Mike's up early and getting ready for work, having apparently spent the night at Rachel's apartment. She's also up, and as she hands him a cup of gourmet coffee and drops her robe, it's quickly apparent that she plans to get him up in an entirely different way. Needless to say, she is successful. Also needless to say, Mike will be arriving at work later than expected. By at least a minute or two.
Elsewhere on this early morning, Donna emerges from her apartment building to find Harvey waiting for her outside, also in a good mood. As he did last night, he's putting his car at her disposal -- as well as himself, for some breakfast and shopping. "You've been needing a new handbag," Donna points out before stepping into the car. She pauses to wonder what's up with him, and Harvey says they've both been through a lot and could use a little celebration. Donna concedes the point, and says Harvey will need more than one handbag. "Wouldn't have it any other way," he agrees.
At the office, Louis makes himself at home in Jessica's office to tell her that he wants to handle the de-merger with Darby. And he's ready to wreak vengeance on both Darby and Stephen Huntley in a way that Jessica, blinded by anger, might not be able to pull off. Speaking of which, Harvey comes in with Darby's offer, which is a low ball that's pissing both him and Jessica off. Which is exactly Louis's point. Harvey mocks the very idea of Louis handling this, saying that the Washington Generals always thought they could beat the Harlem Globetrotters. "My father played for the Washington Generals," Louis says, which is beyond perfect.
Harvey keeps digging at Louis, saying the idea's a joke, until Jessica asks for a minute with Harvey. "I am not a joke," Louis says tightly before exiting. And Jessica tells Harvey, "You can't do that any more." Now that he's a name partner, he has to show Louis respect. "I'm being dismissive to his face," Harvey argues. Jessica tells Harvey about an old partner at the firm who Jessica used to fight with, but as soon as she and Hardman took over she went and buried the hatchet with him. Harvey gets the point, recalling that that guy never voted against Jessica. Jessica also says that Louis is right…but not entirely: "I'm going to put him in as quarterback, then snap the ball to you." Because Louis doesn't get sports metaphors?
When Mike arrives at work, he and Harvey conference about the plan. It's going to involve claiming more clients as their own in order to count more revenue on their side and thus dictate certain terms of the merger, while Louis is negotiating the terms and making the other side think they're playing fair. Mike says that might be considered bad faith, which Harvey says Darby was also guilty of at the time of the merger. Mike figures out this was Jessica's idea, a question Harvey dodges in favor of discussing which client to shift to their side. Mike says they'll need a big one that just took a huge loss. Harvey says a recent winner could also work, saying that nobody cries harder at the Miss America pageant than the winner, because she'll never win again.
"That's not why they cry," Mike says. "What's wrong with you?" Harvey says they need a big company that wants to stay on top. "Samsung," they say at the same time. Really? A company that actually exists? Mike remembers to ask if Harvey watches Miss America. "No, but I've celebrated with the winner," Harvey says smugly. In which case he of all people should know why they cry.
Louis has returned to Jessica's office, and is still pretty pissy about his treatment earlier. Jessica tells him that he's going to handle the negotiations, which he's all excited about until she tells him how she wants him to do it: fairly. "That's one way to go," Louis says uncertainly. Jessica tells him that he's actually providing cover while they go after Darby's clients. Louis is all excited about being part of Jessica and Harvey's mission. "This is Litt-tastic! " He compares it to The Great Escape, and he's Steve McQueen -- the "Cooler King," an assignment Jessica cosigns. She just tells him not to lock in the existing client allocations. "I'd die before that happens," Louis vows. "Let's hope it doesn't come to that," Jessica deadpans. It's totally going to come to that, isn't it?
In the work kitchen, Mike and Rachel flirt about that morning, but before we know it, Rachel is asking him to stop drinking from the bottles in her fridge, and reminding him which side of the sink to leave his coffee cup in. Mike gets annoyed and asks for the whole list of stuff that annoys her. She says that's it, and he gets even pissier and outright mean, saying that she's not perfect either. "If you'll excuse me I have more important things to do than worry about where I left my coffee cup." If you're going to act like that, leave them at your own damn place, Soon To Be Single Guy.
Louis briefs Katrina on his mission, and gives her hers: not to let Louis lock in clients until they've secured Samsung. Katrina warns that won't be easy, given Louis's Hulk-like tendencies in a fight. Louis says that won't be a problem, given that he's got no personal feelings against the other side. Well, except when he leads Katrina into the conference room for the negotiations, who is sitting there but Nigel Nesbitt. Of course.
Nigel says he came to win, and Louis says he's there to come to a fair agreement. Nigel tries goading both of them, but Louis says he's not going to lose his cool. So Nigel opens in a rather unorthodox fashion -- by tossing two bundles of unopened letters from Louis to Mikado onto the table. Louis claims, unconvincingly to be not rattled by it, but when Nigel tears up the photo of Louis's face Photoshopped onto Teddy Roosevelt that he also sent to Mikado -- as you do -- Louis kicks Katrina out of the room and tells Nigel that this is war, and everything is on the table. Including the existing client list allocation.
Harvey shows up outside Samsung HQ, where his ex-girlfriend and Edward Darby's current employee Scottie is already waiting for him. She was expecting him, and says she's not letting him poach their clients. He says it's not as bad as murdering people and then lying to his partners about it, and asks her why she's still working for Darby. Well, it turns out that Darby offered to put her name on the door if she beat Harvey here. Harvey says she's never beaten him before, which she says is because she's always had something else on her mind before. "But you've made it clear that that's never going to happen." Harvey says she can't stop him from going in there, but then her phone chirps with the news that the client list is already locked, so it doesn't matter. Wow, that happened a lot faster than I expected.
Mike has invited Rachel out to someplace to meet him so he can apologize and explain that he got defensive because he feels like a guest in her apartment. Which is why Mike has brought her out here to show her something. I think I know what it is.
Harvey storms into Louis's office to yell at him for screwing up the negotiations. Louis tries to act breezy about all the perks he scored them, including free letterhead, but quickly cracks and says that "Nigel went after Mikado." Harvey knows nothing about this ridiculousness, and learning about it doesn't improve his mood. "You've been asking Jessica to give you the ball instead of me ever since the day I met you," Harvey yells. "Well, she gave it to you, and you just went and scored a touchdown for the other team." Harvey storms out leaving Louis miserable, and Katrina watching sympathetically through the glass wall of Louis's office. Man, can you imagine what this show would be like with real walls?
Mike has brought Rachel to the apartment he bought for his Grammy right before she died. He hasn't been able to do anything with it since then, which means he was last here with Rachel when she broke the news. And he wants them to move into it together. She's a little skittish, and he says that the only two times he's been here were with her, the first time being when they imagined living there together. And she got him through the second time. "That's one of the sweetest things I've ever heard," she says. Mike tells her she doesn't have to answer right now. Though right now seems to be when she'd be most likely to say yes.
In Jessica's office, Harvey has just broken the news about Louis and tells her to let it go. Which tells her that Harvey didn't let it go. He tells her he already has Mike working on finding a loophole in the agreement. Jessica says they need to find someone who still owes the firm money but can pay it off ahead of the deadline. "Bad faith. I like it," Harvey says. He wonders who's in enough debt to count, and Mike enters announcing, "Folsom Foods." Jessica points out that this will require help from Daniel Hardman. "And I'd rather lose this negotiation than cut a deal with that son of a bitch." Harvey and Mike remind her that Folsom Foods wasn't Hardman's client, but Robert Zane's. Harvey quickly catches the snap and tells Jessica they can handle him.
On their way out, Harvey and Mike banter a bit over whether Mike actually can handle this. Harvey asks if he's ready to use his relationship with Rachel to turn Robert Zane, and Mike says he's going to use it to make Robert Zane hear him out. "Good luck with that," says Harvey, who doesn't have a better idea anyway.
Mike finds Zane on the golf course, and after a little banter about whether or not golf is a sport and whether Zane is an athlete, Zane figures this must be a business visit. Mike gets to the point, offering to cut twenty percent off their fee for the Folsom Foods case if the client moves up their payment. Zane shoots him down, because he knows perfectly well this is about the de-merger. "You don't go to the one you didn't marry to stick it to the one you did," he says. And he knows Mike doesn't have time to go directly to the client, or he wouldn't have gone to twenty percent so quickly. Mike says that was out of respect and stops short of calling Zane a dick, but Zane figures it out anyway and asks Mike what he's going to do about it. So Mike Goes There, saying that he wonders what Rachel will say "when she finds out you screwed your own client just to stick it to the man she loves." "She loves Harvey Specter?" Zane asks. Mike says no, "But when you go after Harvey you go after me." So that went well.
Katrina finds Louis doing origami in his office, and after flattering him over it, she says she never heard back from him on their next move in the negotiations. Louis says it's over and he blew it, and deploys a mangled sports metaphor of his own. Katrina says she found a loophole to increase their revenue. Louis says new clients don't count, and says that adding revenue from existing clients is bad faith. So, you know, he's listening. But first, Katrina presents him with a gift: a coffee mug that reads, "You just got LITT up!" Yes, the trademark was approved. She asks him to forgive her for letting him lose control with Nigel, which he does, as though it was even her fault, and says, "Now let's go get some goddamn new revenue."
Louis's next visit is to the guy who shut him down when he came to see Tony Gianopolous several weeks ago. Louis has apparently taken it upon himself to relocate this guy's money to various tax shelters that Louis says means, "You'll never pay a nickel in taxes your entire life. Not to mention, your money will be too secure for someone to do what I just did." He also presents him with the keys to the Ferrari that his wife got in the divorce. "You're hired," the guy says, thinking Louis wanted to be his personal attorney. But no, Louis wanted to expand his firm's relationship with Gianopolous Limited Holdings. The guy shuts that down, saying Louis is a nobody, and that Tony Gianopolous will laugh him out of the room if he suggests it. Not a good day for Louis's ego, this.
Harvey visits Mike at his desk, showing him the check for the amount owed by Folsom Foods. He doesn't seem as pleased as one might think, saying, "Hard to believe you could get Zane to do this without using his daughter against him." Well, don't believe it, because it didn't happen. Mike admits, "We may have gotten what we wanted, but my girlfriend's dad's going to be pissed at me for a little while." "Then you're a better negotiator than I thought," Harvey gushes. Well, that's gushing coming from Harvey.
Harvey gets home to find Scottie already there waiting for him and accusing him of bad faith. Harvey reminds her that he's not bound by good faith after what Darby did. Scottie says he's screwed her as well, and asks him to leave the Folsom Foods settlement out of it. He wants to know why he should do that, and she makes an emotional appeal, reminding him of how he came to her for help with the Ava Hessington thing and said she meant something to him. I think Harvey was looking for something a little more tangible, Scottie. So she says that if he crushes her she'll be left with nothing. He says it's just business, so she offers him an IOU, and her word that she won't try to screw him later. And, oh my God, these gigantic cow eyes. Which, I don't know how he's going to explain those to Jessica.
Rachel's visiting her parents' house, and has just broken the news to her mom about Mike wanting them to move in together. Mama Zane suggests not rushing into anything, and in comes Robert Zane, wondering what they're discussing. Rachel tells him, and Zane says, "Shit, what you going to do to me then?" Zane tells her about Mike's visit on the golf course. Rachel's charmed, thinking Mike came to ask for his blessing, but Zane -- who actually seems impressed with Mike's cojones -- tells Rachel about how Mike "put the screws" to him. And then she is rather less charmed.
In fact, Rachel's in pretty high dudgeon when she shows up at Mike's apartment later that night to accuse him of manipulating her dad. Mike argues that Zane was bullying him. "So you used me to bully him back," Rachel says, and adds bitterly that she was talking about moving in with him when she found out about this. Mike apologizes to her and offers to apologize to her dad as well. "Him? He loved it!" Rachel says. Mike wonders what the problem is, then, and asks if this changes everything. She says it's complicated, which is always a classic dodge, and Mike takes this as a sign that she's having doubts about moving in with him apart from this. He asks her about that, and she asks him for some more time.
Jessica comes into Harvey's office the next morning, asking why the Folsom Foods settlement is excluded from the dissolution deal. Harvey says he just wanted to run the draft by her, and she suspiciously asks why he wants to do it at all. "Because Scottie came to me and asked, and I think it's good business," Harvey claims. Jessica disagrees, and Harvey warns that if they screw Darby he'll find a way to screw them back. "You mean she'll find a way," Jessica says, which is exactly what Harvey means. Jessica says he's never run from a fight before. "My name was never on the door before," he points out, reminding her that she said he has to think differently in his new position. She recalls that, and says Scottie might be playing them. But Harvey trusts her, and says they need to move on. Jessica agrees, and tells Harvey to go ahead with his plan.
Louis is back in his office, pouting over what happened before even as Katrina tries to buck him up. He even says his mug should say "Shit up, not Litt up." How many trademarks do you want, anyway, Louis? Katrina says he impressed Gianopolous's guy, which Louis says is 45 dollars short of getting his cat a Brazilian bikini wax. "You got a new cat?" Katrina asks. "Foster," Louis says. Great, what happens when they find a home for that one? Another cat trial? Katrina tells Louis to suck it up and go to Harvey. She wants Louis to show Harvey what he started so that Harvey can finish it and then share the credit with Louis. "He never does," Louis whines, and says Harvey doesn't need his help any more and it's too late. "No it isn't," Katrina says. "Haven't you heard?"
Donna puts down the phone at her desk, looking pretty nervous. She heads into Harvey's office to deliver some bad news: "Hessington Oil just fired us." Harvey throws down the folder he was holding and angrily says, "Scottie betrayed me." Donna tries to talk him down and convince him to give Scottie the benefit of the doubt. "You gave someone the benefit of the doubt. Look how that turned out," Harvey dicks. Donna calls bullshit on that and Harvey takes it back, but says he's not going to call Scottie. Rather, he's going to "figure out how to do to her what she just did to me." Show up inside her apartment uninvited?
Louis intercepts Harvey right outside his office and tells Harvey he's got a solution. Harvey blows him off until Louis mentions Tony Gianopolous -- technically not a new client but potentially a source of triple Hessington Oil's revenue. "What makes you think he's going to go for it?" Harvey asks. Louis says he's got them primed, but while they won't say yes to Louis, they'll say yes to Harvey. Harvey glances inside the folder Louis just handed him and says, "Louis, this is brilliant. If you hadn't had the balls to come to me, we'd have nothing right now."
Louis starts to say he should have done so earlier, but Harvey interrupts, saying it's time to tell Louis something that he's only ever told him when he needs something from him, which he doesn't now: "I respect you. You're an excellent attorney and a valuable member of this firm." "And a friend?" Louis asks. Harvey tells him not to push it. Louis appreciates Harvey saying that. Harvey asks if he needs a tissue, and Louis asks for his pocket square. "Under no circumstances," Harvey says. Louis says he'll be fine, but Harvey and Jessica need to head over to Tony Gianopolous. "Screw that, I'm going over there with you," Harvey says. Awwww.
Mike comes to Harvey's office, and Donna tells him that he left to see Tony Gianopolous with Louis. "What, is he mad at me?" Mike asks. Donna says that's just Rachel, which is something she figured out on her own. "What were you thinking, pulling all that shit with her dad?" Mike protests that Zane didn't mind so Rachel shouldn't either. "Anyone who understands women in any way would know that was a bad idea from the start," Donna says. Mike says Harvey liked it. "Proving my point," Donna says. Mike also confides that he asked Rachel to move in with him, which Donna also already knows because Rachel told her. "I can't intuit everything. What am I, the Dalai Lama?" He frets about Rachel's indecision, and Donna suggests he look in the mirror. She reminds him about the relationship she just rushed into with someone who was pretending to be something he wasn't. Of course, Rachel already knows Mike is pretending to be something he isn't, so Donna tells him to give Rachel the time she needs.
Harvey and Louis meet Tony Gianopolous and his flunky on the sidewalk. Gianopolous says he had nothing to do with the Hessington Oil firing, and Louis assures him that they're here bearing gifts. "What do you get a man who can burn a fifty-thousand dollar bond?" Harvey asks rhetorically. Louis answers, "Something money can't buy," and presents Gianopolous with his folder. There's still no explicit discussion about what it actually contains, but Gianopolous is impressed with how Louis was able to structure something or other. He still doesn't know Louis, but he does know Harvey. Who says that he and Louis can make a great team for him.
Like everyone else, Gianopolous knows this is about getting the advantage in the de-merger, which doesn't faze them. Because he also knows that they'll be willing to work out a flexible payment structure that can be to Gianopolous's benefit. "Which is his specialty," Harvey says. Louis invites Gianopolous's guy, "Go ahead, tell him." "He's a badass," the guy says. And Harvey closes the deal by inviting them to dinner. In Chicago. With Michael Jordan. That's just showing off.
Later that evening, Mike finds Rachel staring out the window of her office and tells her to take all the time she needs. She says she loves him, and he returns the sentiment. And then she tells him, "I got into Stanford." So maybe "all" the time could end up being however long it takes to finish law school in California.
Scottie comes into Harvey's office, pretty pissed at how he screwed her after she begged for mercy. He argues that he was entirely right to think she screwed him first, and she points out that he could have called her, just like Donna suggested. Scottie adds that Harvey could have asked her to exclude the Hessington Oil firing from the calculations. Which obviously never occurred to Harvey to do, let alone that she might agree to it. She schools him on the difference between trust and being vulnerable, and while he was willing to trust her from a position of strength, we all know Harvey was never going to show vulnerability from a position of weakness.
So, she says she isn't going to dissolve the merger either, and if he doesn't like it he can sue her. "You'll have a name partner who can't practice in America, whose reputation is shit, and who's going to tie up all your profits in litigation for the next five years." Harvey asks why she would do that and also expect him to believe that she didn't get them fired by Hessington Oil. Jessica comes in saying Scottie's telling the truth; Ava Hessington not only fired them on her own, she's also suing them all for malpractice. You know, actually, that seems like a perfectly understandable and reasonable thing for her to have done.
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