What I’m Watching: Damages

Damages: Season 3, Episode 6 “Don’t Forget to Thank Mr. Zedeck” (B+)

This episode really spotlights some stellar performances all around. To start, we get a real glimpse at how Tate Donovan’s Tom begins to unravel as his friend drones on and on about how much money he’s spending and he presents his career to his daughter’s class. Tom has also been sort of a sideline character without much true importance, and throughout this season he has had a bigger role since it was revealed that he meets his demise six months in the future. His detective work to determine thee role of Danielle’s daughter in ferrying money from country to country was impressive, but I’m understandably worried about how he’s going to utilize that information. The revelation that Danielle died the same way Louis Tobin is a major shock, and the doctor’s reaction to it was staggering, especially considering how much he was stonewalling and keeping the truth from his interviewers. Campbell Scott does an incredible job of delivering all of his lines subtly but emphatically. Dominic Chianese (“The Last New Yorker,” “The Sopranos”) is another fearsome presence excellently cast in the role of Tobin’s money laundering partner who doesn’t quite see eye to eye with Joe. And then there’s the welcome return of Keith Carradine as an architect who may just have been a bit too forward with Patty in the season premiere. Wallace Shawn is also a fantastic choice to play the oily embezzler already in jail, and I really thought that Patty had sent Alex in as his conjugal visit, not just to indulge him in a truly bizarre forbidden delight.