Suits Series Finale Review: One Last Con (Season 9 Episode 10)
Though the episode as a whole isn’t exactly perfect, the Suits series finale ends in the best and most satisfying way possible. It’s poetic, emotional, and bittersweet as it offers both endings and new beginnings.
Suits Season 9 Episode 10, “One Last Con,” spends about half its time on the whole Faye lawsuit and takedown story. Harvey comes to his senses and is finally honest with Mike about the deal he struck with Faye and admits he’s planning to lie on the stand and do what he has to. But Mike won’t accept such a plan.
He reminds Harvey of one of the first lessons he ever taught him: when someone has a gun to your head, there are a 146 ways to get out of it. He suggests they work together and pull off one last con.
This is the first of several moments that offers homage to the beginning of the series. Suits has always been the story of Harvey and Mike, even when Mike wasn’t there. And the two of them working together makes them unstoppable.
They get everyone else in on it — including Gretchen. It’s a beautiful, complicated plan that everyone in the firm executes perfectly, and honestly a lot of fun to watch. It’s the final con and the final case we’ll see, and with the way everyone comes together, I’d call it the perfect choice. It’s immensely satisfying, even though Faye is unphased by the whole thing and still refuses to back down.
She really is the ultimate Suits supervillain, isn’t she?
Harvey has another plan up his sleeve, though, and we’ll get to that in a minute.
I’m delighted that we see Louis and Sheila get married, even if the wedding is cut short. I am, however, perplexed at how much time is spent on the danger Sheila is in.
It truly feels like we’re going to lose her character, and the only reason this works, for me, is that it’s a moment where Louis stands to lose everything, allowing for a more impactful new beginning.
While Louis waits at the hospital, Harvey and Donna make the best of their time at the wedding that was cut short by, you know, having their own.
It’s sweet. It’s romantic. Harvey’s proposal is beautiful. But the idea of taking over someone else’s wedding is becoming a tired one on television.
This seems to work only out of necessity. It explains their families not being there and it explains Rachel not being in the wedding. It *does* allow Mike to be there because of the timing. And the spontaneity and the idea of not wasting another moment is plenty enough to make me break out a box of tissues.
Though it’s not that they are getting married without their family. They do have (most of) their other family all present.
Except for Louis, which doesn’t feel right at all.
Ultimately, it’s nice to have the payoff of seeing the two of them get married. Their relationship was the slowest and slow burns, and for it to finally happen the way it did and with the timing that it did, a spontaneous wedding does seem fitting.
And yes, as Harvey says, they can have another wedding later. So we can imagine what that will be like, and we can even imagine Rachel as part of the wedding party.
I could also watch Harvey and Donna dance together like that for hours. What a lovely moment. The two of them get so many lovely moments on this finale.
The other word I used to describe this episode, though, was bittersweet. It is an ending and a new beginning for both Harvey and Donna.
As it turns out, when Harvey asked everyone to step out so he could talk to Faye, it was to make one last deal. That deal meant he’d be leaving.
It was a funny moment when Mike offered Harvey a job in Seattle, but it wasn’t a throwaway. Because Harvey’s taking him up on that offer.
Harvey and Donna tell Louis they are leaving. The newlyweds are moving to Seattle to work with Mike and Rachel. That decision is the ultimate result of all of the growth — of all of the character development we’ve seen in Harvey over the years. It’s even more satisfying of a payoff than him and Donna winding up together.
For him to set aside his ego, first of all, and second of all to take a job that would have him doing a lot more good in the world — that’s the Harvey he’s been working to become for a while. It’s really amazing storytelling.
Louis gets a similar kind of bookend. He’s grown and changed probably more than Harvey has, and that’s noted pretty obviously in his therapy session with Stan. But it’s noted again when Harvey and Donna tell him their news. They feel like they can leave now because he doesn’t need them anymore.
With them gone, Louis is also now the head of the firm, with what now feels like a brand new time assembled along with him. That team even includes a new named partner: Katrina Bennett. After all she’s been through with these people, it’s nice to see her get that win.
Of all of my favorite things about this finale, though, it’s the final Mike and Harvey scene that tops them all. They two return to their banter in Harvey’s office, replaying their first meeting but in reverse, with Mike as the one interviewing Harvey.
It’s a smart way to end, bringing it all full circle and tugging on our heartstrings along the way, reminding us that this story was always about their friendship and their mentorship.
Consider how far they’ve come, that now the mentee will be in charge of the mentor. And nothing feels more fitting than for Harvey’s new beginning to mean working with Mike again.
In my mind, I also imagine plenty of Harriet Specter and Michelle Ross outings happening in Seattle.
Thanks, Suits, for being such a meaningful show with such incredibly in-depth characters. I’m going to miss writing about all of them.
What did you think the Suits series finale? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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Ashley Bissette Sumerel
Ashley Bissette Sumerel is a television and film critic living in Wilmington, North Carolina. She is editor-in-chief of Tell-Tale TV as well as Eulalie Magazine. Ashley has also written for outlets such as Rolling Stone, Paste Magazine, and Insider. Ashley has been a member of the Critics Choice Association since 2017 and is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic. In addition to her work as an editor and critic, Ashley teaches Entertainment Journalism, Composition, and Literature at the University of North Carolina Wilmington.
15 comments
Louis, Go Kentucky Thunder, you win!!
One of the best tv series I have ever really enjoyed
The end , the last episode of suits is really brilliant, heartwarming and wonderful. Thank you so much for this wonderful tv serial. I will be watching it again and agin and again. All actors are brilliant. Harvey I just love your charachter. Thank you for bringing in Rachel , even if it was only a flash back. It made everything complete and beautiful.
unfazed, not “unphased.” Also, as a former therapist, the notion of a patient suddenly becoming a friend; and a therapist somehow being qualified to officiate at a wedding is completely implausible. Other than that, there were some beautiful moments in the finale, as you have described.
If Harvey had told Louis that they plan their wedding together, or if had Sheila given birth right there at the wedding (paramedics being called to the scene but too late before the baby was born), that would have been perfect for me. To be honest, I shed tears for Louis. He was one character I don’t want to be but love to watch. The way Grechen accepts whatever was in the pipeline without knowing the details (as long as the other members of the team are on it), blew me away. I was just crying. Loyalty. It is the best show for me ever. I mean ever! One last thing, the baby should have been twins (a boy and a girl) to justify why Sheila was in so much “danger”.
Loved Suits from the very beginning. Harvey, Mike, & Donna.. I kind of had a crush on Donna because she was played so well by Sarah Rafferty. It looked like Donna could do it all thanks to great scripts. She was so important to the firm. I am sorry to see it end but “All good things” etc.
Soo good! I’m so happy that Mike came back for the last few episodes. It really was poetic. The kind of friendship they have is what people literally crave for, or brings them back to their friendships.
The show is so smart, and well written, very unique, can’t say I was naively waiting for Rachel to come back…Had we knew she would step down as Royal Duties..Who knows maybe she could’ve been in the last episode! :D…Good to see her in a few of the last clips.
There was a season that a complete bore..Maybe after Rachel and Mike left…But 8 and 9 were getting better.
Thanks for “Suits” — Would love to see Mike and Harvey in their own show!!! I! 😀
This show will be missed!!!
I love Suits, great show with great actors. However, I did not like how their characters behaved in season 9 with the Faye-plot. I think they behaved like spoiled brats, when Faye was put in charge to overlook the firm, because they crossed too many lines. Faye was a decent woman with high standards who tried to do her job and they worked against her from the beginning. Instead of being humble and try changing their ways of doing things, they acted like bullies towards Faye. It was not fair. I didn’t like this part of season 9. I did like the last scenes of the last episode though.
Are you crazy? She was a pathetic, cynical, hypocrite who preached ethics but had no problems crossing lines herself. Her sole purpose was to destroy each character’s confidence until they fell into her dictatorship, ultimately proving all she wanted was Harvey to be gone, as proven ironically by her last dirty deal. A money-grabbing, power abusing hypocrite who was the ultimate villain that I’m glad the team destroyed. End of story.
I watched this show when it was on tv and due to some work schedules I lost keep track of them. Now, I’m glad that I can watch it again on Amazon prime. Love, love the series.
I know the law doesn’t work this fast but an enjoyable but improbable show. Felt Jessica should have been at Louis’ wedding. Rachel’s absence could have been explained that she was pregnant and threatening to miscarry or too far along to travel. The fact she wasn’t there could have been handled easily but was ignored. Enjoyed the last episode recap. Cheers!
I was on pins and needles from the beginning to the end and could not stop watching the episodes. I watched Suits in the day in the evening while I’m cooking when I was cleaning. I just couldn’t get enough. I would love to see more of Mike and Harvey and Donna, in
perhaps a different type of a show or a sequel. Loved loved love the show and kudos to the writers.👍
Binged watched this over the last month and was very impressed with plot, story-lines and superb dialogue and only really aware of very few of the actors. However with all that being said this show was the epitome of doing the wrong thing for all the right reasons, in other words the definition of integrity: doing the right thing even when no one is looking. If I thought my attorney ran their shop as this show was presented, I’d find another attorney only then probably worrying that I’d fallen farther down the rabbit hole.OBTW Google soundtrack, it is mind blowing and again with artists I had never heard of
I love this show and I am watching all over again BUT I thought that the last episode should have been Harvey and Donnas wedding and Sheila going into labor at their wedding not her own with Louis. From day one its been Harvey and Donna and they should have had their wedding day with MIke as his best man and Rachel as her maid of honor.. Though I thought it was romantic that they got married I just thought that They should have had their wedding day.
The show was really amazing! The depth and complexity of the characters, the use of the law, as a way of showing us the best and worse of human beings, and frankly, this is unusual for any series, the incredible complexity and illumination of the best in life and the worst very very well done beautifully acted. I never watch a series like this I loved it.
I loved the ending. Hate that it is over, but love the way everything was wrapped up. The finale song was totally appropriate with the scene.
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