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Louis Litt’s (Rick Hoffman) resignation from Pearson Specter will have major ramifications on Suits, which ends its summer run today. After saving the firm from the wrath of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Louis’ fate was sealed after an unethical deal with billionaire Charles Forstman (Eric Roberts) threatened the firm’s standing. Not surprisingly, Louis’ sudden departure affects the rest of the major players on Suits for the rest of the season.
“The upcoming episode is going to deal with the aftermath of Jessica’s [Gina Torres] decision to fire Louis and Louis’ decision to resign. Louis is caught in a pickle because even though he’s resigned, his life is falling apart,” creator Aaron Korsh tells The Hollywood Reporter of the recently renewed series. “He’s got to pick his life up, and he’s going to need some help from the people from Pearson Specter. Some of them are going to be willing to give him that help and some of them are not, and it’s going to cause some major ramifications for everyone at Pearson Specter.”
Ahead of the finale, Korsh talks to THR about the aftermath of Louis’ resignation, relationships in turmoil and ending the summer season with a big question.
Louis’ decision to leave a company that he considers home is a huge blow for someone like him. How does he deal with not having that piece of his life any more?
He’s trying to pick up the pieces and move on to another place. When you leave a place like Pearson Specter, it probably leaves a huge hole in your life, and the best thing you can do is to fill the hole with something else — another job. A lot of people when they experience a deep loss, they try to distract themselves, in particular these people; they’re workaholics, they define themselves by their job and their professional life. When he has frustrations in filling the hole that way, he’s going to try to fill the hole in a different way. He’s going to keep filling this sense of loss in various ways, and he keeps running up against barriers to that. In the end, he has to deal with the fact that maybe he’s not going to be able to fill that hole in the short term at all.
We also saw Harvey (Gabriel Macht) unsuccessfully try to save Louis’ job at the firm.
A lot of people wonder, “How does Harvey feel about Louis?” I feel like episode nine and, to some degree, [the summer finale], show that when it comes down to it, Harvey cares about Louis and he does act like a friend to Louis even though he can’t do everything that Louis wants him to do. Harvey tries hard for Louis but at the same time, he doesn’t want to be a patsy and he doesn’t want to just roll over when Louis is trying to pick a fight with him. These two episodes show both sides of the Louis-Harvey relationship, that they have a bond, that they do care about each other underneath, but they also have a capacity to experience a lot of friction and animosity when they’re on opposite sides of each other.
What’s Pearson Specter like without Louis’ energy?
Looking to the summer finale, we follow some of Louis’ journey. In one respect, Louis may be gone from the firm but he’s not gone from the show. Louis being gone is going to be felt at the firm and we’re going to deal with that. You can’t lose a major member and not process it among the characters or talk about it or feel his presence being gone. Moving forward, we’ll continue to explore that.
Where does this leave Jessica and Harvey’s professional relationship?
When we were writing these episodes, I was hesitant at first to have Louis go because the part of me that was a fan wanted them to forgive him because he saved the firm. I see both sides of it. There’s some hypocrisy to it because Jessica forgives Harvey for doing the same thing, but we end up trying to point that out in the context of the show. Donna [Sarah Rafferty] points it out to Harvey, Harvey points it out to Jessica, but ultimately Jessica gives her reasoning, which is — you may agree with it or disagree with it — but: “It’s insane the things Louis has done and all the mistakes he’s made.” They both have a legitimate point, and it causes some friction between Harvey and Jessica, but less so now than it may cause in the back six [episodes].
There are also conflicts between Jessica and Malone (D.B. Woodside).
They have problems. Their problem is not entirely dissimilar to the problems Harvey and Scottie [Abigail Spencer] had. Some of it is how much is Jessica going to let Malone in on what’s going on in the firm and in her life. Some of it has to do with [the fact] that Jessica is a private person and some of it has to do with sometimes Jessica does some line-crossing in her work. Malone said, “When are you going to understand I can handle crossing lines, but I can’t stand you lying to me.” And he puts that thought in her head, and we do not get a chance, unfortunately, to deal with it [in the summer finale]. She’s going to have to confront that question in the back six. She’s got a decision to make: Is she going to let him in or is she not? [As writers] we’re still wrestling with what’s going to happen. (Laughs.)
Another relationship that’s not at 100 percent is Rachel (Meghan Markle) and Mike (Patrick J. Adams). What does the forecast look like for them?
At the end of the last episode, they’re in a better place. They’re trying to work things out. They might be in a little bit of a rocky place, but what we were trying to communicate was that forgiveness is a process. You can’t force it, you can’t rush it. You can try to force it but these feelings are going to come up again and again. I read fan feedback and some people are like, “He should never forgive her, it’s crazy!” while other people are like, “Enough already, he should forgive her. All she did was kiss the guy!” When people have such vehement responses on both sides, that makes me think, “Good, I made a good decision.”
What can you say about the summer finale and its effect on the second half of the season?
I do think this is a pretty big cliffhanger, but this episode ends with a huge punch. Hopefully people will like it. It’s definitely going to have a huge question posed that we will answer directly in the back six.
Suits wraps up the first half of season four tonight at 9 p.m. on USA Network.
Email: Philiana.Ng@THR.com
Twitter: @insidethetube
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