Warning: major spoilers ahead for the summer finale of Suits Season 6.
Suits has officially come to an end in 2016 now that the midseason finale of Season 6 has finally aired. Season 6 brought a lot of big changes for Suits fans. Pearson Specter Litt was a shell of what it had once been after most of the firm abandoned ship. Mike spent most of the first ten episodes in prison with Harvey and Donna trying to help from the outside. Jessica and Rachel teamed up to help a wrongfully imprisoned man. Louis found love. Fans had to deal with a lot of changes when Season 6 kicked off; now, with the departure of Gina Torres as the awesome Jessica Pearson, the show will have to enter a whole new era.
Jessica's departure in the final minutes of the midseason finale wasn't too much of a shock considering that Gina Torres had been cast as the lead in a new pilot for ABC. Her original contract for Suits ran for six years and would be fulfilled with the first half of Season 6. Torres made the choice to move on to a starring role, and Suits was able to craft a believable exit for the show's most formidable corporate lawyer.
For those of us who might not have known that the midseason finale was set to be Gina Torres' swan song as a regular on Suits, the episode was coming to a suspiciously happy ending before Jessica dropped the bomb that she was leaving everything she knew behind in New York to go to Chicago with Jeff. In true Suits style, she finished her final case for Pearson Specter Litt with one last movie homage via an A Few Good Men-esque courtroom showdown. Her faith in Harvey and Louis was rewarded when they managed to save the firm without her. The episode seemed, for a moment, like it would end on the characters taking a break from the corporate craziness to drink good scotch and prepare to do it all again the next day. Alas, there was the reveal that Jessica was done with the legal life.
All in all, the midseason finale was as fantastic a sendoff as Jessica could have possibly gotten on Suits. The episode featured flashbacks that both explained why Jessica became a lawyer and justified why she might not have wanted to be the kind of lawyer that she became forever. She became a lawyer because she felt a passion for the law, but that wasn't all she ever felt passionate about. Her decision to leave Pearson Specter Litt despite the battle to keep the firm alive made sense, and she got to leave on a high note rather than be forced out by unfortunate circumstances. It was as happy an ending as was possible.
Luckily, it was also an ending that didn't rule out the possibility of Jessica returning in the future. Her tearful final toast to Pearson Specter Litt certainly gave the impression that she wasn't planning on rejoining the firm, but there's no reason why Jessica can't drop by for a visit every once in a while. Something tells me she'll still be able to put Harvey and Louis in their places even if her name is no longer on the building. They may need it more than ever in the near future.
Now, we can only wonder what's going to happen next without Jessica at the helm of the firm. Even as they became more equal as professionals, Jessica was clearly always the boss of Harvey and Louis. They always had that one person above them to deal with the fallout of their various fiascos. The boys may find it difficult to continue with the firm without Jessica there as a buffer and all around badass lawyer. Even Donna and Rachel could always appeal to Jessica as a higher power if the guys of Pearson Specter Litt were making terrible decisions. Suits will be a different show without Jessica Pearson; hopefully, it will still be a show worth watching.
Suits will return to USA in winter 2017, and it has already been renewed for a Season 7, so fans don't have to worry that they won't get to see how the show moves on without Gina Torres as Jessica Pearson. Check out our fall TV premiere schedule to see what you'll be able to watch to pass the time until Suits returns.
