TV Underdogs: Can ‘How to Get Away with Murder’ season 2 use Karla Souza’s Laurel further?

Laurel -So far in season 2, “How to Get Away with Murder” has featured quite a few key developments when it comes to Annalise Keating and her students: There is the case of the siblings, uncovering more of the truth from last season, and of course the series of events that led to Emily Sinclair’s murder and then Wes shooting Annalise.

We know that the final six episode of the season will dive in to that story even deeper, but will there be some time for some other characters, as well? We hope so, especially when it comes to Karla Souza’s Laurel. She’s a smart, resourceful, and complicated law student with more to give than we’ve seen … which makes her the perfect subject of our final TV Underdogs piece of the month.

Why she’s an underdog – She’s had to wrestle her way out of tight situations time and time again so far, and despite doing well enough in school to score a position in Keating’s class, you also have to remember that she is still a young student. That is something that is so easy to forget about when you think about the sort of death, despair, and the myriad of other terrible things that Laurel is constantly surrounded with. You want to see her emerge from it in one piece.

Why we don’t see more of her – Like many other shows with ensemble casts, “How to Get Away with Murder” tends to feature people in waves. Out of Keating’s students in the first half of the season, we’d say that Wes and Michaela were given the most play. We know that the former still has a lot of backstory to explore in the second half, there’s still a lot of time for the series to explore more interesting facets of who Laurel is and what she wants.

Ways to use her further – Given the strong emphasis that Pete Nowalk has put on crafting backstories for so many of these characters, we have to assume that more will be coming for Laurel. We know that she doesn’t have the best relationship with her family, so why not put her in a position where she has to combat some problems in her family with some help from some of her fellow students? Or, why not make a key discovery from her the linchpin for a case? We get the sense that perhaps more so than anyone else on the team, Laurel’s potential is untapped. She’s capable of much more than we’ve seen, and we’ve love to see what some longer scenes with Souza and Viola Davis could look like.

If you are interested in getting some further news on “How to Get Away with Murder” season 2, head over here to see some more details regarding the winter premiere! Also, you can sign up over at the link here to get some other news on everything we cover, sent right over to you via our CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: ABC.)

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