Everything That Happened In 'HTGAWM' Season 4, Because It Is Hard To Keep Up

Season 3 of How To Get Away With Murder ended with the death of Wes, one of the shows most beloved characters. It set up Annalise Keating and the Keating Four, to deal with the aftermath in the next season, whew, what a season it was. Season 4 was a rollercoaster ride that involved heavy substance abuse, a stolen baby, a lot of parental interference, and of course, a lot of blood. Does any of this sound familiar? Season 5 of How To Get Away With Murder is almost here, so if you’re asking, “What happened on Season 4 of How To Get Away With Murder because this show is all over the place,” well, you’ve come to the right place.

First things first —Annalise Keating is never, ever chill, so it wasn't surprising when she ran from her home that blew up at the very beginning of Season 4 (or end of Season 3, depending on how you look at it) to her mother’s in order to escape. Escape what? That’s a great question — Annalise is good on prosecuting other people about their lives but not so much about answering questions about her own. That leads us to some quick summaries as to how everything panned out last season.

Annalise Found A Career Boost

Besides going to sorely needed therapy, Annalise realizes, having spent part of Season 3 in the slammer, that the women she encountered in prison are in prison mostly because their cases were severely bungled, and so she begins the process of starting a class-action lawsuit against the District Attorney’s office, which, as one can imagine, D.A. Denver isn’t thrilled about. He tries to enact some sort of revenge on Annalise’s new clients, but let’s be real — Annalise always wins against these creeps. The case will stand. By the end of the season, Annalise and Olivia Pope #handle the class-action stuff, and it will move forward, per SCOTUS. Because it’s handled. That’s why.

On the personal front, Annalise is obsessed with Dr. Noa, her therapist, even kind of goading him into using again. It’s unhealthy, and that’s what Annalise is — unhealthy. But she’s trying, and when Laurel gets locked up and her baby taken away, Annalise does her Annelise-ist to get the baby back. Oh, and before that, she delivered Laurel’s baby because Laurel went into pre-term labor on a stuck elevator, and there was blood everywhere. It was like The Shining. In the end, Annalise wraps everything up with a bow and it seems like everyone is happy, but it’s a bandage on a bullet hole. We all know that.

Laurel… Well, Laurel Did A Lot

While Annalise was #coping, Laurel was still pregnant with Wes’ baby. Just like Annalise, though, it's not going well for her. And what does a woman scorned have except fury, so Laurel decides that because her father killed Wes (or so she thinks), he must be taken down. It turns out that the firm where Michaela got her internship is the firm that represents all of her father’s shady business dealings with his company, Antares. Of course, Laurel wanted Michaela’s help to investigate. She also grabbed Oliver, who can hack into everything and anything, and these three became the How To Get Away With Murder version of the gang from Scooby-Doo.

While the gang got in the Mystery Machine to investigate Laurel’s dad, Laurel went into pre-mature labor. When she wakes up, she finds out that her dad snatched her baby away. Now, she really needs Annalise’s help. Annalise divides and conquers, and with half the crew working on Annalise’s class-action suit, Annalise can focus on Laurel — namely, getting her out of the hospital and her baby back. It’s a chess match between Mr. Castillo and Annalise, and don’t we all know how this ends? Laurel’s mom, who is estranged, comes to town, and Laurel thinks she can trust her, but oh, she can’t — because she is the one who orchestrated Wes’ death. She told Jorge Castillo that Wes was going to testify against Annalise and ruin everyone's lives, leading to Jorge ordering Wes' murder.

There’s intrigue, there’s a potential racketeering, and DA Denver dies, which is fine, because he has a hard drive that Laurel’s dad really, really wants. So, does Laurel, because it implicates all of her father’s crimes. Playing both sides against the middle gets you nothing on How To Get Away With Murder. She gets her baby back and her dad locked up by the FBI. Hooray!

The Keating 4 Took A Backseat & Still Managed To Mess Things Up

After Wes’ death, the rest of the gang tried to move on. Connor turned down Oliver’s marriage proposal and quit school, and Michaela and Asher got internships, mostly because they have to in order to graduate. I think these people forgot that they have to also attend classes to get out of Middleton, which is the Seattle Grace Mercy Death of colleges, because they never seemed to attend them.

Michael and Oliver were working on Laurel’s master plan against her father, and Michaela lets Asher in on the spy mission. Why! For some reason, Frank jumps in, too. Simon, a smarmy fellow student, gets involved, and in one big confrontation at the law firm, Simon accidentally shoots himself in the head with a gun that Laurel keeps in her purse. This is not the conspicuous “take Laurel’s dad down” mission that they were hoping for.

Of course, the Scooby-Doo gang comes up with a plan to explain Simon’s shooting himself in the head, but the stress is too much for Laurel, who goes into premature labor on a stuck elevator. Asher is arrested because he told the truth about Simon’s accident, because Asher is stupid. Things get worse — Simon is actually alive and is threatening to blow this whole thing up. But don’t worry, because the gang has Simon deported back to Pakistan, where he’s from, which is all kinds of screwed up, because he’s gay and has a brain injury. It’s a death sentence. Oh, and Michaela cheats on Asher and they break up. This is why we can’t have nice things.

It Ended With A Big Question

It wouldn’t be How To Get Away With Murder without a cliffhanger, so when Frank is all inspired to do right by Laurel and her baby, he decides to go back to school. On a Middleton Law School tour, he discovers Gabriel Maddox, who, uh, (checks notes), could be Bonnie’s son, the product of a rape when she was 15 years old. She was told that the baby died, but Frank seems to think not. Who is this kid?

Did you get all that? Good! Because now, you’re ready for Season 5. Happy popcorn and wine nights, Shonda fans!