Damages Episode Recap: "Hey! Mr. Pibb!"
This week on FX's Damages, Ellen and Tom hit the road, Michael learned the truth, and Purcell had a big surprise for Patty. On with the (belated) recap!
Sorry for the 24-hour delay here, gang, but I figured better late than never. Truth is, regular Damages recaps might be hard to come by from here on, though I'll try to find a sub. But enough mea culpa-tude, how about this episode?! I have to say, ever since we saw that Daniel was "in bed with" Claire (at least figuratively), I was wondering if he was going to pull on Patty what he pulled during the 10-years-ago IBC case. Well, more on that later. From the top....
We pick up with Purcell in his country home kitchen, washing dishes while (alive) wife Christine begs him to come out and "play" with her on the swings. Daniel, though, is intent on scrubbing his plates clean, leaving his wife vulnerable to an intruder who, well, we can only imagine. And ... end dream/nightmare, as Daniel wakes up in prison in a sweat.
Patty tells Ellen about the reporter, Josh, who has gone missing in West Virginia. Ergo, Ellen and Tom are "Road trip!"-ing down to find him. Ellen, never forgetting to take her stupid pills, balks, promoting patty to snip, "The next time I give you an assignment, just nod your head and get it done." That tees up a five-month flash-forward where Ellen is visited at home by a person (in women's boots?) carrying money. Cut to shots firing from Ellen's gun, and Ellen dashing out of her apartment toting the money-filled briefcase.
Another World's Cass Winthrop (aka Stephen Schnetzer), on behalf of the D.A's office, warns Patty that a strong case against Purcell is building. Creepy detective guy then gets snarky with patty about the missing not-diamond-but-ruby ring. "Find the ring," Patty urges them, "or I will." Sure enough, patty's security guy puts the word on the street.
The guy who pawned the ruby ring, Kevin, meets up with a strung-out, baby-toting lady friend who questions that he got just $300 for the ring. Apparently she has doctor bills to pay. She thinks Kevin is holding back, and leaves him. Kevin later shows up at his cousin's locksmith shop to say hi, yes, but also hold it up at gunpoint. That ultimately leads to his arrest, the discovery of his pawn shop ticket, Daniel's ID of him from a lineup 9as the guy fleeing his wife's murder scene), and then Daniel's release from the hoosegow.
Down in West Virginny, Tom apparently knows way too much about blugress-versus-oldtime country music. I can only imagine this knowledge will save someone's bacon down the road, a la My Cousin Vinny? No. Oh well. Tom and Ellen, in their travels, observe a very stinky, late-night bonfire. What's cooking? What's cooking, indeed.
Suttry and Mr. Kendrick hit the links, where the boss man gets debriefed by his security goon on the Josh situation. They need to find the water sample the kid stole from the run-off processor. Tom and Ellen, meanwhile, visit Josh's home, which has been ransacked. They then meet up with his editor, who is of no help at all and a terribly bad liar, claiming that Josh is out covering a sports event. He also claims that Josh's investigation into livestock mortality rates closer to the coal plant didn't have solid research behind it. "Josh is dead wrong about this," he tells them. "You two be careful down here." (Somewhere, a frightened Paula Abdul is writing a nasty letter to FX.) This awkward confab is observed by a barkeep who later snitches to Kendrick's goon.
Patty flashes back to 10 years ago, when Daniel had filed for custody of Michael. "You don't want to pursue this in court," patty told him then, "because I'll destroy you." Later, Patty tells Daniel she wants Michael to know the truth, and the men have a nice moment of bonding on the docks.
Claire meets with Kendrick, saying she thinks Suttry was involved in Christine's murder. Her advice: Cut all ties with Suttry. She then has to ask if the company at large was involved. Kendrick laughs off the claim, saying, "Absolutely not."
Live, from Damages, it's Darrell Hammond! And he's playing a tic- and mannerism-filled creepy dude who does not like the Asian masseuse tending to Suttry. Hammond's character, Walker, tells Suttry about Kevin getting pinched by the cops. "Do you have instructions for me?" he submissively asks. "Drive out to Attica," he is ordered.
Still in West Virginia, Tom leaves Patty a voice-mail update, then gets a tad too buzzed over finding Mr Pibb in a motel vending machine. Ellen, upstairs, is sneaked up on and startled by ... Josh. Josh informs them that the nightly fire is dead livestock, and that there's a 30-percent increase in the mortality rate near the coal plant. The human leukemia rate is off the charts, as well. He shows them the water sample he got, as Kendrick's goon looks on.
At Attica, Walker instructs a corn rowed inmate to "deliver a message." Scenes later, newbie Kevin is shivved in the courtyard, ostensibly to keep the depth of his involvement in the murder a secret. This happens just as Patty urges Cass Winthrop to delve deeper into the Purcell murder case, suspecting that Kevin had not acted alone.
Tom and Josh get stopped by a menacing police blockade, and the fuzz go about searching the car for the water sample (laws be damned). Turns out Ellen has the sample, and she delivers it to Patty, who will have Daniel analyze it (a mistake the instant I heard her say it). Patty hopes to end up with a class-action lawsuit against UNR, and starts off by filing a motion to obtain more documents. That court appearance, however, is cut off at the knees when Daniel takes the stand ostensibly to vouch for his original, later doctored reports. Instead, though, he basically destroys Patty's case, saying UNR's data is sound, and was never compromised.
Patty. Is. Not. Happy.
All the while, Daniel flashes back to his dock, where he's dumping the water sample into the lake. (Told you it was a bad idea to pout it in his hands.) Apparently, Daniel got a visit from Suttry, who told him the first apparently boffo "wire transfer" was complete, and that Purcell and his kid "have been provided for. You have been reasonable, and so will we." To be fair, Daniel seems a bit disgusted at the deal he made, but I'm still filing him under Snake in the Grass for now. It would seem that he duped Patty with the promise of a cash-cow class action case, when all he wanted was dibs on his biological son.
The episodes ends with a flashback to three weeks earlier, seemingly the night of the gala. Purcell is joined in a dark car by Walker and then Kevin. Walker tells Kevin to pawn the ruby ring and keep the pawn ticket. Daniel needs only call 911 now.
Was Daniel behind his wife's killing? If so, why? And how (if at all) do you think it tied back to the UNR case?
