Let me start by saying that this was an incredible episode and completely lived up to all the hype that surrounded the summer finale. Now where do I start, there was so much story packed into this 40 minute episode I have no idea what to talk about first, so I’m just going to jump right into the main event: the vote. I was anxiously anticipating to see how this would all play out and unfortunately Hardman won, leaving Harvey and Jessica to stew in their defect, trying to figure out a way to take him down without having a position of power. Prompting Harvey out of anger and loss of control to go to Hardman to tells him that he is going to take him down; as Harvey leaves Louis enters ready to do Hardman’s dirty work of getting Harvey fired. With this storyline, I was happy to see that they started the episode off with the vote and immediately told us who won within the first ten minutes of the show instead of leaving us hanging at the end. They also kept Louis vote a mystery, so I still have no idea who he voted for.

Bringing us to Mike’s story, (which I was equally awaiting to see unfold) where he was back at work, angry with everyone, including Rachel who was baffled that Harvey would make him work after his grandmother’s passing, where we learn that he hasn’t even told him, in fact Rachel is the only one at the firm who knows. Mike then goes back to his old ways and buys pot. This starts off the whole theme of loss throughout this episode and the idea that we make stupid decisions when we are suffering from a loss; trust me this is the first of many stupid mistakes that will be made. Back at the firm Louis confronts Mike and tells him that he is no longer to take orders from Harvey’s, since there is a new top dog, Louis’s orders outrank Harvey’s.

Shifting back to Harvey; he enters his office to see movers taking his stuff away, where Donna proclaims “don’t touch his balls”, one of the best lines of the episode and just another funny Donna ball joke. But on a more serious note, Hardman decided to transfer him to the 42nd floor, just another way to get under his skin, although he doesn’t retaliate, yet. While packing up the contents of his office, Louis enters to give Harvey a low-level case – since he is now in charge of redistributing the caseload – and tells him not to give it to Mike. I got to say, this is the first time Louis has started to bother me, and if it weren’t for the ending, I probably would have left this episode hating Louis. Anyways, as per usual Harvey decides to ignore Louis and gives the case to Mike, who explodes at Harvey in front of the other associates, telling him that bad things happening in life and that sometimes they don’t always win. Instead of lecturing Mike like I would have assumed he would have, he sends him home to cool off and grieve since he secretly knows about his grandmother’s death.

At home, Mike makes another “smart decision”, to smoke some pot the day before his grandmother’s funeral, almost missing the funeral all together. It wasn’t until Rachel goes over and wakes him up, that he realizes that it’s about to start. As Mike gets ready, Rachel finds the pot and tries to convince him that it isn’t the best idea, so he flushes it for her, but secretly hides it in his medicine cabinet. Flash to the funeral, where Mike refuses to go and speck because he is the only one who really knew her, and doesn’t know what to say. However, after much convincing from Rachel and his new/old friend Tess (who we later find out is his old girlfriend) he specks, and makes a very heartwarming speech about bed wetting, his own parents death and how his grandmother was the only one to take care of him. It was a really great moment and really showcased Patrick J Adams’s (Mike) acting ability. Once the funeral ended Tess and Rachel commend Mike on his speech and they have a slightly awkward moment when Tess asks if Rachel and Mike are together and then Tess talks about her romantic past with Mike. After this little moment passes, Rachel goes back to work and Tess helps Mike clean out Grammy’s old room. They then reminisce about the past and share a sweet moment where they kiss, but unfortunately (but fortunately for my Mike – Rachel shipper heart) Tess tells him that she’s married and with that he tells, almost forces her to leave. In my opinion, I really wanted to see Mike and Rachel finally get together and feel like Mike doesn’t need another love interest because it seems as though they are just trying to find ways to keep Mike and Rachel apart.

Back at the office Harvey and Donna are adjusting to their new work environment on the 42nd floor, which features little technology, meaning no more intercom fun.  Harvey angrily asks why Donna hasn’t finished the survey yet, leading to a fight about Mike, work and the associates, but ending in Donna advising him to talk to Mike. All I have to say is it’s a good thing we have Donna back, because she’s the only one he really listens too.  Harvey then follows Donna’s advice talk to Mike, where he tells him that his grandmother died, which he knows about and thought that giving him more work would take his mind off of it. This leads to one of the funniest scenes of the entire series, where Mike and Harvey get high together, which equals TV gold. At first they just goof off and eat a bag of pretzels, but they also have a real conversation about family and how it feels to be alone. Harvey opens up about his family, especially his mother who cheated on his father. This was one of favorite moments of the show because I love how Mike will always have Harvey’s and that they have moved past just having a working relationship. But of course they have an excellent idea – as all high people do – to seek revenge by peeing in Hardman’s office. So they head back to Person Hardman, however Harvey decides he wants to do something more original and declares that he’s getting the can opener. But, since this is Suits, as Harvey is about to tell Mike what the whole can opener ritual is the elevator doors close, and all I want to do is get on the elevator with them. As they are about to enter Harvey’s office, to get the can opener they see Louis sneaking around, (who was actually trying to hack Harvey’s computer before) so Harvey being his temperamental self pins Louis against the wall, but right as he is about to hit him, Mike stops him so that they wouldn’t give Hardman a reason to fire Harvey, allowing Louis to run away like the scared little scumbag he is.

After this whole incident occurs, Mike comes up with the brilliant plan to plant pot in Hardman’s office, arguing that he wouldn’t hesitate to do the same to him. Which sparks the idea that Hardman was the one who planted the memo for Donna to find; that it wasn’t there all along, bringing to light the new idea that Hardman knew all along that the cars weren’t safe. They take this theory to Jessica who would be happy to take this to the other partners, if they had proof, so for the rest of the episode their mission is to get proof to back up their claim. Mike looks through old documents to find the missing memo, which he does along side Rachel and once he finds it he celebrates by kissing Rachel, who pushes him away because his grandmother just died which could cause him to make regrettable decision. Harvey has his own ideas of getting information and seeks out Travis Tanner to question him on why he settled and after a heated boxing match – which Harvey wins – Tanner tells him that the memo was a fraud, confirming Harvey’s suspicions. As he comes back to the office with this new information, Louis approaches him and tells him “its pee in a cup time”, knowing that he will fail. He refuses and tells him that he is permitted to have the partners convene to decide on this issue. Harvey and Jessica discuses how to handle the situation and Jessica questions why he doesn’t just pee in the cup, but then she realizes the reason. They then decide that they will bring up the whole memo situation when the partners convene for his drug testing issue. Right then Donna comes in and says that they are meeting in an hour, not giving them much time to prep or find proof. Although Harvey assures both himself and Jessica that Mike will find evidence, by talk to the owner of the company, to get him to sign a waver stating that he Hardman knew about the car’s flaws before he signed them as a client; but Mike fails to get the signature as the owner of the company refuses and drives off. While this whole issue unfolds, Louis finds Donna, to tell her that she will always have a place at Person Hardman, with him. Prompting her to do something I really wanted to see happen in this episode, which was to knock Louis off his pedestal. She basically tells him that she would never leave Harvey for him and that he betrayed them and that they are no longer on the same side. I honestly think this is the moment where he realized that maybe Hardman wasn’t the person he should be working for. So thank you Donna for knocking some sense into him, she is also now 2 for 2, first helping Harvey help Mike; then Louis realize he was playing for the wrong team.

While all this is happening, Mike is off trying to save the day, as Harvey, Jessica, Hardman and all the other partners meet, first Hardman accuses Harvey of doing drugs. But Jessica and Harvey present a united front, with Jessica encouraging Harvey, by saying, “you go, I go”, one of my favorites of the night. Harvey then admits that he did do pot, but also brings up that Hardman planted the memo and cost all the senior partners $100 grand of their own money. Leading Hardman to do what he does best, he denies that he did anything wrong, until Mike walks in with the signed waver. This is very Harvey deja vu from season one, with the whole fake evidence tactic, which did work. Even though Mike didn’t have a signed wavier Hardman and all the other partners believed they did, convincing them to oust Hardman. Jessica then calls for a vote to fire Harvey, which only a few people agree too, one not being Louis. She then calls for a vote to dismiss Hardman, which they win, and this time Louis votes for the right side. Following yet another victory; Jessica, Donna, Harvey and Mike celebrate in Harvey’s real office, as we see Louis walk by. Even though I loved watching them celebrate I wanted one of them to invite Louis in, because in the end he did the right thing and I wish they commended him on that or at least showed him some recognition for going against Hardman. Nevertheless, this was a nice scene to end off the whole Hardman debacle; I’m also happy that they wrapped this up in one episode rather than dragging it out for another season. Although this is still not the end, Hardman waited to confront Jessica in her office, getting her to sign a non – disclose agreement and warns her that Harvey is uncontrollable and he may take her down next. This better not be Foreshadowing to a Harvey – Jessica face off next season, because they have one of the best dynamics on the show and I would hate if they ruined it by pining them against each other.

Lets not forget that this is a season finale and there must be some sort of cliffhanger. After ending everything else on a somewhat high note, Mike makes a bad mistake and calls up is married ex – girlfriend. Who goes over to his apartment and they end up sleeping together, big mistake and worst timing ever because at the same moment Rachel goes over to tell Mike that he was right. Unfortunately, right after she says this, she sees a half naked Tess walking around his apartment. With that she gives him a dirty look, – by the way kudus to Meghan Markleon on her acting in this episode – takes off and the episode ends. Leaving us with a lot of questions that we will have to wait until December to have answered. Sorry Suits fans for such a long review, but like I said there was a lot to cover.

This episode really was all that I wanted and more and Suits as yet to let me down, it only keeps on getting better. For now I’ll just be waiting in anticipation for new episodes in December. But until then, I want to know; did the finale live up to all your expectations?