Suits recap: Inevitable

All good things must come to an end. The relationships you expected to end ended in tonight’s Suits. Sure, it wasn’t surprising, but it was still rather entertaining to watch exactly how these things fell apart.

At the top of the hour, it seems like Harvey and Paula are out of the woods. As they’re enjoying coffee together in the morning, Harvey says he wants to take her out for a nice, intimate dinner. Paula says yes. But what’s supposed to be a romantic dinner for two turns into an awkward evening meal for three people because Harvey’s mom comes down to the city for the night and asks to see him. Not wanting to disappoint either woman, Harvey decides to invite his mother to dinner.

The Harvey-Paula-Lily dinner starts out well. There’s laughing, stories are shared. No awkwardness in sight! But then Lily accidentally ruins it. As she’s about to leave, she thanks Paula for being the reason she and Harvey reconnected since Harvey told her that someone important in his life pushed him to do it. But, in case you forgot, that wasn’t Paula. That was Donna. Paula’s face drops, and the meal ends on a very awkward note.

And thus we arrive at the first ruined relationship in the episode. Paula realizes that she really can’t handle Donna being such an integral part of Harvey’s life because her ex cheated on her with someone he worked with and now she’s worried it’ll happen again — even though she knows she shouldn’t let the past affect this new relationship. So, she does what we all hoped she wouldn’t and gives Harvey an ultimatum: their relationship or Donna. It’s a moment I’ve been dreading because this is such a worn out cliché, but Christina Cole makes it work because you believe that Paula realizes how messed up this is and yet knows it’s the only thing that will ease her mind.

Thus, Harvey finds himself in one of those “if someone pulls a gun on you, you pull out a bigger gun” situations. But, Harvey ignores his own saying in this situation. He arranges for Stu to give Donna a job offer without warning her, which is super cowardly. Donna’s rightfully pissed since she always has her back, but this time Harvey couldn’t stand up for her? Where’s all that talk about loyalty, Mr. Specter? It’s M.I.A. right now.

Donna decides to take matters into her own hands and pays Paula a visit to apologize about the kiss. She also appeals to Paula as a professional and as a woman to not make her give up a job she’s worked so hard to get. But Paula just can’t let go of her fears, especially since Donna hesitated when she asked her to promise something like that kiss would never happen again. Since that failed, Donna tenders her resignation…

Surprise, her resignation doesn’t last at all! When Harvey finds her letter of resignation waiting on his desk, he hops in a taxi, heads to Paula’s home and does what needs to be done: He breaks up with her. It’s sad, but also were we really expecting this relationship to go any other way? Since the beginning, it has felt like it has had a clock on it, sort of like that Black Mirror episode, “Hang the DJ.” Anyway, after Harvey breaks Paula’s heart, he heads over to Donna’s apartment and rips her resignation letter at her door, but declines her invitation to come in because he needs some time to himself.

Obviously, Harvey’s entire adventure in tonight’s episode tied into the case of the week, which also dealt with loyalty. One of Harvey’s old clients named Teddy sold his company to some mogul with the last name Baxter. At the time of the sale, Teddy promised his factory workers that they wouldn’t lose their jobs, but he just found out that Baxter is planning on selling the company and shipping those jobs overseas. So, Teddy asks Harvey and Mike to help him keep his word to his workers. This is a no-brainer for Harvey since loyalty is his thing, and Mike’s down to find a way to do the impossible because it’s the rare corporate case where they’re the good guys. In the end, Mike and Harvey end up saving the jobs.

Meanwhile, over in the uncomfortable portion of the episode, Louis’ affair with Sheila continues in earnest. The two are back to their weird and disturbing role-playing ways, and Louis, at least for the moment, seems fine with the arrangement. Sneaking around and being the “bad boy” has given him a newfound confidence.

But, this good feeling couldn’t last for long and Louis eventually finds his world shattered again. He shows up at Sheila’s office on the COLUMBIA LAW SCHOOL CAMPUS for some dean-recruiter role play, but when he opens the door, he comes face-to-face with Sheila’s fiancé Xander. So Louis basically exits the way he came after mumbling something about recruitment; however, as he leaves, he hears Xander making fun of him and Sheila doesn’t say anything to defend him. It’s a sad day to be Louis.

Thankfully, it’s not all bad on the relationship front. Mike and Rachel are doing fine! Well, they were by the end of the episode. First, they had to work through a fight. Pastor Walker asked them to separately fill out forms about what they imagined their futures would be. Rachel does hers, but Mike refuses because he hates planning for the future — he doesn’t like to feel locked in. This causes some tension, but by the end of the episode, Mike gets over his nonsense and tells Rachel he imagines them moving to San Diego, surfing in the morning and running a clinic. Rachel dreams they’ll spend a year in Iceland. We’ll have to wait a few weeks to see if one of these dreams ends up coming true in the finale.

Source: http://ew.com