We love Suits for its complex and layered characters, but has Louis Litt become more than just an inter-office rival for Harvey and Mike?
Growing as a foil to Harvey’s jovial side of the firm, Louis Litt took a sharp turn on the Suits‘ mid-season 4 premiere last week, “Enough is Enough.” The title of the episode alone is even a line of dialogue Harvey mutters to Mike when he hears about the mountain of paper/busywork Louis has buried Mike under.
We have loved this character in the past. There are qualities that make him sympathetic towards viewers, and often times he plays off Harvey and Jessica’s strong duo with a sense of hurt that we can empathize with, if not recognize ourselves. When he has a big win for the firm, when he coins “Litt up!,” when he and Donna have amazing scenes bonding over their lives outside the firm, these are times we’ve thought “Louis isn’t so bad, finally I can grow to like him.”
Thinking back to season 1, he wasn’t as prominently included in the storylines. He was the man who tried to instill a sense of fear in Mike, but it rarely worked when Mike had Harvey fighting – and winning – for him. As the show has worn on, he’s become a crucial character, there’s no doubt about that, but he may have a crossed a line last week that will be hard to retreat from.
In “Enough is Enough,” Louis doesn’t believe Donna when she says she’s still being friends with him because she wants to. He thinks she is being nice so he’ll keep his mouth shut. Donna is well-aware of the power he wields at this moment, but their relationship has be built on genuine, mutual respect for one another – it goes beyond the walls of the firm.
Louis and Harvey’s past is well-known at this point. They started at the firm together as associates, and have worked up the ladder together until a point: Harvey became senior partner, and then name partner, with relative ease, and Louis was stuck in junior partner purgatory. He then had to battle against Jessica (who does play favorites, but it’s easy to when this is a fictional show) to become senior partner. And then of course, last week’s episode was centered around him become name partner with so much resistance, it’s a miracle his name made it on the door without any bloodshed.
To Louis, the world is out to get him more often than not. He wears his emotions on his sleeve, as if he watches Harvey, Mike, Donna, Jessica, Rachel, Sheila, and everyone else play in the sandbox while he’s excluded. Louis is holding a lot of hostility towards these people right now, turning his friends into his enemies. As of this writing, post-episode 11, pre-episode 12, Katrina, his loyal and whip-smart associate, is staying by his side. Unfortunately, some dramatic irony hints that that might not be the case for long.
Is it easy to hate Louis right now? Absolutely yes – he doesn’t give viewers a reason to support him unless you have a seriously strong moral compass and think it’s about time Mike and his illegal actions get their comeuppance – in which case, kudos to you for stick with this show for so long.
While we discuss the merits of the character, let’s not forget the incredible actor who plays him: Rick Hoffman. It would be easy for other actors to play this man simply, but Rick has embodied Louis with a deep, and layered complexity that is admirable. His performance as Louis allows the character to toe that delicate line between “I, as a viewer, feel sorry for you,” and “man – what on earth are you doing?”
So where do we go from here?
Can Louis redeem himself in the eyes of the Suits viewers and the firm’s employees? At this point, Pearson Specter Litt might be too fragile for anyone to take down Litt, so they will have to be patient and ride this wave out a little bit. To answer the question posed in this headline, has Louis become the out-and-out villain on the show? There isn’t much evidence to suggest otherwise, until the FBI and various governmental agencies come ’round, poking their heads in everybody’s business again.
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