"Suits" Recap/Review: "Buried Secrets"

Marissa Tandon ’17 / Emertainment Monthly Staff Writer

Suits returned with their midseason premiere last night. While the previous seasons have focused on internal power structure threats, “Buried Secrets” focused on reestablishing the relationships in the firm, both romantic and platonic.
The episode opened on Harvey Specter (Gabriel Macht) and his new relationship with college rival Dana “Scottie” Scott (Abigail Spencer). The midseason finale closed on Harvey admitting “I want you in my life,” to Scottie, which is the closest thing to a romantic declaration the closer has come to on screen. Perhaps because up until now, Harvey’s romantic entanglements have been mostly brief and superficial, his characterization while with Scottie felt incredibly off. In some ways, the relationship feels doomed to fail; while Harvey does seem to be making an effort for a relationship, Scottie seems to be trapped in her past perceptions of their relationship. At almost every turn she accuses Harvey of not being all in, or only being interested in having her around for constant sex. Where their relationship in previous seasons was filled with fun competition, witty banter, and nostalgia, that competitiveness felt almost abrasive last night.
Scottie spends most of the episode demanding that Harvey prove his commitment to their relationship, yet when Jessica Pearson (Gina Torres) asks that Scottie bay the half million dollar partner buy in immediately, Scottie schemes for an alternative. She brings in the one client Harvey was not able to land, Michael Phelps (which explained the photos the cast was instagramming from set with a life size Michael Phelps cut out while filming this season) to crash their dinner date. When Harvey likens the play to a movie, Scottie falls on the habit of cutting him down: “I’m not a 14 year old girl, Harvey. I don’t get my plans from movies.”

While Harvey and Scottie’s struggle to make their weird amalgamation of attraction and abrasive competition work in something more than casual hook ups, Mike Ross (Patrick J. Adams) and Rachel Zane (Meghan Markle) have an almost fairy tale relationship. After a few seasons of the will-they-won’t-they dance, the associate and the paralegal have finally settled into a calm and supportive relationship. With all their cards on the table, the pair seems set to handle the stresses of both the firm and Rachel heading to Columbia Law.
The real gem of the episode was in both Mike Ross’ character development and Patrick J. Adams’ performance. Mike takes on a law suit, and the opposing  council is the same lawyer who forced his grandmother to settle for a sum that was “the equivalent of one year’s rent” when they were killed by a drunk driver. Mike gives a few emotionally charged speeches about his last memories of his parents, and even though he has been the most moral character up until this point, we watch as he gets lost in an obsession to bring this lawyer down. Still, he wouldn’t be Mike Ross if he didn’t slip into a moral move at some point. That point is attempting to give the opposing council another avenue of forgetting justice for his client’s death.

In the last few story arcs the large point of tension has come from upsets in the power dynamics of the firm, first with Daniel Hardman (David Costabile), then with Edward Darby (Conleth Hill). Now, the firm has finally settled on a name: Pearson Specter. There’s no sign that the name will be changing any time soon. Instead, the big tension point this arc seems to be coming from Louis Litt (Rick Hoffman). In the first half of the season, Louis settled into a relationship with Sheila Sazs (Rachael Harris). The pair exchanged “I love you”s in the Harvard file room in the mid season finale, and Louis took the opportunity to take a peek at Harvey’s file, as well as Mike’s. Since Mike never went to Harvard, his file is suspiciously absent, and Louis spends most of this episode attempting to find out why. He first operates under the assumption that Mike attended a subpar law school, and while Donna is able to deflect for most of the episode, we close on Louis finding a discrepancy in Mike’s forged transcript.
As a midseason opener, “Buried Secrets” worked in true Suits fashion. It established relationships in a clear cut way, as well as the point of tension for the season. Thankfully, this season doesn’t seem to be focusing on any sort of coup, instead focusing on Mike’s secret and the implications for the firm.
Overall Episode Grade: A-