Suits- Emphasis on mock

Emphasis on "Mock"


Donna and Stephen are sitting at a hotel piano bar, with Stephen playing the piano. He doesn't even miss a beat as he leans over to kiss her. However, the music does stop when Harvey comes in asking for a minute with Stephen. As soon as Donna leaves the room, and Harvey accuses Stephen of having called Colonel Mariga -- the foreign army officer who was bribed by Harvey's client Ava Hessington, and who Cameron Dennis is now getting to testify that Ava was in on the killing of anti-pipeline activists.

Stephen cops to it, saying he was trying to make Mariga a better offer, and Harvey says that's how Cameron Dennis found the Colonel. Harvey wonders how Stephen found him in the first place. Stephen says he knows people, and argues that if Cameron found Mariga by tapping his phone, that makes his testimony inadmissible. Harvey says there's no way to prove that, and after having told Stephen several times before to keep his mitts off his case, he now says that if he hears Stephen's been into it one more time, "I'm gonna beat the shit out of you." And Donna came back just in time to hear that. Maybe Harvey should have asked for two minutes.

In Harvey's office the next day, Mike isn't exactly impressed after Harvey's just told him about his threat, warning him that Stephen plays rugby. They're still discussing their next move with regard to Mariga when Jessica storms up in high dudgeon, throwing down a witness list that includes Mariga. "And [Cameron's] giving us access, which means he's not bluffing." She's pretty pissed at Harvey, even when Harvey blames Stephen for messing it up, because she says Stephen is Harvey's guy. She also mentions Harvey's deal with Darby in front of Mike, and when Harvey asks if she wants to do this here, she asks, "Are you telling me he doesn't know?" Mike steps up, saying Jessica knows where his loyalties lie.

Harvey blames Jessica right back, saying Stephen's only there because of Jessica's deal with Darby. "And I told you, I don't want mine anymore." So since Jessica's still in charge, she decrees that nobody is going to say a word about this case to either Darby or Stephen.

After the credits, Mike delivers some dirt on Mariga to Harvey, saying he's perjured himself before and he's got the paperwork to prove it, so it shouldn't be too hard to impeach the colonel's testimony. So Mike would rather ask Harvey why he told Jessica about the deal. Harvey says if Jessica can't get over it, he's better off with Darby. Watertight logic, that.

Louis is in the break room mixing up a bowl of milk for Nigel's cat Mikado (and stressing out at his assistant Norma via his voice recorder) when Nigel shows up, back a week early. They chat amiably enough, and then Nigel notices the bowl of milk, assuming Mikado is in the building. Which Louis denies, drinking the milk himself before trying to dash out. Nigel asks where Mikado actually is, and Louis says she's at a cat spa, promising to call Nigel when she's back. Walking away, Louis whips out his cell phone to call in a "code red" to Rachel.

With some music that might as well be the theme from Mission: Unpossible playing on the soundtrack, Rachel skates into Louis's office with a laden paperwork cart and smuggles Mikado's carrier out of there in it. She and Louis meet in the file room, behind a sign saying it's top secret shredding day. Once they're in there, Rachel tells Louis that as much as he might want to, he can't keep Mikado. Nigel himself shows up, brandishing the GPS device linked to Mikado's microchip, and indignantly claims Mikado as his own. This is, of course, his right.

Louis lets it go, but when Nigel reaches for the carrier, Louis snatches it away, saying it was supposed to be for two weeks and getting all legalistic about it. Even Rachel steps in, citing a precedent. Nigel has to head to a meeting, but he'll be back. Louis is impressed with Rachel's move, but she tells Louis that she was only stalling, and Mikado is still Nigel's cat. Maybe you shouldn't have stalled, then, Rachel.

Over at Harvey's office, Donna offers to talk to Harvey about what happened with Stephen. Harvey's still pissed about Stephen "shitting the bed" and storms off to clean it up.

Mike, Jessica, Harvey, and Cameron are in a hotel suite with Mariga, and Mike's quizzing the colonel about other deaths he's been responsible for. He's not terribly repentant, being a military officer and all, and as for the deaths on Hessington Oil's land, he claims those were a result of payment from Ava Hessington. Cameron says he's more interested in who ordered the murders than who committed them, and Harvey points out that there was only one meeting between Ava and Mariga, and the evidence of it has already been thrown out.

Cameron says that wasn't their only communication, and Mariga says he told Ava what needed to be done on the phone. Mike says that never happened, but Cameron presents a record of the call. Mariga says they discussed killing those people, for three million, a sum which Ava has already pled guilty to paying. So this isn't good, then.

Stephen finds Donna at the copier to ask if they're okay, and Donna says Stephen should have expected Harvey to be pissed at him for screwing up his case, after Harvey told him not to touch it. Again. Stephen argues that he wasn't trying to mess it up, and reminds Donna that he saved Ava's relationship with Harvey before. Donna recalls that, so even though I think Stephen's still in the debit column, she seems content to not talk about Harvey with Stephen any more, as long as Stephen doesn't make it necessary. By, you know, fucking with Harvey's case. Again. Some more.

Harvey, Mike, and Jessica have hauled Ava into the firm to find out what the story was with that phone call. She admits that she talked to Mariga on the phone, but not about murder, and the reason she didn't mention it before was that she didn't remember. Jessica doesn't buy it, so Ava goes on to say that her right hand, Nick Howell, was the one who set everything up and the call from her was just a formality that she literally spaced until just now.

Jessica is starting to take this personally, making some angry declarations about trust that clearly relate to what's been going on with her and Harvey -- even as Harvey tries to rein her in. Jessica ends up storming out, saying they have to come up with a new plan, "because the one we had just went to shit." Jessica's going to be ending a lot of scenes with angry, profound declarations tonight, I'm thinking.

Nigel gets off the phone in his office to find Louis standing there -- suing him for Mikado. Which is ridiculous even for a show, but Nigel agrees to play along in the mock trial that Louis proposes…in front of the associates. I can only assume that he just wants to humiliate Louis, otherwise there is literally no conceivable reason for him to say "give me my goddamn cat and then fuck off." Except that he's not Jessica.

Speaking of whom, Mike and Harvey find her in her office, still pissed at Ava. But at least she says Ava just told them how to fix it: pin the murders on Nick Howell. Harvey disagrees, arguing that it would be admitting that Hessington Oil paid for the murders. He maintains that impeaching Mariga's testimony is a better plan, given that Mariga has a choice between lying on the stand or facing a firing squad back home. Jessica pisses that they need to show that someone else did it. "But you're never gonna convince a jury the number one didn't know what the number two was up to," Harvey says obliviously. Mike looks pained in the background, and Jessica hisses, "You have the balls to say that to me?" She says that she's in charge, and will have no problem convincing that a number two can betray a number one. "Out." Oops, she forgot to swear that time.

Rachel spots Louis in the hallway, and he denies hiding from Nigel. He's actually looking for Katrina, but Rachel tells him that Nigel just sent her to Barcelona. Louis was going to have her represent him in the custody hearing, so now that she's gone, he ignores Rachel's advice to let it go and demands to know which associate is least loyal to Nigel. None of the names Rachel comes up with is acceptable to Louis, so he drafts Rachel herself, over her continuing objections. Louis makes an emotional appeal about his shitty season thus far: he's lost the associates, been rejected by Mike, saw Harvey's name on the wall, but Mikado was there for him, with a dead mouse and everything. "I once fought valiantly for your dream, and even though I lost, I’m asking you. Fight for mine?" No. Get a new dream, Louis.

Mike catches up with Jessica on the sidewalk, arguing that Nick Howell didn't do it any more than Ava did. Jessica isn't impressed with Mike's claims of Nick's innocence, so Mike asks if this is personal about Harvey trying to sell her out. Jessica angrily tells Mike to find out what Cameron had on Nick Howell in the first place. "Because if you think all it was that tape, then you don't know what the hell you're doing." See, there she goes again.

Mike visits Cameron Dennis's office on his own and asks if he's willing to deal. Cameron ups his previous offer of nine years in prison to twelve, and Mike reminds Cameron that his entire case consists of "a confessed murderer and a vindictive ex-employee." Cameron doesn't budge, and as he comes around the desk telling Mike to get lost, Mike gets pissed -- or acts pissed, calling Cameron a dick and knocking the file out of his hands. Then he acts shocked at his own outburst, stooping to gather up the papers. And, unbeknownst to Cameron, using his magic brain to scan them with super-speed as he does so. Cameron kicks him out, unaware that Mike's got everything he needs.

The mock trial is going on in the firm's library, with all the associates present. Good thing none of them are needed for that murder trial. Under Rachel's direct examination, Louis is describing how Mikado was emotionally listless when she came to him. Nigel loses patience with the associate representing him and decides to be his own lawyer. Clearly they're getting to him. Or maybe he's just irritated with how stupid this subplot is.

Jessica gets around to calling up Edward Darby in London, and she's pretty pissed at him, too, over his deal with Harvey. Darby points out that the deal wasn't his idea, and that accepting it was his only way to keep Harvey from quitting. Jessica informs him that Harvey doesn't want the deal any more. "Which was my hope from the beginning," Darby says smoothly. Jessica gets to her point, which is that she wants Stephen Huntley out of there. Darby reminds Jessica that Stephen is to him as Harvey is to Jessica -- or at least as Harvey used to be to Jessica -- but agrees that Stephen will be out of Jessica's face as soon as she wins Ava's trial.

Jessica vows to win it, and adds that they're going to talk about the merger afterward. Darby suddenly concludes that Harvey has managed to sour Jessica on the merger he never wanted, which he suspects was Harvey's motive in telling her in the first place. And now, so does Jessica.

Nigel is now cross-examining Louis, arguing that he was never the caring, parental figure he claims to be when it came to the associates. Louis retorts that the issue is his treatment of cats, and also points out that Nigel's hands-off style doesn't do much for the associates either. Nigel's still savoring the points he's scored when he calls a surprise witness: Harold Gunderson, the former associate Louis fired after making his life miserable. "Holy shit, we're in trouble," Louis mutters, and Rachel calls a ten-minute recess.

She goes to Mike's desk in the bullpen, where he tries to put her off because he's typing out Cameron's files out from memory, but she's desperate. "I am going to lose my first case. A mock case. About a cat." Mike does have time for that. Except when Rachel tells him that Harold's in the house and she needs Mike's help to remember anything nice Harold ever said about Louis, Mike has nothing…because there was nothing. He has to take off, and asks Rachel to say hi to Harold, "before you figure out a way to screw him."

Up on the fiftieth floor, Mike presents Harvey with his printout. Harvey's pretty impressed, saying, "There's enough here to make me think that [Nick] really did it." He says they'll have to tell Jessica she was right, and then drag Nick Howell in to make sure he can't explain this away in court.

At the mock trial, Nigel is questioning Harold, who is only too happy to testify that Louis is an asshole to humans in his charge. Louis says that still has nothing to do with the cat, until Nigel brings up Louis's own late cat, Bruno -- who he once made Harold take care of. And of course Harold was both allergic to and helpless with cats, and Bruno died the next day. And then, according to Harold's testimony, Louis told Harold that "he might as well have left his cat with Michael Vick." Oh, come on, the jury isn't going to appreciate a good line like that?

Nick Howell finds himself at a conference room table, in front of a video camera, across from Jessica, Harvey, Mike, and Ava. He thinks he's just there as a character witness, until they say that they now like him for paying Mariga off for the murders instead of Ava. Mike slides some paperwork across to Nick, which Jessica says for the camera is a record of deposits made to Nick's Swiss bank account opened a week after the murders. He asks how they got it, but doesn't deny they're accurate. Except that it was Nick's bonus that came not from Mariga, but Hessington Oil, "and she knows it."

Jessica accuses him of acting on his own, but he says he has emails. Which Ava says didn't mention Swiss bank accounts "Because I knew you wouldn't want them to," Nick says. Jessica takes it personally again, but Nick hotly maintains that he didn't know anything about the killings, and no jury will believe it. Even all these hostile people across the table from him don't seem to believe it.

Rachel is cross-examining Harold, pointing out some of his screw-ups at the firm. Including a zero he left off a document that almost cost a client nine hundred grand. Harold says nobody was supposed to know about that, which Rachel says is because Louis covered for him and let him fix it. And that allowed Harold to learn from his mistakes, and eventually led to Harold's his new firm hiring him because they knew he was taught by Louis…and now he's happy. "But he was mean to me," Harold whines. Rachel says it's about the cat, and asks Harold if Louis didn’t' love Bruno with all his heart. Harold looks at Louis, sitting red-faced at the plaintiff's table, and only answers yes when Rachel pushes him to. Nigel looks pretty destroyed as Rachel has no further questions. Aw, cheer up, Nigel. This is all fucking stupid.

Donna visits Stephen in his office, and while she's acting quite pleasant, he should realize that something's up. She drops a copy of Colonel Mariga's deposition onto his desk, saying she's surprised he doesn't recognize it. Apparently he snuck it while she was making copies earlier, thinking he wouldn't notice. Donna's pretty mad that he broke his promise to her to stay out of the case, and Stephen says he also made a promise to Edward Darby. Donna says that's his own problem, and objects to Stephen's claim that this is about Harvey. "I don't care if you said you'd stay out of Norma's business and you went back on it. You lied to me. We're done." On her way out, she adds that he's welcome for her not telling Harvey. "Because if he found out, he would beat the shit out of you." Stephen wisely doesn't point out that he used to play rugby.

Returning to her desk, Donna literally bumps into Mike and then snaps at him for it. He chases her down, asking what's up. Donna doesn't want to talk about it, saying Mike will tell Harvey and Harvey will get pissed off. But she admits that Stephen got a hold of Mariga's deposition. Mike expresses his sympathies about their breakup, which I'm sure is foremost on his mind right now.

After the trial, Nigel comes to Louis and Rachel, saying they won and he's not going to try to take Louis's cat, as dumb as all this was. Nigel points out that Louis didn't win on the merits of the case, but "because the associates prefer your tough love to my light touch." Louis agrees, so Nigel offers Louis a deal: the associates for Mikado. Louis turns him down, but Rachel asks Nigel for a minute with her client. "I do love her, you know," Nigel says on his way out. Rachel sits Louis down and says she needs to tell him something, as his attorney, even though Louis doesn't want to choose: "She's Nigel's cat." So can we please get back to pretending this never happened?

On the rooftop, Jessica admits to Harvey that he was right about nobody ever believing that Nick did it without Ava knowing -- because Ava should have known. Harvey gets her point and says they're not like Ava and Nick. Jessica agrees, saying that Ava didn't want to know, but Jessica does. She just didn't want to believe Harvey would do it to her .Harvey says he didn't; he stopped it and he told her about it. Jessica wants to know why, and after some analogies about confessing cheaters, Jessica airs her suspicion that Harvey told her so shed reconsider the merger.

Harvey maintains that he just didn't want any more secrets, adding that his resistance to the merger was never one of them. He does admit that yes, he knew Jessica would be pissed at Darby if he told her, but he denies setting her up. And he adds that it didn't change her mind; it just helped her realize what she already felt about the merger herself. Jessica says he could be managing partner, and he says he isn't. and doesn't want to be. "So what are we going to do about this trial?" Now that all the touchy-feely is behind them.

Rachel is preparing to return Mikado, saying she realizes the associates mean more to Louis. Louis says they don't, but quotes Spock: "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few or the one." He thanks her for her help, and wants to give her a reward: a letter of acceptance from Columbia University Law School, which he snagged of the mail cart for her. Right, because Rachel would have totally applied with her work address. Louis says, "Congratulations, Rachel, you're going to be a lawyer. A real lawyer." Rachel happily hugs him, overcome with joy because this probably means she won't have to be involved in idiotic story lines like tonight's any more.

Mike goes rushing up to Donna's desk in a panic, saying he needs for Harvey and Jessica right now. She asks what's wrong, and he says he figured out why Stephen needed to know what was in Mariga's deposition: "He was afraid that Mariga would tell the truth. Stephen was the one who ordered those killings." Aw, man, too bad Donna already dumped him.

A few minutes later, in Harvey's office, Mike lays out the evidence: Mariga and Stephen were rugby teammates during Stephen's semester at the University of Cape Town. He's got a photo of them together and everything. "They're still a team," Harvey realizes. Jessica reminds everyone for the umpteenth time that Stephen is Darby's fixer, and so he fixed Ava's pipeline. He fixed it good. Mike even has a record of the call from Stephen's London office at Darby International to Mariga. Then they figure Mariga called Nick and Nick called Ava, though the latter two thought it was only a bribe. "And when Ava's about to be charged for murder, Stephen shows up to make sure we'd never find out," Harvey concludes.

Donna, who has been getting increasingly upset during this recitation, tells Harvey that she's so sorry. Harvey looks at her first in confusion for a moment, as though he'd briefly forgotten what it could possibly have to do with her. But when he remembers, he clenches his jaw and heads purposefully out of the office, ignoring Jessica when she asks what he's going to do.

What he's going to do is go right up to Stephen while he's washing his hands in the men's room, and sock him in the face. Stephen fights back, pretty well considering that Harvey sucker-punched him. But Harvey eventually wins by hurling Stephen into the full-length mirror. Hey, Harvey, you're name's on the wall now. You're the one who has to help pay for that shit.