How To Get Away With Murder season 6, episode 12 hints at a game-changing reveal of something that happened between Hannah (Marcia Gay Harden) and Sam (Tom Verica). Season 6, episode 12, "Let's Hurt Him", packed in a huge amount - the death penalty was brought in and thrown out, Michaela (Aja Naomi King) and Connor (Jack Falahee) have second thoughts about their deal, Frank (Charlie Weber) is torturing Xavier Castillo (Gerardo Celasco), Nate (Billy Brown) kills Xavier, and yet all that just leads to the final big reveal: Vivian (Marsha Stephanie Blake) knows who is really behind it all, and it starts with Hannah and Sam.
The episode ends with Vivian telling Annalise (Viola Davis): "I know who started the war against you, and it wasn’t the FBI or the governor", and then bringing up Sam's sister Hannah, saying "Do you know why she hates you? So, you don’t know? What happened with her and Sam?". The promo for How To Get Away With Murder season 6, episode 13 (tellingly titled "What If Sam Wasn't The Bad Guy This Whole Time") then goes on to show everyone shocked and shaken over Vivian's reveal, with Annalise tossing her out and Frank asking if she really believes it. Unsurprisingly, this has fans wondering what, exactly, happened between the siblings.
Hannah has already appeared on How To Get Away With Murder in season 1, where she was a major antagonist, working as hard as she could to get Annalise blamed for Sam's death. It was clear from the start that Hannah hated Annalise, but everyone was led to assume that this was just a normal level of family drama. Now, season 6, episode 12 reveals that there is something much darker in their past, with hints at Frank's family being connected (as Vivian told her son that Hannah knew them), and at Hannah being part of the reason that Vivian and Sam's marriage ended. Vivian also tells Gabriel (Rome Flynn) that Hannah is "not a good person."
Disturbingly, all signs seem to point to this dark secret having something to do with incest - or perhaps that's just become something of a TV trend, with shows from Game of Thrones to Harlots all jumping on the brother/sister bandwagon. However, there are several things that suggest this may be where the show is going; for one thing, Hannah has always seemed overly attached to her brother (especially for a sister that didn't otherwise seem like a big part of his life), and for another, Annalise actually accused her of having an incestuous relationship with him in the first season. At the time, this seemed like just a vicious insult to throw at her, but the choice of insult (and Hannah's less-than-totally-appalled reaction) now seem to suggest that this was carefully chosen.
The title of the next How To Get Away With Murder episode, however, suggests that if there is an incest connection, that might only be the half of it. If Sam and Hannah had a consensual relationship, Sam would certainly still be a "bad guy" (just adding incest to affairs and premeditated murder), and presumably, they would have remained much closer. However, the title suggests that Sam may have been a victim himself - and this is a series that loves to create past abuse for main characters.
Perhaps what happened between Sam and Hannah was nonconsensual and driven by Hannah, leading to her hatred of both Vivian and Annalise, and her vendetta against Annalise that has set this entire sprawling conspiracy in motion. Could Hannah be behind everything on How To Get Away With Murder, even the death of Annalise's baby and forcing Sam to kill Lila? If she is, it would certainly be a huge twist - and one that brings everything together in the final episodes, which the series may otherwise struggle to do. Of course, for now, this is just speculation, but it looks like fans will find out the truth very soon.
How To Get Away With Murder continues with 'What If Sam Wasn't The Bad Guy This Whole Time', April 30th on ABC