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SUITS Recap: How (Not) To Support Your Family

Shana Lieberman

Photo by: USA Network

If SUITS has had one consistent theme throughout its eight seasons, it’s been that of Insert Firm Name Here as a family unit. In “Stalking Horse,” one of the so-called family’s longtime members (in)conveniently forgot what it meant to have faith in the guy who has always come through for her, regardless of how many times it meant risking his own neck. On the opposite side of the spectrum, the newest addition to the family was willing to go the extra mile to make sure one of her own would never have to live in fear again.

How not to be an “empowered woman.” At this point, there’s probably not much that can be said to make sense of Donna Paulsen’s arc in SUITS’ eighth season. In fact, ever since viewers asked for more background for the character, the writing has become inconsistent to the point of madness, turning Donna into a parody of all the things that made folks fall in love with her in the first place. Donna used to be wise; now, she offers up relationship advice while being completely incapable of anything resembling intelligence in her own. She used to care about her family; now, she puts men she’s been on a few dates with ahead of the very same people who would rather die than see her in danger.

And, once upon a time, she was a woman of her word. But now, it seems, she’s perfectly fine with making promises she doesn’t intend to keep.

When Harvey Specter’s client, Simon Lowe, expressed interest in having Donna’s instant “great love,” Thomas Kessler, as an anchor for his 20 new malls, Harvey immediately saw the conflict of interest. Through Alex Williams, the firm had already negotiated a solid deal for Kessler; and representing both sides of this kind of litigation was a terrible idea.

Further complicating the issue was, of course, Donna’s morning announcement that she was seeing Thomas. But clearly, that stunted conversation was just about letting a name partner at Insert Firm Name Here know that the COO was involved with a client and not, you know, Donna playing some sort of game with the feelings that she and Harvey totally don’t have for each other.

Since Lowe was offering better terms, though, Harvey was able to get Alex and Thomas on board; so, seemed like everything was going to work out, conflict of interest or not. Two lawyers, two clients, a handshake, done deal. Right? Wrong.

It turned out that Simon was just using Thomas as a stalking horse to woo Restoration, and that whole rookie mistake of “oh, we don’t need contracts. Let’s just shake hands” (or whatever the line was) came back to bite everyone — especially Harvey. His skeevy client threatened him with retaliation if he shared the privileged information of his screwjob with anyone. Which, of course, Harvey did: first with Alex and, later, with Donna.

…can we not with the “I want to take my boyfriend of five minutes out to celebrate his new deal, so I’m demanding you give me privileged information,” though? No? Ok. Thought I’d ask.

Once she learned what she had demanded to know, Donna berated Harvey for putting her in a “shitty position,” to which he had an actually accurate assessment of the situation as a comeback: “No, Donna. Simon put us all in a shitty position. I’m busting my ass to get us out of this. I just need you to trust me.” Donna said she’d trust Harvey, but as soon as she’d had a few sips of wine and listened to Thomas boast about business on a date — so much for the whole separating work and pleasure idea, yet again — she ran out of that trust.

One secret phone call, a promise to have faith, and cuddle time with Mr. Right Now later, and Donna forgot about said promise. She told Thomas everything, and the diarrhea hit the fan. Big time. Forget the fact that Harvey had sabotaged Simon’s deal with Restoration, and he had Alex work on a better deal for Thomas from his original landlord. Thomas felt the need to throw his weight around via a press release, and Simon found out.

Lowe confronted Harvey and Alex, fired Mr. Best Closer In The City, and — here’s the fun part! — enlisted Daniel Hardman to sue the firm on his behalf. But everything’s fine here because Donna’s now looking out for herself and, like, totally has it all now. If “it all” means breaking the trust (and the heart) of someone who has repeatedly put everything on the line for her, that is.

But I’ll let Harvey close us out here on this one because, quite frankly, the writers had him say everything remotely important on the matter: “Then, don’t feel bad about it Donna. Get out of my office.” Wait. That’s not it. “Because you didn’t give me a chance to fix it when you said you would. You lost faith in me! For all of the time that we have been together, that has never happened.”

And there you have it. But sure, Donna, it was just that Harvey was jealous because you chose Thomas over him — unlike, you know, how he chose you keeping the job you “love” over his own relationship.

And now, the hero of SUITS season 8, Samantha Wheeler. While Harvey was busy being victimized by someone who used to care about him, Sam proved herself a worthy new member of the “What’s This Firm’s Name This Week?” family by helping Louis move past his mugging.

Louis and Sheila were shopping for expensive baby stuff for their rich friends to buy them as gifts, when Louis received a mood-killing phone call. There was finally a lead on the guy who had stolen his wallet back in the (now-forgotten, as far as most of the plot goes) first half of SUITS season 8. All Louis had to do was identify the mugger in a lineup — or so he thought. After making a positive identification, Louis learned that he would be called upon to testify against the suspect in court.

Not really sure why this was surprising to a lawyer but ok.

Because he’d had such a difficult time looking at his attacker through two-way glass, Louis couldn’t deal with even the thought of having to face the guy in a courtroom. Off he went to get Sam to validate his feelings on the matter…only to be told that avoiding court was completely out of the question. She did, however, promise Louis that she’d be with him “every step of the way,” if only he’d trust her.

Unlike certain other folks, everyone was honest here. Sam did stay by Louis’ side, right up until the very end, and Louis trusted her to do so. Because family sticks together. (Usually.)

The road to Louis’ freedom from fear wasn’t exactly smooth. The first bump in the road came when, during trial preparation, Louis couldn’t share his feelings. In an emotionally-charged scene, he finally broke down when pushed; and Louis’ mock testimony transferred seamlessly to the real, in-court version. But the case was thrown out, regardless of how gut-wrenching Louis’ courtroom confession was, because the defense was able to prove that the incriminating evidence was obtained via an illegal search.

Although it should have been, all hope was not lost. Because Samantha Wheeler doesn’t give up on the people she cares about, she came to Louis with an offer of a way to make sure that the trial wasn’t the end of this story. Initially, Louis just wanted to drop everything because he was so afraid that the mugger would want revenge; but after a particularly vivid nightmare, he decided he wanted in on Samantha’s plan to plant new evidence, after all.

Robert showed up at just the right time to talk Sam out of getting herself into trouble, though, so she found another way: slightly-less-illegal blackmail. Once again, Louis was hesitant — this plan meant potentially forcing a child out of her home — but when Sam reminded Louis that his own family’s safety was on the line, he was back in. Off SUITS’ newest Batman and Robin (Sam is clearly Batman here) went to save the day. Louis stood up to his attacker, and Sam pinned the guy down long enough to force him to turn himself in.

Robert knew something less-than-legitimate went down and, yet again, he confronted Samantha about her willingness to do the wrong thing for the right reasons. For her part, Sam was just happy that Louis was now safe and couldn’t figure out why Robert saw that as a bad thing. Robert’s answer? He was afraid it would become a bad thing for Sam.

To be continued, I suppose. Something tells me that, regardless of his reservations with regards to how she handled her business, Robert will be there to back Sam up if and when she needs his help, though. Because, you know, family.

Thoughts and prayers.

The SUITS season finale airs on Wednesday, February 27, at 10/9c on USA.

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