Suits: Mudmare (7x03)

Last season, I complained quite a bit about the fact that Harvey was bending over backwards, and Mike was looking like a selfish little git. This season, I'm forced to think that perhaps Harvey's the asshole after all. I'm having some really strange mixed emotions about this episode, to be completely honest. Let's take a look.

Cons:

Harvey treats everybody like shit in this episode. Donna, Louis, Mike... seriously. He actually does. The thing that bothers me isn't the decisions he's making, but the way he's delivering them. Basically, Alex has a big client that has a conflict with Mike's pro bono, meaning Mike has to drop his client. Mike is really unhappy about it, but Harvey forces him to drop it anyway. Louis and Donna both tell Harvey they think this is a mistake, because it sends the messages that Alex's clients can steamroll over existing PSL clients. Harvey doesn't listen. Mike, doing as he's told, gives his pro bono case to the clinic, trusting that Oliver will take care of it. Harvey yells at Mike again because of Mike's association with the clinic, and tells Mike to put it in writing that he won't be involved with the case. In the end, Mike and Alex have a conversation, and it turns out both of them felt pressured in this situation, and Alex really didn't like having to mess with Mike because of his client. What does this all shake out to? Harvey was the only one who was a dick in this whole scenario!

Harvey tells Mike to drop his client, which he knew would make Mike angry. But instead of trying to work things out, he steamrolls over Mike, ignores advice from his fellow name partner Louis and his new COO Donna, and then yells at Mike some more for good measure. He comes across like a total dick. He could have explained himself better. He could have let people talk it out. He could have, I don't know, suggested doing a conflict waiver letter? Which is, you know, a thing? And all of this would be fine? But no. He had to behave in the most caveman-ish way possible during the whole exchange.

And don't get me started on how he treats Louis. See, Louis seems to go through the typical pattern in this episode, but with one important difference: when he feels himself start to overreact, he actually talks to his therapist and comes up with a coping mechanism. Then, later, when he tries to tell Harvey he disagrees with his business decision, Harvey accuses Louis of pulling the same selfish bullshit he always pulls. Even though Louis was actually behaving perfectly reasonably and had every right to express concerns. And now, as a lovely bonus, Harvey's raging horribleness is just reinforcing all of Louis' worst fears about how Harvey thinks of him. Just great.

We see Harvey and Paula's relationship progress in this episode, and while I'm really enjoying Paula, I didn't like the way their development was framed within Harvey's larger story this week. Paula expresses some reservations about their relationship, given their past as a doctor and a patient. Harvey, after alienating all of his friends, goes over to Paula and basically tells her she's crazy for letting other people's opinions influence her. She stands up for herself, rightfully so, and Harvey does seem to soften. But in the end, seeing Harvey triumphantly kissing Paula didn't make me feel happy for him. It made me feel like the show wants me to congratulate him for "taking charge" this week, even though in my opinion he did a terrible job of it.

Pros:

As I alluded to before, Louis actually made some personal progress this week, that unfortunately might be undermined by Harvey's stupid reaction to it. But the fact that he actually tempered his reaction, realized he was probably jumping to conclusions, and kept his head, all shows that at the very least, Louis is aware of his problems. I also think it's so important to show Louis talking with his therapist. I feel like Louis' rage and insecurity issues were played for laughs in earlier seasons of the show, but now it seems like they are being taken seriously, which I appreciate.

Alex is a cool character. His arrival has shaken things up, but he's a solid guy. He does what he can to befriend Louis, forgiving him for Louis' behavior last week. He also doesn't let Mike's anger get to him, and very quickly upon meeting the two of them realize that they were both in an awkward boat, and they want to move forward as friends. Alex has also got the witty banter thing down, a legacy from the actor's time on The West Wing and Psych, I suppose. I particularly liked his exchange with Harvey: "you have cats?" "Why you gotta be like that?" "Why you gotta have cats?"

Speaking of witty banter, even though Harvey and Mike ended up a bit at odds in this episode, they had a few of their typical cute moments as well. Harvey goes to Mike to help with a contract, but when Mike says he's got a pro bono with a ticking clock, Harvey lets Mike go to it with a bit of a tease: "So it's my fault that you're dropping my case." "Yeah, I like to look at it that way" "Seriously, go get 'em." Harvey then goes to Alex to help finish up his contract dispute. I love this because it shows that when Harvey has his pick, he'll go to Mike. Alex is a friend, but Mike is number one.

Mike's case was actually pretty interesting, because it involved a kid who died while in prison. Mike vividly remembers the pain and fear of being in prison, and he wants justice for this poor soul's father. I would have liked a little bit more of a parallel, because of course Mike was in for some white collar crime, while the dead guy was in for minor possession. Mike needs to understand that his situation was still incredibly privileged. He had a whole team of desperate high-powered lawyers with money trying to get him out, while the father of the deceased can hardly get anybody to give him the time of day. Even so, I like seeing Mike fight hard for his pro bono cases. I also like seeing Mike give the case to Oliver. Understandably, Oliver still has a chip on his shoulder, but I think he'll start to see that Mike really does want to help. I'd like to see that develop.

Finally, we've got Donna and Rachel. This show always makes me a little leery in how often it drops Rachel and Donna in favor of focusing on the male characters. However, this week they had a career-focused, bechdel-test passing plot thread that I really enjoyed. Rachel is being treated poorly and ignored by one of the associates, and Donna steps in to try and defend Rachel and get this woman in line. However, Rachel doesn't appreciate Donna speaking for her, because she thinks it makes her look weak in front of her charges. After both women have some time to think about it, they come to talk and smooth things over. Donna apologizes for getting involved. She's new to her position and she felt really defensive of Rachel. She behaved wrongly, and she's sorry. Rachel accepts her apology, and admits that right now, she doesn't want to be supervising anybody. She just wants to focus on being an attorney. Donna takes over the associates, and fires the woman who was giving Rachel crap.

It's taken a few episodes for everybody to settle in to their new positions in the firm, but things are finally coming together. Donna being in charge of the associates makes perfect sense. She's not an attorney, and she's no longer a partner, but she is in a position of great authority. She's always been good at being the boss, and organizing other people's workflow. This is the perfect project for her. And Rachel has always been good in supportive and administrative capacities as well, but for her it's time for a step away from that. We need to see Rachel take on cases and be a bad-ass in her chosen field.

I also like the focus on this female friendship, and how they both react to having their voices stolen from them. Donna did not take kindly to Harvey speaking for her, and Rachel did not take kindly to Donna speaking for her. A man speaking over a woman, and a white woman speaking over a black woman? These are serious issues, and I think the insidious way people's voices can be stolen was demonstrated very well by this plot thread. I do hope that Harvey learns a lesson the way Donna did, but that remains to be seen.

In all, Harvey pissed me off a lot in this episode. His behavior here seems well beyond his typical no-nonsense-take-charge bravado. He was a dick to people he's supposed to care about. But everything else in the episode was pretty solid!

7.5/10