It's a new world order as Jessica tries to appease Louis in the wake of his discovery of Mike's secret. The furious Louis buries Mike in a mountain of menial grunt work in the hopes that he will quit - although Mike isn't the only one who feels Louis' wrath. Robert Zane calls in a professional favor with Harvey, one that comes with personal consequences.
Mike's big secret has always been this continuous dangling thread over Suits. It's the core premise of the show. Mike is not a real lawyer but has the smarts to pretend to be one. One by one, everyone on the show found out his secret. And yet, every time the secret is addressed it just brings about the same complications. The more focus it receives the more it seems like the show retelling the same story over and over again. Nothing has changed. Mike is still illegally practicing as a lawyer and the rest of the firm is still willing to keep him employed. When the show evolved beyond the secret, it became a better show with characters that actually stood for something and had their own identities. It wasn't just a buddy legal drama between Harvey, the cocky name partner, and Mike, the brilliant fraud.One of the big reasons the reveal of the secret has always been such a lackluster concept has been the reactions being the same exact thing every time. Initially, only Harvey and Donna knew the truth and they accepted that risk. And then, Jessica found out and she kept him around because he had value to the firm. And then, Rachel found out and her relationship with Mike became stronger because of it.
The only major cast member left to tell was Louis - and the summer finale finally got around to telling him at a point in the character's life where he could loss everything he was working for. There's simply no way he could have the same reaction as everyone else. His reaction needed to be this big and intense thing. This isn't just a betrayal with his relationship to Mike, but with everyone at the firm. He has put his heart and soul into this place. They won't try to help him after he makes a crucial and criminal mistake. And yet, they are willing to employ a fraud for years. He is angry and that is very captivating. Louis deserves to have this reaction. He's finally allowed to be given exactly what he wants: name partnership. The question then becomes is this still the same firm that he wanted his name on the door of?
Louis' anger forces him to be cocky. He views himself as untouchable now because he has this leverage over everyone else. He may no longer trust any of them. They are all dead to him. And yet, he's no longer being forced out. His name is now attached to one of the biggest firms in New York City. That is incredibly prideful. He demands this to be a celebratory event. One that occurs immediately so that Jessica and Harvey don't have enough time to figure out a way out of their current situation. And yet, that is precisely Louis' downfall. By becoming a name partner, he is also becoming complicit in the crime. He has the knowledge that Mike has practiced law illegally and he didn't turn anyone in to the police. Jessica loves being the smartest person in the room. She saw this angle immediately after Donna warned her that Louis knew the truth. And yet, she knew that she had to string him along in order to stay alive in this business. It's a cunning wit that is a very powerful.
Jessica is smart enough to come up with this solution. The firm is still changing. But she holds the power again. And yet, she can no longer pretend that she is not as complicit with this crime as Mike and Harvey are. She has known the truth for years now. Just because she could leverage it for her benefit, she allowed Mike to keep working there. She could pretend she only put up with Mike in order to keep Harvey at the firm, but that's not the whole truth. She has benefitted from Mike's presence which makes her just as guilty. She finally admits that to herself. She then gives a symbolic gesture of telling the truth to Jeff - the one person she wants to be open and intimate with. Being honest with one another has been the biggest hurdle of their relationship. Her opening up about Daniel Hardman's past crimes isn't the reason why Louis became name partner. And yet, it's a big gesture that shows she wants this relationship to work despite the chaos happening everywhere else in her life.
Everyone else is trying to repair their relationships with Louis. He is angry and that is destructive to this environment. Not everything about their friendships was based in this big secret. Rachel and Donna were actually his friends. They just chose to keep this from him. And yet, he wants them to suffer just as much as Mike. Mike can handle the work load Louis dumps on him. More importantly though, Mike, Donna and Rachel want to remind Louis that their friendship actually did mean something. Donna is the only one who makes any kind of progress by episode's end. I suspect things will only get worse for Mike and Rachel in the next few episodes after Louis is forced to accept Jessica's deal. That is very exciting.
Some more thoughts:
- "Enough is Enough" was written by Nora Zuckerman & Lilla Zuckerman and directed by Gabriel Macht.
- The returns of Scottie and Robert Zane largely served as a way to showcase how poorly Harvey and Rachel are dealing with the emotions of Mike's secret.
- Louis' cruelest moment was in telling Rachel that she would be a conniving lawyer just like Harvey, Mike and her father. Yes, that's horrible for him to say but in the end she does prove it to be true when she negotiates with her father at home.
- Mike listened to Harvey's advice for a few minutes and then immediately did what Rachel suggested instead.
- Louis asking Donna if she ever slept with Harvey was incredibly personal. And yet, it was also the only thing that could be revealed that might begin to thaw the waters of friendship between the two.
