‘How to Get Away with Murder’ Boss Teases Midseason Premiere

Charlie Weber and Karla Souza in the midseason premiere of How to Get Away with Murder
Preview
ABC/Mitch Haaseth
Charlie Weber and Karla Souza in the midseason premiere of How To Get Away With Murder.

So much went down on the How to Get Away with Murder fall finale that picking up all the various loose threads (and some of them being very bloody), is a chore that series creator Pete Nowalk and his team of writers have been doing for several years now.

To quickly recap the various plot lines happening: Laurel (Karla Souza) had her baby. Simon accidentally killed himself in front of Asher (Matt McGorry), Michaela (Aja Naomi King) and Laurel. Oliver (Conrad Ricamora) ran in after the deed, complete shock ensued. Connor (Jack Falahee) did his best to stay out of the whole mess. Bonnie (Liza Weil) showed up at Nate’s (Billy Brown) door to commiserate together. Then, of course, there’s also Annalise (Viola Davis), who was last seen giving Laurel’s baby mouth to mouth.

There are a lot of moving pieces in this murder-drama series so TV Insider talked with Nowalk, who gave us an idea of what we’ll see in the mid-season premiere and where storylines are heading. (Be sure to come back to TV Insider after the episode airs for a juicy post-mortem.)

TV Insider: The midseason finale shocked fans. What was your approach when starting back up midseason?
Pete Nowalk: It’s always hard, but that is the nature of the beast that we’re very lucky to be creating here. I think it’s always hard to catch up to the flash forwards and make sure that they fit in in an appropriate way that feels organic. It’s really fun though. I love the puzzle of the show. I love figuring things out. I love watching the final product and watching how the actors match their performances. And this one was really fun because we just had so much happening. I think everyone just gave a killer performance. It’s always a headache but then when I see the product, then I’m proud.

What’s the biggest challenge when you get to this point and the flash-forwards have caught up?
The hard part is always leaping into our arc of the season because obviously people can just give up on us at any point and we don’t want to do that. We want them to get their answers and then want more answers.

So where do we pick up this episode?
We are picking up in the immediate aftermath of Annalise doing CPR on that baby. We are going to find out what happened to Laurel. We’re going to find out what happened to the baby. We’re going to have Annalise finally find out what happened at Caplan & Gold that night because obviously she is oblivious to the fact that anyone was shot, as well as the kids are oblivious to the fact that Laurel is having a baby in an elevator. There’s a lot of people in the dark so we had to pick up right in that moment.

So much of this drama is tied to Laurel and her father, Jorge (Esai Morales). Safe to say that that’s a big piece of what we’ll see with this episode?
Yes. At the end of our mid-season finale, we did see Dominic (Nicholas Gonzalez), Jorge’s henchman at the bottom of the stairs in Wes’s apartment. He was spying on Connor. Why Dominic is there is a big question. And what Jorge knows at this point, and what he wants will become very clear in our premiere.

Where do we pick up in terms of the office? Asher, we know has been arrested, but Oliver and Michaela were still there.
Michaela and Oliver are not going to be allowed to leave that space. As far as the police know, they witnessed a suicide attempt. So they are going to be held for questioning and still covered in blood. They’re going to have to act their little butts off to be able to even leave the building.

Let me ask about Bonnie and Nate. What’s that relationship like because I can’t tell if they’re just commiserating together or is there something more developing?
Do you mean are they romantic?

Yes. I mean, Annalise is something they both share and have been put through the wringer over…
They are definitely bonded in their sober buddy relationship about Annalise. Whether that’s romantic or not is a question I want the audience to be asking. I will say not every male/female relationship has to feel romantic on this show. I think where we left them, they are just friends looking for support and they’re the only two people who really can relate to what they’re each going through.

How to Get Away with Murder, Thursdays, 10/9c, ABC