'Suits' Preview: Meghan Markle Talks Rachel's Turn in the Hot Seat
We’ve been told multiple times that the final episodes of Suits’ fifth season will be tension-filled, and tonight’s hour on USA, “God Green’s Earth,” takes it up another notch.
Having gone after Harvey’s weak spot, Donna, last week, AUSA Anita Gibbs (Leslie Hope) targets Mike’s, Rachel (Meghan Markle). As Rachel explains in the exclusive sneak peek above, Gibbs starts by playing nice — she offers to get Mike into Columbia and spare her from jeopardizing her own career if Rachel turns on Harvey and Jessica. Mike finds Rachel alone and teary-eyed in the file room and worries she’s not handling the pressure well. “I’m releasing my emotions so that I can persevere instead of denying them and losing my mind, which I can’t do today because I have a meeting with the dean,” she tells him. “Now I came in here to be alone so I can deal with my s–t. So if you don’t mind, I would like to be alone so I can deal with my s–t.”
Related: ‘Suits’ Creator on the Rat Reveal and What’s Next
Markle admits that last line caught her off-guard when she first read the script. “I was like, ‘Really?’ Because Rachel doesn’t talk like that. Come on!“ And they’re like, 'She does now, because she’s losing it.’ And I was like, ‘You know what, that’s gonna end up being one of those I’m just waiting for. It’s probably gonna be on a T-shirt or it’s gonna be GIF’d,” she tells Yahoo TV with a laugh. “It stands out, and I’m glad that I could bring it to life in a way that didn’t make me laugh anymore, because that is probably how Rachel’s feeling. She just needs a break from all of it. She snaps at Mike, but in a way deservedly so, because I think he’s so consumed with how it’s affecting him that he’s forgetting that it’s really taking its toll on her.”
Last episode, the situation caused friction between Rachel and Donna when Rachel dared to speak the thoughts running through her head. Yes, we all want Rachel to stay loyal, but let’s not forget that she’s the least guilty party in this mess — a fact that needs to be acknowledged.
"I sort of feel the same way, and when I read the scripts, it’s harder for me to separate myself because I’ve been playing her for five years. So I do take things more personally just because it’s a person that I’ve really come to connect with,” Markle says. “With all that said, the stakes are the highest for Rachel, because she could lose her relationship with her family, her potential law career, and the love of her life. Everything is at play there. Not that the other people don’t have similar things to lose, but as you said, the toughest part is that Rachel really had no idea about any of it. She wasn’t part of the cover-up. So it’s challenging to watch, and she also seems to be bearing the brunt of everyone’s anger. Donna’s snapping at her. Harvey’s angry. Mike is yelling at her. And in all of it, I’m thinking, Why are you yelling at Rachel? What did she do? We’re all friends off-camera, so it’s really hard to go from hanging out and having lunch together in our trailers to going back in there and yelling at each other. It’s not the happiest of times.”
Related: 'Suits’ Postmortem: Creator Talks The Harvey-Donna Reunion and What’s Next
But Markle, like the rest of the cast, does think the show had to go there. “It was all going to come to a head at some point. Mike couldn’t just continue being a fraud and we go about our business wiggling around in our pencil skirts. Something had to happen,” she says.
And just know that when you’re stressed out watching the episodes, she felt the same way reading the scripts and filming them. “It’s so emotionally taxing. Sure, Rachel’s always been more tearful than I would like, but now it’s an extra layer of like, she’s crying because she’s scared to death. She’s crying because she’s nervous. She’s spinning out,” she says. “There’s a lot of anxiety that comes in having to bring that to the table every day, for every episode, which is definitely what’s required for Rachel right now because of what’s going on in her life.”
Suits airs Wednesdays at 10 p.m. on USA. Come back to Yahoo TV tonight for a postmortem with Markle.
