Previously on Suits: Alex is in deep with Bratton over a little, tiny prison murder cover-up, Mike used to be in prison where everyone wore J. Crew denim button ups and is now working with the guy who attacked him in prison, Donna used to date a guy who basically split with her because of her relationship with Harvey, and Harvey has figured out a way to get Mike outta this mess.
Let’s do this.
Harvey, illuminated by candlelight, calls up his therapist/girlfriend and they establish that they’ll have dinner together soon. He has a very wide tie and large shirt collar and I’m wondering if this has always been the case or if I’m just now noticing.
This quick convo serves as a set up to a lonely Donna calling up her ex Mark. Turns out they both think about each other from time to time. She suggests lunch and he flintily accepts and they plan a date for the next day. Man, I wish dating were this simple in real life.
Mike shows up at Harvey’s door to tell him Alex told him the whole situation, and the dynamic duo now have to figure out how to stop the prison system from getting away with their despicable deeds, while still keeping Alex safe. They decide, as Batman and Robin, that they need their own Commissioner Gordon.
Harvey shows up at Daddy Zane's house with a file box full of evidence for him to research. He basically says he'll only take the case if he’s in charge of the lawsuit from here on out. Harvey agrees that he likes that plan and saunters away, super chill about the fact that he’s definitely going to hate that plan by the end of the episode.
Mike entering the lobby and Alex jumps down Mike’s throat about reopening the case. Mike talks him down and tells him all he needs to do is make sure Masterson Construction keeps their nose out of the case, and everything will be fine. Alex still looks very angry and I just think he needs to go back to Santa Barbara and hang with Shawn for a while to relax.
The guy representing the prison, Roger, is waiting in the conference room for Harvey, then Robert Zane shows up to hand out a settlement. Zane, who somehow miraculously in this scene has lost every forehead wrinkle he’s had for the last six seasons, straight up tells Roger the deal: He knows what the prison did. He has a witness. Pay up or he’ll take this to court. Roger immediately knows it’s Frank Gallo and tells Harvey to make this go away.
Louis storms into Columbia to yell at the recruiter. It turns out Sheila, Louis’ old gal pal, is large and in charge at Columbia now, where she moved to be closer to her fiance, whom she's marrying in two weeks. They proceed to have perhaps the most mature conversation Louis has ever had. He immediately deduces that Columbia didn’t send an applicant in order to avoid hurting him, but now that he knows Sheila’s in town, she’ll send the best and brightest over to learn “at the feet of a master.” It’s a nice reminder that Louis can be a normal human when necessary.
Mike wants to know what’s going on with the prison situation, and Harvey comes down hard on his almost father-in-law. Which is odd, since his almost father-in-law did exactly what Harvey would’ve done. Harvey says he wants to take Frank Gallo out of the limelight, and Mike hops right over to prison to talk to his BFF inmate.
(I swear, do they just have a direct subway line that takes them straight to the prison at this point?)
Mike visits Frank Gallo and throws cash at him to make him shut up, which I find as ridiculous as Frank does. Mike’s literally paying him to do the exact opposite of what he’s been begging him to do for the last month. Turns out Mike pulling at Gallo’s heartstrings the last few weeks has worked, because he’s decided he’s gonna be a good guy and speak the truth for the sake of his daughter’s opinion of him.
Donna and Mark are having a nostalgic lunch, and they work so well together that I immediately do what Donna must’ve done when she sat down at lunch - checked Mark for a wedding ring. There isn't one! Hoorah! He asks about Donna’s life and she makes clear that she’s single and Harvey is no longer in the picture, emotionally. She laughingly asks why he isn’t married and… oops, he is. When he pulls out the “it’s just lunch” defense, she calls him on the fact that this is definitely a lunch date. He goes from zero to proposing adultery in 30 seconds, which is alarming for a hundred reasons. Donna makes it clear that she’s not down for that… But does leave the door open for the future if things ever end with his wife.
Mike is home and saying hi to a very angry Rachel, and I know there’s a lot going on in this scene, but have they always had a giant photo of a “WET PAINT” sign framed in their kitchen as art? Huh. Anyway, Rachel is angry because she found out about Mike’s new buddy Frank Gallo. She’s angry that Mike doesn’t respect Rachel as a lawyer, which I guess she got because he went to Harvey and her dad before he went to her? “I’m a grown woman,” Rachel says, looking perfect as always. “I’m not a damsel in distress that needs protecting.”
Back at the office, Louis is on the roof staring over the city skyline at night and I wonder why they don’t use this set once an episode. I love it. Donna has also come up here to think and Louis spills that Sheila’s getting married. Donna’s heart breaks for him a little, and he says that he’s now dealing with “finding out twice in one year that the love of your life doesn’t want you.”
Which, I understand what he’s saying, but he literally said “the love of your life” when referring to two different relationships with two different women. So not really “the love of your life,” Louis, so much as two women you loved.
Anyway. The comment makes Donna think of Mark and Harvey, of course. Donna explains the whole surprise-I’m-married lunch date she just went on, and Louis instantly calls the dude out for being a player. Good for you, Louis. He’s insane, but he always knows when someone’s doing Donna wrong. Hmm… Which may be part of his ever-present tension with Harvey? He’s watched Harvey sorta/kinda hold Donna back for years and wasn’t cool with that? I think I may be on to something.
Moving on. Donna jokes that maybe Louis shouldn’t be hanging out on the roof in his current mental state, and they share a sad laugh and commiserate on their loneliness some more. Also worth noting: Louis also has the really wide tie and collar. Is my screen stretching this or have I just been fashion blind all season?
Harvey is literally waiting in Zane’s driveway, which seems unbelievably stalkerish and inappropriate, and surprise! He's angry at the fact that Zane has taken control of the case, just as he said he would at the beginning of the episode. Zane makes it clear that he doesn’t care about Alex, he doesn’t care about Mike, he doesn’t care about any of the politics, he exclusively cares about taking the prison down for what they’re doing.
Harvey, who apparently likes showing up at people’s houses, shows up at Mike’s apartment to see if he convinced Gallo not to testify. Since Mike did not, Harvey says it’s time to get dirt on Zane to stop him from going forward with this case. I’m so confused now. I thought Mike wanted the prison case to play out, no matter the cost. Did Alex’s little confession last week completely realign everyone’s moral compass?
Rachel sticks her head in to say she wants in, and she can keep Gallo from testifying. We have now reached the point where I feel sorry for the dude in jail for having to put up with these people.
After the commercial break, we see Harvey and Mike strutting their way into the courtroom when Bratton shows up. If the duo allows Gallo to testify, he's going to throw Alex under the bus.
The judge is getting sick of this deal too, and Harvey submits pictures the pictures of Rachel that Gallo used last year to threaten Mike to the judge as proof that Gallo is blackmailing Papa Zane. This has gotten unbelievably confusing. The judge dismisses the situation because he doesn’t want to deal with it anymore, and the audience wishes it also had that option.
Robert Zane corners Harvey in the bathroom and marches towards him, unbuttoning his jacket and ready to throw a punch, which seems ill-advised since we’ve frequently seen Harvey in the boxing ring at the gym. Mike interrupts the boxing match to say the picture idea was Rachel’s, and Robert doesn’t care. Because he’s going to do his job and get Gallo to testify, no matter what.
Back at the office, Donna takes a cal from Mark, who is wondering what might have happened if he had never walked away from her all those years ago. “I’m not going back to Connecticut till Saturday,” he says, offering his hotel name and room number to Donna. She asks what about his wife, and he basically says if he’s ending things, he won’t be doing it by tomorrow. So, it’s all on the table. He’s still married, he wants to start an affair, it's up to her to choose what she wants to do with that.
As awful as this sounds, sometimes on TV they make affairs seem exciting and sexy, and you’re hoping for a divorce in order to legitimatize the relationship you’re rooting for. This is not one of those times. Sure, the idea of an old flame still being in love with you many years later is romantic… But not when they’re married.
Speaking of affairs, Sheila calls up Louis and directly says, “Louis, I want your body one last time before I walk down that aisle.” She continues to spit out about two solid minutes of filth that makes Louis lose it in a different way than he usually loses it. He comes to his sense for about fifteen seconds, long enough to say he doesn’t think this a good idea. She thinks that’s cute and says she’ll be waiting for him in their old hotel suite, aka the “War Room.” And she’ll finally allow him to do that thing he always wanted, which oddly involves multiple accents. Hmm.
Harvey shows up at the judge’s house - again, because he likes just showing up at people’s houses - and the judge interrupts his latest tirade to say that Frank Gallo just died in prison. Harvey’s shocked, and so am I. What?!?
Meanwhile, Paula is waiting for Harvey in his office. I understand that this is a standard in TV shows, but it never fails to crack me up how characters choose to visit one another in person rather than simply texting. Especially in New York, where a simple 3-block journey can turn into an hour-long expedition.
Donna stops in to say hi and Paula suddenly becomes the queen of passive aggressive comments as the two chit-chat. Donna does her Donna thing and they do a quick one-up contest to see who knows Harvey better and it turns out, his girlfriend knows him pretty well.
This rattles Donna, so when Rachel stops by, inspired by Louis to propose a night where everyone loses their troubles and feels good about themselves, Donna says she has plans. Man, Rachel better not go see Mike next, or he’ll be contemplating an affair, too. She’s two-for-two.
Harvey, ever the subtle one, marches into Robert Shapiro’s office and straight-up yells that he killed Frank Gallo. Shapiro treats Harvey like a delusional child, which is fair. Then Robert Zane strolls in and presents a laptop so they can watch a video of an interview he conducted with Gallo. Could he not bring in a USB drive? He had to bring in a whole laptop?
Interview time: Gallo explains he was pressured by Robert Shapiro, CEO of Reform Corp., to attack a sweet, innocent prison guard and kill him.
Shapiro doesn’t deny anything and Harvey and Zane, now on the same team, descend on him. Now that Gallo’s dead, there’s no reason to be gentle. They want the payout Zane originally asked, and a letter that’ll get Alex out of this mess.
Alex is waiting in his former boss’ office to strike the final blow. Harvey walks out of the shadows and the pair team up to show Bratton the signed confession from Shapiro that tells the whole story, including Bratton’s part of it. They demand his resignation, among other things.
Montage time! Zane is telling Gallo during their interview that he’s not going to let him go down for the guard’s murder. Mike shows up at Gallo’s daughter’s house and presents her with a check, saying her father "was a decent man.”
Meanwhile, during their date, Paula says candlelight makes Harvey look tremendously handsome, and I think USA Network should hire me as a writer, since that’s exactly how I started this review. She gives him a gift, and he gives her a key to his apartment. Which I’m fairly certain he still had just sitting in his pocket from when Donna returned it to him last episode.
Ooh, second montage! Donna and Louis are both walking into their respective married/engaged love interest’s hotels. They don’t look proud of their choices as they strut down the hallways. Right as Donna knocks, she gets a text from Rachel, wishing her well on her date, saying she deserves the best. A sweet text from a good friend that ultimately saves Donna from making a horrible mistake - Mark opens the door just long enough for Donna to apologize and bail.
Meanwhile, at the other hotel, Louis gets no such text. Louis knocks, and when Sheila answers, he walks right in.
What did everyone think? Honestly, I had expected the 100th episode of Suits to do something special, like other shows do - a lot of flashbacks, or Donna and Harvey finally get together, or Rachel and Mike’s wedding, or something significant. Perhaps they're saving that for the mid-season finale in just a few weeks!
