Suits Postmortem: What's Louis' Next Move?

[WARNING: The following story contains spoilers about Thursday's episode ofSuits. Read at your own risk.]
That's what friends are for.
On Thursday's Suits, Louis (Rick Hoffman) decided not to bring down Mike (Patrick J. Adams) —  for now, at least — after Harvey (Gabriel Macht) comes to the rescue again. 

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After noticing last week that Mike earned an A+ from Harvard professor Henry Gerard (Stephen Macht), who famously never hands them out, Louis invites Gerard to the firm, ostensibly for a lecture, to corroborate the grade. Mike "admits" to Louis that he changed the grade on Gerard's computer, but Louis still won't relent, which prompts Harvey to try to blackmail Gerard to stop him from coming. When Gerard doesn't bite, Mike says he'll resign and confess to Louis, and begs Harvey not to go with him. Instead, Harvey goes to Louis and reminds him of the time Louis covered for him after Harvey blew off proofreading a huge case for Hardman — and he drops the F-word. "You didn't sell out a friend, but you're about to now," he says. "Louis, I may not ever say it, but that's not because we aren't. We are. You know it. I know it. I just don't like to say it.""A friend would not ask me to do this," Louis says."A friend just won't hold it against you if you don't," Harvey replies.In the end, Louis decides to be a friend. Just as Mike is about to confess to him and Gerard, Louis chews him out for not doing his work and disinvites him to Gerard's lecture. But has Louis really let it all go? (No, duh.) Does Harvey actually consider him a friend? Executive producer Aaron Korsh answers our burning questions.It's safe to say Louis has not dropped this completely.Aaron Korsh: It's always a possibility Louis is going to find out. As long as we can leave that hanging out there, I think the better. It's never over over for him. I would believe that when it's resolved, Louis is still suspicious, but things can come up. Right now, Louis feels like he has let Mike off the hook not knowing the full story. Because we successfully fooled Louis into thinking Mike cheated, if Louis found out that Mike was a fake lawyer, it would take a lot to get him to not expose that to authorities. We've established that Louis loves the law. On the other hand, Louis is an interesting character. He loves the law, but he's not always ethical himself. It's like he invokes the law when it's suitable for him.Will this come to a close by the end of the season? Is he going to find out?
Korsh: I wouldn't say completely. This causes Mike and Harvey to question whether it was right for Mike to be a fraud and for Harvey to let him be a fraud. They're going to discuss all the ways of ending Mike's existence at the firm. Louis won't be as active as he was the first two episodes because he has, in a sense, let it go, but they all have to deal with Louis being on their scent. None of them are naive to think that Louis has dropped it completely. In a way, Louis letting it go makes it more nerve-wracking because you don't know what he's actually up to. With Gerard, you knew what he was doing.

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Now they're just building lies upon lies. Is there concern from anyone that it will all crumble eventually?
Korsh: Definitely. The idea that it could all come crashing down, it's going to take such a toll on you from trying to keep it from coming down. The consumption of this thing can eat you up. Is someone going to crack if they get stressed? It never fully goes away. It will build to a crescendo at the end of the finale. I always say, if something happens with a cliff-hanger, you may or may not like the way we handle it, but we'll handle it. Louis' discovery affects people how they're going to deal with Louis and each other. Rachel may not have the same faith in people's abilities to handle things as Donna does. It creates friction.Mike didn't want Harvey to confess with him because he didn't want to screw over a friend, and Harvey pulls the friendship card on Louis, who's always wanted to be Harvey's friend. Did Harvey actually mean what he said or was he just saying it to save Mike?
Korsh: I think he did. One of the things that happens on Suits is we come to things in the writing of the episodes. That just emerged with this whole friendship thing. The theme of friendship as opposed to non-friendship comes up. Louis has always wanted to be Harvey's friend. We continue it. It's like real life when you have an interaction with someone you care about. That interaction is going to inform your next interaction. If someone did you a favor, you're not going to forget they did you a favor. There was a conscious effort not to have them at each other's throats. There's another thing happens later on — it's personal and it causes everyone to express how much they care about that character. I think that's what happens in life. Your coworker can experience loss or illness. They're going through a hardship in their life and you say, "I care about you." How serious is this incident?
Korsh: It's a serious event. I don't think it's grave. It's the equivalent of if you were almost in a car accident and you're OK, but what if you weren't? That happens to one person.Gerard has to come back, right? There's obviously more to that blackmail story.
Krosh: There's something there with the blackmail. What we try to do with Suits is create a rhythm that comes back where you see where you can re-emerge conflict. Real life works like that. ... We would love to have Stephen back and Gerard can definitely come back. He and Gabriel were so great together. It was so much fun watching them film that scene.It's also fun to see Harvey so happy and smitten with Scottie (Abigail Spencer) in this honeymoon phase.
Korsh: Right? They're not going to be happy all episode long every episode, but it is refreshing. Her presence was a good way to see another side of Harvey, and it affects Jessica (Gina Torres) and Louis. It's obviously going to affect Donna and this examination of Mike's secret. Is Harvey going to tell her? How is the struggle of whether or not she will find out going to affect them? Their relationship is tested. And the thing is, Harvey really does want it to work and he's trying, but can he handle it?Donna (Sarah Rafferty) seems very supportive of it so far.
Korsh: Donna is the emotional glue of the firm. Regardless of what we think her feelings toward Harvey are, if she were to try to undermine his relationship, he'd know it and wouldn't like it and he'd hold it against her. Donna tries to help him navigate his relationship. She is always trying to help him be a better person. She's impacted by them dating, obviously. She has some really great moments in these final episodes. I really love her in the last six.

You didn't break up Mike and Rachel (Meghan Markle) in the midseason finale like you had originally planned. Will you break them up in the finale?
Korsh: [Laughs] As far as Mike and Rachel, they're two steps forward and one step back. Moving forward, I don't know when they're going to break up. Me as a fan, I don't ever want them to break up, but as a writer, I think the jeopardy is interesting. I want them to end up together as a fan, but I don't know if they will.
How will her going to law school next season impact them?
Korsh: She steps up and starts entering this world. I want them to have some strife and I think they will. She'll be in school and have less time for Mike. Will they break up? I don't know. At some point, something's got to give in a relationship with two people in such intense jobs and places in their lives like that. 

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Why did you shoot two finale endings?
Korsh: At the end of the season, we're always behind the eight ball. We're writing the finale under the gun. We had an idea. We didn't have emotional room for it and we thought, "Should we tease it?" We shot a teaser ending and we thought we'll make a decision later. I would say I'm 95 percent sure whether or not it will be included. ... They're about different things.If you don't include it, will we see it in the Season 4 premiere?
Korsh: I think if we don't include, we won't put it in Season 4. The scene is like, "Whoa! This is happening?" It's akin to Trevor coming in in Season 1. What do you have planned for Season 4 so far?
Korsh: We are going to have a little time lapse, probably several months. We are going to jump into the middle of something, as opposed to picking it up the next day like we usually do. That gives us the option to flash back and fill in the blanks.Suits airs Thursdays at 9/8c on USA.