‘How To Ger Away With Murder’ Season 6 Episode 13 Review: How incest explains the character arcs of these names
As is the characteristic of the show, the ABC hit legal drama has always addressed major issues. And incest has been one of them. But until the current episode titled 'What If Sam Wasn’t the Bad Guy This Whole Time?' we didn’t really pay enough attention to the angle and thought it was significant enough.
So far, there have been three major instances of incest and crimes stemming from the same.
First was the story of Bonnie Winterbottom (Liza Weil) whose character establishment was based on her history of incestuous abuse from her father. As shown in flashbacks in Bonnie’s therapy sessions with Sam and old videos found from her home, that her father had been abusing her since she was five. He used those videos to blackmail her into keeping her mouth shut while his abuse continued until she got pregnant.
Her family might have taken care of the baby eventually and let Bonnie move on in her life, but these growing up years left a deep mark on her character, making herinto the person we know her to be. Her insecurity and apathy, transitioning into an intense desire to be loved and cared for has led her to fall for the wrong person at the wrong time and thus, get herself damaged.
Next, in Season 2 of the series, we see the guest characters, Caleb (Kendrick Sampson) and Catherine Hapstall, adopted siblings of the wealthy Hapstall family. Their incestuous relationship comes to light when they are accused of their parents murder and Annalise Keating (Viola Davis) and her law students help them do a practice run before the trial. When they admit about their relationship, it explains their actions.
Finally, in Episode 13 of the current and the final season of HTGAWM, we learned that Sam Keating (Tom Verica) and his sister, Hannah Keating (Marcia Gay Harden) were in an incestuous relationship, which produced a child, whom we know as Frank Delfino (Charlie Weber). Now, this particular instance is perhaps the biggest and the strongest case of incest addressed in the story mostly because this incident has the power to change everything that we have seen, known, and heard so far.
Everything that had happened between Sam and Annalise is a result of Sam’s damaged character, fear of his sister who abused him. Later, whatever series of unfortunate events befell Annalise and her students is a result of Hannah’s possessiveness.
At the end, when Annalise tells Bonnie about Sam’s history and infers that he might not actually have been the bad guy in the story, Bonnie tells her that his trauma doesn’t write off all his mistakes and wrongdoings that he made over the years.
Although each of these instances can sound deeply disturbing and controversial, exploring them in the story’s plotline only helps us understand the character arcs and explains their actions which have helped move the story forward.