Damages: Paranoid Patty

Just to clear up something, back when I thought that Daniel and his wife had argued about his affair, I was wrong.  They argued about Daniel exposing UNR.  The late Mrs. Purcell threatened to come forward if Daniel did not.  Which answers my question from last week.  You know, the one where I wondered why Christine Purcell was dead.

Meanwhile in present day, Patty learns that UNR is attempting a big merger and figures that’s a good thing to stop.  She enlists the help of Doug Schiff, Deputy Director of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.  Schiff stalls the merger, apparently honestly; Patty didn’t even have to expose his child’s coke habit.  But Kendrick is not thrilled about the stalling, so accepts Dave Pell’s help, and I don’t know who in the world Dave Pell is, but he apparently is someone with political balls big enough to walk into Schiff’s office to discuss Schiff’s career, and get Schiff to go back on his word to Patty.

So Patty is pissed.  Her inroads keep coming to dead ends.  First Purcell, now Schiff. . .throw in her son’s desire for a relationship with Purcell and the revelation that her husband’s got a mistress in London, and this is one of her worst weeks ever.

Now, I have no idea – absolutely no idea whatsoever – what Mr. Patty Hewes’ chirpy in London is going to have to do with any of this.  I wouldn’t be surprised if Patty knows.  I mean, how can Paranoid Patty not know?

After all, this is the episode where she finally asked herself, why would Ellen come back to work for her after everything that transpired last year?  How could Patty not recognize the false cheer on Ellen’s face when she stepped back into Patty’s apartment for the first time since her attack?  The occasion was to celebrate Tom’s 10^th year at the firm.  (Really?  Ten years and he hasn’t made partner?  No wonder the dude is so insecure.)  Patty enlists her henchman, Pete, to make sure there aren’t any loose ends.  Pete in turn tells the guy who attacked Ellen, Patrick, to get out of town, because “my boss can never know about you.”  And that sentence has me now paranoid.  Patty doesn’t know about Patrick?  Precisely what does she think happened at her apartment?  At this point, I don’t even know if I know what happened at her apartment.  Which means that Ellen definitely doesn’t know what happened at her apartment.

And now I’m dizzy.

Not helping with the dizziness is Purcell, whose big reveal this episode was just confirmation of what we already figured out – Purcell was going to expose UNR, but then made a deal not to, but his wife decided she was going to, so he ok-ed his wife’s murder.  And to polish it off, he lied again to another government agency to help push along UNR’s merger.  Kendricks thanks him in a rather ominous scene taking place on the top of a building which I half-expected to end with Purcell taking a “fall.”  But no, Purcell is still with us.

Also still with us?  Timothy Olyphant!  I know I should be calling him Wes now, but Hot Guy from Go is so not a “Wes” that I’m going to have to kind of ease myself into it.  Anyway, he’s helping Ellen learn how to shoot a gun. . .and having her followed and reporting back everything he’s doing with her to someone we don’t know quite yet.  Actually, we do know, but since I was pretty surprised, I’m saving it until the end of this review.  We flash forward to Hot Guy from Go, okay, fine, Wes visiting Ellen in Room 1910.  Why is he there?  To hurt her?  To protect her?  Just to get some?  Don’t know, and I’m not willing to make a fool out of myself by guessing now.

In the present day, Patty asks Ellen some further questions about that infant mortality case Ellen brought to the firm a few episodes back.  Ellen, worried about Patty’s paranoia, does some quick talk to save the FBI’s investigation.  Her lie, that she told the FBI to “screw yourself” when the FBI sought her help was pretty convincing, but her suggestion that Patty think long and hard about who in the firm could be vulnerable to the FBI’s witch hunt was really genius.  You go Ellen!  Make Patty’s paranoia work for you!!  And while you’re at it, you should get a touch more paranoid yourself because. . .

That guy, Wes?  Sometime in the future, he’s going to shoot someone in the back of the head.  Don’t know who yet.  But after he does it, he’s probably going to report that he did it to a certain police investigator.  And that investigator should look familiar, because he’s the same guy who investigated David’s murder.  You know, the guy who was being paid by (dum, dum dummmmmm). . .Arthur Frobisher.

And that, ladies and gentleman, is what you would call dumping a vat of cornstarch into an already thickening plot.

Till next week. . .

Season 2, Episode 5: I Agree, It Wasn’t Funny (originally aired February 4, 2009)

For another take on this episode, check out Getting Lost by Kaitlyn Edsall.

For more on Damages, click here.

Wednesdays at 10pm E/P on FX

Photograph courtesy of FX and IMDbPro