What I’m Watching: Damages

Damages: Season 4, Episode 2 “I’ve Done Way Too Much For This Girl” (B+)

Things are getting typically dark on this show as some major developments occur in this season’s strong second episode. The most surprising act is Ellen’s purposeful duplicity, hiring one of her classmates to come scare her while she’s sitting with Patty to encourage Patty to offer her assistance to Ellen in trying the case against High Star. That’s a level to which Ellen had not previously descended, but it’s clear that her commitment to this case has also strengthened her resolve. It was refreshing also to see her take a stand and chew out her boss rather directly and sternly for not taking the case. If only she had gotten her point across sooner, before Howard paid an unexpected visit to Sanchez’s apartment and Boorman orchestrated an entire fabricated plot against him to convince him to reenlist and head back to Afghanistan. Finding out that AC is fully in league with Howard is unsettling, and it would seem that putting Sanchez out of his misery would be easier and more fitting than stringing him along a fake hunt for revenge in Afghanistan. I was amused by many of Patty’s scenes in this episode, most notably those with her therapist, played by Fisher Stevens, well known for producing “The Cove” and for guest starring as Phoebe’s obnoxious boyfriend Roger on “Friends.” Her version of the story of how her doorman Perry’s nose got broken was also rather hilarious, as was his rather unexcited visit to Patty’s apartment to make a delivery.