Entertainment

This 'HTGAWM' Season 5 Recap Will Prep You For The Mayhem To Come

Richard Cartwright/ABC

The final season of How To Get Away With Murder premieres on Sept. 26 and aims to wrap up all of the mysteries, secrets, and murders that have amassed. Before it ends, this recap of How To Get Away With Murder Season 5 should help untangle that web so you're as prepared as you can be going in to the final season. Fingers crossed that nobody else gets murdered before the curtain falls on the ABC series. But knowing this show that is definitely a losing bet.

Just figuring out the ending before it happens should be a mystery worthy of a few fan theories. "Deciding to end this series was a brutal decision, but ultimately the story tells you what to do — as it did here," creator Peter Nowalk said in an ABC press release. "For me, Annalise Keating’s journey has always had a clear ending." In the last 15 episodes, Nowalk promised to "give all the characters their own killer endings" as well as finish Annalise's story.

Season 5 focused on the Keating 4's third year of law school and Connor and Oliver's wedding — which of course ended in murder. It wasn't an all-out Game of Thrones slaughter-fest, but gruesome none the less. This is How To Get Away With Murder, after all. These poor kids can't have nice things — but at least #Coliver survived their own nuptials. The biggest shock on How To Get Away With Murder is that Connor, Michaela, Asher, and Laurel are still in school, honestly.

After winning a class action lawsuit against the Supreme Court, Annalise returned to teach at Middleton and starts a new clinic of select students with Caplan & Gold, the firm where Michaela interned in Season 4. While Asher still lived in Wes' old apartment, Oliver and the others moved into an old fraternity house together to help raise Wes (RIP) and Laurel's baby, Christopher.

Here are the major events of How To Get Away With Murder Season 5, and everything you need to know before a final showdown this season.

First, The Many Murders

Mitch Haaseth/ABC

Two, if not three people died in Season 5: Assistant District Attorney Ronald Miller, Nathaniel Lahey Sr., and possibly Emmett Crawford.

Let's start with Nate's dad, who was serving time for murder. Annalise took on Nathaniel Lahey Sr.'s case for her legal clinic, but Nate's dad was killed by his own prison guards hours after being pardoned and set for release. Nate and Bonnie thought that ADA Miller was responsible for organizing the hit, so they killed him at the wedding.

Later in the season we found out that Laurel's brother Xavier Castillo, in cahoots with the Governor of Pennsylvania, was really the one who organized Nate Sr.'s death. Annalise and Frank discovered the truth, but decided not to tell Bonnie and Nate that they killed the wrong man.

As for Crawford? That's a cliffhanger for Season 6 to answer. The gang's boss was poisoned and collapsed in his own firm in the final episode.

Then, Gabriel's Identity Was Finally Revealed

Mitch Haaseth/ABC

Gabriel Maddox showed up at the tail end of Season 4 and much of the season focused on trying to figure out who the stranger who moved into Rebecca's apartment was, how he was connected to the characters, and whether or not he and Michaela were going to become a thing. Theories about Gabriel speculated that he could be Annalise's son, Bonnie's son, Wes' brother, the "real" Wes, and even Nate's son.

The truth is that Gabriel is the first child of Sam Keating, Annalise's deceased husband, and his first wife Vivian Maddox. He came to Middleton for answers about his father and how he died. By the end of the season, everyone knows who he really is and is scared for what he might find out about what they did to Sam.

Now, Laurel & Christopher Are Missing

Mitch Haaseth/ABC

In the final moments of the season, Laurel and her baby are both kidnapped. Laurel vanished on the sidewalk while Annalise was distracted, and Christopher was taken from the fraternity house. We don't know who took them, why, or where they are now.

The trailer for How To Get Away With Murder Season 6 reveals that the FBI is hot on the tail on Annalise Keating and her legal team. With luck, they'll make good on the title and get away with every murder going from the events of Season 5 all the way back to the deaths of Sam Keating and Lila Stangard in Season 1. The law students are getting one heck of a practical final exam whether they want it or not.