Ted Black and [SPOILER] Finally Come to Blows in Suits LA Episode 5: Recap
Things get heated in the latest episode of Suits LA.
The first big trial on Suits LA kicked off with all the cutthroat tactics and foul play one would expect from the legal drama. If that wasn’t enough to quench fans’ thirst for conflict, perhaps a good old-fashioned in-office brawl will do the trick.
Episode 5 opened with a bit of comedy as we found Ted Black (Stephen Amell) in his apartment practicing his impeccable opening statement for Lester Thompson's murder trial (Kevin Weisman) with help from Amanda Stevens (Maggie Grace) and Samantha Railsback (Rachelle Goulding), his ex-girlfriend from New York. It’s a weird pair, and it gets weirder when the conversation turns abruptly and bluntly sexual. It turns out it’s just the latest in a string of recurring dreams that have become a regular part of Ted’s evenings.
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Rattled but undaunted, Ted goes into the office the next day. After chomping down a New York bagel shipped into the office, he requests that Amanda be his second in the case so she can take on federal prosecutor Elizabeth Smith (Sofia Pernas), who she has a grudge against after a past case that resulted in the death of Amanda’s client.
So, with his dream team in place (literally), Ted kicks off his opening argument only to be interrupted by Smith, who claims she has a motion to request all records related to Lester’s divorce proceedings. It turns out an LA Times article in which some of the transcripts were used came out and she worries it could influence the jury. Amanda knows this is a ruse because something similar happened in her previous case with Smith.
Meanwhile, Ted goes to Valerie Thompson’s (Kristen Hager) divorce lawyer, his friend turned bitter enemy, Stuart Lane (Josh McDermitt). Furious at what happened in court, Ted accuses Stuart of leaking the transcripts, which would have been a complete betrayal of his ethics as an attorney — not to mention against the law. Stuart takes this incredibly personally and fires back in an equally personal way. He calls Ted a fool who's representing a guilty client because he was blinded by being cut out of a “merger with your ex-girlfriend.” With that, Ted socks his old friend right in the jaw. The two have a small tussle before it's broken up by Samantha, who kicks Ted out of the office.
Back at his office, Amanda enlists Kevin (Tony Winbush) to help her prove a theory: Both surprise LA Times articles (the one for this case and the previous one) came from the same reporter. She thinks Prosecutor Smith is working in cahoots with him so she can have a reason to subpoena those transcripts. Unfortunately, they only have until 9 a.m. the next day to prove this theory…
They need time.
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They get it the next day when Lester is a no-show in court. Amanda pleads with the judge to give her client the benefit of the doubt and allow them another day to track him down. It works, and Ted and Amanda get another 24 hours to prove her theory about the reporter. Driven by rage when she finally does track the guy down, Amanda threatens to get him fired if he doesn’t cooperate. While she doesn’t have enough proof for a court that the prosecutor and the reporter are working together, she’s got more than enough to prove it to his employer. Fearing for his career, the reporter agrees to cooperate.
Just like that, Ted and Amanda have what they need to prevent the divorce transcripts at trial. But how did they get it? That night Kevin went to Ted’s house on a hunch that Lester was there. He’s right, of course. No one knows Ted like him. The no-show tactic was a ruse cooked up by Ted to buy them time. Unfortunately, it was all for not. Even though they can prove that the prosecutor was dishonest, she argues that the transcripts are already out there and could poison the jury. The judge agrees and everyone has to hold their nose and go with it.
The following day, Valerie is on the stand... and it does not go very well. Smith makes it look as though Lester paid his ex-wife off to stand by him in court. It wouldn’t be the last devastating thing to happen to Ted’s case that day. Later that night, Amanda figures out that he is responsible for hiding Lester and is furious that she put her reputation on the line with the judge for a lie. She quits as Ted’s second on the case.
Yet somehow, the worst is yet to come.
Operating on a hunch, Kevin asks Erica (Lex Scott Davis) to look into Lester’s story of what happened the night his partner died and, with help from Rick (Bryan Greenberg), they discover it was all from a script Lester had written previously. Having never trusted Lester to begin with, an angry Kevin confronts him at his home and is ready to knock his block off if he doesn’t start telling the truth. With that, Lester admits he lied and that he did in fact kill his business partner.
If that sounds like it was quite a lot for one episode, that’s because it is. Trials can be messy, particularly in the world of Suits. Now, Ted has a guilty client, no second on the case, and a jury that's not super into Lester (to put it lightly) all standing between him and a massive uphill battle to claim an important victory for his dying firm.
Still, Ted is undaunted. It probably has a lot to do with the fact that it’s revealed Samantha is the one who sent the bagels. A pre-trial ritual from their dating days that proves, in some way, she still cares. Will that be enough to save him, his firm, and his case? Fans will just have to keep tuning in to find out.
Catch new episodes of Suits LA Sundays at 9 p.m. on NBC and streaming the next day on Peacock.
