Having lost his partner on the inside, Mike moves to a hostile takeover of Gillis Industries. Harvey and Louis pull out all the stops to make sure they win this fight, and things take a personal turn. Meanwhile, Jessica and Jeff come face-to-face with Sean Cahill.
I'm just gonna say it. The firm battling with the SEC is a much stronger plot than the battle over Gillis Industries that has divided Harvey and Mike. Those two have just been such dicks since this battle has started. They're just constantly scheming against one another and it's just not painting either sides in the most flattering of lights. I get that the show wanted Mike to leave the firm and to do his own thing and I'm glad that they committed to that. And yet, I'm not sure how they thought this story with the two as enemies would have been what we wanted to see. It has had its moments of fun as we still get a lot of their playful banter and them knowing how the other thinks and using that against the other. But it has turned into such a mean-spirited sport. Both of them are horrible to Louis in this episode and it is so hard to watch. I feel sorry for Louis and his big speech about being emotional and under-appreciated at the end was a great moment. But I don't care about Mike and Harvey because this takeover has turned them into horrible people.The SEC story just works so much better because it's an outside agency that is threatening the way of life of the workplace we have come to love for four years now. It's a justifiable threat as the lawyers have done some questionable motives in the past in order to come out on top. If it were the main story this year, it could have done a really great job with showcasing these people rallying together unlike any time before in order to keep this makeshift family together. They all have a ton of respect for each other. Instead it's largely a story for Jessica and Jeff to awkwardly flirt and work through. Harvey comes in from time to time but he's not actively working on this - even though it should be much more pressing business than the takeover of Gillis Industries. I'm not quite sure how Mike and his new job venture would have fit into that story but I'm sure it could have been done. Perhaps his investment banking firm could have been one of the Pearson Spector clients to get a subpoena from the SEC and then been approached to bad mouth the firm. That could have been an interesting moral quandary for Mike. Instead we get this hostile battle where no matter what people are going to get hurt and we are going to hate the tactics the various characters will do. So it all seems like one big missed opportunity for Suits.
But I gotta say that I'm really enjoying the casting this season. D.B. Woodside, Michael Gross and Brendan Hines have been interesting additions to the season so far. But "Leveraged" brings back Zeljko Ivanek as former U.S. attorney Eric Woodall as well as introduces two important new players in Neal McDonough's SEC prosecutor Sean Cahill and Eric Robert's businessman Charles Forstman. Those are all stellar actors for whom I'm hoping the show has big and important plans.
Some more thoughts:
- "Leveraged" was written by Nora Zuckerman & Lilla Zuckerman and directed by Kevin Bray.
- I loved that Donna didn't just let Mike get away with the stunt he pulled in the last episode. However, I'm still uncertain with just how Donna-esque Mike's new assistant actually is.
- So, Rachel and Logan almost kissed which I didn't think was an earned moment at all. The show just wants him to get in the middle of the Rachel and Mike relationship. Actual feelings be damned!
- Lastly, Jessica ends up on Jeff's doorstep yet again. They had a nice back-and-forth throughout the hour but I don't think enough was done with the personal side of their relationship to realistically lead to her ending the hour in that position.
