Suits LA Recap: Better Late Than Never
We start in court, with Ted pleading his client’s innocence (lol) to the jury in his closing statement, setting out how he has only staked his career on this case because he believes unequivocally in Lester’s inability to commit murder. Contrary to the writer’s beliefs, Suits LA is rarely funny; this opening scene, though, cuts back and forth between Ted looking like an idiot for assuming the best of a Hollywood producer who lied in his police report and said producer explaining to Kevin just how guilty he is.
Kevin still continues to function as the show’s big, Black lawbreaking detective in this episode, pestering Lester to finally admit to the crime and tell the whole story, preferably one that isn’t ripping off a script. His account of the night still leaves much to be desired criminal defense-wise: he did kill his producing partner, but only because his life was under threat first. After Lester confronted him about stealing from the studio, Simon got panicky and goes to shoot him. They fought over the shotgun, and finally, Lester managed to get a shot off. Kevin seems to be satisfied with what feels like the eighteenth confession from their client and tapes it, just in case.
Speaking of snaky white men, Stuart takes a trip down to his old law firm to offer Erica another chance to stab Ted in the back and join his firm as head of entertainment. In his eyes, the Lester trial is doomed, and she should jump before the whole ship sinks. I hate him, so it’s validating to see Erica tell him to fuck off, but you can’t help but feel like he has a point. Back in court, the pushy district attorney is painting quite the picture of the night the producer was killed. The deceased’s therapist is on the stand and has a lot to say, namely that her client had never expressed any signs that would fit the whole “he committed suicide” story the defense is trying to sell. The psychologist also says outright that her client knew if Lester found out about the affair, Lester would “kill him,” which again doesn’t look great, seeing as he’s now very dead. Ted does his best, badgering the therapist about whether it was possible that the guilt of not only having an affair with his best friend’s wife but also stealing millions from work, coupled with the drugs he was obsessed with, could have resulted in suicidal ideation. She begrudgingly says yes.
Next up is Bill, the studio executive who hates Lester enough to tell the court outright he thinks him capable of murder. It doesn’t help that the prosecution pulls up the target Lester was shooting at that night: a picture of Bill’s head. It’s a cartoonish way to infer their history and is less shocking than childish, but it works in gagging the jury. In other news, the ex’s on the show can’t stop circling one another like horny piranhas; Samantha and Ted have oddly charged late-night calls steeped in nostalgia (probably because they are often followed by one of those torrid flashbacks), while Erica and Rick have a little chat filled with barely concealed pinning in which Erica admits that Stuart came by to offer her Rick’s job.
The flashbacks this episode finally reveal the end of Samantha and Ted’s relationship, starting with a confrontation between the pair following the killing of her comedian client. He was offed by the mobster Ted’s been obsessed with, but instead of apologizing and seeing why this might all be traumatizing to her, he pushes on with the case. She sees it as a sign of Ted’s arrogance that he refuses to quit no matter who becomes collateral, while he continues to ignore the fact that his stubbornness is costing people their lives. Just in case you weren’t keeping count, that’s now the second death Ted is somehow responsible for in Flashback Land. The fact that Ted chooses to miss the funeral because he wants to be present at the mobster’s arrest seems to be the final straw for Samantha, though, finally deciding to move to Los Angeles and leave him behind (I cheered). It’s jarring to watch him meander on in the present day, still just as blockheaded as before, as he aggressively pursues a solution to get Lester a win in court. He settles on emotionally blackmailing Amanda into testifying for him in an effort to smear the shifty district attorney; if he can get the jury to distrust the lawyer, perhaps they won’t be able to trust any evidence she provides either. Amanda — being a by-the-book babe — seems to be fed up with Ted’s antics, but never enough to let him fail, and so agrees to take the stand.
It’s here we learn more about the Dontay Everson case that set the district attorney in Amanda’s sights to begin with; he was (past tense because he was killed in prison) a 19 year old client of Amanda’s who was wrongfully convicted of a murder he didn’t commit because the district attorney hid exonerating evidence. When it became clear Dontay would be released come an appeal, the district attorney went to the shady journalist we met in last week’s episode and leaked a story pining a gang murder on him. I feel like the district attorney being a dickhead does much to make Ted look better; he might be a pushy manchild who likes to throw his toys out of the pram every other scene, but at least he isn’t getting Black kids shanked in prison.
While all this happens in court, Rick is trying to figure out what Stuart was doing offering Erica a job. The only problem is he asks in front of Samantha, who didn’t even know Stuart was trying to recruit from Black & Associates. Stuart really has a thing for going behind his partner’s back and undercutting them when it’s opportune (which is often, to be fair), but Samantha calls him out for being a dickhead. The more you see of Ted, the more you understand why he and Stuart were friends to begin with (derogatory).
They finally put Lester on the stand, which is hilarious because all he does is lie through his teeth and willingly perjure himself with the help of a clueless Ted, who, of course, has no idea that his client is as guilty as humanly possible. They seem to be about to get away with it, too, if it wasn’t for the convenient entry of a last-minute witness who was at a party at a nearby house on that night. Supposedly, she signed an NDA that prohibited her from speaking a word of the event she was at but remembers clearly seeing two men fight over a gun, with one yelling, “I’ll kill you, dead, sir.” Subtle. My suggestion is that the police investigate that party she was at and figure out why she had to sign an NDA to begin with, but we move. Ted is fuming because he’s been so adamant that Lester is innocent this whole time, and so naturally, this new witness sends him spiraling. I don’t pity him; he deserves to feel stupid.
In a clear act of desperation, Ted goes to Stuart and asks for his help since criminal law is his purview. Lester was once his client, and though the girls have spent all season fighting, Stuart is a good lawyer who is loyal to his clients.
While the men throw their weight around and conceal their pissing contests as work, we finally get a moment of reprieve with a rare Erica/Amanda interaction. Erica saw how the district attorney grilled her on the stand and came by to check on her. Amanda figures out that Erica knew Lester was guilty, but before she can ride her too hard for not letting Ted know, Kevin makes it clear that he is the one who thought it best to keep him in the dark.
Stuart and Ted are besties again, staying up all night trying to find something to use to their advantage in court that would allow them to change their plea to not guilty by way of self-defense. Since you can’t change a plea mid-trial unless there is evidence in the proof already presented to the jury that backs that claim, it looks like they’re fucked- except Stuart has a rare moment of usefulness. Remember the divorce papers the district attorney got her hands on via tabloid journalist a few episodes back? Apparently, the ex-wife says on the record that the dead producer wanted to kill Lester, and since the district attorney pushed for those papers to be included in the first place, it turns out her own piece of evidence will be what bolsters their defense.
They put Lester back on the stand, and this time he’s more convincing. He says that what the witness heard wasn’t him saying, “I’ll kill you dead, sir,” but rather the dead producer yelling, “I’ll kill you, Dester,” his friend’s nickname for him. What seals the deal, though, is proof that Lester had already confessed to it being self-defense in that tape he filmed with Kevin at the start of the episode. It works; Lester is found innocent of murder, which means it’s a win for a very smug Team Ted. He walks out of court and straight into the arms of Samantha after he apologizes for her client being killed all those years ago. It only took him a decade to take accountability, but hey. Better late than never, I suppose.