Suits "Know When to Fold 'Em" Review: Guilt Trip

[reaper]

After a string of really great episodes following its return from hiatus, Suits was bound to hit this wall eventually. The good news is that it's only a cardboard wall—which, phew, because next week is the Season 3 finale—and while "Know When to Fold 'Em" wasn't the strongest episode in Suits' most recent string of awesome, it wasn't bad. It was just... my feelings are really complicated right now. So let's just rip that Band-Aid off and get right down to the WTF, most of which revolves around everybody on the show suddenly being stupid. I mean, the fine people of Pearson-Specter have all occasionally gone batty over the course of the series, but for everyone to do it at once was just spectacular and infuriating.

Donna, in particular, had a strange week. Her single-minded quest to keep Harvey and Scottie together at all costs reeked of denial from the get-go. We know how Donna feels/felt (feels) about Harvey and we know that their reasons for staying away from one another were born of uber-professionalism that seemingly went out the window when Harvey decided to chase his other subordinate. (It doesn't look any better just because she's not your secretary, dude.)

"Know When to Fold 'Em" was the week where it got weird, though. After all the pushing and the prodding and playing matchmaker, Donna decided that Harvey can't trust Scottie with the truth about Mike—which is probably true—and even though the entirety of Harvey and Scottie's latest clash was all about Mike, she advised Harvey to keep his cake hole shut. That's kind of gross, given how every other conversation Harvey has had with Scottie has been about their endless trust issues. If Harvey and Scottie are meant to be a thing, then at some point, he's going to have to stop leaning so heavily on Donna and maintain the relationship on his own, and since I'm still firmly in the Donna-and-Harvey-are-the-endgame camp, I just don't think that's going to happen and if it does, it's not going to last long. I guess we can just chalk this one up to love making smart people act like morons?

But then Donna got on Mike's case, too, guilting him into staying at Pearson-Specter despite his promising—and liberating—job offer elsewhere, because Mike owes Harvey and Harvey took such a huge risk hiring Mike (and put his own career and those of everyone at the firm in jeopardy but whatever, Donna isn't crushing on them) and OMG MIKE HOW COULD YOU DO THAT TO HARVEY OMG????

I never thought I'd say this because Donna is my favorite and Donna is the bestest but Donna, shut up. Donna may not have been the final nail in the coffin of Mike's future—that distinction goes to rival-lawyer-of-the-week James, who begged Mike not to destroy his career by reporting his bribes because being a lawyer is all he has and it's who he is. In response, Mike decided not to report James' illegal activity while engaging in some super-illegal activity of his own by having Lola the Super Hot Computer Hacker add his name to the New York bar. And now I hate everyone, but like I said last week, Mike was never going to take that job.

Then there's Managing Partner Jessica Pearson. I've been a big Jessica defender in the past. During the first half of this season, when the Harvey-versus-Jessica storyline was a thing, I was firmly Team Jessica and I excused a lot of the nasty crap she pulled but okay, fine, you win: Jessica is kind of horrible. When a former partner—one who was run out of the firm literally days after Jessica's promotion—returned with claims that Pearson-Specter was hiding profits and screwing him out of dividends, Jessica found herself on the defensive... except that it seemed like she was hiding profits and screwing Van Dyke over.

I don't know how to feel about the reveal that Van Dyke hired Jessica for diversity brownie points and she basically still holds it against him. As a woman, I could very well be an asterisk somewhere myself but as a white woman, there's some privilege-checking that has to happen and even if I was to find out that I am an asterisk, I don't know how I'd feel about it because I'm not really in a position to get mad about why I was hired somewhere; I still have to pay my rent, you know? I'm not going to say Jessica was wrong to still be upset about the circumstances of her hiring years later, because that's not my call to make. However: Her habit of holding grudges and insta-firing anyone who gets in her way is growing alarming. When Suits first debuted, the firm formerly known as Pearson-Hardman looked like an energetic, challenging-in-a-good-way, glamorous place to work, but as the series progresses, I'm really starting reconsider that stance. I really don't think that I would want to work there... unless I was really desperate to pay my rent.

Now the good:

Louis's post-Sheila bender was amazing and perfect, and so was the Katrina action. I love that Louis has an associate who is basically a female mini-Louis, who gets him and who cares about him. Even though they didn't quite save the day, I'm glad that Rachel and Katrina almost helped, and that Rachel helped Katrina.

Any Suits episode that does right by Louis tends to look better than it maybe actually is, simply due to the weightiness of Litt-points. It was also good to see someone in the firm enter the room triumphantly, knowing that he was awesome, that he was back, given the fact that everyone else this week was basically forced to reflect on his or her own shittiness as a person. After last week, I'm glad Louis got to "win" this week.

With one more episode left in the season, Mike and Harvey are a team again—and they're about to get dragged through the mud. Donna's devotion to the Harvey/Scottie ship has finally cracked. Everyone sucked this week, and I hate when everyone sucks, but through their suckiness, we've arrived at an intense place to lead into the finale and I do so love some intensity. I won't spoil the episode promo for those of you who don't stick around to watch them, but let me just say, me gusta.

CASE NOTES

– Rachel was pro whatever Mike wanted to do, except she really clearly wasn't. What does Mike's decision to stay mean for their relationship?

– Can Harvey trust Scottie with Mike's secret?

– Louis's glee at the thought of forcing his associates to rewrite every single contract Pearson-Specter holds was presh.

– Pearson-Specter is kind of a sketchy firm though, isn't it?