Suits: Live to Fight (5x12)

This wasn't the episode I was expecting to get at this point. It was Donna-centric, which seemed to come out of left field. But in many ways that's what made it work so well. There's a lot to talk about with this one, so let's get started.

Cons:

This episode featured flashbacks, and for pretty much the first time in this show, I didn't much care for them. The problem is that the flashbacks told us no new information - in fact, the same relevant points were covered in exposition in the present day story. Essentially, Donna's father asks her to ask Harvey for a loan so he can complete a deal. It's a sketchy endeavor, and Harvey refuses to get involved. He even goes so far as to threaten Donna's father, telling him not to let Donna put up her 401K assets for her father's sake. This causes, years later, Donna's father to be brought up on charges of making a corrupt deal. This is merely a bargaining chip that Gibbs is using to try and get Donna to turn on Harvey and Mike. I love the idea of this plot thread, and I loved meeting Donna's father, but it's like I said: they just didn't need flashbacks to help tell this part of the story.

Then there's Gibbs, who is supposed to be holding her own with the other baddies of the Suits universe. The problem is, she doesn't really hold a candle to Hardman or Forstman or even Soloff, who all come across as much more interesting corrupt individuals. Gibbs just isn't doing much for me at the moment. I'm still waiting for her to become more interesting.

Pros:

Fortunately, the interesting stuff in this episode is more than enough to make it a winner. My goodness, there were so many things going on here!

First of all, Jessica and Mike battle it out over the papers they've got, implicating Jessica and Rachel in Mike's big secret. Jessica says she'll destroy her paper implicating Rachel, if Mike destroys his implicating Jessica, but Mike is hesitant to trust Jessica fully. Jessica decides to get a lawyer to represent her personally, and turns to her old flame Jeff Malone, who is finally let in on the full truth. He talks to Mike, making him understand how much Jessica truly gave up due to keeping Mike's secret - her personal happiness in the form of her relationship with Jeff. Mike agrees to destroy the paper.

I've made no secret of my hatred for Jeff Malone as a character, but despite that I really enjoyed this plot thread. We're obviously starting to see the cracks in the façade here, and it makes perfect sense that Mike and Jessica wouldn't be totally trusting of one another. I love how Jessica is taking steps to protect herself individually. Mike, Harvey, Donna, and even Louis can wax poetic about loyalty and family, but Jessica is taking a more practical tack. I like seeing that side of it. And there's a lovely little detail at the end, where we know Mike will hold true to his word but we're left uncertain if Jessica will. Perhaps Rachel's signed affidavit is still floating around, ready to be used as a bargaining chip at a key moment? We'll see what's up Jessica and Jeff's sleeves at a later date.

Meanwhile, Donna's father has been brought in on charges, and Harvey is doing everything he can to get him out. Donna is cracking under the pressure, blaming Harvey for not financing her father's activities all those years ago. Harvey did what he did to protect Donna, and stands by it. It seems like there's no way to get Donna's father out of this mess, and Mike is overwhelmed with guilt. This trumped up charge wouldn't even be an issue if Gibbs wasn't trying to leverage Donna against Mike. I love how Harvey wants to take care of this by himself, despite Donna's anger with him, but Mike insists that he has to help. He actually finds a way to do it, too.

But first we have to back up a bit - Rachel and Donna have a very pivotal scene in this episode that I must mention. When Rachel hears about Donna's father, she goes to comfort her. She hesitantly suggests that Donna must be considering turning on Harvey, and Donna immediately shuts her down. I love all of this setup, because Rachel is being presented again and again as the weak link in the chain. If she decides to turn on Harvey and Jessica, will the whole thing blow up? It looks like the two women are on tenterhooks with each other, as Donna seems appalled that Rachel is considering taking a deal, while Rachel is angry at Donna for not examining all her choices and understanding her side of it.

And then there's the big reveal, which comes in two parts. Mike and Harvey find out from a reluctant Gibbs that her tip about Mike being a fraud came from an anonymous Harvard email address. Immediately, they both suspect Professor Gerard. But when Mike shows the letter to Louis, Louis realizes the truth. It wasn't Gerard: It was Sheila Sazs. He goes to see her, and when she realizes that Louis knew the truth about Mike, she is horrified, saying that she was wrong about them being soul mates. Sheila says she won't come forward, however.

I loved this reveal because it was underwhelming in a good way. They didn't pull some elaborate twist, like, oh my God it was Jessica or Harvey or somebody like that the whole time! That would have been silly. Instead, it came from a source both unexpected and logical. Sheila was never told the full truth, but she came eerily close to it, and it only stands to reason that she'd figure it out eventually. Louis' reaction to this whole thing is great, too. He's pissed at Sheila for making this move without talking to him first, but the more he talks with Sheila, the more you can see him realize that Sheila didn't technically do anything wrong. Louis is helping to harbor a fraud, and he can start to see the true wrongness of that action.

Another added twist is that Gretchen played a small role in this whole mess. She is now going to work for Louis instead of Harvey, since Donna is back on Harvey's desk. Gretchen reveals to Louis that she was the one who pushed for an article to be written about Mike's rise to prominence, and it was this article that piqued Sheila's interest about this graduate that she couldn't remember. Gretchen apologizes. She says she knows, though she won't admit it if asked, that all of them knew that Mike was a fraud. She also promises to stand with them. Gretchen is awesome, and I'm beyond thrilled that she's sticking around. It would have been so easy for this show to find a horrible replacement for Donna, a character designed for us to hate so we could all celebrate when Donna returned to Harvey. Instead, they gave us a quite interesting character who is very likable and complex. Her connection to the firm is newer and thus far untested, but it looks like she's passed her first true test of loyalty.

Mike, now armed with the knowledge that Sheila, not Gerard, was the one to turn him in, goes to pay the professor a visit. He gets Gerard to sign a vaguely-worded statement, affirming that Mike is a good student of the law and demonstrates mastery of the issues he covers in his classes. Gibbs immediately calls Mike and Harvey's bluff on this statement, saying that it doesn't even explicitly say that Mike went to Harvard, but Harvey tells Gibbs that if they bring Gerard forward, he'll testify to the truth on the stand. Gibbs is sufficiently frightened that this might get the whole case thrown out, and agrees to drop all charges against Donna's father in exchange for Harvey and Mike dropping their motion to dismiss. So, even though this plan wouldn't have worked in saving Mike, the bluff worked well enough to save Donna's father. I loved the complexities of this, and how throughout all of this chaos we are bringing more and more people in who know the truth. Mike using Gerard was brilliant, even though he knew it would never hold up. One good thing came out of it, though!

This episode was very light on the Mike and Harvey bromance, and normally I would complain about something like that. But in all honesty, there were so many interesting and compelling relationships being explored, that I'm okay with this not being one of them. As Jessica, Rachel, Donna, and Louis all start to fray under the pressure, we still know that Harvey and Mike are totally solid in their loyalty to one another. They are in this together.

As the episode ends, we learn that Sheila does come forward, breaking her word to Louis and putting the whole firm in even greater peril. Now, Gibbs is able to subpoena all records from the firm, and things are looking mighty grim. I honestly don't know how they're going to wiggle their way out of this one, and that makes me very excited!

 9/10