Suits Recap – S9 E10: One Last Con

In the series finale, all the good guys get a happy ending, and who can blame the showrunners and writers for giving them one? Nine years of our lives later, let’s go out with smiles, hugs, weddings, and dancing.

But first, the gang needs to get rid of Faye, her long jackets, and her manipulative ways.

On what feels like day 10 of Faye’s trial by jury for a wrongful termination suit, Harvey calls Mike to testify in Faye’s defence, as per the subpoena he gave him at dinner the night before, thereby souring a pleasant catch-up sesh, and making it look like Donna asked Mike to go to said dinner knowing about the subpoena, which she did not.

Harvey gets Mike to admit under oath that he too thought Samantha had fabricated evidence when he was facing her in the Brick Street Athletics deal, but that doesn’t mean she did it. On his way out of court, Mike says to Harvey, “You lost yourself.” Ooh, he is pissed.

The trial is still going on, but our players meet up in various combos behind the scenes to plot against each other. Faye demands that Harvey testify against Samantha. Alex asks the recently-fired Katrina to join the fight. Robert tells Louis to fix the situation or he’ll fix it himself, and Robert and Sam (wearing a great white suit and cool 1940’s waves) strategize with Mike.

Harvey finally confides in Mike about the deal he made with Faye. He decides he will lie on the stand, and probably lose his license. Mike has a better idea. Harvey, Louis and Donna have a dark night of the soul meeting in the bullpen, but they decide to forge ahead with their plan, though the firm could be lost, oh no!

The next morning, on cue, Katrina drops in to tell Faye that if Harvey testifies, so will Katrina, and she will lie and say she is the third person Faye has terminated without cause. When Faye demands that Harvey remove Katrina from the witness list, Harvey demands in return that Faye and Harvey’s agreement/dirty deal be put in writing.

Louis, Harvey, Alex, Donna and Gretchen are meeting with Faye to get the agreement signed when Mike & Sam storm in, and act outraged about Faye asking Harvey to witness-tamper with Katrina.

You wouldn’t believe how many tries it took me to get this screenshot of Samantha’s punch follow-through. Or maybe you would.

Sam punches Harvey in the jaw, and while Faye is distracted, Gretchen switches the agreement for a confession that Faye signs without reading. They’ve beaten the Wicked Witch! Faye vows to keep on fighting, but Harvey takes a private minute with her to close the deal.

On to the wedding of Louis and Sheila!

Louis is in a morning suit, Harvey is best man in a tux, and Donna, in a gorgeous black ball gown, is stepping in as maid of honour for Sheila’s sister who is stuck in traffic (okay, sure, whatever). Stan is officiating, which he only agreed to do if Louis would end their doctor-patient relationship and become friends.

Sheila’s water breaks during the I do’s, but they get through the ceremony and immediately go off to the hospital, leaving the wedding guests to sit idly around a lovely outdoor wedding venue (that I cannot identify), with no newly married couple to celebrate.

What’s a Harvey to do under these circs but propose to Donna with his mother’s engagement ring? And what’s a Donna to do but accept? They take a few minutes to write some rather uninspired vows, then Stan gets to officiate again, and say some nice words about how love nourishes the soul. The newlyweds then awkwardly kiss, and dance (that ball gown came in handy), to Ed Sheeran’s Dancing in the Dark.

Somewhere in there, we see Sheila acting crazy bitchy in labour, being rushed into surgery (C-section?) in her maternity wedding gown (like that happens), and giving birth to a healthy baby girl, who is welcomed by a delighted, if stressed-out Louis.

The bittersweet denouement to the episode comes with Harvey’s announcement that the card he played to ensure that Faye would leave both him and the firm alone was that he’s leaving. For Mike’s firm in Seattle! Donna’s going too!

Harvey confesses that he likes crossing lines and playing in the grey, but now he wants to do it for the good guys (Awww, and also: as if). The remaining minutes tie all the loose ends in a bow: Mike and Harvey charmingly re-enact the interview from S1E1 that started their working relationship. Katrina is made name partner. Louis is sad to lose Harvey and Donna but will soldier on in an imaginary future with his remaining partners Wheeler, Williams, and Bennett. Donna and Louis hold hands in the elevator, friends forever.

And after a montage of some of the series high points (there’s Rachel! and Jessica! and a very young-looking Mike!) Harvey spins one of his autographed basketballs on his finger and walks out of the office. Fin.

Suits is over, guys. After nine years watching the show, and six years recapping it – including the wtf prison seasons – I can’t say I’ll miss it. Though it was aces as an excuse for not working on my own writing. And for exercising my summarizing skills. And it was fun to ID the Toronto locations subbing in for New York ones without the crew even trying to hide the streetcars, street signs and oh-so-Toronto streetscapes.

And the women’s hair was amazing. And the women’s wardrobe! I’ll always have the beautiful hair and clothes. And a lingering affection for everyone who worked to make this show an escapist pleasure (except for the prison scenes – I mean, come on).

Kim Moritsugu is a Toronto novelist and sometime TV show recapper. Her latest novel The Showrunner, available from your favourite bookseller, is a darkly humourous, suspenseful Hollywood-noir about female ambition inside the TV biz that has been called a “sophisticated, compelling, and surprisingly complex drama,” and has been optioned for development as a TV series.

Check out its book trailer here:

Suits Recap – S9 E9: Thunder Away

In this penultimate episode of the series (we’re almost done, folks!), Harvey mourns his mother after her sudden death, and everyone gets in on the episode’s only story line: the plan to get Faye out of the firm.

At his mother’s funeral, Harvey makes a graveside speech about his childhood and baseball, aided by a flashback that shows a dark-haired child who looks nothing like Harvey ever did being a dick to his mom.

Regrets, Harvey has a few.

All the main cast members except Katrina show up for the funeral and reception, as does Mike, despite the awkward way he and Harvey last parted. They forgive each other, and the next thing you know, Mike and Sam have put their enmity aside and are cooking up a plan to rid the firm of Faye.

Mike comes over to Harvey’s the next morning, and proposes he represent Sam in an unlawful termination suit against Faye. Harvey likes the idea until Faye demands that he and Louis defend her. They refuse, but Faye promises that they don’t have to prove Sam fabricated evidence, and if they won’t help her, they’ll lose the firm. Bonus: if they win without colluding with Mike and Samantha or telling them about the deal, Faye will leave FOREVER. They reluctantly agree to rep her.

Harvey tells Donna, and Donna tells Alex. No one tells Mike and Sam, who are surprised to see Harvey & Louis in the judge’s chambers the next day. The judge moves to try the case in court after Harvey and Louis make mention of the firm’s bylaws in their defence of Faye, and Mike uses his photographic memory to contradict and correct them.

Harvey & Louis urge Sam to accept a $3 million settlement. Mike & Sam know something fishy is going on, but they don’t know what, so they make a counter offer, the receipt of which enrages Faye – she does a lot of rushing into rooms in one of her coats/long jackets and yelling at people this episode.

Harvey insists he prepare Faye for court via a mock trial, which is really an excuse to slag her in front of the whole firm as bitter and vindictive, and announce that everyone hates her. Fun for Faye – she storms out.

Alex discovers that this is the 2nd time she’s been sued for wrongful termination, info which Katrina passes to Mike and Samantha because no one told her about the secret deal.

On Day 2 of the trial, Sam speaks on her own behalf (is this allowed?), while wearing a fabulous Alexander McQueen blazer, about how she has great friends at the firm, and Faye is hated, plus she has a record of wrongfully terminating people.

Afterwards, Faye yells at Harvey, and calls Louis a sheep for following him. Harvey defends Louis to Faye as someone he loves (!!), which makes Louis’s year. Harvey yells at Katrina for passing Mike the file, and Faye yells at Katrina for her mistake and fires her. No fun for Katrina.

Donna asks Mike to meet Harvey for a drink, despite the in-court tensions. They reminisce (= recap some of the series) and insult each other in the meant-to-be-affectionate way that I dislike. Harvey sneak-attacks Mike with a subpoena – he’s going to get him to testify in Faye’s defense. Mike is stung that Harvey won’t trust him to tell him whatever the fuck he’s up to and walks out.

Next week, in the series finale: Looks like Harvey trusts Mike after all, because they’re going to execute one last con together, presumably to vanquish Faye. And we get to go to Louis and Sheila’s wedding!

Kim Moritsugu is a Toronto novelist and sometime TV show recapper. Her latest novel The Showrunner, available from your favourite bookseller, is a darkly humourous, suspenseful Hollywood-noir about female ambition inside the TV biz that has been called a “sophisticated, compelling, and surprisingly complex drama,” and has been optioned for development as a TV series.

Check out its book trailer here:

Suits Recap – S9 E8: Prisoner’s Dilemma

In which old story lines, nemeses and allies return for a victory lap, and we find out beauteous Esther’s exact address in Toronto’s tony Forest Hill neighbourhood – which, does anyone know what Manhattan-adjacent community Forest Hill could pretend to be standing in for?

There’s a lot of rehashing of past prison-related stories in this episode, too much for me to remind readers what the characters are talking about (that’s what past recaps are for!). Just saying.

Sometime ally Cahill (of the doll-like blue eyes) shows up outside Harvey’s apartment at night. Cahill has been charged by Malik, Harvey’s nemesis, with having colluded/conspired with Harvey and a felon on the Sutter case. Harvey suggests he defend Cahill so they can have attorney-client privilege and get through this together without Harvey being disbarred.

Malik doesn’t want Harvey (his real target) to represent Cahill, but a judge says it’s okay. Faye doesn’t want Harvey to handle the case either but Harvey tells her to back off.

Malik gets threatened by Cahill’s boss, and by Donna (whose threat was scarier, do you think?), but perseveres and arrests Cahill for obstruction of justice and Harvey for conspiracy. In a snappily written and edited sequence, Malik browbeats Cahill and Harvey separately, asking them the same questions, and we alternate between their responses. Cahill cracks first, thinking Malik has them beat, and asks for Faye to represent him instead of Harvey.

Alex gets Harvey out on bail. Harvey punches Cahill in the jaw, and makes a speech/thematic statement about he only breaks rules and crosses lines to do good for good people. Way to rationalize, Harvey.

Donna berates Faye in the washroom and accuses her of hating Harvey, and after Harvey had a chance to turn Faye in, too, and he didn’t. Faye, like Cahill, thinks Harvey may be a good man. But since he won’t change, he’s a cancer to the firm. A cancer!

The gang find out that Sutter died in prison, and made a deathbed confession to an informant who tipped off Malik in exchange for a reduced sentence. The informant was Forstman, another of Harvey’s nemeses, played by he’s-still-got-hair-and-a-menacing-air Eric Roberts.

When Alex figures out that Sutter’s confession wasn’t a deathbed one after all because Sutter had a heart attack, Cahill has Malik arrested for fabricating evidence. Harvey visits Forstman in prison and tells him to expect a lengthened sentence now – hah! He goes home feeling good about himself, only to learn from Donna that his mother has died, also of a heart attack.

In other family-related arcs, Louis is handling the legal side of a merger between the company belonging to his beauteous sister Esther, and a company run by Paul Richmond, her former mentor. The deal is about done when Esther asks Louis to scupper it somehow. Esther doesn’t want to work with Richmond because he sexually assaulted her in a hotel room 15 years ago. She managed to escape after he tried to force himself on her, but he warned her she would never work again if she reported it.

Louis wants to throttle the guy, or at least bring his crimes to light, but Esther won’t go public with her story for fear of the repercussions she and her children would suffer.

When Katrina catches wind of what’s going on, she offers to help Louis. She once tried to prosecute a man guilty of similar crimes but lost the case, and hopes that they will be more successful in the current (MeToo) era. When Louis’s emotional outbursts and Katrina’s clever legal mind fail to produce results, Louis asks Samantha (still unemployed) to help take “this piece of shit” (Richmond) down.

Samantha finds that six women previously employed by Richmond’s company took large bonuses on termination and signed NDA’s. Samantha & Katrina pressure the staffers responsible for getting the NDA’s signed to hand them over. Richmond still won’t budge on the merger unless Esther comes forward with her accusation, which she does, having been convinced to do so by Katrina. They will sue him unless he resigns. He resigns, and Esther tells him to get the fuck out of here. Yes, Esther!

Helping Esther makes Louis realize how important family he is. He goes home to Sheila (still hugely pregnant) and re-proposes marriage to her, with a ring this time. He wants to get married before the baby is born. She says yes.

Next week: Mike and Samantha sue Faye for wrongful dismissal. Only two episodes left!

Kim Moritsugu is a Toronto novelist and sometime TV show recapper. Her latest novel The Showrunner, available from your favourite bookseller, is a darkly humourous, suspenseful Hollywood-noir about female ambition inside the TV biz that has been called a “sophisticated, compelling, and surprisingly complex drama,” and has been optioned for development as a TV series.

Check out its book trailer here:

Suits Recap – S9 E7: Scenic Route

In which Louis gets a comic story line that has nothing to do with anything but is entertaining, Harvey and Samantha go on a super boring road trip to Pittsburgh mixed with super boring flashbacks to Samantha’s childhood and adulthood when she had nicer fake hair, and Harold Gunderson returns!

We open on Donna, at home in Harvey’s apartment, wearing another great black dress. She gives him a packed lunch for his road trip, and they exchange I-love-you’s because they’re that couple now.

Harvey picks up Sam (on Toronto’s Pearl Street), driving an old Ford Mustang from his car club, which yes, it’s been referred to before in the show, and I’m sure there are such things, but weird random concept or what. Maybe not so random because Samantha can flashback to not one, but two bad experiences with Ford Mustangs, including the very one Harvey is driving, because Eric Caldor (ex-partner of Robert Zane’s and Samantha’s) belongs to the same car club as Harvey, and he drove the car when he and Samantha were having an affair (say what?).

The affair flashbacks reveal that Sam & Eric hung out for six months, until he wanted to leave his wife and children for her, which, according to her weird sense of morality, one doesn’t do because of the children part, so she broke it off.

The childhood flashbacks show a young teen Samantha trying to escape from an evil foster father by stealing his Mustang. She gets caught and is assigned to a new foster mother, Judy O’Brien, the one who was good to her.

In the present, Harvey wants to take the scenic route to Pittsburgh. Samantha doesn’t but gives in to his whim, then yells at him when they get a flat tire and have to wait hours for an AAA truck to rescue them. Somewhere in there, she apologizes for the evidence fabrication fiasco that got her fired from the firm, the thing she did because she doesn’t like to lose, and he says he was pissed about that because he’d promised Mike Ross he wouldn’t cross any lines, but they’re all good now. They realize they are similar to each other (zzzz), and relationships with long-estranged parents matter (more zzzz).

When they finally get to Pittsburgh, we see Samantha’s biological dad for two seconds when he opens the door to her, but their actual conversation is not shown. Instead, Sam reports to Harvey afterwards, in the damned car, that her dad didn’t know until that day that she existed, her mother died when she was two, and she’s still angry about her shitty childhood. So the point of this road trip was what, exactly?

Back in the city, Louis is alone in Harvey’s office, soaking up the atmosphere, when a prospective new client named Ted Tucker calls, looking for Harvey and wanting to meet that day. Louis decides to impersonate Harvey, which, to his mind, necessitates the wearing of an amusing wig/hairpiece (with blond highlights, yet). Donna is aghast at the sight of Louis in Harvey hair, and warns against the impersonation, but Louis just wants to feel like Harvey the winner for one lunch.

Donna looking concerned about Louis’s wig, while wearing excellent, albeit, fake-looking, hair of her own.

The lunch scene is funny in its over-the-top-ness, including an obsequious maitre d’, ridiculous menu items (bring us the 9 hardest things to find in Manhattan!), imperious finger snapping, and a bevy of laughing extras who crowd around Louis at the table – as one does not – to hear his silly bon mots that sound nothing like Harvey but do involve one movie quote (from A Few Good Men).

Ted Tucker wants to sign up with the firm and his new pal Harvey, so that went well, but Harold Gunderson (former law firm associate/friend of Mike Ross) is deployed to come over and arrange some paperwork, and he knows Harvey, so uh-oh.

Louis bargains with Harold to hide the truth from Tucker. Harold agrees if he can return to the law firm, though not before calling Harvey and telling him what Louis did. Harvey, still on the road, finds the story amusing. Louis ends up telling Tucker the truth, and still getting him as a client, win-win.

Alex and Katrina don’t have much to do this episode, so they become slightly involved in helping Donna find a forger for the weird duck painting Harvey’s mother did that he lost to Elliott Sempel in a previous season. Donna arranges (off-stage) for the forgery to be planted in Elliott’s office, and the original brought to her. (It’s called stealing, but nvm.) She presents it to Harvey on his return. He is touched, and calls his mom to tear up and tell her he loves her, because he’s become that guy.

Next week: Faye is still causing trouble for the firm, and Harvey faces some old adversaries.

Kim Moritsugu is a Toronto novelist and sometime TV show recapper. Her latest novel The Showrunner, available from your favourite bookseller, is a darkly humourous, suspenseful Hollywood-noir about female ambition inside the TV biz that has been called a “sophisticated, compelling, and surprisingly complex drama,” and has been optioned for development as a TV series.

Check out its book trailer here:

Suits Recap – S9 E5: If The Shoe Fits

In which Mike returns to fight Harvey on a case, Amanda Schull gets to show her comic range, and we learn that role playing can be an expensive hobby, yo.

Louis and Sheila are role-playing a scenario they call Dirty Cinderella, complete with period costumes and British accents, when the $9K (!) glass slipper they’ve bought for this purpose won’t fit on Sheila’s enlarged-by-pregnancy (been there!) foot. This spoils the mood, and leads to Sheila melting down about how she lost out on a 50K donation at work due to pregnancy brain fog.

Louis asks Alex, father of two, for advice on how to handle Sheila’s pregnancy hormone-induced craziness. Alex clearly explains that Louis should listen to Sheila’s ravings and do NOTHING. Instead, Louis goes to Benjamin, the IT guy, and apologizes for when he tried to get him fired. He then bribes Benjamin with bacon to use his mad IT skills to make a 50K donation to Columbia from Louis that appears to be anonymous.

Sheila sees through this ruse immediately and yells at Louis some more. He suggests couple counselling with Stan. A few minutes with Stan’s compassionate demeanour lead Sheila to admit that the closer she comes to giving birth, the less she cares about her job, once her sole reason to live. Louis says he supports her 1000%, whatever she wants to do.

Though the anonymous donation hack backfired, Louis thanks Benjamin anyway, with a 30% wage increase and a promotion to VP. No word on what Faye thinks of that executive decision.

Faye does have thoughts about the return of the Mike. He’s come to town intending to spar with Harvey over a case involving Brick Street Athletics, an athletic apparel company client that Harvey recently handed to Sam.

Mike is representing a pro basketball player who wants to get out of his endorsement contract with Brick Street because the company produces apparel in China using underpaid and overworked labour in appalling factory conditions.

Mike was looking forward to fighting against Harvey on this case, but Sam won’t give it up. She agrees to work with Harvey on it, but his idea of sharing is that he banters with Mike and calls the shots, and she should butt out.

Mike walks around the law firm hugging all his old friends, jokingly insulting Harvey (hahaha – putdowns are so funny) and making meta comments about the crazy stuff Rachel/Duchess Meghan has been up to lately. He also engages in some strategic PR moves like placing newspaper ads accusing the company of bad labour practices, and having the basketball player give post-game interviews in a protest text T-shirt.

Harvey is ready to concede to Mike’s superior stealth tactics this time around, but Sam doesn’t like Mike, who she refers to as Harvey’s fake son, lol, and doesn’t take orders from Harvey. She fabricates evidence to win the case, fights with Harvey about it, and arouses Faye’s suspicions. When Faye tries to get Sam to pin the evidence fabrication on Harvey, she won’t. Faye knows Sam did it herself, and Faye fires her.

Mike hangs around long enough to give Louis some real-life Suits USA merchandise (another meta nod), a onesie for the baby, then he’s off to Houston to film his new astronaut drama series Seattle, to sue more Fortune 500 companies.

Donna takes Katrina and her golden locks under her wing when Katrina admits she hasn’t gotten over Brian. Step 1 of Donna’s get-over-him plan is for Katrina to call him, like a friend would. Katrina cycles through several cringe-worthy (and funnily delivered) message drafts before she settles on reading some legal-sounding formal sentences that she has written out in advance.

Step 2 of Donna’s plan is for Donna & Katrina to go to a bar, use fake names, and flirt with men who will buy them drinks. Katrina and I both think this is a terrible idea. Katrina doesn’t want someone new, she doesn’t even know how to have a romantic relationship. Donna advises her to make a life for herself outside work.

In the 3rd meta reference in this episode, Katrina later tells Donna she has signed up for ballet lessons, because she used to be into ballet. Of course she was, look at that posture. And can Amanda Schull and Dule Hill please dance together before the series ends? Katrina proudly reports that she deleted the phone message Brian sent her in response to hers, without even listening to it. Way to move on, Katrina! But I’m still hoping for Brian’s return. Maybe Jake Epstein can sing while Amanda and Dule dance.

Next week: The gang works to get Samantha back into the firm, and to push Faye out.

Kim Moritsugu is a Toronto novelist and sometime TV show recapper. Her latest novel The Showrunner, available from your favourite bookseller, is a darkly humourous, suspenseful Hollywood-noir about female ambition inside the TV biz that has been called a “sophisticated, compelling, and surprisingly complex drama,” and has been optioned for development as a TV series.

Check out its book trailer here:

Suits Recap – S9 E4: Cairo

In which Louis gets off some funny lines about Cairo and Norma III, Alex gets some dimly lit flashbacks and a present day crisis, and Harvey sort of proposes to Donna!

Let’s deal with Alex’s boring story line first. Like all Suits characters, Alex has a defining past moment that comes back often to haunt him. His involves being framed at his old law firm 8 years ago, when his boss Bratton gave him Masterson, a murderous prison-population-exploiting construction company, as a client. By the time Alex figured out what the company was up to, he was framed into covering up for their evil deeds, or else, he’d lose everything.

In flashbacks, we learn that Bratton picked Alex for the file over Craig, a handsome, ambitious and douchey lawyer who was “next in line.” Craig is played by Brian Hallisay, an actor I totally recognized from Revenge, though could I remember he played a cop on that show in its last season without looking him up on imdb? I could not.

Craig was pissed he didn’t get the client for career reasons, but he eventually found out about the murdering and the framing, and now wants Alex to convince Sam to accept a deal on an unrelated lawsuit Craig is working on. If Alex won’t, Craig will publicly reveal what Alex was mixed up in.

Alex asks Sam (who is sporting some attractive new hair) to take Craig’s deal, but she won’t, she’d rather fight Craig and win. Alex didn’t tell his wife Rosalie the truth 8 years ago. When he does now, she asks Sam to dig up some dirt on Craig so the two women can take him down together. Sam finds something, but tells Craig that their respective dirt files cancel each other out, so they can go ahead and make a deal without leverage. To protect Rosalie and Alex’s kids, Sam does this on her own. Aww, she really is part of that family now!

Faye is still glowering at everybody. Her latest source of irritation is Harvey and Donna’s romantic relationship. She says either Harvey or Donna must give up their management committee vote on firm decisions to avoid undue influence. She also asks Katrina to write up a new code of conduct for the firm and promises not to revise it, once written.

Louis, still outraged about Gretchen’s secondment to Faye’s desk, asks Katrina and her always good hair to have the code include rules on personnel re-assignments, but Katrina and her new sense of integrity refuse. She does, however, agree to include a clause about the partners being able to waive their conflicts of interest whenever they wish.

The name partners go as a group go to Faye, present the code to her, and waive all their conflicts of interest with each other, because they’re all fast friends and virtual family members, and they won’t be denied their deep bonds of Suitsdom! Faye concedes after a talk with Gretchen, the Faye whisperer.

Lovebirds Harvey and Donna are ready to break the news of their love match to Harvey’s mom Lily, and to Donna’s dad, played by Toronto actor Derek McGrath, who also plays the overly chatty repairman Frank in Kim’s Convenience, so I can’t take him seriously in this role.

Donna wears a very flattering red Fendi dress to have lunch with her dad at the Gardiner Museum. He dislikes Harvey because of what happened in S5 E12, and Harvey isn’t keen on him either. To please Donna, Harvey tries to ingratiate himself by finding an investor/buyer for some business deal the dad is pursuing. The dad doesn’t want to be bought off, but then he does. They all make up. Lily totally approves of Donna too, and can’t wait to meet her.

Donna’s had a rough week, what with Faye wanting her to give up her vote, and her dad and Harvey not getting along (until they did). She and Harvey pledge to confide in each other and share their feelings more. When Harvey says they’ll be together forever, Donna asks him if he’s proposing. He sorta is! He even told his mom Donna is The One. No ring yet though.

Next week: Return of the Mike (Ross)

Kim Moritsugu is a Toronto novelist and sometime TV show recapper. Her latest novel The Showrunner, available from your favourite bookseller, is a darkly humourous, suspenseful Hollywood-noir about female ambition inside the TV biz that has been called a “sophisticated, compelling, and surprisingly complex drama,” and has been optioned for development as a TV series.

Check out its book trailer here:

Suits Recap – S9 E3: Windmills

In which Louis considers leaving the firm for a judgeship, Harvey battles with Faye, Katrina breaks in a new associate, and Alex invites Sam home for dinner.

Still smarting after his demotion from managing partner, Louis is intrigued when his friend Saul, a judge, offers him a judgeship (is that how judge hiring works?) on a kind of now or never basis, seeing as Faye may destroy Louis’s reputation any day now. Louis says no because judges make way less money than lawyers, and he can’t leave his law partners, they’re family. He does, however, indulge in a full-on courtroom dream sequence, wherein he refers to Faye as Mrs. Pooperson, and bests her as judge and litigator, the icing on the cake being that a jury of Harveys recommends the death penalty, and Donna declares Louis to be better than Harvey.

Louis reconsiders the judgeship when he thinks that Harvey and Donna are conspiring against and mocking him while out on a dinner date, because he sees Donna hit the decline button on her phone when he calls her from inside the restaurant (as one does, when in jealous stalker mode).

He goes to Harvey in a huff to resign. Harvey explains that Harvey and Donna were just trying not to talk about work. For the sake of a joke, the show writers make Harvey unfamiliar with the expression “tilting at windmills,” which Louis thinks originated with the musical Man of La Mancha, but which Harvard grad Harvey would know comes from the musical’s source material, the novel Don Quixote. Okay, it was a little bit funny to see Harvey refer to windmills as wind chimes. Donna atones for ignoring Louis by coming over to his house for a girls’ night.

Alex and Sam decide to work together to get rid of Faye the ‘right’ (that is, legal, ethical) way. Sam immediately suggests something shady, Alex refuses to cooperate, and Sam calls him a coward, which pisses him off. Later, Sam apologizes, and Alex invites her over for a family dinner with his wife and teenage daughter Joy (whom Sam knows from last season). Some bickering at the dinner between Alex, his wife and Joy about a scrape on the car (and more mentions of tap dancing!) makes Sam realize how much she misses having a family, so she acquires a story line for the remainder of the season – she’ll seek out her biological parents. As if that will go well.

Faye asks Donna to do her secretarial work (sick burn, Faye!). Gretchen covers when Donna goes for dinner with Harvey, and Faye decides to keep Gretchen for a while. Harvey decides to wreak vengeance on Faye for these secretary-robbing moves by getting some guy named Dan, CEO of some company called Sensatech, to hire him as a lawyer, then suing Faye’s former law firm for unethical behaviour WRT to Sensatech, something about a board of directors and a takeover.

His plan backfires when the Sensatech board fires Dan, and Faye has a credible explanation for the unethical behaviour charge. Harvey gets Dan rehired by having Mike Ross’s former cellmate (off-camera) buy Sensatech, but Faye thinks she won that skirmish because she won’t give Gretchen back, and he did everything aboveboard for once, so haha on him.

Katrina is working on a Versalife case (do we care about these company names? we do not). A young lawyer named Susan, who had several lines last week in a bullpen scene, wants to become Katrina’s dedicated associate. Katrina finds Susan bright and helpful, but Susan immediately proves herself to be snaky – she uses a family connection to settle the case after Katrina told her not to, then tries to blackmail Katrina into keeping her on by threatening to tell Faye about the flirtation between Katrina and Brian that led to his resignation.

After seeking vague advice on how to handle Snaky Susan from Samantha, Katrina takes Susan to Faye, praises her, and gives her a chance to say something damning about Katrina and Brian kissing in a tree. Susan doesn’t. The lesson taught, Katrina seems willing to take Susan on and teach her how to be both human and a good lawyer, though Susan might not understand what’s wrong with being an ambitious robot. Yeah, yeah, bring back Brian already.

Next week: Faye does not approve of Harvey and Donna’s relationship.

Kim Moritsugu is a Toronto novelist and sometime TV show recapper. Her latest novel The Showrunner, available from your favourite bookseller, is a darkly humourous, suspenseful Hollywood-noir about female ambition inside the TV biz that has been called a “sophisticated, compelling, and surprisingly complex drama,” and has been optioned for development as a TV series.

Check out its book trailer here:

Suits Recap – S9 E2: Special Master

In which Thomas Kessler returns, new Big Bad Faye Richardson rains on just about every parade and meeting/conversation the partners have, Louis learns how to bowl, and Dule Hill/Alex tap dances at last. Oh, and new couple Harvey & Donna are kinda sweet to each other at work now that they’re in a relationship.

The things Rick Hoffman as Louis Litt will do for comedy. Nice kitchen, btw.

Sam takes on a pro bono case to help out an old army buddy named Lucas, who wants to sue his employer for firing him in favour of hiring someone’s son. Turns out Lucas has PTSD and was fired with cause for erratic and unreliable behaviour, only he can’t be treated for his PTSD because he doesn’t want a diagnosis to go on his record forever and affect his future job chances.

Perfect framing for screen capping!

When Special Master Faye Richardson hears about the politically sensitive case, she forbids Sam from using any of the firm’s resources on it and from employing any of her usual dirty tricks. Sam tries to get Katrina involved on the sly, but Katrina will only work on it in her spare time, because she has a firmer grasp of the rule-following approach to life than Sam does. The employer offers a $25K settlement. Sam wants more and is prepared to extort for it, Faye be damned, but Katrina points out that what Lucas really needs is treatment. Sam offers Lucas an on-paper job working with her, for 100K a year, but only if he seeks help.

All the partners clash with Faye, who interrupts their secret bitch/ scheming sessions with lines like, “What is wrong with you people?” and tells them they must convince her they’re capable of flying right. Step 1 according to her: take Zane’s name off the wall (this again). Sam is dead-opposed, of course, but off the name goes. She threatens to quit, but Harvey convinces her not to, because it will make the firm look bad.

Faye humiliates Louis on two occasions in front of his precious associates, when he is being his ridiculous self. Alex takes him bowling to help him blow off steam. When Louis admits that his only sports experience was high school wrestling, Alex not only confesses to his tap dancing past, he briefly demonstrates it. In bowling shoes.

Louis cheers up long enough to congratulate Donna on her new coupledom with Harvey, and to ask for details on Harvey’s technique, which Donna will not give. Soon Louis is in trouble with Faye again when he tries to fire Benjamin the IT guy for being honest. Faye tells Louis he must step down as managing partner or resign.

Donna and Harvey are chirpy together at work now that they’re also fucking. The firm is in crisis, but their bantering continues, with references to the famous can opener, Superman (that’s Harvey), Lana Lang and Lois Lane (Donna is both of them). But they worry that their past legal/ethical transgressions will be revealed to Faye when she requests an exit interview with Thomas Kessler about why he dropped the firm as his lawyers.

To keep Kessler from telling Faye all, they try to get him back as a client. Kessler is impressed by Harvey’s honesty in talking about why he did what he did last season, and about what Donna means to him (she’s the most important person in his life, awww). Kessler says he will sign with the firm again. But when he meets with Donna to sign a new letter of engagement, he realizes he can’t be around her and her office-inappropriate cleavage anymore, so he backs out.

What to wear when your ex is coming into the office.

Donna tells Faye the truth (well, one truth) – that Donna’s relationship with Kessler is what led to him dropping the firm. Faye says no need for an exit interview in that case, so are they off the hook on the Kessler thing? Maybe, maybe not.

Next week: Louis says he’s leaving.

Kim Moritsugu is a Toronto novelist and sometime TV show recapper. Her latest novel The Showrunner, available from your favourite bookseller, is a darkly humourous, suspenseful Hollywood-noir about female ambition inside the TV biz that has been called a “sophisticated, compelling, and surprisingly complex drama,” and has been optioned for development as a TV series.

Check out its book trailer here:

Suits Recap – S9 E1: Everything’s Changed

In which Harvey & Donna are seen in full post-coital splendour, there is a LOT of debate about whether Robert Zane’s name should be taken off the wall, Sam & Harvey box each other (!), and the firm gets a new nemesis.

We open with Harvey & Donna in bed the morning after Harvey ran over to Donna’s (in last season’s finale) and proclaimed his love need for her wit, wisdom and sexual prowess in his moment of sadness because Robert Zane got disbarred.

Sam, grieving for her mentor/father figure Zane, later accuses Harvey & Donna of callously going off to have a sex romp when they should have been moping around like she is, not to mention taking responsibility for the actions that caused Zane to take the fall, and she has a point.

Louis is so upset about the firm’s prospects in the wake of Zane’s disgrace that he shows up at Donna’s apartment early the next morning, sees Harvey in his walk-of-shame clothes, and assumes – after making several painful and unintentional double entendres about banging, hammering, stroking and releases – that Harvey and Donna have been up all night strategizing, rather than fucking. And btw, they each took the time the next morning to call Mike (H) and Rachel (D) – both off-camera, of course – to gloat about their conquest of the other, which was kinda funny.

Donna also calls Thomas that morning to suggest they meet for a breakup lunch. He waits till evening to call back, and they break up over the phone. At least the pale blue Rolande Mouret dress Donna wears when speaking to him is fetching.

We don’t see Zane this week but he’s the talk of the episode. His clients are fleeing the firm, and new clients don’t want to sign up because his name’s still on the wall. When Harvey and Sam realize Eric Kaldor (played by Big Little Lies’ Jeffrey Nordling) has been negging the firm like all over town, they confront him at an ice rink where he’s playing rec hockey. He’ll maybe stop spreading the bad gossip if Harvey hands over 10 of his clients. As if! Kaldor calls Sam “sweet pea,” cuz he’s a sexist douche. She gets angry and roughs up him up against the boards.

Sam and Harvey bond over drinks and decide to go on the offence and steal Kaldor and Zane’s clients. That doesn’t go so well, no one wants to come over to the tainted firm. Then Sam finds out Harvey and Donna were sex-celebrating the night she lost Robert, who was “everything” to her, and she, in her own pale blue dress, is PISSED. 

Donna suggests that Harvey give Sam the physical fight she wants, so he meets her at her boxing gym and they box in a scene I neither wanted or needed to see, because: boring. Neither one wins (zzzz). Afterwards, they agree to keep Zane’s name on the wall so that plot point can be debated next week.

For his part, Louis wants Zane’s name gone, since Sheila, wearing a comically fake pregnant belly prosthetic while making matzo brei (scrambled eggs and matzo) for him, told him to protect the firm’s reputation.

Also, Louis called Henry (the ethics prof at Harvard played by Stephen Macht, Gabriel’s dad), and Henry confirmed the firm’s rep has gone to shit.

Someone from the NY Bar Association got up in Alex’s grill on Front Street when he was out jogging, so Alex, who started the episode being fired by Thomas Kessler, is also under pressure to remove Zane’s name, and maybe take over as managing partner himself.

Let’s break it down: Harvey and Sam want to keep Zane’s name up there, while Louis and Alex (and a non-voting Katrina) want it down. After some yelling and posturing, Harvey breaks the impasse by handing over some of his clients to Kaldor after all.

Donna apologizes to Sam about her involvement in the Zane debacle, and Sam admits Zane partly took the blame to atone for the time years before when he planted evidence to convict Sam’s mugger, and the mugger got killed in prison. So his retirement wasn’t all the fault of Donna and Harvey.

Harvey and Donna meet at Mike & Rachel’s old apartment, for which Harvey has been paying the rent all these months, in the hope M&R return (foreshadowing Mike coming back mid-season). H&D talk about how much they mean to each other, Harvey says he loves how quick and smart Donna is, and Gabriel Macht should get more romantic roles! He does tenderness more convincingly than aggressive badass-ness, if you ask me.

Louis is alone in the office when a stern-looking woman arrives from the New York Bar Association. Her name is Fay Richardson and she’s taking over control of the firm, unless he wants every lawyer currently working there to be suspended for 6 months.

Next time: More arguing about Zane’s name being on the wall. And more Katrina, please! Which reminds me, how weird was this week’s scene where Sheila told Katrina to frump it up a bit to increase her sex appeal, because her beauty is getting in the way of her hotness (or something)? Plenty weird.

Kim Moritsugu is a Toronto novelist and sometime TV show recapper. Her latest novel The Showrunner, available from your favourite bookseller, is a darkly humourous, suspenseful Hollywood-noir about female ambition inside the TV biz that has been called a “sophisticated, compelling, and surprisingly complex drama,” and has been optioned for development as a TV series.

Check out its book trailer here:

 

Suits Recap – S8 E16: Harvey

In which Robert makes amends for his past sins by sacrificing himself to the devil Hardman, Samantha flashes back to the time she was mugged, and in the process of almost losing his license, Harvey finds his true love.

It’s the season finale, of the penultimate season yet, so the episode pacing is stepped up some. But we still get grainy flashbacks, cuz this is Suits, y’all.

Back story first: 8 years ago, Samantha and Robert are working at Rand Kaldor Zane or whatever that firm was called. Samantha is walking along Adelaide West or King Street in Toronto – standing in for New York’s Sixth Avenue, I assume – talking on her phone to Robert, who’s in the office, about a case they just won and how he’s eating some fattening Chinese food she left behind, when she is mugged. She tries to fight back and yells at Robert to call 911. The mugger kicks her and drags her on the ground when she doesn’t immediately give up her purse, and destroys her phone.

Afterwards, Robert visits Samantha in the hospital emergency room. She wants a hired investigator to find the mugger so she can wreak vengeance. Robert just wants justice. There is no evidence/case against the mugger, which angers Samantha because if the guy is not caught and convicted, she will be forever branded a victim, something she is over with, after her rocky childhood. Robert pins something damning on the mugger for Samantha’s sake. The mugger goes to prison, only to be murdered there. Ever since, Robert has felt guilt-ridden and responsible for the guy’s death.

In the present, Hardman is still representing the Simon mall developer executive who is suing Harvey for breaking attorney-client partnership privilege in relation to the whole Donna-Thomas Kessler mess from last week.

Harvey shouldn’t have told Donna what was going on with the mall deal, Donna shouldn’t have told Thomas, and Thomas shouldn’t have brought the ethical violations into the open by prematurely issuing a press release about the deal. So they’re all wrong, but it’s possible Donna made the biggest mistake, out of good intentions.

All hands are on deck to fix this thing. Harvey and Louis try and fail to make a deal with Hardman and Simon. Robert, who is friendly with Hardman, suggests he take a name partnership at Kaldor Zane in exchange for dropping the suit, but no one wants that, especially KZ. Hardman floats the idea of replacing Harvey’s name on the wall at Specter, Litt, etc., with his own, but no one wants that either.

Harvey and Louis meet with the chairman of the Board at the mall developer company, and convince her to fire Simon (and Hardman as his lawyer) but the foxy duo have already arranged a law society ethics hearing for the next day that could result in Harvey losing his license, so Harvey is in big trouble unless he throws Donna under the bus.

Robert, meanwhile, is newly remorseful about the mugger’s death, after what happened with Louis and his mugger last week. He asks Alex (who was mightily compromised with the prison case from Season 7) how he lives with knowing he’s done bad things that hurt/kill people. Alex advises him to either take action to assuage his guilt or move on.

With all the involved parties called upon to testify at the ethics committee hearing, Harvey asks Thomas to lie about hearing the confidential information about the deal from Donna. Not to protect Harvey, but to protect Donna. Thomas realizes that not only is he taller, bigger and more ethically principled than Harvey, but he knows a lovesick tragic hero when he sees one, and Harvey is in love with his girl.

New-fount-of-wisdom Alex tells Donna he knows she loves Harvey. When Thomas asks Donna what’s the story with her and Harvey, she admits she can never let him go.

At the hearing, our guys, with the support of Kessler, tell a complicated tale that lays all the blame for the breaking of privilege on Robert, who promptly loses his license and announces his retirement. This sacrifice was Robert’s idea, of course, his way of atoning for the mugger’s death, and thereby sparing the rest of the gang, and allowing them to keep doing unethical shit for a bit longer.

After this bittersweet victory, Harvey offers to take Robert out for a burger, but Robert wants to go home to the woman he loves. Same for Alex. Sam is the most hard hit by Robert’s departure – she’s lost her mentor. When she refers to having lost someone (Robert) who loved her, Harvey realizes he must seek out the woman he loves. He goes to Donna’s apartment, knocks on her door and they kiss, which turns into an awkwardly staged makeout session. After all these years, I’m not against these two beautiful people enacting a Darvey consummation, but something about the sight of Harvey’s suited butt grinding against Donna’s lower body in her satin lounge wear was off-putting. Just me?

Spoilers about next season indicate Harvey and Donna are going to have an actual relationship, making complete Sarah Rafferty’s ascension to official co-lead of the show with Gabriel Macht (bye-bye Patrick J!). Have we seen the last of Robert, though? Will my new favorite character Brian return? How about Mike and Rachel? Okay, Duchess Meghan is never coming back, but Mike? To find out, tune in for the final season of Suits this summer. We’ve come this far, might as well watch and snark to the end.

Kim Moritsugu is a Toronto novelist and sometime TV show recapper. Her latest novel The Showrunner, available from your favourite bookseller, is a darkly humourous, suspenseful Hollywood-noir about female ambition inside the TV biz that has been called a “sophisticated, compelling, and surprisingly complex drama,” and has been optioned for development as a TV series.

 

Check out its book trailer here: