Summary
Episode 1 of Suits LA is undeniably overstuffed, and a lot of its revealed would have worked better further down the line, but NBC’s spin-off is also oddly and immediately compelling.
The premiere of Suits LA is like someone dared NBC to cram every character and subplot they plan to use in Season 1 into a single episode. It’s a mess. But that, for once, isn’t much of a criticism. Even amid all the chaos – betrayals, big personal decisions, and an unexpected twist that would have played better several weeks down the line – there’s something instantly engaging about “Seven Days a Week and Twice on Sundays”.
Maybe it’s the characters. Ted Black isn’t Harvey Specter, I’ll grant you, but he’s someone with a bit of edge and depth. He’s compelling in a way that’s similar but also slightly, crucially different, and you can say the same about Stuart Lane, Erica, and Rick, all of whom are analogues for Suits characters but reveal slightly more interesting quirks and foibles throughout Episode 1.
You can’t argue that a lot of what happened here wouldn’t have worked better in later episodes, to pay off more audience investment. But if all this is happening already, maybe that’s a good thing. Maybe there’s a great deal more to come in good time. We’ll have to wait and see.
In the meantime, let’s try and break all this down somewhat. I’ll keep it brief.
Past Is Prologue
Episode 1 of Suits LA kicks off in the past, which is annoying since it doesn’t remain there and isn’t especially clear about how those events are going to matter in the present day. It’s likely we’ll dip in and out of the past to explore more of Ted’s backstory in subsequent episodes.
But the basic takeaways are as follows. Ted convinces a guy named Billy to testify against a mob boss, mostly by strongarming him with a threat to put his daughter in jail, and then Billy’s house blows up. He dies, but Ted convinces a doctor to pretend he’s alive until closer to his planned testimony.
The flashbacks also introduce Ted’s frosty relationship with his father and his profound dislike of criminal defence, which seems to stem from that. It’s important for us to understand this since Ted’s father being on his deathbed forms an important part of his present-day arc, and the fact he is willing to abandon his principles to defend a potential murderer also turns out to be the hinge for a crucial plot point.
The Murder Case
There’s going to be a murder case in the background of Season 1, and in a convoluted series of developments, Ted becomes the defence attorney working to prove that his client, Lester, is innocent. Even though he might not be.
Lester’s case is how we meet Ted’s partner, Stuart Lane, who is apparently the best defence lawyer in the country but crucially doesn’t believe that Lester is innocent, pushing him to claim self-defence for a better chance of an acquittal. When Ted later convinces Lester to drop Stuart in favour of him, he reiterates that he does believe him, though it’s not totally clear whether he means that or is just saying what he needs to say to secure the client.
But why would Ted be stealing Stuart’s client? Well…
Stephen Amell in Suits LA | Image via NBC
The Battle Lines Are Drawn
When we’re introduced to Black Lane Law in Suits LA Episode 1, it’s on the cusp of a lucrative merger with the firm run by Ted’s ex, Samantha. As it turns out, though, Stuart has schemed to cut Ted out of that merger on the back of a disparaging comment he apparently made years ago and has taken almost all of Ted’s staff and clients with him.
This is why Ted headhunts Lester. But him violating his personal principles to defend someone accused of murder is off-putting to his right-hand-man and Mike-like colleague Rick, who was gunning for a promotion to the firm’s Head of Entertainment alongside another lawyer, Erica. Since Erica is more adversarial, the premiere plays with the idea that she’ll be the one to knife Ted in the back, but when her chagrined assistant Leah rats her out to Ted for secretly working with Stuart, she reveals it was all a ploy to test Leah’s character. She never took Stuart’s offer – but Rick did.
This positions Erica as one of Ted’s only remaining allies – she briefly explains that her loyalty to him stems from him defending her when Stuart suggested they should only give her diverse clients – and she takes advantage of that by angling for a promotion to not just Head of Entertainment but also partner. She also keeps Leah around. Now that Erica is taking on all Ted’s cases while he fights Lester’s corner, she’ll be getting more to do, which is all she wanted in the first place.
Daddy Issues
Another point of contention for Rick turns out to be John Amos, who is playing himself. He’s one of Black Lane’s longest clients but is aging out of the business and has fallen down the pecking order. He wants Ted to get him an audition – even though that technically isn’t his job – and Rick thinks Ted should be more forthcoming with his help.
But the point of John Amos is to remind Ted of the mistakes he made with Rick, mentoring him as a father figure when he can’t even address his issues with his own father before he passes away. It’s clear that his father’s imminent death has sent Ted spiralling, but the precise nature of their relationship remains mysterious.
What we learn when Ted finally goes to see his father on his deathbed is that whatever happened involved his brother, Eddie. We see Eddie a few times throughout the episode, and it seems like Ted lives with him. But in a later flashback which depicts Ted as a kid and Eddie as a 17-year-old, he looks no different. This is the first clue that something’s amiss.
While Ted’s berating his dying father, he claims that he let Eddie die, ostensibly to protect Ted. But it’s something that Ted evidently never got over and will never be able to forgive his father for, since he leaves telling his dad that he’s going to die alone.
But this is the big twist of the Suits LA premiere. Eddie has been dead for decades – Ted just takes comfort in imagining his presence.
