Mike decides his future, but what happens when a turn of events changes that future? Check out our Suits season 3, episode 15 recap!

Man down!

Poor Louis, he’s wallowing about his break up curled up on his couch – no condition to be a first-class lawyer. Katrina checks in, concerned about his well-being. Louis, taking a day off work? This is serious. And when Jessica comes charging into Katrina’s office looking for him, she isn’t feeling sympathetic.

Former partner Charles Van Dyke shows up, wanting an increase in his dividends. Expecting Jessica’s reaction (she laughed him into the elevator), he formally requests an audit of the books, convinced they’re hiding money within the firm.

With Louis off the grid, all the work Jessica has assigned falls to Katrina. In a rare moment of vulnerability she turns to Rachel, hat-in-hand, for help in completing the tasks. They make a good team, but when they don’t effectively navigate the tricky loopholes in the bylaws, Charles ends up tripling his offer before taking Jessica to court.

Jessica, with fire in her eyes, calls Katrina out, then tells her to “pack up her shit,” she’s fired. Rachel then points out Katrina’s lies were simply due to her loyalty to Louis. And at Pearson Specter, you can’t be fired for being loyal.

Jessica makes a house visit to Louis. She plays to his love for the firm — “Van Dyke is trying to get into Pearson Specters pants” — so what is Louis going to do about it? Fight back. Through some more loopholes – becoming an LLC – he can negate Van Dyke’s charges.

Perhaps Rick Hoffman’s best line of the episode, if not the season: “My firm is under siege, so don’t you tell me what I can and cannot do!” Louis Litt is back, ladies and gentleman!

When Van Dyke hired Jessica to the firm, many years ago, he had a list. And on that list, there was an asterisk next to Jessica’s name – she was hired for the race and gender diversity she brought to the table. I think we can all agree that Jessica – and the actress who portrays her, Gina Torres – is an amazing person, gender or race be damned.

Lawyers or bankers?

At the beginning of “Know When to Fold ‘Em,” Rachel and Mike rendezvous in the file room where he tells her about the investment banking job. Rachel evades telling her boyfriend what to do. Of course, when Mike then tries to tell Harvey, Harvey comes in with a bigger problem – the potential jeopardy of their client’s IPO.

Case-of-the-week opponent James threatens to release the report about Harvey’s client and the hazardous toxins they use in their children’s playgrounds, even if its validity is iffy at best, it could ruin the stock price of the company’s IPO.

James’ Achilles heel? Gambling. Harvey wants to bring Mike to gamble with James that night, but Mike was planning to get drinks with Jonathan Sidwell, the investment banker. Harvey sits down at a table with James, betting large sums and surprisingly (not really), Harvey wins. Instead of cleaning out James’ pockets, he’s willing to walk away from the $100,000 in chips on the table in exchange for settling the case.

It’s the thought that counts?

Harvey feels bad about what happened with Louis and apologizes to Scottie upon her return to town. She’s frustrated that he won’t tell her why he sided with Louis – we know it’s because he covered for Mike a few weeks ago – but Harvey tries to impress upon her that he can’t tell her.

Scottie is trying to pry open Harvey’s personal emotions with a crow-bar, but everything with Harvey is so secretive, they just blow up at each other again. Harvey is snippy, and angry, which covers the hurt about Mike’s betrayal. Harvey wants to tell Scottie about Mike and it’s driving him crazy that he can’t. He knows, deep down, he can’t. He can’t take that risk, that huge leap of faith, that Scottie would never breathe a word of the felony.

Mike, meanwhile, is at drinks with Jonathan, who denies all of Mike’s negations (higher salary, longer vacation). He wants someone with him who kicks some ass. If Mike were to take the job right then and there at the bar, he’d negotiate out of good faith. Of course, Mike isn’t ready to commit.

Should Mike pick up a new sport?

Harvey’s opinion about the job offer? “You’ll still be in the majors, it’ll just be a different sport.” While Harvey seems supportive of his protege, his face falls the moment Mike leaves the room, suggesting he is not as happy as he let on.

It’s not Rachel’s place to tell him what to do, but yeah, she wants him to take the job. “Everyday you go into work with the possibility of being caught and it’s eating away at you. If you stay there, it’s just not going to change.”

Donna asks if Mike realizes everything Harvey has done for him, his career, and his life. Of course he does, but Mike doesn’t want to live his life like this anymore, and she realizes that too. So with final parting words, in true Donna fashion, she says, “You better be the best goddamn investment banker this city’s ever seen.”

Instead of settling the case like James was strong-armed into the night before, Harvey suddenly finds himself in danger of facing the bar for potential collusion among lawyers on a case. Big uh-oh for Harvey, who now must settle for $2 million or face disbarrment, or worse if they find out about Mike’s fraud.

Once again, Mike wants discuss his job offer, but Harvey comes in with the bigger problem. Harvey instructs Mike to go to Lola Jensen, have her hack into the bar and put him in there.

In the eleventh hour, Mike comes up with a third option between hacking into the bar and leaving – taking James down. It’s still his last day as a lawyer, but it may be James’ as well. The crimes he committed – illegally taking money – is grounds for disbarrment. And just like that, it is the quickest way to get him to drop the suit.

After all that, Mike does go to Lola, and becomes a member of the American Bar Association and decides to stay at Pearson Specter.

Next week:

Mike gets arrested and it seems everyone’s worst fears come true.