Annalise Keating, How to Get Away with Murder

Annalise Keating (Viola Davis)

Early in How to Get Away with Murder, series lead Annalise Keating seemed to have a perfect life and was respected for being a great lawyer and a great law professor, and her students both feared and admired her. Her emotional behavior then began to change as the story events began to unfold. After being involved in the murder plot with four of her students, Annalise began to show two distinct sides: strong and confident in public and damaged and unstable in private.

As a child, Annalise was sexually abused by her uncle Clyde Harkness, who was presumably then murdered by Annalise’s mother after she found out the truth.

Season 1

At the start of the series, Annalise was the wife of the psychologist Sam Keating (recurring cast member Tom Verica). They were happily married for 10 years, but Annalise had several miscarriages. After Annalise was finally able to carry a child to full term, she was struck by a car while driving and lost that child as well, which lead to 10 more years in an unhappy marriage.

Annalise later found out that Sam was cheating on her with his students, including Lila Stangard, whose murder was the center of the murder investigation in Season 1. Despite the affair, Annalise stayed with Sam until the day he almost attacked her. The two fought and she left, and later that night, Sam was found dead. Although she was suspected, Annalise didn’t murder him; the real guilty party was Wesley Gibbins (Alfred Enoch), one of Annalise’s students and her most intimate ally.

While Sam was cheating on Annalise with Lila, Annalise was cheating on Sam with the detective Nate Lahey (series main cast Billy Brown). While Nate and Annalise were extremely intimate and had a supportive relationship, Nate’s wife, Nia, was hospitalized with a terminal illness, though she knew what Nate was doing. When Nia died in the second season, Nate became angry and broke up with Annalise, stating that he hadn’t had enough time to take care of Nia because Annalise framed him for Sam’s murder.

Season 2

In the past, before the series’ chronology, Annalise had an intimate relationship with Eve Rothlo (recurring cast member Famke Janssen). Annalise had left her home and changed her name—from Anna Mae to Annalise— and later met Eve, both in the same year of Harvard Law, and they were friends before becoming lovers.

Annalise decided to end her relationship with Eve so that she could be with (and eventually marry) her therapist, Sam Keating. Eve did not take well to the break up, and in the show’s present day, hadn’t moved on, still thinking about her former lover every day (2×01 “It’s Time to Move On”).

In the present day, Annalise called Eve asking for help to defend Nate. The story was told between a combination of flashbacks of their college relationship and present affair. The two then continued to have romantic moments, but Eve made it clear that they were only “friends having fun.”

Season 3

Season 3 started with Annalise getting a demotion at university and flyers with her face and “Killer” written in red appearing all over campus.  The end of the first episode fast forwarded 2 months as Annalise’s house was on fire, and a dead body was carted out by paramedics, with Annalise collapsing on the street, crying. The following episodes all went back and forth between present day after the fire and the months leading up to it, gradually revealing which characters were safe.

Annalise was still in a relationship and living together with Nate (3×01 – 3×04), although she was shown not to care much about him, and routinely rejected his advances.

Season 3 – Eve

Famke Janssen (Eve) returned for one episode in season 3, episode 4. Four weeks before the fire, Annalise met Eve at a bar and they partied and drank the entire night. Nate had to help Annalise as she drunkenly struggled to get into her own house.

After finding out Eve was back in town and walking in on Annalise drinking during the day, Nate and Annalise got into a screaming match, with Nate calling her an alcoholic and Annalise then screaming at him to hit her. Nate left, ending their relationship.

Annalise admitted she was an alcoholic and promised to go through a rehabilitation program in order to keep her license. She celebrated by drinking with Eve, and they made out until Eve stopped because she had fallen in love with someone else, and left the show.

The following episode, Annalise went to her first AA meeting, but at home started drinking again and struggled with her sobriety for the rest of the season.

Season 3 – Bonnie

In episode 3×06 Annalise got into an argument with Bonnie, her dedicated associate, after Bonnie went behind her back. While trying to convince her she wasn’t trying to betray her, Bonnie told Annalise she was willing to put up with whatever treatment she wanted to dish out, and also told her that she loved her, although it was unclear whether the relationship was romantic.

In episode 3×09, after Annalise was charged with arson and first-degree murder and she was convinced she would be going to jail, she went to see Bonnie, who instead of joining her drinking, fed her soup and coffee, tucked her into bed and kissed her. That was the extend of any romantic development, and the relationship continued to toe the line between mentor – mentee and an unhealthy obsession on Bonnie’s side. Both executive producer Pete Nowalk and Viola Davis called it a moment of drunkenness.

The rest of the season’s plot was focused on revealing who the real murderer was, and getting Annalise out of jail.

Female love interests:

• Eve Rothlo (Famke Janssen, recurring, 6 episodes in S2, 1 in S3)
• Bonnie Winterbottom (Liza Weil, regular all 3 seasons)

Relationship story arc with a woman: Questionable

Male love interests:

• Sam Keating 💀 (Tom Verica, recurring 17 episodes, husband)
• Nate Lahey (Billy Brown, main cast)

Relationship story arc with a man: Yes

Filter Relationship Arc:

• Male (Regular)

Storyline during sweeps? No

[1] A relationship story arc is defined as explicit, developed on screen, and lasting more than 3 episodes. It is listed as questionable or subtext if romance is only implied, mentioned instead of shown on screen, part of a dream sequence, or otherwise not explicit for the viewer.
[2] Sweeps episodes air in February, May, July and November, the periods when advertising rates are set. A character is marked as "sweeps" when there is a very limited number of episodes that address their sexuality, all air during sweeps period, and the storyline is otherwise ignore/dropped.