Who else on TV, either real-life or fictional, comes across as formidable as Glenn Close? Even when she plays a vulnerable character, there’s an irreducible core of titanium within the portrayal that gives the impression that you can only push this person so far and then … the deluge. As Patty Hewes, lead litigator in a massive corporate suit on FX’s DAMAGES, Close makes her character appear to be all titanium except for a fragile skin she uses for human interaction. Hewes understands the niceties of everyday human politesse; she just doesn’t give a damn for it beyond what she needs to bend folks to her will.
Then again, being so strong and formidable makes a person an easier target, as Hewes and Ellen (Rose Byrne) learn when somebody sends Ms. Hewes a rather unusual gift through the mail: a hand grenade. Since the judge in the Frobisher trial has given Hewes and Associates until the end of the week to deliver a brief that explains why the case should not be dismissed, this throws the firm into the cooker and sets the temperature on high. Naturally, in the ongoing storm of poor timing that is Ellen’s life, her engagement party is also on Friday, and the schedules look sure to collide. Oh, and in addition to the surprise grenade, Patty’s son is raising hell in school, which makes Patty ready to ship him off to the farthest corner of the world, and due to the worries of Patty’s husband (Michael Nouri), there’s an ex-Secret Service agent (Nestor Serrano) keeping watch for any more surprises in the mail.
If you’re Sheriff Jack Carter (Colin Ferguson), and your phlegmatic, ex-Special Forces deputy Jo (Erica Cerra) shows up in battle armor and tells you that the science fair is the most dangerous day of the year in Eureka, wouldn’t you be inclined to believe her? Far as I’m concerned, that’s right up there with four dudes on horseback pounding across the sky. Fortunately, questions like the ramifications of what happens when you combine genius intellects, high technology and poor impulse control quickly get shelved for a more pressing problem: space debris.
Go ahead and laugh, but ponder for a moment the issue of metal chunks the size of your fist whizzing around at 17,000 miles an hour. Now imagine those chunks falling out of the sky, impacting the earth’s surface at random. Anyway, Carter and the merry folks of Eureka quickly discover that a big cloud of space junk is coalescing above Eureka, which as you might guess, is bad news. Meanwhile, Zoë (Jordan Hinson) is having her own issues, being picked on by a clique of snotty super-genius girls and being mocked for her father’s subgenius IQ, which he rashly revealed in the first few minutes of the episode. (It’s 111, which should give you an idea of how snotty these kids are, since 111 actually falls into the superior intelligence category. You’d think this would be self-evident, since he regularly exhibits more direct thinking and common sense than anybody else on the damn show, but never mind.)