Previously on Suits: She’s Mine.

In a last-minute manoeuvre, Pearson Darby Specter save the day — so do the writers; also very, very last minute.

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Previously on Suits: The Other Time.

So, looks like everyone’s stopped fighting. Sort of. Right up until Harvey beat the shit out of Stephen in the men’s room.

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Previously on Suits: Shadow of a Doubt.

The One Where We Go Back in Time to See How Everything Began, So That It May Teach Us All a Lesson.

A lot of the time, flashback episodes happen to make characters aware of what they’re doing, to open their eyes to something, to history repeating itself. That’s why, often enough, there are visual clues employed to, one, make the viewer aware that the narrative is jumping back, and two, to bind the flashback to the present by making the character conscious of the jump as well. Like that, it’s like the characters are delving back into their past to connect it to the present, to actively draw conclusions. That’s not what happens in this episode. The flashbacks don’t get reaction shots in the present, we don’t see anyone getting lost in thought, we don’t get pre-flashback close-ups. We get tracking shots, clever transformation of images. We slip from present into past and right back. This subverts both the narrative trope and the actual use that comes out of these flashbacks. It’s not the characters doing the work, it’s us.

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Previously on Suits: Conflict of Interest.

Ways in which this episode was much better than the season so far:

• Mike and Harvey working together again (though the lion share of work was the conflict between Harvey and Stephen)
• Donna and Stephen continuing their arrangement
• Mike and Rachel working on a case together and kicking ass
• Louis not being built up only to tear him down
• Harvey and Jessica’s issues coming closer to being resolved/Harvey visibly crumbling under the strain of maintaining his hurt rage when he doesn’t really want to anymore

Ways in which this episode was still kinda bad:

• Mike’s ridiculous double standard when it comes to his secret and to Rachel’s

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The Narrative

This is turning into panem et circenses. This is the Hunger Games, for crying out loud! Everyone’s fighting everyone else on a weekly basis, and hardly any of it makes sense. Yes, the firm was fighting for survival after the Hardman situation. Yes, everything pretty much went to shit. Does that mean that some people need to have their heads quite this far up their own asses? Not really. Continue reading →