This week we see some good ol’ team effort as whole gang teams up to carry out the dissolution, but Scottie shows up and complicates things a bit. In the meantime, Mike and Rachel consider moving forward in their relationship, but it doesn’t exactly go as expected.
We open in Rachel’s apartment. Clothes are strewn everywhere as Rachel greets Mike with a cup of coffee. He tells her she shouldn’t have woken up early, but she adages, “The couple that wakes together…” Mike, hilariously lost: “Bakes together?” Rachel: “Stays together.” I personally prefer the baking. Rachel proceeds to seduce Mike and they hop back into bed.
Outside Donna’s apartment, Harvey greets her with his car. She’s surprised at his presence, but he declares that they need to celebrate and tempts her with a new Hermes handbag, saying, “You can never have too many handbags.” I’m glad Harvey understands.
At the office, Louis approaches Jessica and asks to handle the dissolution. He says that she’s too angry about the whole thing, so she won’t have the same cool and collected demeanor as him when handling it. Jessica looks intrigued, when Harvey walks in and hands her Darby’s proposed plan for splitting the assets. Jessica tells Harvey that Louis suggested he run the negotiations, but Harvey counters that Louis also suggested they make the firm mascot a badger. Louis: “The badger is a noble and fearsome creature.” Heh. They continue to bicker like children until Mother Jessica steps in asks to speak to Harvey alone. She tells him that he can’t belittle Louis anymore since he’s now name partner, and that he has to show Louis some respect. Harvey acquiesces, and Jessica reveals that she plans to use both he and Louis to get the dissolution done the way she wants.
Harvey and Mike walk down the hallway as Harvey lets Mike in on the plan –the strategy is to take as many of Darby’s clients as possible so they can generate more revenue, as the revenue determines who gets what at time of closing. They mull over which client they should focus on and decide on Samsung.
Louis revisits Jessica and she accepts that he’s “been on the sidelines way too long.” Amen, sister. Give the guy a storyline. She officially allows him to handle negotiations, but on the condition that he plays fair. Louis is confused, but Jessica says that she wants him to be fair so that Darby doesn’t notice them going after his clients. Louis is thrilled that Jessica has let him in on a plan between her and Harvey.
Kitchen. Mike is drinking a bottle of coconut water he took from Rachel’s fridge, and she OCDs that she doesn’t like it when he drinks directly from the bottle. Looking as if she can’t help herself, she also brings up that he left his coffee mug on the wrong side of the sink. Mike, understandably, is a little annoyed with the nitpicking (although it is her apartment, so I suppose she can say whatever she wants) and tells her he has better things to do than think about coffee cup placement.
We cut to Katrina and Louis, who are discussing the weirdness of Jessica’s request to handle the negotiations fairly. Katrina says that if Jessica wants compromise, she should hire “a mediator, not a gladiator.” Is that a subtle Scandal reference? I’m going to pretend that it is, because I can see Katrina worshipping Olivia Pope. They find Nigel in the conference room, and he says he’ll start negotiations. He throws letters onto the table that Louis wrote to Mikado and they’re unopened. You can see Louis start to unravel as he gets furious, shouting that everything is on the table, including client list allocations. Whoops.
Meanwhile, Harvey meets Scottie outside the office and Harvey gathers that she’ll get her name on the door if she can beat him at the dissolution negotiations. Harvey doesn’t seem too bothered and says he can beat her, but Scottie claims she was distracted before (by him) and now she knows he has no feelings for her in that way, so she can kick his butt.
Cut to Mike and Rachel, also outside the office. Mike apologizes for snapping at her earlier and reasons that it was because he feels like a guest at her apartment. Rachel says they can’t go over to his because she always pictures the time she caught him sleeping with his married friend, but Mike says he has a solution. He takes her to his grandmother’s apartment and asks her if she wants to move in together. Mike is super sweet about the whole thing and tells her she can take her time deciding, which is great. I hate those TV boyfriends who constantly give ultimatums (but looking at next week’s preview, I think I jinxed it because it looks like Mike behaves like a complete asshole!).
Back at the office, Louis looks frightened as Harvey barges in and berates at him for screwing up. Louis defends himself by saying Nigel went after Mikado, to which Harvey yells, “What the hell is Mikado?!” Ha! His delivery on that line really made me laugh. Nigel uncomfortably explains that Mikado is a cat, to which Harvey looks increasingly like he can’t believe what he’s hearing. Harvey mistakenly thinks Nigel tortured Mikado, but Louis clarifies that he didn’t read him Louis’s letters. Harvey’s expression in response to this is priceless. Louis says he’s sorry and that he lost his head, but Harvey is still angry and points out that he lost the one shot he was given, leaving Louis looking devastated.
Harvey and Jessica discuss the current situation. To recap (which is what I’m here for!), the client list is locked, so they can’t steal any clients, and revenue from new clients doesn’t count, so they have no way of generating more revenue. Jessica proposes a loophole –they get one of the companies that owe them money to pay sooner so they can get the revenue in. Mike pops in and lets them know that Folsom Foods is the perfect client for this idea, but Folsom Foods is Robert Zane’s client, so they have to deal with him.
We segue to the golf course, where Mike shows up in sunglasses, solidifying my theory that everyone looks hotter in sunglasses. He finds Robert Zane, and offers a deal –move the payment up a fiscal quarter in exchange for a 20% cut on the fee. Zane refuses for basically no reason, and admits that he’s being a dick. Well, knowing is half the battle, buddy. Mike semi-threatens him by asking how he thinks Rachel will react when she finds out about the whole thing, but Zane doesn’t really look moved.
Louis’s office. He’s folding a paper crane, because of course he would know origami, when Katrina walks in and asks what happened. Louis admits defeat, but Katrina comes up with the same plan as Harvey, Mike and Jessica did –get one of the existing clients to pay sooner.
She also hands him a gift; it’s a mug that says ‘You just got Litt up.’ Oh my god, you guys. How great is the mug? And according to Rick Hoffman himself, you can buy one for yourself here at the NBC Universal store! If I said I hadn’t already bought one, I’d be lying. Go stock up on Louis memorabilia. Anyway, the amazing mug rejuvenates Louis and he goes off to acquire some new revenue.
We cut to Louis at Giannopolis HQ and he meets with Gio’s assistant once again. Louis has relocated the assistant's finances extremely successfully and proves his skill. The assistant is impressed, but still won’t let him have a shot with Giannopolis, saying that to Gio, Louis is a nobody.
Office. Apparently Zane caved and a check from Folsom Foods arrived, with everything they owe the firm. Harvey gives Mike props for the negotiation, and Mike looks simultaneously pleased with himself and a bit guilty, considering the tactics he used.
Harvey enters his apartment, where Scottie is waiting for him. Scottie asks him to exclude the Folsom Foods payments from settlement calculations. Harvey is initially unswayed, but Scottie pleads with him, saying that she can’t afford to get screwed over like that and that she’ll owe him. Harvey seems touched.
Rachel’s house. She discusses moving in with Mike with her mom when her dad comes in and tells her about Mike’s visit to the golf course to see him and the method he used to get the Folsom Foods settlement in advance.
This, of course makes Rachel angry and she heads over to Mike’s apartment so they can fight for the 1234802th time this season. Look, I get that Mike shouldn’t have used her name to get his way on a business deal, but does it really warrant this sort of reaction from her? Mike, to his credit, offers to apologize to her dad, but Rachel sees it as more offensive to her than to her dad, who actually loved the tactic. This leads to an argument about living together and Rachel ends it by saying she still needs more time.
Harvey’s office. Jessica enters, asking why he excluded the Folsom Foods payment, and Harvey admits that he did it on Scottie’s behalf. He explains that if they screw Darby over right now, it’ll come to haunt them later. He also defends Scottie’s trustworthiness, saying that she wouldn’t do anything to manipulate him.
In Louis’s office, Katrina is giving him a pep talk. Louis is despondent over failing with Gionnopolis, and she advises him to go to Harvey to get the deal done.
We cut to Donna as she puts down the phone, looking slightly shocked. She walks into Harvey’s office and tells him that Hessington Oil just fired them. Harvey immediately jumps to the conclusion that Scottie betrayed him. Donna tells Harvey not to act rashly and to call Scottie and give her the benefit of the doubt. Harvey throws this back in her face, referring to what happened when she gave Stephen the benefit of the doubt. He immediately looks chastised and apologizes, but says that he is not going to call Scottie and cry about it when she played him; instead, he’s going to get back at her. I’m pretty sure newborn infants could see where this was going.
Louis finds Harvey and tells him about Giannopolis, saying that Gio is almost ready to say yes but won’t do it to him –he needs Harvey. A quite dramatic soundtrack starts up in the background as Harvey tells Louis that he respects him and compliments him as a valuable member of the firm. Louis looks all choked up, which is cute. Harvey and Louis go to see Gio together.
Mike goes to Harvey’s office looking for him, but Donna tells him he went to go see Giannopolis with Louis. Mike then discusses his relationship troubles with Donna, who gives him some standard, solid advice about giving Rachel some time to figure it all out.
Harvey and Louis find Gionnopolis and convince him to pay them upfront, in exchange for certain financial benefits that Louis can arrange. Harvey seals the deal with an offer of dinner in Chicago with Michael Jordan. Gio accepts, and Louis puts on these weird and hilarious sunglasses before walking away. He just made me question my entire sunglasses theory.
Rachel’s office. Mike enters and tells her that he’ll give her as much time as she needs, but Rachel drops the bomb that she got into Stanford. Mike looks shocked and doesn’t offer any sort of congratulations, which is so rude. Even if you’re personally not thrilled with someone else’s good fortune/accomplishment, you still outwardly congratulate them. Basic manners, people. Stanford’s a big deal for Rachel so Mike should suck it up and stop being such a baby.
Anyway, Scottie comes to see Harvey and is angry at him for screwing her over after she came to him, but he brings up Hessington Oil. Because this is television, Scottie, of course, did not cause the firm to get fired and Harvey wrongfully accused her, blah blah. Scottie criticizes Harvey for not simply calling her (which is exactly what Donna said) and decides that she won’t allow the dissolution to happen. Jessica walks in validates Scottie’s story; Scottie didn’t get them fired, but Ava Hessington did. Not only did she fire the firm, but she is also suing them for malpractice. What a vengeful little thing.
Next week is the summer finale and it looks intense! I only hope it’s as good as last season’s.