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Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Suits: Hell must be freezing over, because… (My thoughts on episode 2x02 The Choice)


Once again I found myself loving last week’s episode when I watched it for a lot of reasons. The main reason I enjoyed this episode so much is that I felt like the writers did a great job of incorporating the themes of loyalty and trust into basically every storyline. I also felt like the writers once again had a nice balance of drama and comedy in this episode, which is something that the writers have always exceled at from where I’m standing. Also, I feel like all of the writers for Suits have always done a fantastic job of writing consistently good episodes ever since the show started last year. It’s been my experience that there are a lot of shows on TV that start out great, but they often times soon become a disappointment to a certain degree. Some shows can be a real rollercoaster in terms of the overall quality of each season, but if the first two episodes of season two of Suits are any indication of what this season is going to be like, it looks like this season is going to be just as great as the first season was, if not better.

One of my favorite moments from the episode was definitely the scene where Mike and Jessica were in the elevator together and Mike was trying to thank her for letting him keep his job and saying that he will try his best to make her proud as if he were her son. My favorite part of that scene was when he realized how absurd what he just said was and was trying his best to say that he knows that it’s not possible for him to be her son without explicitly mentioning the reason he couldn’t be her son was because she’s African American and he’s not. It’s always very funny to me when Mike says weird and borderline inappropriate things like that and then awkwardly tries to backtrack from what he just said.

This episode answered my question about whether or not Mike was going to acknowledge the message that Rachel left on his answering machine. He did, and personally I thought it was weird that Mike was listening to her message on what looked like an iPod. If he was listening to her message on his iPod, that would mean that he would have had to somehow transfer Rachel’s message onto his computer and then sync it to his iPod, which would take a fair amount of work and just seems a little on the creepy and obsessed side. Although, I suppose that he could have been listening to her message on an iPhone and was using ear buds to listen to it, but I could be wrong about that.

I have to say that I loved the kiss between Mike and Rachel. Honestly, I’m surprised how the writers’ handled their relationship. I’m both happy about how they handled it, but at the same time I’m also a little disappointed. On the one hand, I’m glad that the writers didn’t have them get together so quickly and stay together for an extended period of time, because with TV you do have to draw these kind of things out a little bit, but at the same time I’m really disappointed that they got together and then ended things all in one episode. The scene where Mike and Rachel were trying to talk about how they would handle dating each other and having a professional relationship when they’re at work was very amusing. I love how they tried to talk about setting some ground rules for their relationship while they were working on summarizing all of the cases at the firm, but kept getting interrupted and quickly had to start acting like they were discussing their work whenever someone came in the room.

The fact that the writers had Mike and Rachel start dating and then break up all in one episode kind of made me feel like I was watching one of the episodes of 90210 where Liam and Annie start dating and then break up by the end of the episode. For those who don’t watch 90210, Liam and Annie really have literally gotten together in an episode only to break up by the end of the episode or by the end of the next episode at most.

The biggest shocker in this episode for me was the fact that I actually liked Louis, and this was actually the first episode where I enjoyed watching his scenes. I found myself hating Louis almost immediately when I watched the series premiere for the first time, so I figured that hell would freeze over before I would ever like Louis even a little bit, so a part of me is wondering if hell has indeed frozen over. I don’t know if anyone else got the same vibe that I did when they were watching the scene where Louis was talking to the guy from another firm about coming to work to work for them, but I initially thought that the dialogue was suggesting that Louis was romantically interested in him until they made it clear that they were talking about business. I thought the scene where Louis finds the top-of-the-line Dictaphone (In other terms a voice recorder) that he had always wanted, which Daniel Hardman got him in an attempt to get him on his side was great. Ultimately, getting the Dictaphone as a gift from Hardman convinced Louis to stay at the firm. It will be very interesting where things with Louis and Hardman go from here. I’m guessing that he will shift his loyalty to Hardman, but he will ultimately go back to being on Jessica’s side by the end of the season. That was definitely my favorite scene with Louis in this episode and seeing his reaction to getting the Dictaphone from Hardman reminded me of a little kid opening presents on Christmas morning.

Another one of my favorite scenes from the episode was definitely the scene where Donna was hitting on Louis in an attempt to get him to work with the bank on Tom’s bankruptcy case. Donna had a lot of scenes in this episode where I felt like she really stole the scene. My favorite Donna moment was when she was telling Harvey and Jessica about all of the departments at the firm that apparently hate Harvey. That was a rather fun scene, and once again I felt like this episode really showcased the writers’ talent to find a perfect balance between drama and light-hearted comedic moments.

I felt rather conflicted about exactly how I felt about Jessica in this episode. On the one hand, I felt sorry for her having to deal with Hardman coming back and taking her office and starting to do a huge remodel on it all without telling her about it first. While I’m glad that in the end Harvey was able to help the client they were working with avoid having to file for bankruptcy by working out a deal with the bank, he did do it against Jessica’s explicit wishes. Going against Jessica wishes ended making it so the voting partners at the firm would probably never give her their vote on voting matters, especially the real estate department who previously would have always voted for her. I also felt like Jessica forgave Harvey too quickly after she told him that she felt incredibly betrayed by him and would need time to get over it. Unless the writers explore this storyline more in future episodes, it looks like she decided to forgive him after he gave her a tea cart, telling her that she’s not alone at the end of the episode. Personally, I wouldn’t have blamed her if she still felt hurt and betrayed by Harvey even after he gave her that tea tray as a peace offering. After all, in addition to Harvey’s actions in this episode, she’s already dealing with the fact that she’s agreed to let Mike keep working at the firm even though she knows that he doesn’t have a law degree and she could get in a lot of trouble because of it, especially with Hardman coming back.

On the other hand, I didn’t like how she blew Louis off, which is what initially prompted him to consider taking the job at the other firm. As much as I hated how Louis treated people in the first season, especially Mike, he does always seem to get the fuzzy end of the lollipop as one of my high school science teachers used to say, when it comes to how Jessica treats him compared to how well she treats Harvey. She later apologized to Louis for blowing him off earlier, but when she asked him what he wanted to talk to her about, he basically told her not to worry about it. The fact that he did that is part of what makes me think that Louis is going to shift his loyalty to Hardman for at least for a little while before something happens that makes him shift his loyalty back to Jessica by the end of the season.

As much as I enjoyed seeing Mike be more independent in the season premiere when he was working on the plagiarism case, I loved seeing Harvey and Mike work together and in this episode. I have to say that I thought that Elaine Cohen (the lady from the bank) who they met with was really weird if you ask me. I don’t blame Mike for being disturbed by what she said to him and Harvey. Although, I thought that Nadia Dajani did a great job playing the part. I would love to see more of her work.

One last thing that I’d like to comment on is that I feel like this episode had some really nice character development for Harvey, and I feel like the writers hinted at some details regarding Donna’s personal life. As far as I can recall, this was the first episode where they showed Harvey’s apartment, and it sounds like he’s never told people at the firm where he lives. It sounds like he really likes to keep his work life separate from his personal life based on his reactions to when Mike and Jessica visited him at his apartment. Based on what Harvey said to Mike after he broke up with Rachel, it sounds like there’s a woman from Harvey’s past that he couldn’t be with and that he’s still trying to convince himself that someone else will come along that he will be able to be with. I’ve read quite a few spoilers for season two, and based on what I’ve read the writers will be exploring Harvey’s past this season. As for Donna, it sounds like she has been in a situation similar to Mike’s and that there might someone from her past as well that she wasn’t able to be with given the fact that she told Mike, “It gets easier.” at the end of the episode. I hope that the writers explore Donna’s personal life this season so the viewers can know exactly what she meant by that.

All things considered, this really was a great episode. Once again the writing for this episode had the perfect blend of drama and comedy. It also had some very interesting character and storyline development in the long-term sense. The only thing that bothered me about this episode is how quickly Jessica forgave Harvey and how Mike and Rachel got together and broke up all in one episode. The way the writers handled Mike and Rachel’s relationship in this episode really did remind me a lot of Liam and Annie’s relationship on 90210. That’s something I felt the writers could have drawn out for a few episodes and have Mike feel conflicted about telling Rachel everything for a few episodes before he broke up with her.

That being said, I give this episode a rating of an A-.

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