Courtesy of USA Network
Showrunner and creator Aaron Korsh reveals the thought process behind his pick, who the writing staff had their eye on and how this will affect Louis.
[Warning: This story contains spoilers from Wednesday's episode of Suits, "Live to Fight."]
Viewers who have been eagerly awaiting to find out who turned in Mike Ross (Patrick J. Adams) for fraud got an early surprise when Suits made the big reveal Wednesday.
After five seasons of random people finding out Mike and Harvey’s (Gabriel Macht) secret, using that information for their own benefit or promising to keep Mike’s secret safe because they felt sorry for him, it took one Sheila Sazs (Rachael Harris) and an anonymous letter from Harvard to blow the lid off everything.
On Wednesday, as Mike and Harvey worked to free Donna’s (Sarah Rafferty) father (guest star Derek McGrath) from prison where Anita Gibbs (Leslie Hope) was holding him in hopes of Donna talking, Louis (Rick Hoffman) confronted his former fiancée about the letter she wrote that elicited such disastrous results.
THR caught up with creator and showrunner Aaron Korsh to find out why Sheila wound up being the one who turned Mike in, what that means for Louis going forward, and how things will unfold as a trial nears in the upcoming season five finale.
How did you land on Sheila?
Most of their staff wanted it to be Logan Sanders (Brendan Hines) to get back at Mike, or there was a thought of Robert Zane (Wendell Pierce) or Laura Zane (Megan Gallagher), which didn’t seem feasible. If they found out Mike was a fraud they would threaten to expose him if he didn’t break up with their daughter rather than just expose him. But the big thing was that in the past, everyone who has found out (with slight exceptions), used the information for some sort of personal gain or they let him off the hook for some reason. I wanted there to be somebody that found out and handed him in because it was the right thing to do. Sheila works at Harvard, found out there was a guy pretending he went to Harvard Law and sent it in. That was the main reason; she wasn’t doing it out of malice or to get back at Mike or revenge. It was just like, this is her job and she did it. That’s why I wanted it to be Sheila.
Did you have a contingency plan for the episode if Rachael Harris wasn’t available?
No. When we first got the idea we checked into her availability and she was available. Had she not been we would have come up with a backup plan. Rachael, D.B. Woodside, who is on the same show [Lucifer] as Rachael -- a lot of these people have limited availability but they’re usually allowed to do at least one episode for us. They ended up being generous with us and giving us an extra episode with Rachael so that was nice.
She’ll be back?
Yes.
How will that affect Louis?
This is absolutely not the last we’ve seen of Sheila or this revelation’s impact on Louis and Sheila. Obviously there’s a twist at the end with finding out that maybe Sheila came forward, but there’s more to that revelation than meets the eye. Louis and Sheila are not finished their roles in the outcome of this thing, not by a long shot.
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Will he deal with feelings of guilt or betrayal?
Yes, he is obviously feeling horrible and he is going to take some action that will lead to some more revelations and then some more actions coming up.
Does any of this change his overall behavior to the others in the firm?
Louis and everyone will all be put in a position to maybe have to choose between themselves and other people. Gibbs is not going to stop coming, she’s not going to stop offering people a chance to turn on others to save themselves. The question is: will they hang together or are they going to fall apart? Louis is no different from that. His attitude towards Mike in the episode was momentary; Louis is a very emotional person and that was his momentary reaction to what happened. He’s a mercurial guy and he’s not going to stay hard. But he is vulnerable to pressure.
What kind of team do Louis and Gretchen (Aloma Wright) make?
An amusing team. Gretchen is in the back six, but she’s not huge in the back six. She plays a small role but I wouldn’t say that the Louis-Gretchen dynamic is hugely impacted or on display.
With Jeff’s return, is Jessica’s (Gina Torres) love life back on the table?
He decides he’s not going to be her lawyer on this one so he has left it open to come back. He says, "When this whole thing is over." This whole thing isn’t over until the end of season five, and we are still just in the early stages of figuring out season six. And, some of it might have to do with the fate of Lucifer, I’m sorry to say.
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What was the main thing you wanted from the Donna flashbacks?
We wanted to give Donna a little bit of rounding out. I really love that first scene, it gives a huge insight into her past. She was a piano player but there wasn’t going to be room for it in their new place. Her dad says her aunt has a musical theater place down the street, that’s where you learn about the origins of her love for musical theater. You see a first inkling where she says she knows her dad isn’t telling the truth but she doesn’t know how, she just does. It just kind of rounds her out.
Rachel (Meghan Markle) has been having a tough time with everyone; Mike, her father and now Donna. Will it get easier?
No. Rachel has some more trouble coming her way.
Will the subject of her schooling be brought back up at any point?
In next week’s episode we will see Rachel at school. It’s not huge, we don’t see her at school that much, but it’s a pivotal scene that takes place in the dean’s office.
Overall, what kind of structure will these last four episodes have?
There are no more flashbacks. Obviously we tried to structure each episode, but we looked at the arc of the back six and had a loose goal in mind for the last one. It’s all a build, it’s almost like one big six-hour episode more so than usual. Each episode is almost like an act or a chapter in one larger episode.
Suits airs Wednesdays at 10 p.m. on USA Network.
Did you predict Sheila was the one who ratted on Mike? Sound off in the comments below.
Twitter: @amber_dowling
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