This week on Suits, Harvey tries to convince a judge that a drunk man agreeing to give up his company in a poker game — and agreeing to it on a napkin — is not legit. Meanwhile, Louis and Rachel form an unlikely partnership as they take on a case, and Jessica’s past comes back to haunt her.

Change Is Good — Right?

I was half expecting Donna to make some sort of return. While it didn’t happen, I’m still holding out hope. At least she hasn’t been replaced — at least at the moment — because we see Harvey answering his own phone in the beginning. However, we eventually see the new Donna, and he doesn’t make a good first impression.

It was quite amusing to see Harvey’s reaction as he’s shooting death daggers at the new Donna — a guy whose name is irrelevant for now — after he completely changes the way she used to do things around the office.

But where is Donna?! Is she OK? What’s going on in her life? And how is Harvey handling her departure?

I know he misses her. A lot.

Going All In

It’s a good thing Harvey is being kept super busy. And that’s what you do when you don’t want to deal/face something — you keep yourself occupied.

His case centers around a recovering alcoholic/gambler who’s fallen off the wagon. The man had put up his company in his a big poker game, a contract agreed upon on a napkin — and he loses. And the winner wants what is contractually owed to him. Harvey and Mike try to show that the man was wasted at the time and wasn’t thinking logically. But the judge rules the case to go to trial. To make matters worse, the man will lose his company in the meantime.

Out of options, Harvey does what he’s been getting Mike to understand: Play the man. He gets the other side to agree to a game of poker — and wins easily by playing mind games.

Hidden Agenda

Harvey’s busy with his case, which means he doesn’t have time to focus on the fraud case against him/the firm. Jessica finds out the judge on the case is allowing the firm’s involvement with the fraud case to become public knowledge, which Jessica does not want at all. She finds out the judge is from her law school days — someone who has a beef with her over a prank Jessica pulled. It’s kind of hard to imagine Jessica doing something rather silly like a prank. But she admits to the judge she did what she did in order to further her career.

Love Him or Hate Him?

Back to Donna for a little bit. When Rachel and Louis run into each other at the ballet, he tells her he tried to call Donna. At the time, I thought: What a noble thing for him to do. And then I thought: This is Louis. Did he really, or is he just telling Rachel that, knowing the two were friends?

I still don’t know whether I hate him or love him, which is the beauty of this character. It’s usually hate, but this week, I started to love him — and then definitely hated him again.
Louis and Rachel are forming this professional bond, and it only gets stronger. Not only do they now have have this love of ballet in common, but she works for him when he takes on the ballet company as an actual client.

While on the case, they find out the director has been stealing from his own company, which causes Louis to be down in the dumps. But Rachel gives a convincing you-don’t-put-up-with-crap speech to Louis, who is then motivated to rework the company’s finances and fire the director — and all is good.

Stepping Up to the Plate

Rachel has proven her worth to Louis. It’s worth mentioning that when she was helping out, she got all her work done overnight, prompting him to replace his associate with Rachel. Even though she’s “just” a paralegal, she’s outperforming others above her. This is something to keep an eye on moving forward. Will she continue to keep taking on cases like she had here? Will Louis want to work with her again? I don’t see why not, although I’m not sure if she would be as eager to from now on, now that she knows what Louis had been up to.

After the case, Louis shows Rachel his trust in her by giving her his dictaphone. And this is where I hate Louis again, and where Rachel might start rethinking whatever respect she gained for him: The ever-curious Mike sees the recorder and hits play, and he and Rachel come across a private chat between him and Harvey. Mike doesn’t tell Harvey about it at first but then gives up the recorder. Harvey takes it — for safe keeping, we initially assume.

But of course Harvey has further plans. Catching Louis in a vulnerable moment of ballet positions, we get to see a new Harvey. This is the ruthless man who never, ever loses. He is terrifying.

Louis will definitely be following through on that favor…

Esther Gim
Contributing Writer

(Image courtesy of USA)

Esther Gim

Contributing Writer, BuddyTV