HTGAWM Goes for Sex Positivity in “It’s Called the Octopus”

#VeryComfortableSheets

The past two episodes have been mostly Annalise centered, but “Octopus” for the first time makes it feel like an ensemble. For an episode that’s so sexy, its most important, mystery-fueling moments don’t involve sex at all. Annalise opens the episode contemplating her case, her hair wrapped for the night and drunkenly collapses in bed before being woken by strange noises. Said noises appear to be an entrapped mouse, and Wes arrives to hammer it to death. But the noises are actually Asher, breaking in to steal Annalise’s recordings. Blackmailed by Sinclair with something involving a Tiffany at Trotter Lake, Asher blows up his relationship with Bonnie to avoid her questions.

Seven weeks in the future, Nate calls Annalise looking to ensure her safety, but she’s dying on the floor of the Hapstall mansion while her students flee the scene. It’s no clearer how she got there, only murkier. Obvious suspects include the Keating Five, particularly Wes. When he learns that Levi (who ignores Wes’ edict to stay away from Michaela in favor of spelling the alphabet on her nether regions) is Rebecca’s foster brother and is looking for answers, he teams up with Nate to figure out what Annalise is hiding. Though Wes comes through in disposing of that mouse, there’s a wealth of secrets building up between them, and Annalise hiding Rebecca’s murder could be just enough to turn Wes against her.

There’s no shortage of people who may want to murder Annalise. Sinclair, though she ends up dead herself, has a serious vendetta against her. Bonnie and Frank have yet to be seen in the future, and we know them both to have a slippery sense of morality. And Annalise isn’t winning a lot of fans with her methods. She wins her case by implicating the innocent, grieving wife, and when Tanya demands to know how Annalise can sleep at night, Annalise replies: “Alone, on very comfortable sheets.” The same sheets Eve professes to miss in a cute email and the same sheets that Annalise has spent many a night rolling around on with another someone.