'Damages': When family is relative

This week’s “Damages” toyed with the idea of family. First, how does one define family? Then, who belongs to that group and who doesn’t?

Ellen gets disowned
When we last left Ellen, she was on her way to discover the woman from her dreams, Annie. In this episode, she finds her. I think she was going there fully expecting the woman to be her real mother. That would then explain why Ellen felt so different from the family she had always known. In the end, she found out that Annie wasn’t her true mother. Instead, she discovered that her mother had almost given her away when times were rough at home. I’m not sure what’s worse. I couldn’t quite tell what her emotional response was. Was she disappointed that Annie wasn’t her mother or relieved? Was she hurt that her mother tried to give her away or happy that her mother changed her mind? What do you think?

Then, when she heard about Tessa Marchetti's arrest, Ellen rushed to Patty’s apartment. There, she took the blame for Tom approaching Tessa, which really caused her to be found out at the district attorney's office and led to Tessa’s arrest. Now, Patty has said some mean things to Ellen, but this one takes the cake. She basically called her a ruthless, ambitious, backstabber. Um, projecting much Patty?

After that, her boss at the district attorney's office then placed Ellen on mandatory leave. Poor Ellen can’t catch a break. And while she found out her mother is really her mother in this episode, she lost her mother figure in Patty and her place within her new “family,” the district attorney's office. She then started talking to dead people. This begins to set up the flash-forwards we’ve seen of her and Tom creating their own law firm.

Patty’s empty nest

After telling Ellen off, Patty receives an interesting confession from Tom. He tells her that Ellen was covering for him and that he had been the one to approach Tessa against her orders. As if finding out that she had just disowned the wrong “child” wasn’t enough, Tom adds some mutiny to his confession before he leaves. Later, while working with new associate Alex, Patty thinks of Ellen and what she said about not liking Alex, then suddenly Patty fires the baffled attorney. Patty’s pattern of pushing away those close to her continues. Not to mention she hasn’t found out yet about another loss in her close-knit group.

Marilyn shows her cards

Joe Tobin reaches a whole new level of low in this episode, but it was Marilyn Tobin who finally showed just what she’d do to protect her family. When Joe finds out that Tessa had been arrested, he goes into a panic. No matter what Mr. Zedeck or Leonard says to him, he just won’t believe that Tessa is on their side. Leonard has no choice but to ask Marilyn to intervene. It turns out that Tessa isn’t Louis’ daughter after all. She is Joe’s daughter and he doesn’t know it. Marilyn has known all along, though.

Meanwhile, Patty has made a deal with the district attorney's office for Tessa’s release. She then dispatches Tessa back to Antigua in order to grab the mysterious third page that she signs, which Patty believes is the key to figuring out how and to whom the money is being transferred back into the U.S. by the Tobins. Malcolm, Patty’s trusted thug, escorts Tessa on the trip. When she returns to the hotel room after successfully nabbing the transfer slip, she discovers a dead Malcolm. Then, she turns to find a man ready to put a bullet through her head. Patty doesn’t even know it yet, but she just lost another trusted associate and her star witness. I can’t wait to see the fallout in the next episode! Something tells me Carol Tobin has suddenly become more important.

The true treat of the night, though, was when we discovered that Marilyn had never told Joe that Tessa was his daughter and she allowed him to order her death. The look in her eyes was intense. I believe I called it last week when I wrote that she seemed to have some ulterior motive for befriending Tessa, but then I believed that she was Louis’ daughter. The fact that she participated in killing her own granddaughter was just pure evil.

It was exactly as Frobisher, who I’ve realized has been playing some kind of Shakespearean chorus to the action of this season, described in the car with the actor playing him: Marilyn was faced with the idea that someone could take everything from her and her family. That intense look in her eyes was her staring into the darkness.

With only two episodes left, how do you think Patty will react not only to the loss of Malcolm, but also her star witness, Tessa?

-- Jethro Nededog (Follow me on Twitter @TheRealJethro)

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Photo: Lily Tomlin as Marilyn Tobin in "Damages." Credit: Craig Blankenhorn / FX

Comments

[erica stephens]

Of course we don,t know how Ellen,s visit to the babysitter affected her,surprise? regret? sadness? relief? THe zombie only has one expression....."I have a stomach ache,perhaps I should eat something".I was hoping the attorney would have called and had Joe killed,he really is a creepy actor.

[bedtimeforbonzo]

"She then started talking to dead people."

Funny.

Actually, I thought the scene between Ellen and her dead fiance was affecting and showed Rose Byrne playing her at her blank-stare best.

For those of us who have complained that this season has been too slow-moving, we certainly can't complain about last night. It was one doozy after another.

Glenn Close's subtle yet frightening facial looks spoke volumes as she reacted to the separate "betrayal" speeches from Ellen and Tom.

Ellen sure was stand-up in taking a hit for Tom. Now the question becomes who puts out a hit on Tom -- Patty, right?

Patty firing Alex after complimenting her earlier in the episode and telling her to pick out whatever cases she likes was jarring, but made sense since we all know Ellen is Patty's girl. And, yes, Patty might be a sort of mother figure to Ellen. But I also think the commenter from earlier this season made a good point that their love-hate relationship has sexual overtones.

On the other hand, Ellen's dead boyfriend summed up their attraction well when he said Patty and Ellen both despise bullies and enjoy taking them on.

See. After some intense Tobin stuff unraveled last night, I still find the Ellen-Patty relationship to be the show's most dynamic element.

And not to leave Tom out of the office politics, I don't think anyone has ever put Patty quite on the spot the way he did when he asked: "Have you ever lied to me, Patty?"

Patty hated being confronted with that truth. And while she doesn't like being lied to -- who does? -- I think what really set her off last night was the feeling that she had been played by Tom and Ellen, especially Tom.

Did anyone else think that after telling Ellen to get out of her apartment, Patty was going to hurl her whiskey glass at the front door of the empty, lonely apartment? Interesting that Close and the director chose to play that seen with a quiet rage instead.

One thing that seems forced, or rushed, to me is Tom and Ellen setting up their own law firm. I mean, with two episodes left, there seems to be a lot of ground to cover -- unless they've been talking about doing so already, and we just don't know that.

With Tom's impending death, it sets up nicely, if tragically, for Ellen to re-join Hewes if -- hopefully so -- "Damages" gets picked up for a fourth season.

And R.I.P. Malcolm. For a hired thug, you seemed like a good guy.

[Joanne]

I love how evil Marilyn Tobin turned out to be.

[tim]

i think rose byrne is a wonderful actress and---love ellen---fucking love patty hewes too--keeping fingers crossed for a season four.

[damages fan]

"Of course we don,t know how Ellen,s visit to the babysitter affected her,surprise? regret? sadness? relief? THe zombie only has one expression....."I have a stomach ache,perhaps I should eat something".

I'm sorry you see it that way, Erica. Some of us actually enjoy complexity and ambiguity in our art. I thought the babysitter scene was one of Rose Byrne's finest. Ellen's shocked reaction was so incredibly intense, I could not take my eyes off of her. Just before the scene ends and we cut to Patty, Rose -- with tears welling in her eyes -- does this amazing head shaking thing ... it begins as a sort of "yes, I understand" gesture (in response to the woman telling her that her mother loved her) but the head bobbing continues to an excessive degree that it's OBVIOUS Ellen is suffering horribly. She's clearly freaking out inside, but she doesn't wish to break down in front of a stranger.

I also LOVED the way Rose and Glenn played their painful scene together. It was all so restrained yet the emotions were off the charts. The scene was hard to watch because it felt so raw and authentic. Ellen cannot believe what she's hearing and when Patty calls her a parasite, you can see Rose reel back ever so slightly and swallow hard. It's the little details that make Rose so captivating and unique.

I don't know what kind of acting you're looking for, but I think calling the talented Rose Byrne a zombie is greatly unfair. Perhaps you simply aren't sophisticated enough to appreciate artists who opt for subtlety instead of hit-you-over-the-head soap opera histrionics. As far as I'm concerned, Byrne's intensity is undeniable and Glenn Close is out of this world.

Great show!!!