"Damages" Recap & Review - "Tastes Like A Ho Ho"

Damages
“Tastes Like A Ho Ho”

Original Air Date: August 14, 2007

By Tom R.
TwoCents Staff Writer

Sorry to leave this void for the past couple weeks. Some projects I had been working on bullied their way into Tuesday nights, and I wasn’t able to catch up during the week. Luckily I was able to catch them through Netscape.

Yeah, yeah…I know…“Interesting choice”.

The title comes from the beginning of the episode, with Patty’s flip reference to a Hostess snack cake whose name is frequently changed to avoid juvenile snickers. Oddly enough, it sets the tone for the episode, between sexual morays and temptation in general. The scene itself is a snack cake: Innocuous, kind of cute, disposable, but with a hook that draws you back later.

Present:
Katie identifies her brother’s body at the morgue. She wants to talk with Ellen, but the police will not let her. She learns that the engagement was called off, but she didn’t know. She tells the police that she and Ellen had a falling out and haven’t spoken for months.

Past:
Temptations abound as Tom is courted by a rival law firm with promises concerning his daughter’s future; David (Ellen’s fiancé…Don’t think I gave his name before) meets a cute relative of a patient he is treating; and Katie can’t keep away from Greg.

As Katie prepares her deposition regarding the Frobisher weekend, she recalls observing someone getting into a limo with Frobisher after she and Greg had been partying in a Florida nightclub. She draws a blank, but Greg recalls the name of the man, who was an assistant to Frobisher’s broker. Katie decides to use it in her deposition.

Great writing as Patty and Katie stage a mock deposition to prepare her for Fiske’s tactics. After almost cracking and being declared “not ready”, Katie gathers her resolve and tries again.

The shining moment (am I overusing that term?) comes as Katie is deposed by Fiske, and turns the tables on him by wearing her sexuality on her sleeve, not allowing him to trap her into admitting any “discrediting” trysts. However, the man who Greg fed to her was actually in Atlantic City, captured on an ATM camera at the time Katie says she saw him.

As Patty and Tom strategize Frobisher’s next move, we wonder even more about her motives and her strategy.

The key to Katie’s involvement is the man she saw as she lay on Greg’s couch in a drug-induced stupor.

Kudos also to the unorthodox version of “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” that closes the episode. Also glad that they don’t feel the need to close every episode with a quick-flash.
They’ve built up a substantial bag of tricks. Use them all!

Now… If you’ll excuse me, I’m off for a Ding Dong and a glass of milk.

Damages airs Tuesdays at 10 PM on FX and repeats immediately and during the week.

[image courtest of FX]