"Tastes Like a Ho Ho"
Things we learned or had confirmed this week on FX's
Damages:
" Frobisher robbed his employees' retirement accounts to the tune of $1.4
billion dollars.
" Katie saw whatever it is she did or didn't see five years ago, in June 2002.
" Katie, speak of the devil, used to be a bad,
bad girl.
This episode (No. 4 of 13) was one of my favorites thus far, if only because I am a sucker for a "Pygmalion story," and I loved seeing Katie be made over from a craptastic witness ("Wow,
she's not ready") to a sassy deposition-giver. How about her preemptive strike against the inevitable invasive line of questioning, capped with, "If these past few answers make you blush, Mr. Fisk, I apologize." I was practically cheering her on from my sofa.
Katie, though - poor, poor Katie - was unwittingly being set up for a fall. She was fed bogus information from Greg (I saw that coming) and her worthless testimony was in turn used by Patty to give the defense a false sense of security. Risky game Hewes is playing there. Risky. Game.
Let's talk about Greg, shall we? You know, the married guy who isn't really married? It would seem that what he and Katie saw in the parking lot is not the smoking gun here at all. No, Katie knows something else, and Greg torpedoing her testimony was meant to take her out of the mix and keep her from realizing what it is she
does know. There has to be a reason why a guy who "happened to" benefit from Frobisher's swindle "happened to" bed someone who ultimately, five years later, would be eyed as a critical witness. Right?
The New York
Daily News had a great tune-in alert for
Damages this week, saying, "Don't miss it - and don't plan on staying one step ahead." So true. Nothing is as it seems on first glance here. Love it.
David. His name is David. I know that now (and had a fun Q&A with his portrayer, Noah Bean, which will post next Tuesday). I gave Noah a good grilling about Lila, who is "open to anything" or however she so subtly put it. I joked to Noah, "I wouldn't put it past Patty to have arranged for a patient with a slutty daughter to be put in David's care," all in the name of crumbling Ellen's world. (See "Sister-in-law, Estranged.")
Same with Tom. Poor, loyal Tom. It may seem that he is being wooed away from Patty's grasp, but could she for some reason be pulling the strings there, too? Or am I just being made conspiratorial?
Minimal son-of-Patty this week. Whew.
A few bullets to fire off before I sign off:
" Was this episode's title not only a dialogue reference but a shout-out to Katie? Ha ha.
" Why is it that on TV and in the movies, people never go out to the regular movies but some arcane "retrospective" thing? I
know the reason (rights issues). It was rhetorical.
" Love the guy from
24/
Jericho leading the mock deposition. Brutal!
" Ray Fisk: "Did you hear that, Patty? That's the sound of zeros dropping off Mr. Frobisher's offer."
" Tom and his prospective employer... Do you really have a secret dinner meeting at a table by the front window?
Let's finish off with a few words about
Animal House's Boone (aka Peter Riegert), aka Man with Stroller. A relative of Greg's? That was my take, what with the baby and the way he made himself at home in the Palm Beach foyer. Is the
real $1.4 billion concern here that Katie remembers him from the house/her stoned stupor? Hmmmm.
