Warning: The following contains spoilers about tonight’s new episode of How to Get Away With Murder. If you haven’t watched yet, you may want to bookmark this page and come back once you have. Proceed with caution.
Asher Millstone is not How to Get Away With Murder‘s most woke bae—not yet, at least. But over the past two seasons, as well as the first four episodes of season three, the character who started out as a walking embodiment of rich white male privilege has slowly begun evolving into a thoughtful guy who actually seems to think about people outside his frame of reference (read: woman, people of color, and LGBT people). And star Matt McGorry—one of our favorite woke baes in the real world—couldn’t be happier.
“It’s been really great for me. I’ve always enjoyed playing his ignorance and the results of that, the comedy that comes from that. But also I’ve really enjoyed, and had hopes that he would progress and become a bit more socially conscious, and I think that he has been in many ways,” the actor told E! News. “Me as a person, I try not to fault people from where they start because that’s something that we can’t really control, how we’re brought up and the circles that we’re in. But I think being open to learning and understanding the change that needs to occur is something we can take more responsibility for.”
“So to see Asher taking in his case and learning from it on a personal level and sort of, over time, becoming more evolved, for me, provides hope. That is what is, ultimately, indicative of him having a good heart. He’s not so closed off emotionally that he can’t learn,” McGorry added, before admitting that complete change won’t come to Asher overnight—if it does at all. “It does take him a while. He’s unlearning a lot of things. Who knows if he’ll ever fully cross that threshold, but for me that is something that I definitely take note of and makes me feel hopeful for him.”
As Asher has continued to evolve through tonight’s episode, stepping up to the plate to lead a case for the first time, so too have his feelings for Michaela (Aja Naomi King). But is there any hope for this relationship to exist not just in the bedroom, but everywhere? “I think it’s something that Asher’s definitely pushing for and he’s very interested in making into something official. It’s to be seen where that will ultimately go, but he definitely has his priorities and he really does care about her,” McGorry teased. “I think the fact that he doesn’t his family anymore is something that makes him want to be deeply emotionally involved with someone who will provide him with that sense of family and comfort. But it’s to be seen where that will end up.”
Of course, Asher will have to be alive in order for the relationship to advance. As of tonight, his fate still remains uncertain, meaning there’s a growing chance that he’s the one #UnderTheSheet. While McGorry assured us that he knows whether or not the character makes it out of the season alive (“Oh, I am aware,” he said), he’s not offering any hints to put Asher fans at ease. “As worried as they are about anyone else that hasn’t been revealed to be alive,” he said when asked how concerned we ought to be for him. “You never know what’s going to happen and that’s just something that we’ll all have to live with. Or die with.”
While we may not be able to rule Asher out from the list of potential victims just yet, tonight’s episode did hit us with the one-two punch of Laurel’s (Karla Souza) survival (she was found in the house, unresponsive, but with a pulse)—and her unexpected pregnancy. “I think, if there’s anything that I’ve learned to expect from this show is I can’t expect anything in particular. It’s always lots of twists and turns,” McGorry said of the big twist. “I think that’s really part of what keeps people so interested in it is there’s always something there that’s surprising, that we’re not going to expect.”
For McGorry, the surprise bun in the oven is just the latest example of creator Pete Nowalk‘s genius storytelling. “He’s able to find these moments in these storylines and tie them together in ways that I think that he doesn’t necessarily know he’s going to get to when he starts writing the season,” he continued. “And I think the fact that it surprises him as he goes along is definitely useful in terms of how it ends up surprising the audience as well.”
How to Get Away With Murder airs Thursdays at 8 p.m. on ABC.
