[SPOILER heavy – proceed with caution]

I guess it’s the natural progression of a series that eventually many of the main players will be hooked up with their expected, planned out significant others, and Suits is no exception.  For a show in its 3^rd season back half, this makes sense, but for some reason I’m still not ready for Mike Ross and Rachel Zane to not only officially become a couple, but decide to move in together. I still believe the series to be at the core the relationship between Mike and Harvey Specter — that bromance is what brought me in and kept me watching. It’s not that I mind the romantic arrangements, but we now have Harvey with Dana “Scottie” Scott and Louis Litt getting, um, “Litt up” in the sheets with Sheila Sazs, as well. It’s quite an interesting trifecta of emotional commitment, and one or all of them will undoubtedly be the source of much turmoil in the rest of the season.

Mike and Rachel have the easiest situation to deal with, as she’s primarily just granting him his wish of moving in with him. In fact, Rachel’s purpose of this episode appears to be to provide needed comfort and support to Mike when he takes on – at his own insistence – a case being prosecuted by the same lawyer that handled his parents’ death settlement. When Mike first dives into the case, intending to lock out Nick Rinaldi from a settlement with his client and file for a dismissal, he assumes that Rinaldi is using the same ploy for a settlement that he did with Mike’s parents: He’d convinced Mike’s grandmother to take a low figure rather than risk going to trail and losing. Mike will have none of this and manages to put Rinaldi in a pretty tight corner by placing negligence on Rinaldi’s client’s deceased spouse. But as Mike relives the DUI case that killed his parents, he shares his final encounter with his parents with Rachel. Thus her need to provide emotional succor for the episode — and a good reason for exposition. But Mike learns that while he’s focused on taking down Rinaldi, he’s essentially doing the same thing on this case. He learns his father had been drinking the night of the crash, so Mike now calls into question if his father may have contributed to his parents’ death. He sees he’s put Rinaldi’s client in the same position of doubt, but rather than continue down that path, he tips Rinaldi off to avoiding some evidence and tells him to go after the medical stent maker instead. That’s our Mike: he wants to play lawyer with the big guns like Harvey, but he’s still got a line he’s not willing to cross to get there.

Harvey and Scottie have a more complicated relationship. Harvey’s already asked Scottie to stay with him, but he’s also suggested there’s a job for her at Pearson-Specter, unbeknownst to Jessica Pearson. Jessica does agree to hire Scottie, but only if Scottie agrees to put up the $500,000 buy in front up. She’s not ready to spend the money but Harvey’s not ready to give her a ring, so she’s stuck wondering if the job is worth the money and her emotional investment with Harvey. She’s got a point, since this is the first time we’ve seen Harvey putting his feelings out on a line like this. It’s new for us and although I appreciate his ability to show he’s more than a walking quote machine in a bespoke suit, I’m with Scottie: I just don’t think Harvey’s got what it takes (yet) to go the distance with someone, especially one that he’s going to live and work with. I sense conflict on the horizon, and it’s not really going to surprise anyone, is it? Sure enough, even after Scottie lands a big client in swimmer Michael Phelps – to prove to Jessica she can bring in the money and shouldn’t need to pay the buy in fee – things get rocky for the pair. Harvey admits to Scottie that the buy in fee didn’t get waived, but instead he paid it. She’s upset, and I see her point – she feels he owns her now, to the tune of half a million bucks. But from Harvey’s perspective, he’s done a remarkably romantic gesture, and he doesn’t quite get why she’s that upset. I liked this very much. It showed that indeed Harvey does have true feelings for Scottie, but also that he lacks the skills of knowing how to treat someone in a grown up, serious relationship as an equal. I like seeing Harvey navigate through these waters.

And let’s not forget Louis Litt. I mean, we can’t really, he’s one of the most colorful characters on the show and he is so very useful for moving along those plot points! In this case, he digs deeper into his suspicion that Mike never attended Harvard Law School, brought about after he noticed Mike’s file missing from the Harvard file room Sheila manages. But before he broaches the missing file with her, which might reveal the truth that so few know, he thankfully asks the ever clever and quick thinking Donna Paulsen about Mike’s initial interview when Harvey hired him. This allows Donna the opening to get Louis off that track and much further off the track of talking to Shelia about ithe missing file.  Donna obfuscates enough to have Louis agree to only ask Harvard for Mike’s transcript, which he does. We’d all be breathing easier now except, Louis being meticulous Louis, he scans Mike’s grades and notes that he got an A+ from a professor renown for never giving an A+. Ever. Queue the dramatic music. Louis’s spider senses continue to tingle and it’s not likely this dog will give up the “Did Mike attend Harvard” bone.

Suits airs Thursdays at 9/8c on USA. See full episodes on USA Network, On Demand (check your local listings), Hulu, Amazon and Google Play.