How To Get Away With Murder (2014) leads viewers to believe that Annalise Keating (Viola Davis) arranges the murders of her husband, Sam (Tom Verica), Sam’s student, Lila Stangard (Megan West), and Lila’s friend, Rebecca Sutter (Katie Findlay). Annalise certainly has a motive to kill each one of them, so it is plausible that even if the defense lawyer doesn’t kill her husband, his student or Rebecca that she had a hand in their demise. But is that the case?

Despite all the people who betray Annalise or have the potential to ruin her career, she is not the one to kill Sam, Lila or Rebecca, and, with the exception of Sam’s death, she is also left in the dark about the murders.

For instance, the first season of How To Get Away With Murder left viewers wondering who killed Rebecca. The almost too obvious culprit was Frank Delfino (Charlie Weber) because earlier in the season finale viewers found out it was Sam who ordered Frank to kill Lila. However, a shocking twist revealed that Bonnie Winterbottom (Liza Weil) killed Rebecca, and she was not acting on any orders from Annalise. The defense lawyer believes Rebecca was innocent and no threat to anyone, but in her mind Bonnie thought she was protecting Annalise by getting rid of Rebecca.

Once Annalise and Frank dispose of Rebecca’s body and send the Keating Five, mostly Wes (Alfred Enoch) on a wild goose chase, Bonnie tearfully confesses to Annalise.

“Her immediate reaction is not good,” Weil said in an interview to Variety. “But I think there’s sort of an underlying element that Annalise operates from a place that you believe you are doing the right thing.”

Weil’s analysis of Bonnie can also be applied to Wes’s thought process when he killed Sam and then disposed of the body. In the first season, Rebecca and the Keating Five sans Asher enter the Keating’s house on the hunt for evidence that Sam killed Lila. Once Rebecca obtains what they were looking for, the group attempts to escape without running into Sam (who just had a fight with Annalise) but are unsuccessful. Michaela Pratt (Aja Naomi King) is put in the position where she must push Sam over the banister in order to escape.

Sam is believed to be dead, but the students quickly learn he somehow survived the fall. When he suddenly leaps up and attacks Rebecca, Wes uses the coveted trophy and hits Sam on the head, killing him. It is ironic that the murder weapon is a trophy that Annalise passes around to students who perform well in class. After briefly debating what to do next the students work together to dispose of the body, thus getting rid of Annalise’s “problem” or cheating husband. Later on viewers discover that Annalise may have been involved with Sam’s murder because, when Wes comes back to retrieve the murder weapon, he tells Sam’s body he is sorry, while Annalise is in the background and says, “Don’t be.” The moment shows Annalise condoning the murder, even if she did not intend for it to happen. On the other hand, the surreal nature of the scene, which appears as a flash-forward, raises the possibility that Annalise could be a vision in Wes’ imagination instead of a real presence.

Annalise’s students know Sam is bad, so they help their professor and boss out by trying to prove he is guilty. Instead, they end up committing murder. The struggle in the Keatings’ house shows that law students know what they’ve done is horrible, but, because they have fallen under the spell of Annalise Keating, rather than call the police they decide to bury the body and all evidence of the murder.

While Annalise never orders the murder of anyone who has betrayed her, her odd relationship with Frank, Bonnie and the Keating Five can arguably be viewed as a case of borderline Stockholm syndrome. Her colleagues and students are so eager to please her and win her approval, that they will do almost anything for her, even if that means committing a murder on her behalf. The question of whether Annalise bears any guilt for these murders leads us to reflect on our responsibility for our influence over others.