Winter break is over and class is back in session, as Annalise kicks off her hugely popular course, “Criminal Law 201: Advanced How to Get Away with Murder: More Murder.”

Throughout the episode, we get flashbacks to how the gang spent their Christmases, but I’m just going to get them all out of the way right now …

Annalise: holed up in a hotel on a mini-bar bender (hey, we’ve all been there, amiright?).

Wes and Rebecca: ZZZZZZZZZZ (that’s me anytime they’re on screen, as opposed to Wes who is plagued with nightmares about murder night and freaked out about getting a Christmas card meant for his apartment’s last tenant, that guy who went bonkers and scratched up the walls and is most definitely a werewolf).

Laurel: playing the spoiled daughter in a steamy nighttime soap about a large, filthy rich Latino family led by a powerful, easily angered patriarch.

Asher: on an adorable bro-date with Frank; it’s like watching Ernie and Bert getting drunk together.

Michaela: getting dumped by her (probably gay) fiancé, and then covering up for it by buying a fake engagement ring, since her real one is likely somewhere inside Sam’s charred intestines.

Connor: being set up by the most awesome sister ever with a totally hot guy and then turning it down because of his “boyfriend” back home …

Of course, Oliver is not quite BF status just yet, but he starts warming up to the idea when Connor presents him with a fugly hat knitted by his grandmother. Although not up for a true date night just yet, Oliver warily lets Connor stay, just so long as he doesn’t make fun of the movie he rented.

At this point, I started wracking my brain for funny movies I could mention here, but that proves unnecessary when Oliver himself announces it’s The Thorn Birds, which is pure genius and just perfect and now has me obsessing over the kinky, Thorn Birds-themed sex games the two of them likely got up to afterwards and wondering which one got to be the priest.

Inevitably hooked on The Thorn Birds, AS WE ALL MUST BE!, Connor comes back for more and Oliver promptly jumps on him and sucks his face but then jumps back about 40 feet like he just realized Connor had vacationed at Disneyland during Measles Week. He’s reluctant to hook up again given Connor’s slutty rep, fearful he’ll get his heart broken again. But Connor tells him he’s the only person he can trust in the whole world and he wants to be with him. Awwwwwww. Smiley-face emoticon!

Meanwhile, Annalise comes back from her vacay to find Marcia Gay Harden waiting to pounce on her, and it’s pure delight to see these two amazing actresses go head to head.. As Sam’s sister, Hannah, M.G.H. is just phenomenal, acting every scene as if she knows exactly what everyone’s up to and raising the gang’s paranoia up to nuclear levels. Please, just make her a regular because she’s fantastic.

So Hannah and Annalise coldly embrace, like each one is keeping an eye out for a knife in the back. Then they get into it, with Hannah implying that Annalise sure isn’t acting like someone worried about her missing husband. What’s more, she doesn’t buy for a second that Sam killed Lila, given she saw him the very next day and he wasn’t acting like a murderer. They enjoyed lobster together! LOBSTER!!!

Annalise gives her the box of evidence she had compiled against Sam in prepping for Rebecca’s defense and tells her to go through it herself.

Hannah spends the rest of the episode snooping around, including finding out from the police that they got a tip from a woman claiming to have just seen Sam in upstate New York. She also follows Annalise to her lover’s house, but Annalise has no problem admitting to it, given that Sam was himself sleeping around.

We then briefly see Annalise lying in bed with Detective Downtown, and he reveals that his wife, apparently hospitalized, knows about their affair and gave her blessing because she wants him to be happy. Awwwwww. Good for them!

Meanwhile, Annalise is back at work, which means there’s a case of the week! It’s a really creepy one too and very ripped from the headlines-y. This woman wants to turn her husband in for holding two young women prisoner in their basement and asks Annalise to get her a plea bargain to stay out of jail.

Although Annalise insists this woman is herself a victim, the gang have moral issues with helping her, particularly Asher. At one point, Bonnie has to call him aside for a slap on the wrist for being so douche-y, and he says she really hurt his feelings. The poor guy! Sending hugs, Asher. HUGS!

Anyway, Annalise winds up double-crossing her own client, after Wes figures out the woman had lied about one of the prisoner’s having given birth to a stillborn and had instead hidden the child away herself. She assures her client that the D.A. promised if she tells them where the girl is hidden she’ll definitely get her plea deal.

But after the girl is safely found, then Annalise is all, “Ha! THERE IS NO PLEA DEAL!” All this is meant, I think, to show how Annalise will manipulate people and the whole system if it means making sure justice is served, at least the way she personally defines it, which is very relevant in terms of her actions post-Sam murder.

But my favorite scene in the episode is this part where the Murder Gang are all pacing frantically on Annalise’s porch. Laurel wants them to all make nice and share about feelings and stuff, arguing it’s the only way from going collectively crazy and getting caught. But Connor is as paranoid as ever, and tries once again to align himself with Michaela against the other two.

Right in the middle of this, Hannah comes onto the scene, and is all smiles and “My aren’t you all just the most adorable little group!” and staring at them like the Witch eyeing how fattened up Hansel and Gretel have gotten and imagining herself supper.

Hannah goes into the house to return Annalise’s files and finds Bonnie, telling her that going through the paperwork didn’t convince her of Sam’s guilt at all. For one thing, it’s all circumstantial, and for another, there wasn’t a trace of his DNA on Lila’s body (I guess other than that incriminating FETUS). Then she tries to get chummy with Bonnie, saying she knows how “special” Bonnie was to Sam and hoping she’d share if she has any secret info. But if Bonnie is good at anything, it’s unrelenting silence.

Meanwhile, Frank has had quite the busy week, helping out Annalise by further covering the Murder Gang’s tracks. For starters, as Laurel smartly figures out (and directly confronts him on), Frank had Connor’s car stolen, since that in fact DID have Sam’s DNA all over it. Plus, Laurel also realizes Frank’s been bro-ing it up with Asher solely to determine what, if anything, douche-face might suspect.

But it’s only when Frank is alone with Annalise that we find out that the phone call the police received from someone claiming to have seen Sam was actually his doing as well to try to get Hannah off their case. Since it doesn’t seem to have worked, he asks Annalise if she wants him to “handle” it, and you get the feeling he means handle with his hand holding the handle of a machete. Annalise says, thanks but no thanks, “I’ll handle her myself.”

Annalise’s way of handling Hannah is to cook the saddest, most austere, most color-less dinner imaginable, like something a group of depressed Pilgrims might sit down to not enjoy.

Hannah is all, “Brussel sprouts? Are we really doing this? BRUSSEL SPROUTS!!! I want the truth!” And Annalise is all, “YOU CAN’T HANDLE THE TRUTH! But here’s the truth …” She proceeds to tell Hannah that she knew about Sam’s affair with Lila for months, but lied to the police and did everything she could to try to cover his tracks for as long as she could to protect him.

Somewhat satisfied, Hannah reveals she had thought Annalise had hidden Sam away somewhere to keep him away from the police. She says she now realizes that’s just not the case and is truly worried about what might have happened to him.

Cut to Wes returning home to hear Rebecca announce, “We’ve got a real nightmare.” On their TV, a news reporter is announcing that some extra crispy human remains have been found … believed to belong to none other than the missing Sam Keating.

The Verdict: After what I thought was a so-so return last week, HTGAWM is back in top form. Hannah’s arrival introduced a much-needed bolt of energy into the storytelling, and I’m looking forward to seeing how everyone further unravels – and the lengths Annalise goes to in order to keep control. I think we’re in for some exciting final episodes.