Damages: She Spat At Me

SEASON 1 ORIGINAL EPISODES, TUESDAYS @ 10PM ON FX

I guess the starting point of this review should be a plea to everyone reading it to start watching this show immediately. It had a small amount of promotion the month before it's premiere in July but other than that it's relatively unknown by most people. I started watching it mainly because of the great cast (Glenn Close, Ted Danson, Tate Donovan, etc.) and thankfully I did. It is by far the best new show in a couple years. It combines the best of all worlds: suspense, thrill, mystery, drama, and controlled intensity. It constantly surprises you and keeps you asking "what the hell is going on?" (It's similar to "24" and "Lost" in those respects)

This episode was no different. We're at the point where we know enough to know that whatever we think is going on is not what actually is going on. But what we do know is that Ellen was attacked at Patty's apartment and the body was removed by someone. Everything else is still up in the air. You may be thinking we know that Ellen didn't kill her fiance', Noah. While I think that too, looking at it objectively, we just don't know for sure that she didn't yet. And that's what's so great about this show. Every time you think you know what's going on and who the bad guy is you're surprised to find out you were very wrong. The heart of the show lies in the fact that no one is all good and all bad; that everyone is some mix of both. We don't usually get that in TV shows; we usually get one or the other in the characters. So when you watch this show you love it even more because you never know who to trust and it makes it that much more interesting.

So when this episode starts we don't find out much more about the missing body in Patty's apartment. The police confirm that there was no body which begs the question, where'd it go and who took it away? My bets on the guy helping Frobisher control the evidence in the case. Unfortunately, this episode doesn't really give us any new direct clues in the way of what happened the day of the murder. We do get a few indirect clues but that's about it.

Ellen and Noah start having relationship problems which turns out to be a big storyline. At first it's not really apparent why and what connection it has with all the events. I do have a question to throw out there (semi-rhetorical but I'm curious anyway), how come someone in a relationship always runs into the arms of another whenever there's a few bumps in the relationship road? Noah and Ellen haven't even been fighting for very long and he's already willing to go too far with Sarah (his patients VERY flirty granddaughter). The truth is though, that Ellen is pushing the limits of her relationship too far. She is blindly following Patty without questioning anything. For such a brilliant girl she certainly is very naive. I guess people always see what they want to see. Obviously this is going to be a big factor in the Ellen's problems later on.

I was actually a bit shocked at Ray's dreams. That storyline really came out of nowhere. That's probably the only negative I could bring out about the series so far. They should have brought his issues and possible involvement in everything out before, even if a little at a time. It felt like they were forcing is role on us very quickly, too quickly. Not only that but they're freaking gross. I don't mind odd stuff but watching blood and a tooth spill out of Ray's mouth multiple times is not my idea of fun. But anyway, we find out that he clearly had a homosexual relationship with Greg, which is somehow leading to the nightmares he's having. How this all played into the case and the murder's who knows, but it'll be interesting to find out what happened in Florida between them and how it's connected to everything.

Meanwhile, we were thrown a major curve ball tonight. Sarah probably had something to do with Noah's murder. I totally did not see this coming. I would have bet anything that the murder had to do with the case. I may be wrong but it seems like Sarah is a psychotic, stalker and the murder of Noah was an unfortunate coincidence in all this. Clearly she was in that apartment when Noah was killed otherwise she wouldn't have stolen his keys and told the police they were hers. Also, the police had said there was no forced entry a couple episodes ago and this would explain why. I also want to point out an interesting fact. In the first couple episodes when the cops went to Ellen's apartment, a pigeon flew out of the bathroom because the window screen on the fire escape was open. But when Ellen and Noah first moved into the apartment we see the screen was closed and the pigeon standing outside. So how did that screen get open now? Did someone come in through that way? Interesting...

I have to say though that Noah cheating on Ellen with Sarah shocked me. Or at least that's what Sarah said happened, so I have to take it with a grain of salt considering she's psychotic. In all this though, the most interesting character is Patty. At times she seems like a normal person with great intentions (even though she's obviously pretending at times) and then she is willing to murder dogs, have witnesses followed by men with guns, etc. I'm really curious to see exactly what her intentions are because I can't believe it's simply to win the case or to make money. She's deeper than that.

In the preview for next week we're told all the pieces are going to come together. I CAN'T WAIT! It's going to be great. My money's on a big revelation about Patty...