Well, the moment has come. After seven seasons, it's finally time to say goodbye to Suits' main romantic couple, Mike Ross and Rachel Zane. However, that's not the only thing Suits had to accomplish in its season 7 finale. It also had to launch Gina Torres' Jessica Pearson-centric spin-off, which made the two-hour finale feel a bit unwieldy at times and had the side effect of separating the show's most important duo, Mike and Harvey, which is a shame.
Before riding off into the sunset, Mike takes on one more monster pro-bono case that takes him away from Specter Litt. Nathan comes to him asking for help with a class action he filed against Discharge Power, a battery company that built a factory near a school that gave students lead poisoning. Nathan's clinic doesn't have the resources to take on the case and he hopes Mike can get Specter Litt to pitch in some money. Mike knows the firm can't do that, so instead, he offers to devote his time and energy to the case.
While working on this case, Mike receives an enticing offer from a Seattle lawyer named Andy Forsyth, who asks Mike to come run a new firm he's launching in Seattle that would take on the big guys. It sounds like a corporate law firm with the spirit of a clinic, a.k.a. Mike's dream job. Andy gives Mike two days to decide whether or not he wants the job. Rachel's definitely open to considering it since she received an offer, too; however, Mike ends up turning it down because he thinks Andy is in cahoots with Discharge Power and is the reason Nathan's clinic lost its funding. (Oh, he's going to feel so silly later on).
Specter Litt is also having a hard time, too. The firm's former partners, represented by ousted partner Stanley Gordon, sue the firm for ruining their reputations. Harvey and Louis know this is just a ploy for the partners to get their buy-ins back, but they have no way of proving it. This case involves the surprising return of Scottie, who stated in one of her closing arguments that her association with PSL damaged her standing in the legal community. Harvey asks her to retract her statement, but she refuses because that would actually damage her credibility. Needless to say, their brief reunion ends up giving Harvey another reason to ponder his relationships (or lack thereof) with Donna because Scottie considered giving things another go but changed her mind when Harvey confirms that Donna was the complication that led to Harvey and Paula breaking up.
In a surprising turn, Gordon ends up coming to Specter Litt with an offer: The partners will drop the lawsuit if they get their jobs back. This deal seems too good to be true, and it doesn't take Harvey, Louis, and Donna too long to realize why. It turns out Robert Zane's firm is planning on expanding, and if Specter Litt hires those partners back, they will be able to outvote Harvey and Louis and merge with Robert's firm, thereby destroying Specter Litt.
Harvey confronts Robert, who was reluctant to help him with this war, about this nefarious scheme. But in another surprising twist, Robert has no idea what's going on. It turns out his partners went behind his back to work with Gordon. So Robert has been drawn into this fight against his will.
Unfortunately, Harvey is going to have to tap out because Jessica returns to town and cashes in on the favor he owes her. The city of Chicago came after Jessica after she beat it in a million-dollar lawsuit and had her legal license revoked. Now, Jessica needs Harvey's help to defend a low-income housing project from being knocked down. Although Harvey doesn't have time to fly out to Chicago, he agrees to it because Donna, Louis, Rachel, and Mike assure him that they can hold down the fort in an admittedly cheesy, West Wing-esque scene. Before departing, however, Harvey makes Mike promise that he'll drop whatever he's doing at the clinic to help save the firm if Louis asks him to, and Mike gives him his word that he will.
So Suits' dynamic duo is separated as the second part of the finale begins. Harvey's all the way in Chicago, trapped in a plot that I couldn't make complete sense of, and Mike is back in New York still fighting that class action lawsuit. Even though the firm couldn't loan the clinic money to fight the case, Mike's still able to keep working on it after Louis makes a personal donation of $500,000 because he believes in Mike's latest crusade. I'm sure it means a lot that Louis supports his bleeding heart, even though the moment when Louis hands him the check feels a bit cheesy, too.
As the battle against Discharge continues, Mike and Rachel come to a shocking realization: Andy didn't have anything to do with the clinic losing its funding and the job offers were actually real. By this point, Rachel is totally down to move to Seattle and so is Mike. There's a hitch, though: They have to leave immediately to start working on some major case. So, Mike and Rachel decide to move up the wedding, and Donna is more than willing to make their dream come true.
In a very unsurprising move, Mike ends up being pulled away from the Discharge case because Louis needs his help to save the firm. Louis can't think of another solution other than hiring the partners back. Thankfully, Mike is there to save the day. Mike suggests that they hire the partners back but also invite Zane to merge with them, which would allow them to outvote the former. Although Robert is reluctant to agree to the merger especially since Harvey isn't there to negotiate it, he agrees to it. Thus, Specter Litt manages to live another day. Meanwhile, Mike delivers another slam-dunk performance in court and nets a huge settlement from Discharge.
While all of this is happening in New York, Harvey's in Chicago struggling to help Jessica in her fight against both the mayor's office and some corrupt real estate developer, and being constantly reminded that he's in Chicago now, not New York. (Seriously, take a shot every time someone says Chicago.) The details of the conflict in Chicago aren't terribly important. All you need to know is that Jessica eventually finds herself in a tough position in her fight to save this low-income housing: She has to choose between fighting for her estranged family, which lives in said housing, or dropping the case and accepting a job in the crooked mayor's office with the hope that she'll be able to help her family from the inside. She chooses the latter, much to Jeff's disappointment.
Harvey arrives back in New York just in time for Mike and Rachel's wedding, which is a pretty touching affair. Before the ceremony, Mike and Harvey exchange some classic Mike-and-Harvey banter, but that's not nearly enough to make up for how little we've really gotten of them in the back half of the season. I understand that Suits has moved away from what it used to be in its earlier seasons, but it would've been nice if these final episodes could've focused a bit more on their relationship. Mike's love for pro-bono work and his romance with Rachel is all nice and good, but the thing that has always made Suits enjoyable was Mike and Harvey. Unfortunately, that fact gets lost in the finale because Harvey has backdoor pilot duties.
All that being said, I did enjoy Harvey and Mike's final scene together when Mike tells Harvey that he's leaving. It's a real sign of Harvey's growth that he doesn't lash out but instead accepts that Mike needs to make this next step. As the finale comes to an end, we're left with the image of Mike and Rachel, and Harvey and Donna dancing happily together, which captures both Suits' past and hopefully its future. Bon voyage, Mike and Rachel.
