‘How to Get Away With Murder’ Finale Burning Questions: Viola Davis & Charlie Weber Tell All

Spoiler Alert: Do not read unless you’ve seen the Feb. 26 season finale of “How to Get Away With Murder.”

Lila Stangard’s murderer has finally been revealed: Frank (Charlie Weber) was the culprit.

Revealed in a series of flashbacks during the season ender, Frank was ordered by the now-dead Sam Keating (Tom Verica) to kill Lila. But this is “How to Get Away With Murder,” so when one mystery is solved, another one arises. The latest victim? Rebecca (Katie Findlay). After the Keating Five spent most of the finale questioning Rebecca, the episode ended with Frank and Annalise (Viola Davis) finding Rebecca’s body under the staircase in Annalise’s basement.

Here, Davis and Weber answer some burning questions about the finale:

When did you find out that Frank killed Lila?

Davis: We all found out when we did the read-through, and everyone just gasped. Charlie was so happy — he enjoys playing the villain.

What was your reaction?

Weber: It was a brilliant choice. It’s interesting. I played him as someone who really can compartmentalize things, and we’ve seen him already do so many shady things that this wasn’t completely out of left field but was a complete twist. But I’ve always played Frank with a sense of malice that he’s capable of these things, and so I think when that reveal happened, it really worked for me and justified a lot of choices that I made through the course of the season.

Davis: I was just in shock.

What was the cast’s reaction?

Weber: Everyone really jumped on board and said, yes this makes sense, but it wasn’t what we were thinking. The way we played out the season, you had to choose Sam or Rebecca. And even though this somewhat was an extension of Sam, it wasn’t physically him. I think that was really, really smart.

Davis: Everyone was in shock because we all had our theories. We would talk about it on set while we’re shooting, and we would laugh about it and have our specific reasons why we had the theory, but no one suspected that one.

How will Frank killing Lila impact next season?

Weber: The implications of that, and when Sam on the phone says, “You owe me,” (will question) what does that mean for the future. I’ve always been fascinated by the relationship between Frank and Annalise and why he’s so loyal to her and why he agrees to commit felony after felony. All she has to do is ask, and he just goes and does it. I really love that about him. I have my own theory about that, but I’m really looking forward to delving into all those relationships, and now we’ll have to get into Frank and Sam and how this all ties together.

Does Annalise know that Frank killed Lila?

Weber: As I perceive right now, she did not. It’s a secret I’m keeping from everyone, but that could change — you never know. These are all very, very smart people were talking about, so if Frank were to slip up, one of them could probably piece it together and we’ll just see if that happens. As far as I can tell right now, the only two people that know I killed Lila are both dead — Lila and Sam. For now, it seems that it’s Frank’s secret to keep.

Davis: Right now, I’m going on the assumption that she does not. Now, I have no idea what the writers will decide, but right now, I’m going on the assumption that was just Sam’s secret that he took to his grave.

Does Annalise even realize that Frank and Sam had some sort of relationship?

Weber: She’s very intuitive. We’ll have to see how it plays out, as we get into that relationship between Frank and Sam and what she knows and what she doesn’t know.

Davis: Well, my fantasy is that she does not. I think that would be an interesting choice, but once again, I don’t know what the writers are going to reveal. We didn’t even know that Frank was going to be the killer. I’m under the assumption that she believes Frank is the one who works for her — and her alone.

I’d imagine Annalise won’t be happy to find out Frank did a favor for Sam.

Davis: We’ll see! Just like life, the show has a lot of twists and turns. I don’t know how badly she needs him and will need him in coming episodes, so that relationship may be one that he needs me but I need him too, so it may not be so simple to sever that relationship.

Do you know why Frank owes Sam a favor?

Weber: No. These are things that (showrunner) Pete (Nowalk) did to really shake things up, and I think we’re all really excited to get into those backstories — looking back again at what he meant by that.

Does Frank feel any sense of guilt that Sam was killed rather than him?

Weber: I don’t think Frank is too broken up about Sam’s death. I think he saw that Lila thing as his business in one way or another. In that scene, he’s pretty cold when he kills her. There’s not a whole lot there. It’s just him on a mission to kill this girl, whether it be for self-preservation or whatever it is that we find out — what he owes Sam, why he owes Sam.

How does Frank know how to strangle someone?

Weber: That’s another thing that’s very interesting. Why is Frank so good at killing people? You watch him do that, it does not seem like that is the first time he’s done that — far from it — so that’s another thing we’ll be looking into in the future.

Does Annalise truly believe that Sam killed Lila, or is she just telling herself that to make things feel better?

Davis: I think that she has her doubts. I think that she probably was sure before, but now has her doubts and I think that she is forcing herself to believe that is true and she is then employing Wes to believe that is true, too, because the other is just too powerful. It would just be too much. I think that even revealed in the room when Wes said Sam may not have killed Lila, I think that’s too much for her to bear. So I do think she has her doubts.

Why does Annalise have such a strong connection to Wes? That scene on the stairs was very emotional. Is there something we don’t know?

Davis: There may be something that you don’t know — we’ll see what the writers reveal. Right now, I’m just going on the assumption that when she was introduced to Wes, he was put on the waitlist — he was coming from a completely different background than everyone else, and I think that there is a feeling with Annalise that he reminds her of her. It’s an emotional connection, it’s a maternal connection, and I don’t think that Annalise has that often in life, so when it does happen, I think it’s very powerful. I think it’s just as simple as that. She recognizes herself in him.

Have you heard of the fan theories that she could be his birth mom?

Davis: Yeah, I’ve heard of all of that! We have not discussed that at all, but once again, stranger things have happened.

Let’s get to Rebecca: My first thought was that you killed her and Annalise ordered you to do so. Am I completely off-base?

Weber: That is a theory that holds a lot of water from what we saw last night. Even though we’re seeing two people alone in a cellar with a dead body saying, “I didn’t do it,” these are two people that are very capable of just lying to each other and themselves. That’s one of many theories that would make sense.

You both say that you didn’t kill her. Should we believe you?

Davis: I don’t know how much you should believe on this show. I really don’t! I don’t think that anyone is really straightforward so I’ll leave it at that. I always feel like my hands are clean, but then I was very confused when I was in the house when Wes comes back to take the trophy after he kills Sam.

I know it’s not written yet — or at least you don’t know what really happened to Rebecca. What’s your personal theory?

Weber: I have no idea! What’s so interesting is if you go back and watch that last hour again, each one of us had an opportunity to do it. It could have been Annalise, it could have been me. When everyone went upstairs, Annalise had time alone with her before she said she was gone, knowing fully well she was gone. Wes had his time. Anyone could have snuck off and done that at some point in time throughout that day.

Davis: I do not know who killed Rebecca, and I’m very curious myself. I thought about it because I thought it’s got to be someone in this room — it was a very contained situation. Everyone’s always pointing their finger at Bonnie. And then I went from Bonnie to Laurel. She’s just too pulled together so what’s the deal with Laurel? I’ve gone back and forth.

How will Rebecca’s death be played out next season?

Weber: Obviously Annalise and I know, and if one of us is not the killer, the killer’s out. And then there’s a lot of other things — who did she text? We don’t even know who that is yet, and how they play into this. So clearly there are people that are in the know and people that are not so it will be a situation where we either bring more people in the fold to deal with it or try to handle it without people finding out.

Davis: I don’t know how Rebecca is going to be played out. I really don’t because I haven’t figured out the necessity of her death yet or how much she knows. I know that she is kind of risky, in terms of she was unpredictable. You never knew if she was going to blow a fuse. At one point, she called 911. She’s not necessarily loyal, she’s not trustworthy. So I actually am very confused as to how that will play out.

Does anyone know what “Eggs 911″ means?

Weber: No! That’s something we’re going to have to address and how that all plays into this.

Davis: I do not. I do not know who she was texting. When Rebecca’s character was introduced at the very beginning, I thought she was straightforward. I didn’t know that she had as many secrets as she did. I don’t know who she possibly could have been texting.

How will Rebecca’s death shake up the Keating Five?

Weber: It’s hard to say who knows and who doesn’t know because you don’t know who did it, but if one of the Keating Five did it, clearly they would know. The difference between the Keating Five and Frank is that Frank has sort of made a deal with a devil a long time ago and that’s why he’s so comfortable doing these illegal things where they’re just embarking on this life or murder and mayhem, and having to deal with it on an emotional level that he dealt with a long time ago. So if one of them killed Rebecca, they’d probably be having a much harder time that Frank did.

Is Katie Findlay gone for good or will we see her in flashbacks?

Davis: I believe she is going to be coming back in flashbacks so that those questions are answered. So even though she is dead, Katie Findlay is not done in the mystery.

Will we get more backstory into Frank and Bonnie because we really don’t know anything about their past.

Weber: For me, my hope is that we’re looking to make that a focal point because people are so curious about this horribly dysfunctional family of Annalise as this mother figure to both Frank and Bonnie, and we keep carrying out these deeds on her behalf and I think we all need to know why.

Will Frank killing Lila impact his relationship with Laurel?

Weber: It depends if she finds out, and if she does, what will she think of that? We saw Laurel go through a tremendous change throughout the course of the season. She’s a very different girl than the one we met. She was wanting me to kill Rebecca. She wanted me take care of that, and so it will be interesting to find out how she reacts to the news that Frank does in fact kill people.

Where do Nate and Annalise stand?

Davis: I don’t know where Annalise and Nate stand! I really want her to be nicer to him, but that’s me. I take it that it’s understandable why she wouldn’t be — I think that people that have been abused are probably the cruelest to the people who are the nicest to them, but I hope that they find their way back to each other to forgiveness. I think that journey would be interesting.

Even though Annalise threw Nate under the bus big time, did she always have good intent for him?

Davis: She did. I think she chose the lesser of two evils. I think it came down to a Sophie’s Choice kind of situation, and it cost [her] something. I think that she needed to protect the children.

Whose phone number was on the piece of paper that Annalise handed to Nate?

Davis: I’m so glad that you asked that question because that is my biggest question. Obviously, the phone number is of someone who can dig him out of a hole. I assume it’s an attorney, I assume it’s someone of my choice and my doing. That person has not been revealed to me so that’s the big question because I’m thinking, who can possibly get him out of there? And who is it who has that kind of allegiance to me? But I think that there is a plan to get him off fairly easily, and get focus off of the kids — I say kids because I feel like they’re my kids.

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