Suits: No Puedo Hacerlo (5x04)

Okay, so I obviously love Amy Acker, and it was really cool to see her in this episode. However... I have some serious reservations. Let's get started with the plot.

Louis' sister Esther, played by the incredible Amy Acker, shows up at the firm to ask for help handling her divorce. She wants Harvey to handle the case, saying that Louis is too close to the situation to be objective. The issue is that Esther's husband wants a larger share of Esther's company than was originally agreed upon. Harvey agrees to fight on Esther's behalf, but he learns that she had agreed years ago that he could have half of the company. With Rachel's help, Harvey works to find something fair. They end up giving 5% more to Esther's husband than the agreement, so that Esther can finally get closure and admit that she and her husband both had parts to play in their divorce. He cheated on her, but she was emotionally distant and always put her needs first.

While all of this is going on, Louis is trying to eavesdrop on the case. Donna warns him to butt out. Harvey, through his experience with Esther and her husband, realizes that he needs to acknowledge all that Donna has done for him over the years, and he sincerely thanks her for the last twelve years. Harvey also goes to Louis and seems to be mending fences. He asks Louis to fix the compensation disaster.

Meanwhile, Mike and Robert Zane continue to work on their case together. Mike is upset when Zane gets ready to accept a settlement that is far lower than what Mike wanted for his clients. Mike thinks Zane is screwing the clients over, and things get even worse when he sees something on Zane's desk that could indicate insider trading. Mike goes to Jessica, but when Rachel hears what's going on, she yells at Mike for suspecting her father of doing such a thing. Mike confronts Zane, who insists that he had no knowledge of conflicting interests. In the end, Jessica looks into it, saving Zane from inadvertently breaking the law. Mike gives Zane the benefit of the doubt, and after talking to one of the victims in the case, he realizes that the settlement is enough to give the grieving parties peace of mind.

Let's start with the misgivings I was mentioning earlier.

There's something grossly sexist in the fact that Harvey didn't want to work with Esther because he thought she would be unattractive... like, what the hell is that? It felt really awkward, and unnecessary. Like, they could have emphasized how attractive she was without making it the punchline to a joke about how unattractive Louis' sister must be. Honestly, this was a serious black mark against the episode for me.

But on the other hand, I really did enjoy everything else.

There wasn't a lot of Mike/Harvey stuff for me to squeal over, but there was a really cute scene at the beginning, where Mike poked fun at Harvey for his jealousy over Mike's working relationship with Zane. It's so lovely to see Harvey handling his abandonment issues better. He knows that Mike wouldn't leave him. It was a quick moment, with a lot of fun witty banter.

Jessica. Pearson. She just can't be bested. I love the fact that she stayed above it all when the trouble started brewing between Zane and Mike, but then she swept in and figured out the truth, calmly putting Robert Zane in his place, while still avoiding stroking Mike's ego too much. Mike was just adorable when he realized that he'd saved Zane's ass. He did this cute little cocky routine, snarking at Zane and Jessica, as the two of them went off to get a drink and recover from Mike Ross.

I did love Amy Acker in this episode, despite my reservations about the plot line. She started off as a fun, flirty, sort of one-note character. A strong attractive woman for Harvey to have sex with. Nothing new. But then we get to see a lot of complexity to her, in this one short hour. She's grieving over a failed marriage with a man she really loved. She also has fierce pride in her work, so much so that it damages important relationships. In short, Esther managed to be her own character, while also serving and important function in the story. Esther became a mirror for Harvey himself.

Harvey is growing a lot from this whole situation with Donna. I know he's heartbroken to have lost her, but I think in the long run it's going to be really good for him. When Esther's husband talked about how he had put everything on hold for his wife's dreams, Harvey realized that Donna had done the same thing for him. And, just as Esther's husband cheated on her, Harvey had been conceiving of Donna's leaving him for Louis as a type of infidelity. Now, due to the complex situation that he is witnessing between Esther and her husband, he understands that his own situation with Donna isn't so cut and dry. This leads to the beautiful end of the episode, where Harvey thanks Donna for the twelve years they had together.

Harvey seems to be maturing in other ways as well. Even though his delight at Esther's appearance comes across as sexist, he was willing to help her even before he knew who she was. He was doing that for Louis' sake, as Louis told him it was a family matter. Things might be shaky between these two men right now, but Harvey uses the situation with Esther to try and mend some fences between them, which I think shows great maturity. There's actually quite a funny moment about that - Harvey talks about his desire to mend fences to Jessica, who remarks: "You might turn out to be a halfway decent partner after all." Harvey answers: "I doubt it," and Jessica, who is already off-screen and heading off to be a bad ass elsewhere, gets in one last jab: "me too."

I don't have too much to say about Mike's case with Robert Zane. I liked seeing more of the "helping people" Mike that we met back in the first season, and I loved seeing Rachel's staunch defense of her father's honor. There were some good elements in this plot thread for sure, but I think it mostly got overshadowed by what was going on with Harvey.

I really wish I could just focus on all the awesomeness that this episode offered. I think there was a lot of fantastic character growth for Harvey, some fun witty banter from all parties, and a nice new character in Esther. However, the oddly sexist designation of Esther's worth as being tied to her beauty was concerning to me. I'm not against the idea of Harvey and Esther having a relationship, but I do hope we get to see more of what that would mean, both for Harvey and Donna's relationship, and for Harvey and Louis as well.

I guess that's where I'll stop. One large black mark against the episode doesn't negate the good stuff.

7/10