really made her think.
Even though the victim’s mother begged the court to be lenient on her son’s killer, HE HIMSELF begged to be thrown in prison for life. It was Opposite Day, apparently, and therefore this was a very good plotline on this day.
We then learned more about Wes’ mother in the flashbacks… Annalise confronted her in a cafe and admitted that she wasn’t just some random woman with a sweet ‘do and a soccer ball tucked under her shirt. She somehow knew that Wes’ mom had been involved in the murder of a trust fund dude’s wife. I think? I don’t know. Annalise just started shoving green folders at Wes’ mom and she freaked out.
Nobody likes having green folders shoved in their faces. But we still didn’t learn what was going on here. This better be a good revelation, show, because you sure are dragging it out!
I liked when the gang finally went and got Wes out of the psych ward and they were all driving around having cute, hateful, but ultimately friendly banter in the car. Even Asher forgave them for talking trash earlier because he knew it was out of love (or whatever).
At this point Laurel was tired of everything, so she plunked down on Frank’s couch and got mad at him for being mad at her for not being totally honest with him about everything (specifically Wes being in a psych ward). It was a liars’ fiesta and everybody was mad about lying.
But Laurel had a good point when she brought up that Frank had been into tons of secret shenanigans at Annalise’s behest, so he was currently living in the glassiest of glass houses. But just when it seemed like they were gonna break up, he busted out his last ditch effort to keep her: Admitting to killing Lila Stangard! It’s too soon to tell whether Laurel will be impressed by this tidbit or not, but it was definitely an interesting tactic on Frank’s part.
Nate left a bottle of red wine and a bag of Chinese food on Annalise’s front porch, in case you were wondering what romance truly is. Can you imagine coming home to this? HEAVEN. But Annalise’s egg roll reverie would be short-lived, because she then received a distressing phone call:
Connor had received an email containing a video of him and the gang evacuating the premises just after Annalise’s shooting! Someone knew they’d all been involved, and it appeared to be Phillip Jessup. So just when they thought they’d gotten away with murder, they hadn’t! Not even a little bit.
“She Hates Us” was fine. It was an episode with very good flashback wigs, but was it crucial? Probably not. Again, the show has not yet convinced me that we need to know about Annalise and Wes’ shared backstory. There’s no way it’s as interesting as Annalise and Bonnie’s shared backstory, and that one was revealed in scene that took about 5 minutes. But this show’s pulled off some pretty great tricks in the past, so it deserves the benefit of the doubt here. Do your best, show! I trust you.
What did YOU think of “She Hates Us”?
How To Get Away With Murder airs Thursdays at 10 p.m. on ABC
