Suits - Recap: Donna Does "Yoga"

Suits threw a monkey wrench into Harvey’s plan to usurp Jessica tonight, but was that monkey wrench made of solid gold? Could 'Pearson Darby Specter' become a reality, or are we looking at a 'Pearson Darby Specter' situation?

Episode 5 of Season 3 of Suits, “Shadow of a Doubt,” proved that amidst a sea of complicated twists and tangles, nothing feels like a better escape plan than a fresh start. When another whopper of a secret arises that threatens the trust between Mike (Patrick J. Adams) and Rachel (Meghan Markel), will their budding romance be able to withstand more doubts? On another romantic front, will Donna’s (Sarah Rafferty) temporary “arrangement” with Stephen (Max Beesley) affect her permanent relationship with Harvey (Gabriel Macht)? What could possibly bridge the gap between the two most impenetrable figures on the Suits scene, Louis (Rick Hoffman) and Nigel (Adam Godley)? (Hint: Meow!) Lastly, will a taste of humble pie on Jessica’s (Gina Torres) part be enough to end an impending fatal blow from Harvey? Plently of answers, and plenty more! Here is the Recap and Review of Suits Season 3 Episode 5, “Shadow of a Doubt”!

This Ava Hessington (Michelle Fairley) case sure has been stretched out, hasn’t it? I somewhat like that Suits took this route during Season 3, forgoing the typical “case-an-episode” route for a more steady and ongoing set of trials and tribulations surrounding the same figures and companies. With Tony Giannopoulos looking more and more unbeatable, it seemed as thought it would take a miracle for Harvey and his team to protect Ava from the barrage of attacks against her. Mainly, the focus was on keeping Ava from rotting in jail forever due to the impending murder charges. Of course, Ava would rather spend the rest of her life behind bars, admittedly so, if it meant seeing her company free from the clutches of Tony.

USA "Suits"

USA "Suits"

To make matters slightly more complicated, Donna had the audacity to take a full hour-long lunch break this week, forcing Harvey to waste time tossing out his own trash! Needless to say, Donna and Stephen were certainly heating up. “The best damn ‘yoga’ I’ve had in a long time,” she blabbed to a curious Rachel. Louis was intrigued.

USA "Suits"

USA "Suits"

Was there anyone else who was amused by the looks Mike shot the judge while Cameron attempted to defend himself against Harvey’s allegations of foul play? That’s what makes Mike great as a character. He’s not a Harvard grad, but he can hang with the best of them having not even endured law school. He gets to pull faces, even if no one else is clued in to the humor of it all. Basically, much of the attention turned to the tape Cameron had essentially handed off to Tony, thus incriminating Ava and causing her to lose her role as head of her company. Harvey’s angle was that the tape being used as evidence was achieved in an underhanded manner and should be tossed out of the equation, especially considering that anything remotely involved with the backwards workings of the company could lend itself to harm Ava in her murder trial. In addition, even though the witnesses refused to come forward, they exist, and that’s a problem. While Harvey couldn’t get the case thrown out, he could, in the end, get exactly what he wanted; an expedited trial to force Cameron to work with no hard evidence. Remember, Harvey likes to win, not tie or walk.

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Back in the office, a ready and willing Stephen seemed to make the game all the more easier. Remember, he’s been billed as the second coming of Harvey from across the pond. First, Stephen clued Harvey in to the fact that Darby's offer to oust Jessica would still stand so long as Harvey could win the murder trial. In addition, Stephen promised that any evidence Harvey had stacked against Tony, evidence that could be used in countersuits made by Pearson Darby, would be nothing compared to his own plan. Intrigued, Harvey, who’d grown increasingly fond of Stephen, had Mike sit the bench this week regarding the Hessington case. Instead, he took Stephen to meet with Tony Giannopoulos for the first time. Rather than Harvey, Stephen, a non-citizen, threatened to sue Tony from the U.K. This would force Tony to fight the battle by defending his innocence. Remember, in the States, you’re innocent until proven guilty. For a man with such a sticky trail of messy dealings, this should have been a true threat. Tony expected an array of nasty looking evidence, but the man is a self-proclaimed “corporate raider”; someone who gets his thrills from winning in business wars rather than making money. With money as a non-issue, Giannopoulos would have no problem burning cash to cover his trail. Suddenly, threatening Tony in the first place seemed like a bad idea. Of course, the plan was never truly to destroy Tony, but rather, to convert him into a friend or ally. Cameron was always Harvey’s real enemy.

Back at the office, Jessica was not pleased with the results of Harvey’s seemingly rash plan to rough Tony up. An excessive amount of Pearson Darby clients up and fired the firm seemingly out of the blue. Of course, a little digging revealed that Giannopoulos had bought those companies merely to fire Pearson Darby. Basically, the man was flexing his power, not that Harvey seemed to worry. The worst had yet to come. Eventually, Ava Hessington revealed that Tony Giannopoulos had decided to drive her company into the ground, purposely losing millions by driving their stock down the tubes. In the end, Harvey managed to uncover that Stephen had taken their battle one step further, subpoenaing the man’s daughter and very obviously hitting below the belt. Suddenly, destroying Hessington Oil became more about sport than overthrowing Ava Hessington and keeping the company intact. Harvey, needless to say, was furious with Stephen and removed him from the case with disgust.

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Louis, meanwhile, found himself in his own state of complete and utter disgust. Nigel hadn’t stepped foot in the U.S. office for weeks, leaving the associate pool to flounder and produce shoddy work. Louis is not one to let something like the use of the word “shall” slide under the Pearson Darby roof. After having an associate redo work ordered by Nigel, Louis found himself caught off-guard when the man side-swiped him with an unwelcome visit at his mud spa, even having the nerve to bring in his own mud! A follow-up prank at the office would not go unnoticed either, but a fuming mad Louis was completely and unexpectedly won over by an unlikely ally to Nigel. Feline friends have a way with Louis, apparently. Nigel’s cat, who’s nanny took some time off, secretly visited the office this week, and while Nigel’s initial reaction to Louis’ discovery was most likely fear, Louis certainly quashed that quickly. A cat changes things, folks, especially a cat who takes their cream at a very particular temperature and needs their litter box facing a certain country. I mean, Louis Litt is a cat, essentially. In the end, Nigel would even, out of desperation, ask Louis to cat-sit while he journeyed out of town for a spur of the moment business trip. The task was a difficult one, but, needless to say, it was worth it!

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As Harvey dealt with Ava Hessington’s case, Mike decided to give working with Rachel a test run. A simple yet substantial number-fudging case would set the stage for their good cop/ bad cop (and sometimes bad cop/ bad cop) trial case. It was interesting to see Mike working alongside someone who plays off of human sympathy and empathy as opposed to ruthless cleverness and intelligence. That's not to say that Rachel isn't smart, of course, Rachel, just by reading a few natural cues from the woman they were questioning, realized that this witness to the crime at hand was in love with her superior. With a terse, “How long have you been sleeping with him?” the game changed. Unwilling to sell out her lover, Beth chose to keep her mouth shut for the time being. Rachel, understanding that the decision to turn against the man she loved was a difficult one, bought her more time. Unfortunately, things would not go so smoothly. What seemed like an easy win and a straight-up no-brainer was complicated by the man’s quick decision to marry Beth, freeing her from having to testify.

More importantly, much of Mike’s arc during Episode 5 surrounded his meeting Rachel’s parents. Rachel had initially denied Mike’s request to join them for dinner out of fear of having her tough father, another ruthless lawyer, interrogate him to the point of revealing his secret. Remember, he’s never known Mike as someone he should seriously pay attention to. Dating Rachel was, needless to say, an entirely different situation. The work they’d successfully completed as a team, though, ended up being enough to change Rachel’s mind, and a successful dinner seemed to go off without a hitch. Mike had terrific chemistry with Rachel’s parents, and Rachel even had a moment with her mother where she admitted to loving Ross.

As long as he hasn’t killed someone, it’ll all work out.

Of course, in the world of Suits, aren’t there fates worse than death? Just look at Ava Hessington, and her refusal to give up power within her own company out of sheer pride. If she would rot in a cell before that, imagine what would happen to Mike if the world discovered his deepest darkest secret; a fate worse than death, I’m guessing. Unfortunately, this looming fear was not the couple’s only problem. Rachel’s father let it slip that she’d applied to Stanford, a West Coast school, and as it turned out, she’d kept this from Mike due to her honest interest in the option.

The next day, the two would argue in the office, trading blow for blow regarding harboring secrets. Mike reasoned that his being honest had, in actuality, brought them together in the first place. Could a big secret from Rachel destroy them yet again? In one last meeting with Beth, the woman who’d refused to turn on her boss or to even try to convince him to return the stolen money, the two joined forces yet again. Threatening a case in Connecticut, Beth would not only be forced to testify, she’d face accessory charges and jail time. In the end, Rachel’s mention that the darkness that would forever loom over Beth’s relationship, the weight caused by the fear of her lover getting caught, pressured her enough to convince the man to give back the stolen millions. Mike, realizing that their current situation was a very similar predicament, apologized to Rachel that evening, and Zane offered her own back. California would be a fresh start, but the two are together in the here and now. The future will wait for Mike and Rachel, it seems.

But what would become of Donna and Stephen? Following Harvey’s explosive argument with her new flame, Donna gave Stephen the cold shoulder. Donna had previously come clean to Harvey, and Specter was quite gracious with his reception of the truth surrounding her relationship with Stephen. Stephen, on the other hand, had thrown their relationship in Harvey's face the moment Harvey had gotten upset over Stephen's foolish below-the-belt attack against Tony. In the end, Stephen made changes to his arrangement with Donna. Well, he proposed changes if Donna would have him. Donna, on the fence, ended up finding her answer in none other than Louis, who noticed that she’d lost her special “yoga” glow. Work should never get in the way of yoga, but no, Louis, you’re not invited. You have a cat to take care of anyway!

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Episode 5 of Season 3 closed with what I teased at the beginning of this recap. Harvey, recognizing that trusting Stephen’s judgment over Jessica’s was a mistake, joined forces with Pearson, and the two concocted a scheme that would save Ava Hessington one way or another, whether she'd like it or not. If she would hand her shares over to Tony, essentially selling her company, she could still cut a deal to remain in control, at least, eventually. You can, of course, run a company without owning it, and with Pearson Darby behind her, she could always eventually go back to court in the future. The true issue with Cameron’s secret dealings with Tony ended up rising to the surface. Tony, on record, admitted to being left alone with the tape that counted as hard evidence, even if he didn't admit to meeting with Cameron. Meaning, it would have to be tossed out regardless. Why would Tony admit to underhanded dealings when Cameron could simply be held to blame? Cameron, however, refused to back off of the case. Ava, on the other hand, found Jessica’s argument compelling. Remember, Jessica went through a very similar situation with her own firm. Merging was far from her first option, but she’d survived. Ava would eventually agree to the terms.

In the end, Jessica appeared to have had a change of heart, recanting her Season 2 statement that Harvey was not ready to be a partner by offering him his name on the door. “Pearson Darby Specter” would go up in the morning, but as Harvey noted, was this a chess move or a genuine gesture of remorse? We’ll have to wait and see. Will Harvey take the offer or simply allow Jessica to help him dig her own grave until she’s removed from the equation entirely?

What did you think of Suits Season 3 Episode 5, “Shadow of a Doubt”? Is Jessica being genuine or is she privy to Harvey’s plan? Will Mike and Rachel make it work if she ends up across the country? Do you like Louis and Nigel better at odds or as friends? Will Donna and Stephen work things out?

Thanks for reading my Recap and Review of Suits Season 3 Episode 5, “Shadow of a Doubt”!