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Wes Gibbins: The Boy Who Lived (Or Did He?)

DollEyes

By DollEyes
in How To Get Away With Murder [V]

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DollEyes

DollEyes

 Once upon a time, there was a boy named Wes Gibbins, who was a last-minute addition to his first-year Criminal Law class, which is taught by Professor Annalise Keating, who does not suffer fools gladly, which Wes was, at first. One of the reasons why Wes is one of Professor Keating's Top 5 students instead of the Top 4 as she originally planned might be because he caught her with her panties down, but another could be because she sees true potential in him.  Wes is played by Alfred Enoch, who played Dean Thomas in the Harry Potter films, hence the thread subtitle. Alfred is not only a talented actor, he's studied Spanish and Portugese at Oxford.

 

  My verdict: I like Wes. Based on what I've seen so far, he's by far the most human character on the show. Wes is unpredictable. One moment, he's a naïve college boy; the next, he's covering up a murder. One moment he catches Professor Keating cheating on her now-dead husband, the next, he's flirting with the bitchy bartender across the hall.  In Potteresque terms, Wes can be a Gryffindor, a Slytherin, a Hufflepuff or a Ravenclaw.

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rubyred

rubyred

I liked how Alfie Enoch played Wes' innocence: wide-eyed about this brave new world, but not so dumb not to suspect if and when he's being played. When Annaliese puts her hands on him, he looks like he's being hypnotized by a cobra, but the way he extricated himself made me think that he was aware, on some level, that she may just have been manipulating him and was not as vulnerable as her tears may have implied. And that frozen, emotionless look on Annaliese's face convince me, at least, that she was playing him.

 

He knows she's in another league, but he's not in a position to question her, and she's just complicated things by subtly implying sexual interest. Already she has crossed ethical boundaries with all of her students in ways that tie them to her, and tie their loyalty to her.

 

Also, damn, he is beautiful.

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DollEyes

DollEyes

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  Wes gets more intriguing every week. On the surface, Wes seems naïve, but little by little he's getting more complex, as shown by his tricking the other students into doing his bidding by lying about the coin toss that determined their fates. If my destiny involved something that random, I wouldn't just take someone else's word for it; I'd want to see for myself. That the others didn't was stupid on their part. They underestimated Wes, which could, should and probably will backfire.

 

By the same token, Wes could be making the same mistake re Rebecca. On the surface, Rebecca seems like a hardcore bitch, but she let Wes help her when she was busted. However, when Wes checked under the bathroom sink I expected to find drugs but when he found the phone instead, while I'm impressed that Wes would think to look there, I'm also concerned that he let her in in the first place. Rebecca could have very easily framed Wes and squealed to the cops. However, I'm starting to believe that in his own way, Wes can be quite manipulative and that  maybe the reason why he and Rebecca end up together is because he gets her. Rebecca does seems to know how to use peoples' perceptions of her to her advantage and apparently, so does Wes.

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helenamonster

helenamonster

I like your ideas, DollEyes. And I definitely think the coin toss says just as much about the other three as it does about Wes. It shows that up until that point, he had never given them a reason not to trust him. I mean, in the pilot, did any of the audience, without seeing the coin, think Wes had lied? Speaking for myself, I 100% assumed he was being honest. So yeah, while on one hand it was stupid for the other three to trust him so blindly, I can't say that I wouldn't have done the same.

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ribboninthesky1

ribboninthesky1

(edited)

I mean, in the pilot, did any of the audience, without seeing the coin, think Wes had lied? Speaking for myself, I 100% assumed he was being honest. So yeah, while on one hand it was stupid for the other three to trust him so blindly, I can't say that I wouldn't have done the same.

 

I'm not particularly invested in the student dynamic, but I do remember thinking that we weren't shown the result of the toss for a reason.  So I wasn't surprised to learn that Wes lied.  The pilot was clear in that Wes isn't the innocent character as originally presented, and given how gung-ho he was to get the body compared to the rest of the group, it's not a stretch to believe he'd lie to achieve that goal, IMO.  What did surprise me was that he was doing it for Rebecca. 

 

I suspect his actions won't make much sense once it all plays out on screen, but we'll see.  It was a stretch to believe that they'd be doing this for Annalise (and the others may believe they are), but him doing it for Rebecca makes even less sense.  Especially since we know she was arrested a full 2.5 months before Sam is killed. When exactly did they have time to spend together and fall in love? Even if she got out on bail, would she really return to campus? Surely, she'd be on the news. I suppose that will be revealed later. 

Edited by ribboninthesky1
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shapeshifter

shapeshifter

(edited)

On the episodes threads I've been developing a theory that his getting the spot in Annalise's class was the result of a deal to get his tuition paid. Also, I'm still open to the idea that his parents are Annalise and her husband--that they gave him up in a closed adoption as a newborn so they could finish their academic degrees and have their careers. I even speculated that Wes killed Sam, but it's just a wild theory at this point. I also speculated that he moved into the apartment across from Rebecca on purpose (not sure whose purpose or why).

Now I'm speculating that this is one of those shows where the actors don't know the outcome, so they are stuck playing everything ambiguously.

Edited to change "Frank" to "Sam." Too many characters for me to keep straight.

Edited by shapeshifter
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FozzyBear

FozzyBear

I'm working on a couple of theories about Wes.

1. He's an investigator hired by the family of the dead girl who suspect Annalyse or her husband have something to do with the girl's disappearance.

2. He is somehow involved in the muder and keeping tabs on a bunch of people to make sure the investigation doesn't point to him.

3. He's a undercover cop investigating Analyse or Bartender girl for something else entirely or for the dead girl murder.

4. Something else sneaky.

Whatever it is I do not believe that Wes is just an innocent law student who also happens to be a murder covering up and document forging savant.

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Happytobehere

Happytobehere

Yes. I kept being bothered by a sense that I had seen him in a movie, and knew it wasn't younger him in Harry Potter, it's this.

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DollEyes

DollEyes

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On the episodes threads I've been developing a theory that his getting the spot in Annalise's class was the result of a deal to get his tuition paid. Also, I'm still open to the idea that his parents are Annalise and her husband--that they gave him up in a closed adoption as a new born so that they could finish their academic degrees and have their careers. I even speculated that he moved to the apartment across from Rebecca on purpose (not sure whose purpose or why)

 

  I respectfully disagree, for several reasons. For one thing, I believe that if there was a deal for Wes' tuition, he wouldn't have ended up on the waitlist. As for Annalise and Sam being Wes' birth parents, I don't believe that either because of the bathroom scene in the first episode, when Annalise flirted with Wes. No sane mother would knowingly flirt with her son. There's been lots of crazy shit on Shondaland shows, but IIRC, incest isn't one of them.  I agree that Wes isn't the naïf he first appeared to be, but I also don't believe that he's a PI with a vendetta against Annalise and Sam working undercover, either.

 

Not Albert Enoch's fault but he reminds me of the C. Thomas Howell character in "Soul Man", which believe me is way too jarring for me....

 

He really does!

 

Yes. I kept being bothered by a sense that I had seen him in a movie, and knew it wasn't younger him in Harry Potter, it's this.

 

  True, while Alfred Enoch does look like C. Thomas Howell in Soul Man, but I don't care. Not every Black man has to look like Idris Elba or Boris Kodjoe to be sexy. It helps, but it's not necessary. Since I thought that C.TH was cute in both colors in Soul Man, I still think that Alfred Enoch is hot.

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HoodlumSheep

HoodlumSheep

I like Wes from what we've seen so far. Him being nicknamed "the puppy" is hilarious. It's fun trying to say it like you're reading off an old-timey western wanted poster.

My verdict on Wes: he's like a puppy you adopt, only to find out that he's actually a baby wolf in disguise.

I like the Annalise/Wes dynamic too. It gives me evil chancellor/anakin vibes. I wonder if Wes will eventually go full blown Darth Vader though.

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KFC

KFC

We're five episodes in, and thus far, I think Wes is probably more interesting on paper than he is as portrayed by Alfred Enoch. IMO, he is by far the weakest actor of the intern quintet, which is problematic considering his character is seemingly the focal point for the main mystery of the season.

 

In theory, I like the idea of being the seemingly naive one in the pilot who slowly reveals he's more devious than we thought, but Enoch isn't selling that very well to me. He doesn't seem capable of playing layers; Wes just comes across as petulant and stupid most of the time. 

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DollEyes

DollEyes

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I respectfully disagree. Wes may be a little too infatuated with Rebecca, but IMO that hasn't made him stupid, otherwise he wouldn't have checked under the bathroom sink after Rebecca left nor would he have been able to trick the other students via the coin toss into destroying Sam's body nor be able to manipulate them into risking everything that matters to them to cover up Sam's murder or to protect Rebecca in the first place. These things happened because of Wes-and Alfred Enoch's-acting skills.

 

  Wes seems naïve and harmless, but that could be what he wants everyone to think, which makes me care about him and that's because of AE's performance. If any student's a weak link, it's Laurel, not Wes. Most of the time, Laurel's been just a bland non-entity. The only time I can stand her is when she's with Khan, the hot Legal Aid guy she met at the Law School mixer. I find Wes to be much more compelling  because he fascinates me, no matter what he does, where he does it or with whom he does it with.

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helenamonster

helenamonster

I think where some people might be struggling with Wes is that in the flashbacks, he's the innocent little puppy who appears to be whipped by his rude neighbor, but in the present he's calculating and manipulative. We still haven't been shown where this switch occurs and why, so there's a little bit of whiplash. We still have a few more episodes (five? six?) until we catch up the present, which is plenty of time to establish where the change came from.

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caracas1914

caracas1914

(edited)

Plots aside, Albert Enoch just seems like a very limited actor.  There is no "star" presence about him or compelling reason to watch him.   Meredith Grey isn't as flashy as some of her colleagues on  GA but there is a gravitas and weight about her due to how Ellen Pompeo plays her.  Poor Albert in the role of Wes seems utter weightless and inconsequential, why should Annalise give him special attention or his snarkier accomplices take his advice ?  So far the show hasn't answered that satisfactorily because Albert has a limited amount of reaction shots.

Edited by caracas1914
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DollEyes

DollEyes

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(edited)

 I guess this is just another example of varying mileages, because to me there's never been anything compelling about Meredith Gray or Ellen Pompeo's portrayal of her, unlike Sandra Oh or Chandra Wilson; otoh, I believe that AE does have star quality and I've found Wes compelling from the start. When it comes to Wes, since it's early in the season, I believe that just because we don't know yet what Wes' motives/motivations are, that doesn't mean we never will.

Edited by DollEyes
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jbrecken

jbrecken

  True, while Alfred Enoch does look like C. Thomas Howell in Soul Man, but I don't care. Not every Black man has to look like Idris Elba or Boris Kodjoe to be sexy. It helps, but it's not necessary. Since I thought that C.TH was cute in both colors in Soul Man, I still think that Alfred Enoch is hot.

I also see a slight resemblance to Richard Ayoade.

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Llywela

Llywela

I didn't know William Russell was his father. He does look like Russell as a young man. Russell must have been an older sort of father. 

Heh. He's just had his 90th birthday, so yes, Russ was a much older sort of father! Alfie is the son of his second marriage and, indeed, his old age.

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wanderingstar

wanderingstar

Aw, I still like Wes. Like all the characters, he changed a lot over the season. I don't think they'll be able to call him The Puppy anymore.

 

Curious to see what happens when Wes finds out that Rebecca is dead and that Annalise knows about it. That is, assuming Wes didn't kill Rebecca himself. I know there's been speculation that Wes is the culprit, but I find that really hard to believe given how devoted he was to her.

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Coxfires

Coxfires

The show is back and though I tried, I still don't manage to like Wes. I tried and started to find him interesting when he tricked the others with the coin last season, but finding out that Annalise was the brain behind it made my interest in him decline. I don't know what about him grates, maybe it is the overuse of the kicked puppy attitude, or his too-idealist-for-my-taste speech about Rebecca being poor last year, or even the fact that I never found his love for Rebecca believable

I personnally find that he lacks charisma. And though his confrontation with Annalise in class should have made me think "this guy has some spunk", it came out as petulant somehow to me.

I wish this season the writers will manage to give him more backbone, and define him better. To be honest, this is also true for the other Keating 5, and one of the main quip I have with the show: it relies too much on Annalise only, and while she definitely should remain the center of the attention, a better writing of the other characters wouldn't hurt.Let's hope this season provides us with this.

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Chicago Redshirt

Chicago Redshirt

Can I request changing the title of this forum to Wes Gibbins: Puppy Power!

 

Because Wes is embracing his role as the Puppy, and (at least to me) he is as annoying as Scrappy Doo a lot of the time.

 

I do enjoy him more when he's Dark!Puppy, like when he pretended the coin flip came out in his favor, or when he got Sis to admit that they lied about the two of them being together the entire evening.

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DollEyes

DollEyes

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 I respectfully disagree. As the one who started the thread, I chose the title because it's a reference to Alfred Enoch's role as Dean Thomas in the Harry Potter movies, which, unlike Scrappy-Doo, I don't find annoying.  

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dirtypop90

dirtypop90

I think Wes needs more than just a backstory. It's often said that Michaela needs to lighten up but Wes needs it the most of the keating 5. He's what 26? He's always so down. He had some pep in his step in the pilot. I thought he would be nerdy and adorable. Now he's just so blah. Rebecca and all that came with her made him less interesting, ironically.

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Chicago Redshirt

Chicago Redshirt

I'm operating under the assumption that all the K5 are supposed to be 25 at the oldest, since most 1Ls come to law school straight out of undergrad (putting them at 21-22 for most) or have maybe 1-2 years in the real world before deciding to go for law school

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Chicago Redshirt

Chicago Redshirt

So I decided to go back and watch S1 as time allows now that it's on Netflix.

 

Two things I noticed about the pilot that I'd forgotten:

 

Wes sits next to Michaela in the first day of class, clueless to the students having assigned seats. He tries to strike up a conversation with her about he normally wouldn't sit at the front of the class. Michaela shuts it down in seconds by flashing her ring and saying, "I'm engaged." Wes denies hitting on her, and then gets told that the seats have been assigned.

 

Some of the K5 are talking about Wes and Asher floats the theory that Wes is Anni's son. (Michaela shuts that down too by saying sarcastically of course all black people are related to each other). I know that it's a popular theory that Wes might indeed be Anni's son, but it seems weird that they would go there after having Asher hypothesize it based on nothing. 

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dirtypop90

dirtypop90

Hmm yea I also don't think they would go there with Anna being his mom but she could still be tied to his past. Frank brought up his mother's suicide again this season so perhaps she didn't really commit suicide, and Anna is somehow tied to the events surrounding her death?

 

the first wes/michaela scene just reminds me of how adorable I originally thought wes was. He was so normal pre rebecca but she obviously tapped into his savior complex and it all went downhill from there. And that ring turned out to be super important. lol

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DollEyes

DollEyes

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(edited)

 

Ungrateful little shit whose ass should be in jail. He's the type of guy who'd sell his mother for a non black woman. I never could see what he saw in Rebecca, ugh, she always looked dirty to me.

 

 I respectfully disagree. Wes did warn Rebecca's foster brother Levi to stay away from Michaela because he doesn't trust Levi & he doesn't want Michaela to get hurt, which didn't work, but I didn't blame Wes for trying because I think that Levi's much worse than Wes and Michaela will get hurt anyway. I also believe that Wes does respect Annalise, but IMO that shouldn't give her the right to play him for a fool. Rebecca wasn't my favorite character either, but Wes cared about her, which IMO gives him the right to know what really happened to her.  How Wes chooses to deal with the truth-or, knowing Annalise, a version of it-is up to him, but wanting the truth doesn't make him wrong nor ungrateful, as far as I'm concerned.

Edited by DollEyes
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Neurochick

Neurochick

(edited)

He's ungrateful because Annalise could have called the police and had his nasty, ungrateful, entitled behind arrested. All Rebecca did was sleep with Wes and he was in love. OMG.

Wes killed a man to defend a woman who lied to him over and over again. What a jerk.

Edited by Neurochick
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DollEyes

DollEyes

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(edited)

True, Annalise could have has Wes arrested, but since Sam had Frank kill his pregnant mistress Lila to cover his own ass, Sam's death was not only no loss by a long shot,  it proved that Sam and Frank were/are much worse than Wes, as far as I'm concerned.  

Edited by DollEyes
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Chicago Redshirt

Chicago Redshirt

He's ungrateful because Annalise could have called the police and had his nasty, ungrateful, entitled behind arrested. All Rebecca did was sleep with Wes and he was in love. OMG.

Wes killed a man to defend a woman who lied to him over and over again. What a jerk.

IMO, he should be ungrateful because Annalise steered him wrong, giving him horrible advice about the cover up. He and the rest of the Murder 4 would be so much better off by just admitting the truth, or a sanitized version of it. 

 

As for Wes's feelings for Rebecca, I nearly gagged when he was talking to Nate and was like, "Rebecca wasn't my wife but..." Homes should be ashamed of himself for trying to compare his brief relationship with an actual marriage. We're talking about maybe 3-6 months from the time they met to her disappearance.

 

I don't find fault with striking Sam to  defend Rebecca in general though. 

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dirtypop90

dirtypop90

I'll never be on the poor Annalise team. I can completely understand why Wes doesn't trust her. She does manipulate him and is hiding Rebecca's murderer from him so he has good reason not to trust her. Annalise took interest in Wes from the first episode. He did not ask to be her pet, barely knows anything about this woman, and has never shown any type of feelings for her in any way.

So idc about Wes not caring about Annalise

But I still hate Wes obsessed Rebecca. And it would be a pity if they have Wes stuck in this Rebecca funk for two whole seasons. Wes is starting to not even feel like a character to me anymore.

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Neurochick

Neurochick

It's fine for Wes not to trust Annalise, but his Rebecca obsession makes me ill.  He's either insane, co-dependent, or a captain save a damsel in distress.  

 

Basically Wes and Rebecca just hooked up, not anything close to marriage.  I still want to know where Wes comes from.  We've seen the others home lives, never Wes's.  I think he'd go insane if he found out Annalise was his biological mother.

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