Suits Finale Postmortem: What's Next for Mike and Louis?

[WARNING: The following story contains spoilers about the midseason finale of Suits. Read at your own risk.]
Where in the world is Mike's Harvard file? Not in Sheila's wall of cabinets.
On Tuesday's midseason finale of Suits, yet another person learns Mike's secret — or, at the very least, is suspicious of him. After officially asking Sheila (Rachael Harris) to be his girlfriend, Louis (Rick Hoffman) can't resist sneaking a peek into her files of the firm's staff, all of whom, of course, are supposed to be Harvard grads. He pulls Harvey's (Gabriel Macht) file, but Mike's (Patrick J. Adams) is nowhere to be found.

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Elsewhere, the Ava Hessington (Michelle Fairley) case is finally put to bed when Harvey convinces her to drop the malpractice suit — this after Ava retains Tanner (Eric Close), who targets Scottie (Abigail Spencer) with a signed affidavit from Stephen (Max Beesley) falsely stating that Scottie set up the merger to get back at Harvey and knew that Stephen was behind the murders of Ava's dissidents. Upset at having watched Scottie get deposed, Harvey asks her to stay to work at Pearson Spector afterward — and to rekindle their romance.Who else stays? Rachel (Meghan Markle), who chooses Columbia over Stanford Law. After Jessica (Gina Torres) asks her to sign an affidavit saying that she knows Mike is a fraud or else she'll fire him, Rachel gives Jessica an offer she can't refuse: She'll sign it if Jessica waives the Harvard rule so Rachel can work at the firm after she graduates.  So what's next now that Louis might know? Will all three couples live happily ever after? How will Harvey be as a name partner? Creator and executive producer Aaron Korsh answers our burning questions.You always have someone find out Mike's secret every season.
Aaron Korsh: [Laughs] That is our pattern! We did debate that in the writers' room. I said, "Are we going to do another finale where someone finds out Mike's secret?" I'm not going to answer whether Louis actually finds out Mike's secret or not — he's suspicious. He has no proof of anything. The absence of a file doesn't 100 percent mean he's a fraud.Sheila could've taken it out.
Korsh: Exactly. The problem is that he's in a box because he was told not to touch those files by the woman he loves. We've made her a nutty enough character where it's clear that if he tells her he touched them, she'd be absolutely furious. That's his conundrum. How does he pursue his suspicions without tipping off Sheila? That will be covered when we come back.Where is his head at? How suspicious is he of Mike? The fact remains there is no file.
Korsh: [Episode] 11 is him thinking it through. We have a dictaphone scene where he's wondering about it. He pursues some investigating in 11 and one or more of our characters becomes aware of it, and it's a game of cat-and-mouse to get him off the trail. That's the story of 11. ... It comes to a head, in my mind, an unexpected way. It involves more than one person and it ends up shedding light on backstory on several of our characters. I think it's a very interesting resolution between almost all of our characters.Is he hell-bent on exposing Mike? I feel like Louis is curious, but not totally vindictive.
Korsh: We discussed this a lot. We've seen so many sides of Louis. It's difficult to say how Louis would react in any situation. Sometimes he can be petty and vindictive, other times he can be sweet and forgiving. Sometimes he can be foolish and impetuous. There's no doubt in my mind that Louis has great affection for Mike Ross in spite of everything and they also have a shared love of the law. On the other hand, we've established that Louis is very loyal to this firm. He's also very loyal to Harvard and he's very loyal to the law. These things come into conflict where he might not want to be vindictive about Mike, but he doesn't want to betray Harvard, the law or the firm. It is possibly about protecting the things that he loves.Louis breaking his promise aside, you ended with three couples together. There were some nice parallels between Harvey and Scottie, and Mike and Rachel. Did you plan it that way?
Korsh: "Planned" is a strong word. When we get down to the end of seasons, we tend to be under the gun when we're writing. A lot of the plans we have beforehand get tossed out the window as we're writing. ... We came to these three relationships happening in the middle of the rewrite. ... We came to it through Mike asking Harvey for relationship advice and realizing that he doesn't have the answer. Sometimes you think your mentor in your profession has the answer to everything. Harvey doesn't. Interestingly, the Mike-Harvey scenes have more of an influence on Harvey than they do on Mike. Harvey is moved at the end to make this move with Scottie from the totality of Mike saying, "You never care about these relationships." 

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He also said he couldn't handle watching Scottie go through the deposition.
Korsh: Right. He's asked Scottie to stay at the firm. Scottie wants to hear more than, "I want to work with you." It would be crazy for Scottie to say, "No!" She's into the idea of staying and working on a relationship with Harvey. But Harvey didn't run the idea of Scottie working at the firm with Jessica. It's not a huge conflict, but it allows us to introduce the dynamic now that Harvey is a name partner and how are they going to make decisions.Is Harvey ready for a relationship?
Korsh: I don't know is the truth. What I know is he thinks he's ready. I have a friend of mine ... who over the years he hasn't gotten married yet. He thinks that he hasn't found the right woman. He says when his relationships start to experience conflict, he thinks it's not the right person. I say, "You need to learn to deal with conflict because all relationships have conflict." I think it's a huge move for Harvey to want to try. He almost went there with Zoey (Jacinda Barrett) last year. Now he's experiencing it again. The first step to having a relationship is thinking you're ready for one.How is Donna (Sarah Rafferty) going to react? She did encourage Scottie to tell Harvey she loves him last year. 
Korsh: We're still working through the back six [episodes], so I honestly am not 100 percent sure. ... She did just have a relationship. Donna was in a headspace of accepting that she and Harvey are not meant to be at this time. I just feel like, deep down, Donna may not want this, but I don't like the color of her sabotaging it. ... There's a little wistfulness in there. She also cares about Harvey. When Harvey said, "It bothers me about you and Stephen," that didn't mean he wanted to be with her. I think Donna might think, "I do want to be with you, but that doesn't mean I can't be happy for you." That's the mirror image of it. ... These things are going to evolve and I don't know what the future holds. To me, a lot of time the person we think might be the best for us because they're a caretaker, that is not necessarily the best foundation for a relationship.

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I love how Rachel approached Jessica with her offer, with Jessica sitting and Rachel standing. She one-upped her ultimatum with a good deal.
Korsh: For me, I don't really see it as a one-up. I think Jessica was like, "Don't sign it, I'll fire him." When Rachel says, "I'll sign it, but I want you to waive the Harvard rule." I think Jessica thinks it's a win-win. She gets a kick-ass lawyer coming her way that she knows is loyal to the firm and is awesome. She has Rachel from ever outing Mike.Why didn't Jessica think of it? Would she have offered that had she thought of it first?
Korsh: She definitely wasn't expecting it. I think she was like, "Wow, this is pretty awesome." I think she was just impressed. I think had she thought of it herself, she would've done it.Are Mike and Rachel going to move in together?
Korsh: Probably. [Laughs] Their relationship takes a step forward in 11. We have stories involving them throughout the last six, but they won't really be the focus. ... She certainly plays a role in all the things going on, particularly the Louis situation.What's your plan for the season finale?
Korsh: We're working on 13 now. We have some ideas, but we haven't landed specific yet. In general, we don't have as much of a unifying case arc in these back six, but as always, there will be consequences to people's actions.What did you think of the Suits finale?