A lot happens in Suits LA Episode 1. It introduces an entire season’s worth of subplots in a single episode, whether it’s Stuart Lane’s betrayal, the stuff with Ted’s dad, or (and this is nuts) the reveal of what’s going on with his brother, Eddie.
It’s been nearly six years since Suits ended, bringing Mike Ross and Harvey Specter’s story to a close. However, buoyed by the show’s renewed popularity on Netflix, NBC has revived the franchise for a new spinoff: Suits LA.
As the name suggests, we’ve shifted to the west coast. The show revolves around Ted Black, the co-head of Black Lane with Stuart Lane. As the series begins, Ted is weighing up a merger, trying to process the fact his dad is dying, and juggling a battle for a promotion between his two top associates, Erica and Rick.
It all goes very wrong, very quickly. I don’t blame you if you struggled to keep up with everything and everyone we see (it’s the biggest problem with Episode 1) – but this recap should help.
Everything that happens in 2010 in Suits LA Episode 1
Suits LA Episode 1 has a few flashbacks to 2010, giving essential context about Ted, his career as a prosecutor, and his relationship with his dad.
In the opening scene, Ted visits Billy, who appears to have changed his mind about testifying against Pellegrini, a “brutal” mob boss.
“Even though you’ve murdered people, I respected the fact you were willing to risk your life for your daughter,” Ted says, explaining that he has an incriminating report that could put his child, Tina, behind bars. Billy knows he could be killed if he testifies, but Ted threatens to arrest her if he doesn’t hold up his side of the deal.
“I thought we were friends,” he tells Ted, who says, “We are friends, which is why I’m risking my life for you.”
And then… boom! Billy’s house explodes. Later, we see Ted at the hospital with cuts on his face from the debris, where he’s accosted by his dad. They have a frosty relationship; we still don’t have all the details, but it’s clear he left him and his brother Eddie when they were very young, and he only got back in touch after Ted went to law school.
Ted’s father is also the head honcho at a law firm at this point in the timeline, and he offers to make Ted partner on day one if he comes to work for him. “I don’t sell my soul defending criminals and I don’t want to skip to the front of the goddamn line,” he tells his dad, who says he shouldn’t have left him with his mother because it “made [him] weak.”
Back in the hospital, Ted’s colleague Samantha arrives to check he’s okay (and that he can still attend a “client thing” that evening). She leaves, and Ted finds out that Billy died from his injuries – so, he hatches a plan. He gets the doctor to agree to pretend that Billy is alive (we don’t know exactly why, but I presume he hopes to leverage the possibility of Billy’s testimony before people find out he’s dead).
What’s going on with Lester Thompson?
NBCWhen we cut back to the present day, we meet Stuart, Black Lane’s head of criminal defense. He’s told that Lester Thompson has been arrested for murder, so he says they need to hire a crisis manager to avoid it becoming “OJ Simpson all over again.”
Apparently, Lester killed his partner – but Lester insists he didn’t do it. “Conjure me a goddamn witness,” he tells Stuart, who says he should argue it was self-defense as there are higher odds of acquittal – but he refuses.
Lester confronts Ted later that day. He thinks Stuart doesn’t believe him, so he doesn’t want him to represent him. Ted defends his partner, saying he’s the “best defense attorney in the country” (something he’ll quickly regret, but more on that later), and Lester trusts Ted’s judgment.
In the back half of the first episode, battle lines have been drawn: Stuart has betrayed Ted and their firm has been ripped apart. Ted tells Lester he needs to drop Stuart and that he believes he didn’t kill anyone. “You can go with Kirk Cousins or Patrick Mahomes,” he says (in a line that was obviously written before Super Bowl LIX).
Before the episode ends, Ted goes back to New York to see Kevin, one of his old colleagues. He asks for help with Lester’s case, and after some passive-aggressive, playful sparring (he tells Kevin he’ll help him because he “owes” him), Ted offers $400k for his services.
John Amos wants an audition
NBCBetween everything else that’s happening, we get a couple of scenes with John Amos, playing himself as one of Black Lane’s clients.
He wants Rick to get him an audition (especially because he isn’t convinced that Ted will help him). As Rick points out, they’re lawyers, not agents – but John just wants a chance to “go down swinging rather than waiting for the phone to ring.”
Later, after Rick leaves the firm (I’ll explain in the next section), Ted meets John late at night. John tells him that he created a father/son dynamic with Rick that was never going to end well, and how he needs to find a way to forgive his father if he wants to move on with his life (again, I’ll come back to this).
All of the betrayals!
NBCHere’s the basics: Ted agrees to merge Black Lane with Samantha’s firm, so Ted and Stuart go out for a drink to celebrate. It’s implied that Ted said things in the past that put him at odds with Stuart, but it all appears to be forgiven.
Except, it was all a ruse so that Stuart could steal the firm’s staff and cut Ted out. The next day, the entire 25th floor is gone, and only the entertainment and sports departments are left.
Ted tasks Rick and Erica with locking down clients before they bleed out while he confronts Stuart. “You said you were a lion and I was a flea… this firm would be nothing without me,” he tells Ted, threatening to tell everyone the truth about why he left New York if he files a lawsuit.
Unfortunately for Stuart, Ted also recorded everything he (rather disparagingly) said about three lawyers with big clients. He lets one of them listen to it and asks him to get his colleagues to sign with him instead of Stuart. Later that night, he pays a visit to Samantha, who confesses the whole thing was Stuart’s idea. She isn’t Ted’s enemy, but he still promises to “come after [her] with everything [he’s] got.”
And then there’s Rick and Erica, two warring associates who want to be head of entertainment at the firm. Ted promised the job to Rick, but Ted also knows that Erica may be the better fit for the job. In the end, he decides to make them co-heads, and Rick seems happy enough with the compromise.
However, there’s another twist. Erica reveals to her associate Leah that she’s secretly working for Stuart, so Leah tells Ted in exchange for a promotion – except she was lying, and it was a test of Leah’s loyalty, and Rick is the one who agreed to work for Stuart.
Erica demands to be partner, especially as she’ll be handling Ted’s clients while he deals with Lester’s case. He still doesn’t trust her, but she wants to prove him wrong. The next day, Erica doesn’t punish Leah – instead, she gives her a second chance (after all, it was a smart move).
Who is Maggie Grace playing?
NBCEpisode 1 also introduces Amanda Stevens, played by Maggie Grace. She exclusively works on pro bono cases out of an office she hired in Black Lane’s building – so, in short, she doesn’t work for Ted. He tries to order her to help him with nailing down clients, but she says no. He offers her $100k, but she says she doesn’t need it.
Later, he goes to her office and asks how she handles defending criminals when she knows they’re guilty. “Everyone deserves a chance to fight for them,” she says. There’s a flirty dynamic there, so keep an eye on them as the show progresses.
Yes, Eddie was dead the whole time
NBCEddie is (or was) Ted’s brother. He appears at the start of the episode, waking Ted up when he has a nightmare and offering to cook him breakfast. He also helps Ted to bed when he stumbles home drunk after his night out with Stuart.
However, when Ted goes to see his dying dad in the hospice, he doesn’t forgive him. “It was the Yankees game. I was 13, Eddie was 17. And I knew that you didn’t want him there,” he says.
“But you hid that from him. It was your best day as a father, and it was the greatest day of his life. You even took a picture of us and had it framed.
“Then after you got convicted, you told me that on your last night of freedom, all you wanted to do was spend it with me. But when that day came, you let them kill Eddie. My sweet, beautiful brother, who never hurt a soul in his life, and you said you did it to protect me, but you didn’t even show up to his funeral. He was your son.”
That’s right, Eddie has been dead the whole time. Ted is comforted by the memory of his presence, but he died decades ago.
Until Episode 2, keep our Suits LA release schedule bookmarked, check out our breakdown of the Suits LA cast, and find out if Suits Season 10 will ever happen. You can also keep tabs on the year’s releases with our 2025 TV show calendar.
Source link
