[SPOILERS] I'm incredibly late with this assessment of Damages' penultime episode of a rather laborious second season. To be honest, I don't have the enthusiasm for the show to write a lot. Suffice to say, "Look What He Dug Up This Time" delivered some overdue answers...Recap: Wes decides not to kill Ellen. Whilst trying to cover up evidence linking him to the murder of his wife, Daniel offers to help Patty with her lawsuit against URN. Ellen suggests that the FBI go after Tom and thinks she might have been wrong about her boss all along. However, when Ellen convinces Tom to wear a recording device to trap Patty, he is fired before he has a chance to reveal Patty’s bribery plans. Finally, Daniel turns himself in for his wife's murder not realising that it was Kendrick’s men who killed her all along.
So, yeah, a few big events. I particularly liked Daniel's phone-call to Kendricks, where he gave a weird speech about spending eternity in Hell unless he repent for his sins, before owning up to his wife's murder. And, while making Daniel "guilty" of spousicide was a twist we'd suspected for a very long time, I was glad UNR weren't let off the hook... as the "cleaner" they sent Daniel noticed his wife was still breathing, but killed her anyway. Orders, eh? Cold, very cold...
It was also fun seeing Tom discover Ellen's been helping the FBI all along, before he's forced to dance to their tune, or else risk missing the birth of his son and a future with his family. You can't help but find Tom very sympathetic,, can you? He's possibly the most sympatheic character in the show!
Am I excited about the finale this Sunday? Well, no. But I'm sure we'll get good resolution and there may be a few more surprises in store. I don't want to drone on about this, but I still consider Damages' second season a big let-down. I just didn't find the year's case anywhere near as interesting or compelling as season 1's, ultimately. But, I didn't hate it enough to stop watching, and I'm sure the writers will approach season 3 knowing what worked, what didn't, what went wrong, and why the storyline just didn't click.
3 May 2009
BBC1, 10.20pm
Writers: Daniel Zelman & Glenn Kessler
Director: Matthew Penn
