The Suits season 4 premiere, “One- Two-Three- Go…” shows Mike and Harvey on opposite sides of the first of potentially many arguments.
These two worked brilliantly together, so what happens when they can now anticipate each others moves? Time will tell.
First, let us begin by saying Suits season 4 is strong out of the gate with a montage of Mike, Rachel, Harvey and Jessica’s mornings set to John Newman’s “Love Me Again.”
Mike’s got a fancy black car service, while Rachel is pulling double duty as Harvey’s associate and law student, Harvey is waking up to a model in his bed, and Jessica is seen leaving a man’s apartment contently.
At work, Mike is looking to buy distribution centers and plays hardball with the owner, a man who doesn’t want to sell his company. But he makes a compelling argument.
Donna, absent from the aforementioned montage, prefers to appear the exact moment she’s needed. In this case, it’s when Jessica would rather speak to her than Rachel about Harvey’s whereabouts.
In addition to the snazzy car service, Mike also has a Donna, and her name is Amy. She warns that his boss, Jonathan Sidwell, is not in a good mood. Mike expects the deal he closed will change that, but he’s wrong.
Despite the fact the buyout would make them 30% profit, Sidwell points out they’re a hedge fund company – they need more like 50%. He threatens Mike, “Get your head out of your ass, stop saving people’s jobs and start making us real money,” or go back to being a lawyer.
If Harvey is broken up about breaking up with Scottie a few months ago, he’s not showing it. He is taking the morning off to lounge around in bed with a gorgeous woman, cracking jokes right and left and generally being on his game, even if that also includes his at-times curmudgeonly attitude.
In their first scenes of the season, Louis and Katrina seem to be getting along well. They discuss a meeting they both have, something that could put Litt’s name on the door. After a rough season, lets all hope Louis has a better time of it in season 4, but not without his fair share of shots fired – if he plays his cards right he could end up as a name partner in the end.
When Mike comes to Harvey to pitch an idea about how to take over a client’s business, Harvey’s response is less than favorable. Through Donna, we learn that Harvey simply hasn’t been respecting Mike for the person he is now – a client that they work for – and they might see what happens when Harvey degrades his former associate too much. Mike is not afraid to fire Harvey.
When Mike tells Rachel that Harvey used her to send a message to him, Rachel isn’t too cool with that. She stands up for herself to Harvey the next day, and he apologizes, acknowledging that what he did was low.
Logan Sanders, a client of Harvey’s, has recently taken over his father’s company and is looking for a hostile takeover of the same business Mike had just made a deal with and wants Harvey’s help. When he walks into Harvey’s office, saying all the right things that Mike was refusing to hear, Harvey is initially thrilled and then irritated when he realizes the company he’s talking about is Willis Industries.
Through a bunch of legalese we don’t fully understand, but because Mike brought the takeover to Harvey first, he is obligated to help Mike. But, since Mike put the firm under formal review – probation, so to speak – Harvey must drop Mike and work with Logan.
On a set design note: Pearson Specter features lots of glass walls, which is fine, but Sidwell’s Investment Group looks very similar – all glass walls. Perhaps an interpretation of the ‘people in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones’ idiom?
Jessica saw what happened between Harvey and Scottie, and she’s smarter than that to make that mistake with her own life. When Jeff Malone, the man she’s been seeing, presents her with a vague ultimatum, either she can choose her work and lose him, or she can choose her relationship with him and take a risk in hiring him to be an SEC investigator.
She goes to Harvey for advice, but he merely relays what Jeff said. She knows what happens when you mix business with pleasure, but she has to evaluate and prioritize them for herself.
Another note on set design: When Harvey barges into the grand hotel room, Mike had been interviewing perspective new law firms. It’s reminiscent of the pilot episode, where Mike stumbles into Harvey’s interviews for associates. The imagery definitely solidifies that ‘shoe is on the other foot’ power struggle the two are going through.
The way Mike works as an investment banker is the same as he worked as a lawyer – playing to the ethos of the client. It’s the way he gets people on his side and it is the way he can win them over if/when they go to battle with Harvey and Logan.
That night, once Mike anticipates Harvey’s moves, signs the waiver and therefore allows Harvey to continue to work for Logan on this case, and Mike on others, Rachel drops a bombshell. The married man she once had an affair with? She’s now working for him.
“One-Two-Three-Go…” is all about the power struggle between these two men, but like Suits overall, the game of chess continues on. As it will throughout the season.
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