What I’m Watching: Damages

Damages: Season 3, Episode 7 “You Haven’t Replaced Me” (B+)

Let’s hear it for the Ellen-Patty dynamic. After despising Ellen for the first two seasons of this show and not being as impressed with Patty as every other viewer of this show, I think I’ve finally come around to both of them, and I’m now extremely intrigued by their relationship. Despite the fact that Patty tried to kill her, Ellen trusts Patty and therefore comes to her with the information that she conceals from her boss (!) because she knows Patty will do something about it. Ellen lying to her boss was quite a shock, but his blatant outburst in which he proclaimed that he doesn’t care about the victims rightly made Ellen consider whether she was in fact doing the right thing. Ellen’s best line of the episode was “you hired someone; you didn’t replace me,” which provides the most sensible episode title this show has had in a while. Ellen’s power play with having her journalist friend write a profile about Alex just to have Patty find out and tell her “do yourself a favor – don’t talk to strangers” was pretty intense. Tom taking an international trip and trying to solicit bank information was also quite a step, and Patty heading down to join him signals that they’re really dedicated to this case, which shouldn’t come as a surprise considering her past efforts to win a case. It’s interesting to see more of Leonard’s past, and also to see how Danielle Marquette’s daughter is involved in all of this without really being aware of anything at all.