Patrick J. Adams Previews Mike's Return on Suits, Rachel Future & More

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The last few episodes of Suits Season 4 have been tough for Mike Ross.

However, things are starting to look up now that he's back where he belongs at Pearson Specter. That said, there are still tough times ahead; such as how Mike is going to deal with Rachel, who told him the truth about sharing a kiss with Logan and may have lost her man forever. 

I jumped on the phone with Patrick J. Adams yesterday to talk his on-screen alter-ego, if there's hope for Mike and Rachel, whether we might see Mike back on his bike anytime soon - and what we all can do to make sure he gets another guest spot on Orphan Black opposite Tatiana Maslany...

After a Breakup

TV Fanatic:  I personally have enjoyed where the show has gone this season with everyone’s stories. How you’re feeling about Season 4 so far?

Patrick J. Adams: I really appreciate that. It’s been a mixed bag. I think the fans that don’t like to see things change too much, aren’t crazy about it but I think what I’ve really learned about television is when people are getting upset about what characters are doing, that’s actually a good thing, not a bad thing. I think it’s been the most fun to play and it’s been the most difficult version of Mike and he’s really making some pretty terrible choices and not always succeeding.

TVF: So Mike is now back at the firm but is everybody happy that he’s back?

PJA: I think most people are going to be happy. The audience is definitely going to be happy that he’s back. I think Mike is happy that he’s back although it’s obviously a difficult thing to be walking around the office seeing Rachel and trying to balance the drama of that but Jessica, I think, is definitely not too pleased that Mike is back and he’s going to have a very uphill battle trying to win her over again.

It’s quickly becoming one of the more interesting relationships on the show for me to play. The firm is everything to her and she’s got this person in the midst that she can’t seem to shake and who is putting everything at risk, everything she’s worked for. I think whenever I play scenes with her I have some of the most fun just because it’s such a charged relationship.

Harvey's, obviously, really happy he’s back, and Louis, being the person who got the job for him, I think, to some degree is happy although he is going to start to deal with some of the ramifications of what he’s done with Forstman and how he went about doing what he did. So, it’s a mixed bag, but as always, there are themes that come to a head in the firm where everybody has to circle up and be on the same team, otherwise they’re all at risk.

TVF: Mike’s gone through a lot just being at the investment firm so will we see that he’s different now that he’s back at Pearson Specter?

PJA: Mike’s great to play because he’s always learning, right? He’s maturing through the whole process. He’s already so different than what he was in minute one of the series and I think that this experience of going out and trying to do something, it wasn’t that doing it was hard but he just wanted to succeed at it and sort of put on a skin of the die-hard, competitive, win-at-all-costs personality that he thought that he was supposed to do and that Harvey had, in some ways, taught him to do.

I think he realized a lot going through that process and realized that, even though Pearson Specter was a dangerous place for him to be, it was, essentially, where he was supposed to be, and I think he comes back to it with a renewed sense of purpose. And I think that he’s no longer the little boy that he once was.

He’s proved to Harvey that he can really go toe-to-toe with him. So, I think that dynamic is going to change and that’s going to mature and you’re going to see that Harvey and Mike, while not equals, of course, but Mike is climbing the ladder quickly and is capable of really doing the work on his own and coming up with really good ideas and fixing problems that not even Jessica and Harvey really considered were fixable.

TVF: Is there hope for Mike and Rachel or is it going to be a slow burn for them to get back to a good place if they even can?

PJA: Well, I don’t think we’re rushing it, which I like. There’s been a betrayal to some degree and it wasn’t just that she betrayed him. You know Mike. He’s all about trust. He’s all about being forward and I think that Logan really represented not just a threat because of his history with Rachel, but Logan is, in a lot of ways, everything Mike wishes he could’ve been.

Come from money, had all the opportunities. He’s very confident. He’s a pretty good-looking guy. He can do whatever he wants and do it well, and I think that the fact that he expressed to Rachel early on, this guy’s a threat to me, and I'm really worried about your past with him, and she said that it’s not real and then this happened.

I think Mike just suddenly felt the one person that he thought he could trust, that’s not something that’s just easily brought back in a couple of scenes. So you're going to see him struggling with that, and they both, obviously, really love each other and care for each other and that creates a little bit of conflict but they also are in the same office.

They have to work together but it’s never just as easy as realizing that, as many of us in the real world have come to know, there are some obstacles there. So, we’re not shying away from that but in the next episode we deal with that. We deal with what it’s like to have been betrayed and to have to come face to face with that person on a human basis.

TVF: It’s made sense since Mike has really grown up in these last four seasons, but do you miss him just riding around on his bike? I kind of miss him on the bike.

PJA: It’s fun that you bring up bike. I do miss the bike. There are a couple things that I do miss from old Mike and the bike is one of them. I think it’s always something I'm looking to try and figure out…I think a little bit of the silliness and a little bit of the cockiness and the stuff that was so playful about Mike, now that he’s really found his place, I'm excited to try and bring that back a little more and have that. Just bring back the playfulness that people really fell in love with character and the show and to do it in a way that does justice to his maturity and who he’s become now. The bike specifically in all those scenes was just so fun. We don’t go smoking pot anymore either.

TVF: I know. He can smoke a doobie once in a while I think.

PJA: Yeah, why not?

TVF: I think so. Jessica could use a doobie.

PJA: You should write an article about getting Mike back on his bike while he’s smoking a doobie. [laughs]

TVF: How would you describe the rest of these episodes that we’re going to see?

PJA: I think the show is ramping up to a really epic conclusion and I think it’s been driving towards something like this for a while and, without revealing too much, I think it’s another one of those moments in Suits where we flip the switch and it’s one of those moments where nothing can ever quite be the same. I think that the writers didn’t shy away from that.

Like I said before, there’s the moments that come along where, all of a sudden, all of the little disagreements and the things that have been stewing in this group of people for a long time, they all come to a head, and it’s either everybody get on the same team, or everybody starts fighting each other, and you're going to see a big one of those moments in these final last episodes.

It’s one of the first times in a while where I think the whole cast, when we finished that table read...after four years, you do the table read, and you’re just saying, ‘okay, we’re good. We know this episode.’ When we got to the end of [episode] 10, there was a long silence and then everybody just started applauding the writing of that episode. We’re really excited to see how it turns out and we’re specifically really excited to see what comes in these last six episodes. So I don’t think the audience is going to be disappointed at all.

TVF: What are the chances we might see you on season three of Orphan Black? Because it was so fun to see you in that episode, and I know both shows do shoot in Toronto.

PJA: I had a blast working on it and as I got that job basically by manipulating the media and social media as much as possible, I would say that lies in your hands, squarely in your hands, and you start a Twitter campaign and get people moving because nothing would make me happier than to jump back into the ring with Tatiana. She’s, obviously, an incredible force to be reckoned with and it’s actors like that that I dream to work with. So, if they had me back, I’d be there in a second.

TVF: I’ll make some noise, see what we can do.

PJA: All right. Rattle the cages.

Suits airs Wednesdays at 9/8c on USA. 

Jim Halterman is the West Coast Editor of TV Fanatic and the owner of JimHalterman.com. Follow him on Twitter.

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Suits Season 4 Episode 8 Quotes

I lied.

Donna
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I want to run to him and hold him and tell him I love him.

Rachel