The Wonderful World of 'Damages'

By LillyKat
PTR Senior Staff Writer

Let's just start at the end, shall we?

It's Patty Hewes sitting prisoner in the chair, with Ellen perched to blow her brains out.

OMFG.

Somewhere in the back of my trying-to-figure-it-ahead-of-time mind, I thought this might - MIGHT - be the case. And even though I was actually leaning more towards Frobie, I nonetheless gave Patty an equal shot (no pun intended) at being sequestered by the vengeful Ellen. HOWEVER ... seeing it for the first time last night was a whole different ball of wax given we don't generally get Glenn Close completely terrified. Usually, she's the one doing the terrifying.

Argh!!! I now want to fast forward to the end JUST to see that confrontation.

And yet, this is the wonderful world of Damages: they leave you so tantalized with their slow-burn reveals that you can hardly stand to sit through the season. And even with their more deliberate pacing this year, they have still managed to brilliantly build a momentum toward what we know will be a can't-miss-it finale.

Each week just gets better.

But can I just say I was kind of bummed (though not all that surprised) Frobie decided to turn back to his dark side. Yes, I know ... wishful thinking on my part to think that he'd ... uh, remain all yogi and at peace with himself. Still, he was starting to be kinda charming in that way.

Oh well.

I really now want creepy detective dude to just.go.away.

Ugh.

When he went to visit Frobie's spiritual advisor, and he took the bunny to pet ... sheesh, I thought he was going to break its neck or something.

And now we know Wes is officially on HIS payroll.

Double ugh.

I guess the only comfort I can take from this is Ellen seems to be have a lot of power and control in the "ending" flashforwards, so maybe she will get the better of him?!?!

Fiancé doc David made an appearance this week - albeit as a figment of Ellen's imagination. It was so goodly and cute to see him again. Why oh why did Noah Bean have to be offed in the first season?!?!?!?

Oh, that's right - because it made for a compelling storyline.

Fine, okay.

And now we have the secret red folder "ELLEN PARSONS" in Pete's mystery file cabinet, which serves as the motivating factor to have Ellen opposite Patty in that "showdown."

Do we get to see what's in that folder now?

Of course not.

It's too early in the season for that.

But we won't be seeing Pete anymore - except perhaps in flashbacks. Can you believe one of his own guys offed him? Wow.

The closing gotcha phone call sequence whereby Patty learns of Pete's death completely reminded me of Silence of the Lambs. Remember when the FBI agents are ringing the doorbell of the house that you, the viewer, SWEAR is Buffalo Bill's? It cuts to him being downstairs in the basement, trying to get dressed to come up and answer the door, only to then have it be revealed the FBI was at the WRONG house, and the Jodster (yes, my short hand for the awesome Jodie Foster - who was Special Agent One of Kind Clarice Starling) was actually at the RIGHT house.

Genius.

But then again, this is the wonderful world of Damages, isn't it?

Next floor, please.

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. You can also download full episodes of the show over at iTunes.