By: Greg Payne
Episode 2 of Season 2 of Suits, 'The Choice,' left us with a host of things to analyze and discuss, including the rocky terms Harvey and Jessica seemed to be on for the majority of its run time.
Here's a closer look at Mike and Rachel's long-awaited union and subsequent falling out -- the most promising, yet briefest, relationship on television.
But let's stick with Harvey and Jessica. Basically, Jessica 's nervous about Daniel Hardman being inbound for the firm again, fearful that he'll be gunning for her current (and his former) position as managing partner. So, she needs to get as many of the prominent people within the firm on her side as quickly as possible, and she dispatches Harvey to woo the bow tie-wearing Paul Porter, who's at the top (or very close to the top) of the bankruptcy wing.
Porter's trying to get one of his clients, Tom, to declare bankruptcy on a large-scale construction project, Madison 25, so he sends Harvey in to persuade Tom to call it quits and live to fight another day. But Tom, despite owing a quarter of a billion dollars in two days, refuses to fold, which leads Mike and Harvey to the manager of the bank that dished out the loan to Tom, in the hopes that they can get it renegotiated. But the manager isn't exactly welcoming or reasonable, leaving Madison 25 and Tom very much on the ropes.
Harvey's determined to find a solution, but Porter doesn't want him to come up with a miracle. He wants Tom to declare bankruptcy and not risk more money in the future. Jessica wants what Porter wants because she needs Porter's vote of support when things come to a head with Hardman.
But Harvey never says die, and can't back away from helping Tom when he and Mike find a way to save Madison 25 (the bank representing it wants it to fold so it can open a new headquarters there for cheap, which jeopardizes adjacent real estate projects -- a big no-no). Whether it's his ego or his never-ending will to succeed at everything and always be right (which is pretty much his ego), Harvey can't bring himself to lie to Tom and tell him he couldn't find him a solution, even though Jessica told him directly to do just that.
Tom sure is happy, but Porter doesn't share in the elation, and Jessica knows she won't have his support when it comes to Hardman because of Harvey not doing what Porter wanted. This leads to a very frosty rooftop meeting between Harvey and Jessica, in which she completely blasts him for his insubordination. It's rare to see Harvey lost for words, but he seems legitimately thrown when she refers to him as her "biggest liability," and admits that she now has to come to terms with the fact that she believes she's alone in her fight against Hardman.
You definitely can't blame Jessica on this one, and it would seem she had every right to call Harvey out the way she did. It really will be a war for her when Hardman returns, and, despite her current standing within the firm, she'll be perhaps the most vulnerable when the bullets start to fly. Does anything suck more than being betrayed by the one person you think you can rely on? Particularly when he more or less just blackmailed you into allowing a complete fraud of an associate (Mike) to continue working at the firm?
Harvey attempted to smooth things over at the tail end of the episode by delivering a trinket of Jessica's to her office (or is it Hardman's office now?) and telling her she's not alone in this, but it was tough to tell if that act alone made Jessica feel better about everything. I'm guessing no.
Harvey has never really done anything over the course of the show that has made us question his character or his judgement. At least nothing that involved betraying someone he's close with. We're used to seeing Harvey as the savior -- the knight who rides in and fixes what appears to be an unsolvable problem (he did this for Tom). We've never had to question his loyalty to Jessica, but it was kind of a dick move when you think about it. I completely understand his desire to help Tom. It's the way he's built. But loyalty counts for something, doesn't it? Sometimes you have to lose the battle to win the war, but Harvey elected to take the battle, and, simultaneously, hand over weapons to the opposition. "No, I don't think I want the RPG after all. You guys take it. I'll see if I can beat you with a pistol and a Swiss army knife." Actually, is it fair to call Porter an RPG? Probably not. That's an insult to RPGs. More like a grenade. But, like, an ugly grenade that you wouldn't expect to do damage until it actually explodes and blows your arm off.
But back to loyalty. Where do we draw the line? I always say that, in any endeavor, we have to know what it is we're fighting for. And I can't help but think Harvey's loyalty to Jessica should have trumped his desire to be Tom's savior. Usually if Harvey is dealing with multiple problems he finds a way to solve them all. No end is left loose. But he couldn't do that this time and Jessica got burned pretty bad.
Maybe it will all work out in the end. But for now, Jessica's got some kicked dirt on her face and Harvey's wearing the boot. Much like we'll be watching how Mike and Rachel interact next week, we'll have to keep our gaze on Harvey and Jessica, to see how touchy things are between them, particularly with Hardman poised to step up to the plate.
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