Suits’ whale hunt proves its characters are creatures of habit

Suits Season 8 revealed that the more things change at Zane Specter Litt Wheeler Williams, the more its lawyers stay the same in Episode 12.

There have been some big changes on USA‘s Suits, but this week’s episode “Whale Hunt” proved that you can rearrange the org chart all you want, these characters are creatures of habit. Both for better and for worse, though in this episode, it was mostly worse.

“Whale Hunt” moved the Zane Specter Litt Wheeler Williams team to step two in its new process, with Louis Litt (Rick Hoffman) wanting to land a pricey client because that would send a message about the new management. As with many things Louis has done, this wasn’t so much about the firm as it was about him—in this case, making him look good.

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Everything that happened in the hunt for Frank DiBiase (guest star Nicholas Sadler) was basically running into a brick wall. It’s everything Suits fans expected them to do. First, Harvey Specter (Gabriel Macht) attempted to win Frank over with his reputation for winning, only to be rebuffed because of his equal reputation for being a troublemaker. As much as that’s what makes Harvey great—and the most watchable character on TV—it’s smart writing to have a moment where that catches up to him. It should be a double-edged sword.

Louis promised he wouldn’t intercede in Harvey’s mission, but then promptly called Frank anyway, which is just like Louis’s history of being unable to keep his hands off (just look at what happened last week). That’s how he found out Harvey didn’t have the job done, and it was back to the two of them being at each other’s throats, insisting that they were better.

The situation came to a head at a charity poker game, where “Whale Hunt” revealed its true colors: this episode was never really about Frank. In fact, the episode ended without telling the audience if he signed with either one of them or not. Frank was merely a device to set up a new back-and-forth between Harvey and Louis. Organizational power hadn’t changed their need to show off their actual power (and did anyone really expect it to?).

What viewers got was a Casino Royale-style exchange of the two hashing things out over poker, with Harvey pointing out that the game—a metaphor for business—was about playing the man and Louis inevitably folding under pressure. And after he did, instead of dealing with it himself, Louis marched into Donna Paulsen’s (Sarah Rafferty) office and expected her to fix it. Actually, he did more than expected; he ordered her to because he can now as managing partner.

And because she’s Donna and she, too, has done this song and dance a few times before, she did stay later than she’d planned in order to try and figure out a solution. She should have stood up to Louis because he both overreached and guilted her, but she fell into the trap of wanting to help. Just like Harvey, sometimes her biggest strength is also her biggest weakness.

These characters did almost exactly what they’ve always done, playing the same roles nearly the same ways, and “Whale Hunt” illustrated why they didn’t work. They changed the business plan but not actually the way they did business. And even the episode’s final scene seemed to concede that, with Louis and Harvey making up, but also admitting that Louis will probably get in the way again.

Audiences want to see characters grow, but in this case, Suits is having them grow by coming to the realization that they can’t grow. At least not as much as they wanted.

So will they change the way the firm is run to better suit the way they know how to work? Or will they continue to try and alter their ways to mesh with a new direction that’s clearly ill-suited to their natures? Therein is the underlying ideological dilemma Suits has set up for the rest of this penultimate season.

As for Donna, her relationship with Thomas Kessler (recurring guest Sasha Roiz) is officially on and while some Suits fans may be disappointed because they ship her with Harvey, consider this: what we learned from this episode is that Donna needs an outside storyline that removes her from the firm. She has to be taken out of the equation because otherwise, Louis and Harvey will keep putting her in the middle of their story.

Donna deserves better than that, and learning how to navigate their issues without her is the only way the two of them can perhaps genuinely get on the same page (or at least close to it). Her time as the buffer between everyone else ought to come to an end, and this is how that happens.

In other news, “Whale Hunt” also featured Alex’s wife Rosalie Williams (guest star Tamberla Perry) asking Samantha Wheeler (Katherine Heigl) to second chair a case. Samantha’s not used to being second to anybody, and it wasn’t long before her assertive personality reared its head, which left Alex (Dule Hill) stuck between his spouse and his frenemy.

This whole episode was classic Samantha Wheeler behavior. She genuinely wants to help, but she has to do it her way, and that almost never goes over well on a show that’s got nothing but alpha personalities. Samantha disagrees with Rosalie over a proposed settlement, then she goes to Alex wanting him to talk to his wife—putting him in the middle, which is both unfair and exactly what he didn’t want to happen.

Samantha may have had good intentions (thinking that Rosalie was taking a bad deal, which the episode never says if it is or not), but regardless of that, using Alex as leverage against her is not a good move nor a respectful one. There’s almost no way that ends well, and it’s not fair to pull him into her battle either; she did to Alex what Louis did to Donna, just without the rank. Except in her head, she’s doing whatever she can to ensure the outcome she believes is right.

We’re twelve episodes into Suits Season 8, and Samantha Wheeler feels like she still hasn’t quite come down off her high horse. We have learned more about her—particularly in her history with Robert and what they went through together—but those vulnerabilities haven’t really come out in who she is now. Not even getting her name up on the wall has changed her. We’re just seeing the same personality, over and over.

However, a shoutout is due to Wendell Pierce, who made an all-too-brief appearance in this episode and still managed to steal a scene with Robert Zane’s hatred of opera. Even when he’s hardly around, Pierce’s presence is still felt.

Last and also least, this Suits episode returned us to the ballad of Katrina Bennett (Amanda Schull) and her associate, er, crush Brian Altman (recurring guest star Jake Epstein). Their relationship hit a breaking point in “Whale Hunt,” with the two having a moment while testing two perfumes and another when Brian asked Katrina to hold his baby during a work-at-home session. Anyone could have seen these coming, and Suits normally avoids such on the nose moments.

It was embarrassing for Katrina and Brian, and a lot less subtle than the writers have usually been, when their mutual confusion about their feelings spilled over into a deposition. The script had them making thinly veiled comments to each other about how they’d gotten into that position. While romantic tension isn’t easy, these two are still professionals and should’ve been able to behave better—especially in a moment when their case was on the line.

Katrina found out that Brian reciprocated her interest, but it didn’t matter because he’s married. So an angsty Katrina did the only thing she could: she told Brian he was no longer her associate, leaving him to walk off alone while she stared into a drink.

(This could’ve been a great scene, as both Amanda Schull and Jake Epstein were on point in it, but the emotional rawness of the moment was spoiled by use of “Something Just Like This.” That’s a fantastic song yet music should never overwhelm the acting.)

The real shame here is Suits could’ve had something special with Katrina and Brian. Seeing more of Jake Epstein has been great, because the associates should be represented on the show if only for variety, and he’s really developed with more episodes under his belt. He also works very well with Amanda Schull, who’s underrated anyway.

But instead of going along with an excellent platonic friendship—which we know this show can write because we’ve seen Harvey and Donna—the series had to make it romantic and now it’s all a difficult mess. Audiences will find out how Suits picks up the pieces, but right now this looks like a wasted opportunity.

Yet even that circled back to the underlying theme of “Whale Hunt.” As much as these characters may be forced into change by circumstances, or talk about changing and doing things differently, there’s only so far they can go. That’s because they are such strong personalities. Their standing out is what got them where they are. They couldn’t really be any other way, which in turn, keeps laying the groundwork for saying that eventually, it’ll be time for them to move on.

Suits airs Wednesdays at 10 p.m. on USA. For more on this and other USA shows, check out the USA category at Hidden Remote.