Damages – A ruby ring, a polygraph test, and a bunch of liars

(Season 2, Episode 3 – “I Knew Your Pig”)

Another mind-bending episode, where everyone seems to be lying about something. They should start cross-promoting this with House’s “Everyone Lies” theme. Let’s see…

Claire wants Daniel to tell her the truth. Instead, he says, “I had nothing to do with this.” Lies, all lies. We saw the flashback of Daniel and Christine arguing, so that’s pretty damning evidence that he knows more than he’s saying.

I’m starting to wonder if he really did kill her and is making someone else take the fall by insisting he didn’t. But then there’s that scene of the guy at the end taking Christine’s ruby ring to the pawn shop. Heck, maybe Daniel hired that guy to do the deed, then gave him the ring as a payoff. Huh? Whaddaya think of them apples?

Patty flat-out lied to Tom when she said she and Daniel were never involved. Of course, my suspicions from last week were correct: Michael is Daniel’s son. When Tom asked if there was more to their story, Patty said, “If there ever was, I’d tell you.” Her sly smile confirmed any lingering doubts that she’s not only a master lie detector, she’s also a master LIAR.

Even Michael thinks Daniel killed Christine. Maybe he’s inherited some of his mother’s lie-detection skills.

Meanwhile, Daniel tells Patty he’s withholding info from her, because he thinks once she gets the info, she’ll toss him aside like yesterday’s Law Review. It must be an awfully heavy bag of deceit these people carry around day after day. Trying to figure out what to tell and what not to, who to lie to and who not to … it must be exhausting. I don’t know how they get up every day.

And how dumb is Ellen to call Agent Harrison and LEAVE A MESSAGE on his answering service that she spoke with Hollis Nye and he thinks Patty paid off Purcell to tank his testimony on the case years earlier? Does Ellen know NOTHING about Patty’s machinations? Does she not know that Patty has eyes and ears everywhere? Patty is a master manipulator, and Ellen is just dumb to leave a trail. She should know by now that nothing is as it seems in her world. Oh, and by the way, I’ve been remiss in not mentioning until now how nice it is to see Mario Van Peebles.

Putting a few scenes with Josh in West Virginia is a new twist on things. Who do you think the guys were who worked him over and stole his evidence after making sure his jeep tire was flat? I don’t think they got the water sample, though. I’m guessing they work for Mr. Kendricks. But it appears that Josh and Ellen know each other, as evidenced by the last scene.

Other Stuff:

• Ellen asks Patty if she can sit in on the meeting with the detective and Daniel, and Patty says, “I’m not running a law school.”
• That was weird when Daniel told the detective, “There wasn’t enough time to steal anything. There was barely enough time to kill her.” It sounded like he had some inside info there. Like the guy he paid off that I mentioned earlier in this review. Maybe they had it all timed out.
• I’m surprised Patty hadn’t already unearthed the sealed restraining order that Christine filed on Daniel — the one the detective showed them at the meeting.
• Tom’s comment to Ellen, “It there’s anything we need to know, Patty will tell us. When she’s ready.” Riiiight…
• I bet there’s some ulterior motive behind Katy’s new boyfriend. He’s probably working for … someone.
• Love it when Patty made Daniel take a lie-detector test. Although, she already knows he’s lying. I guess she just wanted proof.

Clacked by Jane Boursaw
on Jan 22, 2009 @ 20:01 EST5EDT