‘Damages’: Ellen is Tommy’s girl?

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Wow, so this week’s episode of ‘Damages’ was not for casual watching. If you turned away, you missed some important detail.

This week, I’m going to focus on relationships, because this episode opened up a can of worms in the relationship department that affected all the other mysteries.

Ellen and Tom. Really? This was the most striking bombshell of them all. I feel we’ve all been asking the wrong question. All this time, we wondered what kind of relationship the homeless man had with Tom. Now, we find out that we should have been asking what kind of relationship did Tom and Ellen have? After all, her bag and his dead body were found at the same place. I think there’s still room for this to be a misdirect, because other than the homeless man calling Ellen “Tommy’s girl,” no other character has really said in concrete terms that they were fooling around. Even in the flash-forward scene in which we see Ellen ask his wife if anyone else knew about her and Tom, it wasn’t that specific. Am I being naive here?

By the way, was I the only one who didn’t see the new plot twist with Tom losing his and his family’s money to Tobin? Maybe, I didn’t expect it, because it felt a little too convoluted in my opinion. I understand it’s supposed to add a new dimension to his quest against Tobin, but I just thought it was jarring story-wise. We also found out that Tom didn’t die from the three punctures in his body but by drowning. The shots of future Ellen at the bridge would seem to foreshadow that she knew of his drowning. So, who would want to make Tom’s death look like a murder by stabbing? Is someone trying to frame Ellen for his murder?

Tobin and his mistress, Danielle: I wasn’t sure why Tom cared about those boots, but now we knew they had Tobin’s initials on them, and he put two and two together. After tracking them back to the store where they were made, Tom found out that Tobin had purchased thousands of dollars in clothing for someone with the initials DMM. He hit a wall, so he asked Ellen to look into to it for him using the D.A. office’s tools. She found a woman named Danielle.

After Patty told Joe Tobin about Danielle, he went to his father to get confirmation. That ol’ rascal. He admitted to having an affair and keeping her at his daughter’s house. Joe, who we learned early in the episode was an alcoholic, then went to see Danielle. Angry and drunk, he caused a scene at her house. When he got back into his car, Danielle realized her cat had gotten outside. As she was running out to fetch it, Joe drunkenly backed into her with his car.

Meanwhile, Tobin was in the process of sending Danielle out of the country. Boy, this little accident is definitely going to complicate things for the Tobins. And the big question remains: Does Danielle know anything?

Patty and Phil: It seems like their divorce will be ongoing throughout the season. Was anyone else glad Patty didn’t accept his offer to work on their relationship? How awesome was her rebuff of him: “If you need companionship, I can give you the name of a great breeder.”

What did you think of the relationships revealed this week and what they uncovered about Tom’s death or Tobin’s crime?

– Jethro Nededog (Follow me on Twitter @TheRealJethro)

Related:

‘Damages’: Rose Byrne on the evolution of Ellen

‘Damages’ premiere: Tom pays the ultimate price for success

All ‘Damages’ coverage on Show Tracker

Tate Donovan as Tom Shayes on ‘Damages.’ Credit: Eric Liebowitz / FX.