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When Suits ended its second season in February, it did so by more or less taking a wrecking ball to Harvey’s life. Jessica forced Mike into betraying him and then she agreed to the merger with Darby’s firm. Meanwhile, Mike told Rachel the truth and the two got steamy in the file room. As lines were drawn in the sand, there were so many questions to ponder over the break and the biggest one was whether or not Harvey and Mike’s bromance would survive.
The third season premiere, “The Arrangement”, started with a dream sequence (and props to the show for letting us see Mike sleeping on his couch so there was no doubt he was dreaming). Anyway, in the dream, Mike showed up at Pearson for a middle of the night meeting and Harvey was happy to see him, shook his hand and assured him everything was okay. But then Rachel came in and told the whole firm that he wasn’t really a lawyer and let the police haul him off to jail.
Cut to real life and Harvey is in his office and Donna comes in to remind him that Darby needs an answer. He says, “Send her to London,” as in get Scottie out of New York. Donna doesn’t seem happy with that answer (I am) and Harvey tells her to get the driver; he has to go to Brooklyn. Harvey plays hardball to get a basketball player a better contract. Jessica is waiting at his place when he gets home and she’s not happy with him, but the deal is done and Harvey wins; which as he reminds Jessica, is what she pays him for.
Haunted by his dream, Mike goes to see Rachel, who quickly reminds him that she needed space. He explains that he had a nightmare and Rachel is unimpressed when he tells her about it. She reminds him that she’d never turn him in and Mike admits that the real nightmare would be if she didn’t want to be with him (I don’t ship these two because I don’t like Rachel, but Patrick J. Adams sold me here). They agree they’re both happy their file room hook up happened, but Rachel thinks he needs to quit his job. Cue the (awesome) opening credits.
So now that the stakes have been raised, where does everyone go from here?
Pearson Darby
Photo Credit: USA Network
Darby surprises Jessica by putting her name first, even though their partnership agreement is 51/49. Jessica hopes this is a sign that it’ll be more 50/50. Darby insists that it was just a gesture and then tells Jessica that he wants Harvey to handle a major case that is ‘more important than money’. Jessica doesn’t think that’s a good idea because Harvey is trying to get fired. Darby has no time for her objections.
Jessica, being the terrible person that she is, heads into Harvey’s office and lies about wanting to make nice. She tells him that she pushed to get him on the case and Darby was against it. Harvey agrees to bury the hatchet and they share one of their signature ‘You better win this goddamn case’ moments.
But Harvey is smart enough to know that Jessica is a lying liar who lies so he goes to Darby and wants to make a deal of his own: he’ll take the case, he’ll win the case and when he does, he wants Darby to tear up his non-compete clause and fire him because he wants out. Darby agrees.
Louis wants his Uni-ball
Photo Credit: USA Network
Louis is upset because the new quartermaster (which apparently means person in charge of office supplies?) has refused to buy his favorite Uni-ball pens. Donna is horrified at him repeatedly using the phrase and then hilariously tricks him into giving himself a Hitler mustache and doing the Nazi salute (laughed until I cried). But pens are not the only thing Louis is losing out on; his favorite bran bars are gone too.
It turns out Nigel (British Louis) has returned and is getting his revenge against Louis for betraying him. Louis can’t let that stand so he and Donna plot to oust him as quartermaster. Louis goes to Darby and convinces him that he should have the job and succeeds. Nigel comes and asks for it back, but Louis says no. However, because Louis is quartermaster, he can’t be in charge of the associates anymore – Nigel totally tricked him and now Louis is sad (Nigel’s point about bullying was great, but I always feel bad for Louis).
Bromance Interrupted
Photo Credit: USA Network
Mike is determined to win Harvey back (while also dealing with Rachel, who gets all judge-y after Jessica gives him an office and Mike doesn’t quit). But a talk with Louis reminds Mike that Harvey is Batman and he is his Robin and Harvey needs him whether he wants to admit it or not. So Mike attempts to help Harvey out with his case (more on that later). But Harvey already got help from Scottie so he’s not interested and in one of the best scenes, he lays into Mike for not coming to him as soon as Jessica threatened him and tells him that’s what loyalty is.
After things fail with Harvey, Mike goes to Rachel’s and he tells her everything. The two share a sexy morning after scene while Mike recounts the story of how he met Harvey again. Then, Rachel helps him distract Donna so he can plant some information in Harvey’s office. Donna is NOT amused and points out that Mike hurt her too and she’s not just mad on Harvey’s behalf. She suggests he get a time machine if he wants Harvey back.
Next, Mike has a BAMF moment. He’s been blackmailing an IT guy into doing his bidding, but he agrees to stop if he’ll help him get into a hard drive. Mike goes to Jessica and tells her that he doesn’t want the fancy new office and he’s talking about how she blackmailed him, but Jessica is very careful with what she says, assuming he’s trying to tape her. Mike explains that he doesn’t need to; he has a copy of the letter she was going to send with the stamp from her hard drive so if she ever tries to make a move against him, she’ll be in the same boat (DAMN, Mike! Someone has been taking notes from Harvey).
Game of Oil
Ava Hessignton (Game of Thrones Michelle Fairley) is an oil company CEO, who is being threatened with a lawsuit from the US government. Harvey meets with her (great bantering/chemistry) and tells her that he knows she broke environmental laws, bribed someone to get her pipeline, covered up an oil spill and paid off a whistle blower. She doesn’t deny any of that; she admits she’s guilty as charged and so is every other oil tycoon out there.
Harvey seems pretty impressed with her, but when he tries to cut a deal with the prosecutor, he’s insisting on jail time for Ava. It turns out that he’s running for office. Thanks to some information from Mike, Harvey learns that one of his biggest donors is a competitor of Ava’s. Cameron (Gary Cole) takes over the case and taunts Harvey about their history, but Harvey just thanks him for reminding him that he doesn’t run from a fight.
Photo Credit: USA Network
Jessica and Darby are talking and Jessica has figured out that Darby was close to Ava’s father (in a romantic way) and she warns him that Harvey will find out and use it as leverage against him. Darby still doesn’t believe that Harvey truly wants to be fired. Sure enough, Harvey shows up later and wants to make a new arrangement with Darby: if he wins the case, he wants to be take down Jessica and become managing partner and asks Darby to back him.
Now that is good TV.
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