heroine has been a ground-
breaking, Emmy-winning role
for Viola Davis. “She’s deciding
how to claw her way out of
[hell],” teases Nowalk. “How
much does she protect herself
versus how much does she pro-
tect certain people she loves,
and who does she not protect?
Every decision she makes is
going to affect her fate in a
major way, and we’re going to
see that from the very first scene
of our premiere.”
The final season will also
tackle topical issues, including
an officer-involved shooting,
gun control, and internet dating.
“[That was] following Viola’s
lead,” Nowalk says of the L’Oréal
Paris spokesperson and Hunger
Is ambassador, who next stars as
the title character in the 2020
film Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
and as Michelle Obama on Show-
time’s newly announced drama
First Ladies. “She’s such a leader,
and so passionate about show-
ing all sides of people. It was a
delicious, fun experience.” And
there’s still one more season
(and probably some murders) to
savor. —MAUREEN LEE LENKER
NDING A HIT SHOW
can be murder —
but when you
write a show
about murder,
endings become a
specialty. “I don’t love the idea
of leaving a lot of things hang-
ing,” creator Pete Nowalk says
of concluding his series. “We’ll
get clarity. That means romanti-
cally, plotwise, criminally.”
At the end of season 5, Laurel
(Karla Souza) and baby Christo-
pher went missing, while
Annalise (Viola Davis) and the
Keating Four became the tar-
gets of a massive conspiracy
orchestrated by the governor
and the Castillo family.
While Nowalk promises we
“will get answers right away,”
much of the final season will
be about how each character
chooses to answer for their
misdeeds. “What do they
deserve?” he muses. “What’s
going to make them happy?
Running away from your sins
does not necessarily mean
you’re going to be happy. We
have 15 episodes for each char-
acter to decide what they
want.... Not everyone’s going to
get a happy ending.”
But will Annalise? The anti-
MURDER
HOW TO GET AWAY WITH
Returning Drama � Season 6
SEPT—26 � 10 pm � ABC
↑ Annalise (Viola Davis) has bad
news for the Keating Four
fall
tv pre
view
2019
E
PHOTOGRAPH BY JAKE CHESSUM
HOW TO GET AWAY WITH MURDER
: RICHARD CARTWRIGHT/ABC (2)
