On the season 6 premiere recap of Suits, “To Trouble,” Mike acclimates to prison life while Louis, Jessica and Harvey struggle to figure out how to keep the firm intact.
When we last saw our favorite TV lawyers/pseudo lawyer from Pearson Specter Litt, things were uncharacteristically not going their way. Harvey gave Mike a ride to Club Fed where Mike quoted a line from Shawshank, metaphorically dropped the mic and headed inside. Back at the firm, Jessica, Louis and Donna discovered the entire staff was gone.
Mike Settles In, Jessica, Harvey and Louis Face New Challenges
Season 6 picks up right where season 5 left off. Mike turns himself into the Federal Correctional Institution, Danbury (Made famous by its distinguished alumni Piper Kerman Orange is the New Black and Teresa Giudice The Real Housewives of New Jersey). As he gets his new haircut, the harsh reality of what awaits him seems to set in.
Rachel, after basically being dumped at the alter, returns to her apartment to find Harvey waiting. He lets Rachel know that he delivered Mike safe and sound, but Rachel knows there’s more to Harvey’s drop by. Harvey admits to missing his pal, leading a tearful Rachel to admit she does too. He’s been gone a hot ten minutes, so these two better toughen up.
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As bummed out as everybody is about Mike’s departure, they have more immediate problems. It’s time to do some serious brainstorming to figure out how to revive the DOA firm.
Louis is apoplectic, but Jessica reminds him they’re in this mess based on his recommendation. It’s pass the buck time, so Louis points out who the real culprit is (Harvey) who campaigned his ass off to get the non-competes waived.
As if Jessica doesn’t have enough reason to drink, she gets served. The firm is being sued in a $100 million dollar class-action lawsuit for every case Mike touched. That’s why the entire staff bailed, they smelled this coming and wanted to be clear of the blast zone before the bomb went off.
First order of business is to get the partners back. Thanks to secretary chatter, Donna manages to procure a list of who went where. Harvey pays off the process server to say he didn’t deliver the paperwork for another two hours, buying them time to send out notices of breach of contract to the partners.
After some help from the trusted IT guy Benjamin who stayed behind to keep the home fires burning, Louis discovers Donna’s list is shit. Already more tense than a chihuahua on Ritalin, Louis really loses his mind, insulting Donna, which triggers a war of words with Harvey. Rachel arrives and chastises them for their bad behavior. After all, she had to watch her man take a trip up river to save their asses, and now they’re already turning on each other.
Louis just won’t be satisfied until Harvey has flagellated himself in Times Square. Harvey makes it clear that he wants to save the firm, but if Louis is going to be, well, Louis, Harvey thinks the place might not be worth saving.
Louis is all for letting Harvey walk and tells Jessica so. He’s ready to take Harvey’s name down off the wall ASAP. Jessica hesitates which sends Louis into a tantrum about how Jessica likes Harvey best. It’s a tired tale of woe we’ve heard again and again. Obviously, Jessica likes Harvey more, he’s Harvey. Although Jessica may say she loves all her children equally but in different ways, we all know that’s crap.
But Jessica’s primary concern is that the firm she’s sacrificed everything for is currently sitting at the bottom of the ocean, and she doesn’t know if she’s got what it takes to pull it back up.
Not a Movie, Brother, Just Prison
Mike meets a prison counselor named Julius Rowe (played by Malcolm-Jamal Warner). There’s more requisite Shawshank references. Mike is given a psyche evaluation by Rowe, and he’s not pleased when Rowe calls him out on the results. Mike is full of shit, but he doesn’t know it, and he has narcissistic tendencies. Rowe lets Mike know that it’s his job to help Mike leave prison a better version of the person he is now. But in order for that to happen, Mike’s going to have to trust him.
Mike meets his cellmate, an affable guy named Frank Gallo (Paul Schulze). The two start getting to know each other and guess what? Gallo is a movie guy which Mike learns when Gallo quotes The Jerk.
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Dazed and Confused
Donna catches Harvey at the elevator and gives him a passionate lecture on not giving up. Mike went to prison to save them, and now Harvey is ready to walk out. Apparently, everybody is invoking the name of Mike as a martyr when in actuality, he’s a con man who got caught and finally did the right thing.
Rachel finds Jessica sitting where the first year’s usually toil away. Her second visit there within 24 hours. Jessica explains to Rachel the harsh realities of being a powerful woman. The rules are different. You can’t be warm and fuzzy because people will perceive you as weak, but the flip side is if you’re strong, everyone thinks you’re cold. That’s why everybody bailed. They view Jessica as unfeeling and manipulative, and she’s tired of it.
Rachel points out that Jessica isn’t cold. She’s the one who talked Rachel’s dad into coming to the church, and Jessica didn’t do it to be manipulative, she did it because she cares. And because of that, Rachel will be loyal to her forever.
Donna’s tongue lashing worked because Harvey decides to stay. He and Jessica take a mental health break to get high (Jessica keeps a stash for emergencies). Better suited to deal with Louis, they find their partner speaking to his dead secretary’s ashes. It would seem counter intuitive to give someone as paranoid as Louis weed, but Harvey and Jessica exert some peer pressure to get Louis to partake.
Louis is looking and feeling good, so much so he admits to Harvey and Jessica that he had an inappropriate relationship with a paralegal (He took mud with her) and pleasured himself unbeknownst to her. As if Louis’ relationship with mud couldn’t get any weirder.
When the buzz wears off, Louis also comes clean to Harvey and Jessica about almost selling Harvey out to Anita Gibbs and apologizes. Harvey isn’t mad, in fact, he tells Louis what he’s been wanting to hear. All of this is his fault. He ruined all their lives by hiring Mike, and it’s time he said he was sorry.
Louis, Jessica and Harvey write down how much money they’ve got to put towards keeping the firm up and running. Louis, whose net worth apparently eclipses both Harvey and Jessica’s, isn’t eager to drain his resources. This is about to trigger another go around between him and Harvey, but they get interrupted by Donna who has some more bad news.
Not only have the partners left, but they’re coming after all of the firm’s clients as well. Benjamin caught someone hacking into the client files. Now they have to figure out how to put out the potential fires that are being set.
As they brainstorm, one of the aforementioned clients calls, Jim Reynolds from Decker Pharmaceutical, Jessica’s oldest client. Reynold’s has been hearing some rumors, and he wants to know what’s up. She admits that the partners have fled, but the name partners remain, and they can do still do the job.
Reynolds tells Jessica the partners are bifurcating the firm. This means the partners have split and are trying to get their buy-ins back. They aren’t trying to steal clients, the partners just want to give notice. Reynolds gives Jessica a month, but if she’s not back on her feet, she’ll lose him too.
Louis comes up with the idea of using the buy-ins to settle the class action suits. The partners can’t sue for the money back because it will already be gone.
The Sting
Mike is wary of Frank at first, and Frank warns him not to trust anyone. But Frank opens up about his story, so Mike reciprocates. Everybody is jail has a story to tell. Frank also has a cellphone, and he offers to let Mike use it to text Rachel.
But Mike finds out that Frank isn’t so affable after all. Harvey put him away 13 years ago, and Frank is looking for payback. Mike just told him he didn’t turn on someone because he owed him (although he didn’t mention Harvey by name). Frank read about Mike’s case in the paper, and he used his connections to gain access to Mike who isn’t really his roommate. Frank’s got Mike’s number in more ways than one-he’s also got Rachel’s, thanks to Mike’s text.
So while what’s left of Pearson Specter and Litt put everything they have into restoring the firm to its former glory, Mike will be using his insane IQ to think like a criminal instead of an attorney or maybe a bit of both.
Suits airs Wednesdays at 9pm on USA.
(Image courtesy of USA)
Contributing Writer, BuddyTV
Jennifer has worked as a freelance writer in the entertainment field since 2012. In addition to currently writing feature articles for Screen Rant, Jennifer has contributed content ranging from recaps to listicles to reviews for BuddyTV, PopMatters, TVRage, TVOvermind, and Tell-Tale TV. Links to some of Jennifer’s reviews can be found on Rotten Tomatoes.
