Damages: Whaaaaa?

Ellen finally (finally!) sleeps with Wes.  Which wasn’t nearly as hot as it should be.  I blame Rose Byrne.  She can pull off smart ingénue, and even smart, vengeful ingénue, but ultimately, playing sexpot with questionable instincts is really beyond her capabilities.  Perhaps she should ask her peer, Anastasia Griffith, who pulled off sexy-woman-making-bad-decisions so well during season 1.

Then again, maybe I’m being a little tough on Byrne.  It’s just that, in an episode where not a lot of the plot gripped me, I was really hoping that the sex would be worth it.  The opening scenes clued us in that this was going to be the episode where Ellen and Wes would get it on – the previouslies showed us the scene where Wes asked Ellen out, and we saw Ellen’s shrink informing her in private that she and Wes should attend separate therapy sessions from now on because they were getting too close.  Which, in television thriller speak, is code for this couple will totally get it on by episode’s end.

Did you really believe Ellen when she told Wes to (paraphrasing)  Go ahead!   Call Katie and ask her out!  I totally don’t mind!  Me, jealous?  Of course not!  I’m grieving over my dead fiancé whose murder I’m completely set on solving/avenging!  No time for love or hot sex for me!

So Wes asked Katie out, hoping to get info from her about how much Ellen knows about who killed David, (which he did, because Katie still makes bad decisions), but Katie hears Wes’s questions as evidence of his interest in Ellen.  Which, I can’t exactly blame her for, because if I were a girl out with a hot guy who was asking about another woman, I’d think he was into her and not that he was working for the guy who killed her fiancé and needs to know how much she knows about that guy.  I mean, that would take a pretty big leap.

Speaking of leaps, I really, really want Patty to take one.  Like, a big one.  One that would make her suspect the motives of her husband Phil.  This week Phil considers tossing his name in the ring for Energy Secretary, at Dave Pell’s suggestion.  But, the thing is, I have no idea how I can possibly believe that a man who has been married to Patty for who knows how long somehow doesn’t see that he’s being used as a pawn in Pell’s game.  I mean, Pell just gave Phil a tip on stocks in the energy market.  Now Pell wants Phil to run for energy secretary.  Pell has got to be setting Phil up – how does Phil not see this?

Meanwhile, Phil is pressuring Patty to drop the case against UNR.  Frankly, Phil’s whole role this season has me a bit flabbergasted.  I find it really hard to believe that Patty can be so unsuspicious of her husband – who we know is having an affair with someone in London – that she trusts him with so much information about the UNR case.  The whole thing makes Patty seem a bit dumber than I’ve ever believed her to be, you know what I mean?

But if I’m flummoxed by Patty’s marriage to Phil, I’m completely engrossed in her declared war against the FBI.  Ellen informed the two FBI agents she’s been working with that Patty blames the bureau for Pete’s death.  But, you see, that’s just the short story.  Patty has got it in her head that the investigation into her firm is linked in some way with what is going on at UNR, and so she’s not just declaring war against the FBI – she’s declaring war against the government itself.  And, I gotta say, I’m not exactly sure which side holds the smart money.

Because in yet another twist (and the one that caused the reaction in me described in this review’s title) we find out this week that the FBI has no record of the investigation into Patty.  At least not one accessible to the FBI agents working with Ellen.  Tom calls in a close contact of his to look into Patty’s file at the bureau, but the contact – his sister – found no file.  When Ellen asks the FBI a pretty legitimate question – Where’s the freakin’ file? – the agents give her a plausible explanation, and then immediately go to their boss to say, dude, where’s the freakin’ file?  And their boss didn’t have a good answer.  So. . .who exactly is investigating Patty. . .and could they be connected to UNR?

Other questions:  Exactly how crazy is Finn Garrity?  His reply to Pell’s request that he lay off the coke and whores (“If you know another trader who can do what I do, Mr. Pell, use him. Otherwise, stay out of my face.”) was kind of awesome, but he is definitely the wild card in Kendrick’s plan to rule all of the money in the energy universe (or something).  Also, what does Tom do that gets him fired from Patty’s firm?  (My prediction:  he talks to the cops.) And wasn’t it nice to see our old friend Sam Arsenault?  (Yeah, I didn’t care either.)

And finally. . .how is Wes going to handle Messer’s instructions to kill Ellen? I think we can be pretty sure he’s not going to do it –I think the guy who is working for the guy who killed Ellen’s fiancé might actually be falling for her  (but maybe I’m just a crazy romantic that way).  But he’s going to put a bullet in someone. . . any guesses on who?

I have my own opinion – why don’t you share yours?

Season 2, Episode 9: You Got Your Prom Date Pregnant (originally aired March 4, 2009)

For another take on this episode, check out All’s Fair in Love and War by Kaitlyn Edsall.

For more on Damages, click here.

Wednesdays at 10pm E/P on FX

Photograph courtesy of FX and IMDbPro