Spoilers ahead!

Harvey and Donna are arguably the Batman and Robin of television. So what happens when they are apart? We see even more chinks in Harvey’s armor.

Directly following the season four cliffhanger in which Donna announces that she is leaving Harvey to become Louis’ secretary, the season five opener sees Harvey perhaps more vulnerable than audiences have seen him before: without Donna. Harvey literally can’t keep track of his calendar without her, and he makes a crucial error when helping a client avoid bankruptcy that could have been avoided had Donna — or any other secretary, for that matter — been in the picture. Yet Harvey stubbornly remains in denial, true to the episode’s title, about Donna’s departure throughout the episode, refusing to even consider hiring a replacement.

Harvey is more or less the same old Harvey he has been since the beginning of the series (and that is not necessarily a bad thing). Harvey Specter has become a sort of pop culture icon with his over-confident quips and borderline arrogance. Nevertheless, the show hasn’t yet explored Harvey completely without Donna, especially as a lawyer, so this season is set up for engaging character development. It will be interesting to see which direction the writers take with this plotline, particularly whether or not Donna’s departure will be permanent or temporary.

Meanwhile, Louis is still the same old, paranoid Louis, and Mike and Rachel’s engagement balance out Harvey and Donna’s separation. The premier is understandably Harvey-and-Donna-centric, while not fully revealing what is in store this season for our other protagonists. With Mike’s fraud almost forgotten by this point and the firm having gone through countless name changes and takeover attempts, hopefully there will be fresh conflicts to come.