Previously on Suits: Endgame.
Suits, you’re about to lose me. Want me to tell you why? Then prepare for this review to be all about Mike and Rachel, because I can’t even be bothered with all the other crap.
Mike, I’ve said it before, has been treating Rachel like shit basically since the day they got together. Or even before that. He doesn’t deserve her, that much we know, but this episode is an exercise in how much he does not deserve her at all. First, he’s being a complete and utter asshole about her “list” of things he does that bother her. A guy with his memory doesn’t have to try and remember things, he just does, but with this, he’s actually being a wanker and choosing to display selective memory? I don’t care if this is about him feeling like a guest at her apartment, there’s no reason for it to escalate and for him to belittle her like that. She called him out on something, that’s how he reacted: he makes it about her by accusing her of making it all about him. It’s also a case in point of how they’re not ready to live with each other: if things like that cause that much drama, how does he expect to ease into running a household together while also trying to adjust to living with each other 24/7? He thinks that every time he apologises or covers up his mistakes with making a grand gesture like asking her to move into the apartment he got for his grandmother with him, he thinks it’s making it all ok. And the writers seem to think that, too, because every single time, Rachel caves. Every time. Also, Mike: is it just me, or did you fuck someone else and smoke a lot of pot after your grandmother died? So don’t give me that bullshit about only getting through it because you were with Rachel.
But that’s not even the worst of it. He insults her by using their relationship against her father and doesn’t understand at all why that would bother her. It’s a prime example of what the show is doing to Rachel on the whole, but I’ll get to that in a minute. He doesn’t even try to understand, not even when she talks to him herself, it needs Donna for him to come to any sort of a sensible conclusion. And then, I just know that he’s going to completely lose it, now that Rachel’s told him that she got into Stanford. And, voilà, I was right, courtesy of the promo for next week:
“You go to Stanford, we’re done.”
Show, are you shitting me? Mike, you promised her father that you wouldn’t hold her back. And that, exactly, is the clincher. He promised her dad, not Rachel. For him, his relationship with her is a conversation between men. Robert loved his using of their relationship against himself, Harvey, of course, loved it. That’s what it is. Mike doesn’t feel accountable to Rachel, only to the men in their lives. And that is disrespect on such a massive scale that I’m this close to never wanting to see Mike Ross’ face on my screen again, and certainly a reason why I will not be buying any DVDs of this show, not even unless this situation resolves with Rachel winning this thing.
Why? Because the writers treat Rachel like shit as well, and have been for ages.
- Exhibit A: the sex kitten made another appearance at the beginning of the episode. You know, I like seeing women own their sexuality. But only if there’s something else to their roles in the narrative. And there isn’t.
- Exhibit B: Louis and Katrina got in on the dissolution negotiations, which means that, as of now, Rachel is the only character on the regular cast not involved playing the big field. She hasn’t even had case the past two weeks, she was just there for Louis, and this episode, all she did was provide drama for Mike. Rachel is a brilliant paralegal, the best, and they need her in those negotiations, but the writers can’t see that because all they’re thinking about is how they can further complicate poor ickle Mike’s life. They don’t care about Rachel’s character development anymore — and that interest has always been patchy at best.
If Rachel stays in New York because of Mike, if she gives up her big dream of becoming a lawyer because he threatened to end their relationship, then I’m done with this show.
Next: Stay. You know — ‘stay’ can be read as a request. It can also be read as a demand. Or a command towards a dog.
Crime and Relative Dimension in Space 
Wooha, somebody is pissed!
well to the list scene: i think the use of ‘to escalate’ and ‘much drama’ is too much. they had a simple argument. i dont see much drama… (maybe its because i’m a guy).
using their relationship against her father and getting respect for it (her Dad himself and Harvey), its a guy thing and definitely male chauvinism. I cant say it’s ok but i also wouldnt say its bad per se in that context. But Mike not realising he had to apologise for that to Rachel is just plain stupid…
i liked the episode for some great scenes with Louis. Katrina has a good influence on him. And for the awesome songs The Walker (by Fitz & The Tantrums) and Worthy (by Jacob Banks) (found them on tunefind.com very nice side i found on the hunt for the titles and band names).
fun fact: in the scene where Harvey picks up Donna the guy on the sidewalk just vanished into thin air.
PS: “You go to Stanford, we’re done.” SPOILER? how can you do that?!
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You’re damn right I’m pissed.
See, in a legal drama show in which each character has a pretty tightly calculated slot of screen time, this scene between Rachel and Mike, in my book, constitutes drama. They took about 3 minutes out of an episode packed with important developments to do this? A completely childish argument in which Mike uses aspects of Rachel’s personality that she is quite possibly a little insecure over — neat people tend to be called freaks a lot — against her (which is a pretty basic breach of trust when a person makes themselves vulnerable to you) when all she’s been doing is alert him to one habit that he has that bothers her and to one simple mistake he made. He asked, so he’s got to be enough of a grown-up to deal with what she has to say. He’s so disrespectful to her in that scene, so self-absorbed and arrogant… Nope. If Rachel prefers her kitchen in a certain state, it’s not much trouble to accommodate her. (Edit: and it’s just drama on the meta level. Did they really have to include a scene like that in an episode with much bigger fish to fry? These things also apply on the narrative level.)
It’s not a guy thing, it’s a patriarchy thing, wherein women are relegated to plot devices and leverage in conversations between men. And, sorry, but it is bad. If Mike had talked to Rachel about this, if he’d had her team up with him and approach her father together — that’d have been fine. He did it without her consent and without her knowledge. I’ve been in situations where people used me as a way of getting other people to cooperate — being used? Not fun. Apologising, as you rightly state, should have been the first thing on his list.
The music on this show really is great!
PS: If it’s in the promo for the next episode directly at the end, it’s fair game.
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