Suits “25th Hour” Review (Season 5, Episode 16)

When Suits returned on January 27 for the start of its final six episodes of the show’s fifth season, it was with these words being uttered: “You’re under arrest for conspiracy to commit fraud.”

Those words were lodged at would-be-attorney Mike Ross, leaving his fiancé Rachel Zane and all the major players at Pearson, Specter and Litt in a tailspin. Since that episode a battle has been waged to keep Mike out of prison not to mention saving everyone else at the firm from getting sent “up the river” (so to speak).

And while we all chewed our fingernails done to the bone with how this episode would play out, I guess we should have seen this coming from the very beginning; and perhaps this ruse has played on and on for far too long. Maybe it was just inevitable that Mike (or someone else) was going to pay the price for this long-running deception.

But, I have to admit that I am a little disappointed. I was really hoping that there would be a miraculous save at the last minute. After all the episode is entitled “25th Hour” and I guess I was hoping against hope that something would work out to keep Mike out of prison.

Granted it wasn’t for want of trying on Harvey’s part. He attempted to go at Mike’s poorly made decision from every possible angle; hitting up attorney Evan Smith about the big Liberty Rail case (the horrible train accident that killed a number of people that was blamed on the driver but wasn’t) and he attempted to get Gibbs to swap that case for Mike’s (basically feeding her a big murder case in exchange for Mike’s minor case). But nothing seemed to work.

And not only will Mike have to pay for his “crime” but Rachel will have to led her life without him for two years AND Pearson Specter Litt has been decimated with a nearly 100% employee turnover if that final scene is any indication. It looks like only the name partners and Donna will be left standing when all is said and done.

This episode really put all of them through the ringer. Rachel and Mike were going to get married before he went to prison, but at the final moment Mike told Rachel they couldn’t go through with it. And, as stated before, the firm that Jessica Pearson put her blood, sweat and tears into for hers has seemingly collapsed overnight.

It’s going to be a much different place when the show returns. Will the firm rebound? Will Rachel wait for Mike? Will Mike even survive prison? And if he does (well, you know he will because there won’t be a show without him), will he come out the same person he was when he first walk through that barred-wire fence?

What are your thoughts on the season finale of ‘Suits’? Were you expecting a last-minute safe by Harvey, getting Mike off the hook and seeing him and Rachel happy and together? Were you expecting to see the law firm turn into a ghost town? Please share your thoughts on last night’s episode in our comments section below.

The sixth season of ‘Suits’ will return to the USA Network at some point this summer.

Cast:
Gabriel Macht as Harvey Specter
Patrick J. Adams as Mike Ross
Rick Hoffman as Louis Litt
Meghan Markle as Rachel Zane
Sarah Rafferty as Donna Paulsen
Gina Torres as Jessica Pearson

Guest Stars:
Amanda Schull as Katrina Bennett
Leslie Hope as Anita Gibbs
Scott Michael Campbell as Father Sam Walker
Donzaleigh Abernathy as Gloria Danner
Megan Gallagher as Laura Zane
Wendell Pierce as Robert Zane
John Pyper-Ferguson as Jack Soloff
Tricia Helfer as Evan Smith