What happened at the end of Suits season 9? Ending explained

USA Network’s Suits, which premiered in 2011, became one of the most popular legal dramas ever. The show ran for 9 seasons, concluding in September 2019, and left fans with many memorable characters.

It followed the adventures of the talented lawyer duo Harvey Specter and his protégé Michael James Ross, along with other notable characters central to the series.

Suits’ season 9 gave fans a satisfying conclusion that tied up all the loose ends and bid a stellar goodbye to its millions of fans. The official synopsis reads:

"On the run from a drug deal gone bad, brilliant college dropout Mike Ross finds himself working with Harvey Specter, one of New York City's best lawyers."

Here, we attempt to explain the thrilling final season, and how the series finished with its season 9 Finale, which was released back on September 25, 2019.

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Suits Season 9: Ending explained

Suits’ major characters, particularly Mike Ross and Specter, seldom had any qualms about taking up illegal and of-shady measures to win cases, and the same became true for the rest of its major characters, by the time Season 9 was released.

Perhaps the most notable aspect of the plot when it came to Suits season 9 was the conclusion of the romantic arc between Harvey and his former secretary Donna Roberta Paulsen. The two were seen sharing their first kiss in the season 8 finale, even though plenty of other things go down in season 9.

After Robert Zane takes the fall for Harvey Specter, the former is disbarred, while Donna ends up breaking things off with Thomas Kessler. Moving on, as Zane leaves the firm, her name is also removed from the firm, which is then christened Litt Wheeler Williams Bennett.

Furthermore, the controversy also leads to a number of the firm’s clients being poached by Eric Kaldor, as Harvey is seen accepting his proposal of giving up ten of his top clients, in order to put an end to the poaching.

Regardless, Specter does not need to give up his clients in the end, following Faye Richardson’s move to the firm as its acting managing partner, which is ordered by The New York Bar. Faye is seen telling the firm’s partners, the likes of Lous Litt, Samantha Wheeler, Alex Williams and Katrina Bennett that they will need to stop acting as cowboys, and need to start conducting their business like the lawyers that they are.

While Faye experiences plenty of fight from the partners, Louis Litt ends up getting demoted after he attempts to find a loophole the bar order which made her the managing partner in the first place.

In the background, Donna and Harvey's relationship evolves, leading to Faye taking away Donna’s board voting rights. In response, Harvey, Alex, Louis, and Samantha unite to change the firm's rules to allow personal relationships. Faye agrees when they threaten to quit.

The season finale features the return of Mike Ross, who fights a case against his former mentor, Harvey Specter. Although Ross is close to victory, Samantha, Harvey’s co-counsel, fabricates evidence to win. Faye fires Samantha for this, prompting Harvey to decide to remove Faye from the firm by any means necessary.

He approaches her ex-husband, George, for dirt, to get her removed as the firm’s managing partner. While Specter finds evidence of the fact that Faye had helped George through potential debarring, he ends up leaving it alone, even as we see Mike Ross get into further trouble.

Ross’ fake legal degree ends up getting him a conviction, and Specter is eventually able to save him after finding out that some of the evidence against Ross had been made up. This leads to Ross filing a case of wrongful termination against Faye, as the entire firm once again reunited in order to get Ross reinstated.

As it turns out, Specter then negotiates a secret deal with Faye, who agrees to leave alone the entire firm if Specter also leaves the company, along with her. He agrees, as the Suits Season finale sees Harvey Specter joining the likes of Mike and Rachel at their firm in Seattle.

The firm’s final name remains Litt Wheeler Williams Bennett, as Harvey is then seen proposing to Donna at Louis’ wedding reception.

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Hence, not only did Suits end on a poignant note with multiple romantic arcs getting concluded, but it also saw the reunion of Mike Ross with Harvey Specter. The two end up on the same firm once again in Seattle, bringing a fitting conclusion to the overall narrative.

Suits is available to be streamed on Netflix.