‘Suits’ Boss Reveals Six Teases for Flashback Episode

Suits‘ flashback episode is finally here.

Flashing back 10 years earlier, to a much simpler time, when Harvey Specter (Gabriel Macht) worked in District Attorney Cameron Dennis’ (Gary Cole) office alongside secretary Donna (Sarah Rafferty), the anticipated hour comes at a crucial time for the law firm soon to be known as Pearson Darby Specter.

For creator-showrunner Aaron Korsh, placing the episode at the midpoint of the first half of season three was a calculated choice, filling in the blanks for events that were alluded to in seasons past, ultimately laying groundwork for what’s to come. “It was an opportunity to address how [Harvey] left Cameron to go to Jessica and the story between Harvey and Donna,” Korsh tells The Hollywood Reporter. “It was an opportunity to answer everything in one fell swoop.”

STORY: ‘Suits’: Sarah Rafferty on Harvey/Donna’s Complicated Past and Revealing Flashbacks

THR offers six things to expect in the flashback episode:

1. Harvey’s jealousy starts to surface

Is Harvey jealous of Donna and Stephen’s blossoming romance? That question is addressed in Tuesday’s flashback episode, appropriately titled “The Other Time” — complicating matters even more between Harvey, Donna and Stephen. “Harvey is in a situation right now [where] Donna’s in a relationship with someone [Stephen Huntley], and it is bothering him, which he hasn’t admitted to yet,” Korsh tells THR.

2. Harvey and Donna’s “other time”

“With the Donna thing, we definitely wanted to answer [that mystery],” Korsh says. “What came out of it was us answering what happened that ‘other time.’ That was more of a revelation, not the end goal.”

STORY: ‘Suits’ Boss Previews Mike/Harvey Tension, Merger Aftermath and Season 3 Secrets

3. The parallels of Mike’s and Rachel’s law school dreams

“We wanted to shed light on Mike’s past. We looked back and said, ‘What story do we want to tell?’ ” Korsh says. “In the pilot, we allude to the story of him in college getting kicked out, and we thought that would be a great story to tell. We wanted it to have relevance in the current day, and it just happened to come just at the time when Rachel is deciding where she wants to go to law school. He’s remembering back on his college dreams being taken away from him. Does he want to take away her law school dream in the same way that his was taken away from him?”

4. Hello, Bertha

The character was introduced last year, but Big Bertha finally makes a cameo in the flashback set a decade ago. “We referred to her. She existed. Let’s just meet her!” Korsh says of the decision behind incorporating Harvey and Donna’s former D.A. office colleague for some added levity. “We tried to look for as many moments of fun stuff in the flashback episodes as we could.”

5. Spot the showrunner!

After making a cameo in a season-two episode, Korsh makes an appearance in the flashback episode — but there’s a twist: You won’t actually see him. “When Louis gets in the elevator in the end [of the episode] and somebody says, ‘All the way to the top, asshole,’ ” Korsh says, “that’s me.” Korsh’s voice was a late addition to the mix. After discovering that Rick Hoffman ad-libbed his line, Korsh decided it was only appropriate to have someone respond.

6. Subtler hair changes

Don’t expect drastic differences in hairstyle for the characters, which Korsh admits was a “conscious” decision. “I felt like in last year’s flashback episode we went too far,” he concedes. “It was difficult because last year’s was a five-year flashback, and I felt like we changed things too much — not just hair, but everything in general. I don’t think people change that much in five years especially when they’re around the ages that our people were. I was concerned that if they went that far five years ago, what were they going to do 10 years ago. I didn’t want shaved heads, so I might’ve given a [mandate] to minimize that stuff, and maybe we overcorrected.”

Suits airs Tuesdays at 10 p.m. on USA Network. Check back on The Live Feed following the East Coast airing for a postmortem with Korsh.

E-mail: Philiana.Ng@THR.com
Twitter: @insidethetube