[Warning: If you haven't watched the season premiere, do not go further. Spoilers ahead.]
Suits didn't pull any punches.
Now that another party is privy to Pearson Hardman associate Mike Ross' (Patrick J. Adams) big secret (after he nearly lost his job), a direction series creator Aaron Korsh kept going back to after season one ended, it's safe the say the game has changed.
Add to that the return of partner Daniel Hardman (David Constabile), whom Harvey (Gabriel Macht) and Jessica (Gina Torres) successfully pushed out of the firm years ago, forces the two -- both used to being on stable ground -- to have to contend with a formidable foe.
Korsh answered THR's burning questions raised after Thursday's premiere chock full of reveals, from the decision to have Mike's secret outed, how this affects everyone's standing at the firm and how different Pearson Hardman may look by season's end (hint:very different).
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The Hollywood Reporter: Last season ended on a cliffhanger -- with Trevor (Tom Lipinski) approaching Jessica at Pearson Hardman -- and we werent sure what was said between the two. Now we know. Before you landed on the direction you ended up going, how many possibilities were you weighing?
Aaron Korsh:I remember us talking at the end of last year about the fact that I didnt want it to be some sort of cop out, where Trevor didnt tell Jessica anything. It had to be that he told her something significant. One other option was that [Trevor] maybe said what he did [for Harvey] to get the confession out of the kid in the season finale. There were other options weighed but my gut kept going back to, Lets just do it. If Hardman comes in, that can trump it. Once I locked onto that idea, it just seemed to make the most sense to me.
THR: Why did you decide to go the way you did?
Korsh:It felt the most satisfying to me because it took the problem head on. It was the least cop-out way to do it; that [Trevor] actually does what we threatened [in the finale]. The car doesnt veer back onto the road; it went off the cliff and we have to deal with that. Im a fan of a lot of other shows and one of the things Ive learned is to bring in a new threat in subsequent seasons. Its a great way to shake up the dynamics within the firm. We kept wondering, Who is Hardman of Pearson Hardman? A lot of fans wondered it too. If we could bring him in and use him to solve the problems that we had created, it seemed like the perfect way to go.
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THR: Now that Jessicas in the loop with Mikes secret that he doesn't have a college/law degree, what does that mean for everyone involved?
Korsh:To some degree, she has more exposure than she wouldve had before. It also means her discovering Mikes secret and discovering that Harvey was in on it, it strains their relationship because it meant that Harvey kept a big thing from her that put her in a vulnerable place. It causes a division between [Jessica and Harvey] and we do speak to that in episode 2.
THR: Now that Hardman is back in the game, how does his presence affect Jessicas power at the firm and change the way Harvey operates?
Korsh:It will jeopardize Jessicas power, which obviously also jeopardizes Harvey since theyre tied together. But it will also create schisms because Jessica and Harvey, though theyre on the same side, dont have the same way of going about things and dont always want to attack problems in the same way. Bringing in Hardman, it changes everything. They both have a problem, but how theyre going to deal with that problem, they dont always see eye to eye on that. It creates conflict for Harvey-Jessica, it created an opportunity for Harvey to leverage Mike into keeping his job and it will definitely affect Louis (Rick Hoffman). Louis likes to act like a sycophant and hes going to have to decide: Who does he want to align himself with?
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THR: It seems to make sense for Louis to team with Hardman, just based on Louis previous experiences with Jessica and Harvey. Is that something youre leaning toward?
Korsh:Certainly Louis is dissatisfied with the way Jessica has been treating him to some degree. Its natural for Louis to gravitate toward Hardman. The thing is, what does Hardman need with Louis? Why would he want to align with Louis? He may or may not to do that to his benefit.
THR: What can you share about how Hardman is received as the show moves forward?
Korsh:Episode 2 is Hardman [on his way back] and the whole firm is reacting to Hardmans imminent return without him even being there; hes remodeling his office and hes giving gifts to people. Just the anticipation of his arrival is already causing a lot of problems. Episode 3 he does come back and he steps on Jessicas toes a little bit and Jessica sends Harvey after him and it creates conflict between he and Harvey, which trickles down into Mike who ends up getting caught in the middle. Episode 4 and on, it escalates from there.
THR: Is there a larger plan in the works for the firm as far as Hardmans concerned?
Korsh:Hardman is not a great guy and they forced him out years ago for the good of the firm. He is coming back a presumed changed man when you meet him in the premiere. Youre not sure: Is he a changed man or is he not? The truth is we (the writers) ourselves are not sure. I have an inkling but you want to leave yourself open to that because if we want the audience to wonder then we have to wonder. He could have ulterior motives that are not good for our people but that doesnt mean that he is inherently a bad guy. Thatll play out throughout the course of the season. We havent shot the end of the season yet; you never know whats going to happen until you land on it. Last year when Harvey went against Travis Tanner (Eric Close), it was always our intention for that to be the episode where Harvey loses. Always. When we got there, we didnt want Harvey to lose, so we changed it.
THR: We havent seen Harvey and Jessica struggle and it seems like thats something theyre going to have to get used to.
Korsh:Yes.
THR: How different will Pearson Hardman look by the end of season two?
Korsh:Pearson Hardman, as a character, will have gone through a serious journey in the course of the 10 episodes. (Suits will run 10 episodes before taking a break and airing the final ones of the season at a later date.) No matter how it looks at the end, its going to feel different. If you climbed Mt. Everest and came back down, you would be the same person but boy you would feel much different having gone through that. Maybe youll have gotten frostbite or lost a finger, but youll feel pretty beat up. Pearson Hardman will have felt like its been put through the ringer, hopefully.
THR: We also learned bits and pieces of some of the characters pasts and family lives. Will Mikes parents accident come into play later and will Harveys family there was a brief mention of his younger brother be explored more?
Korsh:Currently there are no plans to meet [members of Harveys family]. I read somewhere where we were going to meet Harveys mother, theres no written episode where were meeting her currently. We may but we dont have it yet. Were close to two-thirds of the way done of breaking the stories and were not really meeting family members. But we do find things out about Harveys family. Grammy is a more prevalent character throughout this season. Through the course of that, were going to meet hopefully a new person from Mikes past not a family member though. We will find out more about Harvey and Mike, without a doubt.
THR: Is Harvey and Donnas (Sarah Rafferty) past going to be delved into more this season?
Korsh:I would say we more examine their feelings towards each other, maybe Donnas feelings towards Harvey. In episode 2, when Mike has to make his choice whether hes going to be with Rachel (Meghan Markle) or not, Donna and Mike have a conversation where her feelings to Harvey are alluded to. Later on in the year, her feelings towards Harvey are going to be examined somewhat ruthlessly.
THR: Is this the season where Mike figures out his approach to law? In the premiere, we saw him act like Harvey Specter-lite.
Korsh:In episode 1, he definitely took Harveys philosophy: I need to steamroll this woman. He was halfway toward being Harvey in that moment. When she tries to push him too far, then Mike totally steamrollsher.Thats a progression from season one. Youre going to see more of it this year but hes still going to struggle with the same things he struggled with but [act] more [like] Harvey.
Suits airs Thursdays at 10 p.m. on USA Network.
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