Ask Him About Stella

"Ask Him About Stella"
Season	4
Episode	12
Airdate	February 8, 2018
Viewers	3.26 million
Flashback	Dr. Isaac Roa
Written by	Tess Leibowitz
Directed by	Stephen Cragg
Starring	Viola Davis - Annalise Keating Billy Brown - Nate Lahey Jack Falahee - Connor Walsh Aja Naomi King - Michaela Pratt Matt McGorry - Asher Millstone Conrad Ricamora - Oliver Hampton Karla Souza - Laurel Castillo Charlie Weber - Frank Delfino Liza Weil - A.D.A. Bonnie Winterbottom
Guest Starring	Benito Martinez - D.A. Todd Denver Lolita Davidovich - Sandrine Castillo John Hensley - A.D.A. Ronald Miller Rochelle Greenwood - Attorney Nate Bynum - Judge Maxwell Salinas Glynn Turman - Nathaniel Lahey, Sr. Jimmy Smits - Dr. Isaac Roa
Co-Starring	Jackie Houston - DHS Officer Henderson Katy O'Brian - Cashier Girl Celesta DeAstis - Stella Roa Betsy Baker - Waitress Dre Sawyer - Judge's Clerk Chris Jai Alex - Guard Paul James S.W. Lee - Tipstaff
Uncredited	Baby - Christopher Castillo Kerry Washington - Olivia Pope
Previous Episode	"He's a Bad Father"
Next Episode	"Lahey v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania"

"Ask Him About Stella" is the 57th episode of How to Get Away with Murder.

Summary

Annalise deals with an unforeseen issue after damaging details about a key witness are exposed in her case to help Laurel. Meanwhile, the “K4” continue their efforts to help build a case for Annalise’s class action lawsuit.

Plot

We go backward in time from the end of last week’s episode to see Isaac in his car having a breakdown after the trial. He goes to a food truck to buy some pills, which he promptly crushes and snorts once home. When Annalise came to check on him, he was high — busy flashing back to the night Stella died. At an unkwnon building, Frank is continuing to dig into Laurel’s mom, while also watching out for Bonnie by giving her something to test her brakes each time she turns on her car. At Oliver's Apartment, Asher and Michaela, the Keating 4 are working hard to prep the class action for court. Well, three of them are working hard — Asher is just baking 24/7 and Michaela wants to know if they’re getting paid, but Annalise says it’s just whoever is willing and grateful to be a part of it. Annalise goes back to Isaac’s to reassure him the investigation means nothing until he’s charged. He is suspicious that she has Bonnie on the case, but she assures him they have worked out their issues. This leads him to confess that he was high the night before, ending his 23-year stint of sobriety. Annalise wells up with emotion at this and offers to go to a meeting with Isaac and be there to help him.

They do go to meetings together and enjoy breakfast at a pancake joint afterward. They talk about how their addictions started, and Isaac explains that he began doing heroin as a young writer/musician in New York. One night, while he was high and basically homeless, he met his ex-wife Jacqueline in a bodega. He realized then that he wanted to get clean and build a life. At the DA’s office, Bonnie is trying to help Isaac without signaling Annalise’s involvement. She goes to the lawyer assigned to the case, Ronald Miller and offers to help him figure out how to charge the guy, while also flirting with him and offering to go out for drinks in order to encourage him to give her information. Back at Oliver's Apartment, Connor and Michaela are battling over who can write a better opening statement for Annalise. Connor wants to lean into Nate’s father as the "face case", while Michaela pushes for a more objective approach. Oliver gets a call from Frank asking for help hacking phone records (Laurel’s mother’s phone), but Laurel overhears and assumes he’s still trying to investigate Dominick. She begs him to stop so her father won’t have a reason to block her from seeing her son. He says he will.

Annalise is back at the jail prepping Nate Sr. for his trial by going over his story again. He explains how he came home from jail to a hefty bill from the court that he couldn’t pay, which automatically put him in a place of desperation where he would be forced to break parole. Worse — as a former boxer, he had a target on his back in prison as everyone wanted to see if they could take him. The man he murdered swung at him first and he snapped. This was after he’d been in solitary confinement for 12 months, which he thought had only been a month. At court, Annalise rejects both opening statements and decides to wing it. There’s no need though, because moments into her opening remarks she’s informed that the attorney general has pushed the case to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. There will be no court trial — instead, she has to write a brief to the Supreme Court judges and see what happens. Annalise argues that this once again denies her clients the right to a fair trial, which is the point of the class action in the first place. The judge agrees, but he can’t overrule the state Supreme Court.

After, Annalise tells Isaac the bad news back at their diner, but as they’re paying, Jacqueline calls. It’s the three-year anniversary of Stella’s death. Annalise urges him to call her back, saying that even though she doesn’t miss Sam, when she thinks about their baby, he’s the only one she wants to talk to. Back at the jail, Nate breaks the news about the case to his father, who is angry they could just change the rules like this. He rants about being played by Annalise and Nate to begin with and fears that they’re just dropping him from the case and lying to him. Nate assures him he has his father’s back, but Nate Sr. calls for the guard and tells Nate not to come back. Elsewhere, back in Oliver's Apartment, Connor and Michaela are helping Annalise write her brief for the state Supreme Court, and once again they’re arguing. Connor accuses Michaela of only being interested because she wants her name in the brief if it goes to the Supreme Court, when he’s the one who’s been doing the work from the beginning. She comes right back at him wondering why he doesn’t re-enroll in law school since it’s clear he wants to be a lawyer. This is all interrupted by the news that Laurel finally gets to meet her baby.

Frank calls Bonnie at her office to tell her that Laurel’s mom has been on the phone with Jorge every day that week. She wants to tell Laurel, but instead Frank goes to Laurel’s apartment to request to go with her to the visitation. He feels responsible for the premature labor since he elbowed her and wants to be there for her... but really he just wants to keep an eye on Jorge and her mother. Bonnie comes to Annalise at her appartment with good news. There was bruising on Stella’s body, which proved Isaac did CPR and can explain his delay in calling 911. She wants to tell the office to close the case. But one detail stands out to Annalise: the drug in Stella’s system. It’s the same opioid Isaac admitted to take the night of his relapse after the trial.

She goes to him and confronts him. He explains that when he got home, he saw his foil wrapper on the ground and realized that his daughter knew something. He lied about being sober for 23 years — he’d been using these pills. Stella was already dead, having taken nearly every pill in his bag. He didn’t know if it was an accident or suicide, but he couldn’t face Jacqueline finding out their daughter’s death was his fault when he’d been claiming to be sober. He texted Jacqueline the suicide note from Stella’s phone, cleaned up the evidence, and made it look like she took her own life purposefully. Despite all of this, Annalise still wants Bonnie to help Isaac and guilts her into it because he helped them. Bonnie has to convince the ADA to close the investigation. Annalise writing her brief for her class action in her hotel room when elsewhere, Laurel is about to meet her baby for the first time at the hospital. Frank does come along, but he realizes he maybe jumped to conclusions when Ms. Castillo reveals she called Jorge every day during the week to allow Laurel to meet the baby on her own. Laurel decides to name the baby Christopher in honor of Wes’ birth name. She texts Annalise a picture of her with the baby and makes a tearful goodbye.

Isaac is texting Annalise photos of pancakes from the diner, which naturally makes her turn around and call Nate Lahey. She’s waiting anxiously at the court in Harrisburg for the justices to make a ruling, but Nate reassures her. Back at the District Attorney's Office, the lawyer on Isaac’s case, Ronald Miller, taunts Bonnie, revealing that her interest in the case made him realize she’s still working for Annalise. So, despite there not being enough evidence to charge Isaac, he’s advised the DA to bring him in for “death by delivery” anyway. Bonnie has a mild breakdown in her office, but then she recovers and storms into Denver’s office, making one last desperate stand. She plays the recording of their conversation about Antares off her phone and threatens to leak all of their conversations to the press if anything happens to her. Her terms: He must drop the investigation into Isaac. Or else she’ll turn him in. Nate is walking through the courthouse, and Annalise arrives to tell him the bad news: They lost the case and the class action suit is over. Then Bonnie tells Annalise they’ve dropped Isaac’s case, and Annalise goes straight to Isaac to tell him the good news. Things get really awkward when he starts caressing her hand and goes in for a kiss, which is when Annalise realizes he’s high They have a massive fight where they both scream, “We’re no good for each other,” and ultimately, Isaac blames Annalise for his relapse. He calls her a narcissist and says she’s made him worse off than when he was addicted to heroin. She retorts back that he taught her she can’t make anyone be other than what they are. Finally, when he threatens physical violence, she calls Jacqueline and tells her Isaac has relapsed. Oh, and to ask him about Stella.

Nate goes to see his father at the prison and tells him they lost the case but he’s not going to lose him. He’s going to keep coming back to visit. Nate Sr. is still a bit incredulous that his son doesn’t hate him. Meanwhile, Annalise is sadly packing away all the evidence and records for her class action suit at her hotel room, looking at the photos of the people she’s let down. Back at Oliver's Apartment, Michaela storms out, refusing to give up. Connor admits she was right and announces that he’s going back to law school and that it will be tough to balance class with planning a wedding, revealing that he’s calling his marriage to Oliver back on. Bonnie is spiraling back at her own house, moving her gun around in fear that she’s going to be attacked. She calls Frank and asks him to move back in with her because she’s so afraid. He promises to be there soon, but first he confronts Laurel’s mom on the street and straight-up asks her how she knew Christophe/Wes.

As a last resort, Michaela goes to Annalise to push her to appeal to the Supreme Court. But if they’re going to do it, they need help — they need someone with power: Olivia Pope. Annalise goes to a university in D.C. to watch Olivia deliver a lecture titled "How to Survive a Scandal," mirroring what she had done on the first day of law school in 2014.

Notes and Trivia

Notes

• After this episode, the show will go on a three-week break, and return with the Crossover Episode.
• Viewers decreased to it’s lowest point in the series. This is most likely due to the fact that the 2018 Winter Olympics were on at the same time as the episode aired. This is also the reason why the show took a break for a couple of weeks.
• When Isaac Roa was about to call his ex-wife, a view of his contacts is shown and some of Annalise's previous clients are shown to be in his contacts such as Irene Crowley and Jackie Groves suggesting that they have all been for a session with Isaac at some point.
• When Olivia Pope writes on her blackboard when giving a lecture to the college, she titles it "How to survive a scandal" which mirrors what Annalise did the day of the Keating 5's first class "How to get away with murder". Additionally, both of the phrases say what each of the shows is about. For example, Scandal is where Olivia Pope deals with other people's "scandals" and HTGAWM is where Annalise teachers the Keating 5, "how to get away with murder".
• Annalise Keating's class action lawsuit case in court takes place around May 10, 2016 as mentioned in "He's a Bad Father"
• Isaac mentions that he was sober for 23 years until the previous night where he relapsed. This is actually proven to be a lie being as he was using three years prior before his daughter's death. The death of his daughter was a wake-up call which triggered him to stop using again.
• Laurel Castillo jokes about Wes was an FBI agent when talking with Frank Delfino. Interestingly, this is a nod to some of the fan theories on the internet; some of which suggest that Wes faked his death because he worked with the FBI.
• Isaac mentions that he has not spoken to Jacqueline Roa since they fought over Annalise. This happened in "Live. Live. Live.", which was about 3 weeks prior to the episode.

​​​Important Events

• Isaac Roa relapses and does drugs to cope with the D.A.'s case on his part that he played in her suicide.
  • Bonnie blackmails D.A. Denver in order to get him to drop the charges against Isaac.
• Laurel gets to see her son for the first time since giving birth to him.
  • She names him after his father, Christopher.
• Annalise loses her class action lawsuit. Michaela later alerts Annalise of someone who can help their situation in Washington D.C. Annalise then visits Olivia teaching a class as a guest lecturer.
• After his daughter killed herself, Isaac found her body after she overdosed on drugs that belonged to Isaac. Whether his daughter actually intentionally killed herself is unknown as Isaac wrote her suicide note and hid the evidence that she had overdosed on his drugs in order to protect his wife from her death.
• Connor and Oliver officially get engaged.
• Connor decided to go back to law school.
• Frank confronts Sandrine Castillo about the picture with her and Wes.

Title

• Having gone to see Isaac at his therapy room, to tell him that he's not going to be looked into anymore for his daughter's death, Annalise and Isaac nearly kiss, however, just before they do, Annalise notices that he's high, having relapsed. This causes him to get mad and lash out at her, making Annalise fear for her safety, so Annalise calls his ex-wife, Jacqueline and tells her, "I'm with Isaac. And he's relapsed, and he needs you. Ask him about Stella." before leaving his therapy room.
  • Ask Him About Stella - Annalise Keating

Music

Song	Artist	Scene
"A Big Part of a Big Sun"	DeLaurentis	Annalise packs up her case; Connor makes an annoucement; Bonnie prepares for Denver; Frank confronts Sandrine; Michaela comes to Annalise with an idea; Annalise goes to a lecture given by Olivia Pope.

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How to Get Away with Murder 4x12 Promo "Ask Him About Stella" (HD) Season 4 Episode 12 Promo

How to Get Away with Murder 4x12 Sneak Peek "Ask Him About Stella" (HD) Season 4 Episode 12