Suits Season 3, Episode 5: "Shadow of a Doubt" Recap/Review
I like Rachel a lot. Really, I do. She's cute, she's funny, she's super smart, and is probably better at law than most of the associates at Pearson Darby. I wish we saw more of her adventures with Donna. I even like her with Mike, although I hate that her role on the show is basically 90% her relationship with Mike. But damn, can't they go one episode without some relationship drama? Either she's jealous of Katrina, or she's still processing the whole concept of "my boyfriend is a fraud and I have to hide it from everyone," or she's hiding stuff about her law school applications. I just enjoy them best when they're getting along and kicking ass, like they did in their case with that. There's already enough angst with regard to Harvey's cases and his beef with Jessica and that Cameron guy causing trouble at every turn, we don't need the additional complication of their love life. Sigh.
Anyway, let's recap, yeah?
Previously, on Suits: Pearson Darby client Ava Hessington bribed the colonel in an volatile country where her company was building an oil pipeline. Notoriously slimy former-D.A. Cameron Dennis leaked the video evidence of the bribe to her majority stockholder, Tony Gianopolous, who is now trying to take control of Hessington Oil. Jessica believed the best course of action was for Ava to step down temporarily until her murder charges were taken care of, but Harvey and Darby cock-blocked her. So, of course, Jessica's inability to deal with people bossing her around led to her instructing Louis to go to the board behind Harvey and Darby's backs to kick Ava out of her own company, mostly just because she's pissed that Darby is throwing his weight around, a theme that will be lingering for quite a few episodes, sorry to say. Let's go!
Harvey is sitting at Donna's desk, where she is very conspicuously absent. He calls her from her own phone, and we can tell before we even see her face that Harvey has interrupted her nooner. He's pissed because she said she had a "thing" at 1:00pm, and now 1:45 and she is still nowhere to be found. "And it's called a lunch hour, Harvey, sixty whole minutes, which my teeth deserve!" He's surprised that she managed to fit in the dentist on her lunch hour, and she chirps in response that her dentist is surprisingly quick AND thorough, from what I assume is Stephen's bed, where she is naked save for a sheet.
"Donna, Judge Adkins is ready to hear my motion for summary judgment, which she won't do if there aren't two copies of that motion in my hands in ten minutes," Harvey complains, because he may be the best closer in Manhattan, but he has no idea how to do secretarial work. Donna hilariously talks him through the process of making copies, and then instructs him to toss his copies in the trash because she already left both of them on his desk before she took lunch. Now we know why Harvey will never fire Donna ever--because he literally would not know how to do his job without her.
She's finally able to get Harvey off the phone, and looks up at Stephen's face as she sighs in post-orgasmic bliss. Stephen's a little hurt that she called their rendezvous "a thing," but she shrugs it off. He starts to ask her what Harvey wanted, but she wants to maintain their "no talking about work" policy. He agrees that they did make that rule, but jokes that they also agreed to have lunch at lunch, instead of sexy dessert. Donna gets dressed while he watches, and he admits that he likes to "know things about things," which Donna concedes he is very good at doing. They ultimately get distracted when he starts groping her again, and out comes all of the innuendos and banter about being "quick and thorough" again before they decide to get one more round in before Donna has to go back to work.
Mike, Harvey and Cameron Dennis are in Judge Adkins office, where Harvey wastes no time reminding her that she informed Cameron that if he couldn't provide proof beyond the bribery charge, she'd dismiss the case. Cameron insists that they have five witnesses who can tie the colonel she bribed to the six murders, but Mike counters that none of those witnesses will come forward, so if they can't be confronted, that doesn't make their testimony inadmissable. The judge sides with Cameron when he points out that just because they won't come forward doesn't mean they don't exist, and she adds that while their testimony may be inadmissible, she can't really ignore the fact that they were made.
Harvey processes this for a second, and is like, "Fine, be that way, but now we're going to move for an expedited trial." The, "so Cameron doesn't have enough time to make a good case," is heavily implied. Cameron is pissed, since he was just arguing for her to dismiss it ten seconds ago, but Harvey points out that in the ten seconds since, Ava's public perception has gone down the toilet, and maintains that waiting any longer just denies Ava the opportunity to clear her name. He also takes care to note that since Cameron was the one who leaked the evidence to Gianopolous before, they don't know that he won't do it again with something else.
Judge just stares at them with annoyance as Cameron pronounces Harvey's statement "Bullshit Highway," and complains that he won't have enough time to prepare his case, although Mike is kind enough to remind him that just minutes ago, he claimed he had a solid enough case to go to trial anyway. Dennis has no response to that, other than to try to make fun of Harvey for having his mini-me speak for him, but Judge Adkins has had more than enough of all of this, anyway. She rolls her eyes and is like, "I'm setting the trial for a week from today, so please just get the fuck out of my office."
At the office, Rachel is appalled that Donna hasn't told Harvey about Stephen yet. Donna claims that he was in such a bad mood when she had planned to tell him, that she didn't have the nerve to do it, especially once he thought she was doing some work for him. Rachel explains that telling Harvey will be fine, because all she has to do is assure him that what she and Harvey have "here" won't affect what she and Stephen have "there." Donna frowns and quips that she liked it better when they talked about Rachel and Mike.
Rachel keeps pushing her, because whether she tells him or not, it's all over her face that she's getting some, so he's going to figure it out eventually. Donna insists that he won't because men don't pay attention ever, but of course Louis totally interrupts to inform Donna that she's "glowing" and asks about her secret. Donna plays coy, and Louis instructs her to keep doing what she's doing. "I'm serious, morning, noon and night, five times a day if you have to!" Rachel doesn't think that should be a problem for her, but Donna, who is dying from all the attention, shushes her and runs away.
Mike is shocked that Harvey isn't fuming from what happened with the judge, but of course, Harvey knew she was never going to dismiss the charges. Mike realizes that he played the judge, since she would be much more amenable to agreeing to an expedited trial if she had already denied him his first request. Harvey confirms that he is correct, and adds that now Cameron will have no chance of putting together a decent case, especially with no evidence. Mike throws out the idea that the case would be even easier without Cameron, since a replacement lawyer would just throw out the charges, knowing they wouldn't have time to make a good case. They both agree on the best way to get rid of Cameron: prove that he was the one who leaked the tape to Tony Gianopolous in the first place. Oh, this is going to get messy. TITLE CARD!
Louis is in his office, reading a memo, when he calls in his newest whipping-boy associate, Simon, to have a chat. Apparently, the memo he wrote was not up to Louis' standards. He smacks the memo in the poor kid's face as he rants, "Is that some sort of joke? Nominal in the first paragraph, pagination on the left hand side, Times New Roman's stupid little feet walking all across the page..." After he berates the kid a little more about how the firm never uses the word "shall" and orders him to rewrite it, Simon breaks the news that Nigel (aka British Louis) sent all the associates a memo that they're not to follow Louis' orders or some shit. Louis points out that Nigel has been out of the office since he got the job, and reminds him that since Louis IS here, he will be the one kicking his ass if he doesn't do it, not Nigel. Once he's gone, Louis no doubt goes back to scheming and plotting to get the associates back.
Donna starts shooting dagger eyes at Stephen when he approaches her at her desk and admonishes him about their "not-at-work" rule, but Stephen's actually there to see Harvey. After more here-and-there banter (which we get a lot of this episode), Harvey interrupts them to ask who Donna's talking to, and Donna literally shoves Stephen into his office to get him out of her hair.
Harvey doesn't get why Stephen's even here, considering that he lost Ava her company so his deal with Darby is totally blown. Stephen admits that after Jessica's little stunt last week, Darby has decided that Harvey is the lesser of two evils (or at least the more controllable of the two hot-heads) and is still willing to back Harvey for managing partner as long as he beats Ava's murder trial. Harvey asks if that extends to not having a trial at all, but he claims Darby's cool with that as long as it doesn't involve Ava pleading guilty, which luckily isn't part of his plan.
The next order of business is Harvey's plan to sue Tony Gianopolous. (God, I am so sick of typing this guy's name, I can barely remember how to spell it correctly. I need to make up a nickname for him a la Agent Douchenozzle, but I am at a loss for clever nicknames.) Stephen is like, "And how do you suppose you'll do that?" Mike has it covered, though, and swoops into Harvey's office to drop three different possible strategies on the desk. Stephen and Harvey read them over, and are both fairly impressed, but Stephen thinks he can do better. Mike scoffs at this, because he learned the art of confidence from Harvey himself, but Stephen's willing to bet $5k on it. Harvey takes the bet and raises it to $10k and kicks Mike off the case. Mike's pretty offended, and asks if he'll be allowed back on if he makes a bet too, but when Harvey tells him the buy in is $10k, he's like, "Yeahhhh, good luck with that, fellas."
Of course, Mike goes straight to his girlfriend to whine about what happened with Stephen, to which Rachel responds, "Well, doesn't he have his hand in a lot of cookie jars." She knows Mike, though, so it's not like he's just going to let that go, but it doesn't take much convincing to get her to spill about Donna's steamy love affair with British Harvey. He's dumbfounded when he realizes that Harvey has no idea, and she begs him not to tell him, but she's got nothing to worry about--Mike values his life and job wayyyy too much to get involved in that hot mess.
When Rachel asks how he's going to get back on the case, he exposits that he has another case; an accountant of one of Pearson Darby's clients embezzled $30 million dollars from them, and it's Mike's job to get the money back, discreetly. Also, he wants/needs Rachel's help. She giggles that he wants her to be the Mike to his Harvey, and it's very cute. The banter back and forth about how much Rachel gets to do, and eventually Rachel wins the right to ask 1/3 of the questions after reminding him that he doesn't sleep with Harvey, so their dynamic is slightly different.
Louis strolls into the mud club and is horrified when he's scolded by Nigel for stomping too loudly. After he smugs that he has courtesy mudding privileges thanks to his membership to his club in London, he rubs salt in the wound by bragging that his mud is Turkish. Louis is appalled, because bringing in outside mud is forbidden, and there are RULES, you guys, but Nigel's just here for payback after Louis undermined him today. Louis maintains he only did it because of how Nigel is ruining his former associates by not mentoring them properly. Louis' British counterpart tries to trump him with his superior education, so Louis brings out the big similes. He compares training the associates to sand being turned into glass, and takes great care to emphasize that he will not be told who he can or cannot blow. Hee! Yeah, that's totally not coming back to haunt him.
Stephen and Harvey are waiting in yet another all-glass waiting room, and finally, we get to see the infamous Tony Gianopolous in the flesh. He's your usual gray-haired rich guy, nothing special. He's not at all scared when they threaten to sue him, not even when Stephen adds that they're suing him from the London office, where the burden of proof is on the defendant instead of the plaintiff. He's one of those super-gross rich dudes who claim that they don't care about money, and says that money is just a score-keeper; he just likes winning, not being rich, and burns a $50k bond just to demonstrate his point. The boys bring up that it'll be hard for him to win when he's too caught up in depositions and court dates to run his company, and offers to drop the suit if he rats out Cameron Dennis re: the bribery tape before they dramatically leave the meeting.
Mike and Rachel are on their way to interview their client, and Mike suggests that they have a celebratory dinner, followed by celebratory sexing, but Rachel has plans to eat dinner with her parents. Mike is all, "Cool, I'll come too, if you want," but it's clear when her whole body stiffens that she's so not into it, and Mike realizes she doesn't want him to meet her parents. She denies it, which only leads Mike to the conclusion that she might not EVER want him to meet her parents, and gets a little hurt. Rachel's main concern is that her parents will find out about the whole "oh, my boyfriend's kind of a fraud" thing, but Mike is confident that they won't, because 1) no one has found out yet, everyone who knows was told what was up, and 2) he's already met her dad and he was cool with him. Rachel points out the fact that when he met her dad, he was just a rando associate and not a dude who is banging his daughter. Mike reminds her that they told each other "I love you," which means that eventually, he's going to have to meet her family, and drops it.
Donna is perched on the couch in Harvey's office, looking nervous as she waits for him to come back. When he does, she warms up by asking him how his meeting with Gianopolous went; he briefly explains, and when she confirms that it went well, she interrupts him. "I'm sleeping with Stephen." He looks momentarily dumbfounded, but recovers quickly with a "I can see that." He assures her that he's not mad, but does ask her why she didn't tell him earlier, once he learns that it's been ongoing for several days. She reiterates her earlier concerns, but he feels the same way that Rachel predicted: as long as what they have doesn't change, she can do whatever she wants in her personal life. Way to be mature, Harvey! I knew you had it in you. However, there's still some tension, and something tells me it will probably linger for a while, too.
The woman that Mike and Rachel are interviewing regarding the Graham Stenton embezzlement case is a woman named Beth Clark. When she's asked about when she first suspected that Stenton was embezzling money, she shocks them by saying she doesn't believe that he did. She lists off a bunch of people who also had access to the embezzled accounts, which leads Rachel to conclude that Beth is sleeping with Stenton, which is why she's covering for him. Mike reminds her that they're trying to do this quietly for everyone's sake, but if they can't get the money back, they'll take it to court, where she'll have to testify. They play good cop-bad cop perfectly; when Beth doesn't immediately rat out Stenton, he leaves to go call the D.A., but Rachel talks him into giving her a day to get Stenton to return the money. Nicely played, kids!
In the bullpen, all of the associates are laughing, so Louis walks in to investigate. Of course, all of the associates scatter like cockroaches as soon as they see him, and Simon just kind of stands awkwardly and fidgets with the flaps of a cardboard box as Louis approaches. Louis asks him what's up, and Simon reluctantly spills that Mr. Nesbitt (Nigel, aka British Louis) gave them all gifts, and adds that it's meant to be funny. Louis doesn't get it, and comments on Nigel's inability to connect with people as he opens the box, and when he does, the smile wipes off his face instantly. "What did you say to him?" Simon asks innocently.
Louis immediately marches into Nigel's office and slams a pretty, blue, glass paperweight-type thing that says, "Louis Litt Blew Me" on it. Louis thinks he crossed the line by making a private feud public, but Nigel counters that he only did it because Louis undermined his authority. Louis is about to go in on him, but is distracted as a cute gray cat hops up on Nigel's desk. Nigel explains that his cat's nanny is sick, but Louis is so in love that he's completely forgotten that they were fighting in the first place. "No, no, no, say no more. A father's rule knows no rule." Nigel asks if he's a cat man, and Louis is literally like, "Do I have brains in my head? Do I have a heart in my chest? Who is this stunning creature?" Her name is Mikado, and Louis immediately picks her up, despite Nigel's protests; he is completely shocked when she takes to Louis immediately, and explains that she normally doesn't like other people picking her up. "I happen to have a way with those of the feline persuasion," Louis smugs, and asks for some cream as the cat licks his ear.
Jessica has summoned Harvey to her office to explain how her schedule magically cleared for the afternoon, because three of the clients she was meeting with fired the firm. Why, you ask? Because Tony Gianapolous bought all of the clients' companies for the sole purpose of firing them. Harvey isn't so bummed about it, because it means that he's angry because he's scared. Jessica's not so thrilled, though, especially considering that he didn't run it by her first. Harvey's like, "Yeah, I considered it but I figured you'd just go behind my back and undo it, soooo..." Jessica's stunned for a moment, and then just tells him that HE can be the one to call Darby and let him know that Harvey lost them more money today than he's ever made in his time at the firm. She swans out, informing him that since her schedule cleared up, she's going to take the rest of the day off. Yikes!
Mike stops by Rachel's office, and they bask a bit in the after-glow of their amazing good-cop/bad-cop routine. It's pretty adorable. Mike throws out an idea about celebrating over the weekend, but Rachel suggests they celebrate tonight instead, after they both eat dinner with her parents. He's pretty happy that she changed her mind, and she assures him that she doesn't want to hide him from her parents. He tries to play it off like he already has plans, but she just laughs and they smooch.
Once again, Ava has come to visit Harvey to yell at him for yet another screw up. Harvey assures her that Gianopolous isn't allowed to take another shot at running Hessington Oil after they restructured, but that's not what she's worried about. What she IS worried about, is the fact that Gianopolous has been dumping his stocks all day, which is just worsening the nosedive it was already taking. Harvey grits his teeth and says he'll take care of it, and when Ava demands to know what he did, he reluctantly admits that he and Stephen picked a fight with him. Ava's understandably furious, considering that the last time they did that, she lost her company, but Harvey maintains that he is just trying to get rid of her murder charges once and for all so they can get her her company back. Ava urges him to do so, and emphasizes that she'd rather rot in jail than lose her company to Gianopolous. Be careful what you wish for, lady!
Mike's at dinner with the Zanes, and it's actually going pretty well. They bond over Rachel's mom getting on his case about how much mashed potatoes he can eat, Mike is able to stand his ground against her father, and her mom even speaks out in his defense when Robert's interrogation gets intense. Mike cracks some jokes about Rachel's mom, which to some families would be a little harsh, but the Zanes have a good sense of humor, so they all laugh. It's pretty cute.
Stephen is hanging out with Harvey in Harvey's office, having some drinks. Harvey contemplates aloud what could possibly have caused Gianopolous to go so far as to dump all his stocks like that, so Stephen ends up admitting that he subpoenaed Gianopolous' daughter. Harvey is FURIOUS at this news, which Stephen wasn't expecting, because he really does believe that he and Harvey are more or less the same person. Harvey yells at him, and reminds him that the point of this exercise was to get him to get him to flip on Cameron, not to make him a permanent enemy. Stephen's like, "Are you telling me you wouldn't do the same thing?" and Harvey makes a pretty legitimate point. "I went after his business, you went after his family!" Stephen stupidly retorts that this has nothing to do with the case, and everything to do with the fact that he's banging Donna. I mean, he's not REALLY wrong, but still, don't poke the fucking bear, dude! Harvey goes cold and spits, "I'm going to pretend you didn't just say that," before kicking him off the case and out of his office.
Back to dinner with the Zanes: Robert and Mike are having drinks alone on the balcony, and because Robert is the father of a daughter, he naturally starts grilling Mike on his background. My dad favors this method as an intimidation technique as well, because he enjoys watching the boyfriends of my sister and I shit their pants, apparently. Mike answers his questions truthfully and politely, but when he mentions that his parents are dead, Robert thinks he's joking. When he realizes he wasn't, he softens up on Mike, which is probably a good thing, considering the secrets he's keeping. Inside, Rachel is trying to eavesdrop as she helps her mom clean up. Her mom doesn't get the big deal about it, reminding her daughter that Mike's a lawyer and can handle her dad, but Rachel's obvious nervousness and lack of response leads her mom to conclude that Mike's hiding something. She asks about it, and when Rachel doesn't say anything, reassures her that it's okay, and as long as he hasn't murdered someone, it'll work itself out. Wow, that's awfully trusting, Mama Zane.
Jessica has returned to her office this evening, after taking the day off, which Harvey notices when he comes to visit her. She knows something must be up and orders him to spill, so he confesses that he's there because she was right about Stephen, who went rogue and made a mess without asking him or telling him he was going to do it. She knows why Harvey's there, but rubs it in a little bit and makes him say it anyway. Harvey surprisingly has the balls to actually be truthful; basically, he fucked up, and he needs her advice/help.
She smiles and considers their options for a moment before pitching her idea: Gianopolous wants to own Hessington Oil, and Ava wants to run it, so she could sell him her shares while keeping control of the firm, and in return Gianopolous will rat on Cameron. Harvey thinks it's a good plan, and adds that Gianopolous won't be an issue, because he'll know that they're coming to him because he won. The problem is Ava, who said she'd rather rot in jail than lose her company to Tony. "I'll take care of Ava," Jessica assures him, and even though I know how this ends, I think she is the perfect person to talk her into this deal, since she's been in her place before.
Still on the balcony, Robert brings up Mike and Rachel's relationship; he admits to Mike that he likes him, but Rachel is dead-set on becoming a lawyer, and he doesn't want anyone or anything to get in her way. Mike assures him that he is completely supportive of Rachel's law school ambitions, but is completely caught off guard when Robert responds with a question: "What happens when she gets into Stanford?" Mike's face automatically betrays him, and Robert realizes that Mike had no idea she applied in the first place. "Looks like you two have something to talk about." And to think, he thought it would be HIS secrets that would get him into trouble.
Mike, of course, is passive-aggressively giving Rachel the cold shoulder the next morning, and she's confused, because she has no idea her dad spilled her secret to him. She comments on the fact that he left early, and he snits that he was tired and blah blah blah. Just as she's about to ask what's wrong with him, they're approached by Graham Stenton, who is super pissed that they went after Beth, and informs them that they got married. Rachel is like, "You married someone just to get out of trouble for embezzlement? Really?" but Graham insists that he loves her, and reminds them that now she's protected from being subpoenaed to testify against him. Welp, that went well.
Stephen finds Donna filing stuff in the file room, and it's pretty obvious she's not happy to see him, especially when he brings up the fact that she hasn't returned his calls. She has no problem calling him out on his stupidity. "Well, what could be different about last night than the night before? Hm? Maybe the fact that you went to Harvey and threw me in his face?" Stephen thought of it more as just stating the facts, especially since Harvey's clearly not thrilled about their thing, but Donna reminds him that it's HER business, not his. He gives her a weak apology, but she still breaks it off with him, adding that she enjoyed it, but she doesn't like complications. I don't blame her; casual relationships are not supposed to be dramatic, that's the whole point. Cut him loose, girl! He confesses that he's affected by her more than he expected, and says he'd like to explore it more, but she cuts him off by saying she'll take it under advisement and waltzing away. Don't do it!
When we join Jessica and Ava at Ava's office, she outright rejects Jessica's idea of selling her shares to Gianopolous in exchange for voting rights. "I don't know you very well Ava, and I won't pretend that I do. But, we do have something in common," Jessica begins, and Ava asks what that is. "I merged with Edward Darby to save my firm from getting hijacked by my piece of shit ex-partner. [...] I know what it's like to prefer rotting in the ground than letting my company take what's mine." Jessica reminds Ava that she can't control her company if she's in prison, and explains that she didn't want to merge at all, but she did what she had to to keep possession of her firm. Ava's like, "And look where it got you," which makes me laugh, because it's the truth. Jessica concedes that it has its ups and downs, but that she wouldn't be speaking to her right now if she hadn't done it, and reminds her again, for at least the second time, that they can always get her out of it later. I would like to get Ava to agree as much as the next girl, but Jessica, it's probably wise to not make promises that you don't know you can keep.
On the way to Rachel's office, she and Mike get into an argument about spousal privilege; Mike thinks it's totally stupid, but Rachel is of the belief that it's pretty important, which isn't untrue. Of course, then the conversation turns to partners being able to trust each other, and Mike can hold his tongue no longer! He drops the bomb that he knows about Stanford, so she pulls him into an empty conference room to talk. It takes her less than a second to figure out that her dad spilled the beans, and that's why he's been all pissy about it. He clarifies that he didn't TELL him, he ASKED him how he felt about it, because he assumed Mike knew, since Mike knew about all the east-coast schools where she applied.
Rachel brings up a legitimate point that he's kept stuff from her before too, but he thinks it's different because that was stuff that kept them apart. Uh, Mike? How is that different? She insists that she was eventually going to tell him, and Mike's like, "Oh, really? And when would that be?" Rachel: "...before I went...on Friday." Mike is stunned, because he thinks she already decided, but she assures him that it's just an interview. She apologizes for not telling him, and said she didn't know how to break it to him. "I know, how about you say, 'Hey Mike, I'm thinking about going to law school 3,000 miles away!'" Rachel doesn't think that's fair, because she doesn't even know if she's going to get in, and part of the reason why she didn't tell him was because she didn't want it to be like the LSATs and Harvard all over again, where she got her hopes up and then got rejected. Mike maintains that she didn't say anything because she wants to go and is to afraid to admit it, so she says it. So, fight's over then? Yeah? No?
Nigel timidly approaches Louis at his office; "I'm afraid I've got a bit of a sticky-wicked." Louis: "That sounds uncomfortable." Bahahaha. Anyway, Nigel has just been called to the Hong Kong office for a couple weeks, and Mikado's papers won't go through in time, which means she'd be facing quarantine. Louis is appalled, "She'd sooner die!" Nigel is impressed that he knows her so well already, to which Louis is in complete agreement, of course, but also says that it's a pretty large request to ask of him. Nigel feigns understanding and ponders aloud about a "suitable luxury feline hotel," but Louis knows exactly what he's doing. "Don't play games, okay? You and I both know there isn't." Nigel asks if that means he'll do it, and of course it does; as soon as he confirms, he asks where Mikado is and if he can have her now.
Mike comes back to Rachel's office, not to apologize for overreacting, but because their "discussion" gave him an idea of what to do in the Stenton case. Rachel teases him about using the word "discussion,"and Mike's like, "Can we please not argue about what to call our fight?" He pitches his idea of doing bad-cop/bad-cop, which after today, Rachel totally thinks she can handle.
Jessica is buying an asiago bagel at a bagel truck, which according to hers and Harvey's banter, is her treat for winning a case. When she asks him if she should be buying him one too, he tells her it'd be poppyseed, which is apparently their "good news/bad news bagel." The good news is, Gianopolous and Ava both took their deal, so that's all worked out. The bad news is that Cameron never outright told Gianopolous about the tape, and technically didn't show it to him. The bright side is, he DID leave Gianpolous alone in his office with the tape, so that might be enough to get him kicked off the case for good, finally.
Donna is walking into the break room when she runs into Louis, who is pouring himself a monster mug of coffee. She can tell he's really tired, and asks him about it. "Ulcer again?" Louis denies it, and tells her that Nigel's cat Mikado kept him up all night. Donna is stunned, like, "You slept over at Nigel's?" but alas, he's only cat-sitting. Also, Mikado is apparently very fickle, even for a cat. "Mikado won't drink her cream unless it's precisely 5.5 degrees Celsius, she turned her nose up at Bruno's origami collection, and she won't use her litter box unless it's facing London! [...] Hate that damn thing." Donna begs to differ, and tells him he's loving every second of it, and Louis can't even deny she's right. It's love, you guys. He changes the subject to the fact that Donna's not sporting her post-coital glow anymore, so Donna quickly lies and says she took a couple nights off from "yoga." He thinks Harvey made her stop because of work, and urges her not to let work get in the way of her awesome glow. Donna smirks and says she'll have to do an extra-long session tonight, then. When Louis looks overjoyed and asks if he can come, her eyes bug out and she scampers.
Harvey shows up at the Special Prosecutor's office to rub the fact that Gianopolous flipped on Cameron into his face. He still thinks he has a shot, even if he doesn't have the time to prepare a perfect case, but he doesn't know that Harvey just got his main piece of evidence thrown out. Cameron takes a moment to scan Gianopolous' sworn statement and stammers that it doesn't really change anything, but Harvey sure thinks it does. "That tape is gone, and now so are you." Harvey urges him to just save face and cancel the trial, but Cameron is just as stubborn as Harvey is. He maintains that he's still in and points out that the fact that it went from being 50-50 to 80-20 doesn't mean he's giving up. Harvey corrects him, "99 to 1" but Cameron doesn't give a shit about the numbers whatsoever. "We're in the ring, I'm still standing, and this isn't over. Now get out of my face!" Eloquent, dude. Man, I'm so sick of this asshole, ugh.
Rachel and Mike confront BethClark Stenton in some park-like area, where Mike presents her with a request for formal charges to be filed against Graham Stenton for embezzling 30 million dollars. Rachel adds that the minimum sentence for that crime is 15 years in federal prison. Beth figures they're bluffing, because if they had proof of that, they wouldn't have bothered with her, but Mike informs her that they knew that she knew something was wrong, and that she didn't notify their employer, so they have requested that charges be filed against her as well, as an accessory after the fact, which comes with a minimum of five years in a federal prison. No bueno, girlfriend! Rachel assures her she can avoid it by testifying against him in court, but she reminds them that they're married, which means even if she wanted to (and she doesn't) he would just stop her anyway.
Mike replies that that would be true in New York, but not in Connecticut, where the charges are going to be filed. Beth's pissed, and says, "You're asking me to turn against the man I love." Mike makes the pretty legitimate point that chances are, in five years when she gets out of prison, he won't be there waiting for her. She's about to just walk away, so Rachel levels with her, woman-to-woman. "Beth, even if he waits for you, he did this! And the fear of him getting caught is going to cast a shadow over every moment of the rest of your life together." Hmmm, something tells me this conversation isn't solely about the Stentons, and judging by the look on Mike's face, I'm guessing I'm not the only one. Beth leaves for reals this time, but turns back for just a second to tell them she'll get them the money back.
Harvey comes back to his office after breaking the news to Cameron, and finds Stephen in there leaving him a note. He congratulates Harvey on getting Ava her CEO title back and getting the bribery tape thrown out of her murder case, but Harvey's not very open to it, since he had to clean up Stephen's mess. Stephen brings up the fact that he went to Jessica for help, and when Harvey's like, "Yeah, so what?" Stephen says he's merely pointing out the irony in the fact that she essentially helped him screw her over. Harvey just side-eyes him, so Stephen wisely decides to get out while he still can.
Rachel's just got home from work, by the looks of it, when Mike knocks on her door. He informs her that they got the money back that Stenton embezzled, and thanks her for doing so awesomely at playing good cop. They both apologize at the same time, and Rachel said that she should have told him about Stanford, especially since she's seriously considering going there. Mike brings up her speech to Beth earlier, and asks if it was about him too. She really doesn't answer the question; she says that the thought occurred to her that if she went to Stanford, it would be a fresh start, but really, she just wants to cover her bases, which is advice that HE gave her, just in case she doesn't get into Yale or Columbia. Mike assures her that he totally gets it, but does admit that he's afraid about what will happen if she does. She reminds him that he came to her with the truth on his own, and that she needs him to allow her to make this decision on her own as well.
Meanwhile, Jessica and Harvey are in Harvey's office, where she's pacing around a bit. "I'm not one for sentimental gestures," she begins. "but I was thinking about when Hardman came back and you and I got into it. You got me my tea set back. [...] I'm here with a gesture of my own." She sets a new business card down onto the table, which reads "Pearson Darby Specter" and has Harvey's name on it, and his new title. He is a little dumbfounded, and cracks that it's not a tea set. Jessica reveals that his name will be on the door tomorrow.
Harvey's a little confused, considering he asked for it a while back, and Jessica said that he wasn't ready. Jessica concedes that point, and adds that she also said she wasn't going to just slap someone else's name up there, but she did. Harvey correctly deduces that she's regretting the merger, and suggests that she's playing games again; she is giving him a promotion so that way Harvey will be on her side against Darby. (I couldn't quite read what the title is on the card, I know Jessica is managing partner, so what does that make Darby and Harvey now? Partners? What's the difference between being a senior partner and having your name on the firm? Do they throw more equity into the pot? Any law people out there who want to explain it to me?) Jessica confesses that Darby is treating her the way that she treated him, and she hates it, so now she understands how he felt/feels, and wants to make amends. She doesn't want Harvey on her side, she wants them to be on the SAME side. I get Harvey's confusion, but don't bite the hand that feeds you, dude! At least say thank you, geez.
Next episode: we flashback 10 years, so we get to see 1) what happened when Cameron covered up evidence all those years ago while Harvey was still working at the D.A's office under him, 2) what happened when Mike got kicked out of college and why he was put in the position where he wanted to sell the test answers in the first place, AND 3) the mythical "other time" that happened between Donna and Harvey! Bear with me, I promise they'll be coming soon.
Anyway, what'd you think about this episode?
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Anyway, let's recap, yeah?
Previously, on Suits: Pearson Darby client Ava Hessington bribed the colonel in an volatile country where her company was building an oil pipeline. Notoriously slimy former-D.A. Cameron Dennis leaked the video evidence of the bribe to her majority stockholder, Tony Gianopolous, who is now trying to take control of Hessington Oil. Jessica believed the best course of action was for Ava to step down temporarily until her murder charges were taken care of, but Harvey and Darby cock-blocked her. So, of course, Jessica's inability to deal with people bossing her around led to her instructing Louis to go to the board behind Harvey and Darby's backs to kick Ava out of her own company, mostly just because she's pissed that Darby is throwing his weight around, a theme that will be lingering for quite a few episodes, sorry to say. Let's go!
Harvey is sitting at Donna's desk, where she is very conspicuously absent. He calls her from her own phone, and we can tell before we even see her face that Harvey has interrupted her nooner. He's pissed because she said she had a "thing" at 1:00pm, and now 1:45 and she is still nowhere to be found. "And it's called a lunch hour, Harvey, sixty whole minutes, which my teeth deserve!" He's surprised that she managed to fit in the dentist on her lunch hour, and she chirps in response that her dentist is surprisingly quick AND thorough, from what I assume is Stephen's bed, where she is naked save for a sheet.
"Donna, Judge Adkins is ready to hear my motion for summary judgment, which she won't do if there aren't two copies of that motion in my hands in ten minutes," Harvey complains, because he may be the best closer in Manhattan, but he has no idea how to do secretarial work. Donna hilariously talks him through the process of making copies, and then instructs him to toss his copies in the trash because she already left both of them on his desk before she took lunch. Now we know why Harvey will never fire Donna ever--because he literally would not know how to do his job without her.
She's finally able to get Harvey off the phone, and looks up at Stephen's face as she sighs in post-orgasmic bliss. Stephen's a little hurt that she called their rendezvous "a thing," but she shrugs it off. He starts to ask her what Harvey wanted, but she wants to maintain their "no talking about work" policy. He agrees that they did make that rule, but jokes that they also agreed to have lunch at lunch, instead of sexy dessert. Donna gets dressed while he watches, and he admits that he likes to "know things about things," which Donna concedes he is very good at doing. They ultimately get distracted when he starts groping her again, and out comes all of the innuendos and banter about being "quick and thorough" again before they decide to get one more round in before Donna has to go back to work.
Mike, Harvey and Cameron Dennis are in Judge Adkins office, where Harvey wastes no time reminding her that she informed Cameron that if he couldn't provide proof beyond the bribery charge, she'd dismiss the case. Cameron insists that they have five witnesses who can tie the colonel she bribed to the six murders, but Mike counters that none of those witnesses will come forward, so if they can't be confronted, that doesn't make their testimony inadmissable. The judge sides with Cameron when he points out that just because they won't come forward doesn't mean they don't exist, and she adds that while their testimony may be inadmissible, she can't really ignore the fact that they were made.
Harvey processes this for a second, and is like, "Fine, be that way, but now we're going to move for an expedited trial." The, "so Cameron doesn't have enough time to make a good case," is heavily implied. Cameron is pissed, since he was just arguing for her to dismiss it ten seconds ago, but Harvey points out that in the ten seconds since, Ava's public perception has gone down the toilet, and maintains that waiting any longer just denies Ava the opportunity to clear her name. He also takes care to note that since Cameron was the one who leaked the evidence to Gianopolous before, they don't know that he won't do it again with something else.
Judge just stares at them with annoyance as Cameron pronounces Harvey's statement "Bullshit Highway," and complains that he won't have enough time to prepare his case, although Mike is kind enough to remind him that just minutes ago, he claimed he had a solid enough case to go to trial anyway. Dennis has no response to that, other than to try to make fun of Harvey for having his mini-me speak for him, but Judge Adkins has had more than enough of all of this, anyway. She rolls her eyes and is like, "I'm setting the trial for a week from today, so please just get the fuck out of my office."
At the office, Rachel is appalled that Donna hasn't told Harvey about Stephen yet. Donna claims that he was in such a bad mood when she had planned to tell him, that she didn't have the nerve to do it, especially once he thought she was doing some work for him. Rachel explains that telling Harvey will be fine, because all she has to do is assure him that what she and Harvey have "here" won't affect what she and Stephen have "there." Donna frowns and quips that she liked it better when they talked about Rachel and Mike.
Rachel keeps pushing her, because whether she tells him or not, it's all over her face that she's getting some, so he's going to figure it out eventually. Donna insists that he won't because men don't pay attention ever, but of course Louis totally interrupts to inform Donna that she's "glowing" and asks about her secret. Donna plays coy, and Louis instructs her to keep doing what she's doing. "I'm serious, morning, noon and night, five times a day if you have to!" Rachel doesn't think that should be a problem for her, but Donna, who is dying from all the attention, shushes her and runs away.
Mike is shocked that Harvey isn't fuming from what happened with the judge, but of course, Harvey knew she was never going to dismiss the charges. Mike realizes that he played the judge, since she would be much more amenable to agreeing to an expedited trial if she had already denied him his first request. Harvey confirms that he is correct, and adds that now Cameron will have no chance of putting together a decent case, especially with no evidence. Mike throws out the idea that the case would be even easier without Cameron, since a replacement lawyer would just throw out the charges, knowing they wouldn't have time to make a good case. They both agree on the best way to get rid of Cameron: prove that he was the one who leaked the tape to Tony Gianopolous in the first place. Oh, this is going to get messy. TITLE CARD!
Louis is in his office, reading a memo, when he calls in his newest whipping-boy associate, Simon, to have a chat. Apparently, the memo he wrote was not up to Louis' standards. He smacks the memo in the poor kid's face as he rants, "Is that some sort of joke? Nominal in the first paragraph, pagination on the left hand side, Times New Roman's stupid little feet walking all across the page..." After he berates the kid a little more about how the firm never uses the word "shall" and orders him to rewrite it, Simon breaks the news that Nigel (aka British Louis) sent all the associates a memo that they're not to follow Louis' orders or some shit. Louis points out that Nigel has been out of the office since he got the job, and reminds him that since Louis IS here, he will be the one kicking his ass if he doesn't do it, not Nigel. Once he's gone, Louis no doubt goes back to scheming and plotting to get the associates back.
Donna starts shooting dagger eyes at Stephen when he approaches her at her desk and admonishes him about their "not-at-work" rule, but Stephen's actually there to see Harvey. After more here-and-there banter (which we get a lot of this episode), Harvey interrupts them to ask who Donna's talking to, and Donna literally shoves Stephen into his office to get him out of her hair.
Harvey doesn't get why Stephen's even here, considering that he lost Ava her company so his deal with Darby is totally blown. Stephen admits that after Jessica's little stunt last week, Darby has decided that Harvey is the lesser of two evils (or at least the more controllable of the two hot-heads) and is still willing to back Harvey for managing partner as long as he beats Ava's murder trial. Harvey asks if that extends to not having a trial at all, but he claims Darby's cool with that as long as it doesn't involve Ava pleading guilty, which luckily isn't part of his plan.
The next order of business is Harvey's plan to sue Tony Gianopolous. (God, I am so sick of typing this guy's name, I can barely remember how to spell it correctly. I need to make up a nickname for him a la Agent Douchenozzle, but I am at a loss for clever nicknames.) Stephen is like, "And how do you suppose you'll do that?" Mike has it covered, though, and swoops into Harvey's office to drop three different possible strategies on the desk. Stephen and Harvey read them over, and are both fairly impressed, but Stephen thinks he can do better. Mike scoffs at this, because he learned the art of confidence from Harvey himself, but Stephen's willing to bet $5k on it. Harvey takes the bet and raises it to $10k and kicks Mike off the case. Mike's pretty offended, and asks if he'll be allowed back on if he makes a bet too, but when Harvey tells him the buy in is $10k, he's like, "Yeahhhh, good luck with that, fellas."
Of course, Mike goes straight to his girlfriend to whine about what happened with Stephen, to which Rachel responds, "Well, doesn't he have his hand in a lot of cookie jars." She knows Mike, though, so it's not like he's just going to let that go, but it doesn't take much convincing to get her to spill about Donna's steamy love affair with British Harvey. He's dumbfounded when he realizes that Harvey has no idea, and she begs him not to tell him, but she's got nothing to worry about--Mike values his life and job wayyyy too much to get involved in that hot mess.
When Rachel asks how he's going to get back on the case, he exposits that he has another case; an accountant of one of Pearson Darby's clients embezzled $30 million dollars from them, and it's Mike's job to get the money back, discreetly. Also, he wants/needs Rachel's help. She giggles that he wants her to be the Mike to his Harvey, and it's very cute. The banter back and forth about how much Rachel gets to do, and eventually Rachel wins the right to ask 1/3 of the questions after reminding him that he doesn't sleep with Harvey, so their dynamic is slightly different.
Louis strolls into the mud club and is horrified when he's scolded by Nigel for stomping too loudly. After he smugs that he has courtesy mudding privileges thanks to his membership to his club in London, he rubs salt in the wound by bragging that his mud is Turkish. Louis is appalled, because bringing in outside mud is forbidden, and there are RULES, you guys, but Nigel's just here for payback after Louis undermined him today. Louis maintains he only did it because of how Nigel is ruining his former associates by not mentoring them properly. Louis' British counterpart tries to trump him with his superior education, so Louis brings out the big similes. He compares training the associates to sand being turned into glass, and takes great care to emphasize that he will not be told who he can or cannot blow. Hee! Yeah, that's totally not coming back to haunt him.
Stephen and Harvey are waiting in yet another all-glass waiting room, and finally, we get to see the infamous Tony Gianopolous in the flesh. He's your usual gray-haired rich guy, nothing special. He's not at all scared when they threaten to sue him, not even when Stephen adds that they're suing him from the London office, where the burden of proof is on the defendant instead of the plaintiff. He's one of those super-gross rich dudes who claim that they don't care about money, and says that money is just a score-keeper; he just likes winning, not being rich, and burns a $50k bond just to demonstrate his point. The boys bring up that it'll be hard for him to win when he's too caught up in depositions and court dates to run his company, and offers to drop the suit if he rats out Cameron Dennis re: the bribery tape before they dramatically leave the meeting.
Mike and Rachel are on their way to interview their client, and Mike suggests that they have a celebratory dinner, followed by celebratory sexing, but Rachel has plans to eat dinner with her parents. Mike is all, "Cool, I'll come too, if you want," but it's clear when her whole body stiffens that she's so not into it, and Mike realizes she doesn't want him to meet her parents. She denies it, which only leads Mike to the conclusion that she might not EVER want him to meet her parents, and gets a little hurt. Rachel's main concern is that her parents will find out about the whole "oh, my boyfriend's kind of a fraud" thing, but Mike is confident that they won't, because 1) no one has found out yet, everyone who knows was told what was up, and 2) he's already met her dad and he was cool with him. Rachel points out the fact that when he met her dad, he was just a rando associate and not a dude who is banging his daughter. Mike reminds her that they told each other "I love you," which means that eventually, he's going to have to meet her family, and drops it.
Donna is perched on the couch in Harvey's office, looking nervous as she waits for him to come back. When he does, she warms up by asking him how his meeting with Gianopolous went; he briefly explains, and when she confirms that it went well, she interrupts him. "I'm sleeping with Stephen." He looks momentarily dumbfounded, but recovers quickly with a "I can see that." He assures her that he's not mad, but does ask her why she didn't tell him earlier, once he learns that it's been ongoing for several days. She reiterates her earlier concerns, but he feels the same way that Rachel predicted: as long as what they have doesn't change, she can do whatever she wants in her personal life. Way to be mature, Harvey! I knew you had it in you. However, there's still some tension, and something tells me it will probably linger for a while, too.
The woman that Mike and Rachel are interviewing regarding the Graham Stenton embezzlement case is a woman named Beth Clark. When she's asked about when she first suspected that Stenton was embezzling money, she shocks them by saying she doesn't believe that he did. She lists off a bunch of people who also had access to the embezzled accounts, which leads Rachel to conclude that Beth is sleeping with Stenton, which is why she's covering for him. Mike reminds her that they're trying to do this quietly for everyone's sake, but if they can't get the money back, they'll take it to court, where she'll have to testify. They play good cop-bad cop perfectly; when Beth doesn't immediately rat out Stenton, he leaves to go call the D.A., but Rachel talks him into giving her a day to get Stenton to return the money. Nicely played, kids!
In the bullpen, all of the associates are laughing, so Louis walks in to investigate. Of course, all of the associates scatter like cockroaches as soon as they see him, and Simon just kind of stands awkwardly and fidgets with the flaps of a cardboard box as Louis approaches. Louis asks him what's up, and Simon reluctantly spills that Mr. Nesbitt (Nigel, aka British Louis) gave them all gifts, and adds that it's meant to be funny. Louis doesn't get it, and comments on Nigel's inability to connect with people as he opens the box, and when he does, the smile wipes off his face instantly. "What did you say to him?" Simon asks innocently.
Louis immediately marches into Nigel's office and slams a pretty, blue, glass paperweight-type thing that says, "Louis Litt Blew Me" on it. Louis thinks he crossed the line by making a private feud public, but Nigel counters that he only did it because Louis undermined his authority. Louis is about to go in on him, but is distracted as a cute gray cat hops up on Nigel's desk. Nigel explains that his cat's nanny is sick, but Louis is so in love that he's completely forgotten that they were fighting in the first place. "No, no, no, say no more. A father's rule knows no rule." Nigel asks if he's a cat man, and Louis is literally like, "Do I have brains in my head? Do I have a heart in my chest? Who is this stunning creature?" Her name is Mikado, and Louis immediately picks her up, despite Nigel's protests; he is completely shocked when she takes to Louis immediately, and explains that she normally doesn't like other people picking her up. "I happen to have a way with those of the feline persuasion," Louis smugs, and asks for some cream as the cat licks his ear.
Jessica has summoned Harvey to her office to explain how her schedule magically cleared for the afternoon, because three of the clients she was meeting with fired the firm. Why, you ask? Because Tony Gianapolous bought all of the clients' companies for the sole purpose of firing them. Harvey isn't so bummed about it, because it means that he's angry because he's scared. Jessica's not so thrilled, though, especially considering that he didn't run it by her first. Harvey's like, "Yeah, I considered it but I figured you'd just go behind my back and undo it, soooo..." Jessica's stunned for a moment, and then just tells him that HE can be the one to call Darby and let him know that Harvey lost them more money today than he's ever made in his time at the firm. She swans out, informing him that since her schedule cleared up, she's going to take the rest of the day off. Yikes!
Mike stops by Rachel's office, and they bask a bit in the after-glow of their amazing good-cop/bad-cop routine. It's pretty adorable. Mike throws out an idea about celebrating over the weekend, but Rachel suggests they celebrate tonight instead, after they both eat dinner with her parents. He's pretty happy that she changed her mind, and she assures him that she doesn't want to hide him from her parents. He tries to play it off like he already has plans, but she just laughs and they smooch.
Once again, Ava has come to visit Harvey to yell at him for yet another screw up. Harvey assures her that Gianopolous isn't allowed to take another shot at running Hessington Oil after they restructured, but that's not what she's worried about. What she IS worried about, is the fact that Gianopolous has been dumping his stocks all day, which is just worsening the nosedive it was already taking. Harvey grits his teeth and says he'll take care of it, and when Ava demands to know what he did, he reluctantly admits that he and Stephen picked a fight with him. Ava's understandably furious, considering that the last time they did that, she lost her company, but Harvey maintains that he is just trying to get rid of her murder charges once and for all so they can get her her company back. Ava urges him to do so, and emphasizes that she'd rather rot in jail than lose her company to Gianopolous. Be careful what you wish for, lady!
Mike's at dinner with the Zanes, and it's actually going pretty well. They bond over Rachel's mom getting on his case about how much mashed potatoes he can eat, Mike is able to stand his ground against her father, and her mom even speaks out in his defense when Robert's interrogation gets intense. Mike cracks some jokes about Rachel's mom, which to some families would be a little harsh, but the Zanes have a good sense of humor, so they all laugh. It's pretty cute.
Stephen is hanging out with Harvey in Harvey's office, having some drinks. Harvey contemplates aloud what could possibly have caused Gianopolous to go so far as to dump all his stocks like that, so Stephen ends up admitting that he subpoenaed Gianopolous' daughter. Harvey is FURIOUS at this news, which Stephen wasn't expecting, because he really does believe that he and Harvey are more or less the same person. Harvey yells at him, and reminds him that the point of this exercise was to get him to get him to flip on Cameron, not to make him a permanent enemy. Stephen's like, "Are you telling me you wouldn't do the same thing?" and Harvey makes a pretty legitimate point. "I went after his business, you went after his family!" Stephen stupidly retorts that this has nothing to do with the case, and everything to do with the fact that he's banging Donna. I mean, he's not REALLY wrong, but still, don't poke the fucking bear, dude! Harvey goes cold and spits, "I'm going to pretend you didn't just say that," before kicking him off the case and out of his office.
Back to dinner with the Zanes: Robert and Mike are having drinks alone on the balcony, and because Robert is the father of a daughter, he naturally starts grilling Mike on his background. My dad favors this method as an intimidation technique as well, because he enjoys watching the boyfriends of my sister and I shit their pants, apparently. Mike answers his questions truthfully and politely, but when he mentions that his parents are dead, Robert thinks he's joking. When he realizes he wasn't, he softens up on Mike, which is probably a good thing, considering the secrets he's keeping. Inside, Rachel is trying to eavesdrop as she helps her mom clean up. Her mom doesn't get the big deal about it, reminding her daughter that Mike's a lawyer and can handle her dad, but Rachel's obvious nervousness and lack of response leads her mom to conclude that Mike's hiding something. She asks about it, and when Rachel doesn't say anything, reassures her that it's okay, and as long as he hasn't murdered someone, it'll work itself out. Wow, that's awfully trusting, Mama Zane.
Jessica has returned to her office this evening, after taking the day off, which Harvey notices when he comes to visit her. She knows something must be up and orders him to spill, so he confesses that he's there because she was right about Stephen, who went rogue and made a mess without asking him or telling him he was going to do it. She knows why Harvey's there, but rubs it in a little bit and makes him say it anyway. Harvey surprisingly has the balls to actually be truthful; basically, he fucked up, and he needs her advice/help.
She smiles and considers their options for a moment before pitching her idea: Gianopolous wants to own Hessington Oil, and Ava wants to run it, so she could sell him her shares while keeping control of the firm, and in return Gianopolous will rat on Cameron. Harvey thinks it's a good plan, and adds that Gianopolous won't be an issue, because he'll know that they're coming to him because he won. The problem is Ava, who said she'd rather rot in jail than lose her company to Tony. "I'll take care of Ava," Jessica assures him, and even though I know how this ends, I think she is the perfect person to talk her into this deal, since she's been in her place before.
Still on the balcony, Robert brings up Mike and Rachel's relationship; he admits to Mike that he likes him, but Rachel is dead-set on becoming a lawyer, and he doesn't want anyone or anything to get in her way. Mike assures him that he is completely supportive of Rachel's law school ambitions, but is completely caught off guard when Robert responds with a question: "What happens when she gets into Stanford?" Mike's face automatically betrays him, and Robert realizes that Mike had no idea she applied in the first place. "Looks like you two have something to talk about." And to think, he thought it would be HIS secrets that would get him into trouble.
Mike, of course, is passive-aggressively giving Rachel the cold shoulder the next morning, and she's confused, because she has no idea her dad spilled her secret to him. She comments on the fact that he left early, and he snits that he was tired and blah blah blah. Just as she's about to ask what's wrong with him, they're approached by Graham Stenton, who is super pissed that they went after Beth, and informs them that they got married. Rachel is like, "You married someone just to get out of trouble for embezzlement? Really?" but Graham insists that he loves her, and reminds them that now she's protected from being subpoenaed to testify against him. Welp, that went well.
Stephen finds Donna filing stuff in the file room, and it's pretty obvious she's not happy to see him, especially when he brings up the fact that she hasn't returned his calls. She has no problem calling him out on his stupidity. "Well, what could be different about last night than the night before? Hm? Maybe the fact that you went to Harvey and threw me in his face?" Stephen thought of it more as just stating the facts, especially since Harvey's clearly not thrilled about their thing, but Donna reminds him that it's HER business, not his. He gives her a weak apology, but she still breaks it off with him, adding that she enjoyed it, but she doesn't like complications. I don't blame her; casual relationships are not supposed to be dramatic, that's the whole point. Cut him loose, girl! He confesses that he's affected by her more than he expected, and says he'd like to explore it more, but she cuts him off by saying she'll take it under advisement and waltzing away. Don't do it!
When we join Jessica and Ava at Ava's office, she outright rejects Jessica's idea of selling her shares to Gianopolous in exchange for voting rights. "I don't know you very well Ava, and I won't pretend that I do. But, we do have something in common," Jessica begins, and Ava asks what that is. "I merged with Edward Darby to save my firm from getting hijacked by my piece of shit ex-partner. [...] I know what it's like to prefer rotting in the ground than letting my company take what's mine." Jessica reminds Ava that she can't control her company if she's in prison, and explains that she didn't want to merge at all, but she did what she had to to keep possession of her firm. Ava's like, "And look where it got you," which makes me laugh, because it's the truth. Jessica concedes that it has its ups and downs, but that she wouldn't be speaking to her right now if she hadn't done it, and reminds her again, for at least the second time, that they can always get her out of it later. I would like to get Ava to agree as much as the next girl, but Jessica, it's probably wise to not make promises that you don't know you can keep.
On the way to Rachel's office, she and Mike get into an argument about spousal privilege; Mike thinks it's totally stupid, but Rachel is of the belief that it's pretty important, which isn't untrue. Of course, then the conversation turns to partners being able to trust each other, and Mike can hold his tongue no longer! He drops the bomb that he knows about Stanford, so she pulls him into an empty conference room to talk. It takes her less than a second to figure out that her dad spilled the beans, and that's why he's been all pissy about it. He clarifies that he didn't TELL him, he ASKED him how he felt about it, because he assumed Mike knew, since Mike knew about all the east-coast schools where she applied.
Rachel brings up a legitimate point that he's kept stuff from her before too, but he thinks it's different because that was stuff that kept them apart. Uh, Mike? How is that different? She insists that she was eventually going to tell him, and Mike's like, "Oh, really? And when would that be?" Rachel: "...before I went...on Friday." Mike is stunned, because he thinks she already decided, but she assures him that it's just an interview. She apologizes for not telling him, and said she didn't know how to break it to him. "I know, how about you say, 'Hey Mike, I'm thinking about going to law school 3,000 miles away!'" Rachel doesn't think that's fair, because she doesn't even know if she's going to get in, and part of the reason why she didn't tell him was because she didn't want it to be like the LSATs and Harvard all over again, where she got her hopes up and then got rejected. Mike maintains that she didn't say anything because she wants to go and is to afraid to admit it, so she says it. So, fight's over then? Yeah? No?
Nigel timidly approaches Louis at his office; "I'm afraid I've got a bit of a sticky-wicked." Louis: "That sounds uncomfortable." Bahahaha. Anyway, Nigel has just been called to the Hong Kong office for a couple weeks, and Mikado's papers won't go through in time, which means she'd be facing quarantine. Louis is appalled, "She'd sooner die!" Nigel is impressed that he knows her so well already, to which Louis is in complete agreement, of course, but also says that it's a pretty large request to ask of him. Nigel feigns understanding and ponders aloud about a "suitable luxury feline hotel," but Louis knows exactly what he's doing. "Don't play games, okay? You and I both know there isn't." Nigel asks if that means he'll do it, and of course it does; as soon as he confirms, he asks where Mikado is and if he can have her now.
Mike comes back to Rachel's office, not to apologize for overreacting, but because their "discussion" gave him an idea of what to do in the Stenton case. Rachel teases him about using the word "discussion,"and Mike's like, "Can we please not argue about what to call our fight?" He pitches his idea of doing bad-cop/bad-cop, which after today, Rachel totally thinks she can handle.
Jessica is buying an asiago bagel at a bagel truck, which according to hers and Harvey's banter, is her treat for winning a case. When she asks him if she should be buying him one too, he tells her it'd be poppyseed, which is apparently their "good news/bad news bagel." The good news is, Gianopolous and Ava both took their deal, so that's all worked out. The bad news is that Cameron never outright told Gianopolous about the tape, and technically didn't show it to him. The bright side is, he DID leave Gianpolous alone in his office with the tape, so that might be enough to get him kicked off the case for good, finally.
Donna is walking into the break room when she runs into Louis, who is pouring himself a monster mug of coffee. She can tell he's really tired, and asks him about it. "Ulcer again?" Louis denies it, and tells her that Nigel's cat Mikado kept him up all night. Donna is stunned, like, "You slept over at Nigel's?" but alas, he's only cat-sitting. Also, Mikado is apparently very fickle, even for a cat. "Mikado won't drink her cream unless it's precisely 5.5 degrees Celsius, she turned her nose up at Bruno's origami collection, and she won't use her litter box unless it's facing London! [...] Hate that damn thing." Donna begs to differ, and tells him he's loving every second of it, and Louis can't even deny she's right. It's love, you guys. He changes the subject to the fact that Donna's not sporting her post-coital glow anymore, so Donna quickly lies and says she took a couple nights off from "yoga." He thinks Harvey made her stop because of work, and urges her not to let work get in the way of her awesome glow. Donna smirks and says she'll have to do an extra-long session tonight, then. When Louis looks overjoyed and asks if he can come, her eyes bug out and she scampers.
Harvey shows up at the Special Prosecutor's office to rub the fact that Gianopolous flipped on Cameron into his face. He still thinks he has a shot, even if he doesn't have the time to prepare a perfect case, but he doesn't know that Harvey just got his main piece of evidence thrown out. Cameron takes a moment to scan Gianopolous' sworn statement and stammers that it doesn't really change anything, but Harvey sure thinks it does. "That tape is gone, and now so are you." Harvey urges him to just save face and cancel the trial, but Cameron is just as stubborn as Harvey is. He maintains that he's still in and points out that the fact that it went from being 50-50 to 80-20 doesn't mean he's giving up. Harvey corrects him, "99 to 1" but Cameron doesn't give a shit about the numbers whatsoever. "We're in the ring, I'm still standing, and this isn't over. Now get out of my face!" Eloquent, dude. Man, I'm so sick of this asshole, ugh.
Rachel and Mike confront Beth
Mike replies that that would be true in New York, but not in Connecticut, where the charges are going to be filed. Beth's pissed, and says, "You're asking me to turn against the man I love." Mike makes the pretty legitimate point that chances are, in five years when she gets out of prison, he won't be there waiting for her. She's about to just walk away, so Rachel levels with her, woman-to-woman. "Beth, even if he waits for you, he did this! And the fear of him getting caught is going to cast a shadow over every moment of the rest of your life together." Hmmm, something tells me this conversation isn't solely about the Stentons, and judging by the look on Mike's face, I'm guessing I'm not the only one. Beth leaves for reals this time, but turns back for just a second to tell them she'll get them the money back.
Harvey comes back to his office after breaking the news to Cameron, and finds Stephen in there leaving him a note. He congratulates Harvey on getting Ava her CEO title back and getting the bribery tape thrown out of her murder case, but Harvey's not very open to it, since he had to clean up Stephen's mess. Stephen brings up the fact that he went to Jessica for help, and when Harvey's like, "Yeah, so what?" Stephen says he's merely pointing out the irony in the fact that she essentially helped him screw her over. Harvey just side-eyes him, so Stephen wisely decides to get out while he still can.
Rachel's just got home from work, by the looks of it, when Mike knocks on her door. He informs her that they got the money back that Stenton embezzled, and thanks her for doing so awesomely at playing good cop. They both apologize at the same time, and Rachel said that she should have told him about Stanford, especially since she's seriously considering going there. Mike brings up her speech to Beth earlier, and asks if it was about him too. She really doesn't answer the question; she says that the thought occurred to her that if she went to Stanford, it would be a fresh start, but really, she just wants to cover her bases, which is advice that HE gave her, just in case she doesn't get into Yale or Columbia. Mike assures her that he totally gets it, but does admit that he's afraid about what will happen if she does. She reminds him that he came to her with the truth on his own, and that she needs him to allow her to make this decision on her own as well.
Meanwhile, Jessica and Harvey are in Harvey's office, where she's pacing around a bit. "I'm not one for sentimental gestures," she begins. "but I was thinking about when Hardman came back and you and I got into it. You got me my tea set back. [...] I'm here with a gesture of my own." She sets a new business card down onto the table, which reads "Pearson Darby Specter" and has Harvey's name on it, and his new title. He is a little dumbfounded, and cracks that it's not a tea set. Jessica reveals that his name will be on the door tomorrow.
Harvey's a little confused, considering he asked for it a while back, and Jessica said that he wasn't ready. Jessica concedes that point, and adds that she also said she wasn't going to just slap someone else's name up there, but she did. Harvey correctly deduces that she's regretting the merger, and suggests that she's playing games again; she is giving him a promotion so that way Harvey will be on her side against Darby. (I couldn't quite read what the title is on the card, I know Jessica is managing partner, so what does that make Darby and Harvey now? Partners? What's the difference between being a senior partner and having your name on the firm? Do they throw more equity into the pot? Any law people out there who want to explain it to me?) Jessica confesses that Darby is treating her the way that she treated him, and she hates it, so now she understands how he felt/feels, and wants to make amends. She doesn't want Harvey on her side, she wants them to be on the SAME side. I get Harvey's confusion, but don't bite the hand that feeds you, dude! At least say thank you, geez.
Next episode: we flashback 10 years, so we get to see 1) what happened when Cameron covered up evidence all those years ago while Harvey was still working at the D.A's office under him, 2) what happened when Mike got kicked out of college and why he was put in the position where he wanted to sell the test answers in the first place, AND 3) the mythical "other time" that happened between Donna and Harvey! Bear with me, I promise they'll be coming soon.
Anyway, what'd you think about this episode?
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Dear Emily.....sorry if I am a little late with this, but just reading your recaps on Suits and absolutely loving them....what happened to them after season 3 ep. 6?...can't find any more, was that your last one?....sure hope not, would be devasted 🤧
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