'Suits' Postmortem: Gabriel Macht Talks the End of 'Tick Tock'

Warning: This interview about the “Tick Tock” episode of Suits contains spoilers.

This week’s hour of Suits came to a dramatic end with Harvey (Gabriel Macht) running through the street, trying to get to AUSA Anita Gibbs’s office after guessing that’s where Mike (Patrick J. Adams) was when word came that the jury has reached a verdict. Mike told Gibbs he’d like to accept her deal, before that verdict is read. But which offer: he’ll do two years in prison and she won’t go after anyone at Pearson Specter Litt, or he goes free if he turns on one name partner?

Macht obviously wasn’t going to reveal the answer (or if Harvey gets there in time to stop Mike from signing), but he did take a few other questions about the penultimate episode of Season 5.

The scene with Harvey and Donna, when he’s telling her he wants to turn himself in and she asks him to believe that he and Mike are worthy of being found innocent — what’s really going on in Harvey’s head?
I think underneath he believes that Mike can do well, but subconsciously, he also thinks that the jury will find him guilty. You see Harvey’s confidence when he starts working it out with the kid that Mike took his LSATs for. He’s like, “All right, here’s the winner. This is where we’re going to find this mistrial.” That uber-confidence of him meeting that kid on the bench sort of reminded me of a scene out of some CIA film, meeting in front of the Pentagon or the Lincoln Memorial or something, where he’s just like, “You’re going to do what I need you to do.” And he strikes out.

He’s gone every route possible to try to figure out how to get Mike out of this mess. He finally comes to someone that he can be vulnerable with and tell the truth to, which is he’s scared s–tless of the outcome. What he wants to do is take the responsibility and fall on the sword himself and turn himself in. Donna convinces him to see it through, that Mike will be innocent, that they’ll be innocent. This is one of the moments I remember where Harvey was most vulnerable, and that was a challenge to play because so often you see him recovering, but it was almost like here you saw his fright. You saw him unknowing of what potential future is in store for them, and he’s so scared that Mike might not be able to handle it. Harvey was so close to turning himself in to pay the piper.

The end scene with Harvey running to get to Gibbs’s office: It’s so affecting to see a man normally so smooth, who moves slowly like a shark, so desperate. What do you remember about filming that?
Throughout the episode, Harvey is doing anything he can to keep his head above the water. It almost feels like he’s drowning in guilt, and he’s trying to figure out anything that he can do to make sure that either Mike is found not guilty or there’s a mistrial. Mike and Harvey are feeling equally guilty — Harvey for giving Mike the job in the first place, and Mike for taking the job.

You know, there were a couple bloopers in those moments we were shooting the running. First of all, I have felt somewhat out of shape, so to run in those shoes — I don’t think I could move my legs the next day. There was one take where our A-camera/Steadicam operator, Michael Soos, said, “Now, Gabriel, you’re going to be running towards me. I’m going to go left of you and you’re going to go camera left.” And I was like, “Yeah, fine.” Now, this was a day where it was sunny. We were in the middle of Yorkville [Ontario] trying to make it look like we were in downtown New York. I don’t think we’ve ever shot on this corner, but at least 600 fans were watching. People were walking the streets, and we were walking in and out of them hoping that none of them would look directly in the camera. I was like, “I’m just going to be going camera right of him, like he told me,” which was wrong. I literally ran into the camera. Both of us collided at full speed. Wipe-out. It was a serious wipe-out. That was pretty humiliating. Funny, but humiliating.

The other thing that was a bit scary for me was they wanted me to run across the street, in-and-out of traffic. I was like, “Okay, got it.” And right when the light turned green, I started running into the street to make it look real. They were all, like, totally scared that I was going to get hit by a car and killed. The insurance issues would have been, you know, huge. That was, I guess, pretty naughty of me, but I couldn’t do the scene justice by running in the street when it was completely safe and sound.

I guess I put myself out there a few times for the crisis that is 515. I think you see this desperate guy because the stakes are so high, and he really does need Mike to be free of what the inevitable could be, and I think it’s all mercenary for Harvey. I think it might humble him finally. He’s completely unstoppable, he’s won every case in his life. To lose the one case that’s the highest stakes… I think it would be crushing for him and change his whole perspective on everything. We’ll see in 516 next week.

Related: Meghan Markle Talks Rachel’s Turn in the Hot Seat

What did you feel reading that finale script?
There was one scene where it was an outcome of a huge event, and after speaking with Meghan Markle, we agreed that it should go a different way. We all convinced [creator Aaron Korsh] that the way to go was different from what he wrote [although it was an idea he’d originally had in mind]. We were all really excited to see that happen because we think it’s better for the show, better for some of the characters, more dramatic. So we’ll see what happens there.

The Suits Season 5 finale airs March 2 at 10 p.m. on USA.