The end of this week’s episode FINALLY delivered on the whole Ava murder trial storyline, and I’m ashamed that I didn’t trust the show more to know it was going to end up somewhere satisfying. What a great reveal.
We open with the traitor himself as Stephen plays the piano for Donna, but Harvey, who wants a word with Stephen, interrupts them. Harvey accuses Stephen of calling Colonel Mariga (the new witness), and Stephen defends himself by saying he only wanted to know what Cameron Dennis had on Mariga. However, the plan backfired when CD traced the call and found out where Mariga was and now actually has him as a witness. Harvey questions how Stephen found Mariga in the first place, and Stephen gives a vague non-answer about connections, which was the first hint of his deceit. Harvey ends the conversation by ordering Stephen to butt out and threatening to beat the shit out of him if he doesn’t comply. He certainly doesn’t renege on that promise by the end of the episode.
We cut to the office, where Mike and Harvey are discussing the situation. Cameron has apparently granted access to Mariga, which means that Mariga will say exactly what Cameron wants and that Mike & Harvey need to find a way to break him. Jessica storms in with a witness list that Cameron provided that lists Mariga, which proves he’s not bluffing about having him as a witness (which is news to her). Harvey tells her that it’s all Stephen’s fault, but this doesn’t deter Jessica as she berates Harvey for letting Stephen interfere with the case. Jessica passive-aggressively mentions Harvey’s deal with Darby, and Mike looks alarmed that she now knows, but he admits to her that he knows, too. Jessica commands them both to tell neither Darby nor Stephen anything more about the case.
Mike finds some dirt on Mariga for Harvey, and then brings up the fact that Jessica knows about Harvey’s deal with Darby. Harvey admits he changed his mind about Darby and that he wanted to tell Jessica because he trusts her to get over it.
We then begin possibly one of the dumbest sub-plots on Suits, ever. Louis is in the kitchen as he pours some milk for Nigel’s cat, Makado, that he’s cat-sitting. Nigel walks in, back a week early from his vacation, and he asks for Makado, but Louis lies and says that she’s not at the office, despite the bowl of milk sitting on the counter behind him. Louis claims the milk is for him and gulps it down. Heh. Louis claims the cat is getting her nails buffed, then walks out and calls Rachel, telling her “code red.” Mission Impossible-esque music plays as Rachel stealthily takes the cat out of Louis’s office and brings it to the copy room. We find out Louis wants to permanently keep Makado, but Nigel has some sort of tracking device on her and finds them both in the copy room. He orders Louis to give his cat back, but Louis tries to claim that he’s legally entitled to another week with Makdo. Nigel doesn’t have time for this BS and tells Louis he’ll deal with him later.
Harvey’s office. Donna asks if Harvey is okay, but Harvey is clearly pissed and informs her of the extent to which Stephen messed the case up. Donna looks distressed.
Cut to Colonel Mariga’s hotel room, I’m assuming? It doesn’t look familiar. Harvey, Mike, and Jessica are all there and questioning him about the murders. He claims he killed the people on the orders of Hessington Oil. Apparently a phone call occurred when Mariga called Ava and told her what needed to be done. Harvey, Mike and Jessica are all shocked at this news.
Copy Room. Stephen finds Donna and defends himself, claiming he was only trying to help. Donna is forgiving and they agree to continue their arrangement.
Harvey, Mike and Jessica confront Ava about the phone call that she didn’t let them know about. She alleges that it was only a call to set up a meeting, and besides that, it was only a formality and that she had even forgotten about it until they just brought it up. Jessica says that it doesn’t matter what the truth is; Ava looks guilty because of the phone call and no one will believe that she didn’t know about the murders.
Nigel’s office. Louis approaches him with a note that says he’s suing for ownership of Makaodo. Nigel laughs that he has no grounds, but Louis refers to the Von Trapp children and when Maria became their mother. He just made me really nostalgic for The Sound of Music, which I love yet I haven’t seen in years. Anyway, they decide to hold a mock trial to settle the matter. While I loved the last office mock trial, I can’t believe we’re seeing one held over a stupid cat. Don’t the people working there have better things to do than debate cat ownership?
Cut to Harvey, Mike and Jessica discussing tactics to win the case. Jessica believes they should go after Nick, Ava’s second in command, who set up most of the deal with Mariga anyway. Harvey objects, saying that they’ll never convince the jury that Number 1 didn’t know what Number 2 was up to. Jessica is particularly offended by this, considering Harvey’s recent betrayal, and orders him to get out.
Louis is looking for Katrina to be his attorney at the mock trial, but she’s out of town, so after some debate with Rachel, he decides to use her.
Mike finds Jessica outside the office, and tries to convince her that it’s a bad idea to pin the murder on Nick because they’d be putting an innocent man in jail, but Jessica says she doesn’t give a shit about Ava’s Number 2. Mike knowingly asks if this has anything to do with her anger towards Harvey, but Jessica snaps that it doesn’t, and orders Mike to look into why Nick turned on Ava in the first place.
Cameron Dennis’ Office. Mike comes in, willing to negotiate a settlement, but CD won’t give a reasonable one. Mike gets angry and calls CD a dick, knocking some papers out of his hand. When he goes to pick them up, he notices some things that pique his interest. He walks out of the office with a small smile on his face.
Mock Trial. I don’t feel like going into detail with this, so we’re going to breeze right through. Louis basically says that Makado was sad when he got her and now she’s happy. Oh and Nigel fires the guy who he hired to be his attorney and decides to represent himself.
Meanwhile, Jessica calls Darby and tells him she knows about the deal between him and Harvey. Darby claims that he only agreed to the deal so that Harvey would stay at the firm and his hope was that Harvey would eventually decide to opt out of it. Jessica doesn’t completely believe him but moves on anyway and asks Darby to get rid of Stephen. Darby agrees, but then plants the idea in Jessica’s head that the only reason Harvey confessed to the takeover was so that Jessica would turn against Darby. Jessica outwardly scoffs at this, but after she hangs up, looks pensive.
Mocktrial. Nigel portrays Louis as a mean, mean man to the associates and unfit to take care of Makado. Yawn. Our old buddy Harold shows up to testify to this. You can’t really blame him for throwing Louis under the bus, since Louis really was kind of horrible to him. Rachel asks for a recess so she can figure out how to deal with this new development.
Mike types up the files he saw in CD’s office through his genius memory, and shows Harvey. It’s a bunch of dirt on Nick that makes it seem as if he really was the one to order the murders.
Mock Trial. Harold explains Louis’s cruelty to him and admits that his old cat died.
Deposition room. Nick is there, along with Ava. Nick says that he had nothing to do with the murders and the didn’t even know Mariga –he says that Mariga came to him with a bribe and that he accepted it, with Ava’s approval.
Continuing the mock trial, Rachel now questions Harold and makes him admit that Louis’s tough love eventually paid off now that he has a good job, thanks to Louis’s nurturing. He also admits that Louis loved his previous cat. Rachel looks pleased with herself, as she should. Smart thinking on her part.
Stephen’s office. Donna enters and shows Stephen that she knows he has a copy of Colonel Mariga’s deposition, even after he was told to stay out of it. Donna is pissed that he lied to her and says that they’re done. Praise the lord.
On her way out of Stephen’s office, Donna bumps into Mike, who asks her what’s wrong. She tells him that Stephen couldn’t stay out of it, and Mike distractedly says that he’s sorry as a light bulb goes off. He walks away in a hurry.
In the aftermath of the mock trial, Nigel graciously tells Louis that the cat is his, but wants to settle. He offers the associates back in exchange for the cat. Louis is hesitant, but Rachel convinces him it’s the right thing to do. To thank her for helping him with the trial, Louis shows Rachel an envelope from Columbia Law School that he saw in the mail room–she got in! Okay, 1) wouldn’t that be delivered to her home address? And 2) so the whole Stanford drama was for nothing?? What a waste.
Office roof. Jessica admits defeat –the Nick plan didn’t work out as expected. Jessica and Harvey discuss their issues and she asks him why she told him, and he says that he didn’t want any more secrets between them. He does concede that he thought coming clean would make Jessica angry with Darby, but also says that he only helped her realize what she already knew.
Mike comes rushing into Harvey’s office, looking for Harvey and Jessica. Donna asks why, and Mike says that he figured out why Stephen was looking at Mariga’s deposition –he wanted to make sure Mariga hadn’t told the truth, which is that Stephen ordered the killings! Poor Donna, she looks so stricken. I initially thought they would end the episode right here without explaining anything, but thankfully we get a final scene in which everything is revealed.
Jessica and Harvey shows up and Mike has evidence that Stephen and Mariga knew each other back in college. Jessica puts the pieces together –when Ava came to Darby to get her pipeline built, he told Stephen to do the dirty work and order the murders. Stephen made the phone call to Mariga, who called Nick, who in turn told Ava. She thought she was paying for a bribe, when in reality, it was for the murders. Stephen showed up at the office to make sure they wouldn’t figure it out. Donna, who has been silently tearing up at this point, says that she’s sorry to Harvey. Harvey looks livid, clenches his jaw, and walks out of his office and finds Stephen in the bathroom, whom he proceeds to beat the shit out of, just like he promised in the beginning.
The beginning of this episode was bit lackluster, but the twist at the end more than made up for it. I can’t wait for the fallout to begin next week.