SPOILER ALERT: The following reveals major spoilers from the NBC Suits LA series finale.
Aaron Korsh’s latest Suits spinoff, Suits LA, took its final bow tonight with the episode “Freedom,” an appropriate title as the show wrapped up every important storyline from Season 1. Not every canceled show ends this way, but at least for fans who gave Suits LA a go, you have been given your freedom, knowing who killed Eddie Black (Carson A. Egan) and why, the future of Ted Black (Stephen Amell) and Stuart Lane’s (Josh McDermitt) friendship and business partnership, and a couple of central love triangles were resolved.
At the center of Suits LA is Ted, a former federal prosecutor in New York City, who rebooted his career as an entertainment lawyer in Los Angeles. While Ted was the focus, viewers met the people in his orbit, the good, the bad, and a lot of the grey area, where most of us linger.
The show’s heart was Ted’s relationship with his brother Eddie, one that was cut short, as was revealed early in the season that he was murdered. What Korsh and the writers did beautifully was to use this as a jumping point to show the complicated relationships between men. These guys who pride themselves on being the baddest and the best can also be vulnerable.
When Ted is introduced, he’s cocky and prideful, and only lets down his guard in the scenes he shares with Eddie. Amell excelled in shaping Ted beyond being Mr. Lawyer with a chip on his shoulder. He had something horrible that traumatized him, something his father, Edward Brooks (Matt Letscher), played a role in, willingly. Ted confirms this by the end of the series, and is validated in his hatred for him, who mattered less than zero to Ted by the time he dies.
Troy Winbush was a standout as Ted’s old friend Kevin, and I look forward to seeing more of his talent on his next big thing. Kevin knows where the bodies are buried and is one of the only people who brings the real Ted out. The finale reveals that Kevin lost his dream job as an FBI Agent after getting caught beating up Pellegrini’s subordinate, Vinnie Santoro (Alexander Bertrand), on the night of Eddie’s murder. Following those events, Santoro blew up Ted’s apartment, thinking that’s who would be there, and on the order of Pellegrini (Anthony Azizi).
The hit was meant for Ted. Before the explosion, Edward Sr. showed up and made an excuse about why he needed to take his son out for dinner expeditiously. Eddie, the trusting and loving son, told his sibling they should go out to dinner, and he would stay home watching TV and eat pizza.
At dinner, Ted gets a call from Kevin telling him to leave home immediately. He heard Pellegrini was out for blood, and he was the target. Ted instantly freaks out knowing Eddie is there, and that he won’t be able to save him in time. He also figures out that his sperm donor is behind this, and that he was right in blowing him off when he needed him the most: on his deathbed. That lunatic even gives Eddie a little cuddle before leaving for dinner, knowing he was sitting bait.
Letscher, so unlike his character, played the baddie so well: cold, calculated, and heartless. I spoke to him at the show’s premiere party and discussed how cool it would be if, in a future season, there could be a Halloween flashback to when Ted and Eddie were children. He would dress up as Reverse Flash and Amell as Arrow, bringing them together for the first time. I guess it was not meant to be.
I also chatted with Egan, who played Eddie perfectly and lovingly, and told me how closely he had been working with Amell and how he treated him like family. People can say what they will about representation in media, but Suits LA proves the industry has an untapped community of actors ripe for the picking.
Egan’s casting and successful turn must have made many people proud, especially those in the Down Syndrome community. For every Eddie and Egan out there, I hope you felt seen. Growing up, I watched Life Goes On, the first show to feature a major character with Down Syndrome, Corky Thatcher, played by Chris Burke. There have been others to follow, but hopefully, Suits LA will help inspire future writers and creators to write and cast authentically.
In the final beats of the series, Ted sees his father in a flashback and confronts him for not going to Eddie’s funeral. Senior plays coy about why he opted not to, but Ted calls him out for never viewing Eddie as his son. Ted, frustrated, shoves this dirtbag into a parked car waiting to take the coward to prison, and finally gets the confession he wanted.
“I did it to protect you,” Senior said to a stunned Ted.
He continued, “They were going to set that bomb off. If I hadn’t done what I did, you both would’ve died… They weren’t going to stop until they killed someone. I had to make a choice.”
Ted is FURIOUS, and things get even more intense when Dad admits he has no regrets. As Eddie’s beloved brother, he tells Senior that he is dead to him, and he never wants to hear from him again. This scene takes viewers back to the beginning, when his father is on his deathbed, and Ted shows no mercy. This left viewers feeling a certain way about Ted, because a “normal person” would show up for their dad. The finale shows Ted had every right to treat Edward like the scum of the earth because that’s what he was. Ted is redeemed in ways most wouldn’t have expected, a credit to Amell’s talent. It’s the lesson we’ve all been taught about judging a book by its cover.
Fans also loved his moments working with Gabriel Macht, with whom he bonded over bears and whiskey. Macht as Harvey was exactly what the fandom wanted and needed. He played Ted’s old buddy back to help him with a case. I know viewers found the flashbacks a little confusing, but they needed to lock in the connection between the shows. Everyone wanted to check in with Harvey, and his chemistry with Tedd was off the charts. I think Suits LA would’ve been better suited (pun not intended) as a binge because viewers would’ve seen the evolution of the characters faster and understood what Korsh and the writers were working toward.
The casting on this felt good, like in the old Suits, although a bit large for a first season. First seasons are hard, especially when the gap between shows is narrower, thanks to the show’s explosion on Netflix. Those who had just gotten to know the original cast were dying to hear more from them, which would mostly be impossible since they’ve all moved on. And for anyone who needs reminding, Suits, when it aired originally on USA Network, was close to cancellation nearly every year, if not all. Other hit shows almost canceled after one season include Cheers, The Office, Seinfeld, The Big Bang Theory, MASH, and Star Trek: The Original Series, to name a few. The business of TV has changed so completely that shows are not given the time to breathe and find their audience.
Okay, let’s wrap the rest quickly. Stuart and Ted have come a long way from the early episodes, and were a new season away from merging their firms. McDermitt also showed dramatic and comedic range as Stuart—in the episodes where he interacted with Yvette Nicole Brown and Suits legend Rick Hoffman, who returned as Louis Litt, exactly as we remember him— to the dramatic arc between him and Ted that shows how family can also be the people that you meet along the way. Not as a replacement for Eddie, but someone who knew them both and could hold space for Ted when he needed it. When Ted shows up for Stuart at the latter’s client’s house and saves his life, you know these two are true blue.
Rick (Bryan Greenberg) finally puts all his cards on the table. He tells Erica Rollins (Lex Scott David) exactly how he feels about her after a client gets between them, leaving them both in a tizzy. Erica reciprocates, leading to a steamy scene in her kitchen.
Ted and Amanda (Maggie Grace) are finally headed somewhere new and exciting in their relationship. All was clear after Ted had a tête-à-tête with his ex Samantha Railsback (Rachelle Goulding), when the plans for a merger between firms were revealed. Only Korsh can tell me Ted and Amanda weren’t endgame.
Goulding, David, and Grace, alongside Sofia Pernas, Azita Ghanizada, and Alice Lee, showed just how bad ass women can be. They’re all professionals confident in who they are and what they offer. They won’t accept anything less. I hope these baddies live on in the Suits Universe through our imaginations infinitely. May they all find new roles that will serve them as well.
Suits LA will always be a special series for a variety of reasons, including being the legendary John Amos’ final series. He appeared in the premiere episode and was later memorialized in “Good Times,” in tribute to the series of the same name, in which he starred in the 70s as the patriarch of the Evans family.
Here’s to Suits and what it could’ve been, if only.
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