After nine seasons, the hit legal drama Suits ended in 2019. Notably, the cast underwent a series of changes in its time, with the most prominent being protagonist Mike Ross leaving in the season seven finale.
Played by Patrick J. Adams, Mike Ross is a college dropout who uses his photographic memory to secure a job with the successful attorney Harvey Specter (Gabriel Macht) in Manhattan, despite never attending law school. Over the next seven seasons, the pair take on a series of challenging cases while trying to keep Mike’s secret from going public.
Alongside J. Adams and Macht, other cast members include Meghan Markle, Rick Hoffman, Sarah Rafferty, Gina Torres, Katherine Heigl, Amanda Schull, and Dulé Hill.
Despite the show running for nine seasons, the last time Mike Ross appears in Suits is in the season seven finale, ‘Good-Bye’, the 16th episode. It’s also the last time Meghan Markle’s character Rachel Zane appears. The pair get married in this episode and leave New York for Seattle after accepting an offer to run their own law firm specialising in David v. Goliath cases.
So why did Patrick J. Adams choose to leave Suits? By his admission, he decided to be closer to his wife, Pretty Little Liars star Troian Bellisario and family, as he spent so much time away from them when shooting. He felt it was the right time to leave, as his character’s journey had concluded.
In January 2018, Adams explained his decision to The Hollywood Reporter: “After seven seasons — really, eight years of being away from home and away from my now-wife [Adams married Pretty Little Liars alum Troian Bellisario in December 2016] and there was that pressure. I started thinking about leaving at the end of the first half of season six, after Mike was released from prison. From a story point of view, I was a little unsure of what was left for him to do. Mike had made the pledge during his trial that if he were allowed to continue to practice the law, he would dedicate his time and energy to underrepresented people and not big, corporate interests.”
He concluded: “I wasn’t sure how we were going to work that version of the character into the fabric of the show. Aaron Korsh and I talked about it, and he pitched this idea of Harvey (Gabriel Macht) offering a one-for-one deal that would keep Mike working at the firm so he could gather the resources to go and do more pro-bono cases. That brought up an interesting season seven. And I’m proud of how this season turned out.”
