Suits: Promises, Promises (8x03)

Aw, Harvey. You're adorable.

Cons:

I thought it was kind of annoying that Donna had to be emotional support for Harvey again this week, and diagnose his weird behavior. I mean obviously it's sweet that Harvey is missing Mike, but also, it's a little odd that nobody else cared what happened to the poor cleaning lady. That doesn't feel realistic to me. Why didn't anybody suggest, at the very least, that they help her find a better job somewhere? I get not wanting to risk the firm, but why didn't Louis or Donna or someone want to throw this lady a lifeline?

Pros:

I thought Sam and Alex's plot thread was pretty good. Alex continues to try to close his client, against all of Sam's protests. In the end, Alex learns that this guy is a shady jerk who wants him to launder money, and Alex goes to Sam to beg for her help. He understands now that he should have listened to her, but he also asks Sam to understand why he was finding it hard to trust her. She gets it, and decides to help him. They come up with a solution that puts the jerk client in his place without exposing him, or the firm, to any of his bad behavior.

I liked this because it didn't erase all of the mistrust between Alex and Sam, and I think setting the two of them up to be occasional rivals but also allies is a smart way to on-board Sam, and elevate Alex's role as well. At the same time, this plot thread showed us that Sam, while a bad-ass, is not unreasonable and really does want to be a team player. I think that's important to establish.

Katrina is tasked with mentoring Brian, because Louis would like to follow through on his promise of making her a Senior Partner. However, Katrina has been getting migraines due to stress, and when she misses a meeting, Brian takes the fall for it with Louis. Katrina and Brian then end up working hard together on a case, and Brian goes to court alone and does a great job. Katrina comes clean to Louis, who appreciates her honesty and wants to continue to recommend her to Robert and Harvey as a Senior Partner.

I continually marvel at how much I like Katrina now, and how much she's grown and changed as a character. This subplot with Brian has actually ended up being much more interesting than I ever would have anticipated. I always liked the mentor/mentee relationship between Jessica and Harvey, because I feel we so rarely see a professional woman mentoring a younger man, and here we see again how Katrina learns and grows and becomes a better teacher, just as Brian continues to prove his value to the firm. It's so sweet that Brian was willing to take the fall, but I love even more that Katrina did the right thing and told Louis the truth. Louis seems to be growing as well - he did yell at Brian, but he was reasonable about the situation in the end!

Finally, Harvey. He finds a cleaning lady crying in the bathroom late at night, and later finds out that her employer, Zane Specter Litt's landlord, is denying her overtime through a loophole, and that she's in dire financial straits. Harvey tries to help, against protests and warnings from Robert, Louis, and even Donna. He ends up making the situation worse at first, but later finds an answer that will help this woman out, and also prevent the firm from getting too caught up in the complexities.

Reasons why this is great? Well, apparently Mike being gone makes Harvey way more sensitive to helping people. Normally, this woman's whole situation, her whole existence, wouldn't even be on Harvey's radar. But without Mike around to pick up the slack, Harvey starts to notice these things. Donna, in her typical omniscient way, notices what's really going on, and encourages Harvey to call Mike. Harvey decides that instead of asking Mike for advice, he'll just think: "what would Mike do?" and wait to call him later when he has a story with a happy ending. That's just what he did, and it was really cute and satisfying to behold. I also like that this scenario is a great jumping-off point for speculation about Mike and Harvey's continuing relationship. You can go the way that the show wants you to go, and say that the two of them are friends and are totally comfortable calling each other, or you could also interpret this to mean that Harvey didn't want to call Mike for some reason, that he's avoiding him. The angst potential is bumming me out, but it's also so delicious!

That's all I've got to say for this one. I'm glad Mike's influence continues to be felt. I'm glad Katrina is around and is being so interesting. I'm even starting to see how Sam could be a good addition to the show. I guess I'm not giving up just yet!

8/10