Suits recap: Live to Fight

The Pearson Specter Litt family is starting to feel the pressure, and let’s be honest, it’s only going to get more intense from here.

While finding time to reveal who snitched on Mike, “Live to Fight” also navigates the ways in which this case is complicating and testing the many relationships between the show’s core six characters. Throw in some Donna-centric flashbacks that introduce us to her father, and you have an episode that at times feels like it has a bit too much on its plate. Somehow, everything doesn’t completely fall apart.

Anita Gibbs (Leslie Hope), the firm’s latest(and very formidable opponent, isn’t holding back and is doing everything within her power (that the law will allow) to take Mike, Harvey, and Jessica down. Her first move is to issue a subpoena for every Pearson Specter Litt document. If you’ve been watching this show for awhile, you know that’s not good since there’s definitely a damning paper trail.

Thankfully, Mike has an idea to quash the subpoena and find out what Gibbs has on him. He and Harvey pay the judge a visit and request that the subpoena be dismissed because Gibbs doesn’t have any evidence. In the meeting, Gibbs reveals that her office received an email from anonymous Harvard account tipping them off that Mike was a fraud. This isn’t enough evidence for the judge, so she quashes the subpoena and says Gibbs needs to find corroborating evidence.

Harvey and Mike immediately suspect that Professor Henry Gerard, Harvard’s premier ethics professor, was the one who sent the email. (SPOILER ALERT: They’re wrong.) They return to the office with a plan to get Louis to visit Gerard to convince him to not come forward; however, Harvey gets sidetracked when Rachel informs them that the U.S. Attorney’s office picked up Donna.

Gibbs knows Donna is loyal to Harvey and won’t speak, so she’s procured some leverage to force her to talk: Donna’s father, James, was involved in some “shady real estate deal” years ago. If Donna turns on Harvey and Mike, Gibbs implies she’ll drop the charges against her father.

Through a series of flashbacks, we learn that James hasn’t always been the best with money. When Donna was younger, he lost the family’s money, and they had to move into a small apartment with no room for her piano near Hartford, Conn. Several years later (seven years ago), he asked Donna to ask Harvey to front him some money to help him get a loan for some real estate deal. Naturally, Harvey said no and, to prevent Donna from dipping into her 401(k) to help her father, threatened James he would pull every string he had to shut the deal down. (Obviously, that didn’t stop him.)

Obviously, Mike feels super guilty about what Donna is going through and decides to turn himself in; however, Rachel warns him that the prosecution will use that testimony to go after Harvey and Jessica. Don’t be fooled, Rachel has thought about Mike making a deal, and she unfortunately lets that slip to Donna, who gets really upset. It’s kind of an overreaction since Rachel clearly wasn’t going to suggest Mike do that, but it also makes sense that Donna would be pissed at even the thought. She has sipped some of the Harvey Specter loyalty Kool-Aid.

Naturally, Donna is pissed when she finds out what Harvey did because now she’s being put in a position to choose between her father and Harvey. In a moment of anger, she says this entire mess is Harvey’s fault because he hired a fraud. It’s worth noting that at this moment, Harvey stinks of hypocrisy because he told James seven years ago, “People who love other people don’t put them in a position to break the law.”

NEXT: Who turned Mike in?

Meanwhile, Jessica turns to her ex-boyfriend Jeff Malone for help. They decide the first order of business is handling the paper trail that proves she knew Mike was a fraud. Jessica presents Mike with a proposition: She’ll destroy the affidavit she had Rachel sign if Mike gets rid of the letter he has that incriminates her. Mike is hesitant because he doesn’t trust Jessica since she’s made it quite clear in the past that she’s willing to betray him if he puts her into much jeopardy.

Watching this episode, you sense the lack of trust between Mike and Jessica, and Rachel and Donna’s tiny falling out is a result of both Gibbs’ crusade and the culture of Pearson Specter Litt. The law firm’s atmosphere doesn’t necessarily engender trust because most of the lawyers there are mainly concerned with self-interest and power. At some point, almost everyone in this firm has done something to make them at least slightly untrustworthy.

After reading the email Mike showed him, Louis figures out from the language that Henry Gerard didn’t write the email. Sheila Sazs did.

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When Mike made junior partner, a reporter writing an article on his meteoric rise called her for a quote since he was a Harvard grad — except, she knew for a fact that a Mike Ross didn’t attend Harvard. She reported it anonymously because she was ashamed that this could’ve happened on her watch. (“I’m not going to stand by while someone besmirches the good name of Harvard University,” she says. I dare you to not laugh at that line.) Revealing he knew about Mike all along, Louis asks her to retract the email, which disgusts Sheila, and she refuses to do it. However, she does promise to not come forward.

Losing Sheila’s respect briefly turns Louis against Mike, too. “Right this second, I cannot help you,” Louis says when Mike asks what they’re going to do since Sheila won’t retract the tip.

Left to his own devices since Harvey is still dealing with Donna, Mike tracks Henry Gerard down at an underground gambling establishment and convinces him to write a vaguely worded affidavit that implies Mike was one of his students. Mike is confident this will work because he believes Gibbs won’t ask Henry on the stand if Mike was a student because lawyers don’t ask questions they don’t know the answer to. If we’re being honest, this is really a “Jesus take the wheel” kind of play.

Harvey presents Henry Gerard’s letter as evidence that the case should be dismissed. However, Mike has him make a deal with Gibbs instead: Harvey offers to drop the motion and to not present that letter in trial if Gibbs stops going after Donna’s father. Gibbs agrees. This is a big sacrifice for Mike, but he did it because he cares for Donna.

Now, Mike needs to prove his loyalty to Jessica. As part of a plan devised by Jeff and Jessica to convince Mike to destroy the paper trail, Jeff pays Mike a visit and reveals that Jessica sacrificed her relationship with him because of Mike’s secret. The plan works — and just in time because Anita informs Harvey that Sheila came forward and that the judge has approved the subpoena.

With Sheila supposedly on Gibbs’ side, Harvey is convinced more than ever that Gibbs will try even harder to pit them against one another. If they thought this week was hard, they won’t be prepared for what’s coming next.

Sidebar:

• Be sure to check out our postmortem with showrunner Aaron Korsh on the big reveal.
• The flashbacks tell the origin story of Donna’s superpower, i.e. being able to tell when people are lying. Apparently, she’s always had it.
• In the end, Jeff tells Jessica he can’t represent her. Before leaving, however, he offers some advice: Perhaps there’s more to life than just her firm. We can definitely expect the show to return to that next season.
• Gretchen starts working for Louis this week. At the end of the episode, she reveals to Louis that she’s the reason Sheila tattled. Noticing that Harvey felt bad he couldn’t give Mike the promotion himself, she contacted a journalist to write an article about Mike as a surprise for him.
• In hindsight, Gretchen says she knew they all knew about Mike, but she’s standing by them.

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