‘How To Get Away With Murder,’ Season 3, Episode 7 Recap: Annalise In Prison

Thursday night’s episode of How To Get Away With Murder began with Annalise (Viola Davis) in prison after her house has been set on fire. She is told she is being charged with arson and first-degree murder, and when she asks for the evidence, the authorities simply say an anonymous source tipped them off.

‘How To Get Away With Murder,’ Season 3, Episode 7

We then go back in time to a few weeks earlier. The Keating 5 and the rest of Annalise’s class is assigned a case involving three siblings, Nelson (Jason Brooks), Jared (Leif Gantvoort) and Karen Duvall (Annie Tedesco) who are accused of attempting to kill their mother Edith (Anne Gee Byrd) by poisoning her with antifreeze after she was already very ill. 

The case begins with the knowledge that the Duvall siblings began exchanging text messages in which they joked about killing their mother. Edith is revealed– thanks to several of her acquaintances like friends and co-workers– to be a rather nasty woman, who is especially mean to her three children: she allegedly humiliated them repeatedly in front of other people all throughout their life, and thus destroyed their self-esteem by making them feel worthless and like a bunch of mama’s boys and mama’s girl. Nelson, the oldest, is initially the most vocal about his hatred for his mother, and Jared also expresses anger about Edith, though to a lesser degree. Karen is the only one of the three who does not seem to admit having any disdain for her mother, and claims she and Edith had a strong, loving relationship, even though Edith read her diary in front of her whole office and embarrassed her in several other ways.

Annalise tells her students that the first one to bring forth a credible suspect for the attempted murder of Edith other than her own children gets an automatic ‘A’ on the next midterm exam. Asher (Matt McGorry) eventually finds an email– thanks to hacker extraordinaire Oliver (Conrad Ricamora)– sent by a man who sells produce to Edith with an explanation of how to murder someone using antifreeze.

Asher shows this to Annalise, and Jared and Nelson become excited when learning about this, thinking this may be their salvation. However, Karen quickly says they can’t use that email, because the produce man sent it to her. Karen reveals she was in a relationship with this guy, and that when he learned of the dark-humored texts the Duvall kids were sending each other about killing Edith, he decided to take the joke one step further by sending Karen that email. Jared and Nelson immediately begin yelling at their sister and blaming her, saying she has ruined their chance of being acquitted, and Karen, practically crying, responds that she believes her brothers set her up.

Annalise, meanwhile, continues to attend AA meetings and builds a closer relationship with President Hargrove, (Lauren Velez), who is revealed to have her own battles with alcohol and is fighting with custody for her children with her ex-husband. Annalise even recommends a family attorney to her. Annalise is further troubled and angry with Wes (Alfred Enoch) for lying to the police about his father, Wallace Mahoney’s, murder. Wes is shown telling the NYPD that he saw Wallace’s other son, Charles, standing across the street when he walked up to Mahoney and saw him get shot. Annalise says if Charles has an alibi, Wes could be in big trouble for lying.

Wes continues to hook up with Laurel (Karla Souza) after breaking up with Meggy. One day, while the two go to Laurel’s apartment to have sex while pretending to work on the Duvall case, Frank (Charlie Weber) is shown hiding in one of the apartment’s rooms. Frank later goes to see Bonnie at her apartment, although he does reveal himself to her. Frank endlessly begs, crying for her forgiveness, but Bonnie angrily says she can’t trust him at all after he abandoned her in the motel and ran off without saying anything. She yells at him to ‘Get out!’ several times, and Frank leaves, heartbroken.

In the Duvall case, the siblings are told to act in the depositions like they have nothing but love for their mother and to deny every allegation of Edith humiliating them. However, after Edith, who attends all of these hearings, embarrasses Jared yet again in front of the whole court by telling a story about how he would have never gotten with a girl he was dating several years ago, Jared loses control and lashes out, saying ‘I look forward to the day you die.’

All five members of Keating’s original crew, including Conor (Jack Falahee) and Michaela (Aja Naomi King), except for Wes, roast Annalise one night after they get angry with her for lying to them and hiding things from them regarding Frank and the Mahoney murder case. Annalise initially told them her friend Eve (Famke Janssen) was handling that case, but then reveals to her students that Eve has actually moved to California and that the two haven’t spoken in weeks. Yikes!

In the end, we fast forward to after the fire has occurred, and Wes is revealed to be the ‘anonymous source’ who accused Annalise of burning down her own house and committing murder. Laurel is again shown in the hospital after being hurt in the fire, and it is strongly suggested again that Wes is the father of her unborn baby.

Sometime in the next two episodes, we will finally find out who is under the sheet and is being carried into the ambulance after the fire. Stay tuned!

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