Sidebar: A Suits Watch Podcast - Errors & Omissions

Episode Date: October 15, 2024

On this week's episode, Sarah and Patrick break down episode 2 of Suits - Errors and Omissions. And things get a little bit... sexy... They discuss what Sarah is calling the "Tennis Dream Ballet," the process of moving to Toronto and what the city means to them, the line neither of them knew from Fast Times at Ridgemont High, whether or not Harvey should date Lauren, and more.   Email us a voice memo of your questions about Suits at [e-mail]. We may use it on the show!Follow us on Instagram & TikTok - @suitssidebarGet access to all the podcasts you love, music channels and radio shows with the SiriusXM App! Get 3 months free using this show link: https://siriusxm.com/sidebar

Are we recording? Should we dive in? No, I'm doing my warm-up. I'm sorry. I'm doing my warm-up. Unique New York. Is your New York unique? Or is it just mine? All right, let's get started.

Hi there, I'm Patrick Adams. You may know me as Mike Ross on the TV series Suits. And I am Sarah Rafferty, and you may know me as Donna Paulson on Suits. You are listening to Sidebar, a Suits rewatch podcast. Actually, a Suits watch podcast, because Sarah and I have never actually watched the show that we made. You know, each week we're going to talk through an episode of this TV show, and we're going to do our best to remember stories from in front of and behind the camera. We're going to compare notes, some memories. We hope to answer some listener questions and talk about the music and talk about the clothes and talk about dazzling performances. We're going to talk about it all. Yes. Can't wait. But first, I just want to say hi. Hi. Because this is a very special episode of our podcast because we are not in the same room for the first time.

We are magically remote. Tell us where you are, Patrick. Right now, I'm in Glasgow, Scotland. Mm-hmm. Been here for a little over a month now. The people want to know, did you eat any haggis? I have. I had haggis just two nights ago. What's it like? I'll tell you this. I've had two haggis experiences. have. I had haggis just two nights ago. What's it like? I've had two. I'll tell you this.

I've had two haggis experiences. Okay. The first one wasn't great. And then the other night I went down to an amazing restaurant here in Glasgow down the street. I'll brutalize the name, but I think it's Boti. Boti. And we ordered the haggis and it was phenomenal. What's it taste like?

Don't tell me it tastes like chicken. You want to know the truth. I don't know what haggis is. I have purposely avoided. Oh, yeah. No. Okay. You's it taste like? Don't tell me it tastes like chicken. You want to know the truth? I don't know what haggis is. I have purposely avoided. Oh, yeah. No. Okay. You know what I mean?

It's one of these meats that. I'm not going to tell you. I'm not going to be that friend. I think it's one of these things that you mix with a bunch of other ingredients. So I don't even know how much you're actually tasting the thing itself. So it's not like a pretty little sack of something like on your plate. It looks mostly like it's like looks like a tartar. Oh, really? Do you know what I mean? That's kind of it's almost like a thicker tartar. I'm out. No, please. Are you a pate person?

Me neither. Me neither. How are you? How have you been doing? I haven't seen you in so long. I'm good. I'm really good. This weekend, I had the great honor of being an emcee at a gala in Northern California for an organization called Part the Cloud, which works with the Alzheimer's Association. So I put on my big girl panties and I was an emcee and talked about our family's experience with it. And then I got to fangirl because John Batiste performed.

Oh, wow. He's amazing. He is a magical being who uplifts spirits. He conjures spirits. What a perfect person to have at an event like that. That's incredible. Yeah, it was really amazing. That's incredible. Yeah, it was really amazing. That's amazing. Good for you for doing that. I think I saw a picture of you looking like $1 trillion on Instagram at this event, right? You posted a picture.

You're so nice to me. Thank you. I can't wait to get you back in the studio so I can look at you in the flesh and tell you how handsome you are. I've also been incredibly sick this week. Incredibly sick. But I'm feeling a thousand times better. Did you eat haggis after you had a stomach bug? After? Like, were you like, and now I'm going to go get some haggis? Good question. I did.

Oh, God. I did. I know. Can you believe it? Oh, my God. I wanted to bring that up because that was the context through which I was watching this episode. It was sort of just as the fever and the bug was subsiding that I got to sit down and really dig into the episode we're here to talk about today.

I hesitate to say this, and I know it's going to get edited out, but there's a couple of places that I found pretty sexy in this upcoming episode. And if I say that too many times and people start to get really uncomfortable we can just edit it so i'm gonna say it each time but i expect it to potentially go away but there was some sexy bits i can't wait to find out which part because i'm i'm racking my brain to try and figure out what the sexy bits are and spoiler alert patrick i don't know if you noticed. What?

This show is delightful. It's good? I'm really having a really good time. It turns out the show that ran nine seasons is good. I am not surprised,

but I'm just delighted. Especially, we're so early in the process, but I'm like, this show, for the second episode of a show, which I believe,

and we'll get into this more as we get into the episode, but this was actually, I think, the third episode we shot, and they reversed the airing of a show, which I believe, and we'll get into this more as we get into the episode, but this was actually, I think the third episode we shot and they reversed the airing of it, but it was the fifth episode we shot and it was written as the third episode and they moved it up to the second episode. And that's a lot of really hard math for me, but I know it's a fact. I have it written down. I spoke to Aaron Kors yesterday. It was the fifth episode we shot? It was the fifth episode and it was so good that it got bumped to be our second episode and it totally, absolutely makes a hundred percent sense. That's brilliant. I didn't know that. Well, it makes sense, right? Because you want such another strong episode out of the gate. So it'll

be interesting now when we get into three, four to see what those are. Yes. Let's talk about this episode. Let's get into it. This episode is called Errors and Omissions. Original air date, June 30th, 2011. Here's the brief. While working on a patent case, Harvey discovers the judge thinks he had an affair with his wife despite Harvey's best efforts to keep his personal life and his work life separate. Meanwhile, Lewis blackmails Mike into snagging a high-profile, cool client, causing Mike to learn to stand up for himself. The episode was directed by John Scott. A lot of love for John Scott. He shot, I think, five episodes of the show total. John Scott absolutely crushed it, and what a gentleman he is. And I think he had a lot to do

in those early seasons of establishing the vibe of the show. It's a different thing. And this was a big thing I went into watching this episode because it's a different thing to shoot a pilot. Big creative adventure. You have more time. You kind of have, I think, more money, slightly more breathing room to kind of figure out things and what the vibe's going to be. And then you go away for months. Do you know how much time went before we came back to Toronto?

So I know that we shot the pilot in October in New York. And then when we got back to Toronto, I believe it was, as it always was, April. It is a long break between, hey, we shot a pilot. Is it going to get picked up? And if it does then get picked up, when are we starting to shoot and where?

Right? We didn't even know it was going to be in Toronto at first. I didn't know anything because remember, I was in contract in the pilot. So I remember Gabriel told me it got picked up, I think, when we were in a grocery store with like our kids and spouses. I was like, what? Where are you going? And you guys were just out having a shop together and he told you? I think, yeah, our kids were having a play date. I think we needed to go to the grocery store and we were going up and down the aisles. And I know it's so random.

Oh my God, that's fascinating. Anyway, back to the episode. Yeah. So I'm interested in kind of all these first episodes because it's, I mean, I had shot pilots before we talked about it. I had never been on a, on a series that before. So now we're sort of becoming its new version rather than what sort of almost felt like a film in that pilot episode. of the tone shifting from time to time. Like we had eras, like Taylor Swift. And this, I'm struck with the lightness of the tone of this episode. And when I spoke to Aaron about it, he was like one of the reasons that this moved forward. There were many reasons that it moved up in the lineup,

but was how it established Rick's character comedically, the iconic Louis Lit. Right. Did you did you guys when you either when you were doing a pilot or when you transitioned to beginning the season were there a lot of conversations between you guys about tone because everybody got in the same world very quickly which i don't think is always necessarily a given that that's successful on a show obviously we have script to tell us. We always have the script to tell us what the tone of something is.

But people interpret scripts differently. So do you remember that? Yeah. What we also had was Kevin Bray, who was our producing director for this entire first season. So for me, and Kevin is one of my favorite people on the planet. But I think he was also, if Aaron was the father of this thing, then Kevin was the mother? Or the other father? I like that.

He's giving mother. Kevin was equal parts involved with creating the vibe of the show, the look of the show. While Aaron was not with us the whole first season in Toronto, which was another big transition, right? We were used to having Aaron on set. And if we could make Aaron laugh, we knew it worked and we could move

on. But now the guy in charge is in another room in Los Angeles. But Kevin Bray was with us in Toronto. And he was able to, and I think he did an excellent job of doing everything he could sort of port the vibe of the pilot and what made that so special and make sure that that thread ran sort of seamlessly throughout this first season. Yeah. Let's, before we dive into, let's talk a little bit about Sean Jablonski. He was the writer of this episode. He wasn't just a writer. He held this interesting position as sort of co-showrunner. Aaron was in charge of this show. It was his creation. He came out of his head. But the role of showrunner is a really complicated thing. Without getting too into the weeds, you're not just writing scripts.

You're in charge of overseeing some of the editing of the episodes as they're coming in. You're outlining other scripts. You're basically like the master and commander of the editing of the episodes as they're coming in. You're outlining other scripts. You're basically like the master and commander of the whole thing. And you have to have fingers in multiple different pies doing different things at all times. It's a crazy, crazy job to do. And because of that, if memory serves, Aaron was not allowed. I don't know if that's the right word. He's not allowed to be a showrunner the first year. And that's not uncommon as if you've never done it before, they don't just let you become a showrunner the first year. And that's not uncommon. If you've never done it before, they don't just let you become a showrunner. They pair you up with somebody

who's had a lot of experience. So Sean Jablonski had had a lot of experience. I'm thinking Nip Tuck. And I think it just speaks to how much fairy dust was sprinkled to kind of create the alchemy for this long-running show that all these people came together. I watched Showrunners,

the documentary Showrunners, which I heartily recommend to anybody working in this business because it really gives you such a great example of what, how many hats the showrunner is wearing. And I think it makes you a better actor, director, writer, producer to just have an understanding of what the process is and what is going on with people and in many ways it made me like afraid to ask aaron anything because i never wanted to bother him anyway i digress which i do all the time um let's talk about how this show opens we have the cold open we open on an air hockey game between mike and wyatt and then harvey enters but tell us about why let us about Wyatt. Let's talk about Wyatt. Let's talk about Eric Layden.

I have an audio recording from Eric Layden right now. I have no idea what it says, and hopefully there's nothing inappropriate in it, but I'm just going to play it. I hope it's super inappropriate. Hey, Patrick. Hey, Sarah. First of all, this is so cool.

I'm so happy for you guys. As far as my time on time on suits here's what i remember i remember vividly how loose and comfortable you guys felt at such an early stage in the process and i remember that being something that stood out because you and Gabe Patrick had just such a great chemistry. And I remember saying to myself, man, this is early for that, for know, many times it can be this, this kind of like slow build into that because everybody's kind of trying to figure out what they're doing with their own character at that point. So I remember that not being the case and, uh, having a great time with you guys. As far as my character, uh, I remember them calling and saying, Hey, you know, episode of

suits. He's kind of like a Mark Cuban, like a young billionaire. And he invents this phone. But honestly, that's as far as my memory of the character itself goes. I remember my hair was like straight up and I looked crazy. Anyway, I hope that helps. Really pumped for you guys. Patrick, couldn't be happier for you and all your success. And Sarah, I can't wait to listen to the podcast.

And take care. Good luck with it. Alright, bye. What a mensch. What a sweetheart. What a gem. Love him. He plays Wyatt, the billionaire, as he said in this episode. We know each other, actually. We went to school. That's partly why we're so familiar. We went to USC

together. And then we also shot The Right Stuff for Disney Plus many moons later after I left Suits. So it's very cool to see him up front. He's the kind of guy who's just out there crushing it all the time. So we were, I think, very lucky to have him so early on. I love that you keep orbiting each other. There's something there. It's meant to be. It's a love story for the ages. I do have a thing that right off the bat from this episode, and I don't know if you were feeling it, and it's not a critical note, but it is just a note note. Is Harvey's hair, do you notice anything going on? I don't know. I think, first of all, as always, Gabriel Mock looks extraordinarily handsome and

suave. He looks great. But his hair, so this is not me throwing a stone because I got some hair issues, but it seems a little snap on Lego hair. It looks to me, I was getting like Jude Law from AI vibes. Okay, yes, see, handsome, but style-wise. Insanely beautiful. But yeah, it's like so structured. And I didn't spend a ton of my time keeping track

of Gabriel's relationship with his hair at the time. But I do remember him feeling like for some reason we couldn't figure out the hair. So hopefully when we get Gabriel on the show, we'll be able to talk to him about his hair journey on Suits a little bit. Because I remember there was a time where it looked really great and natural and easy in the pilot and then i think there was like a growing pains um section here in the first season and for some reason that became that just looked really clear to me in this uh cold open at the beginning when he came in that kind of stuff has to do with like notes sessions going on i think always like studio somebody at network somebody called this and then they call in the hair department and then the head of the hair department has a thing.

Oh yeah. And then you've got like 15 people talking about your hair. It's telephone and it's nobody understands what that actually means because you've got somebody who's talking about hair who doesn't do hair and then it just turns into a thing. I can't believe I'm going down a rabbit hole on this right now. I'm going to stop myself. There's nothing.

And they wonder why actors are crazy because you have to sit there and watch like 15 people talk about your hair and send notes back and forth to a different city. And it's just hair. It's a good tool to transform. But sometimes it transforms you in a direction that maybe is just imposed, superimposed, like Gabriel's AI superimposed hair. He did. I kind of liked it, though. I got did it did i kind of liked it though i gotta

say i kind of liked it also i have to call out i think you and i both noticed we've discovered we started doing something on this which i'm really into which is we just start screen grabbing from the episode like funny screen grabs and one thing we both screen grabbed i believe was this very strange phone prototype it it goes by in a flash he takes it out of a pocket. Harvey kind of like wags it in the air and then it disappears. And you can tell no one wanted to put a camera close up on this thing. There is not a special on that thing. Because I don't know what it is. It's like a folded piece of cardboard. That looks laminated. You know, and this is not to call out any props, people or whatever. Sometimes you just got to make a thing work.

But I did have lots of questions about what this phone prototype was. So what happens is we learn that Wyatt is a computer engineer who invented a very valuable prototype that a big company wants to buy. But I want to say that we open on the air hockey table. And within the first few seconds, I am so super into how little of what is going on that I need to actually understand to be totally all in on this episode. Because all I know right away is that there's a dude who works in like a questionably professional work environment. Like it looks like Skyzone, like he actually works works at sky zone but he's a billionaire yeah he loves air hockey which yes please i wish i had air hockey so he has this weird prop it's a satellite phone that fits in your pocket but hang on a second what year are we in i mean how how old

are we we're talking about a satellite phone that fits in your pocket. Isn't that? No, that's not that crazy. What? Don't we use satellites now on our phones? Like, don't things ping? No. Okay. You want me to break this down? Do you want to go tech support?

You want to go tech support for a second? I want to go Genius Bar. Is the Genius Bar open, Patrick? Only the most recent iPhone had an actual satellite communication protocol on it, which is really just used in an emergency situation. So if you got lost in the middle of Death Valley or something and your phone didn't have any reception, you could actually send a signal to a satellite to send it to an emergency responder to find you. That's brand new. That's just happened. Well, all I know is the scene is played with high stakes and I'm in. I just know how I'm supposed to feel and nothing matters except I'm in.

I hear billions, millions of dollars. I see suits walking around. I'm charmed by three lovely men. Harvey's there. This is important. Yeah. Important stuff is happening. We're playing air hockey.

Things are happening. Okay, and then we, so then we have this walk and talk to a conference room and Harvey's not going to let Mike into the meeting because Harvey wants Mike to go and file a patent. And there is a great line there, Patrick, that I think you really like. Into the room with the people. I just love that version of Mike.

I love, I don't, what do we call it? I think it's still that Michael J. Fox we talked about last time. It's that little like little bit of Michael J. Fox. Like I'm going into the room with the people. Okay. So that moment fairly quickly segues into a line isn't this our time Mr. Hand I had to look up is from Fast Times at Ridgemont High but you had to look it up yes did you have to look it up yes I'll tell you the same thing when I had to say

it when we were shooting it I like because it doesn't say in the script this is from Fast Times at Ridgemont I read away I was like I don't understand this but I'm gonna have to do an impression I'm gonna have to do a movie quote I don't even script, this is from Fast Times at Ridgemont. I read it and I was like, I don't understand this. I'm going to have to do an impression. I'm going to have to do a movie quote. I don't even know what this is. And I'd seen Fast Times, but it just hadn't lodged in my head the way that other movie quotes do. Okay, well, I went and looked it up on YouTube,

and it's slightly different, too. Oh, really? It's just like a little bit different. You know, I've been thinking about this, Mr. Hand. If I'm here and you're here doesn't that make it our time but isn't this our time mr hand let me ask you this is better my performance absolutely than sean penn's oh my god yeah for sure a million okay but let me ask you this please if you don't know that that's a reference as we both did not know two fast times

at ridgemont high don't you think the audience is reference, as we both did not know, two fast times at Ridgemont High. Don't you think the audience is left feeling pretty weird for a couple of seconds when Mike says, but isn't this our time, Mr. Hand? Yeah, that's how I felt when I was doing it. I was like, Aaron, is this as no... Because I feel like I'm pretty good with movie quotes. I was like, is this me? Am I missing this? Or is this as well-known a quote?

You seem to think it's really well-known. And I was worried, like, no matter how I do this, I don't know if it's going to land. But, you know, the fun part is you never know. Yeah. Yeah. You never know. We want to hear from you fans. Did you know the first time you watched this that that it was from Fast Times or did you just wonder if Mike was having a stroke? No, I knew I was like, I think that's obviously like a quote from a movie. I don't, I'm not placing it, but I know I feel weird and I know I like feeling weird.

And I tip my hat to the team who decided like, yeah, there's going to be a minute here when people don't know what that is. And that's awesome. Is this one of those sexy bits you were talking about? Hashtag sexy bits? You know what that is. And that's awesome. Is this one of those sexy bits you were talking about? Hashtag sexy bits? You know what? Yes. I felt like I was in a moment that I maybe shouldn't have been in. Ladies and gentlemen, she's taking her jacket off while she's talking right now. She's getting hot. It's getting hot. I felt. She's getting flush. I felt like, okay, what? I just feel awkward. My friend just said a thing to my other friend about Mr. Hand and I feel like I shouldn't be here. Yeah. It's a great little

scene. We're heading into the meat of this episode and what they're doing and Mike's not invited to the big kid table. And I think that that's, I don't know, it's just a great setup. We're kind of away at the races here. So then we transition and we have a shot of taxis in new york buildings uh and i just want to talk about transition music here i call it kind of like a transition we're doing it became something that grew on me over time but i I find it tough. And I also laugh because I think I heard Kevin Bray once refer to it as James Brown learning to surf in that way that that way that Kevin Bray. We're in Pearson Hardman for the first time. It was so cool to drop into this only because for me, I immediately went to what we talked about before,

which is like we're now on the set, right? We were in the building in New York. We were shooting in a real building going up to the actual, whatever, 65th floor to shoot all that stuff. And this is the first shot in the series that we're seeing the incredible set that was built for us in Downsview, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. And I felt like this was a good time to call out our production designer on season one, Tamara Deverell. She wasn't on the show for very long, but she was phenomenal. And she did an incredible job. I think we were so lucky to have her to see these sets in that shower curtain that we had that was essentially the view.

I did get a little bit of heat, funny heat from fans of the show when I did like a set tour where I showed the curtain in press. I think it might have been on something like Entertainment Tonight or something like that. And people were like, you blew it for me. Like, why did you show me that? I would get into trouble when I'd post all the photos. Honestly, to me, it was such a celebration of these people, these like artists, these incredible artists that come in and just do this work because it's so transformational and it makes our job so much easier because we step onto that set and we are on the 65th floor of a building. Yeah.

Right. Like it just it doesn't matter that I knew that that was a backdrop. And what Sarah's talking about, listener, is there's a huge scrim that goes around the entire office building.

So when you're looking out the window, no matter what direction you're looking at, you're seeing all those buildings. That's honestly just a giant photograph that's sort of been stitched together. And it's, you know, 45, 50 feet tall, attached to the ceiling,

goes around the whole set. I just think they did an amazing, amazing job. And it's, you know, the set that we spent many, many years shooting on. So we're there and we go right into Rachel's office where Mike tries to ask Rachel for help in filing the patent. And this is a tiny little scene and I loved it. Couple reasons. First of all, Mike barges in and Rachel is clearly very, very, very, very busy. And she shushes him with one finger in the air while she continues on with her work. But what I think is amazing is that Mike takes it in, notices, pauses, and then barrels ahead and just starts to talk. And she gets up and ushers him out wordlessly. And I think it really part of the show because the show became very, very verbal. It became a very verbal show. So to have these moments that were played without words

are really a nice kind of fun counterpoint because it's something different. But I wanted to ask you, like, why? Mike didn't really read the room. You're right. I love that in the pilot, Mike has relied on Rachel to solve problems for him. And so there's this assumption that he's coming in

and I got a new problem that I don't know how to file a patent. So you're going to need to teach me how to do that. And this scene establishes very clearly, I am not going to be the solution to all of your problems at this office. Because I actually have my own job. I think I'm available to you at all times, at all moments. But let me just very clearly and gracefully establish the boundary. And I don't know if it was a scheduling thing. Okay.

Like maybe they couldn't get one person to do multiple. So I think I remember now, and it'll be interesting to watch all these episodes, but I think that's sort of the reason there are multiple good-looking young guys in that bullpen who are sort of messing with Mike and trying to outdo him. So then Rachel gives him the print room card and says that Greg has called him a sucker. And we walk into the room and we see multiple printers printing thousands of pages that now

Mike is going to have to do his Mike brilliant brain thing. And that's the end of our cold open. A good place for us to take a break. When we get back, we're going to talk about seeing our opening credits for the first time we'll um get to talk about curry graham who does a great job in this episode and sarah i think we're coming up on one of my favorite scenes i can't wait to talk about it can't wait all right we're back from our break this is a big act yeah i'm very excited to talk about this this is there's a lot of powerhouse in what we're about to get into but the thing that's most important is this is our first experience

of the opening credits of Suits. And with that, the song that was definitely written before Suits, but dare I say, Timeless, Greenback Boogie by Alex Ebert. Alex Ebert's been, I'm a big fan of Alex Ebert. He's been a member of a number of different bands.

I believe Greenback Boogie was a song by I'm a Robot. He went on to, of course, be in Edward Sharp and the Magnetic Zeros. How many times have you heard Greenback Boogie, but it always feels exciting? It's like, oh, now here we are. It's literally the perfect choice. And so, of course, I went back to the pilot and was like, is it in there? Did we see it here the first time? It is not in there. It is here at the second episode. Actually, in fact, you know what? We have a question from a listener about Greenback Boogie. Yes, we do.

Niels from Germany asks, I was wondering when the first time you heard the intro song was. Was it on set or while watching the episode when they were all finished? I think you could have done that in an accent for extra points, but I'll ignore it. Was it on set or while watching the episode when they were all finished? when we first got to Toronto, and he played it for me then. Because he was a friend of his. He's like, I guess, Kevin's friends with everybody, but he knew Alex Ebert, and I don't know how he had gotten it hooked up, but someone had sent him that song. What did you think when you heard it?

I think I knew instantly. I was like, instantly, that's so cool. It's cool. I mean, Alex Ebert is an incredible musician. It felt like the show. I don't know. We didn't know what the show was at that point, but it felt like whatever it was, I wanted to be on that show. I love that you have that memory.

It's such an important part of the show, obviously. It sets us up. We want to have a sort of weekly Greenback Boogie Award for Best Needle Drop. And I think we know that, especially for this episode, that is the winner, bar none. Okay. So when we come back, we're outside the law office. We're actually at the coffee cart. And Harvey asked Mike about the patent filing. And he tells Mike if it's not done and on his desk, he's going to feed him to Lewis. And I was tickled to see you guys know that you're on Bay Street, right? I mean, you're outside of 777 Bay.

Yep. That's our building. Yeah. It was not wild to see that because that, yet again, this is how I felt seeing us on the set. Now we're on like our outside set where we spent just countless hours down there on Bay Street, the corner of Bay and Adelaide in Toronto. And do you remember the experience of what it was like to shoot the show early on? Yeah. And to be down there and everyone just hated us.

Like everyone was just, you know, when you're shooting a show and nobody knows where your show is, it's just like, get out of my way. What are you guys doing? It's such an inconvenience. Yeah. And everyone hates you. And people are yelling at you and honking their horns when you're trying to shoot a scene and you're just in the way.

Think about the ADs and the PAs who have to say, sorry, sir, can you wait? Or can you cross the street and cross over there? All that they have to do. Yeah. And you're just like, no, this is where I work. Like, get out of my way. It's like being a telemarketer.

Like, it's a terrible job. Like, nobody's happy to hear from you. So season one, we go from being just hated in this corner because we take it over, you know, two or three times a week. Cut to, you know, when I left season seven. I mean, you can share your memories of it. But if we set up to shoot a scene down there, every time we'd have a crowd of two or three hundred people who, you know, the minute they saw us setting up, they were like, Suits is shooting, Suits is shooting. And we would have just like a crowd of fans there to watch the show. And it never got old. It was always a delight and pinch me moment. Yeah. I mean, I have one particular memory of, you know, crossing the street and meeting a young woman and her mother and she was studying to go to law school and having the most beautiful conversation with them. And I just want to say, like, if anybody is listening to this who showed up to just give us a wave or a what's up,

it really meant a lot. Like, I'm feeling kind of emotional talking about it because it was really such a highlight of being in Toronto. Being in Toronto was a huge part of this experience. Being like Raptors fans and Jays fans and composting and all the great things about that city were really, really... Mostly, guys, mostly the composting. But like the bike lanes, like it's a very special place. Hey, this is where I was born. Yeah. So the next little montage that happens

i'm going to affectionately refer to that montage as the asmr montage if you give it a listen the first of many i don't know did we like it was literally like the sound of a post-it note coming off there was like the click of the highlighter cap and it's so weird. I don't have a lot of memories of the first of this. You know, this was a while ago, but I have such a clear memory of shooting this montage. I remember being like, I love this. I live for this. I was like, this is I like I want to be on the show where I get to be the guy like scratching that and putting the post-it on there and putting the pen in my mouth while I have to do the thing. And I just was like, I was so into this montage. So then you, Patrick, are caught as Mike with that highlighter cap in your mouth

when Lewis finds Mike doing Greg's work in the storage room. Loved this scene. And I loved how Rick slithers in there as Lewis to be like besties and approachable and relatable. And immediately as a viewer, you're like on edge, like, oh, God, I can't wait to see how to be like besties and approachable and relatable. And immediately as a viewer, you're like on edge. Like, oh God, I can't wait to see how this goes wrong. He is so good.

It's insane. I mean, I'm going to say it a hundred million times. A million times while we do this. This is actually, we have a fan club. Our t-shirt should be Louis Lit fan club t-shirts. It's like, it makes me angry how talented he is. It's a talent crush. I just don't know. I don't know how he does it.

And I love seeing Mike, you know, again, it's funny to think how much we loved that scene with Mike and Lewis from the pilot and realizing like, I also just love Mike and Lewis. Yes, it's a great dynamic. Oh, here they are together again. And I love, I just love this dynamic of Mike, who has no real power here, and he sort of has to answer to this guy, but he also doesn't because he's got a fan of Harvey. It's just a really interesting dynamic

that I'm already loving watching. And so then Mike finds Donna at her desk and hopes that she's going to lie about when he delivered the patent. It turns out she will not. I love this scene. I love your ability to tell me so much with so little in these early episodes.

You know, it's not a long scene. We don't get a long time with you. We don't get to do much with Donna. But I learned so much in this sequence. I think we just really learn in this scene that Donna really likes to say no. She does. She really relishes the opportunity to say no.

But I want to ask you one question. Forgive me, but why was this moment between Donna and Mike strangely sexy? I'm confused. I mean, look, we had to talk about it eventually. There's just a strange sexual tension between Mike and Donna. There's like a weird power dynamic thing that like is getting leaned into in a funny way. Maybe it's because he's like a young Harvey, you

know, he's like baby Harvey. And she's saying yes and then she's saying no. But they like lean in. It's like a come here, come here, come here, come here, get away, get away, get away, move away, come here, come here, no stop, stop, stop, stop. Anyway, the hair is really hard to deal with let's move on

anyway we cut to lewis's office lewis tells mike that he's always looking for the next young attorney to invest in one of my all-time it might probably has to be my favorite line of the episode let's take a listen about you it's amazing i mean i really really seriously appreciate that hey thank you lewis that's nice you know that i pick a pony out of the herd every year don't you a pony oh yeah someone who shows potential stamp my own little brand on them are you that pony mike oh my god i rewound that so many times what am i learning as an actor you know i what i'm

realizing is watching this is going to be also an acting class for me but what am i learning from rick hoffman is like just how quiet you can be i mean rick can be the biggest actor in the world he can go so big and then he can just play it so small and the key to that is like the groundedness is that it's still truth-telling like you can get as big as you want as long as you're telling the truth you know and he always was and he knows when a line is funnier it's funniest version if you just whisper it during During this scene, this was the first time that I started really wondering what happened to Lewis as a child. So then where do we go?

Well, Harvey tells Mike the patent was denied because someone else filed before they did. They go to the court, but the judge, amazing performance by Curry Graham, is unreasonably tough on Harvey.

First of all, before we even get into that scene again, for me, this brought back some very painful long nights because before in this first season, we didn't have our own courtroom. And so as soon as I saw these characters walk through into the court, I got this weird feeling in my body, sense memory of how horrible it was to shoot courtroom scenes in the first season because we didn't have a courtroom. And so we could only shoot after 6 p.m. on a Friday. So if we had a big courtroom scene, that meant we were not even getting to work until 6 or 7 p.m. on a Friday night. And we were shooting until the sun came up on Saturday.

We were there all night, which we did all the time in the first season. We were constantly shooting until Saturday morning. All the time. So we cut to the court and I realized like I'm out I'm out I'm like completely out I don't know anything about what's happening but I am so into what's happening what I realize is that I'm just invested in these guys so after Harvey gets fined he looks at the opposing counsel like he's going to giggle. And I love this. I love this way, this lightness that Gabriel is playing Harvey with. And then we cut to this thing that I refer to as the Lottie of the looks, where everybody's flummoxed. The Lottie of the looks? Yeah, like the Lottie, like a Lottie.

What is a Lottie? A Lottie is like in Commedia in commedia del arte it's like the funny it's a funny bit whoa a lot see is a funny bit oh do i sound like an a-hole oh we're going del arte right now okay no no no go go go i got it i just needed a i needed a refresher i know we are not people we are not there's no way we're cutting this you just just used Lottie like it was like like just a known thing. You're just throwing it out there. Shut up, Genius Bar. Shut up, AirPod guy. I'm going to just go do

a quick poll of the people in Glasgow. How many of you are Lottie? You knew about satellite phones. I got to Google Lottie. Okay, so we have different nerderies. Okay, the Lottie of the looks.

I see what you mean now. It's a comedic bit. I get it. So everybody's flummoxed. Nobody knows what's going Okay, the lots of the looks. I see what you mean now. It's a comedic bit. Yeah, I get it. So everybody's flummoxed. Nobody knows what's going on, but something's going on. And Harvey is amused by it. And it's just a bunch of looks. They literally cut 10 times

between when the judge rules and when we get to the end of the scene. The scene's basically over, but there's 10 cuts to everybody's looks. And it's really funny and brilliantly done. You're absolutely right. I also think it works too, because we don't see Harvey get talked to like this. No. So it's fun for us because we're like, whoa. Okay. So I do want to give a quick shout out to our firm's best researcher, Kristen, who everybody knows. She worked on suits for a number of years.

I really appreciate that you found this fun, fast fact that Velocity Data Solutions, who we found out in this scene, was the party that filed the patent. Well, Christen found out that Velocity Data Solution comes back around in season six. Is it the same actor? Do we get the same people,

or is it just the same company? Well, to be discovered. Let's not spoil that. Let's get there. So then, Harvey, we be discovered. Let's not spoil that. Let's get there. So then Harvey, we get this great scene where he goes into Judge Pearl's chambers. The judge believes Harvey had an affair with his wife. You know, I had one of these moments that people have when they watch shows like this, where I was like, oh, no, what? Like I did you clutch your pearls on the show? I've read the scripts.

I acted in this show and I had the moment of like, no. Oh no, he did not. I was like so upset with Harvey for a moment because I was like, he could have. Harvey is the kind of guy who might do that. I don't like that. We don't know yet. I know, I was very upset in the moment though.

So we are outside of the courthouse and then Harvey tells Mike to file a patent interference claim. We come out of a Toronto courthouse, but we're on the steps of the big courthouse in New York. We went down to New York, I think for two or three days in the season to grab a couple of random scenes. So this scene was shot weeks, if not months after we shot the rest of the episode. Also coming down these stairs, great Harvey whistle. Oh. Fantastic. It is.

I mean, you know, one of these. Yeah. Yeah. One of those. Badass taxi whistle. And that whistle, that whistle gets Harvey to his destination, the art gallery. And Harvey speaks to Lauren, the judge's wife, and she is played by the wonderful Nazanin Bonyadi. And Harvey asked Lauren to tell the truth, that they did not have an affair.

But Lauren refuses. Has there ever been a more beautiful name than Nazanin Banyadi? I don't think so. That rolls off the tongue. It should be in a poem. Yeah, it sounds like a poem. It is a poem on its own. It's a poem of a name.

I gotta say it's the best outfit in the episode. It's the one that gives us the most information, I would say. It's really cool. It's backless. So we're not in an office. And she's got a very artsy necklace over this black dress that has a little bit of a swish in the skirt. And she looks beautiful. She's stunning.

I mean, first and foremost, like her work in this scene is so lovely. But also we have to shout out her work as a human rights activist. Listeners may be familiar with her recent activism as part of the woman life freedom movement. And last year she won the Sydney Peace Prize. Hats off. And she's an actress. But I will say this about this scene. I love this scene because there's a revelation of Harvey's heart and his empathy. And I have so much respect for how Gabriel played this character right out of the gate. He played Harvey with so much nuance because there's traps in Harvey. There could be traps in Harvey to play the tropes of who a guy like Harvey is in the

world. And he plays against that in so beautifully in so many well-chosen moments. So for example, in this scene, when he says, I'm sorry, you felt humiliated. He says that really beautifully. He could have, another Harvey could have been exasperated or sarcastic or God forbid, just like a little annoyed with it. He really felt something for her. And I actually talked to Aaron about this yesterday. I was just talking about this scene in Gabriel's work and Aaron agreed. And he said that Gabriel brought, and I'm quoting him, he brought a lovableness to a character that just might not have been lovable and i just i i really feel like this scene is a very early iconic moment of that and great snapshot you also learn he has a code

right up until this moment we're not sure if it's true or not that he had this affair and then you get in there and you're like oh this guy's a player and he doesn't mind doing all sorts of sort of nefarious potentially sketchy things but like he has he has a code there are certain lines he will not cross and he's not going to sleep with somebody else's wife that's like now we know that yeah and that's good to know like i like to know when people who live on the edge push the envelope can be dangerous can do things that might be a little morally questionable but like oh you won't do this. And that's good to know. And that actually makes me realize that you're actually more principled than maybe I would have known before this happened.

Yeah. So we're back at the office after that. Mike is working hard to file the patent interference claim, but Lewis interrupts him and wants to go play tennis. Okay. This is an amazing scene and it's an amazing dynamic and I could watch this over and over. And I think that your USC professors should use this in a masterclass about points of focus. Okay, so there, lots of that. Points of focus. Lots of that one. Put that on the desk. You are talking to somebody on the phone.

You are under the urgent need to get the person to do the thing quickly. Lewis slithers up, pulls your focus. There's other people in the room listening to you. And you got to get stuff done. Well, also, I don't know if you know this about me. The thing I hate most as an actor, like the thing that when I read it in a script, I'm like,'m like oh I will have panic attacks about it are scenes where I have to be on the phone with somebody it's like the weirdest thing it's like my kryptonite yeah I get so in my head about it and it's gotten worse over the years so it's actually fun to watch this because I watched

it I was like oh you're doing great like I was really impressed with my ability to you know you're active listening to somebody who's not actually talking to you. You're trying to take the exact right amount of time, but not too much time that it seems theatrical. It's just like a lot. It's all you. You're not actually getting to play off of somebody. You're having to kind of have this two-sided conversation with just yourself. And it's fun to watch me do it here as a younger man, because I feel like I'm a little bit more confident. As I get older, these scenes, I just struggle with them. I also love the moment of the scene, the Lewis snap, focus pull to Gregory. I thought that was great. As soon as Lewis snaps, it just focuses to Gregory. He turns his face like a little puppy. This guy who's been

very kind of too cool for school suddenly like, yes runs up to him and like and lewis just hands him the thing again like learned so much about power in the firm like oh this guy can make anybody do anything at any moment and even though we have judgments about the kind of guy lewis is like everyone especially in this bullpen as we'll come to learn like we'll answer to him immediately and do whatever he says. So fun to see him use that power. I totally agree. This is a good time for us to take another break. That's the end of an act. When we get back, we're going to talk about what might be one of the greatest sequences in Suits history. All time. Definitely one of my favorite scenes. So come right back. The Tennis Dream Ballet. right back the tennis dream ballet hi welcome back diving into the next act, and in it is some of our favorite bits and bobs, for sure.

And hashtag sexy bits. You know, really, we start off very strong here because we land on this tennis court with a just fire, fire needle drop, black pistol fire, suffocation blues, perfect music, Lewis just rocking it. Is it slow-mo? I don't even remember in my mind. It's slow-mo. It is slow-mo.

It's slow-mo. There's a headband. There's so much happening. Working it. He's just working it. But my favorite part, because my memory of this was I'm playing with him and getting hit by the balls and having to kind of look silly. What I forgot was the initial opening is him playing and then it cutting to the wide and he's not even look silly. What I forgot was the initial opening is him playing, and then it cutting to the wide, and he's not even playing me. He's just playing against the machine. And Mike says, who's winning? Yeah, I just, like, it's so funny how I forgot that.

And it's just so much, to me, that's almost funnier than anything else that happens. So this cut will never not be funny. This is like a smash cut to a slow-mo moment of his face while he's playing. And I'm going to always affectionately refer to this as the tennis dream ballet. The tennis ballet of my dreams. What a lotsy. It's a lotsy.

Okay. We're definitely cutting that part. We are not. I literally will die on that sword. We are not cutting that. Literally, we're cutting that part. We are not. I literally will die on that sword. We are not cutting that. Literally, we're cutting that. Oh, man, Diane, you're not cutting it. So, of course, I spoke to Rick about his tennis prowess.

He did. As a junior, he did play tennis. So he was good. And he even remembers being like 15 and playing in a tournament in Flushing Meadows. And he says that he got so riled up like a mini John McEnroe that he threw his racket. And his dad came on the court and removed him. And I don't know if he played any more tournaments. I don't know.

I'll have to follow up and find out. I'll let you know. We need it. Let's put it on the list for Rick questions. But the point is, he was good at tennis. No doubt. He clearly beat me. Exactly.

So like Carol Burnett was actually a good singer, but she sang like a comedian on her show. So Rick was a good tennis player who played tennis like a funny person who couldn't play tennis. So talk to me about your tennis and you having a pratfall in the middle of this thing. Yeah. I mean, I'm not a a pratfall in the middle of this thing. Yeah. I mean, I'm not a great tennis player. I'm not this bad. I guess. I kind of dig how Mike's terrible at tennis, but he's also not too hard on himself. Yeah, he doesn't care.

He's just like, yeah, man, let's keep going. I like at the end when he's like, are we doing it again? Like, really? You want to do it again? That was pretty bad. Oh, my God. It was so great. Yeah, this was a fun sequence.

I think you're right, too. I think basically from the beginning of this act all the way through these next couple of scenes in the locker room are just priceless. And, you know, when you're on television, most of your, like, work is kind of chest up. Like, that's where you're acting from. So it's so great to have an opportunity to like have physical comedy yeah and also just to get us on a tennis court you know like it's

really fun to see these people in a totally different environment absolutely and also then just rick's uh interaction with tom as he goes by it's so good and tom gave some bjorn borg vibes as he was walking by serious vibesious Bjorn Borg vibes. For sure. So then we're back in the locker room of the tennis club. Lewis tries to... Did I interrupt you? No, sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm just bracing myself, Patrick,

for this discussion. I'm holding... I'm clutching my heart. So we're back in the locker room of the tennis club. Lewis tries to talk to Tom Keller again. This whole scene is just genius. And it's so long. It feels like two or three scenes in a row. We have the interaction between Mike and then the coercion to go against Tom and then the awkwardness of Lewis's nudity. But I just thought on the whole, this probably has my vote for favorite scene of the season of the season of the episode. I think I have. It's a tie for me. This is one. Yeah. Let the record show patrick that at this point in the episode i realized i liked this episode better than the pilot really controversial i loved this scene

you must have so many memories of this including many memories around the moment where lewis whips off his underpants but But the moment where Mike does not know where to put his eyeballs really tickled me. Like, you literally, you're like, I don't know where to face the, like, again, the dog analogy. Like, I'm going to put my eyes over here and I'm going to put my eyes over here.

Oh, okay. I'm up here and now we're over here. And you know what? It was a little bit sexy. I'm sorry. It was just a little bit sexy. The whole thing. This is one of your hashtag sexy bits? It's a bit sexy. I'm sorry. It was just a little bit sexy. The whole thing. This is one of your hashtag sexy bits? Yeah. It's a hashtag sexy

comedy bits. Wow. It was sexy. It was sexy. Two guys in a locker room being funny? Come on. Two pieces of man meat in a sweaty locker room. Let the record show I said it. Showing each other their sexy bits. I hope that everybody who's listening understands that I am completely talking about my,

no, this is about to make it worse, brothers. Your brother. That just made it worse. That just made it more awkward. Hashtag sibling sexy bits. There's no way around this. How do I change it? I just need a new word for it.

It makes me realize that when you work with a great actor, you are made better. I wouldn't have to prepare for a scene with Rick. You just show up and go like, I'll just go along for the ride here. I'm going to have some ideas maybe about what I'm looking to do or what my character is trying to kind of accomplish.

But mostly I'm just going to kind of like get on the bucking bronco and react to it. And it's just, and it will be great. You know, you're in such good hands when you're with him. There's a really great line in the scene. Do you have a favorite one? Oh, I mean, you know, so I treat my body like a temple. Does that make me uncool?

Brilliant. I mean. I don't know how he didn't get nominated for an Emmy for this. I don't understand. It's a temple. Does that make me uncool? Brilliant. I mean, I don't know how he didn't get nominated for an Emmy for this. It's a crime. It's actually a crime. Doesn't make sense. Anyway, the whole scene's great. I love this scene. I get to know these people so much. And oh, and I also really love watching Mike move into cool guy mode. Yeah. You know, you see Lewis fail so spectacularly at connecting with Tom over and over and over again. And then to see Mike kind of effortlessly do it. He reads the guy. He knows who he is. He runs the

sports betting. Okay, I know how to talk to this guy. And he just does it. He knows how to hook him. And I think it's fun to see Mike's kind of superpower. That's not his memory and his ability to remember every book he's ever read, but it's not his memory and his ability to, you know, remember every book he's ever read, but it's really his ability to like read a person and connect with them. There's a bit of Harvey in there, you know? Yeah. I think we see that thing about him. So Mike then, you know, impresses Tom with his memory. It's fantasy football skill. They bond. Then Tom wants to get high with Mike. And then we flash forward a few hours and we find Mike standing there at an elevator hitting the button over and over again. Again, like right from that amazing scene into

this like really wild, cool sequence of Mike being high. Again, it's not something we would normally see in suits. I mean, I haven't watched the show, but from my memory, this was not a thing that we'd often do. It felt a little surreal, like, you know, with the elevator button or being thirsty or being super paranoid about Jessica, like all the bits, were they written in there in a montage type of thing? To my memory, we there was probably a lot of it scripted, but I think we made a lot of it up. And I seem to remember Kevin Bray like being really helpful in the sequence, too. You know, again, Kevin Bray was our producing director. And for those of you that don't know, a producing director's job is to sort of oversee all the directors and kind of make sure that the vibe of the show stays consistent. I have some memory of Kevin being on set for a portion of this. Were you stressed about playing high, like in the way that sometimes we get stressed about playing drunk on screen? I don't remember it, but I'm sure I was. I mean, I'm basically stressed all day anyway about everything that I have to do as soon as I leave the door.

But so I imagine this was probably a little nerve wracking. I think it was probably also a little freeing and getting to be silly. You know, it was like being on the tennis court and flopping around. You know, there's something fun in the physical comedy of it that i was enjoying um i love love love the sequence in the elevator with jessica yes what does she say how's it going with harvey oh uh it's good i'm uh learning lots of lots of learning you know it's great it's i found really, really funny. Also, I want to do a special shout out in the elevator is Keith, the man standing to my right in the elevator. Special shout out to that gentleman. He was my stand-in until my very last day on Suits. He's a wonderful guy. It was very cool to just see him on the screen. I forgot that he was in that scene. So much love.

And there was one line in this sequence that is one of my favorite lines in the episode. And it is, you smell papery. When I crack a cracker. You smell papery. So Mike barges into Harvey's office announcing the patent interference claim has been filed. And Harvey notices that Mike is high and catches Mike lying to him that he's not. So he tells Mike to get out. The scene was pretty heartbreaking. It's a real buzzkill. We go from a very funny, silly sequence to tragedy. Yeah. And

again, beautiful moment when your back is against the window and Harvey looks you in the eye and you see that how crestfallen he is how he's hurt personally hurt by it and it was just a beautiful moment and we actually have um we have a question about this from Sasha who says okay when Mike is in Harvey's office and Harvey realizes that he's high you can see a painting in the background. We don't bring any attention to this painting or know of its relevance until way later on in the show. Was it already determined that this painting had such value when it was placed here in season one on episode two? This blows me away. Thank you for this question, Sasha. And I reached out to Aaron, and Aaron was happy to answer it. All right, Sasha, I'm going to tell you the story of where that painting, well, sort of how it came from. I mean, the thing is, we didn't know that early.

We definitely did not know. And I don't exactly remember who picked that painting for Harvey. It might have been Kevin Bray, pilot director, and it might have been Dave Bartis, one of the producers. But I believe, and I might be mixing up who's opinion was what, but I believe Kevin or Dave picked it. And I'm pretty sure Gene Klein, one of the other producers, he didn't like it. And he also thought, why would a guy like Harvey have a painting like that in his office? It's weird. And he used to mention it all the time. It just always bugged him. And eventually the writers were just like, why would Harvey have a painting like that in his office? So we decided to come up with the story that obviously you eventually learned. I don't remember whose idea it was for the specific idea

for what the painting was or what we actually did with it. But a lot of times your best ideas come from people just, I mean, he was just bitching and moaning about that painting. And we were like, you know what? Why don't we make a story out of it? So, uh, I hope that helps. I gotta say,

I was on the same side as Jean for a long time. Oh yeah. I never, I was like, what on earth is, what is so weird? I mean, I loved it's weird.

I love anything we do weird, but I just could not like wrap my head around what it was. So I was, I was happy when weird. I love anything we do weird, but I just could not like wrap my head around what it was. So I was, I was happy when we addressed it. Now, funny enough, like it's been so many years, I actually don't even remember the story. Like I'm excited to get to that because I don't actually remember how we explained where the painting come from. So I think in season three, you are in a blooper reel sitting in front of it and you turn around and you're like, and what is this? You're playing a very serious scene and you kind of turn around. What is this thing?

What is this thing? Oh, I do that in a blooper? Oh, that's good. You do. And I do remember having a conversation with you about it once when we were on set. So obviously I reached out to Dave Bardis. Oh, we get the reel. Wow.

You did some investigative journalism here. Let's go. Because I did happen to know that, and it's a longer story, but that Dave Bartis is the proud owner of that painting. Oh, he currently has it. It does hang on the wall in his office. when we were about to wrap because I contacted the artist Heather Miller and I ended up asking her if she would paint smaller versions of the painting and she did so wait why did you want why did you want a smaller version of the painting because I wanted to get it as a wrap gift for Gabriel and you did do that yeah so oh she painted two paintings and they're really cool she's changed that she's changed the perspective of it and she's made them smaller um and i gave one to gabriel and i gave

one to my husband santu so that whole moment uh three minutes ago where i said i never liked that painting is just like really humiliating now that i know the name of this person i'm just rethinking who i should give the one that I had painted for you. I just want to say I'm sorry. I want to say my opinion changed. I'm wondering, Kristen, do you want a painting? Because. So anyway, here's what Dave Bartis has to say.

So the question is, where did the painting in Harvey's office come from that everybody thought was so weird? So it's a long time ago, but I do remember when we were designing the set and talking to Lester Cohen, our production designer, we thought it'd be fun if Harvey had art on his walls that looked like it was from sort of up-and-coming artists. And Lester had a son who was at RISD at the time and had friends who were artists and painters and showed us some artwork. Lester brought, I believe he brought a picture of that painting in. And we said, yeah, that's a great choice. I did. I thought it was fun and weird and funny, and it ended up in the wall.

And I definitely, I came to really love that painting. I really loved all of Heather Miller's work. And I loved that they made a strange choice. I think what Aaron said is cool. You know, you do a thing, and it sits there for a while, and then you realize, like, oh, there's an opportunity here to, like, to explore these characters because of the strange choice we made at some point. It's the fun of making a show and having it go on for so long. Yeah. So thank you so much to Aaron and Dave. We look forward to talking to you a lot more throughout this. It's really so great that everybody's so game to be available to us in this way.

And we're excited. So then Harvey confronts Lewis about trying to poach Mike. And then Donna comes in and says she's got outside counsel on the line. And then I just want to point out in that scene there's a totally bizarre look between donna and lewis did you clock that like at the end of that scene you yeah donna comes into lewis's office and she's like i've got counsel on the line and he goes and then you kind of look at him and smile and then he smiles back and i honestly because we shot this later we had found by that point a Donna and Louis mess with each other vibe.

So we were just Rick and I were just messing around. And I don't think we ever dreamed that that moment would stay. But it did stay. So what does it mean? Exactly. I'm wondering if it just stays so that you're like, huh, what's going on? If we thought it was going to be episode five or three or wherever we were in shooting it we thought it was calling back to something from a previous episode but now this thing's two so it's not

calling back to anything from a previous episode somebody decided to leave it in is it you just sort of looking at him and being like you're up to your old tricks you old so-and-so. Maybe. And him being like, yeah, that's just me, kid. That's my internal dialogue for these characters. How weird is that? Oh, boy, it's getting late here in Glasgow. Yeah, sorry. Okay, so then Rachel encourages Mike

to try again with Harvey. Mike approaches Harvey's office and Donna lets Mike through when she recognizes that he's going to stand up to Harvey. And I just want to say I'm wearing a Prada dress. That's the first time I'm wearing a fancy dress. I remember that dress. Hold on. Let me write that down. How do you spell Prada? That is a Prada dress that was so tight and had no flexibility in the silk that I was standing because I was supposed to be

sitting at my desk. I hate it when my silk isn't flexible. That was some inflexible. No, but I remember that dress so well because I remember that it was the first fancy thing I got to wear. Well, here's what I remember about this scene, which is, I mean, it's like four or five lines of dialogue. It's nothing. But I learn so much about who you are from this scene. You know, I learn. And again, that's great working. That's great acting because you're injecting it with more than I think is even inherent on the page, which is like, oh, she's got Harvey's back in a really spectacular way, but she's already starting to put Mike into the equation that is Mike and Harvey.

And like, you just get it with such a small interaction. So I loved this little sequence. that is Mike and Harvey. And you just get it with such a small interaction. So I loved this little sequence. I think it's also because I know how much more Donna we're going to get, so I'm so hungry for her when we get her in these early episodes. But I think as I'm seeing what we do get of you, it's so obvious why all the powers that be were like, what are we doing?

She needs to be front and center of this thing. we need to give her a lot more to do so it's cool to see um you know for myself just how obvious that is from these scenes that's so nice so then mike gets into harvey's office and i think this is my favorite scene i said i I had one before. It was a tiebreaker. I loved the silliness and the fun of the other sequence. But to me, this scene with Harvey in this just takes what's been a really fun, kind of silly, in a good way, all over the place episode and just grounds it. It's funny because I remember shooting this scene. I remember being in the room for this whole thing because I remember shooting this scene. I remember being in the room for this whole thing. I remember figuring it out. I remember feeling that it was important. I remember feeling that it was slightly different than everything that we were doing.

And I remember feeling like, oh, this isn't the whole show. This can't be the whole show. But it's so cool that the show and enough of the silliness and the fun and all this stuff makes room for a scene like this and to really see these two guys who really care about each other deeply care about each other fight it out and figure it out and these were scenes that we really looked forward to because of also the length of them like they had the beginning in the middle of the end, and something happened. You walked out of the scene different than you came into the scene. Yeah. And we would always be like, ooh, it's three pages.

It's four pages, right? Because it's TV. It was TV in the time of commercial breaks. Like, things needed to be tight. So when a scene like this was written, it was really fulfilling. So we cut to Jessica's office, and she's impressed that Mike brought Tom in. And then Tom walks in and insists that Mike be his point man. And I love this because Mike bagged a whale and we're cheering for Mike. I'm going to arm pull as a fan. Yeah, he got a client.

So that was really exciting. Okay. So back to the case, Harvey advises Wyatt to turn down the $20 million deal and instead threatened to release his designs for free on his website, which would deem the patent worthless. Checkmate. Also, Gabriel had already lost. Injunction. I'm out. I'm out. I'm asleep. Wyatt, they know we're stalled in our injunction, which means to them, they're giving you a fair price as an insurance policy against the risk of possibly losing the insurance claim. Can you memorize that? That is a great catch. Can you say it back to me? That is such a good catch? Why? They know we're stalled in our injunction, which means to them they're giving you a fair price as an insurance policy against the risk of a line. I know. And he did it. And that does that just put chills through my body because I remember having to deliver lines like that and just being like, I don't know. I don't know.

Gabriel did a very good job. Very good work. So then Harvey then confronts Judge Pearl outside the courthouse. And remember, he hands him an envelope. We don't know what's inside, but it is the judicial courthouse codes, Which everybody knows off by heart. And he confesses that he never had the affair, but that he is having the judge investigated for blackmail. Baller move! Let's not forget,

and that he is now going to start sleeping with his wife, which he is at divorce. I really hope so. I really hope that Harvey and Lauren date. Wait, he says that. Well, because he says, because she pleases me. She can do whatever she pleases,

and she pleases me. Time's do whatever she pleases and she pleases me. Time's up. I don't know. What? Yes. No, I think you're right. Did I do something wrong? No, you didn't do anything wrong. I'm saying that that whole sequence, I was like, again, like he's got his code.

But just the fact that he's like, I'm having you investigated for blackmail. You're getting a divorce from your wife. Now I'll be sleeping with her. Thank you very much. I was like, oh, Harvey, you couldn't help yourself. Like you didn't have to say that part. Well, I think he just said she pleases me. Like she's lovely and we're going to date.

But he's saying I'm going to date her. But he's divorcing her. That's fine. Is that bad? Yeah. But I want Harvey to date Lauren. I'm on this one side of this argument. I want Harvey to date her. But he's divorcing her. That's fine. Is that bad? Yeah. But I want Harvey to date Lauren. I'm on this one side of this argument. I want Harvey to date Lauren. You are. You just, you just, we can cut all this out, but let's just have this real talk. Don't you feel a bit of a vibe where it's like,

I don't know, just like now she's mine. Oh, I didn't get that vibe. I didn't get that vibe. It's like the time in Pretty Woman when Julia Roberts walks in and says, big mistake. Like, do you work on commission? Big mistake. I feel like he's saying to the guy like, you're divorcing her. Big mistake because she's awesome. But isn't it inherent in Harvey dating someone is that he's not because Harvey doesn't have relationships. Oh, do we know yet? I know. Do we know? I don't know if that's established yet. Well, he doesn't have he doesn't have relationships. Do we know that? Yeah, we have that information. You don't feel like by this episode, we've learned that Harvey's

not a guy who changed. I think somebody like Lauren could waltz into Harvey's life and be the one. But I mean, OK, so real life example is actually kind of good. Clooney was known as a playboy and then he met Amal. Isn't it just about the right person coming around? I don't know. What I'm finding interesting is that you find it sweet. Look, I'm a suitor. I'm a Suits fan.

So I'm in on this one. Harvey can do no wrong for you. I don't know. I'm still learning about Harvey, right? I'm only on episode two. So I'm like, she wants to date him. He wants to date her. Yay. That guy's a jerk. Get him out of the way. He's going to pay for it. I'm rooting for love and the possibility of love and that Harvey will change. We don't know. We have to watch for nine seasons and see if Harvey will change.

I mean, I will say for the record that I wouldn't want my daughter to date Harvey, but in the context of this moment in the show, I am rooting for him and her and I'm rooting for love. I'm going on the ride with this. I don't like ride. I don't like the term ride in this context. You're going for the ride, aren't you? I would like to go back and change the verb. Anyway, whatever. We can move on. And so then we transition into a New York skyline.

We resolve the episode with Mike and Harvey. Are we still friends? Finally on good terms. What? Are we still friends? You and me? I'm not fighting with you. No, this is good. I like these talks. We resolve the episode with Mike and Harvey on good terms. Mike confronting Lewis about the drug test.

Lewis tells him to relax that everybody's won in this situation. Trying to take the upper hand, Lewis tells Mike to take another drug test, which we know will now be positive as leverage. Mike points out that no one can be forced to test multiple times in a three-month period because our guy Mike knows the bylaws. He's read the books. He's off book on the literature. Mike then reveals that the new client, Tom Keller, will be brought in under Harvey instead of Lewis. Lewis has lost again. Our poor Lewis, our poor Shakespearean character.

He can't win. Uh, love this scene. And I really love Mike standing up to him. I think that's fun. It sets a new precedent. It goes, Oh,

you know, Mike is getting a bit of a backbone as far as Lewis goes. And, uh, this thing that Harvey and Mike have gone through is giving Mike some more confidence to stand up to people that were kind of scaring him before, which is fun to watch. Yeah, it was a great episode. It was a great episode of character development. And I look forward to watching them develop further. And I'm all in. I'm watching the next one. All in. Well, that's a long haul. That's a good chat.

Wait, wait, wait We don't know how many goddams Oh my god I didn't hear one single goddamn in this episode There was one There was only one? Oh, you know, it's interesting Sean Jablonski wrote the episode, not Aaron

That's very interesting So what is our master goddamn count? We're at eight Eight total I can't wait to see this number climb God damn it All right, well, thank you to our firm's best researcher, Kristen Mr. Goddamn count. We're at eight. Eight total. I can't wait to see this number climb. God damn it. All right.

Well, thank you to our firm's best researcher, Kristen, for this week's goddamn count. Okay, before we end, just a reminder that we want to hear from you. So please send us your questions and thoughts to sidebarpodcasts at siriusxm.com. We just love to hear from our listeners. And if you send us a voice memo, you may even hear yourself on the pod. We're really looking forward to seeing your guys' reaction to this. This is a living thing, this podcast. It's growing.

It's changing. We're going to figure out how it works and what we want to do. And we want you to be a big part of that. So please, please, please reach out. And we do ask if you have any specific questions to specific episodes to just put the name of the episode in the subject line. All right. Well, that's it for another great episode. Thank you so much, Sarah.

Thank you, Patrick. It's such a pleasure doing this with you. I love you. Can't wait to do this again. Please join us next week when we're going to talk about episode 103 of Suits Inside Track. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye.

Sidebar is produced by Sarah Rafferty, Patrick J. Adams, and Sirius XM Media. Our senior producer is Kimmy Gregory. Our producer and researcher is Christian Schrader. Our sound engineer is Alex Gonzalez. And our audio mix is by Eduardo Perez. Our music is by Brendan Burns, and our executive producers are Cody Fisher and Colin Anderson.