Suits - Season 2 Episode 15 - Recap and Review - Normandy

The penultimate (I love getting to use that word.) episode of season 2 of Suits put an end to Pearson Hardman's financial woes. Blood has been in the water for weeks following the firm's prior buckling, but the approaching conclusion of the gender discrimination cases could see the demise of deposition-demon Harding (David Costabile). In his place, the firm could stand to gain a whole new variety of inner turmoil.

The episode opened with Mike (Patrick J. Adams) and Harvey (Gabriel Macht) watching a new PSA from the head of Folsom food's preaching his love for the opposite sex. Clearly a misogynistic phony-baloney, Mike and Harvey would need to use whatever resources the firm had left to take down Hardman's client. Unfortunately, Jessica (Gina Torres) revealed that they'd officially gone broke; the money was gone and the credit extinguished. Basically, they'd only have enough power to take on one of the cases, out of the seven or so they were focusing on at the time. Playing it smart, the duo decided to target the "Normandy" of the business's locations, Bakersfield. Just as Eisenhower had targeted the massive target of Normandy when it seemed as though his forces had just about run out, Pearson Hardman would target the easiest fish to fry; a location with the highest amount of female applicants and the lowest number of female executives.

Dana Scott (Abigail Spencer) never got married. The runaway bride found herself once again in front of Harvey in a conference room. She hadn't come back for him, though. Instead, she came back for his clients. Wanting ten cases, in addition to the Bakersield case she'd already snatched behind his back, Scotty threatened to steal everything if Harvey didn't hand a few over willingly. Thinking fast, Harvey pitched the idea to Jessica that they partner with Scotty's firm on all of the cases. Splitting their winnings would bring in less money, but the fact that she worked for a foreign firm would mean lots of free money with little interference. Pearson Hardman would get the resources, some of the money, and all of the credit. Scotty wanted this all along!

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Katrina (Amanda Schull) sure cranked up the bitch-o-meter this week. I'd always found her perfectly fine, even interesting. Playing the "fifth year" card over and over again, though, gets tiring when your best maneuver is to just barely steal someone else's innovative plan, only to execute it more quickly. If you're a fifth year, you should be five years better, if you ask me. This is law, so I guess you could argue that cleverness goes a long way. Mike was very hesitant to work with Katrina, who'd already suggested skewing information in their favor. Tension heated up between the two, as angry feelings had gone unrecognized. Mike still resented Katrina for taking the bribe in order to land a position. Katrina, on the other hand, admitted to being trapped in the job once push came to shove; she'd already made the offer when she realized Harvey had only offered her the job to save Mike's ass.

Mike realized that targeting Bakersfield was a mistake. In the end, the partnering firms decided that targeting the worst possible case to focus on would throw off Hardman. Hardman would assume they were going for the easiest win, but crushing the hardest would likely eliminate the copious other cases awaiting trial. Why would they stand a chance at winning if the location with the best case against Pearson Hardman and Scotty's partnering firm lost? Forget it, Scotty wanted to make a trip to every case on the list if only to simply drive Hardman nuts. Mike, of course, neglected to inform Katrina of the switcheroo, only to suffer her wrath when Jessica blew his cover.

Meanwhile, poor Rachel (Meghan Markle) found herself rejected from Harvard. Her application was perfect, but something went wrong. Rachel, hiding her failure from all but Donna (Sarah Rafferty), found herself beaten and battered throughout the episode. With a plate full of humiliation to deal with, and seemingly chained to her desk as a paralegal forever, she attempted to help Mike work through the case. Behind in her research, Mike found himself in hot water when Jessica scolded him for trailing behind Katrina. He took the fall for Rachel, but was obviously ticked.

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Plane sex! Harv, you sly dog, you. Harvey and Scotty "reconnected" mile-high, before landing and bumping into Hardman right away. Harvey's itinerary pointed towards Bakersfield, but Scotty's led him right to them. Mike had tipped Harvey off to the prime target for his deposition; a woman who'd undergone a hysterectomy. With no option of starting a family, the company had no reason to assume she'd "lose focus" on her career. Harvey's questioning appeared more rash than righteous, though, and he ended up looking a bit as though he were bullying the lady, much to Hardman's delight.

Katrina, once again coasting on her seniority, decided to abuse Rachel as though she were a fembot programmed to do nothing but copy things. Distracting her from finishing Mike's work, Katrina managed to take Mike's lead and run with it. Embarrassed, Rachel found herself comforted by none other than Louis (Rick Hoffman), who continued his penance this week by attempting to go to bat for his favorite paralegal. Learning that Sheila (Rachel Harris) was responsible for interviewing Rachel, Louis assumed that Rachel's rejection was a result of his falling out with Sheila. He promised to make things right for Rachel's sake.

Upset that he'd neglected to clue her in, Scotty ended up revealing to Harvey that she'd taken a tough blow the last time they'd competed. Her boss had been treating her as less valuable, and she was out to prove him wrong. If she could pull out a significant win, she'd get her name on the door. Harvey, baffled that she hadn't just been honest, dropped his insinuation that she had ulterior motives

Back in New York, Harvey was surprised to meet Dana's boss, Edward (Conleth Hill) a.k.a. Lord Varys from Game of Thrones! As it turned out, he flew in to offer more resources. Apparently, Jessica isn't the only one looking to ruin Hardman. Still, Harvey and Scotty could tell that their superiors weren't pleased with their progress thus far.

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Rachel had discovered some incriminating personal information of Folsom's for Mike, only to realize that Katrina had beaten them to it. Having distracted Rachel with unnecessary remedial tasks, she managed to capitalize on Mike's idea. Unwilling to lose his credit to Katrina, Mike and Rachel managed to hack the scanner and print the information before she could herself. Katrina's choice of assistant was a poor one, needless to say, as four coffee breaks a task doesn't get much work done. A little flirting from Rachel could have landed her a social security number, let alone a simple key-code to the copy machine's files. Katrina was fuming, but what was most important was that the team found emails suggesting that Folsom did indeed only promote that certain woman because she was unable to have children.

In a final power play, Jessica handed Edward the company's books. The two planned a merger behind Harvey's back, and Scotty had been more in the know than she'd let on. Burned, Harvey wasn't satisfied with the idea of four names on the door of his firm resulting from a deal like this, even if one of the names were to be his. Jessica and Edward hightailed it over to Hardman's loaned office to deliver the news. Legally, Edward had access to Pearson Hardman's files and to Hardman's history of embezzlement. Check mate? It seems so, yet we still have the finale!

Louis had met with Sheila to nobly defend Rachel's right to attend Harvard. After some of their signature kinky sex, Sheila admitted that she hadn't slighted Rachel because of Louis. In fact, she really liked Rachel. Rachel just wasn't good enough to get in. Sad that he'd have to tell Rachel the cold truth, Louis thought on his feet and decided to take a blow to protect her. The episode ended with Louis confessing the truth about his issues with Sheila, but lying about Rachel's rejection. Rather than extinguishing her confidence further, he informed her that she'd only been rejected due to Sheila's spite. Ah, Louis… you're the best? Well, for tonight!

What did you all think of Suits Season 2 Episode 15, "Normandy"? Are you loving the new Louis? Is Hardman down for the count? Will Harvey's name end up on the door? Who's excited for the Season 2 finale?

Thanks for reading my Recap and Review of Suits Season 2 Episode 15, "Normandy"!