What's the Deal with the Can Opener on 'Suits'?

By Dustin Rowles | TV | July 28, 2023 |

By Dustin Rowles | TV | July 28, 2023 |

Did you know that Suits set a record as the most viewed library title of all time in streaming last week, notching over 3 billion viewing minutes? The once-popular USA Network series had been largely languishing on Peacock for a very long time, but it shot into the stratosphere once licensed by Netflix. The series has also been the most-watched show on Netflix for the last four weeks. It truly is the perfect Netflix show, as described in this article: the greatest background viewing of all time.

For those just getting into Suits for the first time, I’ve outlined a few things to expect from the series (such as Donna never losing her charm, and a manila folder playing a crucial role in most episodes), but the series also traffics in a few running jokes — much like the pineapple in every episode of Psych. The most notable among them is the can opener ritual.

The occasionally mentioned can opener is a mysterious part of a pre-trial ritual for Harvey, although Donna is also in on it. Spoilers, but we’re gonna nip this in the bud: You will never find out what the actual can opener ritual is. It is never revealed, although Sarah Rafferty — who plays Donna — once said that it was too suggestive to write into the show. The suggestion is that it’s definitely sexual in nature, which is also evident from the ritual’s origins.

The origin of the can opener ritual is revealed in the series’ third season. Spoilers, if you want to wait, but as is probably obvious to anyone clocking the sexual chemistry between Harvey and Donna, they do have a history together. That history is revealed in the third-season episode, where we find out that Donna and Harvey once slept together. However, after Donna made it clear that she had a rule about not sleeping with co-workers, Harvey had to choose between Donna being his secretary or his girlfriend. He chose secretary, and they both agreed never to speak of their night together again.

Afterward, while discussing their situation in a diner, Donna suggests — since they can’t have sex before trial, as they won’t be a couple — that “we’re going to need a new ritual.”

Harvey reaches over into the back pocket of the waitress standing nearby and grabs a can opener. “Maybe something to do with a can opener?”

“Harvey, that’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard,” Donna says.

But the can opener ritual sticks, all the same.

Now, as for whether Mike lying about not being a lawyer will ever come back to haunt him? For that, you have to wait until season six.