'Suits': 'Blind-Sided' recap

Suits is back, and the episode “Blind-Sided” seemed to have one goal: Make everyone miserable, so when the firm really starts to come under attack from the outside (which it does next week), they’re already frayed and short-fused. It feels like we’re going to need a thick skin to watch these next five episodes, which is what people who think the show is just about admiring Harvey Specter’s Tom Ford’s suits don’t get. Let’s begin with:

Harvey (Gabriel Macht) and Zoe (Jacinda Barrett): Here is Harvey trying to have a meaningful personal relationship outside the office, showing up for dates with Zoe first without a tie (!) and then in casual wear (!!) — okay, 20 percent of the show is about swooning for him — and no, it can’t go anywhere because her brother has terminal cancer and she’s leaving New York to raise her adorable niece that wanted Harvey to kiss her goodnight. Weekends in the Berkshires with Zoe (and his chauffeur?) could have been Harvey’s release as the pressure at Pearson Hardman mounts, but now, he’s just going to be even more tightly wound. And that brings us to…

Harvey and Mike (Patrick J. Adams): Harvey yelling “Shut up!” at Mike was a moment that made you sit up in your seat, like Louis yelling “That’s on you! Not me!” earlier in the season. Mike was angry with Harvey, who made a deal with ADA Katrina Bennett(Center Stage‘s Amanda Schull, who’ll recur) who wanted a job at Pearson Hardman so she would 1.) honor a deal cut for a 20-year-old who’s the son of an important client and 2.) not report Mike when he broke privilege to tell the ADA that the kid had been high when he hit a man and left the scene. Mike lost his parents to a drunk driver (and confronted the lawyer who’d negotiated the settlement this hour in another uncomfortable, heated conversation). So Harvey knew Mike would talk to the ADA and that eyes would then turn on Mike. Harvey crossed a line to save him, but if Mike’s going to continue to blame Harvey for every tough decision that comes with the job, he won’t bother next time. Harvey told Mike to get his s— together and focus on how his life is better since he came to the firm, not worse. After telling the client he better earn the gift he’s been given, it appears Mike has decided to do the same. He kicked Tess, the married ex he’d been sleeping with, to the curb. And that leads us to:

Mike and Rachel (Meghan Markle): “I am not the goody-goody you think I am. You have no idea what you passed on.” Best Rachel line ever? She told Mike she’d had an affair with a married man — her age, she went after him — so she knows how this is going to end for him. Hint: Something happens next week, and it’s not pretty.

Louis (Rick Hoffman) and Sheila Sazs (Rachael Harris): That lunch date in which he asked her to help him hire a Boy Wonder to his Batman now that he’s a senior partner was rewind-worthy.

Sheila: I’m gonna be honest with you, Louis. ‘Senior partner’ has a certain sex appeal ‘junior partner’ doesn’t.

Louis: I thought that to myself… about myself.

I love the little things Rick Hoffman does — from the way he held his multiple-cherry cocktail, to the way he saddled up to Sheila later when she told him to come closer so she could dominate him sexually. Even though we learned Louis has great stamina (nice of the writers to give him that), even this story had a sad ending (for now). Sheila broke things off after hearing that Jessica had made him rescind the offer to the hire…

Louis and Jessica (Gina Torres): Because Louis’ hire was the secretary of her Harvard class and claimed to know everyone in it — which wouldn’t have included Mike — Harvey got Jessica to tell Louis that there was a hiring freeze. “You’re dismissed,” Jessica said when the conversation was over. OUCH. That hurt more. Making things worse, Sheila later told Louis about Harvey hiring the ADA. They are making Louis feel so small. If you felt for Louis this week, just wait until Thursday…

‘Suits’ creator Aaron Korsh previews show’s return

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