How to Get Away with Murder: 3 Theories About Gabriel's Mysterious Phone Call

We may have finally gotten some answers about Gabriel Maddox (Rome Flynn) in How to Get Away with Murder's midseason premiere, but sadly, we're still totally in the dark about his true motives and who in the living hell he was on the phone with at the end of the episode.

We do, however, know who Frank (Charlie Weber)was on the phone with in last year's finale when he relayed the news that Gabriel had turned up at Middleton. He was actually speaking to Eve Rothlo (Famke Janssen), Annalise's old college flame. Through a series of flashbacks, we learned that after Annalise (Viola Davis) and Sam (Tom Verica) lost their unborn child in that car crash in Season 3, Sam reached out to his ex-wife, Vivian, in an attempt to meet the son he'd ignored up until now. Well... that answers the question of whether Sam even knew he had a kid running around. How much Gabriel knew about his dad, on the other hand, is a much fuzzier picture.

As far as we know, they only met once in the hallway outside Gabriel's grandmother's apartment, and Gabriel thought he was just some guy. In the present, however, Gabriel had a copy of the email Sam sent to Vivian asking to be in Gabriel's life. That same email was intercepted by Eve who got Frank to step in and tell Sam to forget about Gabriel and focus on Annalise. What a good, slash monstrous pseudo-girlfriend!

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While we'd love to believe Gabriel is just hanging around to get answers from Annalise about the dad he never knew, there's that pesky little matter of the phone call he made after leaving Annalise's place. After crying a little about his dad, he picked up the phone and left someone a voicemail saying, "I screwed up. They found out who I am." So, who the heck is on the receiving end of that message? We've got some theories...

1. Vivan Maddox

There's every chance that the person on the other end of the phone is Gabriel's mom, who has remained a mystery up until now. She's not an ideal partner for a stealth mission to find out who killed Sam considering we know she has a history of addiction and she seemed to be unresponsive to Sam's attempts to get in touch in the flashbacks. On the other hand, it makes sense that she'd be involved; Gabriel had a copy of the email Sam sent her asking to be in his life. Did she give it to him? If so, this could be a mother/son quest for the truth!

How to Get Away with Murder Is About to Answer All Your Gabriel Maddox Questions

2. The FBI

We know the FBI is going to show up this season to investigate Ronald Miller's (John Hensley) death, but what if they've already started to poke around? There have been an absurd amount of interconnected murders in Middleton (Lila, Sam, Rebecca, Sinclair, Denver, Dominic... the list goes on) in a really short span of time. Pinning it all on Wes (Alfred Enoch) may have seemed like a good idea at the time, but even that explanation didn't make enough sense to totally stick. Could the FBI have sent Gabriel into Annalise's inner circle as a kind of mole in order to launch a real investigation into the Middleton murder club?

3. Gabriel's Grandmother

In the one flashback we got of Gabriel as a child, he and his mother seemed to be living with his grandmother. She was very protective of Gabriel and didn't appear too fond of Sam (who would be fond of the guy who left your daughter for another woman though?). But regardless of her feelings for Vivan's ex, she could be supporting Gabriel in his mission. Considering she practically threw Sam out when he showed up trying to meet Gabriel, she's probably feeling pretty guilty about denying her beloved grandson the opportunity to meet his dad before he died.

How to Get Away with Murder airs Thursdays at 10/9c on ABC.