The Return of Daniel Hardman – A Suits Fan Scene

INT. PEARSON SPECTER LITT CONFERENCE ROOM – NIGHT

The room is dim except for city lights bleeding in. Papers scattered. Coffee cups. Tension.

DONNA is already there, legs crossed, tablet in hand, effortlessly composed. LOUIS storms in, eyes wide, neck red.

LOUIS He’s back. That son of a snake wearing a tie clip is back.

DONNA And good evening to you too, Louis.

LOUIS He’s sniffing around the equity partners like a bloodhound on cocaine. Daniel. Freaking. Hardman.

The door bursts open.

MIKE Okay, I just had lunch with a judge who told me Hardman is representing a class-action suit. Against one of our oldest clients.

HARVEY enters. Calm. Crisp. Lethal in a three-piece. The door barely closes behind him before he speaks.

HARVEY And just like that, the roach climbs out from under the floorboards.

LOUIS He’s not a roach. Roaches have souls. Roaches run from light. This man runs toward lawsuits.

DONNA And he wears that smug look like it’s tailored by Tom Ford. It's not. It’s ego stitched in spite.

MIKE He’s going after Vincent Tech. Remember them? They stuck with us through the SEC scandal. Now he’s trying to flip them.

HARVEY Of course he is. Because when the devil can’t find a pitchfork, he picks up a briefcase.

LOUIS We need to warn Vincent. Tell them who they’re dealing with.

HARVEY No. That’s exactly what he wants. He wants us to react. To panic. To start calling clients like desperate prom dates who got dumped.

DONNA So we don’t warn them?

HARVEY No. We show them.

LOUIS Show them what, Harvey? Our deep moral integrity? Because I just Googled our last three years and morality didn’t crack the top ten.

HARVEY We show them that anyone who picks Daniel Hardman is picking a ticking time bomb wrapped in a lawsuit waiting to happen.

MIKE He’s banking on us playing defense. What if we don’t?

DONNA What if we throw the first punch?

HARVEY turns to her. Their eyes lock. Sparks.

HARVEY You read my mind.

LOUIS Okay, if there’s punching, I’m in. But can I pick the gloves? I have custom Everlasts with LITT UP embroidered on them.

HARVEY No gloves, Louis. This is bare-knuckle.

DONNA We leak Hardman’s past disbarment proceedings to the Wall Street Bulletin. Quietly. Then we file a pre-emptive motion with the ethics board flagging a conflict of interest on his case.

MIKE And while he’s busy putting out that fire, we pull Vincent’s contract, find the exit clause, and remind them what loyalty used to mean.

LOUIS Or we go nuclear.

Everyone turns. Louis lifts a folder, eyes gleaming.

LOUIS (CONT’D) Four years ago, he buried a harassment complaint from his own associate. He settled it privately. But the woman filed a sealed affidavit and I know the judge who sealed it.

HARVEY Louis.

LOUIS What? I didn’t say we expose it. I said we remind him we know. That we remember who he is when the lights are off and the cameras stop rolling.

MIKE And here I was thinking you were the firm’s moral compass.

LOUIS Morality bends when Daniel Hardman walks in the room.

DONNA So does the thermostat. Have you noticed? The temperature drops ten degrees. That man brings his own personal draft of hell.

HARVEY Alright. Donna, leak the disbarment chatter. Mike, prep the ethics motion. Louis, remind your judge friend what Hardman did and let him know we’re not letting it happen again.

LOUIS Done. But just so we’re clear, if this goes sideways, I want it on record that I volunteered to go nuclear first.

HARVEY Duly noted. When the dust settles, I’ll embroider it on your gravestone.

MIKE What about you?

HARVEY Me? I’m going to have a drink. Then I’m going to call Vincent Tech. Not to beg. To tell them something no one’s said to them in years.

DONNA Let me guess. You’re welcome.

HARVEY No. We’re the ones who never left.

LOUIS God, that’s good. You write that down?

HARVEY No. I just say it better than you think.

MIKE And louder than most people can handle.

HARVEY smirks.

HARVEY Let’s go make Hardman regret the day he crawled back into our city.

FADE OUT.