History Characters / HowToGetAwayWithMurder

* FreakOut: The night of the murder, she's skittish and paranoid when [[spoiler: she sees Rebecca arrive at the Keating house]] and it only goes downhill from there. She spends most of the aftermath bordering on hysterical.
** This is completely justified by the fact that [[spoiler: she believed herself to be Sam's killer when she (accidentally) pushed him over the second story railing in the house, until he came to and attacked Rebecca before Wes finished him off.]]

* PlotTriggeringDeath: No matter what case of the week the protagonists are tackling, Lila's murder and the legal drama surrounding it is always in the background and drives much of the plot. Specifically, it kickstarts a chain of events that seemingly culminates in Sam Keating's murder.

* BreakTheHaughty: Seems to have a ''nasty'' case of this in the flashforwards. Compare the normal timeline's cocky asshole with the flashforwards' hysterical, pathetic mess.

** Insinuating that her relationship with Aiden isn't as stable as she'd like it to be is a great way to break her normally cool composure -- just see how she reacts to Connor frequently bringing up their past relationship or Aiden's parents making her sign a prenup.

* NiceGuy: Is without a doubt one of the nicest guys in the show, going through with whatever Connor wants him to no matter the legality of their actions with little complaint... until he finds out that Connor slept with someone else.

* WhamLine: Delivers a pretty epic one to Sam at the end of the "Let's Get To Scooping":

->Portrayed by: Viola Davis

* HiddenDepths: She cries over the state of her marriage because she and her husband are trying and failing to have children.

* SinkOrSwimMentor: After realising in the pilot that Wes knows virtually nothing about the class he's taking, she tells the class that in the next lecture, they must all come up with a plan to get her client found not guilty, and Wes must go last... and once a plan has been suggested by a student, nobody else is allowed to suggest that same plan. And there are ''dozens'' of students in the class. By the time it's Wes' turn, all of his ideas have been suggested and he's forced to think very quickly to come up with an idea- and she ends up being impressed enough by his quick thinking that she offers him a job at her practice (or at least, that's what she says, though she denies that she offered him the job as a bribe to keep quiet about her affair.)

->Portrayed by: Alfred Enoch

* BewareTheQuietOnes: "The quiet ones are the most dangerous".

* CorruptTheCutie: Looks like this is going to happen, based on the flash-forwards where he goes from shocked and appalled at lying in the present to lying to his classmates about the coin flip and possibly getting them to murder Mr. Keating for Rebecca's sake.

* HiddenDepths: Wes stays relatively cool-headed when the murder occurs, from going back for the murder weapon to getting everyone to agree what to do with the body. Also lies to his classmates about which way the coin flipped so they will deal with the body they way he wants them to.

* SheIsNotMyGirlfriend: Says this verbatim when re: his relationship with Rebecca when the others accuse him of it.
* StalkerWithACrush: Rebecca accuses him of this and, while ''we'' from a Doylist perspective know he's a good guy, he ''is'' still pulling stunts that could do serious damage to his career for a girl he's talked to in the area of three times and always ending with her very firmly rejecting him.

->Portrayed by: Karla Souza

* BewareTheQuietOnes: Produces the grisly '[[DoWrongRight he's a hunter - he knows how to kill]]' defense that wins the second case.

* NiceGirl: She's nice and sweet towards people in general. Probably the reason why she gets along well with Wes, since they're the Nice Guy / Nice Girl of the group.

->Portrayed by: Matt [=McGorry=]

** Subverted, though, during the season, because as of 'Kill me. Kill me. Kill me.' he's been revealed to be an actual good person.

->Portrayed by: Jack Falahee

* [[FemmeFatale Homme Fatale]]: He seduces an IT employee to get confidential e-mails for the first two cases. [[CaptainObvious And also for sex]]. Though later deconstructed when he does the same thing to a client's PA to get more information, as it ends up doing serious damage to Connor's relationship with Oliver (whom he has grown to care about).

* ReallyGetsAround: Has a pretty long list of past hookups.

* SanitySlippage: Suffers this at some point before the flashforwards, acting like a nervous wreck and cheerily singing Christmas songs and smiling like a psycho [[spoiler:while trying to hide Mr. Keating's body.]]

->Portrayed by: Aja Naomi King

** Insinuating that her relationship with Aiden isn't as stable as she'd like it to be is a great way to break her normally cool composure -- just see how she reacts to Connor frequently bringing up their past relationship or Aiden's parents making her sign a prenup.

->Portrayed by: Liza Weil

* AmbiguouslyGay / AmbiguouslyBi: Both Frank and a lawyer on opposing council imply she's into women. She is at least Bi, as shown by her sleeping with Asher during the flash-forwards.

* BrutalHonesty: Much like Annalise, Bonnie rarely shies away from harsh truths, like bluntly telling Laurel to actually ''do'' something to make Annalise notice her instead of fretting about her not and deadpanning to Frank: "Stop. Screwing. The Students."

* {{Hypocrite}}: Scolded Frank for sleeping with students. As later episodes show, she ends up sleeping with Asher.

** NotSoStoic: She has a complete emotional breakdown while telling Annalise that [[spoiler: Sam knew about Lila's pregnancy, and when Annalise fires her.]]

->Portrayed by: Charlie Weber

* JerkassHasAPoint: After Laurel gets the trial in episode 5 declared a mistrial, the judge decides that the case will go to juvenile court, where the client will most likely get a much lighter sentence if convicted. Laurel initially thinks she's won, but Frank points out that all she did was get a mistrial- the rest was sheer luck.

->Portrayed by: Katie Findlay

* BloodSplatteredInnocents: Gets blood all over her face the night of the murder. In "Kill Me, Kill Me, Kill Me," revealed to be thanks to [[spoiler: Sam being on top of her and strangling her while Wes hit him on the head with the trophy.]]

* {{Goth}}: Rather cynical, sarcastic dresses in dark colors, the works.
* MysteriousWaif: If this show was a FilmNoir, Wes would be the detective and Rebecca would be the femme fatale 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 might entail his murdering Mr. Keating.]]

* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: [[spoiler:When she realizes Annalise's house is where the dick pics on the phone were taken and assumes Annalise is in on it all, she skips out on it all, only telling Wes that she did so.]]

->Portrayed by: Billy Brown

* FlatCharacter: After he ends his and Annalise's affair, he's not given much in the way of screentime or development as the other main characters.

->Portrayed by: Tom Verica

* AssholeVictim: He lies to and takes advantage of Annalise and Bonnie so things play out the way he wants to.

* 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.]]

* WouldHitAGirl: [[spoiler: Attacks Annalise and Laurel and tries to strangle Rebecca twice the night he was murdered.]]

->Portrayed by: Conrad Ricamora

-> Portrayed by: Megan West

-> Portrayed by: Lenny Plat

-> Portrayed by: Arjun Gupta

* IvyLeagueForEveryone: Defied; she was also accepted into Yale and Colombia but felt that Middleton was a better fit for her.

** Subverted, though, during the season, because as of 'Kill me. Kill me. Kill me.' he's been revealed to be an actual good person.

* IvyLeagueForEveryone: Subverted; she was also accepted into Yale and Colombia but felt that Middleton was a better fit for her.

%% Explaining a trope is more than just saying "In season two" or "Alison is this for Scott." It means actually going into detail about how the trope is used in the series.

* BewareTheQuietOnes: Produces the grisly '[[DoWrongRight he's a hunter - he knows how to kill]]' defense that wins the second case.
* BrainyBrunette: She certainly wasn't on the waitlist.

* DespairEventHorizon: Reaches something close to this on the night of the murder, running to Oliver and pretty much having a breakdown. Has a much smaller one after seen Pax kill himself.

* CompetitionFreak: She's appalled that the others and Annalise don't care about the trophy as much as she does.

* BreadEggsMilkSquick:

* MysteriousWaif: If this show was a FilmNoir, Wes would be the detective and Rebecca would be the femme fatale 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 might entail his murdering Mr. Keating.]]
* OddFriendship: She and Lila Stangard are probably the last two characters you would have expected to be friends, but the brief scenes we see of them interacting suggest that they genuinely enjoyed hanging out together.

* MysteriousWaif: If this show was a FilmNoir, Wes would be the detective and Rebecca would be the femme fatale 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 might entail his murdering Mr. Keating.]]

* TokenWhite: While not the only white character, he's the only one of the students who achieves the "straight white male" trifecta. As of the first three episodes, he also appears to be a shallow, bigoted, sexist manchild jerk.

* BerserkButton: She's cool-headed and professional most of the time, but ''hates'' it when people -- especially her clients -- aren't completely honest with her.

** NotSoStoic: She has a complete emotional breakdown after [[spoiler: being fired.]]

** NotSoStoic: She has a complete emotional breakdown after being fired.

* [[LadykillerInLove Maneater In Love]]: Despite his protestations that he doesn't 'do boyfriends', Connor does seem to care for Oliver (the mentioned IT employee) beyond his usefulness as a resource.

* BerserkButton: She flips out upon finding out that Frank's got her pegged as the 'shooting star' of the main five- i.e. the one who'll start out shining brightly, but eventually fizzle out.

[[caption-width-right:250:some caption text]]

* DefrostingIceQueen: She's closed-off, aloof, and stoic, but eventually warms up to Wes.

Laurel's boyfriend, also a law student.

!'''Oliver'''

* BreadEggMilksSquick:

* SinkOrSwimMentor: Annalise. After realising in the pilot that Wes knows virtually nothing about the class he's taking, she tells the class that in the next lecture, they must all come up with a plan to get her client found not guilty, and Wes must go last... and once a plan has been suggested by a student, nobody else is allowed to suggest that same plan. And there are ''dozens'' of students in the class. By the time it's Wes' turn, all of his ideas have been suggested and he's forced to think very quickly to come up with an idea- and she ends up being impressed enough by his quick thinking that she offers him a job at her practice (or at least, that's what she says, though she denies that she offered him the job as a bribe to keep quiet about her affair.)

* TheSmartGuy: He's naive, but he's definitely not stupid, and he works hard.

Another of the students Annalise selected, Asher is immature, and obnoxious, and privileged, but cares where it counts.

!'''Lila Stanguard'''

* LadykillerInLove: Seems to be, at least. He calls Laurel on the night of the murder, begging for forgiveness and telling her he'll do anything to make it right. She refuses.
* TheNicknamer: He's given nicknames to all of the main five students (excepting Wes): Asher is "Doucheface", Connor is "Hair-gel", Laurel is "Wallflower" and Michaela is "Prom Queen".

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

* NiceGuy: Is without a doubt one of the nicest guys in the show, going through with whatever Connor wants him to no matter the legality of their actions with little complain.

%%* PermaStubble:

%%* NiceGuy