Waaaaaaaahhhh Harveyyyy whyyy are you so adorabllllle. I'm a mess. This episode was adorable in about forty million different ways. Unfortunately, there were a few big elements of it that I wish could have been different. Even so, this is a vast improvement over last week, and I'm really hyped for next week.
The plot:
Rachel is overworked and stressed, between law school and working for Harvey. Mike tries to convince her to take some time off. When she asks Harvey for a few days off, he bites her head off, and she continues to struggle on.
Meanwhile, this Sean Cahill guy is causing more trouble. Harvey tries to confront him about his plan to attack the firm, and Cahill decides to change tactics, and go after Harvey specifically. Jessica is worried about this, but Harvey assures her that Cahill hasn't made a move yet.
Mike really doesn't want to cut Sidwell out of the deal he made with Forstman. He decides to use the idea of Forstman's money to get Harvey and Logan to back down. Harvey calls Mike's bluff, however. At this point, Mike and Harvey both try and buy extra Gillis Industries stock from Wexler, using rather... sketchy means to do so, since Harvey technically isn't allowed to buy anything on Logan's behalf at the moment. The two of them are going to have to go head to head in a bidding war. Whoever can buy the extra stock will have the leverage for the takeover. To make Mike feel even worse about the possibility of cutting Sidwell out, Sidwell actually tells Mike he's doing a great job.
At this point, Mike learns from Amy that Rachel is in the hospital. He rushes there, to see that Harvey is already there. Harvey tells Mike that Rachel is fine, just overworked and dehydrated. She's sedated so she can get some sleep. Harvey and Mike go out to dinner across the street, after Harvey gives Mike his word that they can postpone the bidding war for a later date. The two of them actually have a nice dinner together, and they clear the air over what they've both had to do recently, reaffirming their friendship and respect for one another.
As they exit the restaurant, Cahill comes up to him, revealing that he was following Harvey. He says that it looks suspicious that Harvey and Mike were at dinner together, considering that they are on opposite sides of a takeover. Cahill also knows about the bidding war, and tells the two men that Pearson Specter has already purchased the stock. Mike is furious with Harvey for lying to him, but Harvey promises that he didn't know this was going to happen - it must have been Jessica. Harvey promises Mike he'll make it right.
Harvey tells Jessica that he promised Mike to wait before going after the stock, but Jessica says that their responsibility is to Logan, not Mike. However, Harvey does tell Jessica that since Cahill knows about the bidding, they can't give the stock back to Logan, and they'll have to keep the stock, effectively keeping Harvey's deal with Mike. Jessica, however, refuses to budge. She doesn't care what it means for Mike.
Harvey goes to tell Mike what happened. He asks about Rachel first, and Mike assures him that Rachel is fine, and getting more rest. Mike says he never should have trusted Harvey, and Harvey responds that this entire thing is his own fault. He should have believed in Mike when Mike first came to him with his plans for Gillis Industries. Harvey says that he doesn't have many regrets, but he does regret what's happened between them, and he wants Mike to know that.
The subplot is about Donna and Louis' friendship. Donna is about to be in The Merchant of Venice, but she doesn't have her lines memorized. She asks Louis for help, and learns that Louis has all of Shakespeare's plays memorized. Donna goes on and pursues her dream of acting, but Shylock gets injured after the show, meaning the next two nights of the play are cancelled. Unless... Louis is very hesitant, but eventually Donna convinces him to go onstage. He does, and thus conquers his stage fright. Donna later reveals that Shylock was never hurt, and she just wanted to help Louis accomplish something, because of how bad things had been going for him lately.
Mike goes to Forstman and says he doesn't want to take his money, having decided not to screw over Sidwell. Forstman then reveals that he went to Sidwell and had him take the money, anyway. Mike now has what he wants, and he didn't have to stab anyone in the back to get it!
In the end, Harvey shows up to take Donna to her closing night, giving her flowers and declaring himself a "Donna fan." Aww.
Wow, that was a very long plot summary. I think it was sort of important to get down all the details of this, because I have some rather... complicated feelings about some of it.
Let's start with some issues I have... although they're not exactly flaws in the episode, more like... moments where I felt like a lot of potential was lost.
So, in the promo leading up to this episode, we see that Rachel ends up in the hospital. And while this event does certainly lead to plenty of drama, it's mostly drama about Mike and Harvey's relationship. It's almost like Rachel was solely used as a plot device, here. She did have a few moments of actual development, but it was mostly about her being tired, and about her dodging messages from Logan. While we got to see that she's overworked and stressed, it mostly felt like Rachel was a pawn here, being positioned so that Mike and Harvey could have their bromantic dinner date. Not that I mind the bromance, of course, but I wish Rachel's role in this story could have felt a bit more important.
Further cementing that idea of Rachel as a pawn, did you notice that nobody even bothered telling Donna, or Rachel's family, about the incident? I know it was just a little dehydration and exhaustion, but when a close friend/family member is rushed to the hospital, generally people tend to get involved. Here, we see Mike rushing worriedly to the hospital, we see Harvey already there, and then the two of them go off to dinner, and the more important plot comes along to sweep our attention away from Rachel's fate. The fact that she's fine, and goes home to get more rest, is practically a footnote.
That brings me to Donna. It annoyed me that she didn't know about Rachel's scare, considering how close these two used to be. But beyond that, it felt like Donna and Louis' plot was completely isolated from the A-plot of the episode. So much so that you could take their scenes and plop them in virtually anywhere, in any season of this show, and it would work just fine. And while I'm okay with a plot line that focuses just on Donna and Louis, it was disconcerting to see how little these two characters mattered to the A-plot.
Then there's Jeff Malone. His role in this episode felt very confusing, as if he was squished in here just so he'd have something to do. His relationship to the firm, and to Harvey specifically, is sort of confusing to me. It seems like there's some animosity between them, but it's a bit passionless, because there's no real justification for it.
We also continue to have hints about this Logan/Rachel business, but I wish that we could see something to justify Rachel's potentially unfaithful attitude. As such, the love triangle thing hasn't yet grabbed my full attention. I want to be invested in Rachel's difficulties regarding Logan, but I don't feel that way.
Now let's talk about the good stuff, because while what I just said above is true, there is one important exception to a few of the complaints I had above:
Rachel's dream. I think this was one of the strongest parts of this episode, as well as one of the strongest moments of character development Rachel has ever had on this whole show. That dream, where Logan proposes to her but Rachel says he's a fraud, and then Logan turns into Mike - wow. Suddenly I realize that Rachel's feelings about Mike's situation are a lot more complex than any of us knew. Couple this dream with the line Mike had earlier, about "Harvey let me skip law school," and I think we're planting the seeds for some interesting complications in their relationship. Now this is the type of love triangle-esque thing that has potential. If Rachel's wavering loyalty to Mike is clearly a symptom of some real problem between the two of them, and not just because she's attracted to Logan, then I see real value in this setup. However, we'll have to see if they continue going with that.
In the Louis and Donna plot, I think we got a lot of valuable insight into Donna's character, in particular. It still annoys me that the plot connected so little to anything in the A-plot, but I still think there's some good stuff here. We got to see a more vulnerable side to Donna, which isn't something that happens very often. I liked the fact that she used her weakness to bring strength to someone else, because it seems like such a Donna-ish thing to do. Louis also got over an old fear, which was a nice thing to see. He's been down so often this season that it was nice, just like Donna said, to see him win one.
Not much to say about Jessica in this episode, but I do like that we're reminded how much of a hard ass she is. She's bent the rules for Mike in the past, but she won't do so now, just for the sake of Harvey and Mike's friendship. Her loyalty is to her firm, and she's possibly the only person who can stop Harvey in his tracks. It was a nice moment to remind us that Jessica can be rather morally ambiguous, too. She's not necessarily all that good of a person, and sometimes neither is Harvey.
We also continue to have hints about this Logan/Rachel business, but I wish that we could see something to justify Rachel's potentially unfaithful attitude. As such, the love triangle thing hasn't yet grabbed my full attention. I want to be invested in Rachel's difficulties regarding Logan, but I don't feel that way.
Now let's talk about the good stuff, because while what I just said above is true, there is one important exception to a few of the complaints I had above:
Rachel's dream. I think this was one of the strongest parts of this episode, as well as one of the strongest moments of character development Rachel has ever had on this whole show. That dream, where Logan proposes to her but Rachel says he's a fraud, and then Logan turns into Mike - wow. Suddenly I realize that Rachel's feelings about Mike's situation are a lot more complex than any of us knew. Couple this dream with the line Mike had earlier, about "Harvey let me skip law school," and I think we're planting the seeds for some interesting complications in their relationship. Now this is the type of love triangle-esque thing that has potential. If Rachel's wavering loyalty to Mike is clearly a symptom of some real problem between the two of them, and not just because she's attracted to Logan, then I see real value in this setup. However, we'll have to see if they continue going with that.
In the Louis and Donna plot, I think we got a lot of valuable insight into Donna's character, in particular. It still annoys me that the plot connected so little to anything in the A-plot, but I still think there's some good stuff here. We got to see a more vulnerable side to Donna, which isn't something that happens very often. I liked the fact that she used her weakness to bring strength to someone else, because it seems like such a Donna-ish thing to do. Louis also got over an old fear, which was a nice thing to see. He's been down so often this season that it was nice, just like Donna said, to see him win one.
Not much to say about Jessica in this episode, but I do like that we're reminded how much of a hard ass she is. She's bent the rules for Mike in the past, but she won't do so now, just for the sake of Harvey and Mike's friendship. Her loyalty is to her firm, and she's possibly the only person who can stop Harvey in his tracks. It was a nice moment to remind us that Jessica can be rather morally ambiguous, too. She's not necessarily all that good of a person, and sometimes neither is Harvey.
But let's talk about Harvey, now, shall we? And Mike. For all of the problems that I listed above, this was also by far the most bromantic episode of Suits that we've had in a long time - the only one that compares is probably the one where they get high together after Mike's grandmother died. This episode was full of moments that prove how much these two people care about each other.
First of all, we have the fact that Harvey felt guilty for being mean to Rachel, but ultimately his goal in coming to the hospital was to make sure that Mike was okay. And then Harvey says he's sorry for not taking Mike out to dinner like he said he wanted to when Mike first left the firm. Harvey is basically saying - I was upset that you were gone, and I said I'd make an effort to maintain our friendship, but I didn't do a good job with that.
Both Harvey and Mike talk about what they've had to do over the past few weeks, and they acknowledge and forgive one another for some of the harsher moves they've been forced to make. Even as the professional battle between them gets more heated, we see here that both men have a vested interest in trying to maintain their personal friendship. And they're at dinner for two hours! Aww!
And then there's that look of betrayal on Mike's face when Cahill tells them that Pearson Specter bought the shares... noooo. And you can just see Harvey's panic as he asks Mike to trust him, like he used to trust him. Harvey wants to fix this so bad.
The last scene between the two of them was the real kicker, though. Mike has, in the past, been the more compassionate friend between the two of them. In this season, and in particular in this episode, Harvey is being a much better friend to Mike than Mike is being to Harvey. Harvey tries to explain to Mike that he's sorry. He says that he doesn't regret much, but he does regret what's happened between them. He's not saying that to convince Mike to back down, he's not saying it to cover his own ass... he's saying it because he cares about Mike. This episode perfectly continues the trend that's been going on this season. We see Harvey struggling with the fact that he has to fight against Mike. We see him make several sincere, personal statements to Mike that make it clear that he values their friendship. Mike is the one who is pulling away and making morally ambiguous choices. I can't wait to see where it goes from here.
I could keep talking. This episode had a lot of good, but a fair amount of bad as well. If I were judging on the Mike/Harvey bromance alone, I'd give it high marks. But overall, I feel like things got a bit disconnected, in particular with regards to Donna and Louis' plot, Jeff's role in events, and even Rachel's role.
7/10
First of all, we have the fact that Harvey felt guilty for being mean to Rachel, but ultimately his goal in coming to the hospital was to make sure that Mike was okay. And then Harvey says he's sorry for not taking Mike out to dinner like he said he wanted to when Mike first left the firm. Harvey is basically saying - I was upset that you were gone, and I said I'd make an effort to maintain our friendship, but I didn't do a good job with that.
Both Harvey and Mike talk about what they've had to do over the past few weeks, and they acknowledge and forgive one another for some of the harsher moves they've been forced to make. Even as the professional battle between them gets more heated, we see here that both men have a vested interest in trying to maintain their personal friendship. And they're at dinner for two hours! Aww!
And then there's that look of betrayal on Mike's face when Cahill tells them that Pearson Specter bought the shares... noooo. And you can just see Harvey's panic as he asks Mike to trust him, like he used to trust him. Harvey wants to fix this so bad.
The last scene between the two of them was the real kicker, though. Mike has, in the past, been the more compassionate friend between the two of them. In this season, and in particular in this episode, Harvey is being a much better friend to Mike than Mike is being to Harvey. Harvey tries to explain to Mike that he's sorry. He says that he doesn't regret much, but he does regret what's happened between them. He's not saying that to convince Mike to back down, he's not saying it to cover his own ass... he's saying it because he cares about Mike. This episode perfectly continues the trend that's been going on this season. We see Harvey struggling with the fact that he has to fight against Mike. We see him make several sincere, personal statements to Mike that make it clear that he values their friendship. Mike is the one who is pulling away and making morally ambiguous choices. I can't wait to see where it goes from here.
I could keep talking. This episode had a lot of good, but a fair amount of bad as well. If I were judging on the Mike/Harvey bromance alone, I'd give it high marks. But overall, I feel like things got a bit disconnected, in particular with regards to Donna and Louis' plot, Jeff's role in events, and even Rachel's role.
7/10
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