How ‘Suits’ Said Goodbye to Meghan Markle, Patrick J. Adams

Suits said goodbye to two of its main character with a nearly-royal wedding.

Mike (Patrick J. Adams) and Rachel (Meghan Markle) spent their final episode on the USA Network series fighting Fortune 500 companies and saying “I do” in front of their closest friends and family.

As for why they left? It turns out Mike’s job offer to run a firm tackling only class action law suits in Seattle was real, and after Rachel discovers it is still an option, she decides moving to Seattle is too good of an opportunity to say no.

The couple then decides to move their wedding up six weeks, enlisting the help of Donna (Sarah Rafferty) before having a small, but perfect wedding. The couple finally tied the knot after dating since season one and being engaged since season five, TV Guide reports, with prison stints and law firm reorganizations delaying the festivities, but Rachel and Mike’s wedding was the perfect ending to their story.

One goodbye fans were not ready for? Mike and his mentor and best man Harvey (Gabriel Macht). Mike announces he’s leaving because he learned everything he could from his mentor and is ready to go off into the world and become the lawyer he’s always wanted to be.

Harvey was sad to see his mentee go but could see that it was time for Mike and Rachel to move on as the seventh season of Suits came to an end.

Following the news the USA Network’s hit legal drama would be coming back for an eighth season, the show also announced the departure of Adams and Markle.

Markle is set to marry Prince Harry of Wales and and join the British Royal Family in May.

Adams opened up to The Hollywood Reporter about his decision to leave the series.

“I started thinking about leaving at the end of the first half of season six, after Mike was released from prison,” Adams told The Hollywood Reporter. “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. I wasn’t sure how we were going to work that version of the character into the fabric of the show. [Suits boss] Aaron Korsh and I talked about it and he pitched this idea of Harvey (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.”

Adams revealed that halfway through filming season 7, he approached Korsh to tell him he believed Mike’s story was over. He had grown from a”burnout pothead” into a full-fledged lawyer, engaged to the woman of his dreams, so there was no more growth for him to explore. Both Korsh and Adams decided this was the time to say goodbye.

“When this became a reality, we had this great three-hour conversation where we talked about what it is to do work that you’re proud of and how to decide to move on from something that’s been a big part of your life,” Adams said. “We discussed how we would prefer to see Mike exit and how to do justice to all of it. Aaron and I have spent seven years working on this thing and it was a real chance to say our goodbyes in this chapter of our relationship.”

As far as Markle, Adams says the timing of their departure was something they never discussed, but it made their last scenes together even more bittersweet.

‘Meghan has this whole crazy part of her life that’s just beginning now,” Adams said. “…There was this natural sense that we both knew that the time had come for both of us. It went unspoken and we just enjoyed the hell out of the last few episodes that we got to shoot. We both knew that we wouldn’t be coming back. It made every one of our scenes that much more special. We had a great time…”

However, Adams did not rule out returning to the show for a guest appearance if the opportunity arose.

Suits will return for its eighth season in late 2018, with Katherine Heigl set to join the cast and challenge the stars quo of the series.