Upon returning to her apartment that evening, Laurel hears Dominick’s cell phone go off in Frank’s jacket pocket, and she’s appalled that Frank is still holding on to the device after Dominick was killed. That’s when Frank finally reveals the voicemail from Wes that remains on the phone — and just as Laurel begins to replay the voicemail on a loop, Dominick’s phone rings, and Laurel recognizes the number. Ignoring Frank and Annalise’s pleas not to answer it, Laurel picks up and utters an unexpected greeting: “Hi, Mom.”
THE SIMON SITUATION | Despite what’s going on with Laurel and the baby, Annalise finally revisits her class-action lawsuit in this hour, recruiting Connor, Asher and Oliver to sort through the paperwork on the dozens of clients that will be involved. But not long into the process, it’s clear that Asher and Oliver are too distracted to focus on the lawsuit; Asher’s still worried he’ll be thrown in jail any minute, and Oliver is obsessing over Simon’s life-or-death limbo. (In a very Oliver move, he hacks the hospital’s intranet and gets access to Simon’s medical charts, because… he’s Oliver, and he does that kind of thing.)
Oliver becomes so consumed with guilt over Simon’s situation that he visits the hospital himself, lying that he’s Simon’s boyfriend so that he can visit him. But not long into Oliver’s visitation at Simon’s bedside, Asher and Connor arrive and convince him to leave. In a devastating heart-to-heart, Asher assures Oliver that if he lets those guilty thoughts in, they’ll consume him; Oliver has to find some way to repress it all, otherwise he’ll lose his mind. (Healthy coping mechanism!)
THE BONNIE SITUATION| Realizing that Bonnie could help locate Laurel’s hard drive and infiltrate the relationship between Jorge Castillo and D.A. Denver, Frank convinces Annalise to visit Bonnie and apologize to her. Reluctantly, Annalise does, and the two women have an incredibly intense conversation — although it doesn’t seem like they’re capable of much else.
Annalise apologizes for firing Bonnie and making her feel alone, and Bonnie reassures Annalise that although she said “I love you” a few weeks back, she’s not in love with Annalise. “What we are to each other is so much more complicated than any stupid husband or wife or girlfriend,” she says.
Ultimately, the conversation ends on a — surprise! — heartbreaking note, in which Annalise confesses that she helps her students because she wants to stop feeling empty inside, to stop feeling like she’s a horrible person. Referencing the night that she attempted suicide after losing her son — a night when Bonnie saved Annalise’s life by resuscitating her on the bathroom floor — Annalise tells Bonnie, “Think of all the pain we could have avoided if you just let me go.” (And after this chat, Bonnie agrees to act as a mole in Denver’s office, keeping tabs on his interactions with Jorge.)
