'Damages' Lays the Groundwork

By LillyKat
PTR Senior Staff Writer

Apologies, again, on being late with this post. I would never intentionally slight my beloved Damages unless I had a really good reason ... like surgery recovery. Ugh. Vicodin, anyone?

PTR's editor-in-chief, TVFan, is right: it does no good to try and guess what is going to happen on Damages.

Too many rabbits get pulled out of the hat so that even when you start to think you might have two cents of half a millimeter of a clue as to what might possibly come next, you're thrown a left curve.

A loop.

Usually a big one.

Case in point this week: Daniel Purcell is NOT going to be Patty's cause célèbre sans strings attached.

And I like this.

I didn't want this character to become ... how should I say ... that clichéd "guy from Patty's past" type of character who, inevitably, has some sort of secret thing for her and/or some sort of secret to hold over her head to get who knows what out of her. Thus far, the genius scribes have thankfully not gone down that path (as if they even COULD - there is nothing clichéd about this show).

That said, Purcell looks as though he's going to play both ends to the middle - whatever that middle may be. And it's just.so.cryptic. I find myself wanting to like the guy even if I sense he's got more up his sleeve than Richard Nixon. Not to mention the guy has some gall to think he can actually NOT tell Patty Hewes the truth.

But the BIG kicker: he's having an affair with Marcia Gay Harden's Claire Maddox - the legal eagle of the energy company that wants to mess with Purcell's toxicity findings so as to make it seem as if they really aren't the big, bad evil energy company making all of their employees sick.

And did we notice how that last little tidbit was left until the last shot of the episode?

Got to love this show.

Speaking of MGH, could she be any more perfect to play the new legal nemesis of Patty Hewes?

Just. Plain. Genius.

I'm counting the minutes until we have our first Patty v. Claire showdown (which MGH has called the "battle of the Manolos" - that would Manolo Blahniks shoes for those just tuning in and NOT necessarily obsessed with Sex and the City).

On the Ellen front this week ... let's just say Frobie has a big bullseye on his back for which Ellen is aiming. However, being in cahoots with the FBI to take down Patty goes somewhat array seeing as Patty decides to start meddling handling Purcell's case, and thus, drops the infant mortality FBI set-up case in Tom's lap. But even with the Feds re-focusing on Tom, they can't quite get him to take the bait, be on the take and break the law by paying the "pretend" Plantiff up front. Thus, it's back to square one for the FBI.

Bummer for Ellen.

But hey, there's still her new grief group buddy Wes (played nicely by the always good Timothy Olyphant), who seems to have an arsenal of weapons secretly stashed in an armoire whilst simultaneously having some sort of Frobie voodoo shrine.

Soooo, is he Ellen's soul mate on the let's-kill-Frobie tip? Or a plant to get close to Ellen for some other sinister reason?

As if I could guess.

New episodes of Damages air Wednesdays at 10 p.m. on FX. To catch up on the Who, What, Where, When, Why and How of the show, head on over to the official Damages Web site.