Entertainment

Mitch Haaseth/ABC

'HTGAWM' Season 5 Will Be Back Before You Know It

by Megan Walsh

How to Get Away with Murder airs its mid-season finale on ABC on Nov. 15, finally providing answers to the mysteries that have haunted its first seven episodes. After that, the show will take a break for a little while until it returns to finish out its fifth season. But when does HTGAWM return?

The exact date of its mid-season premiere hasn't yet been announced, but it isn't too difficult to figure out because past seasons have all stuck to a similar schedule. The show generally takes a break in mid-November and then comes back in mid-January. If that remains true for the current season, then you should be enjoying HTGAWM again in just a couple of months.

The last episode before the break, "I Want to Love You Until the Day I Die," seems like it's going to be an important one. Not only is it Connor and Oliver's wedding (an event that fans were surely looking forward to), but it's also the culmination of everything that has been building all season long. Someone was killed in the snow outside the wedding venue, and the episode's summary assures viewers that the victim's identity will finally be revealed before the show goes on break.

Fans have been speculating about who the victim is since the very first episode. Though there have been numerous clues about what goes down at the wedding, so far any concrete answers have been fairly elusive. Viewers know that someone is injured when they land outside in the cold, where they're discovered by Bonnie and baby Christopher. Bonnie thoughtfully sets the baby aside so that she can smother the victim to death before reassuring another unknown person waiting in the trees. Then she goes back into the party, where the blood on her legs raises Michaela's suspicions.

Michaela attempts to contact Nate to no avail; Bonnie has his phone. Meanwhile, Connor searches for his missing husband, instead stumbling upon his mother hooking up with Asher in the parking lot. Because Nate and Oliver are the two characters who can't be found, they seem like obvious potential candidates for the snowy murder victim. But Bonnie's boyfriend, acting DA Ronald Miller, is another possibility. He and Bonnie may be falling for each other, but that doesn't mean that things can't take a very wrong turn before the season breaks.

Though some storylines may be tied up in the Season 5 mid-season finale, others might just be getting started. Gabriel Maddox's importance has only been hinted at, but his significance to the story is definitely going to be an explosive reveal. Is he the murder victim? Is he Sam's son, as some fans have speculated? Is there a chance Bonnie's child isn't actually dead after all, and grew up to be Gabriel?

"I Want to Love You Until the Day I Die" can only do so much in its hour-long runtime. It may provide solutions to some of the show's complicated situations, but it might save some shocks for the second half of the season. Personally, I'd be prepared for a cliffhanger.