How To Get Away With Murder inches closer to its final big reveal… and while this week includes a ‘murderer’ confessing, fans of the show know that all might not be as it seems. The show, which is well into its final season, has been slowly dropping hints about the final flash-forward. So far, fans have discovered that someone is dead, that they are an FBI informant, and that they were killed outside Gabe and Asher’s apartments with a poker.
Beyond that, there have been some misdirects (a mysterious funeral for Annalise), and some survivors revealed, including Michaela, Connor, Tegan, Asher, and Bonnie. This week’s flash-forward reveals that two more have survived (Frank and Oliver), and that Oliver is fessing up… even if he didn’t actually kill anyone.
The flash-forward happens immediately after a scene where Connor tells Oliver that he was the one who ‘cut up the body’ in the initial Keating 5 murder. Oliver is shocked at hearing exactly what happened, but tells Connor that he will always love him. The scene then cuts to the flash-forward, where Oliver is standing in a police station. Frank comes in and tells Oliver that they need to leave, and that Connor is smart, so he’s going to be OK. The pair turn to leave, but then Oliver rushes back to the front desk, shouting “I did it! Arrest me! I’m the murderer!”
On the surface, this seems pretty cut and dried: Oliver is the murderer, and while there’s still no reveal of who was killed, the number of options seems to be getting pretty slim. Of the remaining main characters, the victim could be Nate or Gabriel, Laurel (if she reappears) or Annalise. Other secondary characters who might have been killed include characters like Gabriel’s mom or Xavier Castillo, or even the Governer herself, but these are less likely. It seems that the dead body is going to be shown very soon - but did Oliver actually kill them, just because he says he did?
Oliver has proven over the course of the show that he is devoted to Connor, and that he is guilt-ridden and often a little more emotional than some of the others. Connor has also been shown being questioned (and potentially having a heart attack) over the murder, and Oliver may well decide to throw himself under the bus in order to save Connor. Like the shot of Annalise’s funeral in the first episode, this scene of Oliver confessing seems a little too on the nose for How To Get Away With Murder, a show that usually waits to the very end of a season to fully unravel the truth.
Instead of actually giving the game away, this scene actually serves the show better as a reveal of more characters who are alive, and more who are involved in the situation. Despite his ‘confession’, the most likely explanation of this is that Oliver is lying to protect Connor, or simply to muddy the waters. Of course, this is a show where anything can happen, but most fans will not be taking this episode at face value - and waiting to find out who is dead, and who the murderer actually is.
How To Get Away With Murder continues with ‘I Want To Be Free’, Nov 14th on ABC
