‘Suits’ Midseason Refresher: The Summer of Ava Hessington

It’s been almost six months since Suits aired its midseason finale and we miss our favorite lawyers like crazy. The show returns this week with the remaining episodes of its third season and we cannot wait to see what’s next.

But since we’ve still got a few days to go before the midseason premiere, we thought it would be a good time to look back at the major moments from the first half of the season. A lot happened over the course of 10 episodes and dynamics at Pearson Specter (that’s right – Harvey is a name partner now) changed quite a bit.

We obviously have to start with Ava Hessington because so much of the season seemed to revolve around her and her various cases. This was something different for the series. Instead of doing cases of the week, all the lawyers were involved in Ava’s case in one way or another. What started out as an environmental issue escalated into a murder trial and eventually, Ms. Hessington sat across the table and sued Pearson Specter.

Admittedly, this was not our favorite arc of the season and the fact that it took up so much time was a bit hard to swallow each week. Every time it seemed like we’d seen the last of Ava Hessington, there was a new twist in the case or another lawyer from Harvey’s past (first Cameron and then Tanner) coming out of the woodwork to make life even more difficult. In the end, Pearson Specter came out victorious and Ava dropped her lawsuit, making Tanner a loser once more so we were good with that part.

On the personal level, things were bad between Harvey and Jessica for most of the season. He was mad at her for making the deal with the British firm and she was mad at him for making a second deal with Darby to push her out of the firm. Things got ugly between the two and it was hard to side with one over the other (even if our loyalties do lean toward Harvey). They were both hurt and lashing out and it was frustrating that it took so long for them to get back on the same side. But they finally did and with some help from Mike, Donna and Louis, they managed to evict the British lawyers once and for all.

Speaking of personal relationships, let’s talk about Harvey and Donna. After Donna started dating Stephen Huntley (ugh, worst), it became pretty clear that there was more to Harvey and Donna’s past than they’d let on and a flashback episode (one of the best ever) filled in the blanks for us. It turns out that Harvey and Donna did share a night together in her apartment and it involved whipped cream. Let’s just take a moment and focus on that for a moment.

But once Harvey went to work for Jessica, he wanted her to be his secretary so they agreed to put that night behind them and never mention it again. That’s also when the can opener ritual was born because they needed something to replace the whipped cream. We still don’t know what exactly is involved in the can opener ritual, but does it even matter at this point? Harvey and Donna, people. They are everything and now that the show has given us that wonderful flashback, it’s kind of hard to root for the fact that Harvey decided to try having a real relationship with Scottie (sorry Scottie, but you’ll never be Queen Donna).

Mike and Rachel had some ups and downs after their steamy encounter in the file room. They decided to give the relationship a go, even though Rachel wasn’t completely comfortable with the huge lie Mike lived on a daily basis. But as the season went on, the two continued to get closer and Mike even got to meet her parents. However, Rachel was still trying to figure out which law school to go to and Stanford was a strong contender. Mike was worried about losing her, but he still tried to support her choices.

The flashback episode also shed some light on an important moment from Mike’s past. He did get into Harvard, but then he did something stupid because of Trevor (ugh, that guy) and ended up missing out on his chance because he made the wrong professor angry. Jessica found out about Rachel knowing the truth and wanted her to sign an affidavit swearing that she’d never reveal the truth, but Rachel wanted something in return – a place at the firm, even without a Harvard degree. Jessica agreed and Rachel chose Columbia, wanting to be near Mike as the two talked about moving in together.

Finally, let’s talk about Louis. The poor guy definitely had some ups and downs. After courting Mike to be his associate, Louis lost out when Mike reconciled with Harvey. Then he worked with Katrina and she alternated between awful and tolerable. Louis had better luck when Rachel was helping him out with cases. They had a great working dynamic and she was there for Louis when he had to make a hard choice. But in the end, Louis got his associates back (he’d lost them to his British counterpart). More than that, Louis received genuine praise from Harvey when he came through on an Ava Hessignton matter and it was so nice to see Louis winning.

Then there was the midseason finale cliffhanger. Louis was hanging out in the Harvard records room with Sheila and she got called away. She warned him not to touch anything, but Louis couldn’t resist looking at a few files. He mocked Harvey’s and then he went looking for Mike’s…except there was no file to be found. So what does this mean? Does Louis know the truth about Mike?

We’ll find out in a few days. In the meantime, feel free to hit the comments and let us know what you liked best about the first part of the season and what you could have done without. Do you think Louis knows the truth? Can Harvey and Scottie make it work? What about Mike and Rachel?

Suits returns Thursday, March 6 at 9/8c on USA Network.