HTGAWM - S5, Ep2

The second episode of How To Get Away With Murder Season 5 got into its normal fast-paced rhythm, and it felt great. There was a point where Annalise was smiling as she plopped down on her new bed. She's finally free from the chaos of her life spinning out from getting banned from school, or people uncovering things from her past, or otherwise. She's finally able to refocus solely on her teaching and her court cases. The rest of the gang seems to be getting to a happier place, too. Laurel, Michaela, Conner, and Oliver are enjoying living together in what may as well be a frat house.

Annalise ran her cutthroat classroom with students that made the first cut in last week's episode as they dug into the first of 90-plus cases allowed a retrial because of Annalise's victory in the Supreme Court. I always feel smarter when watching her lead the class in discussing plans of attacks and courtroom strategies. Bad ideas are exposed before the smart counters are presented. It's a lot of fun.

The case revolved around a gay Muslim immigrant woman (That's a lot of buzz words...terrible joke, I know). She was suspected of killing her significant other, but when she was tried originally, her defendant took advantage of her situation (and language barrier) to get her to plea. Why would he do that? Because he was taking on eight cases at once, the very problem Annalise exposed to the Supreme Court. The case takes some turns, and Annalise works her magic to get a win. It wasn't the most convincing case, but that's okay, it wasn't the main point of the episode. I do wish there was a little more time to let these cases breathe so they don't feel so rushed and contrived to arrive to the result that is needed. But again, not that big a deal.

Bonnie has an interoffice relationship developing. Asher is going around begging for a job or internship, burning up any connection he though the had with friends. Laurel is struggling to find a daycare for her newborn son, but eventually got some help from Teegan, the lawyer working with Annalise at her new firm.

Nate is digging into a mysterious DNA case of a baby boy that Bonnie supposedly thought was dead when she was a teenager. The showrunners, of course, are trying to lead us to believe it's the new star of the show, Gabriel Maddox. Actor Rome Flynn is less annoying as he settled into his role of being a smug hotshot quite quickly. But he's definitely got game, so it'll be interesting to see if I end up rooting for him or against him.

I'm really going to like the competition between Frank and Gabriel. It started with a simple turn war on the basketball court. Frank was trying to clone his phone, but Gabriel, for as wealthy as he is, has an old flip phone that can't be clones. Frank later works a deal with Gabriel's roommate to kick him out, which allows Frank to manipulate him to take a spot he has bugged with cameras and microphones. But will Gabriel figure it out? Based on preview's of next week's episode, I'd say yes. This will be a fun rivalry. Frank has always been the victor who always gets what he wants from his missions, but this has a different feel, like he's met his match.

Even with that, Gabriel is still a mystery. What does he have to hide? Is he the missing baby that Nate is tracking down? Does Bonnie know about him? Does Gabriel know about Bonnie? There's much to learn about this character's past, and I'm guessing there will plenty of shocking reveals along the way.

NOTES:

-Gabriel compared Annalise's win in the immigrant woman's case to Michael Jordan's game-winning and NBA-championship winning jump shot in Game 6 against the Jazz in 1998. Not the first time a victory of hers has been talked about like that.

-Bonnie and Annalise's relationship is still awkward, but they're trying oh so hard to make it work. I wish, to a degree, that they'd let it go. Annalise is already trying to re-assume her controlling position over Bonnie in regards to her office fling, but Bonnie stands her ground for a change.

THE WIFE'S TWO CENTS: She thinks it's too obvious that Gabriel will end up being Bonnie's missing baby. At this point, she'd be more shocked if he wasn't her son. Also, she's happy that we are seeing less on-screen aspects of several of the relationships on the show, which can get a bit crude or over-the-top.