Suits: Exposure (4x08)

Mike is back! Woo! But things aren't going to be easy... and are you really surprised?

So, Mike shows up to work, and Donna shows him to his brand new office, which Harvey later tells him used to belong to Harvey himself. Aw, how sweet. But there isn't much time for sentimentality, as it turns out Sean Cahill is trying to get his hands on all of Pearson Specter's paperwork concerning the Gillis takeover. He's still trying to bust Mike and Harvey for colluding. Since they're innocent of this crime, both of them at first suggest turning over all of the paperwork. But Jessica says no, saying that Cahill will find some excuse to pin them, even if they're innocent.

Louis is horrified at the thought of Cahill getting his hands on these papers, as his shady deal with Forstman will be revealed, no matter how deep he tries to bury the evidence. Louis even goes to Forstman to try to undo the deal, but Forstman refuses. He does offer, however, to let Louis replace his own name with Harvey's, thus pinning Harvey for the deal.

Cahill manages to win the rights to the papers (by using Logan), but it turns out that the firm will only be turning over the communications between Harvey and Mike. Louis' paperwork with Forstman will not be included. So, Louis is immensely relieved.

But then, Mike makes another decision. He, Harvey, and Jessica all want to built a case against Cahill for malicious prosecution. They decide to hand over everything, so that when Cahill comes up empty-handed, they can pin him for attacking the firm. This of course ruins everything for Louis, since the incriminating paperwork will indeed be handed over to Cahill.

Mike, who noticed Louis' suspicious behavior regarding Cahill, figures out that he must have done something illegal. Harvey goes to confront him, but Louis goes to Jessica first, telling her that he made a huge mistake.

While all of this is going on, Rachel is staying with Donna, heartbroken about Mike. Donna tells Rachel that she and Harvey once slept together, but that she decided to let things run their course, and that everything turned out the way it was supposed to, because of that. She advises Rachel to back off and let things happen naturally, but Rachel can't follow that advice. She approaches Mike at work. At first, he rebuffs her and says he can't get the image of her and Logan out of his head. Later, Rachel shows up at his hotel and asks him if he loves her more than he hates what she did. If so, she wants him to come home, so they can fight for their relationship together.

Do I have problems? Well, I'm not really very sympathetic towards Rachel right now. It really bothered me that she brought up Tess. The situations were not at all the same. Mike never should have slept with Tess, because Tess was married. But Mike didn't cheat on Rachel. For her to bring this up now seems like a real low blow, and I was annoyed that Mike accepted this argument. Regardless, obviously I want these two to patch things up, so if that worked, I guess it's not the worst thing in the world.

I thought the setup for the tension in this episode was a bit forced - Jessica's reasoning for not handing over the paperwork didn't really make sense to me. I wish there had been a bit stronger of an excuse, because it was such an interesting setup for drama - most of the team thinks they have all the information, but Louis and Katrina are holding a deadly secret. If only Jessica's reasons had been stronger, this could have been very cool.

But in all honesty, this episode, like virtually all the rest of this season, was very strong. This show has really hit its stride in this season. While there was maybe one episode that I didn't like much, and some elements that I disapproved of throughout, we're still getting a really strong story.

This episode was the one where all of these puzzle pieces started to click into place, and the full picture of the conflict in front of me was suddenly made clear. Mike is back where he belongs, but Cahill's role in events is also suddenly apparent, and as we go into the final two episodes, I fully understand where the heart of this conflict lies.

There were a lot of strong elements, here. Donna and Rachel's relationship got some screen time, which is nice. It seems like the show sometimes forgets that they're supposed to be close friends, but we see it here. I like the fact that Rachel doesn't take Donna's advice, because she and Mike are different from Donna and Harvey. Their relationship has to take its own path. Also, Donna and Harvey's relationship got a few moments, too. Their respect for one another is so refreshing. I think there's this part of Harvey that wants to selfishly keep Donna to himself, but there's no hint of jealousy or rebuke from him when he learns that she has a date. They have such utter respect and admiration for one another. Although occasionally it can seem like Donna just does Harvey's bidding, I think we can see that overall, their relationship is mutually beneficial.

Brief shout-out to the bromance, of course... the fact that Harvey gets Mike his old office is beyond precious. We're past the point of Harvey hiding his affection for Mike. Now he's going out of his way to make thoughtful gestures to show Mike how much he cares. And Mike understands it, and is grateful. These two are so cute. I think the strongest testimony to their bond, however, is how quickly everything goes back to normal. Mike has work to do, and he instantly does it, bypassing what any other lawyer asks him to do in favor of working with Harvey, just like it used to be. And other than the office gesture, there aren't any big declarations about it all. It's just assumed that the dynamic duo is back again. And they are. Woo!

Jessica and Mike got to have a pretty tense scene, too. Jessica is in such an interesting position here. She doesn't like Mike, because he's a threat to everything she's built. On the other hand, her business partner and close friend Harvey really likes Mike, and is willing to take risks to keep him by his side. I like exploring these complexities, and I really like how blunt Mike is. He belongs at the firm, and he's staying put.

Mike got a lot of heartfelt welcome-backs, from Donna, Louis, Harvey, and Rachel (although that one didn't go over so well). But my favorite welcome back has to be the one from... Katrina. I know, I know. I always talk about how I don't like her and how useless she seems. But in this episode, her loyalty to Louis really shone through. I mean, it's idiotic of her to offer to forge documents to protect Louis, since Louis did indeed make a huge mistake. But it was still really loyal, and admirable. And her awkward scene with Mike was actually very endearing. She tells Mike what Louis gave up in order to bring Mike back, and Mike is genuinely touched. There's even an extremely awkward hug!

I think I'll leave things there for now. This was a satisfying episode, even if Rachel was getting a bit on my nerves. I don't know if there was any good way to tell this part of her story, though, because I thought the kiss with Logan was so wildly out of character that the fallout from it is understandably messy. Other than that, however, this was another strong one!

8.5/10