‘Suits LA’ Episode 4 Recap – A Familiar Face from the Past Still Doesn’t Help Much

To be fair to Suits LA, it hasn’t exactly flaunted its spin-off status. This is either for better or worse, depending on what you’re looking for, but it’s pretty hard to argue that Episode 4, “Batman Returns”, is the outing most obviously coasting on the association. The big selling point is Gabriel Macht’s return as Harvey Specter in Ted’s flashback sequences, but it has little use to the narrative of either timeline. And the self-aggrandizing title doesn’t help to dispel the notion that we’re reaching for low-hanging fruit.

To be fair, “Batman Returns” does feature the most forward momentum in Lester’s murder case and gives Amanda something meaningful to do, so it’s swings and roundabouts to a certain extent. But Stuart and Rick also find themselves working with another guest-starring celebrity client, which I didn’t love in the previous episode and aren’t keen on here either.

Harvey Specter’s Cameo

We might as well talk about it since it’s the talking point of the episode, but it’s worth pointing out that Harvey’s presence in the past timeline doesn’t add a great deal. He magically appears as a voice of reason for Ted as his shortstop at an amateur baseball game, while Ted is worrying about Eddie and Samantha’s safety after being not-so-subtly threatened by Pellegrini.

Through Harvey’s connections in the DA’s office, Ted learns that there’s a mole working for Pellegrini in his office, but Pellegrini’s hands are, essentially, tied. Because Ted is a braggart, there’s a ton of publicity swirling around the trial, so if he or his family mysteriously turn up dead, it won’t be much of a mystery who was responsible.

Since we know that part of the past timeline is going to explain Eddie’s untimely demise, this isn’t exactly reassuring. Eddie is in this episode, by the way, drinking high-end whiskey with Ted and Harvey, but I don’t mind his presence when he’s not in ghost form, so it’s whatever.

Lester Trial Is Happening Sooner Rather Than Later

In the present day, Lester is having another crisis. Given his reputation being badly damaged by the murder accusation, the studio is trying to remove his name from the passion project he has been working on – the only thing he has done in his career that he’s earnestly proud of, artistically speaking. To prevent this, Ted plans to move the trial forward so that he can clear Lester’s name before the movie’s release.

Stephen Amell and Gabriel Macht in Suits LA | Image via NBC

This creates conflict with both the studio and the prosecution in the murder trial. Elizabeth tries to halt things by pretending to have a witness she needs to vet, but it’s Amanda to the rescue. She points out that Elizabeth has done this multiple times in the past without any witnesses ever emerging at the end of the process, and the judge is inclined to agree. The trial is moved forward.

This is a win for Ted and Amanda… but is it? Pushing everything forward gives Ted a lot less time to prepare, and if there’s something he has overlooked, it’ll come back to bite him during the trial. But we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.

The Full Package

Suits LA Episode 4 gives Stuart and Rick the honor of working with the celebrity guest star this week, which is an interesting decision since it’s clearly allowing us to get to know and like them on their own terms rather than just considering them “villains” because of their opposition to Ted. But the show’s Hollywood adjacency still feels like a bit of a crutch, and the cameo stories feel a bit too lightweight and inconsequential for my tastes.

In “Batman Returns”, it’s Enrico Colantoni who is on the hook for carving a phallus in his neighbour’s petunias, a petty get-back after his TikTok-famous – how depressing that’s a thing – neighbour humiliated him with a prank call. It’s pointless from top to bottom beyond the obvious advantages of showing a slightly different side to Rick and Stuart, developing their working relationship.

And perhaps this is the point. Suits LA is built around its characters being in open opposition to each other, but it’s also determinedly reiterating that they’re not bad people and still mostly like each other – they’re just on different teams. I think we can expect those allegiances to shift as things progress and (hopefully) become a little more serious, but we’ll have to wait and see in that regard. Either way, though, it’s hard to imagine that weekly B-tier celeb cameos and the occasional familiar face from Suits lore are going to be enough to really set this show apart.