‘How To Get Away With Murder’ Season 6 Episode 12: Is Sam's murder connected to his dark past with Hannah and Frank?
The Sam Keating (Tom Verica) murder case just got better! Vivian Maddox (Marsha Stephanie Blake) comes back to town to help her son, Gabriel Maddox (Rome Flynn) from being exploited by the FBI. After witnessing Asher Millstone’s (Matt McGorry) murder by a federal agent, Gabriel calls his mother and seeks advice. But Vivian’s return has a lot more significance than moral support for her traumatized son.
When we saw that Vivian is coming back in the picture, we thought it might be detrimental for Annalise Keating (Viola Davis). It’s natural to think that for us since we all know how much they hate each other, especially Vivian, considering Sam left her and Gabriel for Annalise. However, reality, as evident from Episode 12 is something else and more than what you would expect.
Vivian surely wants to help her son but somewhere she also wants to help Annalise. She realizes that Gabriel’s statement can nullify the charges of murder on Annalise. But why you wonder? Why would a woman try to help the “other woman” who stole her husband and her home? This is where things start getting interesting.
When Gabriel reveals that he wants Annalise dead and that her associate tried to kill him, Vivian immediately recognizes Frank Delfino (Charlie Weber) from the recording that Gabriel made when Frank was threatening him. Here Vivian reveals to her son that she knows Frank from way before and that Sam and Frank had a past, which she learned from Gabriel’s aunt, Hannah (Marcia Gay Harden), Sam’s sister. She also discloses that Hannah grew up knowing Frank’s family and that the man is fiercely loyal to Annalise no matter what. As Vivian further explained, Annalise might have been one of the reasons for her and Sam’s marriage ending but she was more like the last straw. The Keating family was not really a nice one and was a major reason in Vivian and Sam’s separation.
Later, as the episode ended, we see Vivian telling Annalise that she knows how it all started and who started the “war” against Annalise. It was not difficult for Annalise to guess that it could be Hannah, knowing how much Sam’s sister hated her new sister-in-law. But that wasn’t the case alone. According to Vivian, Sam and Hannah “had a past." Now, this could mean a lot of things. If you take this literally and straight, it refers to an incestuous relationship between the brother and the sister which probably Frank also knew of. Later, when Hannah learned that her brother is married and has a child with Vivian, she perhaps got jealous and tried to separate the two, and succeeded.
Eventually, when Annalise came into the picture, things got more complicated than she imagined. Since Annalise turned out to be stronger, bolder, and more powerful than Vivian, Hannah didn’t know how to ruffle her feathers. Instead, she resorted to more twisted ways and used political influence and criminal contacts to get her out of the way.
We have seen some strained equation and cold animosity between the two women, in earlier episodes when Sam died and she was visiting Annalise. This joins the dots back to Episode 12’s reveal of her intentions to squash Annalise and to do whatever it takes.
But how is Frank involved in all this? Our theory is that since the Keatings and Delfinos knew each other’s families, Frank might have also known about Sam and Hannah. We know from Frank’s history that he was in prison on charges of murder of his father. What if, that murder involved Hannah directly or indirectly? And probably, that’s why Sam took the onus of getting Frank out of prison and clearing his name?
Hannah’s antagonism to Vivian and Annalise, Sam’s support for Frank, and the women in his life, perhaps gives Hannah ample reason to try to get all of them out of her way.
The “original sin” that led to the entire series of unfortunate events that drove Annalise and her students down the rabbit hole is coming back to their life with new discoveries and we can’t imagine how dark and deep the past runs and what this could mean for everyone!
‘How To Get Away With Murder’ Season 6 will return with Episode 13, on April 30, at 10 pm/9c, only on ABC.
