'Suits' Season 7 Updates: How the Production Team Prepared for Mike and Rachel's Exit
Fans will bid their final goodbyes to Patrick J. Adams and Meghan Markle's characters Mike and Rachel when "Suits" airs the final episode of season 7 next month.
USA Network announced in January that Adams will join Markle in her departure from the series, but details about the onscreen couple's swan song remain a mystery until executive producer Aaron Korsh talked about the plot in an interview with TVLine after the midseason premiere on Wednesday.
According to Korsh, fans of the legal drama series will see several hints about how Mike and Rachel will say goodbye to the show before the actual finale. "We lay the groundwork in a subtle way, and then we also have some actual logistical things that happen within the show. But if we hadn't made the announcement that they were leaving, I do not think you would have seen them leaving coming," he stated.
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Korsh also mentioned that the circumstances leading to Mike's decision to leave the Pearson Specter Litt law office have something to do with the deal that he made with Harvey (Gabriel Macht) at the end of season 6. The deal entails that they will take one pro bono case every time they manage a corporate case. According to the executive producer, Mike will realize that the set-up will be hard to maintain, and a specific incident that will happen in the second half of season 7 will be a turning point for the character.
Rachel's departure, on the other hand, will be based on her future with Mike. "There's a particular episode where that comes to the fore with them, and that plays into what's going on with Mike, professionally — and collectively, they make this decision," Korsh also said.
In a separate interview with Variety, Korsh explained that they never had a hard time in conceptualizing the plot for the characters' exits even if Markle and Adams' announcements came in the middle of the writing process for season 7.
Korsh mentioned that they never had to change their plans at the last minute for Rachel's departure since he already knew early on that Markle has a big possibility to leave the show because of her engagement with Prince Harry.
He said that at some point in the season, he realized that the actress' relationship with the British royalty was doing well. It made him believe that she could not possibly stay on the show after her wedding. "So we decided, in our hearts, to bank on her finding love and kind of having a fairy tale ending in her own life and assuming that good things were going to happen for her. Plus it would be easier to undo a decision to write her off than it would be to at the last minute have to make her leave," the "Suits" boss also said.
For Adams case, the actor reportedly gave the writers some lead time to design the story before his actual departure.
The final episode of "Suits" season 7 will be aired by USA Network on Wednesday, April 25, at 9 p.m. EDT.
