Suits Review: Pulling the Goalie (Season 7 Episode 14)

I honestly can’t decide what I like more about Suits Season 7 Episode 14, “Pulling the Goalie,” — seeing Mike and Harvey working a case together, or seeing Donna and Rachel working together and handling a problem without help from anyone else.

Actually, yes, I can decide. It’s the Donna and Rachel part.

It sure hurts that this could be the last time we get to see what amazing team these two women make.

It would be so incredibly easy to make Donna’s story all about Harvey right now. Don’t get me wrong, that element is there, but it’s less about the fallout of the kiss and more about her proving how much she deserves the job she’s in.

Thanks to help from Rachel and to the fact that Donna realizes she should play to her strengths — her ability to understand people — Harvey and Louis never know that their lease is in danger.

The horrible landlord messed with the wrong woman, and knowing her reputation, he probably should have known better.

What starts out as a clearly sexist move (the landlord preying on who he believes to be a vulnerable woman) becomes a beautiful feminist story about women helping other women — and about how badass Rachel Zane and Donna Paulsen are.

It’s also bittersweet to watch Harvey and Mike working together for one of the last times. Their moments in these past several episodes have shown a real evolution in their friendship — and the fun banter seems to have been taken up a notch as well.

What makes their case more complicated and more interesting is how the fact that Mike went to prison comes back on them. It’s the judge who treated Mike fairly, first of all, who needs their help.

On top of that, the judge reveals that she refused to implement a wiretap that would have easily resulted in both of them going to prison rather than just Mike.

Because, let’s not forget, that’s part of their dynamic now. Mike made that sacrifice for Harvey — and yes, Harvey has made sacrifices too, but their relationship is much more complicated because of it.

Bringing that back into the story now, only a few episodes before Mike’s exit, is a nice way to bring the story full circle.

Harvey has other relationships to strengthen. There isn’t much interaction between Harvey and Donna on this episode, but they do have a moment near the end which shows their friendship remains solid.

More than that, their professional relationship remains solid too — Harvey is impressed and maybe slightly amused that he returns to his office to find a new lease with a lower price, all thanks to Donna.

And he has no idea what she had to do to make that happen, but what’s important is the respect he so clearly has for her.

There’s also a nice moment with Louis and Harvey, where Louis asks Harvey for advice, specifically as a friend rather than has a managing partner. It’s easy to forget how different their relationship used to be, but when you look back — the way they’ve changed and grown is remarkable.

And, speaking of Louis, after becoming increasingly frustrated with a storyline that felt like it was going nowhere fast, it’s really satisfying to see that maybe, just maybe, Louis is going to be able to be happy for a while. And that happens when Louis decides to do the right thing, be a good man, and make a sacrifice.

He proves he can be the bigger person — which is, of course, a struggle for him. Louis is competitive by nature, so for him to take that step back when Sheila asks him to speaks volumes about how much his character has grown.

It’s because he makes that choice that Sheila realizes that it’s been Louis all along.

I’ll admit, I’m hesitant about her, but her willingness to leave having children up to fate by “pulling the goalie” proves she’s grown too.

What did you think of this episode of Suits? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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Suits airs Wednesdays at 9/8c on USA.

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