(Bi)Sexuality across Borders and Queer Irony: Disrupting the Legal System in How to Get Away with Murder

Abstract

In the episode “Whose blood is that?” (5x02) of How to Get Away with Murder the main cast seeks to obtain an appeal for Nanda Hashim, a Rohingya Muslim who, after signing a plea deal, is serving time for the murder of her white American wife. The specific circumstances of her case and the discourse that is generated around it address issues of race, religion, asylum, and (bi)sexuality. Through a close reading of two scenes which create significant ruptures in the episode’s narrative and through the use of queer and bisexual theory, this article analyzes the unexpected ways in which it deconstructs homonationalist ideals and fantasies of Western benevolence. Due to the episode’s deployment of bisexuality and irony, this article emphasizes their queer potential as disruptive influences on paternalistic discourses of asylum as well as their ability to expose and make explicit the violence that underlies the state’s investment in futurity and self-reproduction.