Harvey Specter Returns in Suits LA with a Reference to This Original Series Character
On Suits LA Episode 8, Harvey Specter took a jab at one of the original series' biggest bad guys.
Last month, we learned that David Costabile would reprise his role as the self-satisfied Daniel Hardman in Suits LA. While the OG character has yet to show his smug face on the West Coast, tonight's episode did contain a brief mention of him, with Harvey Specter (Gabriel Macht) stating that he "has no loyalty" for Hardman.
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Harvey Specter returned once again in Suits LA by way of a flashback (at first) in which he got a request from Ted Black (Stephen Amell) for privileged client information that he wasn't too thrilled about. However, he later returned with the information and informed Ted he's only willing to lightly violate his ethics on the matter since the client in question is no longer with his firm. He notes they left when Hardman left the firm, which is a clear reference to one of the earliest storylines in the original Suits series.
What happened between the two high-powered New York attorneys? Let's take a closer look...
Why does Harvey Specter have "no loyalty" for Daniel Hardman?
Well, the beef first began before the events of Suits when Harvey and Jessica Pearson (Gina Torres) conspired to remove Hardman from his own firm by threatening to tell his wife — who was dying of cancer, by the way — about an ongoing extramarital affair. It was a really underhanded coup and yet, the show always managed to keep us rooting for the dyad of Harvey and Jessica. The betrayal was extra ironic when you remember the fact that Hardman and Jessica did the same exact thing with the firm's original founders: Stanley Gordon Schmidt and Charles Van Dyke.
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Hardman ultimately caved to the cold-hearted blackmail, allowing Harvey and Jessica to take his name off the wall and rebrand to Pearson Specter. What original Suits fans didn't know is that not long after Hardman left the firm, Harvey gave information about his clients to Black and also gave him the idea to get Hardman to testify against his own client by not letting him know that's who he's testifying against. It's another underhanded trick from a time when Specter was pulling no punches against his enemy, Hardman.
What fans did know is that the ousted name partner simmered in that bitter defeat for a while before returning again and again throughout the original series (stream all nine seasons on Peacock) with schemes to retake control of the firm — or at the very least humiliate the people who deposed him. None of them had any lasting effects, but Costabile's oily performance made Hardman someone fans loved to hate.
In addition to Macht and Costabile, Rick Hoffman has been confirmed to make a guest appearance as Louis Litt. Sadly details on that return are still scarce. Fans will just have to keep tuning into Suits LA to catch all the cameos from the original show.
New episodes of Suits LA air on NBC every Sunday at 9:00 p.m. ET. Stream all available episodes on Peacock here.
