Previously on Suits: Louis was a jerk to his associates, Mike convinced Oscar Reyes to turn down his pay day, Harvey didn’t tell Donna about dating his therapist, Mike talked to Frank Gallo about the prison case, and Rachel called Mike out for being a liar.
Let’s go.
Rachel’s comments have clearly been weighing on Mike overnight, since he tells Rachel in the morning that he does care what his word is worth. And since he cares, he’s going to keep helping Reyes. Rachel fights him on this, saying this is just like before when he lied about being a lawyer, but Mike insists that it’s different.
Which, to Mike’s point, is true: He was being selfish when he lied before, now he’s being selfless. But to Rachel’s point… A lie is a lie, bro.
Harvey is with Paula and asks his girlfriend/therapist if he should tell Donna that they’re dating. She says definitely, and he agrees. I kind of think this whole conversation was Harvey hopping Paula would let him off the hook.
At the office, Louis is playing nice with the associates. He chats up associate Brian, the new dad he ripped apart a few weeks ago, about coffee, and then asks Brian just how bad he had been. The poor associate is pressured into saying Louis had been “not that bad,” and Louis decides Brian should sign an affidavit stating that.
Mike - who I guess doesn’t work for Harvey at all anymore, based on his daily routine - and Oliver go to see a lawyer Gallo was going to inform on, whom they immediately blackmail into sharing more information on the prison.
Harvey goes to tell Donna about his dumb relationship but she intercepts him with a message saying Frank Gallo called, furious about Mike and Oliver’s recent lawyer visit. When confronted, Mike explains it away with the ole’ Brooklyn housing story.
Harvey is rightfully concerned - Gallo tried to kill Mike, after all - and Mike defends him because Gallo’s on the right side of this (the Brooklyn housing case) and he already promised Gallo he’d fix it. Harvey goes for the kill, “Does Rachel know about this?” No, he says. Everyone’s disappointed.
The fiancé in question is getting to the bottom of why Louis is suddenly behaving like an angel compared to his behavior in recent weeks. Turns out Stephanie is suing Louis for sexual harassment. Uh oh. Louis tells Rachel she needs to be the one to get this to drop, but Rachel’s all “been there, done that,” and sends Katrina instead.
Katrina, who I honestly would love to wear her hair in a bun just once so we can feel like this is all one big, weird sequel to Center Stage, goes to visit Stephanie, who must be the most popular lawyer her new firm has ever hired. Stephanie tells Katrina that Pearson and Specter ruined her life and she will see Louis in court. Katrina knows there’s something else going on and figures out that this is really about the fact that Stephanie doesn’t want people at her new office to think she was fired because she couldn’t hack it.
In the filing room, Harvey approaches Alex - oh, hey Gus, where’ve you been? I forgot you were on this show - and asks if he knows where Donna is. Alex is ticked off by the question for some reason. Oh, it’s because the prison case hasn’t gone away. Harvey doesn’t understand - Mike passed off the case. Yeah, Alex says, except he didn’t. Mike stayed on and blew the case wide open, and now Alex thinks he’s going to lose his client… Who I honestly still think has a tenuous connection to this case, at best, but that’s neither here nor there.
Harvey puts on his thinking face, and realizes his earlier conversation with Mike was a bunch of lies. So he goes straight to Rachel, and she says she doesn’t know where he is. I don’t think that’s particularly fair, for her boss to lump her in with her finance’s wrong doings.
But it gets worse, because… Surprise! Harvey shows up at Oscar Reyes’ door asking how Mike Ross is doing as his representative. Reyes explains he’s very happy with Mike and Oliver’s service.
Meanwhile in the office break room, Louis appears to be experiencing some sort of prune juice-related meltdown. Katrina presents him with Stephanie’s offer and he says he can pay that amount, but he won't admit to sexually harassing her. Katrina delicately explains the situation to the name partner lawyer: You did sexually harass her. Louis counters that if he agrees to this, it will look like repeat behavior since there was a phony sexual harassment suit filed against him years ago. Katrina thinks this is still the best option, tells him Stephanie is afraid she’ll look like she can’t hack it in front of her new colleagues, and strongly advises Louis not to go see Stephanie.
$10 says he goes to see Stephanie.
Paula surprises Harvey with a quick visit under the guise of grabbing food, but really she wants to know why Harvey hasn’t told Donna about them yet. I guess it’s reassuring that even therapists feel uncertain in relationships. Harvey gets all frustrated and starts using his loud lawyer voice because of the whole Mike-is-still-a-liar situation, and Paula doesn’t like that and keeps pushing the Donna issue. At which point she reminds an angry, on-edge Harvey that the only reason they met is because he had panic attacks after Donna left him and he needed therapy. Man, for a therapist, she’s not great at reading people… But apparently she’s good at reading people she’s never met, because she explains that Harvey likes to be the object of Donna’s attention and Donna still loves him
Mike shows up at Oliver’s office to say he can’t work the case anymore because Harvey found out. Oliver is upset that he is being hung out to dry the day before the trial. Mike tells him it’s time for him to do this on his own and gives him the Harvey Specter treatment - aka yelling at him and storming off in hopes that it magically makes him a good lawyer.
Oh, look! Louis went to see Stephanie! Looks like I’m getting $10 worth of more lottery tickets today! Louis wants to talk about her offer but he can’t admit that he did exactly what he did. Stephanie is not backing down, so Louis spirals and calls her a pathetic loser. Well done. She lays into him, saying she’s going to make so much money on this case she’ll never need another job again.
Good job, Louis. Definitely made things better.
Harvey finally visits Donna in her office. He then admits to dating Paula with all the gravity of telling Donna that her dog died. Donna laughs - she already knew, of course. And accounts with clarity exactly how the couple began dating. And she also called him confessing to it on this timetable. Harvey leaves and the moment he’s out of view, it looks like she’s not particularly happy. Rachel asks her if she’s okay, and it seems like our favorite redhead isn’t as cool with this as she thought.
Then Rachel, the lone person who still does her job around this office, drops the bomb: They’ve just been subpoenaed to testify against Louis.
Harvey shows up at Paula's door for dinner, but really to report that he told Donna. Quick heads-up: If it's such a big deal telling someone about your relationship, there's probably something still going on with that person. Paula then calls Harvey her boyfriend, which just sounds like such a juvenile word to describe a man who looks like that.
Back at the office, Katrina yells at Louis about the subpoena, so Louis yells at Katrina and says she has to bury Stephanie and Donna has to lie on the stand. He’s panicking and yells that he has "lost everything this year" and he can't lose this.
Then Brian walks by and shows more courage than anyone ever has on this show by sticking his head into Louis' office, interrupting his temper tantrum, and suggesting that he just tell Stephanie that he’s sorry.
Louis dismisses that immediately, ”You can't apologize without admitting guilt, which is the whole thing that I don't wanna do."
Brian then casually reminds Louis that he could sue him for the horrible things the partner said about his paternity time off request, and it sure would help things to hear an apology.
Cut to the big prison trial. Mike shows up to support a suddenly SUPER CONFIDENT Oliver in court, which honestly is just dancing with the devil at this point.
Louis goes to visit Stephanie again - honestly, how has security not put him on a list by now? - and drops an “I’m sorry” immediately. Wow, I thought he’d take his time getting there. She doesn't buy it, and he explains. "The night before you said those horrible things to me, my fiancé left me. She was pregnant." He goes on to say that even though he wasn't the biological father, he was still going to be a husband and father, something he's always wanted. Wow, this is the most sincere I've ever seen Louis. He'd be genuinely likable if he were like this all the time.
Stephanie's listening. Does she buy into all this honesty? It seems like she does. He says he's ashamed of his behavior and he will sign or say anything she needs in order to show the world she's not a pushover, including admitting guilt, and she has her job back if she wants it. All in all, a good apology. I think I'd take it. Only reason to hold out is if it's just the principle of the thing.
Stephanie says it's more about how the things he said made her feel because she finds truth in them. She ultimately accepts his apology.
And then we get BEST LINE OF THE NIGHT, courtesy of Louis: "I feel like I wanna go over there and give you a hug... But that's probably inappropriate since you're suing me for sexual harassment."
She smiles and drops the case. I hope these two get together.
Back in court, Oliver is absolutely killing it. What happened overnight that turned him into super lawyer like this? Getting yelled at must really pump you up. Then all of a sudden, Alex straight up storms into the courtroom and destroys the case in ten seconds flat. He tears into everyone for allowing this to go on because he has a signed statement from the clinic saying that they will not use Pearson Specter help. Oliver is all over that like white on rice, but then Alex threatens to put Mike, conveniently sitting in the audience, on the stand. Mike, who's still working on that whole post-prison reputation, immediately stands up and admits he helped.
The case is thrown out.
Rachel shows up to see if Donna's alright, because when she saw her the night before post-Harvey's love life conversation, she wasn't. Donna says she's worried about Louis and Rachel calls her on that obvious lie. Finally, Donna admits that Harvey told her he's dating someone and it's serious. It bothers her, and she hates that it does. She only pretended she knew to save face. Man, that means all that evidence she calmly presented to Harvey was her flying by the seat of her pants, figuring things out in real time. Impressive.
Rachel suggests that going out for a drink is probably the smartest thing they can do in a time like this, and Donna is on board. Once Rachel leaves, Donna pulls a mysterious key out of her desk and stares at it.
Louis, continuing Apology Tour 2017 now that he knows how happy apologizing makes him feel, goes to Donna and apologizes for not listening to her. Donna says he’ll have to be a little more specific. Louis says she was right that he needed to move on from Tara. Donna is proud of him and thinks he’s ready to take back the associates. “They were never mine, Louis,” she says, “I was just taking care of them for you.” Louis almost does a happy dance, he’s so giddy.
He then goes for apology number three and finds Brian, telling him to go home and be with his newborn. Then he presents him with a “You just got SPITT up” onesie, which I bet is currently for sale on the USA Network website. Louis looks very satisfied with himself.
Donna presents Harvey with what is apparently the key to his apartment, saying she should have given it back a long time ago. She admits to not actually knowing about him and Paula and says she really is happy for him. But for half a second when she found out, she felt… She drags off and Harvey says he knows, he felt the same when he found out she was dating Steve Huntley. It goes unsaid that they don’t necessary want to be with each other, but they don’t want the other person to be with anyone else. Haven’t we all been there?
Oscar Reyes is waiting on Mike in the lobby and confronts him about throwing out the whole case. Mike says the case isn’t thrown out, just his team was thrown off of it. Reyes is still rightfully furious. “I have nothing. No money, no justice, no healing.” Mike promises he’ll make it right, but Oscar will believe it when he sees it.
Harvey goes to see Alex and the new attorney, in a fantastic suit, thanks his buddy for backing him up. Harvey’s not here to be friends and says that what Alex did today was about Alex protecting himself. It’s time for him to tell the truth about what he’s hiding.
