Previously on Suits: A random flashback to when Louis & Harvey were junior partners, a reminder that Mike’s lied to everyone about the prison case, and Harvey setting up Alex’s big reveal.
Okay, let’s go:
The show opens up after Alex’s big confession. Apparently he’s been in this mysterious bad position for the last five years and now Harvey has to get them out of it. Alex explains he’s only in the position because of Harvey.
Flashback time! Alex looks the same, he’s just wearing suspenders. Harvey looks the same, except his hair is combed down more… It actually looks better than it does in present day episodes. They’re playing poker and Harvey says, “I was supposed to make partner today, but Louis Litt screwed me over.”
Alex offers to bring him in as partner at his firm. Harvey passes, because that offer is the same one Louis just screwed him on.
Back to present day: Rachel is sorry Mike had to give up the case. Mike isn’t because he's not going to work the case, but he’s going to make sure it goes to criminal court. Rachel, making direct eye contact, speaks very slowly so Mike can understand: “You’re going to tell Harvey, right?”
Mike’s not going to volunteer it, but he’ll tell if asked. DUDE. ARE YOU EVEN SERIOUS RIGHT NOW. He wants to make sure Rachel is good with that. Before she agrees, he tells her to ask herself to how she would feel if it were him in prison. She agrees that he can keep pursuing it, as long as she can tell Harvey what’s going on if questioned.
Flashback! Donna with bangs approaches Harvey with combed down hair. They’re having a conversation about how she’s been dating someone for six months and he doesn’t understand commitment. Harvey got her what he thinks is a nice gift to celebrate - a gift card. Which, to be fair, probably has a lot of money on it, but it's still an odd thing for a lawyer to get a secretary he’s secretly been - ahem - involved with in celebration of her six month anniversary with another man.
Donna thanks him but points out that her boyfriend is not going to like another man’s gift card paying for his date, then makes Harvey promise not to call or interrupt their date that evening. Spoiler alert: He will somehow interrupt their date.
I believe we’re still in the past as we see Louis yelling at an associate about a goldfish… And yes, it’s a flashback, because Jessica is still in charge. She wants to know why Louis is having a meltdown about a fish, which the associate clarifies is because he didn’t refer to Louis as a Junior Partner. Jessica sagely suggests therapy, to which Louis responds, “Why would I do that? That would be like Baryshnikov taking dance lessons.” He’s referring to Mikhail Baryshnikov, one of the greatest ballet dancers of all time. Um, Louis? Baryshnikov lived in ballet studios his whole life in order to become great. Rethink that metaphor.
Jessica makes it clear that if he’s letting the promotion go to his head and takes it out on Harvey, Jessica’s going to step in.
After the not-so-subtle threat to Louis, Jessica goes to visit Harvey, typing on an old laptop. Because this is a flashback. They get into an argument about Harvey’s ego and Jessica basically tells him to grow up.
Back in present day, where Harvey has grown up and can afford better suits. Harvey goes to the construction company that was so invested in the prison case and essentially tries to pay them off. The construction guy isn’t really on board with the hush money and returns the check, saying he’s going to stay on as Alex’s client and the thorn in Harvey’s side.
Mike’s at the prison. Again. Talking to Frank Gallo. Again. Dude is just begging to be fired, sued, and dumped at this point. He wants to know if Gallo knows about a conspiracy with Masterson Construction. Gallo says those guys put the prisoners to work. Mike doesn’t know what Gallo is talking about, which is that prisoners build the prisons themselves as part of “rehabilitation.”
At the office, Alex confronts Harvey about his visit to Masterson, the construction guy. Now that Harvey knows the truth, he thinks that they should tell Mike too so he'll stop poking the bear and back off. Harvey doesn’t like this - because when has telling the truth every been a good plan, obviously - and says telling Mike the truth will make the kid want to champion the case even more.
Back in the past: Harvey and Louis are discussing the case they’re working together. The conversation is 45 percent power struggle / 45 percent insults / 10 percent actual case discussion. Louis, who looks exactly the same in the past as in the present, pulls rank and says he’s in charge, he’ll decide how this goes. Harvey lets him make what he clearly thinks is a stupid plan.
Leaving Louis’ office, Harvey immediately asks Donna to get the trial he was just discussing with Louis moved up to tomorrow. Oh, and by the way, don’t tell Louis. Donna dislikes this plan and asks Harvey if he’s sure about this plan. This plan, which is for Harvey to let Louis think he’s in charge while Harvey does exactly what he wants to do. Harvey believes this will prove to Jessica he can handle the role of partner. I have no idea why he thinks lying, making moves that will screw over a fellow lawyer, and forcing his secretary to lie will make Jessica like him more… But as I said, that’s his plan.
Surprise! Jessica shows up at court the next day to take over the case and kick Harvey off. But first, it’s time for a severe dressing down. Harvey is offended that Jessica would embarrass him like this in public, but honestly, what did he expect.
In present day Donna’s office, Harvey asks the redhead if Mike is off the case. She says he’s probably not going to like the answer.
The man in question is visiting the IT guy who tried to create “The Donna” smart assistant last year, and asking him to hack the prison system’s computer system for proof of their corruption. It turns out the IT guy has more backbone than Mike expected and challenges this plan but eventually he's talked into it… That really didn’t take much effort.
Back in the past, Harvey is slumming it “south of Canal Street” which is a bizarre thing to say since the entire Financial District in Manhattan is south of Canal Street. Harvey wants to know if Alex’s offer is still available, and then rattles off a list of outrageous demands. All of which would put him above Alex’s pay grade. And if Alex gets him everything he asks for, he’s 100% moving firms and dumping Jessica.
Meanwhile, in the past still, Jessica asks Louis why Harvey went behind his back on the case they were supposed to work together. Jessica calmly talks through his rapid mood swings and essentially says that if he doesn’t go to therapy, he’s fired. I didn’t know an employer could do that, but in this case, I’m taking Jessica’s side. (Wait, does this mean we’re getting a flashback to Louis meeting Dr. Lipschitz?! Yes!!!! He’s the best!)
Flashback Harvey complains to Flashback Donna - sporting some insane shoulder pads - about Jessica kicking him off the case. Then he tells Donna he got “them” an offer from another firm (which I guess mean he just automatically assumes Donna’s coming with him) and Donna really, really doesn’t like that. Jessica is Harvey’s biggest fan, after all, and deserting her would be suicide. He doesn’t care, his ego deserves more praise.
Donna says fine, be an idiot, but this sudden betrayal isn’t something she wants to get in on. “You can’t just make this kind of decision about my life without running it by me first.” Which, absolutely correct, Harvey. Honestly, the man thinks exclusively about himself 99.9% of the time. The other 0.1% he thinks about Donna in the sense that he wants to make sure she always has a role wherever he works, but… That’s not a particularly great thing in this instance. She says again that he should have consulted with her and he should have consulted with Jessica, and in the face of this logic, Harvey does what Harvey always does: gets angry and issues an ultimatum.
We’re in the present now! Harvey is very honest with Rachel about the between a rock and a hard place situation he’s in, and directly asks her if Mike’s still working on the prison case. She's honest and tells him everything. Apparently, the agreement he signed only restricted him from working on a civil suit, but since he’s bumped this thing up to criminal, he’s free and clear.
Flashback to Donna’s 6-month anniversary date, where her boyfriend presents her with a gift in the form of a book of Shakespeare’s sonnets. This prompts her to mention Harvey acting like a jerk and not consulting her about a possible job change and the boyfriend, who is clearly sick of talking about Harvey Specter, suggests they just focus on not talking about Harvey tonight. When pressed, he says he thinks she should stay at the current firm if Harvey leaves since he’s “basically a silent partner in [our] relationship.” Well. That was direct. Then he basically says Donna’s in love with him and is going to follow Harvey everywhere he goes for the rest of his life. Donna doesn’t deny it and that’s the end of that.
Rachel comes home to Mike who’s tearing through the hacked financial statements of the construction company. He’s found the big secret: They’re using the prisons as the workforce and pocketing the rest of the salaries they aren't paying toward actual workers, which means they’re defrauding the state. And it is now, something like four or five episodes into this thing, that Alex’s client forcing him to drop a seemingly random prison case finally makes sense. Rachel recognizes the enormity of this, and then recognizes that Harvey could fire Mike for how he got the information. Mike, the man whom she is about to marry, who has a criminal record that would make getting a job pretty much anywhere else impossible, seems super unconcerned about his impeding unemployment. He has finally made peace with the two halves of his lawyer passions.
Flashback: Louis meets Dr. Lipschitz!! Louis reacts to his German accent by calling him a Nazi immediately. The good doctor begs him for just two minutes of his time. He starts by saying that he assumes Louis is Jewish, which Louis will neither confirm nor deny. He then explains a pretty amazing personal family history in which his parents, who were also Jewish, fled Germany during the war and then returned afterwards. This begrudgingly impresses Louis, who explains, “I am here because no matter what I do, nobody respects me.”
Dr. Lipschitz is still talking to Louis, who has spent the last 40 minutes talking through every person who ever disrespected him since birth. Lipschitz asks Louis who he really craves respect from the most, and he immediately replies, Harvey Specter. Whom he then describes as, “A cross between Marlon Brando and Superman.” The Doc seems to enjoy this description. A seemingly innocuous comment about Harvey leads Louis to lash out, convinced that this whole thing is a joke. Lipschitz reassures Louis that he’s there to listen to him and he will never disrespect him, but Louis doesn’t trust that and storms out.
Back to the present! Harvey has called an emergency partners' meeting. He needs to make a play ASAP to get Alex out of his mess, but if he does, he’ll be screwing over Mike. The lighting in this scene is weird - it’s like they didn’t turn on any lights in the room. Donna is concerned, but Louis basically says let’s get this over with.
In the past, Alex is pitching the “two partners for the price of one” plan to his boss. The boss agrees to the plan, on the condition that Harvey definitely comes on board. If it goes south, it’s on Alex.
Past!Louis is yelling at Donna about her “work husband,” so she drops the Harvey’s-leaving-on-Monday bomb on him. She’s not in a good place, blames Louis on Harvey leaving, and tells Louis he’s not a particularly good person.
In the present, Mike gives Anita all his pilfered evidence, but she turns it down. She knows about the conflict of interest and wants nothing to do with this drama.
Back in the past again (man, I’m getting whiplash!), Louis confesses to Jessica that Harvey leaving is his fault. He put Harvey in a bad position, quotes some Dr. Lipschitz wisdom, and begs Jessica to keep Harvey at Pearson Hardman. Jessica, genius that she is, awards him by putting him in charge of the associates. Louis gets misty-eyed and you just know he rushed into his office to put another date on the calendar with his new German BFF.
Montage time: Past!Harvey is packing up and Jessica says that if he stays, she’s all but secured his position as the next partner because she wants to be teammates with him in the long run. Donna tells Harvey, fully knowing that he’s staying, that Alex called to say their new job is a done deal. “For the record, I woulda gone with you,” she says. “For the record, I should of asked you first,” he admits. So it looks like we’re going back on our word to Alex. Oh, I was so right! Louis is calling Lipschitz and requests time five days a week.
Present again: Mike is furious with Harvey for forcing him to drop this thing. Harvey says there’s something going on that Mike doesn’t understand yet, and he needs Mike to trust him and drop the case for now while Harvey handles things. Otherwise, he’s fired.
Past again: Harvey drops the news on Alex that he’s staying and Alex is furious and more than a little hurt at Harvey’s betrayal. Harvey apologizes and gives him a major IOU Alex is allowed to claim whenever.
This is when Alex’s wife and daughter are mentioned multiple times - the wife and daughter who have been mentioned once, earlier in this episode, but never in a single episode before now. He thinks if he ever goes after the prison again, his wife and daughter could be hurt. So anything Mike does puts them one step closer to danger.
Next week: 100th episode of Suits!
