This penultimate episode features twists, turns, reversals, slow motion running, multiple exhortations to have faith, and a cliffhanger ending. All of which is building toward a resolution of the Mike-as-fraud storyline on the season finale, right? There will be a resolution? THERE HAD BETTER BE.
So Mike found a way to take charge of his own defense because he was co-counsel all along and it’s not his fault if Gibbs didn’t notice.
As his one and only witness, Mike calls to the stand one Gloria Danner, mother of the recently deceased (shot trying to prevent a robbery) Clifford Danner, a wrongfully convicted guy whom Mike once helped get out of jail. Gloria is a big Mike supporter who doesn’t care about his credentials, because he’s the most caring and honourable fake lawyer ever. 
When Gibbs tries to undermine Gloria’s credibility, Gloria chews the scenery a little bit and insists Mike is the best. The defense rests.
That night, Mike struggles to write his closing argument, while the other characters stew in pots filled with doubt, guilt and fear.
Louis becomes convinced Mike will be found guilty and therefore they will all fry. He goes to Gibbs, ready to affirm that Mike is a fraud in exchange for immunity, but his word is not enough, she wants proof, and he doesn’t have that, so no deal.
He confronts Harvey in the building lobby (discreet!) and secretly records their yelled, heated conversation, during which Harvey basically admits he was at fault for hiring Mike in the first place, but Louis made his own bed when he used the secret to advance himself, so fuck off, Louis.
Next, Louis suggests to Jessica that they turn on Harvey together in order to save themselves, but she is sure Harvey would take the bullet himself if Mike is found guilty, so she and Louis would be spared. And now she’s pissed off at him for being such a dick.
Because Jessica was convincing or because she shamed him, Louis does not turn his tape over to Gibbs, and he refuses to take her call. So there’s one threat nullified. For now.
Mike rips up his prepared closing argument and speaks from the heart about how he IS a fraud because he didn’t use his gift for lawyering to help the downtrodden like he always wanted, but wasted it making money for rich people. And by god, he will not serve the 1% any longer, no matter what the jury decides!
Gibbs, unmoved by this display, makes her closing argument: Mike is a liar and this is not a victimless crime.
Harvey isn’t convinced they will win the case, so he tries to whip up grounds for a mistrial – he asks Donna to get him some dirt on the jurors, but she won’t cooperate because that’s illegal, yo, and you gotta have faith. He then tries to blackmail Gibbs’s associate David Green into jury tampering, but Green decides he would rather have his career destroyed than be preyed upon by a cowardly bully named Harvey.
Look, it’s Toronto’s Clarence Square.
Harvey is stung by this criticism, and in crisis, pays a nighttime visit to Donna at her apartment, something he’d promised he wouldn’t do anymore. He’s racked with guilt, and emotional (!), and he wants to turn himself in, but Donna tells him not to. She asks him to believe, like she does, that Mike and Harvey are worthy of being found innocent. And to have faith.
Yes, those are tears in Harvey’s eyes.
Mike offers Gibbs a deal – he’ll plead guilty and never practice law again if Gibbs will promise not to go after anyone at the law firm. She counters with two last minute deals to consider before the jury returns with what she is pretty sure will be a guilty verdict: one is to serve 2 years in prison (instead of the 5-7 he is likely to get if found guilty) without implicating anyone else at the law firm. The other is to serve no time and identify one name partner to be burned at the stake.
Semi-honourable Mike would never betray his friends, but he’s tempted to take the 2 years in jail deal to prevent everyone else being charged if he’s found guilty. Rachel is against this plan because it would leave her alone and Mike-less. Which makes sense, but maybe this is about more than you, Rachel?
While hanging around the courthouse waiting for the jury’s verdict, Mike overhears a petty criminal/getaway driver named Diaz, who has no lawyer, being railroaded by a prosecutor. Mike offers to represent Diaz, which pisses off the prosecutor (and Gibbs, when she finds out), but neither Diaz nor the judge who hears the case care about Mike’s own trial. With Rachel’s help, Mike makes headway for his client, until the prosecutor offers Diaz a deal to get off totally if he rats on his friends. Diaz agrees immediately, and rationalizes to Mike that if doesn’t do this, and he’s found guilty, the friends will still be charged, so no biggie.
Mike sees the Diaz light
Mike takes this insight on Diaz’s part (a point he and others have made all episode-long, but whatever), as a sign he must turn himself in. He rushes over to Gibbs’s office just as word comes that the jury is ready to deliver their verdict. With Harvey in hot pursuit, but a few key steps behind, Mike tells Gibbs he’s ready to make a deal. She asks which one, but come on, it has to be the 2 years in prison scenario.
Run Harvey run.
Next week, according to the promo tagline: “Someone is going to prison, but who?” And Harvey claims it ain’t over till it’s over.
Miscellany:
- When Donna dared to question Jessica about the wisdom of seeking a mistrial, Jessica made it clear that she is looking out for herself first, and Mike second. Just saying.
- Nothing like waking up in the morning in full eye makeup and false eyelashes, Rachel.
- SPECULATION: Was Mike’s promise to the jury – to dedicate himself henceforth to helping the powerless – a hint that he is going to trade his 2 year prison sentence for x years of community service?
- BIGTIME SPOILER ALERT: Hello! Canada Magazine has just posted a jaunty video of Meghan Markle looking at wedding gowns in the Suits costume room for Rachel and Mike’s upcoming wedding …
Kim Moritsugu is a Toronto novelist and sometime TV show recapper whose latest novel is a suburban comedy of manners about food and sex called The Oakdale Dinner Club.
