Suits attempts to reorganize the firm in more ways than one in Cats, Ballet, Harvey Specter. Here’s what happened in Suits season 8, episode 6.
One of the keys to USA‘s Suits is the intricacy of relationships inside the law firm—how they are complex but consistent, grow organically and not dramatically. This week’s episode, entitled “Cats, Ballet, Harvey Specter,” shines a light on that aspect of the series.
The episode opens with Donna Paulsen (Sarah Rafferty) approaching Alex Williams (Dule Hill) about helping her with a case for an at-risk girls charity—the idea she’s been passionate about for a little bit now. Alex can’t take the time, but hopes someone else will.
That someone won’t be Katrina Bennett (Amanda Schull), because she finds an important client stuffed into her hands by Louis Litt (Rick Hoffman) in her continued quest to make senior partner. Louis swears closing the Ford case will make her partner next quarter.
As for Harvey, he’s dealing with more of his past. Not only is he still trying to talk his brother Marcus out of getting a divorce, he finds out that Dominic Barone is selling his company to Aston Martin, and has to help old client Joan Walsh (Isabella Hofmann) with a social media problem.
Yes, this is another one of those “client wants to do something stupid, but threatens to leave the firm unless they get to do something stupid” situations.
Samantha Wheeler (Katherine Heigl) has heard about Donna’s charity work, and offers to help, but does it while also reminding Donna that no one else is going to help her. Donna reluctantly accepts the offer of assistance, before asking Alex why he told Samantha in the first place.
Alex’s response is to give Donna the giant check one of Samantha’s clients was already planning on donating to the charity. Okay, so maybe she’s being genuine.
Against his better instincts, Harvey has a meeting with the teenage “influencer” who wants to sue Joan for $10 million dollars over acne cream. The 16-year-old is just about as smarmy as Joan, as she brags about her “50 million followers.” Harvey Specter will not be bullied by a teenager:
"Harvey: You know what you’re doing, you deserve what’s coming for you, and this meeting’s over."
You know that he’s popping an Advil as soon as he gets to the car. Possibly another one when he returns to the office and is lambasted by Louis, who’s heard what happened and wants to take the case back. No, that’s not going to happen.
Suits brings us back to Katrina and her new BFF Brian Altman (Jake Epstein), who are refereeing a battle between their client and a competitor holding a grudge so massive that he’s willing to admit it on tape in a deposition. The duo are in for another late night.
Louis winds up at Dr. Lipschitz’s (Ray Proscia) office, where the conversation makes Louis decide that he and Harvey need their own couples’ counseling. Hey, there was a show on USA that tried this already; it was called Common Law. But Harvey agrees—after a nudge from Donna, of course.
Donna goes to the charity’s fundraiser and is surprised to see that Samantha is also there. The other woman says she wants to know the organization better if she’s going to represent them, and she’s suspicious about its numbers.
When she tells Donna, Donna insists on dealing with the potential discrepancy herself. But by the time she can make it to her friend’s office, Peggy has already been fired—over Samantha’s check, which she pulled back. Peggy blames Donna, who in turn blames Samantha.
"Samantha: You want the full story? They are stealing money from little girls."
That’s a pretty down note for Suits, so “Cats, Ballet, Harvey Specter” balances it out with the comedy that is the Louis and Harvey therapy scene. But like the best humor, there’s a fair bit of truth in it, because Louis expected to be told it’s Harvey’s fault and throws a tantrum when it’s not.
Not to say that Harvey doesn’t have his own issues, because fans know he has plenty. So Dr. Lipschitz offers to begin individual sessions with Harvey.
After unsuccessfully trying to get Alex to play middleman with Samantha again, Donna finds herself in the file room, where she runs into Katrina. Having seen them in the law library the night before, Donna asks Katrina if there’s something going on between her and Brian. Katrina reminds her (and us) that Brian is married. Um, Donna, not every close relationship between a woman and a man is romantic. You should know that—or do you?
But Brian is there when Katrina cracks, admitting to him that her senior partnership chance is on the line. And his choice of phrase—”not just a name on a lawsuit”—gives her an epiphany. She’s glad for the help, yet wants to make sure he goes home to his wife and baby for once. Another one of the many reasons we should all love Katrina Bennett.
Suits then circles back to the Samantha and Donna story, where they’re both apologizing to each other. Samantha admits that she has trust issues, which anyone who’s been watching Suits season 8 could figure out, before declaring she has a way to find out the truth about that charity. The duo eventually expose Peggy’s boss as the real culprit, and strong-arm him into resigning and giving Peggy his job.
Harvey sits down in therapy individually, talking about how his family is falling apart while Louis is trying to start a family—and the doctor points out to him that for once, Louis has something that Harvey does not. And beyond that, Harvey’s deeper concern is that if Louis settles down, he’s not going to be in the picture. Yes, there’s a hidden truth here:
"Harvey: Everyone leaves. Mike, Rachel, Jessica, my sister-in-law—everyone."
The final few minutes of “Cats, Ballet, Harvey Specter” involve Brian thanking Katrina for the reminder that he’s got a life outside of the office. Suits makes it clear that they’re just friends, before both Samantha and Donna, and Harvey and Louis, decide to go out for drinks. See, it all works out in the end—well, unless you’re Peggy’s boss or that egotistical 16-year-old.
If history is to be believed, TV fans are now in the middle of the first block of Suits season 8. We’re deep enough into the season that the characters should have established themselves, and stories should be clear enough that the audience knows where they’re going—and wants to go there.
This episode feels like most of the wrinkles have been ironed out from the merger, and now the team is finally going to start behaving like a team. There’s only so many episodes that can be filled with infighting (just look at the past seasons with the other merger, managing partner battles, and so on). It’s something of a palate cleanser, clearing the deck for another storyline; perhaps another common enemy that the rebranded firm can battle with in episodes 7-10 (or beyond).
There are also some solid beats here. The Harvey and Louis relationship has always been oil and water, and Suits has gotten plenty of mileage out of how they contrast each other, both for drama and comedy. Gabriel Macht and Rick Hoffman are so experienced now that they play the dynamic to perfection, and the idea that Louis has a point over on Harvey now is an intriguing one. (But do we ever want to see Harvey settled down either?)
If there’s one downer, it’s mentioning Dominic Barone without bringing back Titus Welliver. The way this episode is written, he doesn’t need to be seen, but Welliver is such a great actor and he was so good on this show that it’s a disappointment his character doesn’t return, especially when another past character does.
Suits also gives us more Katrina, which is good because Amanda Schull deserves a lot more time than she’s gotten so far. It’s refreshing that she and Brian establish that they’re just friends; there are not a lot of platonic male-female friendships on TV. Which is what makes it slightly annoying that Donna has to make Katrina question if there’s something more happening there—even more so because it’s Donna, whose own relationship with Harvey has been subject to the same doubt she’s now casting on Katrina.
Why does Suits even have to bring up the romance angle at all? The Brian and Katrina story is good enough on its own, and Donna has her own plotline with Samantha. It feels irrelevant, and awkward, too.
Speaking of awkward, positioning Donna and Samantha as new friends is interesting territory. It’s clear Samantha needs some kind of friend in the office; she doesn’t really have one yet, despite her oft-referenced backstory with Alex (and Katherine Heigl’s work history with Dule Hill). The show is clearly looking for the one person she can regularly play off of, and Donna is an easy pick given that she lost her own BFF when Rachel Zane was written out of the series with Meghan Markle’s departure.
But that’s also what makes it a little treacherous. Suits season 8 doesn’t want to give the fans an impression that they’re trying to replace Donna and Rachel with Donna and Samantha, or trying to replicate that dynamic either. Samantha is going to have to win the fans over on her own, and show that she clicks with Donna in a way that’s separate and unique from what Donna had with Rachel. The show can certainly get there; it just has to be mindful of what people’s assumptions and expectations will be.
Which is a lot of what this episode is about. Characters have their own ways of looking at each other, thinking that they know each other and expecting things from each other, and the whole point is that things have changed—like Suits is still changing.
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