'Suits' Postmortem: Patrick J. Adams on That Twist, Next Week's Midseason Finale

Warning: This interview contains spoilers for the “The Hand That Feeds You” episode of Suits.

It’s the episode of Suits fans have been waiting for: Mike Ross is free. But not before he gave fans another mini heart attack.

Realizing he didn’t want himself (or Harvey) to be responsible for Gallo getting out of prison, Mike arranged for Cameron Dennis (guest star Gary Cole) to lay out the truth about Gallo at his parole hearing. That’s when the real drama kicked in: Mike didn’t get to immediately walk out of prison, which meant Gallo would have time for payback.

We talked to Patrick J. Adams about the resolution of that story and what’s next.

Obviously we’ve seen Gallo go after Mike multiple times this season, but this had to be the most threatening situation of all. How did you guys make that happen?
It’s funny that the Gallo-Mike love story begins and ends with a knife. In that scene at the beginning of the season when the knife got pulled, it was a more public area and it gave Mike heart being there. This is a very different version because Gallo gets Mike alone. He obviously has no reason not to hurt him at this point, but Mike, as always, is one step ahead. With the placement of this camera in the cell, Mike sort of brilliantly makes sure that all of the non-crooked guards in the prison, and the warden, have actual evidence that Gallo is carrying a knife and does something to try to murder another inmate, which is going to make things a little more complicated for him. It’s a fun little scene, one you think is going to go one way then it very much turns the other. I think it’s a satisfying “we get the bad guy” moment. At least for now, we sort of have him cornered.

I guess that’s the question then: Do you think Gallo may pop up again, or is this the end of the road?
Oh yeah, it’s Suits. All of these people can always come back. I know that we love having Paul Schulze on the show. I know that the writers love him. So I never say nobody comes back. I think it could be very easy for him to rear his head again.

Related: ‘Suits’ Postmortem: Erik Palladino Talks ‘Trust’ Issues

When I talked to Erik Palladino a few weeks ago, he said he was hoping that when Mike got out, he and Kevin had become good enough friends that we may see Kevin again.
I 100 percent think there’s a world where he comes back and they get to see what he’s like outside of the prison, and I couldn’t have gotten along better with Erik. I’m really proud of the work that we did together this season.

What was it like to play Mike walking out of prison?
That was really fun. We went back to the same location we filmed the entering the prison and it definitely felt like a “come full-circle” moment. There’s a nice surprise that Harvey has waiting for him there — he’s got Rachel in the car. People will remember that Rachel did not take Mike to prison. I think people might be expecting Harvey and Mike to just sort of drive back to the city together and the reuniting with Mike and Rachel to happen back in the apartment or something. But she hops out of the car with the wind blowing her hair. Mike is totally overwhelmed.

I think that’s a really satisfying moment, that these two people are reconnected after they’ve only really seen each other once this whole time that he’s been gone — which, I think, ultimately totals up to about three weeks in prison, but it feels much longer to all of us. It was a really sweet, lovely conclusion to this strange, difficult time for Mike, and I think for the audience that has been patient with us through the season while we were working through this story.

What can you tease about what’s next for Mike in the midseason finale? Does he go back to the firm? He’d be a great private investigator.
The question of what’s going to happen to Mike now that he’s out of prison is definitely going to be a more longer conversation. It’s not something we wrap up in an episode. Really, for now, he’s just focused on getting back to being with Rachel. There is some conversation in that episode about what might be the next steps, but the back six episodes [of Season 6] I’m sure will be about what Mike does and how he fits in.

All of the other sort of dangling pieces of the story that we’ve been working with, what’s happening with Rachel’s trial, how Mike can be of assistance with that, what’s happening with Louis and Tara — all of it takes a few steps forward [in the midseason finale]. And as per usual, the way we leave the episode will inherently change the show a little bit.

Suits airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. on USA.