I love Damages, but I think this was the first time that I was actually giddy during the “previously on” segment. When it began with a clip of Patty and Frobisher, I knew that it meant Ted Danson was going to be making a guest appearance.
I loved the character of Frobisher during the first season and was a little disappointed with how the character was used during the second season. He has been completely absent from the third season to date, and after watching this episode I’m slightly intrigued by where his story may be going. The only complaint that I have is that it seems completely ancillary at this point. Is the story going to go anywhere? Is it going to have any bearing on the main characters in this show? Even if it really is just a diversion, it promises to be an amusing one, especially if we get to see an actress trying to play Patty.
There were also some nice character moments in this episode. I don’t know about you, but I just can’t get enough of Patty dressing down people. I loved her taking Jill to task, offering to pay her off to leave her son alone. This whole plot is a bit cliche, though. How many times have we seen someone try to get rid of an unwanted child-in-law with money or favors. Heck, the same exact thing happened on Nip/Tuck only weeks ago.
There was a lot more going on in this episode other than Frobisher and Patty’s attitude. In fact, it seems like things really started to kick into gear. We saw a lot more of the future in this episode. It looks like maybe Tom and Ellen are not going to having an affair, in the sexual sense, anyway. If Ellen is not lying to the police, she and Tom are going to plan on opening a law firm together. It makes me even more sad about Tom’s death, as that scenario would have been fun for a hypothetical fourth season.
Jumps in time also showed us how deep Lenny is into all of the Tobin issues. It was revealed that Winstone was the person who was throwing away Tobin evidence on Thanksgiving night. I can’t imagine that that is going to turn out well for him, along with his prints (or Lester Wiggins’s prints) on Ellen’s bloody handbag. We also saw that Lenny and Tom had a secret meeting before Tom’s death, with Lenny handing a large bag of money to the future corpse. My guess is that he’s protecting Carol. After all, we saw in the present day in this episode that Ellen and Tom were tracking down Carol without Patty knowing much about it. They could easily flip that information without telling Patty, using it to get some of that dirty Tobin money to start up a law firm. Of course, this is Damages, and there’s still time for three or four more twists.
As always, I’m eagerly awaiting them!
Clacked by Bob Degon
on Mar 16, 2010 @ 20:32 EST5EDT
I read last month in one of EW’s Ask Ausiello blogs that Damages was casting a Glenn Close lookalike to play Patty Hewes in a movie about the Frobisher case, and now we know why. This is pretty awesome actually, but not exactly tied with this season’s plot.
the art show’s banner “Michael Hewes: Emancipation” was simply genius, loved it. I had a hunch that Ellen and Tom were starting a business together behind Patty’s back, but now I’m a bit suspicious if there’s more between them.