Damages: Scream A Little Scream For Me

With the season finale of Damages only a week, the pressure was definitely palpable and every character seemed to be feeling the heat. Tempers flared, and everyone started to really lose their cool … much to my sick, personal enjoyment!

Ellen got chewed out by both Gates and Patty for her backstabbing. Zedeck and Joe got into a nasty dispute over the decision to murder Tessa, and a wedge was forever driven between them. Winstone and Marilyn had a falling out as well, when he learned that she had betrayed her own son. As if blackmail wasn’t enough, Winstone had to bail his drunken father out of jail, and the two of them caused such a scene that their true relationship was revealed.

Patty found out the truth about Tom, forcing him to publicly resign from the firm. To make matters worse, Tom and his wife had a lovers’ quarrel, and she threw him out of his own home! Patty and Ellen schemed to use Winstone’s dirty secret to tear the Tobin family apart. When Ellen told Joe the truth, he got hot under the collar and flew into a rage, telling Winstone to never come near his family again.

Meanwhile, Patty’s equestrian nightmares became not only more frequent, but more lucid and bizarre, causing her to hallucinate and vomit! When her son’s baby mama, Jill, changed her mind about the bribe to walk away, Patty was all too happy to whip out her checkbook. But that sneaky cougar used the money to feather her nest instead!

Both down and out, Winstone and Tom joined forces, trading immunity for the stolen Tobin funds. Winstone and Patty thought they were so clever in manipulating everyone around them, but Ellen blindsided Patty by telling her that mild-mannered Tom was the true mastermind behind the entire operation!

We’re in Patty’s office. Her hand is motionless! She’s slumped over! Is she dead? No, she’s just daydreaming. Cut to the handsome flank of a dappled horse. The camera pans over to a red wall with a hole in it. Inside the hole is Patty, in her apartment, looking back at the hole. Trippy!

Patty is awakened by her secretary’s voice on the intercom. Judge Riley is there to see her. He expresses his condolences for Tessa Marchetti, and Patty says that is simply proof that they are close to finding the money. Judge Riley allows her to see the case through. “You won’t regret this!” Tom gushes like an idiot. Judge Riley asks to speak to Patty in private, then show her a file he has on Tom. “I assume you didn’t know,” he says. “I had no idea,” Patty whispers.

Tom gets a tongue-lashing from Patty, who is hurt that he didn’t tell her sooner. “What’s the next step?” Tom asks. “You know what you need to do,” she says simply.

Joe slinks down an alley and meets with Zedeck, who is furious that Tessa was murdered. Joe says that Tessa was about to expose them, since she was found with a bodyguard and the account number for the charity they’ve been hiding the money in. Zedeck asks how they’re going to move the money now with Tessa gone, and Joe says they will wait until Mr. Emanuelle can find a new courier. Joe calls Zedeck a stupid old man who didn’t listen to his warning about Tessa and they get into an awesome screaming match, each one telling the other to shut his mouth. “I call the shots now!” Joe bellows. Dayum! Someone needs to add “rageaholic” to his list of addictions!

Winstone finds Marilyn at a bar doing a crossword puzzle, and she pretends to ignore him. Winstone is enraged that she lied about telling Joe the truth that Tessa was his daughter. Marilyn tries to play dumb, then tells Winstone he wouldn’t understand because he doesn’t have kids or a family of his own. Ouch! Kick him while he’s down! She drunkenly orders another “vodka rocks” and then asks Winstone not to tell Joe. “What good would it do now?” she slurs. (My vote is to tell him!!)

Curtis gloats to Ellen that Patty gave him the evidence needed to arrest Carol for Danielle’s death and he wants her help to prosecute. Ellen is surprised that she isn’t being fired, and Gates tells her that she has Patty to thank – her continued employment for the DA was part of the deal. Gates dismisses Ellen, but warns her that “one phone call to the bar administration and you’re history.” What a jerk!

Zedeck sends his lawyer, Mr. DiFalco, to make a withdrawl from the Fund for Africa’s Future charity. He signs the bank director’s papers and gets the cash in the “usual denominations.”

Mr. DiFalco then drops a duffle bag full of cash into Winstone’s waiting car. Winstone in turn slinks down a dark alley with an envelope of cash that he hands off to his blackmailing father. Whew! This is one hot money trail! Winstone’s dad asks if he wants to go bag a couple of whores – his treat! LOL. Winstone decides to pass. Then his dad waxes nostalgic about the first time he took him to a whore and “broke him in.” Winstone shivers in disgust, as do I.

Tom hands in his resignation to Patty. (We saw this a few weeks ago.)

Patty grills Ellen about why she lied to her. (Poor Ellen is just taking it from everybody in this episode!) Ellen says that Tom was in a bad place and she felt he needed her loyalty more than Patty did. Patty sublimates her rage with a sip of whiskey. Ellen goes on to say that one of the reasons she didn’t come back to work for Patty was so she could make her own decisions. “I admire that,” Patty confesses. Aww! I am genuinely touched! That is one of the nicest things Patty has ever said. EVER! Patty reveals that Tom has resigned for the sake of the case, and Ellen asks, “What case?” With Tessa gone, how will they ever recover the money? Patty says she has one idea left: turn the Tobins against each other. “Because we won’t find the money unless we tear that family apart.” Yikes! Patty sounds thirsty – for blood!

Patty’s son Michael shows up unannounced in her office. He is happy to report that the baby is doing well, and that he is in fact the father. And with that, he turns and leaves, just missing the tears brimming up in Patty’s eyes.

Winstone is forced to bail his drunken mess of a dad out of jail, after a supposed fight with a bartender. A female cop named Donna watches Winstone hussle his dad out the door. Later, Donna meets up with our favorite plucky reporter, Josh, and tells him there’s a Tobin-related arrest he may want to look into.

Tom holds a press conference to confess his true involvement in the Tobin case, to admit his conflict of interest, and to protect Patty. He then announces his resignation publicly, saying that he can no longer work alongside those whose trust he “so completely violated.” Sadness!!

Patty parks it on a bench next to Jill, who says she has reconsidered Patty’s bribe to walk away from Michael. Patty tells her she made the right decision and instantly whips out her checkbook. Jill pretends that this wasn’t easy for her because she loves Michael. “Sure you do,” Patty mutters. Jill then gluttonously raises the stakes from $200,000 to $500,000 and Patty obliges, only to say that Jill must leave tonight without saying goodbye.

Josh tells Ellen he has some information on the Tobin case, and in exchange, he wants the inside scoop when she and Patty make their move. Ellen takes the information to Patty, and connects the dots for her … that Leonard Winstone is not a Yale grad, but really a small time grifter named Lester Wiggins.

Tom goes to bing.com (random product placement!) and looks up used car rentals. OMG! The car crash from the beginning of the season is close at hand!

Cut to 1 Week Later! The same car Tom was just looking up rams into Patty’s car! But who is the mystery driver?! My money is on that treacherous wife, Mrs. Shayes! I bet she somehow blames Patty for the loss of her precious lake house!

Back to Patty’s horse. She is staring at the hole in the wall, watching the horse when David Carradine appears and starts petting the horse. He looks up and sees Patty in the hole. “You okay, Patricia?” he asks. Patty drops her mug. It shatters and she wakes up from her dream.

Joe is giving a lame speech at his AA meeting about stepping up and taking care of his family. He says the silver lining of his dad’s death is that now he has some purpose and direction again in his life. Gross!

Tom is trying to console his angry, bitter wife as she unloads groceries from the car. She is furious that he didn’t tell Patty the truth in the first place. (Excuse me! She was the one pushing him to go behind her back and confront Tessa!) But that pales in comparison to how irate she is when he says he put their townhouse up for sale, too. She starts screaming and Tom tells her to shut up and let him just fix it for once! Go, Tom! Sadly, Deb kicks him out and forbids him to see the kids. What a bitch!

Ellen goes to see Joe Tobin at his seedy motel and tells him the truth about his lawyer, Leonard Winstone. She tries to get him to talk, but he literally slams the door in her pretty, little face.

Tom calls Winstone and asks to meet with him, but Winstone says that simply isn’t possible. He then goes back to leisurely smoking his cigarette on a park bench.

Patty walks by a police officer on a horse, and suddenly she’s having weird visions of standing in a pool of blood. Next thing you know, she’s blowing chunks in a nearby trash can. So not cute!

Tom has no shoulders left to cry on except for Ellen’s, and she kindly offers to let him stay at her place. Tom has too much pride to sleep on her couch or to ask Patty for money.

Winstone and Joe meet privately. Winstone gives Joe the envelope marked “Deliver to Patty Hewes” (written by Louis Tobin.) Then Joe gives Winstone the envelope he received from Ellen. Winstone tries to explain, but Joe won’t listen to his BS. “You’re not even a lawyer!” Joe hisses. “Answer my question, you piece of shit! Who are you?!” Winstone says he’s the man who’s taken care of his family for three decades. He said he was the son Louis needed when Joe wasn’t there. Joe retaliates by saying Louis would call him “his little monkey.” He then threatens Winstone to never come near his family again.

Terry Brooke calls Patty and asks if he can meet with her again. Random! He’s still trying to flesh out his Frobisher character, and after last week’s coke-fueled confession, he wonders if Frobisher was implying that he was capable of murder. Patty literally laughs in his face and says Frobisher is many things, but he’s no killer. Ok, she knows the truth about Ellen’s fiancé! So why is she blatantly lying?!

Tom is surprised to find Winstone waiting for him, this time with an offer to help make him whole again by restoring his reputation and his finances. Tom wants to know what the catch is. Winstone explains he wants immunity from prosecution if he tells him where the Tobin money is. Tom wonders why Winstone would turn on the Tobins now, and Winstone simply says that Joe has become dangerous. Winstone then baits Tom by saying he can be the hero and bring down the Tobins when Patty Hewes couldn’t. Tom goes for it, hook, line, and sinker.

The bank director is informed by his secretary that Mr. Zedeck is there, but in walks Albert Wiggins, posing as Zedeck. Wiggins asks to make another withdrawl for the charity, hands over a forged passport, and signs the necessary papers. Genius!!

Jill surprises Michael by giving him a brand new, cherry red Jaguar. She then goes on to say that she bought the apartment they looked at earlier. When he asks her about the money for all of these extravagances, she lies and says she sold an entire art collection. What a shrew! She better watch out! Hell hath no fury like a Patty scorned!

Patty goes to Gates with Terry’s concerns about Frobisher. Luckily, Ellen is present and chimes in that she believes Frobisher is the one responsible for the death of her fiancé, Daivd. Gates shows Ellen the file they pulled on Messer, the dirty cop in Frobisher’s pocket. Ellen recognizes a photo of Messer’s former partner, Wes Krulick, aka Timothy Olyphant!! Wow! They aren’t just wrapping up the season! They are tying up all the loose threads from seasons one and two, too!

Ellen calls Wes and leaves him a voicemail, saying she needs to talk to him.

Winstone brings Tom his first installment. Tom tells Winstone he can get him immunity, as promised. Winstone is pleased, and leaves. Tom calls Ellen. “We’re in business!” he grins.

Patty looks into the duffel bag full of cash. “Tom got this from Leonard Winstone?” she asks. Ellen explains the deal Tom brokered, then reveals that Tom went so far as to orchestrate his own resignation just to gain Winstone’s trust.

Tom lays down his coat on the floor of Winstone’s empty apartment, and decides to squat there for the night, content with his legal shenanigans.

Ellen tells Patty that she was privy to Tom’s plan, and they purposely didn’t tell Patty in order to protect her.

The door to Winstone’s apartment opens, and a mysterious figure walks in and hovers over Tom like the wife in Paranormal Activity. “Tommy!” they whisper, and Tom wakes up, scared shitless. It’s the crazy homeless man (okay, this officially makes no sense!) and Tom offers to let him “crash” with him for the night, as if they are frat buddies. WTF?!

“I thought you’d be proud of him,” Ellen says to Patty, who remains quiet. “Tom’s gonna win us this case.”

Cut back to Tom and the homeless guy shacked up together. The camera zooms in on Tom. Then suddenly …

3
DAYS
LATER.
The words appear on the screen menacingly, accompanied by very loud stings.
There’s a flash of Tom being attacked on the floor.
Tom’s rental car plows into Patty’s car.
A gun cocks and Ellen whirls around.
Two men struggle.
A woman’s hand is covered in blood.
Tom is savagely bludgeoning something.
A body falls off a bridge.
Tom’s dead body is discovered in the dumpster.

Holy shiz! That is one crazy day! I can’t WAIT for the season finale next week!