#frank gallo suits

[heartsuits]

[halfthebrain]

Once again wondering how Harvey would have killed Gallo.

[loverofsoups]

The way harvey threatened to kill Frank Gallo outside the prison when he was talking about mike I was like MMMFMFFFF where r u my own mr specter….

[scottieharveys]

suits and its never ending tendency to either redeem absolutely horrible characters or justify someone’s questionable actions by throwing in the fact that they have a daughter and whatever they did was done to protect her

[maddoc05]

Full fic on Ao3

Suits / The Magnus Archives Crossover

You shouldn’t trust anyone in here.

Mike stares sightlessly into the ceiling of his cell, the spring of the bed curving a scar into his back, and it’s that moment where the terror becomes so familiar it’s almost a messy comfort. The strange thing about the human body - he remembers reading about survival instinct, that rapid acclimatization to whatever is in the periphery after long enough. The ever-changing wallpaper of life. 

Harvey, he thinks. Then squeezes his eyes shut, and tries to breathe.

The cell door creaks. Mike knows that sound like the back of his hand - the creak of metal, the slow thump of footsteps that savor every second of a bite. 

This is war, Mikey, the prison walls tell him.

Harvey’s war. Gallo’s war. A war that was waged over thirteen years ago and Mike would be the latest casualty of battle. Sleep with your rifle, but there was no goddamned rifle, only the gleam of sharpened silver in Frank Gallo’s hands. Mike tastes Kevin’s blood in the back of his throat, coppery and bitter, the specks of rust still on that weapon’s length, glinting so very distinctly in the dimmed prison lights. 

There are three men. Two pin Mike against the cell wall, the corridors are devoid of guards. Mike knows he is so very alone, that this is how they got Kevin, isn't it. Kevin falls, but Mike still stands. In war, this will have turned out to be Gallo's fatal mistake, so proud to have the knife sinking into Mike's chest that he misses the rifle aimed at the soft underside of his throat.

Curiously, Mike doesn’t strain. It’s not a disconnect. His senses alert him to everything. He sees the dark near-brown of dried blood, a grinning sea, in Gallo’s eyes. Revenge drives men to madness, in a perpetual haze of distraction. One that works well in Mike's favour. He waits, as still as a mouse, as Gallo’s men carry out their orders and take grotesque satisfaction in those commands. 

His blood stirs up a song.

“I’m tired of waiting.” Frank says, lips pulled in a vicious smirk.

“Yeah.” Mike says. “So am I.”

There are no cameras in the cell, says the stale wind.

Frank lunges. Mike slams his head forwards in the nearest human jaw. Bone cracks. 

And somewhere in the process of prying Gallo’s fingers off the hilt of the knife, hearing the individual crack of each finger bone as it contorts, Mike realises he really doesn’t particularly care. The screaming fills his background noise, the mortar shells and rifle pumps of even more distant footsteps, the grit of a dry throat - it is all a pale comparison to the vivid strokes of his own actions that slips his head above the surface of this waking nightmare.

Gallo is coiled strength and festering rage. Mike has the knife. 

He’s never delighted in violence before. The crimson spill of it as it gushes past his steady palm, pouring onto the floor. The terror has long since blent into a measured fury - at Gallo, at the world. The faintest butterfly of hope he’s carried around for so long, a torch of naivete and always, always believing the best, and it is now crushed wings and flakes of ash that escape his grasp as easily as he’d once held onto it. It’s a dance that Mike has never learnt, but knows each step of. 

The eyes, throat, chest.

The thigh, lung, heart.

His blood pulses the rhythm of that song, and so Mike dances each step. It feels right. It feeds that chasm inside of him, and for the first time in a long time, he knows how it is to feel the brush of organs beneath his skin, the adrenaline rush of blood through every vein, a network map of intent and purpose and clarity.

Gallo had stopped screaming. In fact, he’s stopped everything. 

It's so quiet now, he can finally hear the song. It threads his veins, nuzzles into the exposed edge of his throat. It is blood that ran like wine, and it is the sound that flesh makes when it splits apart at the seams. 

Light floods his eyes. The cell door pushed open. The cacophony of shouting.

Mike turns, his eyes unknowingly slit thinly to the invisible drumbeats of war, the gunpowder-flash of irritation flashing with ill-concealed viciousness, blood streaking past his face like veins running upwards. The rumpled collar of his prison uniform soaked through with crimson, wrist-deep in warm, cooling viscera. He balances on his ankles, recalled for the instinct of fight instead of flight. 

The energy floats through him, intoxicating and wonderful. 

The cell door slams shut again. 

-

Ring, ring counsellor. 

These are the words echoing through Harvey’s min

Ring ring.

It’s an empty threat.

Gruffly, “This is Harvey Specter.”

“You have a call from Danbury Federal Prison.” 

The guy who’s in here for you is never coming out. 

“Do you accept the charges?”

The world is spinning. Harvey’s chest is too tight. “Yes.”

It’s not Mike at the phone. Harvey grabs onto bits and pieces of the conversation, like he's staggering through a haze. “ ...I work at the Danbury Federal Penitentiary… calling for Michael James Ross… listed as the emergency contact .”

Harvey is going to be sick.

The voice continues, and dimly he picks up the audible edge of tension. He can barely discern the words over the pounding of his heart. “There was an- altercation between Mr Ross and three other inmates in his cell. There have been casualties-”

He stops listening.

Tightness in his chest, a vice grip around his throat, the ground is fallible beneath his feet. There is nothing but the cold, so very cold, and something must have shattered in his expression because Donna- she’s reaching for him, because, because Harvey Specter is nothing but the mantra of MikeMikeMike rising through his throat like the scream of a piano chord.

He’s floating. “I’m on the way.” He says, numb to the phone, and then calls Ray. 

[alisa-eroliskaya5503tx]

frank gallo suits Paul Schulze actor actress picture TV Actor

frank gallo suits Paul Schulze actor actress picture TV Actor

frank gallo suits

About frank gallo suits:

About

Assumes the job of Father Phil Intintola on HBO’s The Sopranos close by Edie Falco.

Prior to Fame

He showed up in the film, Laws of Gravity.

Random data

He assumed the job of Ryan Chappelle on the Fox TV arrangement, 24.

Family Life

He grew up acting in ads.

Related With

He showed up in the film Panic Room with Jodie Foster.

We realize that you…

[elloras]

Suits: Back on the Map

[whumpedmen-blog]

Suits, S06E03

[carefreezoe]

Marvey - 7x06 - Home to Roost

“This guy tried to kill you!”

[frivoloussuits]

Sony SRF-39FP

Anita Gibbs won’t settle for Mike, not when there are named partners within her reach. She offers only one deal– two years, no other charges against anyone else in the firm, as long as Harvey Specter turns himself in. And even as Donna and Jessica and Louis and Mike beg him not to, he jumps on the grenade.

“Time to get busy living or get busy dying,” he remarks, and Mike gives a small chuckle. Then Harvey smirks, straightens his suit jacket, and strides into FCI Danbury.

Continue reading on AO3.

[sylvies-chen]

Chicago Fire Characters During Halloween - Group Costume Headcanons (PART 1)

Sylvie and Matt go as Brad and Janet

Because DUH, they’re the sweetest of the group and fit the roles perfectly

Sylvie wanted to do a couple’s costume anyway so she’s totally down for it (she leaves her hair down and curls it which she doesn’t get to do all that often either)

Matt has never seen Rocky Horror before so Sylvie shows it to him to prepare for the costume

He does not understand the movie at all and finds it really weird

But his costume is tame so he doesn’t mind (he thinks he has to dress up in just his underwear though and nearly has a heart attack but Sylvie tells him he can wear Brad’s original outfit from the beginning thankfully)

Sylvie sings Dammit Janet nonstop!!

Not only that, but she’s actually a great singer so when she does sing Janet’s parts everyone’s jaws drop to the floor

She also finds the idea of Matt with thick-framed glasses EXTREMELY hot (she says he looks like Clark Kent and it’s a total turn-on)

Severide goes as Eddie

Normally, he’s not much for dressing up but he LOVES Eddie’s leather jacket and so he agrees to it

And a rock n roll, bad boy saxophonist who crashes his motorcycle through a WALL?? Yeah, that’s right up Kelly Severide’s lane

He even does the Hot Patootie dance from the musical (before it goes totally haywire and Eddie dies) with Stella

Severide is weirdly good at it! It’s the ONLY time people ever see him dance but him and Stella make it look so easy, the other people at Molly’s stare at them enviously because they’re just couple goals

Kelly buys an actual saxophone to really commit to the costume (which Stella badgers him for because he really didn’t need to spend that much money for a costume prop)

Capp steals his saxophone halfway through the night and starts trying to play it, making the most godawful squeaking noises

Severide rips it out of his hands and declares that Halloween is cancelled, but Stella keeps him from killing Capp

Boden very very VERY begrudgingly agrees to go as the Criminologist

It’s not a super flashy costume which is the only reason he agrees to it

In fact, some people question whether he’s actually dressed up at first because it looks like he’s just in a really old fashioned suit

He starts looking into a fake camera when someone annoys him just like the Criminologist does when narrating (which Gallo calls “Jim-ing the camera” like Jim Halpert from The Office)

He ends up doing it constantly because everyone gets super drunk at the party at Molly’s and he’s the only one even remotely sober there

Does not under ANY circumstances participate in the dance for Time Warp (but has the time of his life watching from the sidelines as his coworkers dance like fools)

Gallo is the young, bisexual (in my head) himbo stud of the firehouse so OF COURSE he’s going as Rocky

He wears those gold board shorts like an absolute champ and even though it’s probably the skimpiest costume of the group, he doesn’t mind at all (minus the blonde wig, which he doesn’t wear)

In fact, he tries to flex his muscles in his costume the whole night (Violet rolls his eyes at this of course and frankly, so does Ritter)

By the time it’s Halloween in Chicago though, it’s way too cold to be wearing nothing but gold board shorts outside so he covers up with a jacket

Gallo and Ritter both get bored though so they wrap Gallo in toilet paper to make him look like Rocky in his full body cast when he’s first “born”

Ritter is doing a group costume with Eric but he and Gallo go to the Rocky Horror picture show every single year so Ritter’s still super excited about Gallo’s costume (even if he does tease Gallo relentlessly about it)

It’s their thing, their tradition: they find a theatre where they’re showing it and a night of throwing toast and screaming excitedly ensues

Herrmann and Mouch wager a bet to see who has to go as Dr. Frank N Furter. Herrmann loses. He demands a rematch and loses again, worse than last time.

He goes in Frank N Furter’s scrubs/doctor outfit though, because it’s still a work party and there’s no chance in hell he’s letting his coworkers see him in a corset and fishnet stockings, it’s just too risqué for him

But then he gets to the party and REALLY gets into it!!

I mean seriously, he dances around with the wig and the pearls and the makeup and everything while singing Sweet Transvestite without a care in the world

Ritter reminds him that the term is offensive but Herrmann doesn’t know why because he thought it meant someone who’s a vampire

He even brings a fake pick axe and pretends to kill Severide/Eddie with it

Herrmann gets TONS of looks from customers though— most of which, surprisingly enough, are from people who love his costume

He gets tons of compliments about it the whole night and it totally boosts his ego until at the end he doesn’t want to have to take everything off

[aion-rsa]

Scarface’s Tony Montana vs. Michael Corleone: Which Al Pacino is the Boss of Bosses

https://ift.tt/3haJ9K7

Scarface hadn’t been made when Pete Townshend’s 1974 song “The Punk and the Godfather” came out, but The Godfather certainly had. The Who’s anthem was a musical allegory about the rock scene, but the lyrics might as well be interpreted as a conversation between Michael Corleone and Tony Montana. Possibly right before they rumble.

Al Pacino played both men in both movies, and in each film, he begins the story as a punk. But in The Godfather, at least, he grows into the establishment. Michael becomes don. Tony was a shooting star on the other hand, one on a collision course with an unyielding atmosphere. Both roles are smorgasbords of possibilities to an actor, especially one who chased Richard III to every imaginable outcome. Each are also master criminals. But which is more masterful?

The obvious answer would seem to be Michael Corleone because he turned a criminal empire into a multi-billion-dollar international business, and lived to a ripe old age to regret it. Cent’anni, Michael. Tony Montana doesn’t live to see the fruits of his labor, but his career in crime is littered with the successes of excess.

Montana is a hungry, young, loose cannon, just like real-life’s “Crazy” Joe Gallo, who went up against the Profaci family in the street fight which Mario Puzo and Francis Ford Coppola used as inspiration on The Godfather. Gallo stand-in Virgil “The Turk” Sollozzo (Al Lettieri) did a lot of damage while he was trying to muscle in on Don Vito Corleone’s territory, selling white powder. Montana leaves a larger body count in the wake of his cocaine empire career. 

Scarface is Pacino’s film. The whole movie is about Tony Montana and his meteoric rise through money, power and women. The Godfather is a mob movie, crowded with top rate talent in an ensemble case, but it belongs to Marlon Brando. While Michael inherits the position by The Godfather, Part II, he shares Godfather roles with Robert De Niro there, and people come away feeling a little sorry for Fredo. Michael isn’t the focus of an entire film until The Godfather, Part III, and by then folks were only distracted by his daughter. Tony Montana owns the screen from the moment it opens until his last splash in the fountain under the “World Is Yours” sign. The picture was his.

Making Your Bones on First Kills

Pacino brings little of the wisdom of his Godfather role to Scarface’s title character. This is by design. Every crime boss has to make his bones. In mafia organizations, real and cinematic, the button men on the street are called soldiers. And every soldier has to go through basic training before they’re ready to earn their button. Michael gets assassination training from his father’s most trusted capo, Pete Clemenza (Richard S. Castellano) before he goes out to enjoy the veal.

Scarface doesn’t give us many details of the crimes Tony was involved in while still in Cuba, so he makes his cinematic bones executing General Emilio Rebenga in the American detention camp for Cuban refugees. The two scenes are polar opposites in all ways but suspense.

When Michael is sitting at the dinner table with Sollozzo and Police Captain McCluskey (Sterling Hayden), he lets Sollozzo do all the talking, easing him into comfort before pulling the trigger. Tony barely lets Rebenga get a whimper in during his first onscreen hit, which plays closer to an execution. Tony covers the sounds of his own attack with a chant he himself begins. It is a brilliant overplay, especially when compared to another scene that resembles The Godfather, with Tony killing a mid-level gangster and a crooked cop towards the end of Scarface. 

A major difference between the two roles is best summed up in a line Tony says in Scarface. He learned to speak English by watching James Cagney and Humphrey Bogart. Montana comes from the Cagney tradition of broad gangster characterizations. In The Godfather, Kay Adams (Diane Keaton) asks Michael if he’d prefer Ingrid Bergman. The young soldier has to think about it. This is because Pacino is miles removed here from Bogart, who played Bergman’s lover in Casablanca. Pacino’s two gangster icons approached their criminality differently, and Pacino gets to play in both yards.

Pacino remains on an even keel in the Godfather films, but gives a tour de force of violent expression in Scarface, which burns like white heat.

The Handling of Enemies and Vices

In Scarface, Pacino gets to be almost as over the top as he is in Dick Tracy. His accent would never make it past the modern culture board at The Simpsons, but he pulls it off in 1983 because he says so. Pacino bullies the audience into believing it. It’s that exact arrogance which makes us root for Tony Montana. We don’t want to be on his bad side. But the chilled reptilian stare of Michael Corleone is a visual representation of why Sicilians prefer their revenge served cold.

Michael is diabetic, and is usually seen drinking water in The Godfather films. Sure, he has an occasional glass or red wine, and possibly some Sambuca with his espresso, but Michael always keeps a clear head. Tony, not so much. He makes drunken scenes at his favorite nightclubs, and not only gets high on his own supply, but gets so nose deep in it he develops godlike delusions of superheroic grandeur.

Montana is impulsive, instinctive, and decisive. Tony kills his best friend Manny Ribera (Steven Bauer) immediately upon finding him with his little sister Gina (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio). Michael waits until his sister Connie (Talia Shire) is on a plane to Tahoe before he has her husband killed in a hit years in the planning. Later Michael hangs his head silently as the shotgun blast which kills his brother, Fredo (John Cazale), echoes in the distance.

Tony, meanwhile, continues yelling at Sosa’s right-hand man long after his brains are all over the automobile’s interior.

Clothes Make the Man

Tony is written to be charismatic. Even coked out of his mind, he’d be a better fit in Vegas with Fredo’s crowd than with wet blanket Michael in Tahoe. Tony sports white suits, satin shirts, and designer sunglasses. Michael accessorizes three-piece ensembles with an ascot. This isn’t to say Michael had any issues with getting somebody’s brains splattered all over his Ivy League suit. 

Designed by Theadora Van Runkle, Michael preferred dupioni silk. That’s smart. The dark navy wool chalk-stripe suit Tony wears in his death scene was designed by Tommy Velasco and carries the class of a tuxedo. It was after 6pm. What do you think he is, a farmer?

“I’m the guy in the sky, flying high, flashing eyes. No surprise I told lies, I’m the punk from the gutter,” Roger Daltrey belts out on “The Punk and The Godfather.” This is exactly against the no-flash advice Frank Lopez (Robert Loggia) tries to impart on his young protégé in Scarface. Tony was raised not to take any advice other than his own. He also ignores his consigliere’s advice on several occasions. When Manny reminds Tony the pair of them were in a cage a year ago, the rebel gangster says he’s trying to forget that, he’s going after the boss’ girl. 

“I come from the gutter,” Montana proudly contends. “I know that. I got no education but that’s okay. I know the street, and I’m making all the right connections.” 

By contrast, Michael attended Dartmouth College and then dropped out to join the Marines after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Michael is both intelligent and well-connected, loosely modeled on Joseph Bonanno and Vito Genovese. He also accepts the wisdom of his father, who most closely resembled “The Prime Minister” of New York’s Five Families in the 1950s, mafia boss Frank Costello.

The Better Family Man

Pacino’s Don Michael Corleone has access to all his family’s connections, stretching back to the old world. He learns to expertly pull the strings of powerful men, like his father did, but as he grew, he bent. Michael is friends with senators, meets with the President of Cuba, has money in the Vatican, and confesses his sins to a Pope. Michael was insulated throughout his childhood and criminal career. If Tony gets in trouble, he has to get out of it himself, or with the help of a handful of low-level operatives.

Michael is the family rebel, risking his life and getting medals for strangers. He also gets to be both the prodigal son and the dutiful son. He gets the fatted calf and pays the piper. He even tips the baker’s helper for the effort. Michael comes back to both of his families, crime and birth, with a vengeance. He is there for his father the moment he is needed. Michael is the better family man. Tony’s mother is ashamed of him, and he completely ruins his sister’s wedding. Michael’s family means everything to him, and while he still manages to lose them, he actually maneuvers his two families well over rough waters for a very long run.  

Tony Montana is the rebel’s rebel. Even before he tosses off his bandana at the dishwasher job to make a quick score, we knew. He was born bad, in the cinematically good way. This also makes Montana a natural at crime. In The Godfather, Michael has it in his blood as a Corleone, but has his heart set on college, a straight career, and a shot to bring his whole family into the American Dream, which for Montana only exists as a wet dream.

Tony never gets past the hormonal teenage phase of his love of America. He wants to love his new country to death. He is turned on by the dream. He wants to take it. Not earn it. No foreplay necessary, as he claims his latest victim’s wife as his own.

Managerial Skills

Michael is pretty good with his underlings, when he’s not having them garroted on the way to an airport or advising them to slit their wrists in a bath. He promises Clemenza he can have his own family once the Corleones relocate to Las Vegas. He lets Joe Zaza (Joe Mantegna) get away with murder as the guy he sets up to run his old territory in The Godfather, Part III. Michael doesn’t keep turncoats like his trusted caporegime Tessio (Abe Vigoda) around for old times’ sake, and he doesn’t suffer fools at all. It may seem he cuts Tom Hayden (Robert Duvall) loose a little fast, and without warning or due cause. But if he was a wartime consigliere, he would have seen it coming.

While Tony Montana may have a competitive and fast-tracked entry program for new workers (“hey, you got a job”), he’s also the guy who shoots his right-hand man Manny for marrying his sister. Tony exacts a brutal and dangerous revenge for the death of his friend Angel Fernandez in the Miami chainsaw massacre, but doesn’t lift a finger when his cohort Omar Suarez (F. Murray Abraham) is hanged to death from a helicopter by drug lord Alejandro Sosa (Paul Shenar). Michael does have a tendency to have his soldato kiss his ring, but he’s not entirely a .95 caliber pezzonovante.

Read more

Movies

Scarface: Where Tony Montana Went Wrong

By Tony Sokol

Movies

The Godfather Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone Proves a Little Less is Infinitely More

By Tony Sokol

One of the most important skills a boss must exhibit is how to delegate, and Corleone is a minor Machiavellian master at his delegation. He whispers orders from behind closed doors. Tony is more hands-on. The only reason he tells Manny to “kill that piece of shit” Frank is because he’s already humiliated his former boss into a shell of a real man.

Montana is in the trenches with his soldiers and sets standards by example. He shoots a guy on a crowded Miami street in broad daylight. Montana is a born triggerman and only reluctantly delegates the duty. He has 10 bodyguards when Sosa men raid his mansion fortress. He takes the invading force with one little friend, an M16A1 rifle with a customized grenade launcher. But it sure doesn’t help the employees getting murdered outside.

A Handle on Finances

We don’t know what kinds of criminal activities the Corleone family were involved in between 1958 and 1979. Still, Michael had proven himself a traditionalist and a bit of a prude, so he spends most of his career shaving his take from harmless vices and avoiding drugs, which he sees as a dirty business. But through whatever means, by The Godfather, Part III, Michael has earned enough capital to buy himself out of crime.

Michael gambles successfully on Wall Street, keeps the Genco olive oil company going, and invests in hotels, casinos, and movie studios. He’s got to be pulling in a billion dollars a year in legitimate business. He makes enough to pad the coffers of the Vatican, and his share of Immobiliare stocks pulls in another $1 billion.

Tony looks like he’s earning about $15 million a month. But it doesn’t look like he puts much stock in his future. He makes no investments, only purchases. His only visible holding is the salon his sister works in. But we also have to take into account that he built his empire from scratch. Michael inherited his. And while the head of the Corleone family can blackmail a U.S. senator with a tragic sex scandal, Montana fares no better than Al Capone with tax evasion.

Who Would Win in a Mob War?

Scarface is as violent as the 1932 Howard Hawk original. Blood is a big expense, and 42 people are killed in the 1985 film. It came out amid other over-the-top action blockbusters like First Blood and the contemporary reality of the South American drug trade. So, it would seem, the film has far more violence. But they are easily matched.

The Godfather has a horse’s head, Scarface has a chainsaw. Michael’s brother Sonny (James Caan) gets machine gunned to smithereens at the toll booth, Tony blows the lower limbs off his would-be assassins at a nightclub. Omar is lynched in a chopper, the upper echelon of the mob is taken out by helicopter fire in The Godfather, Part III. Tony and Michael each get to kill a cop.

Both mob figures survive assassination attempts. Michael loses his wife Apollonia in Sicily in a car bombing meant for him. He also avoids the trap Tessio sets at the meeting with Emilio Barzini (Richard Conte), on his turf, where Michael “will be safe.” Tony lives through his initial professionally ordered hit, as well as being saved by Manny from certain death by chainsaw.

While Michael Corleone is able to take care of Barzini, Victor Stracci, Carmine Cuneo, and Phillip Tattaglia – the leadership of the five families – at the end of The Godfather, Tony Montana can only put up a good fight. The Corleone family would win in a protracted war against Montana’s cartel, but there is a possibility Tony would have outlived Michael while the battles raged. Expert swordsmen aren’t afraid to duel the best in the field, but they’re scared of the worst. 

As far as crime tactics and strategic villainy, Michael Corleone plays a game of chess. Tony Montana plays hopscotch. He wins by skipping cracks in the street, but he only rises as far as the pavement.

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[statusquoergo]

Part I

Early the next morning, Samantha’s already gotten wind of the suit against Brick Street and is none too pleased that Harvey didn’t tell her about it first thing, but no time for that now because Mike and Jeremy are already here for the deposition!

Small wrench in the gears: Whatever Mike was planning, he planned to do it with just Harvey, who “might have forgotten to mention” that Brick Street is now Samantha’s client, not his. Samantha’s derisive sneer of “Mm, the protégé” pours some more salt into that “Mike has been replaced” wound, but Mike cuts off Harvey’s hostile attempt to keep Samantha from taking the case (it is, after all, against her client) by pointing out that it’s frustrating, but they all know Harvey’s going to take his client back whether she likes it or not, so they might as well just let him do it. Samantha says his sob story about Brick Street’s poor factory conditions isn’t going to work here and Harvey says that “Sob stories are his specialty,” which is really just unnecessarily hurtful (and maybe also a little resentful), and Mike leaves them “to discuss who’s gonna take the loss,” patting Harvey on the arm on his way out and leaving me with some conflicting emotions (the physical contact is nice, the overall detachment of the gesture is not so much). Samantha comments that Harvey’s protégé “is a douche,” and like, I get it, but Harvey’s reply is “Not gonna argue with you there,” and what the fuck happened to “Mike’s my guy” (s04e06)? What happened to “If push comes to shove, I’d do what I had to to get Mike out” (s06e06)?

Wait, actually, I just remembered the look on Harvey’s face when Mike told him he was moving to Seattle and okay, maybe I can see where he’s coming from.

Samantha argues that she knows the client and the contract well enough that she should have the case, and in a rare example of the elusive callback/foreshadowing double-tap, Harvey says that he knows the man, reminding us again that Mike flew across the country specifically to pick a fight with him. They agree to handle the case together, and this is definitely going to go flawlessly well.

Personally I didn’t like the Katrina/Brian plot very much the first time around, and I don’t particularly care that it’s coming up again, but at least it gives Katrina an amusing (if totally out-of-character) montage of attempted and aborted (and increasingly awkward) calls to Brian’s cell phone, including both “B-dawg, it’s Kitty Kat,” and “Mother of pearl! Just tell her you love me and that it’s over!” She wraps up by reading a scripted message that signs off, “Cordially, Katrina Bennet,” and this is obviously the behavior of someone who’s totally fine.

So the deposition.

Jeremy Wall took a goodwill trip to…a place (somewhere in China, we learn later), where he saw one of Brick Street Athletics’ factories, which operates with “objectionable factory conditions.” The workers are miserable, but as Harvey points out, “misery isn’t a violation of international law.” And I mean, he’s right, but this is also very Season 1 type behavior (i.e., pre-Mike Ross), so that’s a little concerning. He then derides Jeremy for not knowing that, “because [he’s] a basketball player… not a lawyer,” and again, he’s right, but given the set dressing of Harvey’s office, and the whole “Michael Jordan on speed dial” thing, it’s a little odd that he’s so snobbish toward this guy’s profession.

Then Samantha asks why he’s only bringing this up now, if he visited the factory six months ago, and Jeremy says he didn’t know what to do or who to turn to; Harvey challenges that he was afraid he wouldn’t be paid his full contract, Mike tells him not to speak to his client that way and points out that they “can’t speak to his motivations,” and Samantha says, quote, “I don’t care about his motivations.” Which is funny, seeing as how she literally just asked him why he waited. She brings up that an activist named Charles Hu contacted him about the factory conditions eighteen months ago, which contradicts the claim that he only started caring about the conditions six months ago, and Jeremy says the letter “got [him] a little concerned, but [he] didn’t take it seriously until [he] saw the conditions for [himself].” Mike, appearing rather flustered, argues that the unsolicited letter “didn’t trigger his awareness,” Samantha zeroes in on the fact that “he used the word ‘concern,’” indicating that it did just that, Mike says that’s a technicality (I would’ve gone with the fact that the legal definition of the word “concern” is open to interpretation, but whatever), Harvey shuts him down with a cuttingly personal and mildly patronizing use of his first name (“No, Mike, it’s the terms of his contract”), and Samantha sits back in her chair to smugly proclaim that “this case is getting dismissed.”

I…want to feel bad for Mike, but mostly because Jeremy seems like a good dude. Mike himself seems kind of unprepared, which I guess is what happens when you schedule a deposition for the following day. Also he was ready to take Harvey on alone and Samantha is fucking up his plans, but like, details, whatever.

Following up on that “ready to take Harvey on alone” thing, Mike and Harvey go back to Harvey’s office so Mike can ask him what the fuck that was all about. Harvey says “it’s there in black and white,” i.e., in the contract, Mike argues that he doesn’t care because Jeremy found out about the conditions six months ago, Harvey points out that he’ll have to explain to a judge why Jeremy is on record saying he ignored the factory workers for an entire year, and then…this happens:

“Harvey, they’re exploiting these people and you know it.” “What I know is, you’re the same old Mike playing that violin to get me to help you.” “I might be the same old Mike, but you are not the same old Harvey.” “What’d you just say?” “You heard me.”

Okay, so, yes and no. Mike certainly appears to be playing up his old strengths, trying to get Harvey to care about these people on a humanitarian level and do the right thing because it’s right rather than because it’s legal, but Harvey is also being very much the old Harvey; as I said earlier, this is heavily reminiscent of his Season 1-type behavior. “It’s there in black and white,” and he’s going to use that to his advantage to win the case without paying attention to the humanitarian ramifications.

But then:

“That’s why you did this now. You know Faye’s breathing down our necks, and I can’t fight at full strength.”

Hold on. So Harvey is admitting that he’s only at his best when he’s cheating? Faye is literally there to make sure they don’t break the law in their pursuit to practice law; if he plays above board, he should have no trouble getting past her.

“Her being here might actually make you fight fair for a change.” “You saying you’re gonna fight fair?” “All my bad habits I learned from you.”

To be fair, Mike learned how to be a lawyer from Harvey, so most of his good habits, he learned from him, too.

Mike then proposes that “Anything that could get us disbarred or put in prison is off limits,” and Harvey mocks him for still being afraid of prison, since “Frank Gallo’s dead,” and do I need to replay the entirety of Season 6 for these assholes? Do I need to do that, does that need to be a thing that happens? Harvey was terrified for Mike’s safety; even before he knew Gallo was going to be there, he threw a fucking glass at his head to prepare him for how vigilant he was going to need to be.

Anyway Harvey agrees, but stipulates that “[They] end this thing on good terms, no matter who wins.” Which is when Mike pulls that “You got it. I’ll make sure to accept your loss gracefully” line from the previews, and just as Katrina saying she’s over Brian is equivalent to her admitting that she’s not over Brian, this agreement is as good as a warning label that this case isn’t going to end well, so there’s something fun to look forward to.

Speaking of Katrina, she tells Donna about her adventures in trying to call Brian; Donna decides they’re going to go out clubbing that night, and then gets an alarming message on her laptop that she has to “figure out how [she’s] gonna handle.”

Speaking of subplots, Louis gives Sheila a new, I assume larger pair of $9000 glass slippers, and Sheila tells him about an anonymous $50,000 donation that just came in this morning. Louis is thrilled until Sheila snaps that she knows he did it, because anonymous donations aren’t made anonymously, they’re just made by people who ask her to keep their names confidential to the public. They have a loud and heated argument that kind of makes sense, and Louis proposes that they go see Lipschitz together for some couple’s therapy.

Turns out that alarming message Donna got was an online edition of “the journal,” with a copy of something that’s going to be on the front page tomorrow courtesy of Mike Ross and which doesn’t sit very well with Samantha. Whatever this thing is, it’s going to “tell the world that [Brick Street] exploits people,” but Donna asks Samantha to cut a deal with Mike because he’s family. Samantha says he’s not her family and Donna says he is, and I thought she was gonna go hard on that found family metaphor, what with Mike having been a member of the firm for so long and Harvey’s protégé and all that, but no, she says that Mike is Robert’s family and therefore he’s Samantha’s, too. That feels kind of…technical, and gets back to an old theory of mine that this show spends a lot of time driving home the message that family needs to stick together no matter what (even if, say, one’s mother is an emotionally abusive self-victimizing gaslighter or something), and Samantha seems to agree with me that Mike marrying Robert’s daughter is incidental to her loyalty to her clients; Donna changes tack because “this ad is just the beginning,” and Mike, who is just as tenacious as Samantha and Harvey, isn’t going to stop here, so Samantha had better compromise with him if she doesn’t want a “lose-lose.”

Um. Advertisements don’t run on the front page.

Right, so, Katrina and Donna go out for drinks, and it seems there was a little miscommunication somewhere along the line because while Donna wants Katrina to drink martinis and lie about her identity and hook up with hot guys, Katrina just wants to talk about how she’s feeling. She tries to leave, and Donna immediately backpedals, asking Katrina when she was last in a “real relationship”; Katrina says she’s not comfortable discussing that with Donna, and Donna reminds us that one minor misstep doesn’t mean she doesn’t still know everything about everyone:

“In other words you’ve only been in one real relationship, and you broke both your hearts because you didn’t want anything to get in the way of your career, and I must be losing it because I completely misread the situation.” “What do you mean?” “Brian was your soul’s way of telling you that there’s more to life than work. That the person you need to develop a relationship with, is you.”

Alright, Marianne, you can get off that soapbox anytime. No, I agree that Katrina needs to take time for herself away from work (which she determines to do, “[starting] tonight by having drinks with a friend”), but the whole “your soul’s way of telling you” thing is just…so stupid. So very stupid. Also just because Katrina wants to talk about her feelings rather than drink and have sex about her feelings doesn’t mean she’s only ever had one serious relationship in her life, so that’s pretty presumptuous.

Samantha takes Donna’s advice to try to settle with Mike, who opens the door to his apartment and greets her with, I’m not even kidding: “You’re not Harvey.” She asks what it’s gonna take to make this all go away, and he says either Brick Street starts making clothes ethically, or they let Jeremy out of his contract with full pay (or both, but he’s a realist and he knows they won’t do that). Samantha is “trying to find some common ground,” having known Robert forever and Rachel since she was a little girl; Mike asks who’s playing the violin now and Samantha indignantly proclaims that she saved Robert from going to prison, not to mention she’s only here because Donna begged her to come. Mike, however, “[doesn’t] care what Donna did. [He’s] not handing Harvey a win, and [he’s] certainly not handing one to his new second fiddle.” Samantha hands him a defamation suit and storms out.

Let’s come back to that a little later.

For now, Faye goes to Alex to ask about Mike, and Alex says he’s “cocky, arrogant, thinks he’s the smartest guy in the room, and he’s had my back more than once.” That’s nice, but Faye’s concern is that Mike and Harvey have history, and history makes people do things they shouldn’t, and I’m not touching that one with a ten foot pole, thank you very much. Though Alex fears that she wants him to spy on them, she says she in fact wants him to oversee them, and she came to him with respect because he’s the only name partner who hasn’t disrespected her; Alex says if she wants people to respect her, she should stop treating them like they can’t be trusted, and she quite correctly points out that “there’s a powder keg here” and she’s the only one trying to keep it from exploding. Also the whole reason she’s there in the first place is that they can’t be trusted, so yes, that is exactly how she’s treating them. Well spotted.

I guess Samantha went back to the office after she left Mike’s, because she finds Harvey to talk about the deposition tomorrow (again? Didn’t we go over this?) and he snaps at her for going to Mike behind his back because he “didn’t take this case to lie down. [He] took it to win.” She brushes off that she didn’t lie down, she slapped them with a defamation suit, and Harvey points out that Mike would’ve seen that coming a mile away, but now that she’s done it, they’re free to ask questions not just about Jeremy’s contract but also about Brick Street’s manufacturing conditions. I mean, yes? But also they were free to ask that before the defamation suit, since they’re still in discovery and this is just a deposition rather than a trial. Anyway Harvey says it doesn’t matter that Brick Street hasn’t done anything wrong because Mike just needs to make it look that way to a jury, and Samantha has a light bulb moment that they just need to make sure the case never makes it to trial.

The next day, Mike drops in on Katrina for one of those “fun scenes…with Mike and the old gang” that Korsh mentioned; the “fun” part lasts for about five seconds as Mike assures her that Rachel is doing good. “In fact, if [he] told [her] how good, [she] probably wouldn’t believe [him],” so that’s a nice not-subtle reference to the Duchess of Sussex. Mike then revives that old “Shiiiiiiiiit” thing from The Wire that they had going back in Season 3, before Katrina apologizes for getting senior partnership before him and Mike assures her that he’s “exactly where [he wants] to be,” in case anyone was worried about that. Katrina goes on to warn him not to push Samantha because she’s “an excellent lawyer, and deep down, she’s a good person,” and even though Mike argues that “this is between [him] and Harvey,” Katrina cautions that Samantha is “never just along for the ride.”

Part III

[nellie-elizabeth]

Suits: Prisoner's Dilemma (9x08)

I guess I'm just feeling antsy for this show to end, so I can spend some more time with Mike in the final two episodes. This episode should have been great, what with returning villains and allies from the past, and a connection to Mike's prison story-line, but something about it didn't totally click into place for me. It was good, not great.

Cons:

This episode is called "Prisoner's Dilemma," and that references the way that Malik pits Cahill and Harvey against each other. Harvey stays loyal, but Cahill flips. But then Harvey finds a piece of information, with Donna's help, and the two men are able to leverage Malik and both get away free. There are a few things that annoy me here - the first is that Cahill has every right to save his own ass in this situation. Harvey is all about loyalty or whatever, but Cahill isn't one of his people. He has manipulated and pressured Cahill over and over again. Sure, he was doing it for Mike, and so as a viewer of this show, I'm on Harvey's side. But Cahill feeling guilty, Cahill trying to help Harvey however he can... none of that really makes a lot of sense to me in the context of their characters. I guess the idea is that they've been through a lot together, but even that doesn't really justify the pseudo-friendship they're trying to show here.

I did not at all hate the subplot with Esther. There were many good things about it. I'm always a fan of TV shows shedding light on the real issues that women face when it comes to sexual assault and coming forward about their experiences. I will say, though, it felt a little shoe-horned in, especially at this late stage - this entire subplot could have been lifted and put anywhere in the season, and it could have remained the same. With just two episodes left after this one, why was this how Louis, Katrina, and Samantha all spent the episode? On a more specific note, I found it odd that Louis was motivated by this experience to want to marry Sheila before the baby comes. How are these two stories connected, other than by "family is important"? I feel like this is just an excuse to have a wedding in the finale.

Pros:

As I said, I enjoyed the subplot with Esther. Stories like this are always going to have the veneer of "very special episodes" in the sense that they're clearly making a clear-cut moral stand and are there to teach a lesson and make a point. And honestly? Good. I'm not going to complain about the black and white nature of a story about a man who has sexually assaulted multiple women throughout his career and has gotten away with it by paying them off and gas-lighting. It's good to see a character like that portrayed as uniformly the bad guy. It's good that the episode points out how common this sort of thing is, and explains the reasons why women often don't want to come forward. And it's good that Esther gets that cathartic moment of confrontation, and the bad guy loses. Unfortunately, no matter how much times are changing, things don't often go well for accusers. I'm really okay with seeing an uncomplicated moral and practical victory for a woman who really deserves it.

In terms of the story's impact on our core cast of characters, I like that this was an example of Louis getting fired up and making a mistake, as he often does, but then recognizing that he was wrong, listening to women (not only his sister, but Samantha and Katrina too) and then working to put it right. It was nice that Esther thanked Louis for helping her at the end, but I like that the victory belonged to Esther alone. She's the one who got to put the smack-down on her former boss and attacker. And Samantha and Katrina got to assist.

In the main plot, it was nice to see some of Harvey's old decisions nearly come back to bite him. We got to see Charles Forstman behind bars, which was satisfying, we got to see Harvey take down Malik one final time. We got to see how the things that Harvey did to save Mike had their own consequences. It was almost a cleaning of the slate as we get ready to go in for these final two episodes, with Faye as our last big bad. Part of my frustration here is that it seemed kind of pointless, since we see Harvey get arrested, but he immediately figures out a way to beat Malik so it doesn't go anywhere. That said, I would probably have been more frustrated if the final two episodes were suddenly Harvey vs. Malik, when all season we've been building up Faye. So ultimately I think this episode was a good chance to bring back some familiar faces just before we step in to the final two.

The Mike stuff here was pretty great - Harvey insists again and again that everything he did with regards to the prison plot, he'd do again. It doesn't matter to him what the outcome was, he did what he did to get Mike out of danger, and that's the bottom line. I like that he describes Mike as someone who's never hurt anybody. The point is clear. In comparison with Frank Gallo, Mike is a harmless person. But it just goes to show Harvey's blind spot. Mike is far from innocent, and whether they want to admit it or not, their years of fraud did hurt a lot of people.

As the episode ends, we see Donna giving Harvey some bad news - his mother died. What are the odds that Donna is the one to break the news about both of Harvey's parents dying over the years? Poor thing. Poor both of them. I'm not sure how I feel about this yet. It came in at the final moment of the episode, so I'll have to see how this is integrated as the show ends. As it is, I certainly feel very bad for Harvey.

And that's that! We've got just two weeks left before we say goodbye for good, and I do believe we've also just had our last Mike Ross-less episode of Suits! That's something to celebrate indeed!

7/10

[laufire]

@missbrunettebarbie asked: Suits for the meme

the character I least understand: can’t think of anyone, really.

interactions I enjoyed the most: anything between Harvey/Jessica/Louis/Rachel/Robert, Samantha/anyone, Scottie/anyone, Sheila/anyone, Katrina/anyone...

the character who scares me the most: I mean. If Jessica tried to intimidate me, she’d be successful xD

the character who is mostly like me: I share some of my worst qualities with Mike LMFAO.

hottest looks character: Rachel *-*

one thing I dislike about my fave character: I always go back and forth between those five I mentioned up there re: who is my fave LMAO. At the moment I’d say it’s Louis. Let’s just say he can be frustrating to watch xD, especially during the early seasons.

one thing I like about my hated character: I mean, there have been times I’ve enjoyed Mike’s storyline quite a lot. I liked him in s5 the most, especially in his case with Robert.

a quote or scene that haunts me: ANYTHING Harvey and Scottie had ever said to/about each other lol. The “if I wanted to, I could live in your head rent-free” has my heart rn.

a death that left me indifferent: I didn’t much care about Frank Gallo. The whole prison side-plot was kind of meh.

a character I wish died but didn’t: nah. Tho sometimes I’ve wished it upon Mike or Donna, at their most annoying, lol.

my ship that never sailed: I always kind of wanted to see something between Harvey/Jessica or Harvey/Rachel lol. Or Harvey/Katrina or Harvey/Samantha (but those at least are in the show lol). Also, last season’s finale made me ship Daniel Hardman and Robert and I was NOT expecting that LMFAO.

[elloras]

Suits: 100