Damages

When I first saw the promos for "Damages" I knew I was going to enjoy it. They were dark, piquant flashes of imagery that gave away very little but made me hungry to learn more.



From the opening scenes of the show, I knew it was going to be twisted and complicated. What I could not have guessed was how incredibly well-written it was going to be.



I also had no idea that Ted Danson would present such a multilayered villain as Art Frobisher. Or that Patty Hewes (played astonishingly by Glenn Close) would also end up being a villain as well. Things ended a bit better for her, but only for now.



After, it seems, she contracted a hit on her associate Ellen Parsons (played magnificently by Rose Byrne), she drove off to ... feel really bad about it. And to reconnect with a stillbirth she miscarried 35 years ago, lost very nearly as she came to term, so baby girl Julia Hewes had a significant impact.



What I did not connect was how this miscarriage 35 years ago had any impact on her current state of mind or the griefgasm she experienced and whether she blamed Frobisher for the loss somehow and that's what was driving her rage.



And I never got how Frobisher thought that that patch of land was going to be useful if he lost absolutely everything else. I know he had plans to develop it, but without a bunch of capital, that's all they are -- plans.



It feels like Hewes could've overlooked that weasel playing both sides of the fence. He was a desperate man in desperate circumstances and no, he wasn't even a little bit honorable, but from another perspective, he had a lot to lose and he wanted to make damn' sure his family was going to be looked after.



As for Ellen ... ahhhhhh ...



Little lamb ... when I am through with you, there won't be anything left.



As for Ellen, she grew up a lot in the course of a season. Patty was splashy and theatrical with the calling of hits on people's dogs and firing people for things over which they had no control and there was that whole thing with her son, but Ellen just had a simple dream she could've realized anywhere -- to out-earn her father with her first paycheck and to build a happy life together with her cutie fiance.



At first she represented nothing more than serendipitous access to Frobisher. And she made choices that invested her personally in the case. And what Patty never counted on -- that she was exactly as good as she is, and came with a sharp, incisive mind -- was what, in the end, gave her the clarity of vision to trust no one, connect actions with motives and, ultimately, to sign on with the investigators looking to bring Patty down.



Ellen became that most dangerous of all things -- indispensable. And for her, freedom became just another word for nothin' left to lose.



From the first image of her running through the streets covered with blood from her assailant and her fiance, it was pretty clear she was pretty tightly invested in what led up to that point. And what led up to that point taught her to trust in her own value, and the importance of leverage. So when she came into possession of a tape that would seal the case against Frobisher against a $2 billion settlement and beyond, she used it not only to get the charges dropped, but to make Patty need her.



Which, ultimately, will be her undoing.



Perhaps ...



After all, if this show has taught us anything, nothing is as it seems, so ... trust no one.



And from what I've seen of Patty Hewes, I almost feel sorry for her investigators.



Great work, everyone. So looking forward to Season Two. :)

This episode answer everything that we've been questioning the whole season... who's the killer? who told them to? they answer everything... and i was so relief that Ellen is not so clueless after all... like the title She Knows Patty....and Ellen knows to use leverage very well...she even told Patty how to use it to the DA... and also the 'bad' is punished... even the 'leak' on the case... i love the comment that Arthur made.."I made a big mistake that i might be paying for the rest of my life. I trusted too many people"...he's right... the end of the episode really interesting... so please make the second season i really love to watch it

After watching the series finale of Damages. I felt that it wrapped up somethings nicely and left me with questions unanswered. It wrapped up some of my questions on how Ellen got her job at Patty Hewes's law firm. It showed me that Patty had tired to kill Ellen (I said to everyone what about uncle Pete? and we saw his handy work). How David gets killed and why. What I missed was why Patty's son came back to the apartment and did not want his parents to know he came back.Why? what was his purpose? other things are unanswered but they really don't matter now. Gregory makes a tape and leaves it with David's sister, who gets the tape and gives to him so Ellen can get it to Patty. Ray Fiske kills himself in Patty's office why?



If there is a second season, I can see it's going to go in a new direction because Ellen will be working for the FBI because they want Patty. Patty has created Ellen in her image she thinks, and if there is a second season Patty will have to deal with a very diffrent Ellen. As I said the climax could have been better, but hey wait till next season???

I watched the entire 13 episode series in less than 24 hours. Maybe that's why this episode seems a little anti-climactic to me. All of the snippets they were giving us about the final episode from the very beginning were still extremely fresh in my mind when this episode aired. The thing with Patty's daughter in the final minutes seemed completely out of place for some reason. Overall, this has been a very exciting experience. The show has been renewed for two more seasons and I expect they will be great at shaking things up. I can't wait to see William Hurt join the cast.

I see that some of the other reviews of this episode note that it was anti-climactic, or slow, or not big enough for the finale. Half way through the episode, I agreed. But, by the time it was done, it did what t was supposed to do: leave me trusting nobody. All the way through the season, they hinted that Patty tried to have Ellen killed. But I never really wanted to believe it. There was always something about Patty that makes you want to find a redeeming quality in her, but you always come up empty handed. And even now, I'm really not sure what to think. Which, as I said, was pretty much the point. It was subtle, but brought the first season into a perspective that changed it from what we had been building up to. There was a sense that everything would explode leading up to the finale. But, it all resolved. And left us wondering.

Watching this first season of Damages, there were a lot of things that needed to be explained. This last episode explain them all in a very clear way. We are able to understand everything, all the secrets, all the deals, all the lies. An amazing season finale for a show that has been amazing episode by episode.

The last scenes, where we see the deal beetween FBI and the young talented lawyer, leave us with a lot of expectations for the next season. Patty's secrets will not be secrets any longer probably, but I'm pretty sure that she will answer back and we will see another incredible season of Damages. The battle is just began.

. I was frankly disappointed because even tho many of the loose threads were tied up, they were done so with a listlessness highly uncharacteristic of the series as a whole. I would also call the episode disjointed. It worked earlier to be running two timelines concurrently but here there were jumps all over the place this week and they were not woven together seamlessly as one would have hoped. And there are still a few questions that left me confused. What was Patty's son doing there at her apartment and why did he lie about it? Finally, why does Ellen think it was Patty who tried to kill her while believing it was Frobisher's goons who killed David. And Frobisher is shot, but did he die? Too many questions.

Because I know Patty, Ellen may be the only one who truly does and now that she knows Patty put out the hit on her she wantes revenge, and the FBI guys may be her chance.



But that's next season, this ep.



It tied up some lose ends. Ellen is no longer in trouble for killing her fiancee. The Frobisher case is over with interesting consiequences. THe most interesting thing however has always been the relationship between Ellen and Patty. And now it seems they both think they have the upper hand. Does Patty know Ellen is working to bring her down and does Ellen know what Patty is really capable of?



Boy I hope there's a season 2. I really like this show.