'How to Get Away with Murder' season 6 episode 1 review: Keating 5 looks for self-love and acceptance in all the right places
This article contains spoilers for season 6, episode 1.
Before the final and sixth season of the Viola Davis starrer hit drama 'How to Get Away With Murder' dropped, the cast and creators had teased about how this season will be all about tying loose ends, finding acceptance, and protecting each other. The first episode 'Say Goodbye' doesn't disappoint in terms of that, in fact, unlike its name, while there are people who went missing without getting the chance to say a proper goodbye, the first episode is all about the Keating 5 coming together to find what happened to one of their own, while Annalise (Davis) herself tries to figure out where she went wrong. They might not be around each other in person, but they are far from making this their final goodbyes.
The episode opens with the dreaded casket being lowered, which we had seen in the official trailer, that had left us quite shaken. Turns out it is actually Annalise who is inside the casket. When the lid opens, a little boy is standing there with a gun, aiming to make sure Annalise is really dead, but right then her eyes open and we are transported back to reality - Annalise's group therapy session at a rehab.
For the most part of the episode, it is Annalise's road to recovery that gains the maximum limelight. In the aftermath of watching Laurel disappear into thin year in season 5's finale, followed by the devastating news of Emmet's death (which she most likely blames on herself), Annalise spiraled, and really hard. From binge drinking at a night club to snorting cocaine and MDMA - the substance abuse was enough to send her straight to the ER, where she told Bonnie (Liza Weil) she needs some real help. And while her rehab might just be the most heavenly place on the planet, with a therapist who couldn' get any better when it comes to forgiving oneself, Annalise's badassery really comes into play when we find out that she has, in fact, snuck a phone in her luggage as opposed to the rules.
Annalise and her therapist's conversations open the discourse for self-love in a unique way. As Annalise is asked to list down the names she would call herself, as a part of the therapy, her raw viciousness attacking herself, holding herself accountable for all that's wrong with the people close to her is heartbreaking and cathartic in equal parts. We know things wouldn't have been this complicated if it weren't for her, but we also know she did what she did - by putting others before herself countless times - to protect and help them. Yet, the gravity of what she has done never escapes her for a millisecond, and that makes the character rise above so many of its contemporaries, who f**k up but then go back to their whirlwind of self-pity without taking any actual responsibility for their mistakes.
Meanwhile, back home, the Keating 5 are taking full responsibility when it comes to finding where exactly Laurel is. From tracking her phone (which is at a new location every single minute) to following up any leads they can find on her, not even her baby daddy Frank can distract Connor and Oliver from their live-tracking. The newly married ever so adorable Walsh couple do take breaks by engaging in some lovemaking in the same house everybody is lodged at every now and then, but the uninhibited sounds of their lovemaking is still not as awkward as Gabriel and Michaela's developing relationship for some reason. With Asher hovering, things can never be any less awkward, but the fact that they are trying to track down Michaela's birth parents makes this an odd time too.
Speaking of hovering, Nate Lahey Jr. really cannot get over the fact that Emmet's work peers and superiors would do the late man's body so dirty, From transporting the body all the way to London for an autopsy, to taking calls without even informing or consulting with the rest of the team, it's clear that when Teagan says something was done to him, she wasn't lying or speculating too hard. Teagan does her best to reach out to Annalise in times like these, but for Annalise to be of any help, she has to help herself right now, and we're glad she is getting all of that and accepting it too at rehab.
'How to Get Away with Murder' season 6 premiered on Thursday, September 26, at 10/9c, only on ABC.