Damages – Cops storm Patty’s office, Wes gets creepier

(Season 2, Episode 2 – “Burn It, Shred It, I Don’t Care”)

“I think anyone is capable of anything.” – Patty to Ellen, when asked whether Daniel is capable of killing his wife

Holy cow. All I can say is, thank God for TiVo, because you need it with a show like Damages. This show has more twists and turns than an episode of Highlander. And never ever underestimate the street-smarts of Patty Hewes. Just when you think she’s in the dark, she turns around and reveals that she knows exactly what’s going on, when it’s going on, and with whom.

First of all, she knows that Daniel Purcell isn’t telling the whole story. I don’t know how she knows, she just does. If she could package and sell her Lie-o-Meter, she’d make a billion dollars and be able to retire from that stressful law business. Except she wouldn’t, because she loves all the deceit and corruption so much.

We know that she leaked the report to Jacobi, because it was the only way to expose the identity of whomever commissioned the Arocyte report: Claire Maddox, head council of the world’s third largest energy provider. There’s your murderer, Patty tells Daniel. They’re the ones who killed Christine.

But wait! What’s up with Claire getting in the car with Daniel at the end of the episode and saying, “Did you tell anyone about us?” So … are they having an affair? Are they working together to bring Daniel’s company down? Let’s work it out here.…

Daniel previously told Patty that his firm was hired to do toxicity studies on the chemical compound called Arocyte. Whomever commissioned it pressured his firm to doctor the results, but they kept his name on the report. His firm warned him to keep his mouth shut, except they’re not big enough to be calling the shots. They consult for the energy industry, for companies that are worth billions of dollars. But he can’t go public with it, because his wife was murdered and he has a daughter to protect. And, well … something else going on with Claire.

When Patty asks Daniel what she should do with the box of paperwork he gave her, he says, “I don’t care. Burn it, shred it, I don’t care.”

Meanwhile, we’ve got all these stories that I’m sure will eventually converge at some point. Ellen is still working with the FBI and pushing the infant mortality case, only now it seems like the case is dead in the water, since Patty pulled Tom off it right before he paid Monique $60K — a meeting the FBI was listening in on.

Does Patty know that Ellen is working with the FBI? Does she know that the infant mortality case was a setup instigated by the FBI and that Tom was on the verge of being taken down, but she pulled him off the scent when he was meeting with Monique because she needs him around? Because we know that Patty had the office bugged, so she pretty much knows everything, including Tom’s $60K deal with Monique.

Things are getting more interesting with Wes, a.k.a. Group Therapy Guy. You knew that things weren’t what they seemed with him, even last week. But now we know he’s got newspaper clippings of the Frobisher case papering his closet walls, along with an impressive arsenal of weapons. I’m guessing he really wants Ellen to kill Frobisher, but why? What’s his connection? I noticed that one of the clippings had this headline: “Medical Resident Slaying Still Unresolved.” So perhaps he has some connection to David.

Flash-forward six months, and Ellen and Wes are in bed together. She answers the phone and has to leave, and he presses her about who was on the phone. “There are things in my life I can’t talk about,” she says.

More thoughts:

What do you think Purcell was burning at the end? It looked to me like a flash-forward. I’m guessing it was either the paper that Patty gave him that confirmed Ultimate Natural Resources as the company behind the studies, or the box of paperwork detailing the studies that Daniel sent to Patty in the first episode. And if that’s the case, then the cops didn’t actually confiscate them when they stormed into Hewes & Associates on the seizure order that came from Claire Maddox.

Could the acting creds in Damages be any better? Hypothetical question, because with Glenn Close, William Hurt, Marcia Gay Harden, and the rest of the cast, the answer is no.

In a flash-forward six months, we see Tom retrieving a gun from a warehouse and giving it to Ellen in a car. I’m guessing this is the same gun she uses to shoot someone after she says, “I lied, too.”

When Claire goes to see the judge to have him sign the preliminary relief for immediate seizure of property … upon hearing that it’s Patty Hewes, he grabs the pen and signs it in a frenzy (too funny). Then, when the cops storm into her office, they say they’re there to retrieve stolen documents. Was it the box that Daniel sent to Patty, or perhaps something else? And did Patty have time to stash it somewhere? And back to my question: Is that what Daniel was burning at the end of the episode in the possible flash-forward?

When Daniel was leaving Patty’s office, and her son, Michael, was getting off the elevator, they looked at each other very weirdly. My first thought is that they’re father-son. Any thoughts on that?

So, now that I’ve theorized up one side of Damages and down the other, what are your thoughts? What do you think is up with Wes, and why is he stashing guns and newspaper clippings in his closet? What was Daniel burning at the end of the episode? What is Claire and Daniel’s history? And likewise with Daniel and Michael?

Looking forward to reading your comments!

Clacked by Jane Boursaw
on Jan 15, 2009 @ 20:31 EST5EDT