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In the age of modern television, there’s nothing quite like “Suits.” It was a popular show that had a healthy nine season run on USA Network, even generating a short-lived spin-off in the form of “Pearson.” Then, years later, “Suits” found new life out of nowhere on Netflix as viewers began binge-watching the show, many for the first time. It’s truly one of the weird little miracles of the streaming era. It also means that more recent viewers have lingering questions. For one, what the heck was the deal with the can opener?
One of the running gags in the show involves Gabriel Macht’s Harvey and Sarah Rafferty’s Donna. For the duo, a can opener was regularly employed as part of a pre-trial ritual. Yet, it was never fully explained in the show itself. It seemed very random and raised eyebrows. “When we came up with this can opener ritual, we thought it would be more fun for people to guess and conjecture about what it would be than to tell them,” series creator Aaron Korsh said of the gag in an interview on the “Suits” YouTube channel.
So, what’s the deal with the can opener? What did Harvey and Donna do with it, exactly? Why a can opener, of all things? Not to spoil it, but for those who fear they may have missed something crucial while watching the show, you didn’t. It’s just a weird thing that Korsh and the writers decided to slip into the show, and it stuck.
Where did the can opener ritual originate on Suits?
The can opener was introduced very early on in “Suits” season 1, which was an autobiographical exercise for Korsh. When the can opener was introduced, it was clearly something Donna and Harvey had a history with, yet it was never addressed. It was a bizarre thread that was left dangling. That is, until the show finally revealed the origins of this bizarre ritual. Sort of.
In the “Suits” season 3 episode “The Other Time,” we get some flashbacks that dive into the history between Donna and Harvey. In the episode, Donna agrees to come work for Harvey. They both also agree that the night they slept together is to never be spoken of again. “We’re going to need a new ritual,” Donna says to Harvey. He then reaches into a waitress’s back pocket and grabs a can opener. “Maybe something to do with a can opener,” Harvey says. To which Donna replies, “Harvey, that’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.”
Dumb as it may be, that’s it! The ritual stuck. They don’t really do anything with the can opener, it was just an arbitrary item available to Harvey at that moment. Donna and Harvey’s romance continued to blossom on “Suits” from there and viewers could only scratch their heads because no further explanation was ever offered. There’s truly nothing more to it, at least not that we’ll ever be privy to.
What has Suits creator Aaron Korsh said about the can opener?
“Suits” was eventually canceled after season 9 and the can opener mystery still dangled to some degree. Korsh, for his part, hasn’t been shy about addressing this odd ritual, but he hasn’t provided much by way of concrete answers. “I’d rather you want to know than know. That’s why,” Korsh said on Twitter in response to a fan who expressed frustration about not knowing what Donna and Harvey were doing with the can opener. In that same thread, another person chimed in and said, “[The writers] don’t know either and couldn’t think of anything so they just left it open. Don’t overthink it.” Korsh then replied, “It’s true.”
Korsh’s best response came at the ATX Television Festival in 2024, when Patrick J. Adams called him during a panel. What he said to the crowd shed a lot of light on the whole thing:
“When we first wrote the episode where we introduced it, Kevin Bray, who was the original pilot director and the director also of that episode, he told me, ‘You gotta reveal what they do with the can opener.’ And I said, ‘No, I don’t.’ And he was like, ‘You’re gonna have to. They’re gonna wanna know.’ I said, ‘They don’t wanna know, they want to wanna know.’ I might have been right, I might have been wrong, but I don’t think you’d be asking me that question 15 years later if I ever told you what it was.”
The can opener may never be resolved to the satisfaction of certain fans, but “Suits” will live on in some way. NBC has the new spin-off “Suits: L.A.” airing its first season this year, centered on a new cast of characters in a new city. As for what frustrating mysteries may or may not crop up in that show? We shall see.
You can grab “Suits: The Complete Series” on Blu-ray from Amazon.
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