Courtesy of USA Network
Creator Aaron Korsh talks to THR about Mike's impending trial, Donna's return to her old boss and the big reveal of who sold Mike out.
[Warning: This story contains spoilers from Wednesday's midseason premiere of Suits, "Blowback."]
Mike (Patrick J. Adams) may have finally gotten out on bail thanks to some smooth moves by Harvey (Gabriel Macht) in the winter premiere of USA Networks’s Suits, but given prosecutor Anita Gibbs’ (Leslie Hope) drive to put Mike away for good, he has a long road ahead to clearing his name.
With Harvey officially back at the firm, Jack Soloff (John Pyper-Ferguson) taking a back seat for now and Mike ready to mount the defense, The Hollywood Reporter spoke with creator and showrunner Aaron Korsh. Below he gives his take on the slew of incoming guest stars, when viewers will find out who framed Mike, and whether this thing will come to a trial by the fifth season finale.
Robert Zane (Wendell Pierce) was adamant that Mike give up Harvey. Will he continue to be a foil or was getting him again an issue because of The Odd Couple?
We do have to work around his schedule, certainly. CBS was generous to let us have him more than they needed to, but it wasn’t unlimited. So we had to pick and choose our spots with him. We shot most of his stuff in the last six [episodes] in two separate days, even though he’s in more than one episode. It felt like, for the story, Robert Zane had to come out as soon as he found out and we were lucky to get him in that episode. But as angry as he is and as protective of his daughter as he is, he only has so much power to kind of effectuate change. Once Rachel and Mike don’t take the deal, he can’t do much for a while. Things will play out when there’s some more interaction with the family. So he will be back, but he’s not necessarily causing tremendous trouble for Mike and the rest of the team.
What’s the status of Gretchen (Aloma Wright) now that Donna (Sarah Rafferty) is working for Harvey again?
We like Gretchen so much, that we didn’t want to let that character go. We will discover what becomes of her early in the next episode. She remains a part of our world.
Is it safe to assume that Louis (Rick Hoffman) is looking for a new assistant?
Louis will be looking for a new assistant, that’s safe to assume.
Why was now the time for Donna to return to her former boss?
It just seemed like ultimately if Mike was caught that Donna would help Harvey try to get them out of this. So that’s where the story was naturally going, but it was also a good opportunity to have Louis step up. Even though he was against it and angry, it was out of protection for Donna based on what happened to her last year. He knows in general what the danger is. And then to have him rise above that and let her do what he knows she wants to do is a good mini hero moment for Louis.
Is having some of your former guest stars return a way to weave the “Who sold out Mike” storyline through the back six?
We make that reveal before the finale, but look: anybody that’s coming back could have been the person that turned Mike in. Just because we’ve eliminated a suspect in the return also doesn’t mean we couldn’t be wrong. But having said that, a lot of people are coming back having nothing to do with whether they were the ones that handed him in. Anybody could come back for any reason once Mike’s secret is out because they have a vested interest in coming to terms with what happened.
Did realizing people were more invested in who sold Mike out than you originally anticipated change the person it ends up being?
No, the writers presented a person who they thought it was going to be, and then they had several others as backups, all with excellent reasons. But for all of them they had a similar reason. The person I picked was for a separate reason.
Anita Gibbs played pretty dirty in the premiere. How does that inform her character going forward?
It’s hard to come into a fifth season show with a tight-knit cast and stand toe-to-toe with Harvey and Mike and I think Leslie did a great job. In order to stand up to Harvey though, Anita had to play a little dirty. I don’t know that she does anything that is dirtier than what Harvey would do. She goes for the jugular, she’s not afraid to leverage people, but Mike and Harvey aren’t either. Remember, they did do this crime and she’s trying to convict them of something they actually did commit.
Will Jack’s ambitions and the threat against Jessica (Gina Torres) take a backseat now that Mike has made that threat?
It does take a bit of a backseat. Mike basically threatened to help land Jack in jail for a long time. Jack hears that and realizes he’s not going to take over Pearson Specter Litt anymore and he has a change of heart. Jack loves his firm, he’s kind of got a similar view on the firm to Louis, he’s not interested in destroying it, he’s not interested in leaving it, he just wanted to run it. So when he’s knocked down and he is unable to take over and run it, he becomes loyal to it and tries to save it.
Harvey typically wants to settle these cases, will this be a rare case of going to trial?
Yeah, we’re going to trial. There’s no getting out of this. But I won’t say if we’re going to verdict this season. We may go to verdict, we may not.
What’s the final word on Rachel (Meghan Markle) and Mike's relationship through all this?
They are affected by this thing and their wedding is put on hold. Ultimately they’re going to have to decide what they’re going to do about getting married in the face of these new events. But other than that these back six are going to be about Mike and Harvey and everyone else finally facing the music for the initial decision that was made during the pilot. It’s about them facing the consequences and determining ultimately what are those consequences are going to be.
Suits airs Wednesdays at 10 p.m. on USA Network.
Think Mike will get out of this thing or could next season be void of the legal wonder? Sound off in the comments below.
Twitter: @amber_dowling
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