Suits LA Reveals Harvey Specter Had 2 Massive Life Changes Since We Last Saw Him (RECAP)
Harvey Specter is up to his old tricks in Suits LA. However, his personal life has a lot of changes fans will want to know about.
Suits LA’s Ted Black finally got his revenge against the mob boss responsible for his brother’s death with a duplicitous plan only Harvey Specter could imagine.
Ted (Stephen Amell) joined forces with the Suits alum for an explosive — and only slightly illegal — takedown of his long-time New York City adversary, crime boss Pellegrini (Anthony Azizi) in Episode 9.
Fans also got some long-awaited satisfaction after seeing that, although Specter (Gabriel Macht) may have left his life in NYC behind in the series finale of Suits, he was still the same old Harvey, capable of bringing even the most dangerous criminal to their knees with a quick-witted plot for destruction.
Episode 9 also offered up some sparse breadcrumbs about Harvey’s life in 2025 and upped the ante in Stuart Lane’s (Josh McDermitt) criminal defense case back in Los Angeles.
To learn more, read on below:
SPOILER ALERT: This article contains spoilers for Episode 9 of Suits LA.
Suits’ Daniel Hardman Returns in Cameo
Harvey’s present day return may have been the episode’s crowning achievement, but he wasn’t the only Suits alum to make an appearance. Episode 9 opened with a flashback to 2010 as Daniel Hardman (David Costabile) took the stand in Ted’s ongoing trial against Pellegrini.
Ted told Hardman — the one-time founder of Pearson Hardman and the attorney Suits fans everywhere love to hate — that he called him to testify for the prosecution because of his expertise on financial transactions, but it was soon clear that Ted had a more menacing motive. After getting Hardman to testify about a clear money laundering scheme using innocuous identifiers like “Company A” and “Company B,” Ted revealed the companies in question were actually Hardman’s own clients, owned by Pellegrini.
Pellegrini is Convicted
It was a stealthy move to prove the racketeering that Harvey had suggested himself in Episode 8 after giving Ted all the companies’ financial documents. And, for a time, it seemed to work. Pellegrini was convicted of racketeering and conspiracy to commit murder.
But just before a judge was set to sentence him to life in prison without the possibility of parole, Pellegrini revealed to the court that his attorney had some distressing new evidence that proved Ted had broken the law to get the financial documents admitted in court. The defense called Harvey to the stand and a sheepish Harvey was forced to admit that he had given Ted the documents. In light of the new information, the judge threw out Pellegrini’s racketeering conviction, sentencing him to just 25 years in prison, with the possibility of parole after 15 in a devastating defeat for Ted.
Ted Black and Harvey Specter plot revenge in the present day
Back in the present day, those 15 years were up and Pellegrini was set to be paroled. Harvey, who was clearly still feeling guilty about his role in the reduced sentence, made his way to Los Angeles to recruit Ted for a revenge mission to send Pellegrini back to prison where he belonged. He warned Ted, however, that it would involve “doing some bad things,” like “crossing lines, taking risks, maybe even breaking a few laws.” That wasn’t enough to dissuade Ted and the two headed to New York to put Harvey’s plan in play.
The first step was waiting outside the prison gates for Pellegrini, who confidently strode out to meet them as a newly freed man. After some insults were slung,Ted and Harvey took the opportunity to warn him that since he’d been behind bars, things in his organization had changed and those who had ascended to power may not be so willing to hand it back over. Although a seed of doubt had been planted, Pellegrini shook off the comment and insisted his family knew that “daddy is home” and will be the one to sit at the head of the table.
Fans learned part of the reason for the bad blood between the men in another flashback to 2010, which showed Ted getting fired for tarnishing the image of the DA’s office with his stunt in court and putting his boss’ reputation on the line. Ted insisted it was a small price to pay for putting Pellegrini away.
But his motive for revenge didn’t end there. Back in the present day, fans learned that Pellegrini had been the one to order the killing that claimed Eddie’s (Carson A. Egan) life. In the hopes of recruiting Kevin (Troy Winbush) to help with their mission, Ted and Harvey laid out the details of their plan, which involved pretending to be members of a task force to get one of Pellegrini’s men to turn on him and link him to the murder in exchange for immunity — even though they didn’t actually have the authority to offer immunity. They’d figure that out later.
Kevin warned them that the risky plan could end with them getting bullets to the head, but he still agreed to help and suggested they target Pellegrini’s second in command, a man named Santoro. Ted clearly didn’t like that plan as Santoro was the man who actually planted the bomb that killed Eddie and he knew that giving him immunity would be letting him walk free. Eddie’s death was also personal for Kevin, who beat Santoro “within an inch of his life” after Eddie’s killing, costing him his job with the FBI as a result.
But they all agreed that it was the best strategy forward and Ted and Harvey confronted Santoro outside a pizza parlor. They offered him the deal, but Santoro shot it down, saying that he’s not a rat. Ted insisted that may not matter after Pellegrini saw the photos being taken as they spoke of them all looking chummy together.
Harvey Specter is a Dad
As Ted and Harvey waited to make their next move at a nearby bar, we got a glimpse into Harvey’s home life after he got a text from “My Boy,” that adorably read “Daddy, when are you going to call?” Harvey and Donna are now parents. Could anything be cuter than that?
Pulling Off Their Plan
The plan to turn Pellegrini and Santoro against each other gained momentum after Pellegrini and his men arrived to confront Ted after receiving the photos he sent. Pellegrini claimed he didn’t believe Santoro was ratting him out, but Ted reminded him that others had before him. Never one to give up the upper hand, Pellegrini told Ted that he’d actually ordered the hit on him and had initially been “furious” when Eddie was killed instead, but later realized it was a better revenge because it would torment Ted for the rest of his life.
Ted and Harvey returned to confront Santoro, this time with photos of Ted meeting with Pellegrini to give the hitman the impression that the mobster may have cut his own deal. Santoro didn’t buy it, insisting the two were still loyal to each other, until he walked away and his car exploded just feet away from him. Believing it was an attempted hit by Pellegrini, he agreed to flip on his boss.
We quickly learned that Kevin had actually planted the car bomb to trick Santoro. The only problem now was that they didn’t actually have an immunity deal from the DA’s office. The only person who could help was Ted’s old boss. Ted reluctantly went to him and apologized for damaging the department’s reputation years ago and said he was right to fire him because he wasn’t cut out for the job, but also reminded him that he did get the job done and paid for it “more than anyone.” Ted’s boss agreed to offer up the immunity deal, but reminded Ted that it would mean Santoro would never pay for his role in Eddie’s death.
Ted took care of that problem by going to visit a smug Santoro in the hospital. Ted relished in telling him that he’d been played and that he had bombed the car, not Pellegrini. But Santoro had a few jabs of his own, recounting how he “loved” watching Ted’s brother get blown to pieces. Ted got the last word, however, by digging his hand into his injured shoulder and telling him that he knew where Santoro would be placed through witness protection and could send Pellegrini’s men after him at any time (although we later learned that was a bluff).
Harvey Specter met with a family tragedy after the finale
Ted and Harvey’s plan worked. Pellegrini would be prosecuted for killing Eddie and Santoro would spend the rest of his life looking over his shoulder. Ted and Harvey shared one last meal to celebrate the victory and we learned that Harvey’s brother died from cancer a few years ago. He asked Ted whether the loss ever gets easier, but Ted told him it depends on the day. Harvey got a text from his son, signaling his new life was waiting and he left, but not before pranking Ted by telling him his son is named after him. Sadly, the name of Specter's son remains a mystery.
Before leaving for home, Ted imagined telling Eddie that he felt slightly better now that he had gotten his killer and then made one last plea to get Kevin to move to LA.
Meanwhile, back in LA, Stuart was struggling with his own sense of guilt after believing one of his clients may have killed a witness to keep them silent. Stuart had told the client, a fixer named David Bowie, about the witness just hours before. Bowie insisted he was innocent and Stuart found evidence that he was carrying out another crime at the time, but the Assistant District Attorney still believed Bowie was involved and arrested him by the episode’s end.
To find out what happens with the case next, watch Suits LA Sundays at 9/8c on NBC or available streaming on Peacock.
