Suits: Leveraged (4x04)

Hmm... this episode was very weak, I felt. It set up a lot of really interesting plot points, but at the same time, it felt lackluster in many ways. I think it will probably work as a jumping-off point for future episodes, but as an individual hour of television, I was disappointed. Let's take a look.

There were three plot threads in this episode, and I had qualms about all of them, to be honest.

First of all, Sidwell finds out that Mike bought more shares in Gillis' company, and that he leveraged Sidwell's money to do it. Sidwell says he's actually impressed that Mike did it, but that Mike has one week to un-leverage the money, or he'll be out of a job. Mike therefore desperately needs money to help take over Gillis' company. Harvey enlists Louis' help to stop Mike from getting the money. At first, Louis screws up when Mike lies and says that Sheila is engaged to throw Louis off his game. Later, Mike tries to go to Tony Gianopolous for money, but Louis blocks him.

Mike is therefore forced to go to an old enemy of Harvey's, named Forstman. Forstman agrees to give Mike the money, provided that Mike keep any of the profits from Sidwell. Amy doesn't like this idea because she doesn't want Mike to go against Sidwell. Harvey also tries to warn Mike away, saying that Forstman is shady and can't be trusted. Mike goes through with it anyway.

Meanwhile, Harvey confronts Eric Woodall about the SEC targeting Pearson Specter's clients. Jessica finds out that Harvey went to talk to Woodall, and tells Harvey that Jeff Malone is in charge of the SEC, and that Harvey has to back down. Sean Cahill, a new character, ends up being behind the SEC thing, right along with Woodall. Jessica and Malone get Cahill to drop the seven cases that the SEC had going, but then after that, they learn that this was Cahill's plan all along. He wants the seven clients to find dirt on Harvey. Malone, who is already in trouble with Jessica for lying about getting fired from his old job, feels responsible for the mistake. In the end of the episode, however, we see Jessica go to Malone's house, willing to re-enter their personal relationship.

The third plot is about Logan and Rachel. Logan is trying to plan the next company to take over, and he asks Rachel to assess some choices for him. Rachel at first gives Logan different companies to look at, but Logan demands that Rachel look at the companies he picked out. She does, explaining to him why each of them won't work. Logan then uses one of Rachel's ideas. During all of this, the two of them are getting along. Logan tries to kiss Rachel, but she backs away and leaves, confused.

So... let's start with my list of problems. Unfortunately, it's a bit of a long one. For whatever reason, I felt like almost every element of this episode had some problematic elements.

In the main plot, we have the fact that this battle now seems to be strictly between Mike and Harvey. Did you notice that Logan didn't even so much as talk with Harvey about Gillis Industries in this whole episode? The past three episodes have been setting this up as a Mike vs. Logan thing, with Harvey reluctantly forced to be on Logan's side. Now, however, it's like Logan doesn't enter into the equation at all. I feel like it was a bit sloppy.

The Louis situation was probably what made me the most angry, though. Not only is it repetitive - oh, Louis is trying to earn Harvey's respect? Where have I heard that before? - but it's also unsatisfying. Louis messes up, then redeems himself. Then Harvey goes to tell him he's done a good job, and Louis informs Harvey that he messed up again. How did he mess up the second time? By saying something to Mike that gave him a new idea. I'm sorry, but really? How is this all on Louis? He made a comment. Mike happened to take inspiration from that comment, but it wasn't as if Louis gave him a list of Harvey's enemies who might give Mike money. Mike did that on his own. The fact that Harvey is just suddenly livid and refusing to forgive Louis is... well, it's really silly.

Then there's this Amy character. The more I see of her, the less I understand her purpose. We see her say that she's willing to leave the company if Mike gets fired, which implies a great deal of friendship and loyalty between Mike and Amy, but I've seen nothing to justify it. Amy occasionally doles out some good advice, and I'm glad to see that she's sticking to her guns about disliking Mike's shady deal. But even so... she's a watered down version of Donna. She's not unique, and she hasn't really contributed anything to the show so far.

Oh yeah, and that scene at the top of the episode where Donna comes to yell at Mike? Not good. I'm not really sure what it was, but something about the way the dialogue was written was... really fake sounding. The fact that Mike is able to buy Donna off so easily, with a purse, felt very cheap. Mike is sliding into some very unethical behaviors, and I wish that we could see the consequences of that actually play out.

So then there's the Jessica and Malone thing. I'm fine with the twist in the case, I guess, although it does follow the pattern that this show tends to over-use. The heroes think they've found an easy way to beat their opponent, but - gasp! - it turns out to be a trap, and they'll have to find a new way to win! Even though the setup is stale, it's not that big of a problem...

What is a problem is Jessica suddenly deciding to resume her relationship with Jeff. What?! Why? After all of this denial, she gives in only after she finds out that Jeff lied to her? You would think that would make her less willing, not more! I just don't understand what's changed. Jessica's reasons for avoiding a personal relationship with Jeff were very good, and it doesn't make sense for her to go back on them, honestly. It annoyed me, because it seemed to come out of nowhere.

And then we have the love triangle stuff. As I keep saying, there was already a setup with plenty of drama, as Mike and Rachel have to be against each other in a professional setting. Throwing in Logan's past with Rachel is unnecessary. When they started to give Logan a sympathetic side, I was grudgingly intrigued. Now, in this episode, I'm just rolling my eyes. Are they really going to have Rachel cheat on Mike? The show is doing some really interesting stuff right now about Mike's descent into corrupt behavior. If he suddenly becomes the victim, then it undermines the culpability of Mike's other actions. Sometimes, it's okay to let the protagonist just be a jerk for a moment.

But this episode isn't all bad... there were a few elements that I think are really promising.

The first is Mike's development. Although I am worried that Rachel and Logan's behavior is going to negate the impact of Mike's descent into immorality, I still think there's potential for his character to take quite the fall. We saw the first hint of it last week: Mike buying Harvey's dad's records. Now, we see him using Sheila against Louis, and then rubbing it in Louis' face when he continues to beat him. We see him turning his back on Sidwell. I know Sidwell is kind of an ass, but he was also the person who gave Mike this great opportunity, and now Mike is willing to betray him.

What's intriguing about this is that Mike has a damn good reason. He wants to stop Logan from ruining a lot of lives. It's noble. But somehow, Mike has had to do a lot of really ignoble things to get there. It's a lovely progression for his character, and has a lot of potential.

Even though Harvey and Mike had very little screen time together, I'm still adoring the progression of their relationship this season. Harvey is so genuinely, personally upset by all of this, as we can see that he really doesn't want to have to go against Mike. Their conversation was emblematic of the continuing rift between them, as Harvey tries to help Mike personally, while obviously doing what's in the best interest of Logan, however much he doesn't want to.

Honestly, the thing that excited me the most about this episode was the promo for next week - Rachel in the hospital?! I'm a sucker for over the top drama like that. Suits doesn't do it very often, but I love it when it happens. I can't wait to see Mike sitting by Rachel's bedside like a lovesick puppy. I'm also waiting for the scene where Harvey comforts Mike as they sit in the hospital waiting room... I can taste the bromance...

But... yeah. Unfortunately this felt like one of the weaker episodes this show has ever had. I have to give it a pretty low score.

5/10