History Characters / HowToGetAwayWithMurder

* ButNotTooForeign: Each of his grandparents hails from a different country: Charles Mahoney is American, Rose Edmond is Haitian, Jorge Castillo is Mexican, and Sandrine Castillo is French. Overlaps with ButNotTooBlack as only his Haitian paternal grandmother is black.

* HasTwoMommies: PlayedWith. Connor’s father, Jeff, is himself a homosexual and married to another man, Ted. However, he didn’t come out until Connor was twelve years old, after spending many years married to Connor’s mother, Pam.

* {{Envy}}: It’s clear from their interactions that Jeff carries quite a lot of subconscious envy towards his son always being so confident in his sexuality compared to him, as well as living through more understanding times. His encouragement for him to dump Oliver and go back to his former lifestyle of sleeping around, is implied to partially due to Jeff’s wish that he could have lived his youth that way.

* ItRunsInTheFamily: While it’s never acknowledged, there are more than a few obvious similarities in looks and personality between Jeff’s husband Ted and Connor’s boyfriend Oliver.

* TheyDo: [[spoiler: He and Connor get back together in "She's A Murderer". It doesn't last, though. But then they get back together again in "Wes"]]

'''->Portrayed by:''' Creator/JohnHensley

* AmbiguousDisorder: Wes has shown to become completely fixated on a subject that others would deem normal.

* AmbiguousDisorder: Frank displays noticeable signs of having something wrong with him. He possesses a very high intelligence, a noticeable desensitization to violence, a contradictory sense of empathy, is very manipulative and deceptive, but at the same time carries an extreme amount of guilt and self-loathing, as well displaying TroublingUnchildlikeBehaviour when he was younger. In-verse Frank spent years believing he was a sociopath; however it’s demonstrated on multiple occasions and outright confirmed by Sam that he isn’t, as he can feel remorse and is able to develop meaningful relationships with others.

%%* AwesomeMcCoolName: ''Griffin''.

* JerkassHasAPoint: While he’s rarely nice when he brings it up, virtually every one of Nate’s criticism’s towards Annalise (her out of control drinking, habit of using other people, ends justify the means attitude or the fact she always ends up dragging people in and making their lives worse) are spot on.

* AscendedExtra: In Season 1, it was almost believed he was a OneShotCharacter seduced by Connor to gain information about clients. He continued to make a few appearances from there on, but has become more present as the Keating Five's new ally and [[spoiler: Connor's official boyfriend.]]

Tegan is a leading and well respected lawyer for Caplan and Gold, who takes Michaela as her intern in season four.

* CharacterDeath: He's the dead body in the flash forwards.

* FaceHeelTurn: Back during the early years of their marriage, Sam was a genuinely caring and well intentioned man. By the present, he’s a selfish cold hearted sociopath.

* RailingKill: [[spoiler: Subverted. Michaela pushes him off the second floor railing in self-defense and the audience is treated to a nice crunch as he hits the ground, but he managed to survive that. It's Wes hitting him on the head that finally does him in]].

* BitchInSheepsClothing: Downplayed. Jeff overall comes across as a charming and friendly man who greatly admires his son. However, while he is honestly well intentioned, much like Connor, Jeff has a manipulative and selfish side to his personality. He is also subconsciously trying to live the life he wanted through Connor.
* {{Envy}}: It’s clear from their interactions that Jeff carries quite a lot of subconscious envy towards his son always being so confident in his sexuality compared to him, as well as living through more understanding times. His encouragement for him to dump Oliver and go back to his former life style of sleeping around, is implied to partially due to Jeff’s wish that he could have lived his youth that way.

* ParentsAsPeople: Jeff comes across as a friendly and well intentioned man, who really does regret his past mistakes and wants to fix his relationship with Connor. However, his not knowing about what Connor’s been through, and subconsciously projecting his wants onto Connor leads to him advising him to dump Oliver and go back to a lifestyle of meaningless sex that he no longer wants.

* MysteriousWaif: If this show was a FilmNoir, Wes would be the detective and Rebecca would be the FemmeFatale that gets him mixed up in the investigation of Lila Stangard's murder. Yet Rebecca isn't a femme fatale in the context of the show, with Wes being drawn in despite her clear desire for him to butt out, hence this trope. [[spoiler: She might qualify in the flash forwards, since she and Wes enter a relationship that has him murdering Mr. Keating to defend her]].

* AwesomeMcCoolName: ''Griffin''.

* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler:Once the DA accepts the evidence Annalise provides regarding the Hapstall murders, he slits his wrists in a bath tub to avoid arrest.]]

* WolfInSheepsClothing: Calem comes across as charming, easy going and kind hearted young man and a caring brother, who simply got caught up in a horrible crime happening to his family. [[spoiler:In truth, he’s a greedy, murderous sociopath.]]

* AntiVillain: She does have noble goals -- to find out the truth of Sam's murder and to bring the killer to justice -- but she commits numerous ethical violations in order to reach them. [[spoiler: In "Hi, I'm Philip", she arranges meeting with the Hapstalls behind the backs of Annalise and the judge in order to establish plea deals, coercing Caleb and Catherine to plead guilty to the murders of their adoptive parents and aunt.]]

* AmoralAttorney: Denver goes from being ruthless and immoral in season two to outright being corrupt in season three when he [[spoiler: interferes with the investigation into Wes’s death to further make Annalise look guilty. He more or less kidnaps Connor, and threatens to have him arrested and sentenced on trumped up charges unless he incriminates Annalise.]]
* BigBad: Of season three, it is he and his office that are pushing for Annalise to be arrested for [[spoiler:Wes’s death]], and it turns out [[spoiler:trying to frame her for it.]]

* ManipulativeBastard: [[spoiler:Calem is an expert at using charm and seduction to get others to do what he wants. He seduces Michaela to help ensure he is found not guilty of his parents murder, and he also manipulates Catherine to provide him an alibi for the murders.]]

* {{Hypocrite}}: Like Connor, she holds Wes responsible for their lives going downhill after he kills Sam. She later ends up dating Asher, despite knowing full well the latter killed Emily Sinclair in cold blood.

* ShyBladder: Annalise is shown to be pee shy as shown by her reluctance to use the toilet in front of her cellmates until she ultimately had to give in and do as shown in the episode We're Bad People. By the time of It's for the Greater Good she is seemingly able to go with her parole officer still in the stall with her albeit turned around as her cellmate offered to do.

* BiggusDickus: His username on a gay dating app is "[=EightIsGreat=]".

* BiggusDickus: {{Discussed|Trope}}. In "Meet Bonnie", Connor wants to see "what the puppy's packing".

* IllBoy: [[spoiler: The first season reveals he's HIV-positive. To make it worse, [=S2E2=] reveals that he was pressured into sleeping with a guy he met at a bar by his friends to "get back out there" and he did so most likely do so out of anger at Connor, which led to him contracting the virus.]]

* MamaBear: [[spoiler:After she discovered Uncle Clyde was sexually abusing Annalise, she set his house on fire, while he was still inside.]]

* NotSoDifferent: While she hates to admit it, Annalise shares more than a few similarities with her husband Sam. They are both ruthless, selfish, and manipulative, aren’t above abusing their relationships for their own gain and treating those they’re closest to badly. Annalise can at least still claim to possess a conscience, guilt and a desire for what is right, while Sam was in the end purely selfish.

* NotSoDifferent:
** From Michaela. Both are {{Guile Hero}}es and crafty in their own ways. Also, both of their mental breakdowns began with issues about their loved ones.
** From Annalise. As she says in "She's a Murderer," both of them are "worriers," who get through things by worrying through them.

* NotSoDifferent: From Connor. Both are {{Guile Hero}}es and crafty in their own ways. Also, both of their mental breakdowns began with issues about their loved ones.

* Hypocrite: Like Connor, she holds Wes responsible for their lives going downhill after he kills Sam. She later ends up dating Asher, despite knowing full well the latter killed Emily Sinclair in cold blood.

* OpositeAttract: With Oliver oddly. He's a charismatic arrogant {{Jerkass}} while Oliver is an insecure nerdy NiceGuy.

* OpositeAttract: With Connor oddly. Connor's a charismatic arrogant {{Jerkass}} while Oliver is an insecure nerdy NiceGuy.

* OppositeAttract: With Oliver oddly. He's a charismatic arrogant {{Jerkass}} while Oliver is an insecure nerdy NiceGuy.

* OppositeAttract: With Connor oddly. Connor's a charismatic arrogant {{Jerkass}} while Oliver is an insecure nerdy NiceGuy.

* OppositeAttracts: With Oliver oddly. He's a charismatic arrogant {{Jerkass}} while Oliver is an insecure nerdy NiceGuy.

* OppositeAttracts: With Connor oddly. Connor's a charismatic arrogant {{Jerkass}} while Oliver is an insecure nerdy NiceGuy.

* BadassTeacher: The teacher of the core 6. Annalise teaches them the art of being a defense attorney, by having them work on her current case(s).

* CharacterDevelopment: Starts as [[IceQueen an emotionally-censored woman]] to a person who shows more compassion, empathy and her own feelings.

* CharacterDevelopment: Starts as an emotionally-censored CompetitionFreak with clear parental issues and a need to have her role model to a person who shows more compassion having gradually her own identity .

* GirlyBruiser: Has made it clear that she's "not scared to hit a bitch" when Laurel antagonizes her. The latter learns pretty quickly when Michaela attacks.

* ViolentlyProtectiveGirlfriend: When she catches Simon mocking Asher over his [[spoiler:father’s suicide]] in “I'm Not Her”, she point blank tells him if he ever does it again she will seriously hurt him.