‘Damages’ recap: ‘Burn it, shred it, I don’t care’
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- January
- 15
Last week’s premiere of “Damages” was a solid, slam-dunk opener. But if last night’s insanity is any indication, this season is sure to get even better.
Not that I’m surprised by this, but last night, we were assured that Daniel definitely isn’t what he seems.
Neither is Wes, Ellen’s new – and apparently psycho – love bunny.
And what should we make of the winner for Most Cleavage Revealed by an Opposing Attorney, Claire Maddox? (Marcia Gay Harden finally showed up, yay!)
So let’s dig into the mysteries right now … and is anyone else wondering about that strange look Patty had on her face when she introduced her disturbing son, Michael, to the equally disturbing Daniel?
The episode kicked off with another flash to Ellen six months in the future, as she fires a gun twice at an unidentified person. This time, mixed into the scene, we got a bit of a clue: a quick shot of Ellen’s hotel room door. (She moved from the apartment after her acquittal for David’s murder.) Who knows what the door means, but there’s no question that it somehow links to something to be revealed later.
Flashback to right after the murder of Daniel’s wife, Christine. Daniel claims – a la “The Fugitive” – that he dropped his wife off after the gala and she was dead by the time he came back. His suspect isn’t a one-armed man, though, but a blonde guy in a hoodie.
There’s much eye-rolling by the police at this claim, and the rest of us would be doing the same, except for the fact that we know those energy bad guys are indeed following Daniel.
Meanwhile, Ellen finds Wes at group therapy and confesses that she had the chance to kill Frobisher, but didn’t do it. Flash to the two in bed, although that doesn’t mean Ellen has confided in him.
Smart girl, because later on, we see that Wes has a creepozoid closet full of guns and newspaper articles about the Frobisher case and David’s murder. Methinks he’s on someone’s payroll, and his girlfriend wasn’t really killed by a drunk driver. But who the heck does he work for?
Speaking of Ellen’s secrets, she and the G-men are frustrated when Patty gives Tom Shayes the fake infant mortality case that the government planned to use to trap her. They decide to go ahead with the case anyway, telling the faux plaintiff to ask Tom for money, which is illegal. That way, maybe they can flip him against Patty.
That hope is crushed, however, after Patty calls Tom off the case just as he’s about to go forward with the payoff (and presumably get arrested). Despite all of Patty’s interoffice spying, averting this near-disaster was simply a stroke of luck: She wants Tom on the Purcell case instead, because it’s much, much bigger.
Indeed it is, because as Daniel explained to Patty, his company was pressured by some higher-ups to doctor a report he wrote about toxic levels in some kind of material. (I’m still fuzzy on exactly what.) He says he’s not going public, that they’ll never find out who was actually behind all of this, and asks Patty to get rid of the evidence he gave her.
But Patty doesn’t listen. Does she ever?
She shows the evidence to an environmental expert, who rats them out to the evil energy company that’s been watching Daniel. Of course, that was Patty’s plan all along: She wanted him to leak it so she could find out who commissioned the dirty report. So once Claire Maddox ran to a judge to try to get back Daniel’s documents, Patty knew it was Ultima National. (This was a bit of a stretch: Not even Patty is that good.)
Then we flew into the humdinger of an ending: Claire sliding into Daniel’s car on a dark and stormy night, asking him, “Did you tell her about us?” And flash to Daniel with a shovel, lighting a midnight bonfire.
WHAAAAAAT?!?
I’m betting those aren’t marshmallows that Daniel’s toasting.
(Photos courtesy of FX)
This entry was posted
on Thursday, January 15th, 2009 at 8:30 am by Heather Salerno.
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I am guessing that Patty’s son is actual Daniel’s…maybe not that could be what the producers WANT us to think. Also, I can’t think of the actor’s name that is playing Wes, but he is EXCELLENT at playing a psychopath. Great casting, and great beginning to this season.