By Brandon Nolta

So, this being the penultimate episode of the season, we’re in scorched earth mode on DAMAGES. Last week’s episode ended with Ray Fiske (Zeljko Ivanek) responding to an attempted blackmail attempt by Patty Hewes (Glenn Close) by blowing his brains out in her office. Patty had obtained information on Fiske that would have utterly destroyed Arthur Frobisher’s (Ted Danson) case, so Fiske, in what could be described as the ultimate in attorney loyalty, decided to exit the case, and corporeal existence. Who’s the first person Patty calls? Ellen Parsons (Rose Byrne), the former junior associate and erstwhile protagonist of the show. That sound you hear is the “Something’s afoot” alarm going off.

Considering that Gregory Malina (Peter Facinelli) and George Moore (Peter Riegert) have been whacked in the last couple of episodes, and we know Ellen’s fiancé David (Noah Bean) is going to die real soon—this is, after all, the crime Ellen’s being held for in the present timeline—one just can’t help but wonder who else is going to buy it before the show screeches to a halt with next week’s season (possibly series) finale. One thing’s for sure; there’s a whole lot of blood in the water.

But that’s not all! David and Ellen break off their engagement, just in time for Katie to show up and deliver the videotape that Malina made before his untimely death by speeding car. The unsinkable Ms. Hewes is deeply rattled by Fiske’s suicide, and heads for her beach house to recuperate. Frobisher, meanwhile, is feeling like he’s going down for the last time, and is self-medicating his pain away, snorting enough coke to dissolve his skull. And, in probably the last mistake he’s going to make in this show, David watches the Malina videotape and calls Ellen to inform her, which is just inviting trouble from the narrative gods. Sure enough, after a visit from the stalker chick, Frobisher’s wetwork men show up and give David that skylight in his skull we’ve been expecting all season.


Finally, the timelines converge. Patty makes Ellen’s bail, Ellen returns to her apartment, and soon after, Patty and Ellen have a showdown in the street where Ellen lets on just how much she’s in the know. This is where Ellen finally starts to live up to the tough, capable lawyer that everyone says she is, and I guess better late than never. Close and Byrne have, at least temporarily, changed places in the tough chick sweepstakes, and they make it work. Dread and darkness are definitely the dominant themes as DAMAGES rushes down the homestretch, and there’s bound to be more betrayal and violence when things wind up next week.

Until THE SHIELD returns, DAMAGES is the most nerve-wracking, gut-clenching drama on basic cable right now, and the finale promises to be more of the same. They must give out Tums with the paychecks over at FX; whatever they’re doing, it works something fierce. This viewer’s looking forward to next Tuesday night, and if you’ve missed out, FX is running a marathon of DAMAGES episodes this Saturday. Set your DVRs and dig in.