Suits LA’s Gets Back To Basics with a Very Tense Mock Trial and a Threat to Someone's Life (RECAP)
Stuart Lane's ruthless ways got him a win in court, but could it cost his life?
Suits LA’s Ted Black (Stephen Amell) and Stuart Lane (Josh McDermitt) are formidable forces in the courtroom, but there is a limit to their ruthless ways with each other.
Fans learned just how far the two attorneys were willing to go to win — and the lines they ultimately won’t cross — in Episode 10, as the boundaries of their friendship and adversarial dynamic were tested both in a flashback to a high-stakes mock trial from their past and a present day threat that put Stuart’s life on the line.
Meanwhile, the attorneys at Hollywood’s hottest entertainment law firms also put the brakes on not one but two potential romances, forcing fans to wait a little bit longer for any legal love connections, and Black & Associates got a “big, splashy” new celebrity client.
To find out more about everything that went down in Episode 10, read below:
SPOILER ALERT
The episode opened with Stuart still clearly tortured by his decision to reveal to his client, Hollywood fixer David Bowie (not the one you're thinking of), that prosecutors had a damaging witness planning to testify against him. Just hours after Stuart divulged the info, the witness, a woman named Janet Fields, was killed, leading Stuart — and prosecutors — to believe that Bowie may have had her killed to keep her quiet. Stuart confided to his wife, Helen, that he felt as though the woman’s blood was on his hands. Yet, she reminded him that there was no way he could have known what would happen.
One thing going in Bowie’s favor was that there was security camera footage showing him breaking into the home of one of Hollywood’s elite, at the same time the murder occurred, creating a seemingly untouchable but messy alibi. Stuart asked the judge to dismiss the murder charges against Bowie in light of the footage, but the prosecution wanted to know more about where the tape came from and that caused a bit of a problem.
Bowie had been breaking into the home of Greg Fisher, who just happened to be Erica’s (Lex Scott Davis) client, to steal a blackmail-worthy tape of Greg having sex with the wife of the head of a big name studio. Erica helped Stuart get the security footage of the robbery in Episode 9 in exchange for the return of her mother’s prized sculpture, but understandably, Greg didn’t want the true motive for the robbery to be revealed in court because it threatened to end his career in the industry.
Erica sought Rick Dodson’s (Bryan Greenberg) help to convince Stuart to keep the sex tape out of the testimony, focusing instead on the money and jewelry which had also been stolen that night. While Stuart agreed to do his best, he made it clear he’d put his client first if push came to shove.
Stuart is nothing if not ruthless, something that can be traced all the way to his law school days at Columbia University.In a flashback, fans learned that Stuart and Ted were once besties and roommates, engaged in a fierce competition to be named number one in their class. To decide who would end up on top — and who would have to settle for scraps in the number two position — the school’s dean proposed a mock trial. Fittingly, future prosecutor Ted would argue for the prosecution while Stuart took on the defense.
The facts of the fictional case were this: a father and two of his sons, all of whom later tested drunk, were riding in a car when the older brother, who was at the wheel, hit and killed a pedestrian. The younger brother was left in a coma while the older brother was set to go on trial for the death. The only caveat? At any point during the proceedings, each side was given the opportunity to change one fact or detail about the case to mimic life’s real world curve balls.
Stuart and Ted agreed to a no holds barred fight in court. Ted chose his brother Eddie (Carson A. Egan) to play the role of the comatose younger brother in exchange for Stuart being allowed to cast the rest of the parts. But the mock trial quickly went off the rails. In a cunning move, Stuart cast Ted’s villainous father (Matt Letscher) to play the defendant’s fictional father, who took the stand to claim he had really been driving that night. Ted’s father later admitted he agreed to the role in an effort to see if Ted had what it took to succeed in law or if his mother had made him “weak” like he suspected.
Ted was that furious Stuart hit below the belt and made the case personal. Yet, he quickly recovered and used his one change to make the father in the case the new defendant, moving that he be arrested for vehicular manslaughter. Ted pointed out that the father had just confessed to the crime in front of the jury and rested his case.
The next day, Ted delivered another blow during his cross examination by attacking Stuart’s then-girlfriend Helen — who had been recruited to play a fictional therapist — on the stand, getting her to admit that she was in a relationship with Stuart and wanted to marry him, something she’d only divulged to Ted in confidence. The move called into question her integrity and cast doubt on her testimony. She stormed out of the courthouse, but not before giving Stuart a good tongue-lashing.
The move only fueled Stuart’s conviction to best his friend and he used his one change to wake the younger brother from his coma. He planned to call Eddie to the stand and ask him to read a script that claimed his father was only trying to cover for his older brother, the real driver, and that the older brother went along with the scheme because he hated his father and his younger brother. A furious Ted pointed out that Eddie would never be able to tell fiction from real life and would end up thinking Ted hated him. He begged Stuart to back down, but Stuart was committed to win.
Meanwhile, in the present day, a similar scenario was playing out. After Greg’s testimony about the stolen items seemed cagey on the stand, Stuart forced him to admit to the existence of the sex tape and name his affair partner, despite Erica’s clear objection. The testimony was compelling enough to convince the judge that Greg hated Bowie and had no reason to lie about the security footage and the judge agreed to dismiss the murder charges, setting the fixer free.
Stuart’s high from the victory was short-lived however. After he returned to the office, he discovered that Bowie had doctored the footage to make it look like he’d been at Greg’s home at the time, so that he could really sneak off and kill the witness. After Samantha urged Stuart not to come forward with what he learned, Helen walked into his office to find her husband clearly upset.
In a parallel scene in the past, Helen walked into Stuart’s apartment to find him prepping for the next day. She’d talked to Ted, who’d revealed Stuart’s plans to call Eddie to the stand. She urged Stuart not to put Eddie through that, reminding him that he got to choose what kind of man he wanted to be. After walking into court and seeing Ted’s dad instructing Ted to rip Eddie to pieces on the stand the next day, Stuart relented and opted not to call Eddie to the stand, resting his case instead. In return, a grateful Ted decided to withdraw the prosecution’s case, proving both men would eventually do what’s right when pushed.
Back in the present day, it was Ted that would be coming to Stuart’s rescue. Stuart decided to approach the prosecutor with what he learned about the tape—even though it could put his law license in jeopardy—but he was stopped walking up to the prosecutor’s home by Bowie himself, who admitted killing Janet and threatened to kill Stuart. He’d stop at nothing to keep himself out of jail, even if it meant targeting Stuart’s wife and children. Just then, Ted emerged from the shadows with his phone. After getting a phone call from Helen, he’d secretly recorded Bowie threatening Stuart, a tape he'd use if anything ever happened to Stuart. After learning he’d been outsmarted, Bowie slunk back into the darkness. Ted and Stuart may have their issues, but they’re still considered family.
Meanwhile, Erica got fired for failing to keep Greg’s dirty laundry out of the public record. Furious, she confronted Rick, who told her she wasn’t really angry with him but was just using it as an excuse to stay close to him. He asked why she kept holding herself back from a romantic relationship, something he clearly wanted. After taking a step toward him, Erica stopped herself and admitted she “can’t” pursue anything further with him. Disappointed, Rick told her they needed to stay out of each other’s lives.
They weren’t the only pair whose possible romance fizzled before it started. Back at Black & Associates, Amanda told Ted she’d decided to focus on heading up the firm’s criminal defense division, even if it meant putting any potential romance between them on the back burner for now. Amanda had bigger things to focus on after just signing a young teen star accused of assaulting her controlling father.
To find out more about how that high-profile case will play out, watch Suits LA Sundays at 9/8c on NBC or available streaming on Peacock the next day.
