After five seasons of nearly everyone at Pearson Specter Litt doing at least one shady thing to protect Mike Ross’ (Patrick J. Adams) secret on Suits, it finally came out: He was charged with fraud for practicing law without a license (or even a completed undergraduate degree, for that matter). He defended himself — and was even going to get a “not guilty” verdict from the jury — but when the ADA threatened to go after his friends and co-worker following closing arguments, Mike decided to take a plea deal. 

When Season 5 ended, the now-outed fake lawyer was headed for two years in prison and his former law firm was headed for trouble as well. Given all the legal trouble with Mike, Robert Zane (Wendell Pierce) decided to go after the firm for not protecting his daughter and poached every lawyer in the place. When Season 6 begins, all who remain are the three with their names on the door.

So, things are looking bleak for these characters. Here, we go over the highlights and lowlights of Suits’ Season 6. Will the firm survive with only the top trio that never seems to get along? Will Mike survive in prison? Can he be on a show called Suits without being able to wear a suit? Let’s find out.

How long is Mike in prison?

Season 6 picks up right where Season 5 ends: Mike is being escorted to prison to serve his two years. Things don’t seem so bad at first: He gets along with his roommate, Frank (Paul Schulze), and opens up to him about all the firm’s dirty secrets. Then, he finds out it’s not actually his roommate — it’s someone Harvey Specter (Gabriel Macht) helped put away for 15 years and he wants revenge. 

When Frank threatens his fiancée, Rachel Zane (Meghan Markle), Mike starts a fight and loses visitation privileges. Harvey visits as his lawyer and, after learning what’s happened, tries to threaten Frank. That only makes matters worse for Mike, though, and he nearly gets stabbed. Luckily, Mike’s actual roommate Kevin Miller (Erik Palladino) steps in and helps — but poor Kevin is rewarded for his help by getting stabbed by Frank later.

Harvey employs the help of Sean Cahill (Neal McDonough), a prosecutor for the SEC who once went after their firm. Harvey wants Cahill to get Frank transferred out, but it turns out that Frank is a federal informant. Cahill has a different plan: Mike can get out early if he informs on his roommate Kevin. 

Things get complicated when Harvey ends up representing Kevin’s father-in-law William Sutter (Alan Rosenberg) and Sean suspends his trading license. Then, Harvey makes things even worse by talking to Kevin in prison and telling him not to trust anyone. This makes him immediately suspicious of Mike, but Mike is able to win back his trust and finds out that he’s in prison for drunk driving.

The full story is: Kevin found out Sutter was making money through insider trading and that his wife knew about it. When Kevin was arrested for drunk driving, he was offered a deal to turn on his wife, but he turned it down so that she wouldn’t serve time. Kevin’s wife doesn’t want to flip on her father, but Harvey does what he does best — being sneaky — and gets her to see how shady her dad is so that she’ll go through with it. 

After nine full episodes, Mike is released from prison and reunited with Rachel… and Harvey.

What else happens in Suits Season 6?

Back at the firm, there’s barely any time for them to worry about all their lawyers leaving at the end of Season 5 because Jessica Pearson (Gina Torres) is hit with a $100 million class action lawsuit. Pearson Specter Litt is being sued for every case Mike ever tried. Jessica must work with her other named partners Harvey and Louis Litt (Rick Hoffman) to find a way out of the situation. The bad news: getting these two to work together rarely works. The good news is that Donna Paulsen (Sarah Rafferty) and Rachel are there to help — and like Jessica, they know how to get things done.

Jessica convinces Robert to help buy out a former partner’s buy-in so they can use it to settle the case. Harvey tries to land a big new client so they can keep the doors open. Louis and Donna find someone to sublet so they can keep paying rent. And Rachel keeps herself busy at Columbia Law School and working on the Innocence Project while her fiancé is in prison. 

As things settle down a bit, Jessica begins to help Rachel with a case that the Innocence Project turns down. They help their client get exonerated and it reminds Jessica that she wants to help people again. So she makes a big decision to leave the firm and New York. She decides to move to Chicago with her former boyfriend Jeff (and get her own one-season spin-off, Pearson). 

Once Mike is out of prison, job opportunities are few and far between. Harvey is determined to find a way for him to become a lawyer (for real this time), but Mike isn’t interested. Instead, he gets a job supervising lawyers and law students at a legal clinic. But, when he sees the clinic lawyers bombing on the stand and not being able to help the people who really need it, he takes Harvey up on his offer.  

It takes some wheeling and dealing, but Harvey is able to get Mike an appointment to sit for the bar. Returning from Chicago for one more episode, Jessica serves as a character witness and convinces the panel to approve his application. He’s going to be a lawyer. 

At least until next season. Because with as many shenanigans as these lawyers get into, you just never know who’ll be disbarred or imprisoned next.

Which guest stars appear in Suits Season 6?

• Malcolm-Jamal Warner as Julius Rowe, Mike’s prison counselor
• John Pyper-Ferguson as Jack Soloff, a lawyer originally with Pearson Specter Litt, then with Rand, Kaldor & Zane
• Glenn Plummer as Leonard Bailey, a man convinced of murder who Jessica and Rachel helped exonerate
• Carly Pope as Tara Messer, Louis’ fiancé
• D.B. Woodside as Jeff Malone, Jessica’s boyfriend
• Gary Cole as Cameron Dennis, Manhattan District Attorney and Harvey’s former mentor
• Scott Michael Campbell as Father Sam Walker, Mike’s former priest and high school teacher

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