'Suits' recap: With Friends Like These...

You remember how last week, Harvey strong-armed Jessica into keeping Mike by saying she was going to need both of them in the coming battle against the returning Daniel Hardman? Well, Jessica assigns Harvey his first project in drumming up support for her side. While Hardman courts the employees with extravagant perks, Jessica asks Harvey to make nice with the head of the bankruptcy department, Paul Porter. Harvey offers to help Paul "close" a client, by which Paul means "convince him to declare bankruptcy." But as soon as Harvey and Mike get into it, they're looking for other ways out for the client. Which they eventually find. Paul does not appreciate having his wishes flaunted, and even though Harvey and Mike end up with a very happy client, they also end up making Paul into Jessica's sworn enemy. Way to prove your worth there, Harv.

On the romantic front, now that Mike's finally gotten Rachel's message, he responds with one of his own: a steamy kiss, right there in the office. They go out on a date that very night, and everything's going great -- except Mike doesn't want to lie to his girlfriend about not being a lawyer. He tells Harvey that he's going to tell her the truth, but Harvey isn't having that, saying that when Mike screws things up with Rachel and his lies get back to Hardman, that's going to be it for not only himself, but Harvey and Jessica as well.

As for Louis, he's walking a tightrope. He suspects tension between Jessica and Hardman, but doesn't know which side to take. Indeed, he's even having clandestine contacts with a headhunter, so it's more like he's on some trans-dimensional tightrope that can be fallen off of in any one of three ways. It's too early to tell which way he's going to tip, but when Jessica blows him off in favor of managing the doomed Paul Porter situation, it doesn't look like it's going to be in her direction.