Harvey finds Scottie at a hotel bar and sits down across from her, looking uncharacteristically sheepish. He painfully utters an apology for not believing her when she was telling the truth about not having any part in the firm getting fired and then sued for malpractice by Ava Hessington. He maintains that he wasn't wrong to think she might do it, and advises her go ahead with the dissolution and get out herself, before Darby International goes down in flames. She's still loyal to Darby, and asks if he would bail on his mentor like he's suggesting she do. He says he would, if that mentor sanctioned murder. For now, all Scottie will agree to do is figure out a plan to fight Ava's lawsuit together. It's a start.
At Rachel's apartment, Mike is being pretty quiet, even pissy in the wake of Rachel's revelation that she got into Stanford. He admits that he said he'd support any decision she made, but thought that California was off the table when Rachel got into Columbia. "And we said we love each other." Rachel says it's not that, and that she's trying to decide which school is best using her own pros and cons list without factoring in anything else. Like, you know, Mike. He tells her that she's going to have to factor him in at some point. True, but Mike probably needs to improve his attitude so he stays on the pro list rather than the con.
The next morning in his office, Harvey tells Jessica that he doesn't want to start another war with Scottie and would rather go with her plan. Jessica's not feeling that, saying they're not going to win a case where Edward Darby sanctioned murder, so she says Harvey is going to have to privately talk Ava Hessington out of suing her and Harvey, at least. "What about when Scottie finds out?" he wonders. Jessica's wordless exit is all the answer he's going to get, which is that it's his problem.
Harvey is shown into the expansive office where he used to meet with Ava Hessington, but she's not there; Travis Tanner is, of all people. He's there representing Ava, and he tells Harvey that she's not letting the suit go. Harvey accuses Tanner of using this as an excuse to try to beat Harvey again. Tanner admits that he saw this as a chance to take Harvey's lunch money. Harvey flips a quarter out of his pocket and tells Tanner to call his mom to tell her to get the tissues ready. "Because you're 0 and 2 against me, and the 0 isn't the number that's gonna change." Ooh, sick burn. Sick, wordy, burn.
Back at the firm, Mike asks Harvey whether he's going after Ava or Tanner, but Harvey says they're going to wait until Tanner deposes him and see what's up. Mike is itching for an assignment in a way that makes Harvey realize he's got girlfriend trouble, and mocks him for it as though Mike's still in high school. Mike points out that people also have girlfriends after high school, not that Harvey would know, not having graduated from high school emotionally. "Because the only thing you ever graduated from is high school," Harvey says. Mike: "Why you gotta go there, man?"
Sheila Sazs from Harvard is in a hotel suite-slash-war room with Louis, showing him some candidate selection software. She invites him into the bedroom, but he says he needs to focus. Yet all it takes to get him interested is for her to show Louis some pictures -- of Louis -- including one from his Harvard days, and another one of him wielding a sword in chain mail. Should have known Louis was a LARP-er. She says there are already fifty of those photos taped to the ceiling. "You won't be looking at the ceiling," Louis says. TMI!
Jessica meets with Scottie at the firm to advise her to keep her cool, not that Scottie thinks she needs the advice. Jessica warns her that Tanner is going to try to get under her skin, like the time he provoked Harvey into punching Tanner in the face. "And if Harvey hadn't done it, I might have." She gives Scottie a little background on Tanner's Oedipal insinuations on that occasion, to alert Scottie that Tanner isn't above getting personal. Or above anything, really.
In Rachel's office, she's trying to show Mike that it can work if she decides to go to Stanford -- again, a decision she's trying to make totally separately from wanting to be with Mike. He's a little more gloom and doom, saying he doesn't know anyone who's ever made a long-distance relationship work. "You choose to go to Stanford, it most likely means we're done." Well, as long as he isn't pressuring her. Jessica, out in the hall, sees him leave her office. Look who just found her way into this particular loop.
After they've finished in bed, Sheila shows Louis the CV of a prize candidate he loves, that she's apparently been saving for him. She invites him to skip work the rest of the day, but he's already feeling guilty about the 77 minutes he just took off, and says he has to go. She hands him the folder and tips her face up for a kiss, but all she gets is a professional "thank you." Clearly not what she was looking for.
Jessica stops by Harvey's office, ostensibly looking for him, but actually just to pump Donna for information. She starts by asking idly about some harmless office gossip about some random, non-speaking employees, and then segues into, "How long have Mike Ross and Rachel Zane been dating?" Donna knows this just got real, but all she can say is, "Uh, a few months." Jessica pursues the thread until she concludes that "He told Robert Zane's daughter his secret." Donna tries to do damage control, and Jessica tells her in no uncertain terms that Donna isn't to say anything to Mike or Rachel about this. "I won't say a word," Donna promises, probably already trying to figure out how to issue the warning some other way.
Mike shows up at Harvey's apartment early in the morning, looking like hell after a sleepless night and wanting to talk personal stuff. Namely, how Harvey avoids letting people in, and has all these relationships without being affected by it. Harvey claims to have a picture of Dorian Gray in his closet, which doesn't amuse Mike. "I wasn't joking," Harvey says. "I was trying to get you to leave so I could have my morning without you judging me." Harvey says he doesn't talk about it, and he keeps his personal life and his business separate. When Mike whines that that isn't working for him, Harvey suggests he call Dr. Phil. "I don't know everything about everything," Harvey says, which is about as vulnerable as he gets. "You want to know how to be a lawyer, I'm your man. You want to know how to deal with love, that's not my area." But he does invite Mike to hang out and take the morning off with Harvey's coffee and bagels. Wow, I think we just realized that Harvey loves Mike.
Louis asks Sheila why his prize candidate is getting offers from seven other firms, and whether it's about his shutting her down before. She points out that she never made any exclusive arrangement with him, and after some veiled repartee about whether they are or not, which is veiled only to Louis, Sheila says that after she's done talking to him, no way will Louis's dream grad join Pearson Darby Specter, "Or whatever bullshit name you're calling yourselves this week." Heh. You go, Sheila.
Harvey and Ava end up in the conference room together after they've both showed up early for the deposition. Harvey still thinks Tanner talked Ava into the malpractice suit, but Ava assures her that this was a result of Harvey's own actions. Well, those of his firm, or rather the partner he never wanted to merge with anyway. She lectures him about how his tactics of intimidation backfired on her, and now they won't work against her new attack dog either. And that was about all she had to say. "So you came here just to vent at me?" Harvey asks. No, she came to see if Harvey is sorry about the way he handled things. Nope, Ava, Harvey's probably all full up on sorry for this season.
A short time later, the parties are present for the deposition, with Scottie, Harvey, and Jessica sitting across from Travis Tanner. Tanner starts right in on Harvey's "side deal" with Darby to take over from Jessica if he won Ava's case. He claims unconvincingly that it was a conflict of interest, and accuses Harvey of knowing from the start that he couldn't lose because he knew Stephen Huntley's murders would be discovered, which, even though Tanner claims to have evidence that Harvey did know, we all know better. And then he tells Scottie that Harvey tried to make his own deal with Ava a few days ago behind Scottie's back. (It seems like Harvey would have seen that coming and confessed to Scottie before now). Luckily for him Scottie plays it cool, but Tanner keeps pushing, getting more and more personal by bringing up how Scottie was engaged the last time she and Harvey hooked up. "Come after me, Tanner," Harvey says. Tanner has decided he's done enough, though.
Later that evening, Mike comes to Rachel's office to ask her for a copy of the deposition, which is his way of showing her that he's giving her space. Not really working, until Mike says that he's going to respect Rachel's process. He says he went to see Harvey earlier, and though he didn't get any advice from him, he realized that he's going to lose Rachel if he's Harvey, and he'll push her away if he's Mike. "You go to Stanford, we'll beat the odds." That seems to be just what she wanted to hear. Not sure why that was so hard.
Scottie comes to Harvey's office, and without Tanner in the room she's got no reason not to yell at him for screwing her and Darby. Harvey reminds her that he tried to include her in that deal and she turned him down, and says that Tanner is just trying to turn them against each other. He says he didn't have a choice. "And neither do you. You just haven't seen that yet." Maybe clear it up for her by being condescending, Harvey.
Louis intercepts Mike in the hallway and tries to get him to convince his favorite candidate to come to the firm. Mike obviously can't help, not knowing the guy, though he claims that they were in different years when of course we all know that Mike's year at Harvard was aught-never. Louis follows Mike all the way down to the bullpen saying this is really about Sheila Sazs. "What about it? I mean her?" Mike asks. Louis tells Mike what happened, and even through his crabbed view of the situation, Mike manages to read that Sheila wants an exclusive relationship with Louis, personally. Louis starts to mansplain to Mike about women until he realizes, "Holy shit, it was staring me right in the face." Yes. Yes, it was.
Travis Tanner meets Scottie on the sidewalk, offering her a coffee. She makes a crack about how it likely has a roofie in it, but Tanner is making a peace offering to join him against Harvey. He just wants her to say Harvey knew about Stephen Huntley's involvement in the murders two months ago. Scottie says she's betrayed Harvey once and is done now, so Tanner presents her with a subpoena of her own. She should have known he'd have a stick to go with the carrot.
Cut to Tanner deposing Scottie, asking her about Harvey's feelings on the merger while she's flanked by Jessica and Harvey. He starts right in, mocking Scottie and trying to get her to admit that she wanted Harvey to fall in love with her. Jessica and Harvey both defend her, as Tanner accuses Scottie of setting up the merger to get back at Harvey, and is dramatically skeptical of Scottie's ignorance in the murders. Scottie says that both Darby and Stephen kept her in the dark on that, so Tanner presents an affidavit from Stephen Huntley saying that Scottie knew all about it. Harvey says that's a lie and calls a halt. And Scottie got all the way to the end of that without losing her cool. Which is why she's better than Harvey.
Donna comes down to visit Mike in the bullpen, supposedly to talk about Scottie's deposition, but really because she wants to talk to Stephen and she knows Harvey would say no. Mike also thinks it's a bad idea, though Donna claims she's trying to protect both Scottie and Harvey. "Because he may not know how he feels but I do." And no, you didn't miss her coded warning to Mike about Jessica unless I did too.
Stephen is ushered into the visiting room at the prison to see Mike and Donna waiting there for him…with the affidavit. They ask him what Tanner offered him in exchange for his lie about Scottie, and he claims that Scottie was his boss, so she should have known. That argument gets less tedious every time somebody makes it this season. Mike says this is just trying to make Darby's testimony look like a lie, which of course it is because Darby never had the conversation with Stephen about the murders that he's now claiming to have had, and Stephen says so. Donna asks Mike for a minute, and as soon as she's alone with Stephen, she accuses him of lying about Scottie, which he admits to. She says, "If anything you ever said to me was true, please don't do this." He says he's sorry, but he has to. Donna looks through the door at Mike, who comes back in and asks if they have what they need. Which they do, because as Mike points out, every conversation here is recorded, and they just got him admitting that his affidavit was a lie. Are they not worried about his saying that Darby's testimony is also a lie? I guess not, because his credibility is probably not what it once was.
Harvey shows up in his office, picks up the folder on his desk, and exchanges significant looks with Donna at hers. Meanwhile, Mike has a visitor to his apartment: Jessica. She makes with the small talk and finds Rachel's sweater, which allows a slick segue into her purpose for being here: "You told Robert Zane's daughter my business." Hey, lady, you hired Robert Zane's daughter in the first place. Mike assures Jessica that Rachel isn't going to tell anyone, and Jessica wants to make sure of that by handing Mike a document for Rachel to sign. "This puts her in jeopardy," Mike objects. Jessica says that he's the one who did that, which is a fair point. "And if I won't do it?" he asks. She says on her way out, "Then you won't be working for me anymore."
Louis is fielding a phone call from Sheila, who doesn't seem entirely enchanted that he drafted a legal document for their exclusivity thing. She tears it up into the phone and tells him the time for words is over, and it's time for deeds; namely, he needs to figure out where she'll be tomorrow night so he can come tell her in person. She hangs up without giving him a clue. Sounds to me like she still wants more words, though.
Harvey finds Tanner walking down the sidewalk and tells him that they've got proof that Stephen's affidavit is bullshit, so he's got nothing on Scottie now. Tanner's not done, though, telling Harvey, "I'm going to drag her ass through the mud left right and center, and when I'm done no firm will touch her with a ten-foot pole." Tanner admits that he doesn't fight fair, and offers Harvey a document with a settlement offer that he warns has a lot of zeroes. "You just need to decide whether you care more about money or your girlfriend." Is that going to be a hard decision?
That evening in Harvey's office, he tells Scottie that while the affidavit is now off the table, Tanner is going to keep coming at her unless they settle. She looks at the offer and shrugs, "You'll never sign this." Harvey says he actually would if it was up to him, but Jessica won't even consider it. Scottie doesn't buy his concern, saying he thinks she can't take it. "I can't take it!" Harvey says, his voice almost breaking. He begs her to let him try to convince Ava that her enemy is Darby, not himself, so Tanner will stop coming after her. Scottie finally agrees.
Mike shows up at Rachel's apartment, reeking of bad news. He tells her about Jessica's visit, and how Jessica is insisting that Rachel sign an affidavit saying that she knows Mike is a fraud. Rachel says that he's got leverage, but that only works to prevent Jessica from exposing him, not firing him. She sits down next to him on the bed and he apologizes to her for putting her in this position. "And the only way I can see out of it is for you to go to Stanford." Well, add that to the pros and cons list, then.
Time for yet another deposition. This time it's Harvey deposing Ava, with Tanner at her side. He starts by trying to get her to admit that she confessed to bribery to him when they first met. Apparently that's not covered by attorney-client privilege any more, now that she's suing him. Tanner points out that she's suing the firm of Pearson Darby Specter, which Jessica and Scottie point out doesn't exist anymore. Ava says she's after them for what they did to her, and Jessica reminds her that Harvey got her a minimal punishment for bribery, beat her murder rap, and stopped her from bribing more witnesses.
Speaking of which, Harvey asks her if she fired him for refusing to bribe witnesses, which we all know she did. Tanner tells her not to answer, but Harvey says she doesn't have to, because they have witnesses. After a moment, Harvey pauses the camera and stands up to talk to Ava off the record. He comes around the table, saying he doesn't want them coming after each other. He tells her he's sorry he didn't listen to her or believe her and that his history with Cameron blew back on her. "But I am not sorry that I did everything in my power to help you every chance we got. If you don't believe that, keep coming. But if you do, I'm asking you to put your anger where it belongs." That seems to get through to her, and Harvey asks Tanner if he's still got that quarter. All three women in the room look at Harvey all, "Oh, you scamp," but Tanner knows he's beaten.
Later, Harvey comes down to break the news to Mike that they won, but Mike's in rather a mood. He rants about the meaninglessness of it all, and "when some real connection comes along, some little piece of happiness--" he stops short, which is normally Harvey's cue to grow up and get his shit together. But this is apparently a softer Harvey we're getting this week, so he puts a fatherly hand on Mike's shoulder and says he's sorry. He's about to make his escape, but Mike asks, "Did she tell you what she did?" Harvey thinks he means Rachel, which tells Mike she didn't, and he tattles to Harvey that Jessica is basically forcing Rachel to go to Stanford. "She found out about you two," Harvey guesses. Mike says he doesn't want Rachel to go, but there's nothing he can do about it.
But maybe Rachel can. She pays a visit to Jessica herself, with the document, which she has yet to sign. She understands that Jessica's suddenly worried about Robert Zane's daughter, which reminded her of something he says: "Don't sign anything unless you can get something in return." And what Rachel wants is for Jessica to waive the Harvard rule for her after she finishes law school. Jessica says that's the longest-standing rule they have, and Rachel sticks to her guns, saying she's better than most of their associates before even going to law school. Jessica says that Rachel is her father's daughter. "But I don't want to work for him," Rachel says. "I want to work for you." Still?
Harvey and Scottie are back at his apartment, having just celebrated with dinner and drinks. They start reminiscing about the old days, until Scottie asks what he wants. "I want to work with you," he says. Unfortunately, he positions it as wanting to help her, like what she wants is for him to do this as a favor. He maintains that he still cares about her. She gets that, having heard it plenty of times from him lately, but it's not enough and so she says no. "If all you want to do is work with me, I can find a job somewhere else." She starts to leave, but Harvey stops her and says he wants more. "I want you in my life."
Mike opens his apartment door to Rachel, who has apparently waived a rule of her own just coming over here. She comes in, sits down, and says she's finished her list. And the answer is Stanford. Mike starts to talk, and then she rips it up, saying, "I don't need a list to tell me I don't want to be without you." Mike's so happy he doesn't even mind having been jerked around for the last hour.
Louis finds Sheila in the wood-paneled file room at Harvard ,where she appears to have laid out a little dinner for them. She says this is like home to her, and he realizes that this is where she wants him to say he wants to be exclusive with her…which he does. She returns the sentiment, and it's actually kind of sweet, in their usual semi-twisted way. They briefly debate whether it's going to be sex or the picnic first, but before either, she slips out to call her mom, telling Louis not to touch any of the files. Louis waits all of about five seconds after she leaves before opening a drawer and finding Harvey's file, complete with photo. Nice surfer hair, law-school Harvey. "What a douche," Louis sneers at the picture. Then he decides to go look up Mike Ross, but of course there's no file for him. Well, now everyone in the regular cast knows about Mike, and I guess we'll have to wait to see how that plays out when the show comes back for the second half of the season. But I'm sure Louis will handle this discovery with the utmost calm and maturity.
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