'Damages' Getting Deadlier by the Minute

By LillyKat
PTR Staff Writer

Oh. My. God.

Or, OMG! (as is the preferred abbreviation in the online world these days).

You know when a television show has been so good that you run out of words to describe what you’re watching? Instead, you end up just staring at your television screen, mouth agape, blinking repeatedly, murmuring to yourself, “Oh. My. God.”

Damages continues to thrill like no show I’ve watched in recent years. I just cannot believe what they come up with each week, or how brilliantly intricate all the storylines have been interwoven and revealed these past three months. And, just when I think I have started to piece together the who-what-where-when-why-how, it throws the left curve of all left curves.

With Lawyer Ray blowing his brains out in Patty’s office.

And Patty trying to get her stuff together to do the right thing with Ellen.

Who knew?

Turns out underhanded Securities and Exchange investigator George Moore sold out Arthur Frobisher to save his own skin (seeing as Moore was going to be linked to giving Frobie the heads up about the government’s intention to come after his company, and as we speculated last week, Moore had a serious bone to pick with Frobie anyways). So, he gives up damning evidence of Frobie lawyer Ray’s indiscretions with Gregory Malina and records to prove Ray told Greg to sell off his Frobie stock before it was to tank in July 2002 as a result of the government investigation.

Insider trading anyone?

Of course Moore gets a bullet to his head for this sellout.

And Ellen has to get the last bit of evidence off Moore’s dead body as he lay slumped over in his car – an hour after he was supposed to meet Ellen for their “last” meeting.

"Last" ... boy, that’s an understatement.

Kicker number one: Patty kinda-sorta-almost graveling to get Ellen to help her get that last piece of evidence from Moore.

We remember Patty wasn’t too thrilled with Ellen’s instinct last week to go back and chat with Moore. Hence the whole Ellen saying yuck foo to Patty thing. It should come as no surprise that Patty doesn’t gravel too well, but lucky for her Ellen actually wants justice served for the former Frobie workers, and thus, wants Patty to win the case irregardless of whether she’s still with the firm. Ellen has indeed come to hate the Frobie camp (haven’t we all?), so she has no problems going back to Moore – off the clock.

I loved that Ellen managed to take the high road in all of this, and she didn’t fall for any of Patty’s attempts to get her back under her control – saying no to taking her job back, turning down Patty’s offering of money for getting the evidence, not really being overly angry about their blow-up. She was as surgical and clinical as Patty. Nice one, Ellen.

Kicker number two: Ray.

This poor guy.

Perhaps I should’ve sensed something was going to happen to him. He was so stressed out. He had already been having nightmares, and he was responsible for ordering the (successful) hit on Gregory Malina. Perhaps to top it all off, he got the news this week he was about ready to be bumped from the case seeing as the senior partners had lost faith in his ability to handle the Frobie case.

And a letter from beyond the grave from Greg didn’t help, either. I assumed this made mention of Greg’s videotaped statement before being splattered all over the street. Hence Ray’s “it’s over” cryptic phone call to Frobie.

Bummer.

But, I honestly did not expect the twist to now have the case hinge on Ray’s indiscretions nor did I anticipate Patty insistence she’d overlook the whole thing so long as Ray threw the case in court (since she had no intention of settling when she now could truly shoot for the moon and get it). Or how about Patty offering him a job at Hewes and Associates after the trial?

Just. Plain. Intense.

And so, past now becomes present.

The blood on Patty’s shoe? Ray’s.

Patty bailing out of town? Because she was trying to recover from watching this man’s brains be splattered all over her office.

The 1900 messages Tom left for Patty on her cell phone (ok, it was actually 57)? She’s not answering because she’s in shock from Ray’s suicide.

What we still don’t know: 1) who is going to end up killing fiancé doc David? 2) What the heck did Patty and Ellen “do” together that is so flippin’ cryptic? 3) When is Ellen going to be set free? 4) What the heck is going to happen to Frobie now that Ray is dead and gone? 5) Is Gregory Malina’s videotaped confession going to be the end or the beginning of something?

And yet, even if I think these are the only things left to figure out, I can almost guarantee the show will throw us another brilliant left curve next week.

Things are never what they seem with the Damages gang.

Two episodes left.

Bring it!

New episodes air Tuesdays at 10 p.m. on FX. You can also have fun visiting the Hewes and Associates Official Web Site.