Patrick J. Adams Talks Season 6 Premiere of Suits: Expect Less Rachel, More Harvey, and a Jumpsuit

TNWU recently participated in a conference call with Patrick J. Adams to discuss what fans can expect in the season six premiere of Suits, as the writers take us into unfamiliar waters with Mike Ross (played by Patrick J. Adams) in prison while the rest of the gang tries to hold onto the ailing firm.

 

Mike’s a good guy, even though he’s technically a con, and he can be a little over trusting. Can you talk about how that’s going to affect things moving forward this season? Is his willingness to trust going to bite him in the butt?

I think one of the big pitfalls of Mike is that what you touched on, is that he falls for a good sob story pretty quickly and he can be sort of be naive when he hears about somebody’s personal tragedy. I think that sort of sets us off really nicely on the sixth season and sets up for who he can trust and who he can’t trust. I think it’s a lesson that, in prison, he’s only going to need to learn once which is sort of great for Mike. 

He spent six seasons trying to learn that he can’t always fall for the first sob story that he hears, that he kind of always falls into the trap that the consequences aren’t as extreme as they’re going to be in prison. You know, this is a place where there’s really no room for error and he makes a pretty extreme error in the first episode. So he’s got to do everything he can to try to make up for it and be more prepared the next time around.

Will we see Mike in prison all season or will this be resolved in a few episodes?

(laughs) I can say that it is not resolved quickly but it is something that we are working to resolve. Obviously, after being in prison for a night – I think anyone who is in prison wants to get out as quickly as possible. Mike is fortunate that he’s a very smart guy and he is fortunate to know Harvey Specter who is also pretty good at what he does and them together, you know, we spent five seasons watching these guys come up with creative solutions to what seemed like impossible problems.

That’s no different here. They get to work very hard over the course of the season to try and come up with creative ways to get him out of there as quickly as possible and to make sure that while he is in there, he stays alive. So it is a season-long journey, and him being in that jail cell is a big part of season six. It’s not something we’re going to solve quickly or easily.

Despite having a lot of differences, Harvey and Mike have always worked really well together and they’ve built up this really strong foundation in a relationship. How is that going to change now that Mike is in prison and they can’t work together the way that they are used to?

I don’t necessarily know that it changes their relationship or the way that they work necessarily changes too much. I mean, Harvey is the only person that can come to visit him in prison because he’s his lawyer. So it’s sort of like the context of them working together is a little different and where they are doing most of their meetings is a little bit different, but the way that they work together is similar to what people have experienced.

I think consequences are right. Stakes could not be higher than they’ve ever been and Mike’s life is being threatened pretty regularly. His behavior in the prison is really dangerous for Mike. But the way that they come about trying to solve this problem is what people will recognize from other seasons of the show and fans will get to see them both working harder than they’ve ever worked. They’re making sure that Mike stays safe and hopefully gets out of prison before two years is up.

Are Mike and Harvey going to continue their snarky banter this season at all?

I think Mike realizes that once he’s in prison, Harvey is his best hope and chance of getting out of there. You know, there’s always a good rapport between the two of them. I think it’s a little less of the playful banter given that the stakes are so high this season. But I think there’s definitely the snarky quality. I think at times, they have a difference of opinion on the best way to go about doing what they do.

I think that’s when Mike and Harvey are kind of at their best and that’s when the conflict is the most interesting. It’s when you have these two characters who are both really smart, really good at what they do but they are coming at the same problem from different angles.

What’s great about this plot line is that there’s a world – there’s a side of the problem that Harvey doesn’t necessarily have access to which is the world in prison. So they’re trying to solve the same problem but Mike has to work from inside the prison and do what he can from the inside while Harvey is doing what he can from the outside. For the show, that really opens us up to a lot of different characters, a lot of different worlds and it allows for the story of trying to get Mike out to be really extensive and complex and not just that it’s one world.

Earlier you mentioned that Harvey is the only one that can see Mike because he is his lawyer, so does that mean we won’t see Rachel and Mike scenes?

I think that Mike and Rachel were on the rocks and that they were dealing with a heavy situation in that Mike was going away but in some ways, in my opinion, their relationship, even though it was so strange and they decided not to get married at the last moment, in a lot of ways, it’s never been stronger. I think there’s a lot of love there. There’s a lot of trust. There’s a lot of faith that when this thing was done they would find their way back to each other. And so there is, obviously because of the story, there’s not a ton of Mike and Rachel stuff shot so far.

But it’s really – there’s the presence of Rachel in Mike’s life and the effect that she has on him and the determination that she gives him for really wanting to get out of here and get back to her. That’s what is driving him even though, while they’re not so much together, the need and desire to get back to each other are so strong over the course of the season that it’s a real driving point for Mike.

We’re introduced to new characters. What can you tell us about the correction officer and his relationship with Mike? How does he change Mike?

Yes, I think that character is really there to help Mike go through the process of taking responsibility for what he’s done. It’s something he had already begun the process of by basically taking the bullet for his friend in deciding to go to prison in the first place. But there’s still, I think, some part of Mike that believes he really doesn’t deserve to be there or that, you know, he’s different from everybody else in there.

And I think that character is there to put Mike in his place a little bit and say, you know, you did something really wrong and until you really take responsibility for that, not just in actions, but sort of in your heart and in your soul and begin to make amends for that, you’re not going to get anywhere. You’re just going to kind of be the same person. So I think the character is really there to have this prison storyline be something that’s not just sort of plot driven but also character driven.

Hopefully, once Mike does get out of prison, he just doesn’t feel like he served his time because that was what was expected of him but he served his time because it’s what he had to do in order to move on with his life.

Watch the season six premiere of Suits tonight at 9pm EST on USA.