Happy 50th Cumulative Post!
Faye Richardson, a Stormtrooper for the New York State Bar, has been called in to housekeep a messy law firm that has been working against protocol: their Senior Partner Robert Zane, removed for contempt, still has his name up on the wall. Maybe you’ve heard of the Firm by its old name? Pearson Spector Litt? Yes, that Firm: the one that hired a college dropout with a photographic memory as Junior Partner without taking the Bar first; the one that promoted a glorified Secretary to act as their Chief Operating Officer; the one that’s been in all the papers lately on corruption charges and their low standards-of-practice. There can be up to five names on the wall at any given time but none are founding Partners. It makes no difference to Faye: the Firm is still a mess, and rightly so. Without a stable leader for months and discord within the Name Partners it doesn’t seem like anyone can make up their mind what direction the Firm should take. With the organizing body behind her, Faye uses her power to demote COO Donna and Acting Managing Partner Louis; not to mention emasculating Louis in front of his Associates, but nothing seems to be working. Their resolve cannot be broken. Frankly, the group of them are just too damned close: they would rather run the Firm their own way then have an outsider tell them what to do: stay the course and go down with the ship, so long as their values and their pride are intact. Louis’ secretary Gretchen being claimed by Faye, and Donna’s reprimand for being romantically-entangled with Harvey, are the last straws. The four remaining Partners corner Faye in her office and tell her that they have gone over her head and amended the Code Of Conduct to allow for inter-office relationships. Maybe Faye can’t take them all on together. Maybe she would get more flies with honey. She releases Gretchen back to Louis as a sign of her commitment to compromise, as opposed to integrity.
Why did they have to go and muck up a perfectly-good episode? It was like the “Greatest Hits” aspect of a clip show without the clips, where every character got to have their moment. Everyone was personified. This is an important word because it’s a quality that Suits has been lacking for, say, the last two seasons at least; but I would go so far as to say three. Jessica Pearson had gone to seek fame-and-fortune on a spin-off that was cancelled after one season (it wasn’t too bad on its own merit, but it certainly was not Suits In Chicago). After that, it was an easy out for Patrick Adams’ Mike Ross when Meghan Markle left the show… to become a Princess, of all things! Lucky girl! Some of Season 7’s tied-bow conclusions felt tacked-on to accommodate a whirlwind engagement that could happen just as soon as her current contract was up. “Just one more take, Meghan!” I can hear the producers cry, as her Royal Entourage stood watchful from the staircase door down to the exit of her current life as a B-list celebrity and into another stratosphere entirely. Rushed. We have to tie things up! Have Wendell Pierce’s Zane come to work at the firm! Dule Hill’s Alex, who was Harvey’s rebound-protege after Mike, was promoted to a Series Regular as was Katherine Heigl’s Samantha: Zane’s former Associate-slash-“Fixer”-slash-opportunity to have another strong actress with name value attached to the show who wasn’t Donna. There were a lot of changes. A multitude. But they were all too convenient. The show was still making money! It had to survive! USA Network had already lost Burn Notice; Royal Pains; White Collar; Covert Affairs; Psych… Suits was the last of their Golden Era. And it couldn’t just end like any old show, either: these were beloved characters that all needed their own tidy conclusions to satisfy a still-hearty fanbase.
Sorry, this wasn’t supposed to be an essay. Season 8 was very upsetting – as a long-time fan – because it felt like the writers had lost what made the show great in the name of mixing-it-up. Oh, they were trying to make a big deal about Samantha’s violent past and Alex’s shady dealings but the new additions always felt more like children than professional adults. Just look at Alex refusing to split the Construction deal with Craig: he could have given him the whole deal and had the weight off his shoulders (he already signed a confidentiality agreement about the prison guard being killed too, so he shouldn’t have been worried about being blackmailed later). But he’s being paid well so instead of atoning he shouts LIKE A CHILD that it’s HIS deal and Craig isn’t getting any of it! That just made me question the direction of the entire show. Everyone at the Firm is corrupt. Suits is a show celebrating bad people acting poorly under a facade of nice clothes and degrees on the wall and shimmering offices that are always spotless and there’s never a janitor in sight: even after all the scenes of late nights and early mornings working on a case. Immaculate. And it’s no wonder why: if there were any cracks at all then the entire empire would come crumbling down. Because the transgressions the characters of Suits hide are only skin-deep. Hence the name. They are emotional characters: Harvey, especially. We’ve come to understand why he is like that (dating his therapist; consolidating the psychological trauma from his mother; his lack-of-confidence in connecting romantically with Donna) but he never wavered from his beliefs and has stayed consistent. Everything he’s ever done has been for the Firm and his friends and no one can convince him otherwise, except himself.
This is why Faye has been such a blessing for the show’s ninth (and final!) season. Without a strong bind (and don’t tell me Louis is a strong character because they had him in a Speedo, and a creepy dream sequence and it isn’t even halfway through the season yet: he’s a joke), everyone just sort of meandered about trying to keep their guts from falling out of their proverbial stress-bellies. Denise Crosby’s character has been a shot in the arm when the show needed it the most, which is what makes this episode’s DISASTROUS ending unforgivable. And when I say this is a good episode I mean, we were getting story beats that the show has not hit in a long time. We saw Louis standing up to Harvey; Harvey reconciling with Donna’s father (and her father showing some flaws of his own); Alex confronting the shame and guilt that hides under his conceit; Samantha finally taking her place as someone with the wisdom not to have to flex her muscles anymore; and characters handing file folders back-and-forth to each other like indoctrination. The only thing it lacked was someone walking out of a room and saying they were “Done”. It was Classic Suits. And then they go over Faye’s head (which they cannot, because she is a representative of the Bar and not a third-party) to amend the Firm’s bylaws and she just stands there and takes it? I thought for SURE she was going to fire Gretchen as another stab at Louis. And she had due cause: Gretchen may be a good Secretary but she can’t keep her mouth shut (not that Donna can either, but Gretchen keeps getting caught). It would have just pushed Louis over the edge into taking the Judgeship that was offered him. Instead, Louis APOLOGIZES to Harvey after he flips on him for caring about Donna more then the Firm’s interests AFTER HE SPENT THE FIRST THREE EPISODES FIGHTING TO KEEP ZANE’S NAME ON THE WALL. Faye seemingly backs down and I’d like to hope she has something up her sleeve but I wouldn’t be shocked if by the end of the season she switches sides and she gets interviewed by the Bar about her findings and she says something like, “Their camaraderie and sense of community is commendable.” Don’t you dare, show… DON’T YOU DARE!
I have to be done with this or else it will be another Jason rant about the whole series and about Louis (because I really don’t like Louis) and Amanda Schull’s wardrobe. This is only the fourth episode of the season, and there could be some surprises in store. A Mike Ross cameo is all-but-guaranteed. I know because the Plex thumbnail for the episode has him in it. Spoiler!
//jf 1.15.20
theory of a daskeman 