'Damages': Truth is relative

At this point in the game, how could we know anything for sure?

After last week’s episode of “Damages,” I believed that Joe Tobin had had an affair with Danielle Marchetti before she moved on to his father. Now, we know that’s not true. I also believed that if Danielle were to live, Patty Hewes could get her to sing like a canary after all that she had been through. I had no idea, then, that the show would kill off a major player in this season’s Ponzi-scheme mystery: Louis Tobin. That’s a complication that changes the game for Patty, Danielle and Joe.

Louis was also guilty of simplifying the game of “Damages” when he pieced together a plan to take his own life (quite elegantly with a cup of tea, I might add), apparently kill his unpredictable alcoholic son and presumably surrender the whereabouts of his fortune to Patty in a manila envelope. With senior Tobin out of the picture, we’re left to watch what happens with the remaining standing pieces in the show. How will they fall?

Joe Tobin narrowly avoided the hit his own father had placed on him. I presume senior Tobin was going to kill him. It sure looked like it. Instead, Joe tossed the alcohol aside, saving his own life, and then he went to visit his father on his last day of freedom. He would end up being the first to discover his father’s dead body and a manila envelope addressed to Patty. Again, we couldn't be sure whether that envelope contained the information she was looking for. What’s certain is it provides Joe with a decision. With his father gone, will he do the right thing with the information he possesses? Most signs point to no.

I say “most signs” because we once again saw the “good” side of Joe in this episode. He refrained from drinking while with his family, he came off as a good-natured parent, and he visited his father despite originally not wanting to. It seems that his weakness lies in making decisions when the morality of the situation isn’t so cut-and-dried. That could have been a side effect of the statement Mrs. Tobin made in this episode to Louis. She said, “You never let him be his own man.”

For Patty, the game also has changed. All the work she did to pull off a very effective mind trip on Louis Tobin in this episode’s heated Q & A seemed to have gone to waste. Now, she’ll have to get one of four people to crack: Joe; Tobin lawyer Leonard (whom Martin Short has made into a frightening character); Mrs. Tobin (Lily Tomlin); or Danielle, the mistress. Needless to say, if you were wondering if any of the aforementioned “B” characters were going to become more important, we can assume that they are.

Flash forward five months and Patty will have Tom’s murder to deal with. It’s still unclear how much, if anything, she had to do with it. In her last future scene, we see her berating someone on the phone for going forward on a plan she had ordered to be stopped. Could she, like she had done previously with Ellen, have planned to kill Tom at some point and changed her mind?

Like I said, it’s almost impossible to make real conclusions at this point in the season. It’s fun to speculate, though. Isn’t it?

– Jethro Nededog (Follow me on Twitter @TheRealJethro)

Related:

"Damages" Campbell Scott: "Bad is good and good is bad"

"Damages": Sins of the father

All "Damages" coverage on Show Tracker

Photo: Len Cariou, on left, and Martin Short on “Damages.” Credit: Craig Blankenhorn / FX

Comments

[Erica Stephens]

Why do the writers insist on the constant very annoying flash forward.The story line is terrific,and can stands on it,s own in real time.I did notice they gave the Zombie,Ellen a few more lines and she actually smiled....perhaps they filmed after lunch.

[tim]

i love the flash forwards--without them i don't think damages would be quite as good---and i'm not sure if tobin ordered a hit on his son---it did look like that, but we didn't see a gun, right? maybe the surveillance guy was just going to haul him off to rehab if he continued drinking?

[bedtimeforbonzo]

New here.

I agree that "Damages" could stand on its own without the flash forwards. The story is rich and complicated on its own merit. But the flash forwards certainly make the show all the more entertainingly maddening.

So stimulated by last night's episode, I just went Googling for message boards (surprised not to find many) and saw at one other place before coming here the conclusion drawn that Louis had ordered a hit on Joe, via Lenny. This really struck me. I thought Joe was going to be hauled off to alcohol rehab.

In that riveting scene, I thought Martin Short was sensational. Looking at his distorted images on the varied TV screens -- even making a goofy face, which delivered a sort of inappropriate kick -- was devilish and inspiring. Thinking backed to the whole warped suspense, I think Joe was spared death. (Just wondering: Is it possible Short improvised that scene?)

My final thought was one thing that struck me most about last night's show, the showdown scene betwee Joe and Patty. I thought Len Cariou pulled off quite a feat, making his Bernie Madoff-type character sympathetic while Glenn Close seemed more villainous than usual. Cariou also pulled of his suicide with a certain dignified despair.