Thoughts on a TV series

I'm a big fan of "Suits", the two year old summer series on the USA Network.  While the basic premise has a flaw, it's easily overlooked.  The show is about a guy who is making money taking tests for people and selling weed for his best friend.  He ends up in an interview room with a lawyer at one of New York's top law firms and gets a job as a lawyer even though he never graduated from college (let alone law school).  However, he has passed the NY state bar exam and is not only a genius, but his eidetic memory and ability to calculate numbers has enabled him to memorize law books ad infinitum.

From here on out, there be spoilers present, so stop reading if you're a fan and looking forward to season three.  It begins next month.  I just finished re-watching every episode in seasons 1 and 2 and I have some issues.  If you don't know the characters and plotlines, check the Wikipedia article and you can catch up.  The season 2 finale has Mike being forced to not use something to win a case for Harvey, or Jessica will expose him to the District Attorney.  So he's forced to betray Harvey.

Then Rachel finally gets him to admit his big secret to her.  Now she knows that he's a fraud, in spite of her inability to get into Harvard Law, suddenly she wants him right there in the file room.  Meanwhile, Pearson (no longer Pearson Hardman) is merging with a big firm run by the English dude, even though it isn't what Harvey wanted.

Now three people in the firm know Mike's secret. There's a dictum in the intelligence community about the probability of a secret being disclosed to the public increases exponetionally with each added person that knows it.  How long can his secret stay secret.  His ex-girlfriend knows.  The daughter of a big client knows (she clearly has no intention of ever revealing it, because she hacked into Harvard's computer records to make him have grade records, transcripts, and even a diploma).  His former best friend knows.

Now suppose for a moment that Jessica did blow his cover to the D.A. and they brought criminal charges against him.  Could they prove that he violated the law by not having gone to law school?  There are attendance records, grades, comments by teachers, everything every other student in his supposed year at Harvard Law has.  The prosecution could put on a ton of witnesses who will testify that they don't remember a Mike Ross attending during that period, but that isn't proof beyond a reasonable doubt.

The key is, did that client's daughter also dummy up an undergraduate degree and all the required records to backstop the story entirely.  Did she create an application for him in the admissions database?  Financial aid, or record of payment being made, both at the undergrad school and Harvard Law?  To actually fill all of the squares that need to be filled would be a gigantic undertaking.  So I think they could easily prove he didn't attend Harvard Law, and then it's Mike Ross prisoner at Attica for fraud.

But that would end the show.  The old "you can't do that cause the show ends" argument.  M*A*S*H killed off Henry Blake, sent Trapper John home, transferred Frank Burns elsewhere, but the show went on.  If they'd written Hawkeye out though, bye-bye series.  Could Star Trek (the original) have continued without Captain Kirk?  Gilligan's Island without Gilligan?  So the writers can't send Mike to prison.

I see them doing something to ensure that Jessica will no longer be able to hold this threat over his head.  Maybe he'll uncover some dirt on her that she can't afford to have disclosed, that will force her to keep his secret.

Now that they've put Rachel and Mike into a sexual relationship, how can they go on working together and not explore their feelings outside of the office?  How can they keep it a secret?  Harvey expressly told Mike to not tell Rachel and he's done exactly what he was told not to do.

Looking forward to the new season.  Should be fun.