Connor (Jack Falahee) declines Oliver's (Conrad Ricamora) proposal, Laurel (Karla Souza) expects Wes's baby, Michaela (Aja Naomi King) and Asher (Matt McGorry) team up for internships, and Bonnie (Liza Weil) seeks her professional future.

Laurel deduces that her father, Jorge Castillo (Esai Morales), is responsible for Wes's murder and hatches a scheme to steal incriminating evidence with Michaela, Oliver, and a reluctant Frank and Asher.

Annalise hosts a dinner to dismiss the Keating Four and Bonnie from their jobs, to convince them to move on and seek new opportunities.

During a flight to visit her mother, she meets a man named Desmond and later calls him for casual sex at his hotel, but stops his advances and walks out after suspecting he is married.

During her second session with Isaac, Annalise tells him how her week went when she decided to take the case of Jasmine, one of her cellmates from when she was in prison.

Laurel finds out Michaela accepted an offer for a job at Caplan & Gold, the firm that represents Jorge's company.

Laurel asks Michaela to help her get information regarding Wes' death, and Connor decides to withdraw from law school.

Annalise and Michaela are forced to work together on a case involving the Middleton University president, Soraya Hargrove.

Annalise succeeds in getting the necessary forty clients, only to lose a majority of them as Bonnie lures each into a plea deal out of spite.

Annalise retaliates by having Claudia's son, Tyrone, read a statement to the governor in a press conference about the threats, therefore hurting Denver's bid for attorney general.

Frank learns that he scored well on the Law School Admission Test and promises to be a good father to Laurel's baby.

As Annalise tries to certify her class action lawsuit, the attorney general targets her alcoholism in an attempt to take her down, forcing her to figure out a way to rule out those accusations.

Right before the class action starts, Annalise gets a call from Jacqueline Roa, who tells her Isaac has been hospitalized after an overdose and that she ruined him just like everything else in her life.

After Bonnie tells this to Annalise on a voicemail, Nate informs her and Frank that there has been a car accident; a body is shown being taken away.

[21] The cast features nine major roles receiving star billing, all of them returning from the previous season.

Viola Davis portrays the protagonist of the series, Professor Annalise Keating, a high-profile defense attorney.

Aja Naomi King plays Michaela Pratt, an ambitious student who aims to be as successful as Annalise.

Charlie Weber plays Frank Delfino, an employee of Annalise's firm who is not a lawyer but handles special duties requiring discretion.

[26] Fans began to speculate a possible crossover episode being in the works, which was only heightened when Davis tweeted out a photo in response, that being her on the set of Mellie Grant's (Bellamy Young) Oval Office.

[28] How to Get Away with Murder creator Peter Nowalk later went on to share in an interview with Deadline: At the beginning of the season, my writers and I were planning out Viola's entire arc and something in her story organically came up that was very appropriate for Scandal.

[33] Meghan De Maria of Refinery29 also praised Davis' acting, naming it the "glue that holds the series together".