A lot has been going on at Pearson Hardman in the last couple of months since Daniel Hardman (David Costabile) returned to the firm to challenge Jessica’s (Gina Torres) leadership. With the lawsuit against Harvey (Gabriel Macht) and the firm now in the past, Daniel’s intention to force Jessica out is fiercer than ever.
So is now really a good time for Harvey to take a day off? In his absence, Harvey asks Mike (Patrick J. Adams) to step up.
Mike: Are we going to cross the line with this?
Harvey: We’ve been crossing the line long before we even met.
And thus begins our flashback to five years ago, when Harvey is a senior associate while Louis (Rick Hoffman) is already a junior partner at Pearson Hardman, thanks largely to Louis’ financial wizardry. Donna (Sarah Rafferty) giddily informs Harvey that Louis has a new secretary named Norma and predicts she will not last a week. But as we know, Norma is still very much with Louis – is this perhaps his longest relationship?
A lot has been discussed about Daniel’s cheating past and how he escaped criminal charges for embezzling from their clients’ escrow accounts, this is when we get the full story behind Jessica’s discovery of the embezzlement, Harvey’s investigation (with a little help from Louis and a lot from Donna) and the all-important take-down that saw Daniel leave swiftly and quietly without scandal.
At the other end of the legal spectrum, we see Mike rooming with best friend Trevor (Tom Lipinski) and working as a bike messenger, both seemingly always either high or drunk, or sometimes both. On a regular boys’ night out, the two use Mike’s photographic memory like a parlor trick to pick up girls – one is Jenny (Vanessa Ray) who eventually becomes Trevor’s girlfriend – and later, Mike’s – even though it is obvious from the start that she has more in common with Mike than with Trevor; and Jenny’s roommate who gives Mike his first taste of how he can make serious money with his brain.
In between all the back and forth from past to present and back again, the connection between the past and how it relates to Mike’s stepping up to help Jessica is fairly thin and you almost forget why they are providing the backstory at this point at all. Somewhere in there is Mike asking Rachel (Meghan Markle) for help in tracking down a former employee; Louis showing, once again, where his loyalty lies in the Pearson versus Hardman battle; and Zoe (Jacinda Barrett) reinforcing her role as Harvey’s moral compass which we caught a glimpse of in last week’s “Sucker Punch”.
I am not a big fan of flashback episodes although this one does serve to explain the personal histories of the team at Pearson Hardman and the relationships that we know and love. Here are a few teasers:
- Donna’s look in 2007 reminds me a little of Mary-Louise Parker’s Amy in The West Wing and all the women seem to go to the same hairdresser
- Guess who calls Harvey “H-Dog”?
- What does Louis spend $15,000 on and how does he afford membership into an exclusive club?
- Louis’ “lunchtime sanctuary” is a little creepy
- First there was the can-opener, and now thumb tacks?
- So what does Harvey do on his day off?
When all is said and done, my favorite line is this: “I’m getting Donna back.”
SUITS “Rewind” airs on USA Network, Thursday August 9 at 10/9c.
Guest starring: David Costabile, Jacinda Barrett, Vanessa Ray, Tom Lipinski, Rebecca Schull
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