TV Review: Suits Season 3 Episode 14 "Heartburn"

Appropriately titled "Heartburn", many of the characters were experiencing exactly that. Louis however was experiencing heart problems literally more than most as he collapsed in a court room with a heart attack in the cold open.

When I saw the promos for this episode, they cut it specifically to hide who had the heart attack.

However, it was pretty obvious they were going to give it to the high energy short and stocky character.

Scandal did a similar thing with their character Cyrus, who in many ways is similar in both nature and stature to Louis.

This proved to be an effective character event for the show. Similar to what I said last week, each choice you make in your drama should have a rippling effect outwards and should make each character react differently.

That certainly happened here.

Harvey was reminded of the time he was an asshole to Louis, Donna rushes to his bedside, Jessica exclaims that they'll take on all his cases so no one finds out, and Mike just wants to make sure he's okay.

Rachel had one of the more complicated reactions to Louis having a heart attack, as it happened to fall on the same day as her tuition bill for law school. After talking with Jessica, Rachel finds out for whatever reason Louis didn't honor their verbal commitment to have the law firm pay for her schooling.

After she finds out about the heart attack, she immediately feels bad about focusing on this while Louis is in the hospital. Mike and later Donna give her some encouraging words however to continue fighting.

This character arc takes the darkest turn when Rachel goes to see Louis in his office. After proposing to Sheila (and securing Harvey as the best man), Sheila has him on strict half days. With everything he has been through, Rachel decides to bring the verbal contract issue to him hypothetically, telling him it's a friend who has this issue.

It was a very telling moment as an oblivious Louis tells Rachel the friend is dumb for not getting it in writing, and that she'll probably (and deservedly) lose if she goes after whoever did it. A visibly upset Rachel left the room like one of her father figures betrayed and took advantage of her.

It was an interesting moment to watch Rachel, who is often lauded as smart enough to be a lawyer already, get taken down a peg by an actual lawyer in the firm.

The fact that it is Louis makes it sting all that much more.

Rachel doesn't stay down for long though. After gathering up some more encouragement, she calls for a meeting in Jessica's office with Harvey present.

On the surface it was a really interesting scene just because of the fact that Rachel rarely (if ever) is in a scene with Jessica and Harvey at the same time.

Normally she pairs with Louis (when they aren't at odds) because of their close relationship and love of the arts together. So already from the beginning I was into it.

Jessica's main argument that she broke precedent once but agreeing to let Rachel come work although she won't be going to Harvard was shaky at best. Rachel provided a strong counter argument showing that it would only be an advance on her associate salary, and that she would be working as a summer associate part time rather than a paralegal to pay for her law school.

That, and the fact that investing early in someone like Harvey is all the proof she needs that it could pay off well to have Jessica invest in her rising stars.

She learned from Louis this time and had it already in writing for Jessica to sign.

A quick side note. The idea of kids seems to have killed Louis and Sheila's relationship (and recent engagement). It's too bad. It was the right move, but I liked Rachel Harris on the show quite a bit.

Mike this week got more interesting as the episode went on. He dealt with the case this week involving a recurring client - Tony Gianapolis. They came to Mike and Harvey to help protect themselves from having a partner leave and break his non-compete. It was rather thin, and really served no purpose other than to highlight the conversation between Mike and Jessica last week, and make Mike see that he really is stuck in terms of his job progression.

Talking with Harvey, Mike says he wants to go legit. Harvey tells him because he's already presented himself as a lawyer, he couldn't retake the bar exam under his own name.

The only way to be a legit lawyer would be to move to a small town where nobody would know or care. Otherwise, Harvey tells Mike to just enjoy the ride.

Things get more interesting for Mike, after one of the clients gives Mike a job offer to join their investment banking firm where he wouldn't need to be a lawyer.

This is obviously very tempting to Mike, where he would just need to use his unnaturally high IQ, and he could be legit and live the life he wanted.

This episode does a great job of going from Mike being stable and Rachel's future uncertain, to the other way around as Mike gets greeted by a happy Rachel who resolved her tuition problem.

With Mike's job offer, I applaud Suits for addressing this problem that the show was faced with from the beginning. Mike's "secret" gets less and less tension the more it leaks out. As of now, the only prominent character who doesn't know is Louis. They're going to need to start to think about the end game.

Something with enough tension to be good storytelling, and something less drastic than fleeing the country and practicing law in Mexico with Rachel. Time will tell if they make the right choice with this job offer, but it is a good sign that they are playing with ideas and showing the audience they are aware of the problems the show will run into if things aren't addressed.

It keeps things fresh, and most importantly it keeps the tension at the same level the show has always had it since MIke's secret was brand new.

It gives me the confidence and proof to say that Suits is one of the best dramas out there, and is constantly and wrongfully ignored when it comes to awards season.

I'm looking forward to the end of this season to see what choices the show ends up making.

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