How to Get Away with Murder season 5 winter premiere recap

How to Get Away with Murder was back with its season 5 winter premiere and although Gabriel Maddox’s identity has been revealed, there are still plenty of revelations to find out.

How to Get Away with Murder finally came back for its season 5 winter premiere and wow, it could not have been more jam-packed with past and present drama. The last time the show aired, fans saw Nate brutally kill DA Miller in the woods just beyond where Connor and Oliver’s wedding reception was happening and Annalise was at her apartment after learning that Gabriel was her dead husband’s child with his first wife.

This episode started almost immediately where the last one left off. Bonnie walks into her house and begins to take off the dress she wore at the wedding. She takes a shower to scrub off all the blood that came from helping kill DA Miller and then Frank shows up. They are both clearly worried about Annalise now that she knows who Gabriel Maddox.

But as the scene cuts to Annalise, it’s clear she’s fine. She’s still talking to Gabriel about what he wants and what he wants more than anything are answer. Answers about his father and answers about how he died. Annalise gets out the alcohol. This is going to take a while.

Annalise’s History

This episode featured quite a few flashbacks to 2005 when Annalise lost her baby after she was in a severe car accident. And remember, this wasn’t a fluke accident. Annalise was going after some powerful men in court and they had someone purposely crash into her. And Frank took money to keep his mouth shut.

This winter premiere showed Annalise possibly at her lowest. She just lost her baby but was now back at home trying to get her husband to agree to adopt the baby boy who would ultimately become Wes. He is having none of it and after they get into a huge fight, leaves the house to visit his sister.

Although, as it turns out, he wasn’t visiting his sister at all but trying to find out where his first wife was so that he could see if he might have a relationship with their son. Lots of bad decisions going on. The ultimate scene is when we see Sam by chance meet his son. Gabriel doesn’t know who he is, but Sam clearly does.

It’s a scene of lost chances and what-ifs, but it is juxtaposed to Annalise finding out she cannot adopt baby Wes and then overdosing and collapsing in the bathroom. If Bonnie hadn’t shown up, she would have most likely died. While it’s been clear since the beginning that Annalise and Bonnie are close, this shows further how that came to be.

These past scenes also show the relationship between Bonnie and Frank. He is eaten up with guilt and during a moment when he and Bonnie are discussing what happened, they end up sleeping together.

Annalise and Gabriel

In the present day, Annalise is trying to explain to Gabriel who Sam was and how he died. She even plays for him the recording of Wes confessing to the death of Sam. But Gabriel still wants to know why. He came to be where he is because he found his birth certificate after his grandmother died. He decided to go looking for the part of him that he hadn’t known growing up.

As Gabriel continues to ask questions, Annalise tells him that she is not the reason he is without a father and she doesn’t know as much as he thinks. She has been lied to by Sam, by Frank, and ultimately, by Gabriel too.

The Keating 5

But this episode didn’t only feature Annalise, the Keating 5 had their own drama as well. Connor and Oliver coming back from their wedding to a room full of rose petals, soon have to leave after Laurel drops the bombshell: Gabriel is Sam’s kid. Once they come together, they question if Gabriel is still alive after Michaela reveals she saw blood on Bonnie’s leg.

But once Frank tells them he’s fine, they soon move to the next logical conclusion. Gabriel must be there to find out about his dad and he is going to find out that they all had a part in his murder. Asher deems it impossible because Bonnie would never let DA Miller reopen the case. Little do they know DA Miller is dead

The Cliffhanger

The episode also featured Bonnie, Frank, and Nate talking about the murder of DA Miller, Connor bringing up the awfulness of Asher and his mom getting together in the parking lot of his wedding, and why Sam ultimately did come back to Annalise and stayed with her for so many years. The cliffhanger of the week brought back a fan favorite character: Eve Rothlow (Famke Janssen). Eve is Annalise’s former colleague and lover. She shows up at Annalise’s door with the secret email Sam wrote to his first wife. It appears Eve has been involved in ways not even Annalise knew about.

What will happen next week? Only time will tell. Will you be tuning in?

How to Get Away with Murder airs Thursdays at 10 pm on ABC.