Before she was royal, she was Rachel
Wedding bells were ringing for Rachel Zane in the midseason premiere of Suits Wednesday (9 ET/PT), but I couldn’t stop thinking about the royal ones ringing for Meghan Markle.
The American actress has been playing Rachel on the legal drama for seven seasons now, but the latest crop of episodes is the first to air since she and Britain’s Prince Harry announced in November that they are engaged, and the last to feature Markle and Patrick J. Adams. The royal wedding is set for May 19.
Maybe it’s because her character was engaged on the show, or because Markle has been stepping out quite a bit with her princely fiancé or that the drama on Suits has grown tired, but I couldn’t stop thinking about the royal wedding every time she was on screen.
I know this is problematic. Markle is a fine actress, and her worth is not limited to her engagement to a famous man. Still, it’s not every day someone marries an honest-to-goodness prince, especially an American woman of color from one of my basic-cable guilty pleasures.
So when Rachel discussed her vows with Mike Ross (Adams) and said, “The wedding: It’s going to be here before we know it,” who can blame me for wondering about who will design her real-life dress? What celebrities will attend? Will the Suits cast pull up to the palace?
Rachel didn’t have a huge role in the opener, which focuses on the fallout from Jessica’s (Gina Torres) disbarment and the romantic tension between Donna (Sarah Rafferty) and Harvey (Gabriel Macht). But she sweeps in to save Mike from making a bad deal for his client, and affirms her commitment to their upcoming nuptials. Because she and Adams are ready to depart, the premiere seems to set up a path for them to leave the firm together to focus on each other, mirroring her real life.
Although it’s weird to see its main couple leave, Suits will go on. The Donna and Harvey drama is already more central than Rachel and Mike’s. And USA has already made the high-profile move of casting Katherine Heigl for Season 8.
Soon, I’ll be able to obsess about Markle’s royal ventures all on their own, but I’ll never forget where I knew her first.