How To Get Away With Murder opened this week with Nate (Billy Brown) getting booked and strip searched for a stay in prison for a murder he did not commit. Meanwhile, Annalise (Viola Davis) remains holed up in her room, waiting for her mother to arrive.

How To Get Away With Murder Recap

Upon her arrival at her daughter’s home and law office, Ophelia Hartness (Cecily Tyson), is turned away by Bonnie (Liza Weil) and Frank (Charlie Weber), who think she’s a wannabe client. She informs them she’s a V.I.P, declaring, “Your boss came out of my V and her daddy’s P, so show a little respect for her mama.” After they tell her that Annalise is in bed, she climbs the stairs, enters the bedroom and tries some tough love. She changes up her strategy when she sees what bad shape her daughter is in and gets into bed to hold her.

Later on, Ophelia tries to get her daughter moving once again, taking to the closet to take Sam’s clothes to goodwill. Annalise, though she despised her husband in the days leading up to his death, can’t just toss out his clothes just yet. In response, Ophelia asks her daughter if she killed her husband. Annalise just gives a weak shake of the head. When she finally manages to pull herself out of bed, she finds her mother in the kitchen cooking. Her mother, who never liked Sam, proceeds to give a lecture about predatory men and nurturing women, leading Annalise to question Ophelia’s own nurturing skills – mentioning the abuse she faced as a child from an uncle that went unmentioned.

Ophelia follows her daughter upstairs and offers to comb her hair. As she picks through Annalise’s hair, she reveals that she knew full well what Uncle Clyde, who was always drunk on hooch and smoking his cigarettes, did to her. A night not long after she caught him, she got Annalise and her siblings out of the house and let the house burn down with him in it. Turning this back to Annalise’s current predicament, Ophelia added, “You’ve been torturing yourself, baby. And maybe you did something real bad, but I know you had your reasons. Because sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. Even if all you have is a long match and a very flammable hooch.”

While Annalise is taking some time off, Bonnie is heading a case defending a nurse named Jolene accused of raping one of her patients. Jolene adamantly denies any kind of sexual interaction with the patient. During court, the prosecutor outwits Bonnie at every turn, though not hurting the defense’s case as much as Bonnie is herself. However, with some help from Connor (Jack Falahee) and Oliver (Conrad Ricamora), she gets the information she needs to bring this case home. As it turns out, the alleged rape victim was in a romantic relationship with the hospital lawyer. The hospital lawyer wanted the defense to settle so that the hospital would pay his boyfriend the fat settlement that they would then share. Case dismissed.

As Nate’s first hearing is underway, Annalise gets herself showered, dressed and made up and heads to the courtroom. There, she finds Michaela (Aja Naomi King), who found out from a prosecutor on the case that Rebecca (Katie Findlay) told the cops that Nate threatened to hurt her if she didn’t help him plant evidence on Sam (Tom Verica). When Annalise confronts her, Michaela asks, “How am I supposed to be okay with this? He’s innocent and black.” Annalise explains that it’s her problem to deal with and gets Michaela to leave. After the hearing, Annalise goes in to Nate’s holding room to perform a bit of theater. “Liar,” she spits at him. “Pleading not guilty, pretending you didn’t do this?” When she walks out of the video monitored room, Nate unfolds a note that tells him to fire his lawyer. Are they in on this together?

When Wes (Alfred Enoch) finds out that Rebecca lied to the detectives about Nate, it stokes his doubts about his girlfriend’s trustworthiness, leading him back to investigating whatever happened to Rudy. From the police, Wes learns that Rudy, the previous inhabitant of his apartment who left the scratch marks on the wall, was sent to a medical institution the night that Lila was murdered. Continuing the investigation, Wes and Laurel (Karla Souza) go to the institution with Laurel claiming to be Rudy’s sister. Upon meeting Rudy, they realize he’s nearly catatonic, but when Wes shows him a picture of Rebecca, he manages to say, “Wet.” Wes immediately connects the dots of wet and water tank, coming to the realization that Rebecca really could have killed Lyla. Meanwhile, Rebecca is sitting in her apartment with her laptop open, having tracked Wes’s phone to the institution.