Suits: Good Mudding (8x05)

I thought Louis' mudding plot thread was a little silly.

Cons:

Louis gets his sperm tested because he and Sheila are trying to have a baby, and Louis learns that while everything is fine, he'll greatly increase his chances of conceiving if he gives up mudding. Sheila is worried he won't be able to give up his relaxation, and indeed it seems that this is the case, as after a stressful day at work, he indulges. He and Sheila get into an argument, but finally Louis concedes that it's time to start making sacrifices for their future child. This plot thread felt like it was sort of going towards comedy, especially with moments like the awkward conversation between Louis and Harvey, but then it tried to also veer pretty serious, and the whole thing was a bit of a mess. What an awkward little plot thread. We end up exactly where we started, with Louis and Sheila trying to have a baby. This is a case of a character learning a lesson I really had no idea he had to learn. Kind of a waste.

While there are many things about Alex and Samantha's plot thread that I enjoyed, I must say there's something pretty clunky about the backstory that Samantha grew up poor. It feels like a case of telling instead of showing. We're supposed to infer that she's hardworking and scrappy because of her backstory, and that looks can be deceiving. She's so beautiful and well-off now, that it's supposed to make for an interesting contrast when we learn about her past. Katherine Heigl played the exact same backstory as Izzy in Grey's Anatomy, so maybe that's why it's feeling so played out to me. I don't have a problem with the concept, but I'm just not seeing anything particularly interesting or new come out of it.

Pros:

I did kind of like the flirty Harvey and Donna energy this week. Not sure if this is the beginning of something for them or not, and honestly I think I'd be okay with it either way, but them bantering about their one night together twelve and a half years earlier was kind of sweet. It's like now that they've gone through a lot of crap, they can safely make jokes about what might have been. And Harvey seems to be over the weirdness of Donna kissing him, too.

Alex asks Samantha for her help getting through to his teenage daughter, who has been getting in trouble at school. There were some parts of this that were a little on the nose, as Joy is a bit too easy to get through to for a supposedly "troubled teen." But I like that Sam tries to help, and then realizes that she's crossed a line and works to make it right. Alex yells at her, and Sam very well might have gotten defensive about that, but instead she chose to analyze the problem and help in whatever way she could. This plot thread serves a couple of functions. One is to flesh out Alex and Sam's characters a little more, by giving us further glimpses into Sam's background (cliche as it may be) and showing us Alex's relationship with his daughter. We also see a continued trend of Sam toeing the line without stepping over it, showing what kind of attorney she is. And finally, this is another piece in the ongoing name partner drama, as Alex tells Samantha the truth about Harvey's promise. Now, both Harvey and Robert know the score, and so do their "nominees," so to speak. I think the drama here is a little stupid, and I think the name of the firm should definitely not be changing anymore, but if we're going down this route, at the very least I'm happy that we're not drawing out the secrets. Everything is on the table now.

The main plot involves the return of Marcus, Harvey's little brother. He and his wife are getting a divorce, and Marcus wants Harvey to represent him in his battle for custody of their kids. At first, Marcus tells Harvey that he had an affair, but the real truth is worse: he had a relapse in his gambling addiction, and he asked his daughter to lie to her mom to cover it up. Obviously, given Harvey's history, he is pissed off. He doesn't want to turn this into a big fight, and tries to mediate things between the separated couple. In some ways, this plot thread doesn't shed much new light on Harvey, but in other ways it's effective because it stays the course and shows how much Harvey has grown over the seasons. He's still somewhat triggered by family drama, the pain of betrayal and lies, but he tries to find an equitable solution, he doesn't blindly trust one person and ignore the other, and he strives to forgive his brother in the same way that he forgave his mom.

I'm definitely curious to see if this story continues. Marcus has always been an odd character to me, because he's this little brother in Harvey's life who we don't see him being particularly close with. They seem to like each other just fine, but they don't gel like you might expect. Harvey is so big on family and loyalty that I'd like to see that explored with his brother and sister-in-law a bit more.

That's all for this week. I'm still missing... well, you know what I'm missing.

7.5/10