I’ve been curious abt this for some time. They mentioned originally that donna wasnt written to be a permanent character, i was thinking it was when she was fired, then her storyline wouldve just ended there. How do you think they wouldve handled things if she actually was permanently gone? (Knowing that the ending was harvey/donna)
hmmmm... i know that she wasn't originally a permanent character, but i'm not sure how long it took them to decide to make her one, so i don't know if her being fired was initially intended to get rid of her permanently and then dialed back at the last second, or it was always intended to play out the way it did. although given that she was both fired and hired back within the first 10 episodes of s2 (which are, by korsh's admission, the only ones they have planned out when they begin writing/filming a season), i'm inclined to say they had already committed to keeping her on by that point.
from a purely hypothetical standpoint, let's say she was fired for the coastal motors memo (s02e05) but the writers already knew they were going to make darvey endgame (s08e16). i would still have harvey pouting and sulking and begging her to come back, and have louis ask her on the stand (the mock stand, anyway) if she's in love with harvey and harvey interrupt before she can answer, but ultimately i'd have her reject the attempt to rehire her and decide instead to take another shot at her acting career; after so many years as harvey's insanely overpaid secretary, she ought to have more than enough money in the bank to live off of her savings for a while. and if she gets really desperate, she could always put a few dozen of her outfits up on eBay, rake in an easy couple thou.
what to do, then, for seasons 2.5 through 8? ejecting her from the show right after heavily, heavily implying that she and harvey "have feelings" for one another, as they say, at least sets them up to be the endgame from early on. still, six and a half seasons is a long time to go without having the ultimate love interest present onscreen...
personally, i think i would have harvey spend the back half of s2 and probably the front half of s3 tangibly mourning the loss of donna in his life. not as catatonic as his s8 post-mike dead man walking routine, but clearly feeling her absence around the workplace, and showing some signs of their personal friendship being on the rocks; the two of them drifting apart, or donna intentionally distancing herself. (it's about time she put herself first tbh.) then what i would do is maybe around mid- to late-s4, have him get into a relationship with another woman; probably not zoe, because adding olivia into the situation is a little too complicated; definitely not paula, because what the fucking fuck; not esther, because the whole point of that was just to screw with harvey's relationship with louis.
in fact, i would put him with an entirely new character. (i didn't forget about scottie, just hang on to that for a minute.) ideally, i would have him get together with another attorney, someone from a different firm who he finds he has a vibe with and then can spend maybe three quarters of a season will-they-or-won't-they-ing until they decide to get together, either at the end of s4 or mid-s5, before the prison arc starts. their relationship would start off in a real honeymoon phase, or at least with no visible problems; anything that does come up that seems slightly imperfect is brushed aside without a second thought, and she's very supportive and understanding of his total insanity while mike is at danbury. she's even supportive during his spiraling when mike gets out of prison and decides to go to the clinic instead of coming back to psl. except...as time goes on, particularly after mike comes back and harvey becomes more at peace with his life, the cracks start to show; his girlfriend is great in a crisis, any high-octane, high-pressure situation, but the two of them just being a couple of people in a chill relationship under totally normal circumstances perhaps don't vibe quite as well as they first thought. and then mike starts showing his unrest, and hinting that he wants to leave, and harvey's attention is clearly focused entirely on mike instead of literally anything else, and she can deal with harvey going through some shit, but this is a little much. they spend the first half of s8 trying to make it work, putting all the pieces back together, until they come to the reasoned and mature mutual decision (i know, i know, but this is all hypothetical to begin with, so might as well go all in) to break up.
for the back half of s8, i would have scottie come back and the two of them fuck around in a sort of "hey, maybe...?" kind of way, even though they both know going in that it's probably not going to work out; finally, at the end of the season, they break up for good, and harvey's free to realize with a clean conscience that it's donna he's wanted to be with all along. i'd like to see her have become a moderately successful theater actor, probably not originating any roles on broadway just yet, but maybe a few short-term background roles, or an understudy in a bigger production who's set to take over the role when the lead leaves the show; now that she's had a chance to become her own person and live her own life, she's ready and willing to give herself and harvey a chance as a couple. it definitely wouldn't start off with harvey abruptly accosting donna at her apartment and the two of them suddenly having sex without a word, but i could see him going to her place without warning and confessing to her, and then the two of them opening a dialogue from there.
now, do i think this is how they would have handled it? no, absolutely not, i think they would've put harvey through the same string of failed romances he endured in canon, spent a couple episodes near the end of season 8 suddenly name-dropping donna like crazy seemingly out of nowhere, and then ended the season the exact same way they already did. they probably would've even had donna end up coming back to work at the firm somehow in some managerial position no one's ever heard of.
well, that's what i think, anyway. thank you for asking!
