The third season of How to Get Away With Murder premiered Thursday night, and as is the case with many episodes of HTGAWM, it ended with a cliffhanger. In a flash-forward, Annalise Keating arrives at her house to find it extremely aflame and then sees a body being rolled into an ambulance as a nosy crowd watches. When she looks under the sheet to see who it is, she begins screaming and crying, so you know this is not just some random student from her new legal clinic. But who is it? Showrunner Pete Nowalk has said the big reveal comes in episode nine, but for now it’s time to speculate. Below, 10 possible candidates for the body’s identity, ranked from least to most likely to be dead.

10. Asher. Asher has his moments, but Annalise has proved time and time again that she is not here for his shit. She barely shows emotion toward people she actually likes, so unless she and Asher plan to spend a lot of time gardening together in the next eight episodes, it’s hard to believe she’d be this wrecked by his death.

9. Oliver. Annalise’s interest in Oliver seems to primarily be about keeping him close so he doesn’t hack his way into files that could get her disbarred (and there must be a lot of those). She would probably feel responsible for turning him to the dark side in the event of his death, but would she be sobbing-in-the-street destroyed? Unlikely.

8. Connor. Annalise’s strong reaction might indicate that she truly cares about the person under the sheet, but it also seems possible that she’s so upset because whoever died because of something they did on her behalf. If that’s the case, there’s no way the dead person is Connor, because he had one foot out the door last season (and would have left for the West Coast if it weren’t for Oliver deleting his Stanford acceptance). Now that Annalise has indirectly cost him his relationship with Oliver, there’s no way he’s sacrificing anything for her ever again.

7. Laurel. Laurel’s been getting closer to Annalise in recent episodes, but they still don’t share quite the same rapport that Annalise has with people like Wes and Frank. Would her death really rock the show in a big way or affect Annalise so deeply? Also, Laurel can’t die because she has to live long enough to see Frank with his new hot buzz cut.

6. Michaela. One of the best scenes in Thursday’s premiere was the moment where Annalise picks Michaela up after she gets caught drunk driving, and tells her she’s always welcome to come over and make use of the Keating liquor cabinet if she feels like blacking out. Michaela and Annalise haven’t been super-tight in the past, but the chance that they develop a new closeness this season seems higher than it does with say, Asher. Michaela also has a history of taking one for the team when it matters most.

5. Frank. Frank’s path is a complete mystery right now, but there’s no question that Annalise cares about him (even if she is maybe trying to have him murdered at the moment). Pete Nowalk recently told The Hollywood Reporter that “this season is very much about a Frank-Annalise conflict,” so he’s clearly going to be a major player in episodes to come. He’s also one of the most likely suspects in the murder of Wallace Mahoney, so if this is about retaliation, he would be an obvious target.

4. Eve. Eve would have to come back to the show ASAP for her death to have much emotional resonance, but she checks off the important boxes of (1) someone whose death would devastate Annalise, (2) someone who might have killed Wallace Mahoney, and (3) someone who didn’t kill Wallace Mahoney but is suspicious enough to be mistakenly pinpointed by someone out for revenge. (This is assuming that the fire has anything to do with Wallace Mahoney at all, which could very well not be true on this roller coaster of a show.)

3. Nate. For the sake of his biceps alone, Nate should not die, but this is HTGAWM, so no one can ever be happy for more than one or two episodes. Even if he makes out of this season alive, that sexy foot massage setup can’t possibly be long for this world.

2. Wes. In her own special, twisted way, Annalise loves Wes like a son, so there’s no question that finding him in a body bag would tear her up. Wes also saw his father get murdered last season, an incident that will definitely come back to haunt the team no matter how much they try to bury it. Maybe Wes gets caught in some sort of vengeful crossfire or even — just go with it — sets the fire to get back at Annalise for the way knowing her has basically ruined his life.

1. Bonnie. Annalise’s relationship with Bonnie is probably the most complicated relationship she shares with anyone, on a show filled with very complicated relationships. At times it seems like Bonnie despises Annalise, but she’d also do anything to protect her, and Annalise knows that. Pete Nowalk told THR, “We do find out more about Bonnie’s past in certain ways” this season, though “not in the way you may expect.” That could mean nothing, but remember that there will still be six episodes left in the season after the body is unveiled. Could “not in the way you may expect” mean “after Bonnie is already dead?”

Follow Eliza on Twitter.



Eliza Thompson senior entertainment editor I’m the senior entertainment editor at Cosmopolitan.com, which means my DVR is always 98 percent full.

This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io