'Suits' 2.01 Recap "She Knows" WWHD?

Season one of ‘Suits’ blew me away. I was thrilled when they were picked up for season two. I was afraid that I had already forgotten everything that happened last season, but thank goodness for “Previously on Suits”. If you missed it, Here is a rough overview of last season:

Mike Ross (Patrick J. Adams) is a brilliant college dropout. Mike’s childhood dream of becoming a lawyer was derailed after he was caught selling a math exam to the Dean’s daughter. Naturally intelligent, and with an eidetic memory, Mike makes a living taking tests for other people, particularly LSATs. Harvey Specter (Gabriel Macht) is one of New York City’s top attorneys who has recently been promoted to senior partner at his firm, and is forced by company policy to hire an associate. After an accidental interview with Mike, Harvey is impressed by the younger man’s quick wits, his encyclopedic knowledge of the law, and his genuine desire to be an attorney, and hires him. Due to the fact that Mike lacks a law degree, and because the firm exclusively hires Harvard alumni, they both pretend that Mike is a Harvard graduate. At the firm, Mike is continuously hounded by junior partner Louis Litt (Rick Hoffman), Harvey’s jealous rival. Mike is eventually befriended by Rachel Zane (Megan Markle), a paralegal, whose test anxiety has prevented her from attending law school, and the two soon develop a mutual attraction. Season one ends with Mike’s oldest friend Trevor betraying him and turning to Jessica and telling her the truth about Mike.

Episode 2.01 begins with Mike walking into dinner with Jessica. We flash back to Mike telling Harvey she knows. Harvey assures Mike her taking him to dinner is a good thing, since she took the last five senior partners to dinner when they were new. At dinner, Jessica asks Mike about Harvard, how he liked it, and what made him choose law. This is where we find out a little more back story on Mike. He tells Jessica his parents were killed in a car accident when he was eleven, by a drunk driver, so his grandmother took him in. After dinner, Jessica walks into Harvey’s office and he asks her what she’s hiding. She tells Harvey an allegation was made against Mike that he didn’t go to Harvard Law or to any college for that matter. She had him checked out, and of course his record came back clean. (Made sure of that last season!). She continues to tell him it’s fake because Mike never graduated from any college on the face of the earth. She tells Harvey she’s going to give him the benefit of the doubt that he didn’t know, or she’d have to fire him too. She tells Harvey to fire Mike.

Donna has to be one of my favorite characters on this show. I love her relationship with Harvey and how she always knows when something is wrong. She comes into his office and evaluates (just from what he’s wearing) what is going on. Donna figures out that Jessica knows Mike’s secret. Cut to Mike dancing in the elevator (LOL). Mike runs into Rachel and they have a cute little conversation before Mike walks into Harvey’s office. Donna leaves the room, but doesn’t turn on her intercom to listen to the conversation they are about to have. Harvey tells Mike to sit down, then they have a very brief talk, then Mike walks out dazed and confused. Donna busts back into Harvey’s office to find out if he fired him or not, but she quickly realizes Harvey chickened out. She asked why, if he didn’t fire him, was he so dazed when he left his office. Harvey said he told Mike he was proud of him.

Now, Mike is at the library speaking to the Plaintiff, Myra. He’s trying to pull a Harvey Specter steamroll trick on her, but she’s not having it. She tries to explain to him what really happened, so now it will be postponing the big merger. Harvey is in Louis’ office doing what he always does to Louis. He used his reverse psychology method. Harvey asks Louis to lay off Mike for a few days, when he knows that will just make him want to do the opposite. Jenny meets Mike outside the office and asks him about Rachel. He tells her nothing happened, and the kiss didn’t count. He knew what she was really trying to ask. He wants to know how it is different from the time that she kissed him while she was still with Trevor. She explains that she kissed him because he was who she really wanted to be with. She says that must have been the case with Rachel. He messed up by saying it “wasn’t” the case. Jenny tells him he is a fraud right before she lets him know she got her information from Trevor who told her that right before he met with Jessica Pearson to tell her Mike was a fraud.

Mike walks into Pearson Hardman paranoid that everyone knows his secret. He goes into the restroom to wash his face, but Louis is already in there. Louis piles a ton of work on him (the work Louis was doing when Harvey approached him earlier). In the ladies room, Donna and Rachel are gossiping about Rachel drunk dialing Mike. Rachel told Donna they kissed, but she hasn’t heard back from him about the message. Donna assures her that either Mike got the message and didn’t feel the same way, or he never got the message to begin with. Their girl talk is interrupted by what seemed to be some BIG news. Donna rushed out to go tell Harvey. Mike makes it to Harvey’s office and asks him if he knew. When Mike asked Harvey what their going to do, Harvey replies “We only have one choice. We have to leave the country.” Mike gets angry because Harvey is joking about his life. Harvey says “If you’re angry, you’re not panicking. So calm the hell down.” Harvey reminds Mike that there’s more than one response when someone’s got a gun to your head. Donna interrupts to share the big news with Harvey. Alicia Hardman died. The wife of Daniel Hardman of Pearson Hardman.

Louis meets Jessica by the elevators to tell her he dumped all his work on Mike. Outraged Mike is still employed, Jessica goes to find Harvey. They run into each other, but Harvey has some news that makes Jessica forget about Mike. We learn that Jessica and Harvey blackmailed Daniel to make him leave the firm, and now that his wife is dead, He will be returning. In the meantime, Mike is speaking with Mrs. Beckman about settling with Myra, because this lawsuit is holding up a billion dollar merger. Mike takes Myra the $30,000 dollar settlement check, but she gives it back explaining it hurt her feelings more than the $30K could help. At the funeral, Harvey and Jessica offer their condolences, while he explains the last five years “changed him”. Harvey wasn’t buying it, so he asked if he was coming back. The response was unclear. Harvey tells Jessica he can stop him before he got into the door if he had a little extra motivation. (Meaning, Mike gets to stay if he succeeds!!!!) Jessica says if he makes it happen, he’s got a deal.

Harvey and Mike are back at the office arguing about whether Harvey has been fighting for Mike’s job or not. Harvey says “You’re not getting fired on my watch”. Mike walks out and sees Rachel. He asks her for her help and she basically told him she was too busy to be his friend. She also said she got his message. Mike leaves to have lunch at his grandmothers house, and comes to a realization about his case. Harvey shows up at Daniel Hardman’s house with a fruit basket. Harvey went there to threaten him. He tells Daniel if he comes back, everyone even his daughter are going to find out what kind of man he is. When Daniel asked him why he was doing this to him, Harvey replied “I’m protecting my own”.

Mike brings Leslie and Myra together to discuss this mess with the rights to the book. He asks Leslie if she got the idea from Myra and if she’d consent to a polygraph. Leslie laughed and refused the polygraph until Mike reminded her she also signed a contract for her employer stating she could be terminated for refusing a polygraph. She admits she stole Myra’s idea. Myra still wont sign the form. She said she wants PUBLIC recognition. Mike stopped her in her tracks. She informed her of she went that far, they would counter sue for plagiarism because three of their previous books have the same basic outline. So she signed the form and left it alone.

Mike and Harvey are very happy with themselves until they walk into the conference room and find Daniel Hardman revealing everything to the senior partners. That was all of Harvey’s leverage. Harvey tells Mike “Go home now. Don’t come back.” Daniel is still trying to prove he’s changed. Mike meets Trevor to discuss everything. Trevor tells him they’re even. (BY THE WAY- No Trevor, you’re not even. He kissed your girlfriend. Once. Then she broke up with you to be with Mike. So what do you do? You ruined his relationship AND his career. If I had to choose, I’d say Trevor went a little overboard.) Mike recites Trevor’s Social Security number to him and lets him know that he could easily ruin his life the same way he ruined his.

Jessica tells Harvey she had better never see Mike Ross in that office again. He tells her that’s not going to happen. Harvey begins to explain he knew the whole time about him and kept it a secret. He said he’s not staying unless Mike does (AW!) and due to the recent developments, she needs him. Mike finally gets Rachel’s message but he’s interrupted by a phone call from Harvey saying “Get your ass in here”. When he arrives, there is no Harvey to be found but instead there stands Jessica. She tells him he’s not fired, but if he’s going to be here she wants to know everything. For starters, how he got Harvey to hire him in the first place. He said ask me anything about the law. She looks at him and says “You beat him?”

So! What did you guys think about the first episode back? I thought it was amazing. I’m such a fool for Patrick J. Adams. I love his character and I’m really excited to see where the rest of this season takes us. Thankfully though, This year they were picked up for 16 episodes instead of 12!! See you next week!

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