Suits: Two in the Knee Recap

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwLKYDdHiTg]

Synopsis: Harvey and Mike continue to fight, Rachel steps in and saves the day, Jessica continues to try to get it through Jeff’s head that she is not interested, Louis can’t have friends, and the firm gets some bad news. I write in run-on sentences.

Rating: ?????

I watch Suits for the relationships.

Okay, I also watch it for the extremely attractive cast and the great cinematography, and also the kick ass female leads they have. There are a lot of reasons why I watch Suits every week. Relationships are the big draw for me, though. Without the interesting exploration of character dynamics, I don’t think I would be nearly as interested in this show as I am. This week is a perfect example of a relationship-centric episode.

Suits handles relationships so perfectly. One of the things I admire is that they don’t solely focus on one relationship, such as Mike and Rachel. Rather, all of the relationships they bring up influence each other. While Mike and Rachel are having relationship strife, Rachel and Harvey are learning how to work better with each other, and Mike and Harvey are drifting further apart. See, no person is an island and in the same way no relationship is an island. Everything keeps changing, everything is dynamic, and that’s one of the things that catches my attention.

This week, viewers are put on a roller coaster ride as everything gets ruffled up and then smoothed back down. Like the past couple of weeks, the episode begins positively. Rachel shows up after working an all-nighter and Mike is there to greet her, on the way to his own job. He asks her a series of questions, ending in asking who broke up with whom regarding her and Logan (Harvey’s current client). She tells him she did and it appears to soothe any worrisome thoughts he was experiencing. Viewers also got a chance to see how Donna and Mike’s relationship has continued even though he is going toe to toe with Harvey and everything is tense.

Apparently, according to Donna, Harvey has been trying to get his father’s master tapes. His father was a musician and he had been looking for the master tapes since his father passed away. Obviously they are very near and dear to him, and in her own way Donna attempted to remind Mike that he’s going up against another human being. He is going up against a friend. This is going to be important later when the fight between Mike and Harvey heats up.

In a fascinating move, Logan steps in and gets on Harvey’s case because Mike has been successful. He calls Harvey out and insists that they got after Mike and smear him so that they’re able to then make their move and get him out of the way. Of course, Harvey refuses. He cares about Mike and he’s not a completely heartless human being. The last thing Mike needs is to have his secret get out after working so hard to keep everything hidden for so long. So Harvey refuses and Logan calls him out and refers to Mike as his ‘surrogate son,’ which he claims is why Harvey is pulling his punches.

He’s right, kind of. Which clearly frustrates Harvey.

So, without wanting to throw Mike under the bus, Harvey goes behind Walter Gillis’ back and talks with the creditor who offers Gillis’ company a line of credit. He attempts to black mail and it back fires on him when Mike shows up, knowing Harvey might make that kind of move, and makes a move of his own. With that situation diffused it seemed that Mike was once again winning, even though he failed to realize Harvey had ulterior motives for trying to find another way to force Walter Gillis into selling to Logan.

While all of this is happening, Louis is being Louis. He is so full of petty drama it is almost endearing, considering the state of the world around him. However, my previous commentary on Louis’ character stands firm. I think he’s a parallel, a comedic parody of the relationship conflicts everyone else is experiencing. He is the gauge, in a way, that viewers can use to keep from slipping too far into the relationship dynamics. Harvey and Mike fight their battles, Louis is fighting his own with Jeff. Of course Jeff is still trying to convince Jessica to be romantically involved with him and he is willing to use Louis to do it, to get him and Jessica into a room together by getting them onto the same case.

Unfortunately, in doing so Louis figures it all out and realized that he was being played. Jeff is apparently not interested in being his friend, nor is he romantically interested in him (as he thought toward the start of the episode). Instead, another person in Louis’ life was playing at friendship in order to further their agenda. It is a sad little storyline and the viewers have to feel for Louis on some level, but his relationship woes are still a lighter parallel to the issues of the other people in the office.

In an attempt to continue to protect Mike, Harvey picks a less damaging secret to share. Since Walter Gillis’ son died of a drug overdose, Harvey goes straight to him and tells him that Mike used to be a drug dealer. It is better than telling him Mike was never really a lawyer and illegally practiced law, after all. He knows he can drive a wedge between Mike and Gillis and he does it. Understandably, Mike doesn’t take it well.

When Mike confronts Harvey about the ruined relationship, Harvey shoots back and says, “I shot you in the knee so he wouldn’t shoot you in the face.” He explains, without any tact whatsoever, that Logan would have launched a full on smear campaign and Harvey actually went out of his way to save Mike. If it weren’t for him, Mike wouldn’t be anywhere. All of Mike’s successes are because of Harvey, according to him, and this makes Mike angry.

All Mike has wanted since season one is to make a name for himself. He has worked as hard as he could to overcome his past and make his own way. Harvey helped, there’s no denying that, but to be told by a friend and a mentor that they are the only reason you’re successful is rough. So, since Harvey stepped into personal territory, Mike did too. Turns out Mike bought up Harvey’s father’s master tapes and he insinuates that he will not give them to Harvey because of what the other man did to him.

Their relationship crumbles.

Harvey has to go to Rachel to fix it, and it is beautiful. Rachel kicked ass in this episode, there’s no way around it. She is such an admirable character. Daughter of a lawyer, stuck as a paralegal for years, finally got into law school and is playing with the big boys, she’s seen a lot of crap. She’s faced a lot of crap, too. Now she’s done taking crap and when Harvey asks her to go talk to Mike to get him to give up she does, but instead of that happening Mike confronts her with the fact she lied about her relationship with Logan.

See, Mike comes off like a child in this episode. On one hand we see him making adult decisions and on the other we see his insecurities. He is worried about his relationship with Harvey and worried about his relationship with Rachel. In looking into Logan he realized that Rachel said, during a divorce deposition, that Logan was the one who broke off the relationship when she had told him it was her. Instead of trying to cover up anything, instead of playing into Mike’s fears, and instead of telling him off for looking into her personal history, she gets down face to face with him and tells him the whole truth.

Rachel keeps a level head, tells the truth, and resolves the situation like a god damn adult. She and Jessica are the only adults in this episode, I swear.

The confrontation with Mike sparks something in her and she goes to face Logan. She tells him he has to back off the personal attacks and when he makes an attempt to counter, she points out that he owes her. She covered for them, back during his divorce proceedings, and is calling in a favor of her own: leave Mike alone. It works. Rachel does what neither of the boys could manage to do and ends up saving the day. In a single move she resolves the entire episode by putting Mike and Harvey back in neutral terms and getting Logan to back off a bit.

Logan also mans up and straight up apologizes to Mike, which I definitely wasn’t expecting.

So Mike ends up turning over Harvey’s father’s master tapes in a sign of good faith. He and Rachel have a great relationship. Harvey is appreciative of Rachel. Louis is a miserable baby off somewhere crying because he has no friends since he can be such an insufferable creature…what’s left? Oh, Jessica.

After the Louis and Jeff confrontation, Jeff is left still trying to convince Jessica to be with him. While a small part of me wants Jessica to have a life outside of the law firm (and be with a man whose company she clearly enjoys) I respect what she says. She is so well written insomuch that she doesn’t need a man to make her who she is. Even when that man continues to pursue her, even when she’s interested in his pursuit, she stays above reproach. Why? Because her law firm is her life. She claims she is the only female partner in that high of a position in New York City and the last things she needs is to have it get out that she hired someone she was dating.

While she understands she wants to have a life and honestly has a right to have one with Jeff, she also knows it will hurt her image. The sharks are already circling and she is not about to give up a huge part of who she is just for a man she happens to like. She stands her ground, her loyalties are known, and she will continue to stick to Pearson-Specter even if it means she has to miss out on having a relationship. The people who work for her depend on her, her clients depend on her, and she isn’t going to let them down. In this way she is selfless and determined and it is beautiful.

Have I mentioned I have the biggest crush on Gina Torres? No? Because I do.

The episode ends with Jeff telling Jessica the bad news: the SEC has made their first move toward Pearson-Specter clients. Seven of them have been subpoenaed and shit is about to go down. Unfortunately, we have to wait two weeks for the next episode.