In reaching the 100th episode milestone, the latest SUITS episode promised to be a special event…But was it? SUITS’ 100th episode, creatively titled “100,” saw what was most likely the final chapter in Mike Ross’ crusade against Masterson Construction and Reform Corp. With the help of Robert Zane, Mike and Harvey closed the case without making Alex Williams up as the sacrificial lamb. Toss in some weird revelations in some core characters’ personal lives; and what you have, dear Suitors, is just another SUITS episode.
Team Zane saves the day…for everyone but Frank Gallo.
After learning why Alex Williams was so opposed to his prison reform case in “Full Disclosure,” Mike Ross’ first move in “100” was a trip to see Harvey Specter. Mike told Harvey that he knew everything, then proved it by sharing Alex’s story, and then he expressed his wish to become the hero. Mike was convinced that there had to be a way to get justice for people like Oscar Reyes — without exposing Alex’s involvement in the whole mess.
Basically, Mike just really wanted to be a superhero…or live long enough to die a villain: “You and I are supposed to be Batman and Robin. If we can’t stop these guys from getting away with it and save Alex in the meantime, then what the hell are we doing?”
It may have taken 100 episodes to get to this point, but SUITS’ characterization of Mike Ross finally made sense. The kid truly believes himself to be a comic book vigilante (or his sidekick, at least); and Harvey Specter has been encouraging the delusion all along. When it came to the Reform Corp. and Masterson problem, Batman Harvey felt that all he and Robin Mike had to do was find their Commissioner Gordon.
In this metaphor, Commissioner Gordon happened to be Robert Zane, who was initially reluctant to take Harvey’s “extra files that were taking up space” (wink, wink) but later accepted the offer. Robert warned Harvey from the beginning, though, that he would be in full control of the case and how it was run. Harvey said he wouldn’t have it any other way…And everyone with a pulse and brain activity knew he was lying.
Zane promised not to pull any punches, and he delivered on that promise. Big time.
Harvey’s usual good cop, bad cop (bad Batman, worse Batman?) routine didn’t work with Roger Shapiro from Reform Corp. Harvey blamed Robert Zane for bringing up Frank Gallo’s involvement, but Zane reminded Harvey that it was his case to pursue as he wished.
Regardless of whose “fault” the failed visit with Shapiro was (it was Mike’s for getting us into this mess in the first place, obviously), Harvey now had to figure out how to keep Gallo from testifying. If he couldn’t keep Gallo off the stand, Shapiro would find someone who would.
A threat? You bet. Did Team Marvey take that threat seriously enough? Nope. Do they ever take anything seriously enough to know when to stop protecting themselves and start doing what’s actually right? 100 episodes of SUITS definitively say no.
Mike tried to offer his old nemesis, now his star witness, hush money to…not be a witness. Gallo wasn’t having it: “Because the two of you don’t give a shit about anything but yourselves!” When did the SUITS supervillain become the most honest guy out of the bunch? Harvey Specter and Mike Ross can’t relate.
Anyway.
More than anything, Gallo just wanted his daughter’s forgiveness, but he wasn’t going to get that by taking a check. Frank would only be redeemed in his daughter’s eyes if he went to court, admitted what he’d done, and accepted the consequences.
Mike? Honey? Are you taking notes? Admission of guilt and accepting of consequences? Look those up, Superbrain.
By this point, SUITS was ready for a game changer. Enter Rachel Zane, righteously angry to learn that Mike’s “guy” in prison happened to be the guy who’d threatened his life and even, once upon a time, had some lovely stalkerazzi pictures taken of her.
For about the billionth time, Rachel reminded Mike (and some of the people in charge of writing her) that she was a strong woman, able to take care of herself, and “not a damsel in distress that needs protecting.” With enough yelling, Mike might just have been convinced. Finally. At least for now.
Was this supposed to be the “special” part of SUITS’ 100th episode? Or maybe it was Robert Zane’s takedown of Harvey Specter, when Harvey made at least the thousandth attempt at interfering in how Robert ran the case.
No, really. This was good stuff: “The United States is 5% of the world’s population, but it’s got 25% of its prisoners. But that’s not something you white guys want to talk about.”
Zane went on to explain to Harvey that nothing he or Mike tried was going to make him let this case go. Having grown up in one of the roughest parts of Harlem, Robert knew all-too-well the types of people that were getting murdered and having their sentences meaninglessly extended, even after being disproportionately targeted by law enforcement in the first place, and he wasn’t going to let it continue.
Harvey took this news to Mike’s place, where they tried to plan a way to get dirt on Robert Zane behind his back — because that’s how you thank a guy for doing hard work on a case you gave him — and Robert’s own daughter overheard. Harvey tried to play the “protect Rachel” card; but for the ten billionth time, she had to remind the SUITS audience that she didn’t need that: “Harvey, I know how things work.”
Rachel found a way to keep Frank Gallo off the stand: using those old stalkerazzi photos against him and pretending that they’d actually been sent to Robert, not Mike. Rather than being a scare tactic against Mike, the new legend of the photos centered on Gallo blackmailing Zane into letting him perjure himself as a fake witness in the Reform Corp. case.
After Robert Zane nearly murdered Harvey’s evil doppelgänger with his bare hands (but, alas, only nearly), he vowed that Frank Gallo would take the stand no matter what.
Roger Shapiro, however, had other ideas. By the time Harvey cooked up his next plan for sabotage — visiting the judge to smear Zane — Frank Gallo had been murdered in prison.
Great job, Joker.
Zane, however, had an insurance policy: a recorded conversation with Gallo, in which he told the entire sordid tale of his surprisingly reluctant involvement in Roger Shapiro’s conspiracy. The video wasn’t initially admissible in court; but now that it was a deathbed confession, it was golden.
With the video evidence in-hand, Batman, Robin, Commissioner Gordon, and…whatever you want to call Alex Williams…managed to get everything they wanted: money for the clients, Alex’s freedom from the whole affair, a signed confession from Shapiro that said the whole conspiracy with Masterson was arranged by Tommy Bratton, and even Bratton’s resignation.
Of course, no true justice was served, when you think about it. Everything was settled out of court. There was yet another cover-up — but with threats to expose Shapiro later, so go off, I guess — and yet another man was dead because of the whole nasty affair.
Usually, high-stakes cases mean that the entire SUITS family pulls together to pull off the win. Or, at least, the B storyline will be somehow thematically connected. For the 100th episode, SUITS did something “special” and broke with tradition.
When Louis Litt learned, via Gretchen (hey! she still exists!), that Columbia hadn’t sent over any associate candidates, he did exactly what Gretchen warned him not to do: He stormed over to the university to lay make demands.
But then Louis came face-to-face with Sheila Sazs. You know Sheila, right? The woman who broke Louis’ heart following a well-developed relationship, unlike whatever that mess of a relationship was in SUITS season 6?
Sheila, who had refused to ever leave Harvard, especially for a man…left Harvard. For a man. She engaged to a new man and wanted to be near her fiancee, so the whole point of refusing to send applicants to Louis was to avoid alerting him to the fact that Sheila was in town. Later in SUITS “100,” though, Sheila called Louis with all of that dirty talk that used to make their relationship fun (I guess) and said she wanted one last fling before he got married. Now, her reasoning for avoiding Pearson Specter Litt was that she just couldn’t get Louis out of her system.
Enter moral dilemma here.
At the same time, Donna was dealing with her own blast from the past. She called her former (seemingly perfect) boyfriend, Mark, and asked him out to lunch to catch up. When the date — let’s be real, that’s what it was — seemed to be going well, Mark admitted that he was married. But it was a totally crappy marriage. So, could Donna please just, like, hook up with him?
Uh, no. Donna refused to be the answer to Mark’s problems (if only she’d told Harvey Specter that 12 years ago), especially by being a part of cheating.
After an awkward, crappy, stupid run-in with Harvey’s girlfriend and another phone call with Mark, though, Donna seemed like she might be willing to change her mind.
And now, Donna had her own dilemma.
As SUITS “100” drew to a conclusion and Harvey was busy giving Donna’s old key to his apartment to his new girlfriend at their anniversary dinner — but not for their anniversary because, oops, he forgot — Donna was on her way to see Mark. And Louis was on his way to see Sheila.
Donna looked absolutely sick and backed out by the time Mark answered the door, probably at least partially in thanks to constant check-ins from Rachel. But Louis gladly entered Sheila’s room, raring to go.
He deserved something for just himself after the rough time he’d been having following his breakup with Tara, after all. And earlier, Rachel had even encouraged the whole thing. Ew?
Damn the moral failings of being a part of potentially breaking some other dude’s heart, though.
…but that’s how you close out the 100th episode of SUITS, apparently.
Other thoughts on SUITS’ 100th episode:
- If anything was worthy of being labeled part of a milestone episode, it was the beautifully shot and acted rooftop scene. It’s been a long time since we’ve seen the pure side of Donna and Louis’ friendship, and there was probably nothing more perfect — and nothing more 100 episodes in the making — than the honest, emotional sharing between the two characters.
- “What you don’t get is what it’s like to find out twice in one year that the person you thought was the love of your life doesn’t want you.” “I understand more than you think.” I wanted to die.
- In other news, I really thought Mark was the perfect man…right up until he was like, “hey, Donna. I’m unhappy with my wife and I totes miss you, wanna bang?” Or whatever it was that he said.
- “Robert, she’s a grown woman. She made a decision,” The 100 billionth time’s a charm, as far as Rachel explaining her power to Mike goes.
- Between the rooftop scene and the ending, Sarah Rafferty stole the show again. They really ought to just rename SUITS. Just call it SARAH. The way she portrayed Donna’s obvious discomfort and inner war during that Donna-Paula scene wasn’t exactly shabby, either. Why the women needed to have what Paula seemed to want to make a showdown, though, I’ll never know. She does realize Donna isn’t Harvey’s keeper — or even his secretary — so she doesn’t need to be asked to keep tabs on his location when she’s coming to his office for business reasons, right? And did Paula really need to mark her territory by telling Donna she already had reservations at Harvey’s favorite restaurant, rather than just thanking her for the suggestion and leaving?
- I never want to hear about Sheila Sazs making Louis Litt’s “Viking mast unfurl to full sail” again. But hey, at least we’ve never have to hear Paula talk like that.
- While it was great seeing Rachael Harris again, it was also disappointing to have SUITS “100” air without Gina Torres. This series is not the same without her, and a big event episode should have demanded her presence. Even in the form of badly-edited-in old footage.
- Again, though, where’s that 100th episode magic? Just another case…no huge revelations…nothing major to move the characters forward. The only death was a guy most SUITS fans probably don’t care about enough to miss…Nothing. Special episode? Where? “100” was an average SUITS episode, maybe even an above average one (especially for season 7), but was it memorable in the way that, say, BONES’ 100th was? I’m not so sure.
Make sure to watch the next all-new episode of SUITS on USA, Wednesday, September 6, at 9/8c.