How To Get Away With Murder Review: Lahey v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (Season 4 Episode 13)

On How To Get Away With Murder Season 4 Episode 13, “Lahey v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania,” Annalise survives her trek of enlightenment with the help of Olivia Pope, Nate Lahey Sr., and her family. The TGIT Crossover was everything I had (realistically) hoped for and more.

In accordance with my Scandal and How To Get Away With Murder Crossover wishlist, Olivia meets Michaela and we get wonderful black-woman-power scenes on the Scandal part of the crossover, where they move mountains to push Annalise’s case to the SCOTUS (Supreme Court of the United States).

Additionally, Olivia and Annalise not only stay together throughout the duration of both episodes, they start out as enemies, share insights with one another, and come together at the halfway mark in mutual respect and friendship.

The hilarious and pivotal scene where they read each other in that salon is everything. Who better to tell you about yourself than a woman who’s like you? They both released a torrent of truth bombs on each other that needed to be said by someone who wouldn’t back down and that they (grudgingly) respect.

And boy, did they finally listen and grow from their pity parties. To truly mark the transitions both characters make throughout the crossover, we must first analyze their wardrobe. Yes, you read that right: their wardrobe.

What the characters wear act as a  powerful tool for story-telling, especially performative story-telling like TV. Usually, the characters’ wardrobe is used to help navigate complex developments in plot or characterization.

This parallelism reinforces and helps cement the shift for the audience visually and analytically. In the case of the TGIT crossover, the colors the women wear are important when following their developments. For example, Olivia Pope starts off the episode in grey, while Annalise wears pink.

For Olivia, the grey represents her uncertainty and her moral and professional ambiguity. It’s a neutral color that’s smack-dab in between black and white that depicts her current place in Scandal. She’s no longer with the White House, no longer with her shadow group, the Gladiators, and she no longer has her moral compass to tell her right from wrong.

For Annalise, she’s wearing pink to off-set her feelings of anger, aggression, and neglect.

She comes to Olivia Pope with her guard slightly up, but she’s not completely defensive or on the offensive yet. She’s in the middle ground between anger and aggression, symbolized by red, and peace and trust, that would symbolize white — hence the pink.

However, as the episode progresses, she begins to wear red — especially after Mellie quickly dismisses her case in the Oval Office and Olivia attacks her character in Fitz’ meeting room. The red she wears symbolizes that she then feels the emotions she was trying to keep at bay.

However, after Olivia and Annalise have their spat in the salon, both mellow out a bit. Olivia begins to wear blues after Fitz’ helps her find her resolve, purpose, and sense of justice, and Annalise goes from red to pink, showing that she’s trying to combat those negative emotions again.

By the end of the episode, after Annalise gets her victory, Annalise wears her yellow coat — marking the beginning period of her own enlightenment.

Annalise’s problem was never moral ambiguity. She had problems with pessimism, self-hatred, and confidence. In this way, the yellow represents her enlightenment by gaining positivity, clarity, and getting her honor back by getting justice for others, all universal symbolizations of yellow.

Her wardrobe parallelism continues on How To Get Away With Murder, “Lahey v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania,” the second half of the crossover.

Throughout the episode, we see her waver between blue and yellow as she gains new insights, struggles with her positivity, and tries to keep her purpose and drive for justice steadfast in the face of Roa’s ex-wife attacking her, her mother’s dementia episode, and the pressure of winning such a monumental case.

However, the moment she climbs up those SCOTUS steps, she marks the beginning of her own pivotal shift to justice, confidence, and wisdom, all universal symbolizations of blue.

In the courtroom, as she reads the biased SCOTUS member with his own words, Annalise refinds herself and her truth. How amazing is that?

What a huge change a 2-hour crossover can make. The heart-warming scene when Annalise calmly collects herself in front of the SCOTUS members and later imparts her newfound wisdom onto Olivia makes all the struggle and pain we’ve endured these last two seasons completely worth it.

We got the chance to see Annalise broken down, only for her to build herself back up through her own strength and courage with the help of her family, her new friend, Olivia, and her quest for justice.

I couldn’t be any happier with this episode. What a masterful way to give the audience what we wanted with the crossover, continue to progress the plot, spearhead Annalise’s characterization, and speak the nation’s truth regarding the justice system’s discriminatory practices.

Annalise: Racism is built into the DNA of America. And as long as we turn a blind eye to the pain of those in oppression, we will never escape those origins.

Stray Observations:

• Connor’s passive-aggressive/aggressive-aggressive way of telling Michaela he didn’t like how she took over his case has me screaming with laughter.
• Connor and Oliver deserve to be together forever. I love them so much. Forget the doubts I had in my review of How to Get Away With Murder Season 4 Episode 4, “Was She Ever Good At Her Job?”.
• I love Asher… so much. But I still ship Michaela and Marcus. I thank the writers for giving them to us, even if it was always meant to be fleeting.
• Cicely Tyson commands the screen in another appearance on How To Get Away With Murder. That woman is a queen.
• I’m depressed Wes is truly dead, especially after my long-winded conspiracy theory, but whatever.

What did you think of this episode of How To Get Away With Murder? Did you love it as much as I did? Did any wishes on your wishlist come true? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!

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How To Get Away With Murder airs Thursdays at 10/9c on ABC.

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