Mike’s gotten away with being a fake lawyer for years now and finally the bubble that’s been created for himself and those around him bust open. Mike’s arrest disrupts not only his life, but the lives of his friends, family and even the people they care about.
We spoke with Suits creator, Aaron Korsh, about why this was the right time for Mike’s secret to be revealed, how Mike and Harvey’s resignations may or may not affect the situation and how bonds will be tested.
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Why was this the right time to do the story of Mike’s arrest?
It’s ultimately comes down to a gut feel. But to elaborate on that a little bit at the end of year, we try to do something that really frightens us and makes us wonder if we’re going to be able to get out of this thing. Somewhat are our characters going to be able to get out of it, but somewhat from the writers’ standpoint.
Is doing this thing going to ruin our show? I think that is part of what has kept Suits going is that we have done things like that. It started at the end of Season 1 with Trevor telling Jessica Mike’s secret. I didn’t know– Is Mike going to have to leave the show? And is the whole show going to blow up? We didn’t know. At every moment we have gotten through that and found our way to making the show continue on and hopefully getting better.
It just felt like it’s enough already. We keep dancing around this thing. They’re going to get married. Let’s just force him to confront what this– getting married sort of crystallizes [things]. You are putting your entire family’s future in jeopardy if you get married and have children. Those questions are going to start coming to the fore.
Mike is a thoughtful, caring individual and we we created circumstances for him to finally realize: What are you doing? Get out of this fraudulent situation you are in. He’s finally going to confront that thing and then come along in the clear blue sky and get arrested and allow us to continue to move forward and explore that. It just felt like we are tired of “Is he going to get caught or is he not going to get caught.” Let’s just make him get caught.
At the end of the last episode, Harvey and Mike both resigned and it seemed like they would both be in the clear. Will their status with the firm make the situation with Mike more complicated or easier going for them.
Funny enough sometimes when one problem comes up that’s a major, huge problem, it puts other problems in another context. In a small way, if you have a headache and then you get a broken arm, you stop worrying about your headache.
In the sense that Harvey did resign from the firm, but now if he’s worried about he might end up in jail, he doesn’t have to worry about if he’s at the firm or not as much. That’s how we use this idea of Mike getting arrested, we allowed it to liberate our characters into thinking a little bit differently. I think that’s shown at the end of Episode 511.
Everyone that knows about Mike is a suspect for being the leak, but at the same time he needs the people around him to get out of this. Where does that put the firm and those around him?
I’ll answer that question in a weird way. Let’s say they know at the beginning of Episode 511, they know exactly who it is that turned him in. Even if they know that, there are going to be many, many instances, in which you both need people’s help and you are wondering if you can trust them.
The way that’s going to come about is the prosecutor is going to put pressure on anybody who might have known Mike’s secret to roll over and make a deal to save themselves and they sort of chuck someone else under the bus. Any conversation you have, any time you’re wondering should I roll over on them before they roll over on me. That’s going to be a question that’s going to be brought up again and again throughout the back 6 [episodes].
Suits returns on Wednesday, January 27 at 9pm ET on USA.
(Image courtesy of USA.)
Contributing Writer, BuddyTV
Contributing Editor and Writer for Collider, BuddyTV, TV Fanatic, CliqueClack, and other publications. TV criticism, reviews, interviews with actors and producers, and other related content. Founder of TV Diehard.
