What I’m Watching: Damages

Damages: Season 3, Episode 12 “You Were His Little Monkey” (B)

Everything was really building to quite a head for the whole of this episode, and I was drawn it until the last few seconds of the show featured some excessively brief and violent flashes of what’s to come next week in the show’s season finale. That’s the typical crutch that this show has relied on to sustain itself as a drama over the course of its first two years, and this season has strayed from that several times now. It’s a shame that it reverts back to old habits just when it was finally getting over them. It’s also strange that old elements are coming back into, like David and Wes, since there hasn’t been any mention of them, or Wes at least, since the beginning of the season. It feels at best like a distraction now, and it doesn’t seem like enough of a thread to set up for season four since it can likely be resolved more quickly. The way Patty handled Terry when he came to ask her about whether Frobisher was capable of murder was fascinating, laughing casually with him and telling him that it was impossible before looking into the possibility seriously. Patty’s horse dreams with Julian in them are getting weirder to be sure, especially since they’re now happening outdoors during the day. Joe really has become much more of a villain than it initially seemed, whereas Leonard is being made to seem far more innocent than he had previously appeared. The actions of Leonard’s father, however, indicate that perhaps he isn’t guilt-free. It actually seemed like things were looking up for Tom for a few minutes there at the end of the episode, but that’s clearly not the case. We’ll have to wait to see what happens until next week, and everything is sure to be crazy.