Damages: You Gotta Be Patient

The first episode of the second season of Damages leaves me with one big question. . .is this going to be like the first season of Alias when it was really, really good, or is it going to be like those later seasons when it really, really sucked?

There are some early positive signs. . .we’ve got a woman with a dead fiancé and a past attempt on her life who knows who’s responsible and wants revenge.  We’ve got Glenn Close being unscrupulous (not as unhinged as when she wouldn’t be ignored but almost as terrifying as when she tried to kill the puppies).  We’ve got last season’s bad guy, Arthur Frobisher, apparently feeling remorseful for last seasons’ misdeeds.  We’ve got a new potential plaintiff who apparently had his hand in some shady company research which may or may not be connected to the fact that his wife is now dead on the kitchen floor, apparently strangled.  Plus, Patty’s got a new business partner, a so-rich-he’s bored guy, who is too stupid to realize that Patty’s m.o. is to use you up and then sell your soul to the highest bidder.

What else?  Oh yeah, Ellen, Patty’s protégée who knows that Patty tried to have her killed?  She just shot someone, maybe Patty, at apparent point-blank range.  Twice.

The episode opened with Ellen talking to someone off camera, who we imagine must be tied up and gagged in some way.  Ellen is asking for this person to just tell her the truth.  The truth, I assume, is Patty is responsible for attempting to kill Ellen last season.   Or, the truth may be that Arthur Frobisher is responsible for killing David, Ellen’s fiancé, when a man hired by Frobisher broke into David & Ellen’s apartment and found David there.  Or maybe it’s some truth that we don’t know yet.  I expected the last scene of the episode would be a big reveal, revealing who Ellen was talking to, and, honestly, I thought it would be Patty.   Nope, we just saw her shoot whomever it is.

Twice.

So it can’t be Patty.  That’s too obvious!

. . . . .Right???

The show uses the same format it used last season, switching from present day scenes to flashbacks, fleshing out the story of how we got from there to here – here being Ellen shooting someone twice – from where we were six months ago, when Ellen began cooperating with the FBI to bring down Patty.

Six months ago, Patty, either due to a guilty conscience or as a new avenue to power (or both) is starting a charitable foundation, aided with the money of her friend, Sam Arsenault.  When Arsenault pulls out of the foundation so that he can run for office, Patty leaks news of his daughter’s coke habit to the press, thus killing his political career and forcing him to redeem himself by. . . donating money to Patty’s foundation.

I’m thrilled to say Ted Danson is back.  After last season’s shot to the gut, the writers were free to kill him off.  Luckily, Danson’s not doing anything else, so Arthur Frobisher lived through the gunshot, and we learn that he’s been at an undisclosed medical facility ever since.   At one point, Danson calls himself “the most hated man in America” which got me thinking. . .is George Bush not president on this show?

A new guy, apparently old friend (former love interest?) of Patty’s sends a package to Patty, asking her to keep it safe.  This guy, named Daniel Purcell, is played by William Hurt, who looks exactly the way William Hurt always looks -  beleaguered.   He wants Patty’s help, but Patty’s reluctant, though she might change her mind, as it appears bad guys have broken into Purcell’s house and killed his wife.  Methinks Purcell will need a defense lawyer.   And Patty has never met a high-profile trial that she couldn’t get off on – I mean, that she could refuse.

Meanwhile, Ellen’s in group therapy.  She’s learning to handle her anger at Arthur Frobisher.  A fellow group member, whose name according to IMDb is Wes Krulik, but because I am an eternal fan of Timothy Olyphant, I will call him Hot Guy From Go, tells her that maybe she should buy a gun and shoot him instead of this getting over it crap.  She thinks about it, even finds Frobisher and visits him in the hospital while he’s sleeping, but ultimately decides that vengeful violence just isn’t her style.

Which is apparently going to change, because she, you know, shoots someone in cold blood six months later.  Twice.

But back to six months ago time, Patty is having recurring nightmares about her former opposing attorney’s suicide in her office.  She meets Ellen for a drink and tells her about her stillborn child born years ago, yeah yeah yeah, blah blah blah, watch season 1 to find out that story.  A bugged Ellen, who expected Patty to make another, much bigger confession, is a bit disappointed, and in a conversation with the FBI guys later, learns from them that it could take 2 or 3 years before they have enough to build a case.  The FBI guys tell Ellen, “You gotta be patient.”

Well, I suppose I have to be as well.  Cause I wanna know who Ellen shoots, and I wanna know NOW.  Patience has never been my virtue.  It’s why I hate Lost.  And bringing in a bunch of interweaving super-conspiracy bad guys is exactly what sunk Alias in the end, which is why I’m worried about these new possible baddies Purcell and Arsenault.  Already Frobisher feels a little superfluous – what do we even need him for?

But I’m watching.  Cause Ellen is pissed, and, right now at least, revenge looks fabulous on her.

Season 2, Episode 1: I Lied, Too (originally aired January 7, 2009)

For another take on this episode, check out Starting Off with a Bang by Kaitlyn Edsall.

For more on Damages, click here.

Wednesdays at 10pm E/P on FX

Photographs courtesy of FX and IMDbPro