- Share This Post
- Pin It
- 0
-
Sparkle (0)
Cross Posted At Megan's Minute
The opening theme song of the FX show "Damages" says: "When I get through with you, there won't be anything left." That's the show in a nutshell. The "I" is cutthroat New York attorney Patty Hewes and the "you" is anybody in her immediate vicinity. Deliciously played by Glenn Close, Patty is a manipulating virtuoso in high priced pumps. Think Alex Forrest of "Fatal Attraction" meets the Marquise Isabelle de Merteuil of "Dangerous Liaisons." Like Alex Forrest she has no problem hurting defenseless little animals (poor Saffron) to reach her goals, and like the Marquise her machinations and their results are her prime source of entertainment. 'Cause make no mistake Patty Hewes loves to win, but she loves jerking people around even more.
I'll be recapping "Damages" every week for the length of the series. The following are recaps of the first two episodes and they're chock full of spoilers:
Episode 1: The Pilot
From the opening visuals showing a sepia washed New
York City and a dazed and bloody young woman, barely clothed, running
from an elevator and down a New York City street, we're thrown into this show head first. The woman is Ellen Parsons (Rose Byrne) and the next
thing we know she's in a holding room at a police station wondering what the hell happened to her life.
We flashback six months for the answers. There's the fresh faced, non-bloody Ellen Parsons being made a fabulous six figure offer by Hollis Nye (Philip Bosco)
attorney at law. He concedes his failure to hire her when he finds out she's got an interview with Patty Hewes and immediately deduces Ellen will go to work for her instead. He's nice enough about it but tells her she'll be sorry. For good measure, he has Ellen sign the back of one of his cards. Above her signature he
writes "I was warned," and says he did it so his conscience will be clear when she goes down in flames.
The first time we meet Patty she lies her way into a settlement with an opposing attorney. She gets him to agree to her settlement amount by letting him think a verdict has already been reached. After he tells the judge they've agreed to an amount, he
discovers the jury was out to lunch and hadn't reached a verdict at all.
Pissed that he's been duped he says, "Patty if you were a man I'd
kick the living dog-sh**t out of you." She shoots back with a tight
smile, "If you were a man, I'd be worried." It's a classic Glenn Close
line delivered in a deliciously Glenn Close way and I laugh every time I hear it.
After Nye's warning Ellen meets Patty's flunky Tom Shayes (Tate
Donovan), who immediately tells her that the only time Patty can
interview her is on Ellen's sister's wedding day...and she has to be
available all day. Ellen's appalled and reluctantly turns down the offer.
So our character lines have been drawn. Ellen's a sweet but ambitious
woman who puts family above all else and Patty is a barracuda who'll do
just about anything to get what she wants.
At the infamous wedding, who shows up but Patty herself. She toys with
Ellen just long enough to tell her she's been hired and let her think
it's because she's so wonderful and talented and blah, blah, blah.
What we come to find out however is that Ellen's newly engaged to a
young doctor David Connor (Noah Bean) who's caterer sister Katie
(Anastasia Griffith) is a witness that Patty needs. You see, Patty's
representing some disgruntled employees (DE's) whose pensions
evaporated quicker than you can say "Enron" when their corporate head
honcho Arthur Frobisher, a white-haired and sleazy looking Ted Danson
ditched his own stock before the company's crash.
We're told the whole case turns on whether it can be proven that
Frobisher spoke to his broker during a certain weekend in Florida.
Guess who happened to be catering a party for Frobisher that weekend?
None other than sister Katie. And Frobisher loved her food so much he
bankrolled a restaurant for her as long as she kept quiet about it.
Ellen eventually figures this all out and correctly suspects it's the
main reason Patty hired her.
Flash forward to still dazed and bloody Ellen. Hollis Nye's at the police station
identifying her. The cops called him after his bloody "I was warned"
card was found in her pocket. So far Hollis Nye has been all
sympathetic uncle and everything, but personally I don't trust him.
Anyway the cops break into the apartment Ellen shared with fiance
David. They find a bloody engagement ring
