Suits: Not Just a Pretty Face (4x16)

Eeeeeeee! I'm so excited. And upset. And angry that we have to wait. And happy about what we did get to see. I'll just cut to the chase, shall I?

It looks like Sean Cahill hasn't been able to find the money trail which would implicate Eric Woodall and Charles Forstman and put them away for good. Cahill tells Harvey he needs his help. Harvey obviously has no desire to help Cahill, but Cahill points out that if Woodall is set free, he'll be coming after Louis and the rest of the firm. Harvey asks for Mike's help in finding a way to prove that Woodall is a crook.

Mike and Rachel both work on the case, as Rachel is convinced that she is invisible to Harvey, ever since Mike came back to the firm. They both realize that there is one way to get to Woodall - Harvey got duped by Forstman years ago, and if they can pin him for whatever he did, they might be able to put Forstman away for good. Harvey says no - he refuses to dredge up the past.

In flashbacks, we see exactly what that past is - Harvey's brother Marcus is trying to clean up his life and open a restaurant. He needs $150,000 to do it. He says that if Harvey can't get it for him, he'll get it from their mother (or, more accurately, from their mother's rich lover). Harvey does have a way of getting the money - Forstman has just made him a job offer. He is hesitant to take it, but it will give him the money he needs for Marcus. Forstman tricks him, though. He takes a piece of information that Harvey let slip during a casual conversation and uses it to make a lucrative deal. He then sends Marcus some of the money, saying it's from Harvey, so that Harvey's brother is implicated and Harvey won't say anything.
 

Back in the present, Harvey realizes that there's no other way to trap Forstman, so he talks with Forstman about what happened, and then reveals that he was wearing a wire. Forstman is done for!

Mike, after working with Rachel on the case, realizes that he wants her in his life forever. He proposes, and Rachel says yes. Harvey calls his brother to chat, glad that everything seems to be going well.

While all of this is going on, Louis finds out that Norma, his secretary, has died. Donna steps in to help him deal with his issues and take care of the arrangements. Donna and Harvey have a strained conversation, where Donna demands that Hravey stop pitying her. If he loves her, he should be honest about what that means. Louis asks Donna to be his new secretary. Donna, after waiting all of these years for something that Harvey can't give her, decides to go for it. She tells Harvey that she's leaving him.

So. Yeah. Lots of stuff to talk about here.

First, my complaints. Does anybody else feel like some of this stuff came completely out of nowhere? Donna has known for years that Harvey is unwilling to say how he feels... and now that he's finally said "I love you," she's suddenly done? She cut him off just as he was saying how amazing she was, and how much he valued her. It seems... abrupt. It seems out of nowhere.

The same thing can be said for the Rachel thing. Not the proposal - I loved the proposal. But all of this stuff about her insecurities with Harvey. I've been complaining this whole time that Rachel should have a story of her own, and then we get this, which seems to come from nowhere. I had no idea that she was feeling insecure about her working relationship with Harvey until all of a sudden she was complaining about it. I wish there could have been hints of this over the past few episodes so it didn't feel so completely out of nowhere.

One last complaint - Jessica didn't have nearly enough to do in this episode. It didn't really feel like a finale with her sitting on the sidelines.

Still, I'm happy with what I just watched, even if it didn't pack quite the same punch as the Harvey/Mike filled finale of last season. Let's go through the stuff that was awesome.

Mike and Rachel are getting married! When he started talking about how amazing and perfect Rachel was, I felt myself start to get really, really anxious and excited. And then that whole thing about his grandmother wearing the ring every day for sixty years, and Rachel saying "so will I"... well that just put the biggest smile on my face. Next up - Mike needs to ask Harvey to be his best man.

The proposal wasn't the only good thing about Mike and Rachel in this episode, though. Even if it confused me when Rachel started complaining about her relationship with Harvey, I loved Mike's reaction to it. He didn't belittle her insecurity, and instead worked again and again to assure Rachel that although Mike and Harvey have a connection, Rachel is the most important part of his life. Also, even with everything else Harvey had going on in this episode, he still managed to adjust his behavior when it came to Rachel. He gave her credit for her hard work, and it was something that she really needed to hear.

We finally met Marcus! Yes! I have been waiting for that for years. At first I thought he was kind of a punk, and I wasn't a fan. But I liked the inversion of the stereotype - Marcus actually does pull his life together, against cliched expectations. Woohoo! That phone call between Harvey and Marcus at the end was something really special. We don't get to hear Harvey be that vulnerable and loving very often.

The flashbacks between Harvey and Donna were so fantastic. All of their flirting, and their naivete, and their genuine attraction towards one another was made abundantly clear. In particular, I liked the line "you have no idea how Donna I am." It's so silly, and almost nobody could pull it off, but Donna can. Also, her making coffee for Harvey was fantastic. She changes his mind about vanilla in coffee, and it just goes to show that she knows Harvey better than he knows himself sometimes.

The flashbacks work nicely to contrast to present-day Donna and Harvey, who aren't doing so great. I was so angry with Harvey when he said he'd told Donna he loved her to make her feel better. But this is a coping mechanism like any other - Harvey doesn't get close to people. He doesn't cross the line. Donna was right to stand up for herself, even though I don't understand why she picked now, of all times, to make her final stand.

Louis' grief over Norma struck the right balance between humor and genuine drama. I liked his yelling in the mortuary shop, and the way that Donna stepped up and helped him discover how he really felt. As wrong as it feels to see Donna walk away from Harvey, I think that Donna and Louis will make a great team. They always have.

There wasn't a lot of Harvey/Mike in this finale, which was a bummer, but I did enjoy the whole "we have a history" thing, and the way that Harvey just shows up at Mike's apartment all the time uninvited. These two will be the death of me, I swear.

I could keep talking on and on, and a part of me wants to - I don't know what to do with myself now that this show's on hiatus! Basically, this episode didn't feel much like a finale. It didn't have that epic-ness to it that I might have wished for. At the same time, however, it did push our characters in new and exciting directions, and I can't wait for more.

8/10