Suits Season 6 Finale: Mike's Fate Revealed — What's Next?

[WARNING: The following story contains spoilers about Wednesday's Season 6 finale of Suits. Read at your own risk.]

Mike Ross is finally legit.

After six seasons of faking it, along with a detour to investment banking and a prison stint, Mike (Patrick J. Adams) -- with some help from Jessica (Gina Torres) (!) --- passed the bar on Wednesday's Season 6 finale of Suits. And without once setting foot in law school! (We've suspended disbelief this long, so just go with it, OK?)

"We wanted to tee up Season 7, so it was [asking] what's that next step," showrunner Aaron Korsh told TVGuide.com. "Our [midseason finales] in general seem to be more cliffhanger-y. Our [season finales] tend to be more set-up-y. It's a readjustment, so that you will hopefully know what's coming, what to expect."
Mike's now-legal legal career almost didn't happen thanks to Anita Gibbs (Leslie Hope), who still wants Mike's and Harvey's (Gabriel Macht) heads on a platter, securing a spot on the character and fitness committee and vowing never to vote Mike in. (Side note: I love how Mike and Harvey stood up at exactly the same time when Anita walked in. These two!)

Anita got on the committee because one Walter Sampson just so happened to decide to take a leave of absence and select the person who put Mike away in prison as his replacement. What are the chances?! Pretty slim actually.

Enter Jessica as a character witness for Mike. She reveals that Anita once showed mercy for a young woman who illegally obtained prescription drugs for chronic pain so she wouldn't have to drop out of med school. Anita dropped the felony charge to a misdemeanor and the young woman is now a successful doctor. Except it wasn't a woman -- it was a young man who's Walter Sampson's godson. Sneaky, sneaky, Anita. That's enough of a guilt trip for Anita to vote yay, giving us Mike Ross, attorney at law.

And because that's not enough of a victory for Harvey, he bribes Mike into staying at the firm by offering him a year's salary in advance to donate to the clinic so he can continue to do good in the world. Mike is too legit to quit (sorry, not sorry) and asks for double and Harvey's office, kicking him to Jessica's office because "she's gone" and "it's time for you to take the reins."

This is a fine note to end on -- if it were the series finale. (USA renewed it for a seventh season in August.) Korsh has always said when he initially pitched the show he never had a grand plan or vision and had been figuring it out as he went. But I've always felt Mike becoming a real lawyer would be a good -- if obvious -- ending. The show already blew up its premise, and the prison stuff was interesting, but the tension, suspense and fun that came with it are gone. Now they're just... lawyers.
Suits may be getting a spin-off focused on Jessica

One thing you can't fault Suits for is taking chances. It rolls the dice and goes with it. Suits is now basically a new show with new potentially interesting stories: What kind of "real" lawyer would Mike be? What kind of boss man would Harvey be? (He's been way too obsessed with getting Mike back to actually run the place.) Will Louis (Rick Hoffman) ever find love again? (Poor guy. Not surprising Tara [Carly Pope] didn't take him back.) I'm sure Korsh & Co. will find new corners to write themselves in, to challenge themselves to write their way out of. It's led to some great stuff, some questionable stuff and some unquestionably great stuff. But I'd also have been OK leaving that up to imagination.

Lbr, though, the show obviously couldn't end this way not just because we already knew it was coming back, but because Darvey is still up in the air. Donna (Sarah Rafferty) couldn't get the patent for The Donna because the software overlaps with another company's by more than 30 percent, but she refuses to take a buyout. "I want something more," she tearfully tells Harvey after he suggests she takes the dough. "And I've never said that out loud but I can't pretend that's not true anymore." #SUBTEXT

"More" is the thing. Donna can be more than a legal secretary, more than friends with Harvey. Harvey can be more than a name partner. Mike can be more than a convicted felon. Suits is getting at least one more season (and potentially a Jessica spin-off). Do we want more than that?
Suits will return in the summer.