‘Suits’ season 5, episode 8 review: Troian Bellisario returns in ‘Mea Culpa’

We feel like we’ve been pretty clear already that “Suits” has been batting a thousand as of late. Last week gave us some of the best acting we’ve ever seen on the show between Gabriel Macht and Rick Hoffman, and that continued in “Mea Culpa.”

What Hoffman has done with Louis Litt is tremendous. This is a man who shows such glimmers of hope and likability, and when he interacts at times with Donna and shows off his tender side, you really want to root for him and think that he has changed. However, when the chips are down or when he feels attacked, he lashes out in a way few others do. He’s Benjamin Linus in a fancy outfit. Tonight, he fought back at Harvey, emotionally manipulating him into learning about his panic attacks after getting punched in the face by him last week. He knew that Harvey had to be remorseful, and he took advantage of this to humiliate him at a meeting (the same one used to announce formally Mike’s promotion to partner).

As you would expected, this infuriated everyone, with Donna in particular. She threatened that if he tried to use a recording of Harvey being vulnerable against him in any way, she will leave. He eventually did change his mind on wanting Harvey suspended, but can he stop the vote? That’s the cliffhanger here.

This would have been enough for a great episode of “Suits” even without a weighty Mike Ross story, but we still got that with the (exceptional) return of Troian Bellisario as Claire, Mike’s ex who knew about his past and his penchant for lies. Despite their best attempts to try to hide his true identity, she figured it out anyway and it took Rachel literally begging her in order to keep there from being further trouble.

Here’s the emotional anchor of the hour when it comes to Mike: Claire reminding him that if he does care for Rachel, he won’t marry her because sooner or later, this all will come crashing down. She’s right; it pains us to say it, but there will be a time that someone will be not particularly open to persuasion, and Mike’s time as a lawyer and maybe a free man will be done. It’s a somber end, and it may put matters into perspective for one of our leading men. Grade: A-.

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