How to Get Away with Murder: “Smile, or Go to Jail”

After this week, I could argue that the pilot of How to Get Away with Murder was the best episode. While there was a lot of transition from past to present in that introduction, it seems as if we did need the present to clarify the past, and vice versa. Last week, I mentioned that the transitions were becoming annoyingly daunting. Now, after, “Smile, or Go to Jail,” I am just confused. Why is it important that Michaela’s engagement ring is gone? Obviously we knew something was going to happen because of how much the writers honed in on it in the beginning scenes. But really, does that require a flashback? And why are we still seeing the “heads, we go get the body” scene? We know that Keating’s students have retrieved the body, wrapped it up in a rug, avoided questioning by cops, missed the bonfire, and yet still here we are still tapping into the scene. Hopefully it will make sense soon, but I am getting a bit frustrated.

Speaking of the bonfire, no joke—that would be your alibi, Laurel. How many other alibis can you think of that would be simultaneous happening and coincidentally involve the smell of smoke and the residue of ashes on your clothes? For some fairly intelligent law students, these gladiators-in-training do not connect all the dots very easily. Michaela is not happy about being there but Connor pushes her in a selfie saying, “Smile or Go to Jail.” Hence, we have our tagline.

This week’s case revolves around Paula Murphy. Keating has just had charges against her dropped, when she finds out Paula Murphy is actually Alina Aguilar—and there’s a warrant out for her arrest for killing a man during the bombing of the world financial institute. Turns out she was a member of an anti-globalization group with Gabriel Shaw. Somehow this correlates with the plot line of Michaela Pratt, her fiancé and Connor—as Connor says to Michaela, “Makes you think what secrets Aiden is hiding from you huh?” Well, honestly, I do not think Michaela was thinking about that during a murder trial, until you said that Connor. But now she definitely is, and we are too…

Within a matter of seconds, Asher easily tracks down Shaw, who has been out of the picture for several years—another misstep. I find it hard to believe that this first year law student could do the job of a private investigator within a matter of hours. Then Professor Keating convinces him to go on the stand and prove it was not Alina’s idea to set off the bomb. Of course, the DA’s office has reached him first and promised him early release, so he goes on the stand and says it was Alina’s fault. Keating accuses him of lying and then as the gladiators-in-training go to uncover more information, Alina goes missing. Flash to the next scene, and she is on a bus with Shaw. There are so many loopholes in this, that I just cannot even handle it. How on earth would the two most important people in a trial be able to escape a courthouse, let alone a courtroom, under everyone’s noses? And how would Alina just decide that she wanted to return to a wild and crazy life within what we assume is a mere twenty four hours of being on trial. Not much of it adds up. The writers really need to pick a more believable story. Although it was still just as unbelievable, I preferred last week’s story for the simple fact that it was entertaining. This one, however, was not.