||SPOILERS|| I'm no longer sure if Rose Byrne is a good actress, or not. She certainly has a stock collection of reactions to whatever twist or revelation is thrown up each week; usually involving little nods, pensive smiles and a slightly ajar jaw. There's probably a fun drinking game in there somewhere...We're nearly at the finish, so at least now we're getting some actual answers -- even if they mostly serve to make you realize how season 2 clouded its story so everything looked a lot more complicated than it actually was. That happens when you throw a stack of new characters at the audience, all swimming around a prolepsis narrative, keeping secrets from each other...
The big developments, and my reactions:
- Okay, so... I totally missed the fact that Patty's husband Phil was being courted as Energy Secretary for the government, not UNR. This all makes sense to me now (as I couldn't understand why Patty was fine about her other half siding with the enemy in recent weeks!) Anyway, the real development here is that Patty discovers Phil's affair with a London-based businesswoman, thanks to Ellen secretly sending her photographic proof after chancing upon Phil and his new lover in a hotel lobby. Loved the fact all this coincided with Patty and Phil being interviewed about their perfect marriage to a magazine, and the quiet aftermath of Patty kicking Phil out -- as she sat alone in her bedroom, surrounded by clothes, Patty was only really upset that her husband was dumb enough to let her catch him out!
- Claire Maddox became an unexpected ally, after trying to oust Kendrick as CEO of UNR by getting his number two to supplant him at a board meeting vote. It doesn't work, and her own attempt to takeover UNR also crashes-and-burns, as Kendrick is too wily to be toppled by his conspiring lawyer. So, Claire meets with Patty and agrees to help her take Walter for every penny he has over UNR's pollution and market manipulation. And now she says Daniel Purcell's willing to be honest and won't be turned in the courtroom.
- We finally learn that the GPS inputting of coordinates in a stationery vehicle was a means to communicate to someone in secret. I guess I never realized sat-navs could talk to one another to make that connection.
- Ellen is told that one of her FBI handlers, Agent Harrison, "killed himself" (he musta had demons, is all Agent Werner can say), and flashforwards appear to confirm that Patty really was shot and Ellen is quickly arrested by Wener for the deed. I somehow doubt Patty won't survive (Damages revolves around Glenn Close, after all), but I think we can safely assume season 3 will feature a big shake-up -- which I'm all in favour of. The Ellen/Patty goings-on had too much baggage this year. I still find the inclusion of Frobisher and the interminable attempt to make someone pay for Ellen's fiancé's death a real bore. It feels so unrelated to the UNR stuff, as if they have no confidence in their new storyline, so have to keep elements of the old one alive.
Just two more episodes to go, and I'm certainly interested to see where this all ends. I have a suspicion season 2 will look incredibly convoluted in retrospect because, well, it already does... but I want to see who lives, who dies, why Tom gets fired, if Wes will shoot Ellen, etc. But, please, I hope the finale wraps up the whole season 1-2 story and we start afresh next year. For me, Damages dropped the ball this year.
26 April 2009
BBC1, 10.25pm
Writers: Todd A. Kessler & David Zelman
Director: Andy Wolk
