In which Mike gets out of jail, for real and for good! Yes, there were many machinations and reversals and ‘the deal is off’ declarations in this hour, but still – Mike’s release came earlier than I expected. And speaking of completely wrong predictions, Louis’s romantic rival Joshua was not only not played by Rick Hoffman or Gabriel Macht, as I suggested he should be, but the Joshua character did not even appear. Joke’s on me.
There are two story threads that affect the timing of Mike getting out of prison. One has to do with Cahill’s seizure of Jill and Kevin’s assets, including those acquired before Jill started committing financial crimes. To combat this, Mike threatens to sue Cahill on Kevin’s behalf for abuse of power, though he won’t file the suit if Cahill gets Kevin released. Cahill is initially outraged by this threat. He barks at both Mike and Harvey about the very idea, abd even mutters the word ‘fucking’ at one point (shocker) but he later helps Mike get Kevin out another way.
The other story thread that affects Mike’s release is Gallo’s. For Mike’s sake, and because he said he would, Harvey swallows his conscience and integrity and represents Gallo at a parole hearing, before which he coaches Gallo to express remorse over his past behaviour, and makes him promise to still protect Mike as long as he’s inside.
Cameron Dennis, Harvey’s former mentor and tormentor from the D.A.’s office, the guy who never saw a criminal he didn’t want to punish, by hook or by crook, and who worked with Harvey to put Gallo away originally, shows up at the hearing. He doesn’t want Gallo to go free, not even after Harvey explains why he’s doing what he’s doing.
Harvey’s conflict over what to do is not helped by Donna reminding him that Gallo is a very bad guy. She reminds Harvey of this while wearing a so not right for the office, yet so amusing (black and white cookie) dress, which wornontv.net informs me is by the designer Roland Mouret, costs US$2,470 and is currently sold out. And yes, the black panel is supposed to be on the diagonal like that.
The day that Harvey is set to perjure himself before the parole board and testify that Gallo is not a menace to society, Mike rescues him by offering himself to Dennis as a witness for the (kind of) prosecution. He truthfully reports all of Gallo’s recent evil prison doings at the hearing, and parole is denied. Bonus: he made a deal with Dennis to have Kevin released in return for his testimony.
That night, Kevin is released, but Mike has secretly arranged with Cahill to stay in jail one more night, alone in his cell – dum da dum dum. Gallo comes to the cell after hours, swearing vengeance, and pulls out a shiv. But Mike has set up a video camera in the room to record the incident, and asked the one honest guard in the joint to watch the footage and break into the cell after Gallo tries to knife him, but before any actual stabbing happens.
Harvey gloats when he informs Gallo after this incident that he now has two options:1) to return to maximum security prison, where everyone knows he is an informant, so he will be either killed or made to suffer mightily (my words), or 2) stay at Danbury for 5 more years, but without arranging any kind of harm to Mike, Harvey, or their loved ones on the outside, because if he does, back to Rikers (or equivalent) he goes. Gallo picks option 2, and I can only hope that Suits will have ended its run before he gets out of jail.
Louis’s screen time this week is confined to stressing about and solving his love life issues with Tara and her unseen long distance boyfriend Joshua, who has come to town for deep talks. Louis and Donna discuss his worries during a joint mudding session, during which Donna appears in a white bikini top which exposes more details of her anatomy than I feel comfortable knowing, and they discuss it at the office too.
The Joshua problem is resolved by episode’s end when Tara, whose hair and makeup have noticeably improved since she became a semi-recurring character, tells Louis that Joshua up and proposed to her, the cheeky unseen guy, but wonder of wonders, she wants Louis instead.
Jessica, not to be outdone by Donna when it comes to wacky, impractical, designer-wear office getups, wears this Givenchy blouse/top/what? to speak to Harvey about his Mike/Gallo problems, but spends the rest of her time working on the Bailey case.
Rachel has found a precedent for re-opening the case that involves accusing Bailey’s former lawyer, a woman named Georgina who has moved into corporate practice from criminal law, of having provided inadequate representation for Bailey, because she didn’t introduce the alibi witness’s testimony into the case 12 years ago.
Jessica “drops the hammer” on this Georgina, and convinces her to sign an affidavit saying she heard the alibi and didn’t use it. A judge reopens the case, which means that a male prosecutor starts trying to make deals with Jessica to avoid a re-trial. Deals like 7 more years for Bailey and then he can go free. Jessica thinks Bailey should take the deal, but Rachel thinks they should fight, which she admits to Bailey when he presses her. Bailey also wants a chance to be proven innocent, because there’s no point in living, according to him, if the world and his family think he’s guilty. He accuses Jessica of being heartless and uncaring (this again), prompting her to prove she does care by reuniting Bailey with his teenage daughter. Hugs all around.
Penultimate episode end questions:
- What happened to Julius, the prison counselor? Will we ever see him again? How about the prison? That big set, the recurring guard characters – are they all gone? And what about Stu Dickhead? One can only hope he and his suspenders are on permanent hiatus. Probably not, though.
- Can Mike and Rachel get married now? I guess not – she has to get her law degree first, right? No wedding for us!
- All the principal characters this season have had at least a semblance of a personal love life (even if it was only referred to, and not shown, ahem, Donna) except for Harvey. He’s about due to enter the dating scene again.
Next week, on the summer season finale, it’s all law firm business, all the time.
Kim Moritsugu is a Toronto novelist and sometime TV show recapper whose latest novel is a suburban comedy of manners called The Oakdale Dinner Club.
