"Damages" Recap & Review - "I Hate These People"

Damages
“I Hate These People”

Original Air Date: October 9, 2007

Tom R - TwoCents Staff Writer

Two episodes left. Flashbacks are down to two days. And two characters meet untimely ends.

All this time I’ve been talking about “shining moments”. This is, without a doubt, a shining episode.

Last episode ended with blood on Patty’s shoe. This one opens with her frantically trying to clean it off in a poorly lit rest stop, and by the end of the episode, we know where it came from, and it’s not what we thought.

Present:
Not much this episode, other than Patty’s scene mentioned above. She also gets the message about Ellen’s arrest, which seems to surprise and unnerve her.

Past:
David and Ellen’s wedding plans are underway, but interrupted by Patty’s arrival. After reviewing the new leads on George Moore, she thinks Ellen is the only person who can reach him. She offers Ellen her old job. Ellen refuses, but agrees to meet with Moore. He refuses to hand over Frobisher, but offers her someone else, arranging a meeting the following evening. When Ellen arrives, she finds he has been shot dead. She takes something from his jacket pocket as she leaves.

Fiske receives a letter in the mail, just as he is being told by another attorney (Deadwood’s Garrett Dillahunt) that the senior partners are losing faith in Ray’s handling of the case. Ray is to let Marshall shadow him, and turn over all materials relating to the case.

Ellen passes Patty the materials she took from Moore’s body. They document Fiske meeting with Gregory Malina. From this, Patty manages to connect the dots and find the transactions where Fiske transferred stock to Gregory. She blackmails him into going to trial and throwing the case. He calls Frobisher and tells him that the letter he received was from Gregory, and ends the call by saying, “It’s over.”

Ellen and David begin receiving wedding gifts, including one from psycho Lila, at which point Ellen calls her and leaves the message that Lila had played for the police a few weeks back.

Minor weak point: She gets the number from David. The words “How come you still have her number?” never cross her lips. Implausible, but we’ll go with it. Believe me, the rest of the show makes up for it.

We quickly see the fight between Ellen and David, as she takes off the ring and walks out. Lila calls David, but he tells her to stop calling and throws the phone against the wall. As Ellen exits, we see Katie in the shadows, heading up to the apartment with Greg’s video.

Fiske meets Patty at her office in the early morning. She tells him that if he agrees to the blackmail terms, she will hire him at her firm. Fiske considers the offer, and reluctantly agrees. He exits her office broken and defeated, only to return a moment later. He puts a gun into his mouth and pulls the trigger, and we see one drop of blood land on Patty’s shoe, completing a loop that ties back not just to the opening of the episode, but the closing shot from last week.

Promos for next week say the past, present and future collide. Should be a great finish.

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