Suits: Special Master (9x02)

I like Faye. Because she's right. And that's interesting!

Cons:

There was virtually no mention of Mike this week, so that was a bummer.

No, but seriously. I thought this episode was pretty strong at balancing a lot of moving parts. The one thing I didn't super love was Louis going off on Benjamin like that. What Louis has been up to in trying to protect his firm from Faye is pretty sketchy. There was plenty of behavior that crossed the line already. For the most part, Louis seemed pretty level-headed about everything going on. So to have him go crazy and try to fire someone for no good reason? That was crossing a line. I'm always on the lookout for Louis' inconsistent characterization, because I need him to have grown into a more reasonable person than he was in the earlier seasons of the show. Otherwise, we slip right back onto that merry-go-round, and I have no interest in watching that again. I don't think we're at that point, but I want to make sure we don't get there, if that makes sense.

Oh boy. Thomas Kessler. I enjoyed Harvey and Donna's banter last week, and this week too, for sure. Really cute and great. But seeing Donna and Thomas interacting reminded me that they actually made a really good couple. It brought back to the front of my mind all of the complaints I had about last season's finale. Donna and Thomas were too good together to be a failed branch of a love triangle. Donna honestly deserves better than Harvey, if we're going to base this on all of his past behavior.

Pros:

This was a great episode, that somehow avoided feeling crowded, even with so much going on.

Faye Richardson comes in to the firm, gets Zane's name off the wall, and starts taking charge of everything. This obviously rubs everyone the wrong way, but as I said, this is fascinating because she's right. This firm does cross lines. And even though they've managed to tap dance their way through a mine field of controversy and keep themselves alive, it's still true that their firm's reputation is suffering. It makes sense that clients wouldn't trust SLWW, or whatever we're shortening this crazy name to nowadays. I understand why Faye's presence would make everyone prickly. But despite her ruthless reputation and hard-ass demeanor, she's actually only doing what's best for the integrity of the law as a whole. Louis, Harvey, Donna, and the others need to confront that. I hope this season forces them to really pay for what they've done over the years.

Faye wants to question Thomas Kessler about why he decided to terminate his relationship with the firm, but that of course will mean that Thomas will tell the truth about who really broke privilege. The work-around for this is to get Thomas to stay, but he realizes that he can't look past his broken relationship with Donna. In the end, Donna goes to Faye and confesses that the reason Thomas is leaving is because they were together, and the breakup caused collateral damage. At first, I was a little annoyed that this worked, because it's obviously not the full truth. But then I realized - this is yet another example of Faye having integrity. She's not unreasonable. And Donna is manipulating her, sure, but she's not totally lying, either. It was Donna and Thomas's relationship that caused this whole mess. I'll be interested to see what happens if Faye ever does find out the truth.

We also get more cute Harvey/Donna content, which, while soured slightly by the presence of Thomas Kessler, was still pretty romantic. I loved the humor of Louis not understanding what was going on when they decided to tell him about their relationship. It was also really sweet of Louis to come to Donna later and offer his congratulations, and let Donna know that Harvey is the lucky one in this scenario. I definitely agree with Louis on that one! We even got cute Superman-related banter, and Harvey asks Donna if he's filled his quota for being romantic by comparing her to some of Clark Kent's famous love interests.

Samantha's subplot this week was really intriguing. An old friend of hers, who she served with, comes to her to ask for help, as he feels he's been wrongfully terminated from his job. Samantha soon discovers, however, that he has PTSD and refuses to get himself officially diagnosed, meaning that he's not part of a protected class, and he's also not getting the help he needs. I don't have a lot of experience or knowledge about PTSD, but I felt that this plot thread was treated with respect. Samantha feels some guilt about not being there when her friend went through two additional tours. She eventually tells him that he can handle his issues, but he cannot and should not face them alone. I also liked Katrina's part in this plot thread. She wants to help Samantha out, but she also makes sure everything is done through the right channels, and helps Samantha see that her emotions are getting in the way of making rational, smart decisions for her client and friend.

I expressed above that I was annoyed with Louis for his treatment of Benjamin. One of the reasons it bothered me so much is that up until that moment, I was really enjoying Louis' arc in this episode. He was pissed off about Faye's interference, but he seemed to be handling it relatively okay. Sure, he's snapping at people and getting stressed out, but that's par for the course with Louis. Alex steps in and offers Louis a new form of stress relief. Bowling. The whole sequence with Louis bowling a perfect game because Alex helps him to channel his rage was so funny. And then the revelation that Alex tap dances, and Louis talking about how Alex's dancing makes him extremely masculine - all of this was so funny. I like how Louis' self-confidence is somewhat played for laughs, but not to the detriment of the point, which is that Louis, despite his rage issues, is an inversion of most of what we see when we talk about toxic masculinity. That's always a fun aspect to explore.

Okay, I think that's it. There's no Mike Ross corner this week, because other than a reference to the firm protecting a fraud, there really wasn't any mention of Mike. I suppose I got spoiled by the feast of last week's multiple references. I can't wait to see him in a few weeks, though!

8.5/10