What Really Brought How to Get Away With Murder's Asher and Michaela Together? Murder, Duh

If you’re shipping Asher (Matt McGorry) and Michaela (Aja Naomi King) on How to Get Away With Murder pretty darn hard, you are not alone—we are kind of obsessed with them too. And King is pretty happy about them too—except for the times when she’s reminded that Asher is also incredibly annoying.

“It’s so complicated! I really love them together,” King tells E! News, “but there’s also the part of me that’s like those moments when Asher is being so silly or ridiculous or teasing her and not understanding something where it’s like, ‘God, Asher, just grow up!’ And then on top of it we have these really beautiful moments where he’s sincere and you see the groundedness and the depth of his character and him trying to figure himself out just like the rest of us and it’s like, ‘Oh yeah, you guys need each other!'”

But the thing that ultimately brought the pair closer together than any of Michaela’s past relationships is the fact that they share such a deep, dark secret.

“It is such a tricky situation to have been through everything these people have been through and then try to find someone to be really honest with,” King explains. “And that’s why all these other iterations of relationships for Michaela were never going to work, because she was bound by blood basically to have to hide so much of what was happening in her life but with him she can finally let go. I think that’s so necessary for her to be able to do.”

The duo made it official—minutes before we learned that Asher is safe (thank goodness)—in an emotional conversation that saw Michaela truly open herself up for the first time.

“It was such a huge moment,” King says. “We got to take our time with the scene and just have that evolution of the conversation of him trying to force something and me trying to reject the idea [because of] what, to me, felt like out of fear—fear of opening yourself up to the potential of being hurt—and finally having this [moment of] ‘Alright, fine, be honest: We like each other and now we’re really going to try and do this,’ which means we have to live up to the idea of really engaging in an honest and open relationship.”

We also saw a little bit more of Michaela’s mother, played by Brett Butler, but don’t worry—she’ll be back.

“You’ve only gotten a glimpse of Trishelle, but wait ‘til you see more,” King says. “I think people are really going to understand exactly why Michaela admires Annalise to such a great degree. Annalise ends up being the example of the kind of life she wants to lead. Of course, it’s the idea of Annalise that she loves. Once she sees the reality, she’s still grappling with that—the reality of what a person is versus the idea of them.”

While there are three more episodes until we find out who, exactly, is under that white sheet, King says they will still have moments of levity. “There are definitely going to be some fun moments because we’re still people attempting to live our lives,” King says, but prepare yourself: “There definitely still will be some fun, but our show is kind of a dark show. Yeah, in three more episodes we’re going to find out what’s under the sheet, but there are going to be so many more things that are all going to be coming out that no one is going to be ready for.”

How to Get Away With Murder airs Thursdays at 10 p.m. on ABC.