Postmortem: Suits Boss Explains That "Major Turning Point" and Why It Had to Happen

[WARNING: The following story contains spoilers about the midseason finale of Suits. Read at your own risk.]

"Michael James Ross, you're under arrest for conspiracy to commit fraud."

Five seasons into Suits, Mike (Patrick J. Adams) was finally caught on Wednesday's midseason finale. The rub? After having a come-to-Jesus moment (no pun intended) with his childhood priest/teacher Father Walker (Scott Michael Campbell), he decided to leave his fake lawyering life behind to start anew with Rachel (Meghan Markle) and had just packed up his desk, faux diploma and all.

Fall TV: Scoop on all your favorite returning shows

But he wasn't the only one leaving Pearson Specter Litt. Forced to confront his own issues with his father and mother by Dr. Agard (Christina Cole), Harvey (Gabriel Macht) took one for the team -- or specifically Jessica (Gina Torres) -- and stepped down just before the vote to remove Jessica as managing partner. As a result, Forstman (Eric Roberts) withdrew his backing for Hardman (David Costabile) and Soloff (John Pyper-Ferguson), and their takeover is kaput... for now.

So is Mike totally screwed? Who turned him in? Will Harvey return to the firm? Executive producer Aaron Korsh answers our burning questions.

Did you know you wanted to end the midseason finale with Mike's arrest?
Aaron Korsh: We actually for a change did know that. We didn't know if it was gonna happen in Episode 16 or Episode 10. I think it might've happened at the end of last year that we thought, "Let's just do it. It's time." At some point, you either shake up the show or you keep doing the same old stuff, which is our philosophy the whole time, but this is the real thing that's been out there since the beginning. It had to happen now and we figured let's give it a shot.

It felt inevitable because of how long the show's gone on and ever since he made junior partner this season. That set him up to be exposed more. Was that part of the plan?
Korsh: I would say yes. I'm pretty sure that was not in the works at the beginning of the year. I think the writers just came up with that and I thought it was brilliant. First of all, it allows him to make junior partner before he gets arrested, which is nice, but it also allows that to possibly be the reason he gets arrested. I thought it was a great idea, but that was not there in the beginning.

The big question is: Who outed him?
Korsh: Yes, it is. [Laughs] Well, this is the funny thing. That question almost didn't occur to me. I was more thinking about it like, if it were the character, I would be thinking, "What am I gonna do? How am I gonna get out of this?" But that was definitely the first thing that occurred to the writers and it seems to be the first thing for people who find this out. Our editor said, "Who is it?" For the back six [episodes], the writers were very much wanting the other characters' top priority to find out who did this. I thought, "Don't we have other things they need to do before this?" We ended up doing both. They do try to find out who it was, but they do other things. Ultimately, we do find out who it was. I asked our editor who he thought it was and he was surprised when I told him. I don't know if everybody will be. But there's a long list of people who knew and there are certainly plenty of other people who could've found out and handed him in even though we've never seen them know.

Rachel's mom could be looking into it after the guest list fiasco last week.
Korsh: Exactly. Or Rachel's father for all we know. They could've been doing this to protect their child.

Add new fall shows to your Watchlist now

Was it hard for you to decide who it would be?
Korsh: The writers came up with a different answer than I did. I had a philosophy that I won't 100 percent get into now because I don't want to give it away. It could've been someone we know knew. They could've had the "this is the right thing to do" approach... or took the vindictive approach. If it were Hardman, that would obviously be vindictive. If it were Logan Sanders, that would be vindictive. If it were someone like Claire, it could be, "I know I said I wouldn't do this, but this is the right thing to do." Or it could be Trevor. ... But as I said, there's a long list of people it could've been, and we came up with one. Since we haven't written that episode yet, I have been known to change my mind. [Laughs]

The other big development was Harvey stepping down to save Jessica. I liked the parallel between him and Mike both sacrificing their jobs for their "families." How is Harvey going to react to this? Is he going to be arrested since he hired him?
Korsh: I like the thought that they're both doing this for their family. There were so many themes running in the last episode. There were a lot of faith things, believing that things will be OK. The last six [episodes] are really gonna be about the fallout or blowback of this event happening and Mike getting arrested. This is a major turning point. Certainly Harvey quit, but Mike getting arrested affects the trajectory of what he was going to do. Does he try to come back? Everything is going to be affected by this thing that no one saw coming. We will find out what will happen to all six of them.

Harvey can find his way back to the firm, but have you figured out what Mike will do if he gets through this? Is this good for him?
Korsh: He probably isn't going to think so. One of the things I was thinking about was Trevor basically tells him that what he is doing is eating away at his peace of mind. When you are doing something and you are always worried you are going to get caught, it's always hanging over your head. Ironically, once you get caught, that thing isn't hanging over your head anymore. You're going to have to get through the other side of that before you can probably feel that it's a good thing. It's possible that Mike can feel in an X amount of time that it was a good thing.

I'm assuming we haven't seen the last of Hardman and Soloff.
Korsh: We have not exactly. I'm trying in the back six to stay away from the firm battles. There has to be some fallout to Mike getting arrested. We're trying for that not to be the main focus of the back six. We've done a lot of that and it can be fatiguing. We're trying to focus on the different battles, but we have not seen the last of them as a contingent. We have not finished yet. The idea is to have the fallout to last through the back six.

Is the wedding postponed?
Korsh: That's a good question. They're certainly not gonna have it in the same form. We are working on that. That's a good one. I can't spoil it because I don't know the answer!

What did you think of the Suits midseason finale?