How To Get Away With Murder 5x05 "It Was The Worst Day Of My Life" Episode Review

Major Spoilers are included in this episode review. Please Read with Caution.

The episode did something different with the structure. Instead of going to the usual flash forward, they flash forwarded only one week to reveal how Nate Sr’s trial was going in a classroom lecture. It wasn’t going too well.

The character conflicts in this episode were Nate and his father, Connor and Gabriel. Since we know how the trial will mostly play out, adding these conflicts adds good tension to see how we get to that point in the classroom.

Liza Weil stole the episode with her performance. Bonnie was processing everything she learned and relied on her support system: Annalise and Frank for comfort. I thought when she told her love interest, Miller, about her past, it was the first instance she had control of her story. It was an effective scene that moved the character forward to rediscover the past.

Asher and Michaela are back on good terms. I don’t care enough about them to discuss this further. If anything, the flash forward reveals this probably doesn’t last long: Asher kneeling down in front of Connor’s mom… that’s so bad.

Laurel caught on to Frank’s spying and demands to know why Gabriel is a threat.

Best moment of the episode: the imagery of Annalise standing in a taped rectangle—meant to represent solitary confinement—was incredibly moving to say the least, but I doubt it’d work in a real life criminal trial. The silence in the room helped make the scene more chilling.

I think this episode worked out for the most part. The “red herring” of the intro was good. I genuinely thought they lost the trial, but ending with the flash forward didn’t stick like it should’ve… Asher and Connor’s mom. It felt off to end it like that.