ABC premiered the new and highly anticipated show, How To Get Away With Murder, last night. The Shonda Rhimes produced show, starring Viola Davis as Annalise Keating, started off by setting the tone for a season of twists, turns and of course murder.

“I don’t know what terrible things you’ve done in your life up to this point, but clearly your karma’s out of balance to get assigned my class.”  Well alrighty then let’s get started, shall we?

Welcome to Criminal 100 or (let’s say it together) How To Get Away With Murder

Case #1 

The episode started off with the disappearance of college student Lila Stangard. Flyers say that she was last seen at a Kappa Kappa Theta party on August 30. The campus mourns and holds a vigil where her athlete boyfriend Griffin delivers a heartbreaking speech, but shortly after her disappearance, Lila’s body is found floating in the water tank on the roof of her sorority house.

Suspects

Professor

Annalise

Keating

: An extremely intelligent law professor that displays very questionable morals, in the courtroom.

Played

by

: Viola Davis

Pretty sure she didn’t kill Lila, but the victim definitely had some involvement with her husband. Annalise is shown throughout the episode as someone who willing to do questionable things to get the results she wants. Wes catches her in her office with another man and, at a cocktail party, she cries and confesses that she and her husband have been trying for a baby. Things get creepy When she rubs Wes’ chest and shoulders and arms. Is it all an act? Is she trying to play the role of a lonely, married woman?

Sam Keating:

Pennsylvania’s hottest psychology professor. He is Annalise’s husband and also was Lila’s professor

Played

by

: Tom Verica

It hasn’t been confirmed if Professor Keating had a relationship with Lila, but by his reaction to police finding her body there was definitely something going on. It’s while he’s watching the news that Annalise says, “ I bet the boyfriend did it.” That statement just leaves so much room for interpretation.

Griffin O’Reilly:

Lila’s boyfriend is the obvious suspect. He has a hot temper, which is shown when Wes overhears an argument between his neighbor Rebecca and O’Reilly.

Played by

: Lenny Platt

The obvious suspect in the case is Lila’s boyfriend, football star and future jawline model Griffin. Whether Griffin acted alone is unclear, but he did not look relieved when the cops found Lila’s body.

Rebecca Sutter

: Wes’s neighbor who steals the alcohol from the bar she works at.

Played by:

Katie Findlay

What relationship Rebecca has with Griffin is unclear. She is the total opposite of what Lila is. She knows something and, going off the argument with Griffin, the guilt is starting to get to her.

Bonnie Winterbottom:

First off, the name sounds so Harry Potter-ish don’t you think?

Played by:

Liza Weil

I thought Bonnie was a sweetheart and no one to worry about. Until she looked very upset while watching the Keatings kiss. Was it jealousy? There are secrets hiding in the blonde bob haircut and I can’t wait for them to be revealed.

Nate Leahy:

The detective that Wes found “talking” to Annalise in her office.

Played by:

Billy Brown

In another display of Annalise having questionable tactics, in the courtroom, she got her very sexy detective boyfriend to lie on the stand. If he’ll commit perjury for her than who’s to say he wouldn’t commit murder, either.

Case #2

Throughout the episode when see the main students—Connor, Wes, Michaela, and Laurel– thinking of ways to dispose of a body. It is not until the very end when we find out that the body belongs to Sam Keating. The episode flashed forward to show the group, who we’ll call The Crimestoppers, arguing about what to do with the murder weapon. The Lady of Justice trophy Connor won in Keating’s class. They decide to flip a coin to make two decisions to decide whether to dispose of the body or to leave it where it was.

At the office, Laurel has bleached the trophy and the sink while the boys roll the body up in Annalise’s carpet. Michaela doesn’t help and stands in the corner, but reluctantly helps lift the body as the group walk out of the office. The Crimestoppers obviously have never gotten rid of a body before because they not only bumped into a wall that definitely left evidence, but they also run into a cop on the way to the car. Then they spend a little too much time at the gas station buying lighter fluid and candy, which was probably caught by the surveillance camera. A couple in the woods also heard the group, when Laurel’s phone goes off. All of these things will more than likely come back to bite them in the ass.

The 

Crime Stoppers

Wes Griffin:

The wait-listed student played by Harry Potter alum Alfred Enoch, he thinks out of the box. Very naïve and, during the episode, you see him questioning a lot of the things he sees Annalise do.

Laurel Castillo:

Pretty sure she’s sleeping with the T.A., but that doesn’t mean she isn’t smart (and possibly crazy). She’s a quiet thinker and very observant of body language.

Connor Walsh:

He’s the know-it-all in your class that you hate, but can’t deny that he’s smart. He doesn’t have any problems putting morals aside to get the information he needs. You know like when he got down and dirty with the male tech guy to get confidential emails.

Michaela Pratt

: The overachiever that tries very hard to impress. A frontrunner for the Lady of Justice trophy, she will be Connor’s frenemy.

The show delivered on everything that I would want in a Shonda Rhimes show. A new, fresh young cast of both likable and unlikeable characters. Everyone has a secret. Everyone has a motive. No one is innocent. Viola Davis is great as usual, but I wouldn’t expect anything less. I did have a couple of questions that were not answered and probably won’t be answered until further in the season:

– Why are there teeth marks in Wes’s headboard?

– Why is Annalise giving Wes special treatment?

– What is the Frank and Laurel connection?

* Bonus question: Who else knew the answer to the mens rea question because of Legally Blonde?

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