Canuck star of ‘How to Get Away with Murder’ says things set to get ‘much worse’

TORONTO – Loyal fans of “How to Get Away With Murder” aren’t the only ones delighting in the shocking twists and turns of the tense serial.

Canadian star Katie Findlay says she, too, is revelling in the show’s wild plot developments as the two-hour finale nears.

And with heat intensifying for everyone involved in the murder of philandering university professor Sam Keating, Findlay resolutely assures fans: “Everything gets much worse.”

The lithe brunette, who plays trouble-prone goth girl Rebecca Sutter on the dark drama, says these remaining episodes are all about hardbitten defence lawyer Annalise Keating, played by Viola Davis, scrambling to save herself and her guilty students.

“This half of the season is Annalise in damage control, like major major damage control,” Findlay notes in a recent interview from her apartment in Vancouver.

“And even among the kids, none of the previous alliances or discomfort or tensions are really allowed to matter any more. So they still exist, and everyone’s uncomfortable, but they sort of have to try to put it aside as much as possible and that ends up blowing things up even more.”

Desperation certainly seems to have set in for Keating and the Keating 5.

Thursday’s episode ended with Annalise planting evidence that suggested her lover Nate (played by Billy Brown) was involved in Sam’s death.

Meanwhile, her anxious law students are increasingly unhinged by the investigation, as well as stunned at the lengths Annalise will go to protect them.

“These back episodes sort of turn into a psychodrama because the ideas of a lot of things start to sort of eat away at the kids and at Annalise,” says Findlay.

“So things that seemed relatively harmless before sort of become brainworms and burrow in there and start to disturb everyone or make everyone paranoid.”

Then there’s the matter of Lila Stangard’s murder. Findlay says the night of her death will be revealed soon, including Rebecca’s role.

“This whole situation with Lila and what went down has kind of been ground zero for Rebecca because if you remember in the pilot, we find her shortly after all this stuff happens,” she says.

“She was dealing with this before Wes even met her in the hallway. So yeah, you will get to see a little bit of how Rebecca factors in and what went down.”

After wrapping the season late last month, Findlay says she’s now enjoying some downtime in Vancouver, which she still considers home.

Although the series shoots in Los Angeles, the 24-year-old says she’s resisted making an official move to Hollywood, considering herself to be “just super, super Canadian.”

“I’ve never not lived in Canada so I have my apartment in Vancouver as more of a safety blanket. Even though I’m hardly ever here, it’s really nice to come back to.”

“How to Get Away with Murder” airs Thursdays on CTV and ABC.