After what feels like forever, ABC’s Shondaland Thursday lineup is finally back with new episodes of Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal, and How to Get Away With Murder. But where did things leave off way back in November? And is it too late to just start watching now?
Grey’s Anatomy: Meredith and Derek had been fighting and fighting and fighting, and finally she told him to just go ahead and take that job in D.C., which he does. Sick burn. Avery and April’s unborn baby was diagnosed with a likely fatal birth defect, Callie and Arizona were still broken up, Owen was unbearably self-righteous, and Maggie was still bugging Meredith with her mere existence.
Can I just jump in?This show has been on for 11 seasons, but … sure. It’s easy enough to follow, though starting now seems a little strange. But you do you.
Scandal: Oh God, let’s see. Olivia and her father had a very tense face-off, culminating in Olivia trying to shoot Papa Pope — pulling the trigger and everything, only to discover there were no bullets in the gun. (Take a firearms class, Olivia, you’re around guns all the time.) Cyrus was embroiled in a sex scandal orchestrated by the evil Elizabeth North (Portia de Rossi), but he decided to throw down by marrying the hunky sex worker who’d been paid to seduce him. Quinn and Charlie were still doing their torture-bang dance, Huck had killed someone in front of his now-traumatized son, Abby had to tell David she was dating someone else. Most important, Olivia disappeared! She and Jake were dancing and hanging out, she gave him an “I choose me” speech, and when he went to grab a blanket and pillow for them to have sex on, she vanished. The VP made it clear to Fitz that he was behind Olivia’s abduction, but who knows who else is involved?
Can I just jump in? Probably not — Scandal’s clarity is directly proportional to how much you’re invested in the show in the first place. You can catch up quickly, but skipping ahead will ruin things for you.
How to Get Away With Murder: Recall that there are two murders everyone’s trying to get away with: Lila’s murder and Sam’s murder. Lila — she’s the dead girl who was having an affair with Annalise’s husband Sam — was six weeks pregnant when she died. Did Sam know that? He says no, but we know Lila came to his house the night she was murdered, and it sure looks like he knew what was up.
And who killed Sam? Michaela shoved him over the stair rail, which she thought killed him, but it didn’t: He came back, Kimberly Shaw–style, and tried to go after Rebecca, at which point Wes beaned him with the ever-present statue. Annalise did not seem to mind. Everyone is the murderer!
Can I just jump in? Yep. HTGAWM thinks it’s all twists and turns, but the show is incredibly repetitive, and most of the characters have no idea what they’re doing, so they’re all constantly explaining things to each other. “You’re saying we take the body and hide it in the woods, so no one knows?” “Yeah!” Et cetera. If you’ve seen murder shows before, you’ll be fine.
