If you missed an episode of Damages, or just want to watch again in wonder and the brilliant performances from Glenn Close and Ted Danson, you will pleased to know that Damages was released today on DVD. It’s currently available from Amazon.co.uk for only £17.98. As well as the pilot and subsequent 12 episodes, there’s loads of bumper bonus material.
Damages DVD Season One Box Set
Here’s an interview with Ted Danson who gave a blistering performance in Damages as billionaire Arthur Frobisher:
Ted Danson – Damages UK press tour
So how’s London treating you?
Good! I’m happy to be here. We had cocktails last night, went out to dinner, had a great time actually.
Do you enjoy this part of the day?
In the morning, yeah. When I get to the end of the day I feel like I’m gonna puke. It’s like taking a bad drug – at the start it seems like such a good idea but at the end you’re feeling awful. But it’s the morning, so you’re lucky.
Are you familiar with London?
I worked here when I did Gulliver’s Travels so I haven’t been here in a while. My wife has worked and lived over here for many years and also has a store so she comes to London and Paris on buying trips.
Congratulations on Arthur Frobisher. I love the character.
Me too. It’s the real me. I’ve gotten angry and bitter in my old age (laughs).
You went to an acting coach to help prepare you for the role, is that right?
Yes, yes, an acting coach. The day before we start the guys comes up to me and say ‘we have this friend, he’s an acting coach’ and I was like, oh dear god they hate my work! I’m in trouble. So I said I’d love to and I told the guy when I showed up but I had the best two hours and it really kind of changed, er… I’ve been doing comedy for a long time and comedy has like a rhythm to it, like there’s a metronome in the background. There’s this dance step that you have to do. And he was very freeing to me. Here I am playing this multi-billionaire, narcissistic or at least indulgent man, and he was saying thing to me like ‘don’t learn your lines, learn the other’s persons’ or ‘there are three sentences here, maybe you’ll say one, you won’t say the other two because you don’t feel like it’. An attitude like that, this wonderful indulgent acting lets you be anywhere you want to be in a scene and that’s kind of what a billionaire is like – I can buy you, I don’t have to play by your rules. So it was very liberating to talk about an acting style that was very freeing and was also appropriate. They also had me talk to CEOs of Fortune 500 companies in New York and that was great because it allowed me to realise I could be them, I don’t have to pretend. They came in all shapes and sizes, some like me and some not, and I believed them to be CEOs of Fortune 500 companies because they said they were, not because they looked like a certain, you know. They also told me about a study that was done that showed a similarity between CEOs of large companies and sociopaths in prison. Obviously the CEOs had balancing factors whereas the sociopaths probably didn’t but the similarity was that it was very hard for them to read the emotional impact they have on people. One of the CEOs knew this about himself and hired somebody to be with him at all times to tell him when he missed things because he just didn’t know.
As an actor you read people all the time…
Yeah, I understand being narcissistic, we all do. We all understand fear and greed so it was very easy, and the writing was so good. They created scenes where you saw his humanity and his love for his family and his fear and his this and his that. By the time you get into the later episodes, you actually get the response that they love the character. They’re horrified but at the same time they understand him. When you see someone’s pain or narcissism you’re more likely to go along with them than to tick them off as a category.
Were you offended by being sent to a coach in the first place?
You’re giving me credit for thinking I’m any good! No, I, as an actor fall into all the bad acting traps there are and I tend to try and see those traps in advance and remove them. The other thing this acting coach said, which was great, was that on film, all that truly matters is that you are really there in that split-second moment, being real to that moment and reacting to whatever it is. From you’re point of, all that matters is that you are there and being creative in moment – not showing your understanding of the story or your understanding of the character, just literally being present and enjoying yourself in the moment. It was very invigorating. And then when you have great writing and great camera work too, that’s when it all comes together. And with Frobisher, I decided he knew what he was like a little. If you’re as bad as he is and you don’t see it, its no fun. He knows he’s a schmuck and he has fun with it.
Did you know it was something special when you were filming it?
I didn’t know – a lot of times you can have great writing, wonderful actors that you’re playing with, but the camera’s wrong. I mean, literally, you can see it, the camera is not where it should be so you’re almost, if you were on stage you’d be doing it to the wings. But when you see this you really know what they’re doing there, it’s very stylised and it works.
You said you don’t know if you’re going to be in the second season or not. Do you think this sort of thing works better with continuing characters or should it take the ‘villain of the season’ route?
I don’t know. Even if I did come back I think I would be a story that had ended and they would have to have stories that began. And I think the real fun would be to watch Glenn Close do battle with someone new – fresh meat every year, or even a couple of people. They may not just do one story every year, I don’t know.
You’re best known for comedy but this is by no means your first dramatic role.
No.
Does it annoy you to think you might be typecast?
I’m very proud of Cheers. It’s my problem, not yours, that I’m beheld in a certain way and I should get on and do more Damages and things like that, you know? I think everyone is typecast until you see him or her do something different. I typecast people in my mind; even actors I know can do more. We all do that and you’re typecast because you’re in something that was really good. It was beautifully written and directed and just good as a piece. I think Damages is this good and people are looking at me differently but it’s because this works, not because I’m doing something I haven’t before.
But I’m here because of Cheers and I love it, and I loved Becker, I pretty much love whatever I did last.
Do you keep in touch with any of the Cheers cast?
Everyone except Woody, he became way too famous. No, I see Woody, I see them all. Everyone’s gone off in different directions but we keep in touch.
I read you once asked a woman if she was pregnant but she was just fat – what sort of person are you?
Actually I asked her husband but it’s not much better really. You know my wife is Mary Steenburgen? Well she spends her whole time cleaning up after me.
How long did Damages take you away from LA?
It was hard; we were just talking about this. Mary and I both went off and made films in Louisiana. It was a tough time – I was commuting from Louisiana to New York. Then we had a month where we had a break and then Mary got a film in LA so it was like two months of commuting from one side to the other. But there’s something, and this isn’t true of everything, but some things are intrinsically New York, because of the power and the money. When you shoot it in New York, instead of doing it LA and lying, it’s so much better. This is so good partly because it’s in New York and it’s drawing from a New York crowd of actors. In New York there’s this element of always looking to be the student and to be more creative, whereas in LA you’re there because you’ve arrived and what you should do is relax and you’d better do what you did last because career is more important. But in New York you’ll do a show, a small part in a soap and you’re all over the place just being creative, so you have really great actors in very small parts because they’re having fun.
What do you think of LA?
Well, it’s a bit unfair of me to have said that in a way because everyone on LA is a New York actor. They’re going to and from or they’ve moved from New York. But it’s definitely just a big factory. They don’t have theatre which gives you much more of a sense of performing instead of being a celebrity. You’re much more part of the publicity factory so you need to find a niche and you’re happy to be in a niche but people in New York are excited to be in a role.
Did it affect you?
Yeah, I think so. You get used to making decisions for the wrong reasons.
What do you mean?
I think I got used to making a lot of money on Cheers. The decisions start to be wrong. It’s not do I want to go and do that, it’s can I afford to go and do that, which is probably a bad decision. It should be ‘can I afford not to go and do that?’
And now? You turned 60 recently?
Yeah, December. Things change – I like my home and my wife and my kids so I think whether I want to be in a motel or putzing around in my garden with my wife? I’m at the point where I don’t particularly want to leave my home to act but when I’m on set I love it.
Do you think about giving up?
No. I love acting, I really love it. I don’t know that I want to go off and make a TV series for 22 episodes and nine months because my wife would go and make a movie and we’d never see one another. If I had a magic wand I think maybe we’d go off and make one movie in a year and then maybe we’d do some theatre together, that would be ideal.
I read you’re a founding member of the American Oceans Campaign.
Yeah, that’s right, thanks for mentioning it. I’m probably no more or less ecological than anyone but 20 years ago I started the campaign. We’re now the largest single international ocean activist and it’s doing great, it’s very effective. We’re stopping the destruction of habitats through bottom trawling. We’re not interested in just raising awareness; we’re interested in changing policy. We’re working with fishermen to change the way things are done and it is getting the job done. I’m so proud to be part of it. But I wish I’d chosen global warming, maybe I could have got a Nobel Prize out of it…
Damages is out on DVD on Monday
This is an interview with the legendary Glenn Close who plays the formidable Patty Hewes in Damages.
Glenn Close – Damages UK press tour
So we’re here to talk about Damages.
Yes. Exciting.
It’s a brilliant series.
Thank you – so where are you up to? I don’t want to give too much away.
I’ve seen the first three episodes – I’m really annoyed I’ve not seen any more.
Oh, I’m glad you’re enjoying it!
So, Damages came about, I believe, from your stint on The Shield. I read that you enjoyed that so much that you asked for something similar for you to take on. How does it differ from film work?
Well, I’ve done TV my whole career so it wasn’t the first time. Doing The Shield was actually the first time I did a whole season. I love FX, I loved the writers and the crew so it was just a great experience. And I love the pace of television, it’s very challenging, and you have great writing and you don’t have to wait around for days just to do a scene. It’s just a great experience. So I said to them after The Shield ‘if you ever want to do anything in New York’ – because I knew I couldn’t ship out to California. A year or so went by and then I got a call and they pitched me this idea. I thought it sounded great – and they handed me that incredible pilot, which is better than most of the movie scripts you get sent.
Its sharp and witty and it gets you– did you pick up on that straight away?
Oh yeah. It’s so important, even in drama, if it doesn’t have a sense a wit it gets lost.
It’s a big step to commit to another season so soon – a lot of seasons.
Yeah, it is. But then I think, you know, Angela Lansbury did it – not that I want to do it for that long. I just said I have to be in New York because that’s where my life is. And the only reason I even thought about it because it’s thirteen episodes a season, which is only about four and a half months, so you have enough time to either do nothing or do a film or even tour and do a play of some sort. I hope that if it keeps going we’ll get into a sort of a rhythm. And it’s fun to turn up and know that I just have to go to Brooklyn to work and have this great team.
Were you nervous going into a part like this?
It’s not nervous exactly. You always have to search to find the character and for the pilot I felt that, for me, the scene at the core for her was the scene at her son’s school where she’s talking to Ellen and telling her to never have children and all that. That was the key scene and I took it to a coach I’ve known for many years and it helps. I play these amazing women who are nothing like me and I can become intimidated when I’m confronted with these characters. If I was sitting across from them I’d be like what do I say now? So I find it helps to take them to someone and break through the barrier of that. Then you get the little bits of things. For that particular scene and what was key and just so Patty Hewes was that she left Ellen not knowing if what she said was true or if it was just bullshit.
What’s your opinion of Patty?
It’s very different for me to be in a series where I don’t know what the end is. And the writers, for reasons that I fully understand, keep their options open because they potentially have six seasons to write. So I don’t even know about her mother, her father so when you ask me how do I like her, it usually goes back to knowing where someone has come from that helps me answer. But knowing about Patty has made it sometimes difficult to play her because she’s tough.
And it must be easy to fall into the trap of playing her as a bitch.
Yeah, which is not interesting. There’s a lot to her – you meet her husband, her son. I think it’s wonderful that her marriage is really authentic and interesting. There are lots of elements to her life that give her more. But the bitch element is interesting too because she’s just acting like a man, she’s not necessarily a bitch.
In a lot of interviews you’ve had to make the point that you’re a nice person. Because of some of the roles you’re known for do you have to defend yourself?
I think for some reason I’ve played these women in my career. Alex Forest in Fatal Attraction and the Marquise de Merteuil in Dangerous Liaisons. They’re huge characters, great characters, beautifully written, and I think people like that kind of dangerous woman and people like to see me in those roles. But I have to be careful that that’s not all I do. I recognise that and going into Patty Hewes was very interesting because the writers, when they first talked to me about the role, were using a very powerful male lawyer as their template. I said to them you can’t do that because as soon as you make it into a woman everything changes. It was interesting to me because I wanted to play a woman who had succeeded in a man’s profession and had gotten to the top of her game and was totally in control. And that’s rare because even in New York where I’ve met some amazing women, they’re not at the top. It’s interesting to see what power has done to this woman and how she deals with it. The story is about what power does to people.
Do you think you’re powerful yourself? Because of your success?
I guess. I don’t look at it that way. I think that if you do good work consistently that will open doors and you become credible and your professionalism is respected. As far as wielding power? Yes, I do have power. For example, in the whole Damages team I’m very aware that every single member of the team needs to feel important and that they’re doing good work. That’s why as the leader of the Damages team, as the lead actor, I go out of my way to make sure that people, even if they come on for one scene or the guy who brings you the food every day, that they always feel important.
Are people afraid of you?
Yeah, I think so, for a little bit. We set a very high bar; we have very good actors on Damages. People come into the show because they want to work with who’s there and they’re challenged by that.
How was it working with Ted, did you enjoy that?
Oh yeah. I personally didn’t have that many scenes with Ted but they were wonderful. What I loved was watching what he did throughout the season. What he did, I thought, was spectacular work. Funny and horrible. He created, with the wonderful writing, this awful narcissist. But not just the bad guy, just complicated. You watch him and you find yourself laughing because he’s so awful. But he’s no fool. He’s just so self-involved but he’s no fool.
When you’re filming something so serious is there opportunity to have a laugh on set?
All the time!
You don’t stay in character?
Oh good god no! I take my dogs to work, you know. Sometimes, you’ll never know, but one of my dogs will be lying under my desk in a scene. The guys, the writers, they work so hard that they have to be very serious but they’re all incredibly funny. In fact they helped me do this tribute to Robin Williams. I couldn’t go but they helped me. I dressed up as Jenny Fields who’s his mother in The World According To Garp. They helped me say something very rude and very funny that I haven’t said in a while and won’t repeat! And Tate Donovan, and Rose, they’re both very funny too. Rose has had several giggling fits.
You’ve said that Patty is smarter than you. Do you really think that?
Well, if you’re a lawyer and you’re that good a lawyer then you have to have the capacity to assimilate thousands of documents, you have to have a certain kind of brain. Not smarter, just different. One of the most impressive women I met before I started was top of her field, a litigator, she reads up to ten thousand documents in any case and then when she delivers her statement to the jury it’s all extemporaneous, there are no notes. And then with the summation, she said she’ll have certain key words or certain key phrases but she thinks it’s important to maintain eye contact with the jury so she doesn’t read anything. And I think that’s a mind! I have the mind of an artist, they… It’s a different kind of intelligence. And I wanted Patty to have that kind of a mind, that ability to go through all that information and find that little tiny thing.
People always talk about women reaching a certain age in this business and then finding it difficult to get major roles. Do you still look for Hollywood roles?
Well we have a great idea for a third Cruella movie but I don’t know if we’re going to do it. That’s a part I could do forever. I love playing characters that are so far out there but you have to be careful that people don’t forget that you can do other stuff. Anyone who’s been in this industry as long as I have has to really want to do something if it comes up. I mean, you’ve sacrificed so much of yourself to your career, being away from the people you love, it has to be worth the time away. I don’t want it the same way you do when you’re young and you’re hungry.
Comes back to power a little bit.
Yeah. I mean, I don’t know if they would have done Damages in New York if I hadn’t been a part of it.
So is Hollywood ageist?
Oh, you know the answer to that! More women than men for sure, but the world is ageist, especially for women.
But it hasn’t stopped you.
Oh how lovely!
What’s the difference for you then?
Well, having people come to me and say do Damages. I don’t know, there’ll be fewer and fewer as time goes on!
Something like Damages is always lapped up when it comes to DVD – is it something you think of when you’re making it? Do you get involved in the extras or anything?
I’ve done commentaries, yeah.
Do you see value in DVD s and extras?
Absolutely, yes. Our kind of show is heavily TIVO’d and it’s kind of put Hollywood in a bit of a panic because it’s taken away a source of money. But the extras add things for fans, you know.
You live in New York; do you still have to deal with protecting your privacy?
I think that people recognise me but they don’t necessarily intrude into my life, no. Only tourists really come up to me. It’s nice. And that’s why DVD is nice for someone like me as well – if you haven’t done a big blockbuster then you’re still alive in front of people.
Do you ever feel shy? Even though you do the job you do?
Yes, absolutely. All the time. What I’ve learned, I was very shy as a little girl, and a lot of the actors I know whose work I respect are very shy people, they’re not always presenting themselves. I find it very hard to go into a room and make conversation with people who know me when I don’t know them but I’ve learned.
Would you encourage your daughter to go into acting?
It’s funny, she’s grown up on various sets and I think she kind of has this idea that it’s a fallback position! Would I encourage her? Absolutely.
A lot of actors say that they wouldn’t.
Yeah, which I can’t understand. Why would you something for your whole life but not want your children to do it.
But it’s how you treat it. You’ve not lived your life in front of the camera.
Yeah, it’s important. I mean I’d much rather be in a pair of blue jeans and an old flannel shirt. It’s a big effort to get dressed up all the time and it’s better to keep things separate.
What do you think about the writers ‘strike?
Well I would be nothing without writers so hopefully there’ll be a fair solution.
Is it affecting forthcoming seasons of Damages?
Well we’re supposed to be starting soon – which unless it’s settled, won’t happen.
What do you think about Clinton? As in Hilary? Are you excited at the prospect of a female president?
Oh god, I think America needs to catch up with the rest of the world and I think Hilary is the best. She’s the most experienced and I think it would be good to have a woman. There’s a lot of repair that has to be done. Ted’s wife Mary Steenburgen has been a friend with the Clintons for 30 years and hearing her talk about them just makes you think she’d be the best. We need a big change, so much damage has been done, and she’s been loyal to issues her whole life, things like education and children, things that are so vital. I hope it happens.
Damages is released on DVD on Monday.
So, Damages came to an end tonight and the finale had a few last minute suprises. This has really been a superb series, with standout acting from Glenn Close and Ted Danson, as well as the whole ensemble cast, and great writing. Like the very shows from the US in recent years, Damages didn’t give us good characters and bad characters. It gave us a whole set of complex characters with many shades of grey - capable of wickedness but also very human and easy to empathise with. The good news is that Damages has been recommissioned for two further seasons.
Use the comments box below to share you thoughts on Damages? Could you see the final twist coming or was it a total shock? Will Frobisher survive and play a part in the next season or is his character pretty much done with? Who was your favourite character in Damages?
The DVD and Blu ray boxsets for Damages are released next Monday. Come back to the site over the next week to catch great interviews with the stars of Damages - Glenn Close and Ted Danson - as well as preview of what’s in the boxset.
Episode 13: Because I Know Patty - Finale
The series finale ends with identical scenes to how it started.
Ellen gets the voicemail fom David telling her about the tape that Gregory made. She’s in bed and a man enters Patty’s apartment. He puts the dog outside. Ellen runs past him and they struggle. She picks up a sharp knife and in the fight he falls on it. She runs out of the apartment, bloodied, as she did at the start of episode one. As she leaves, she passes the two men who killed David who are outside planning their move. The man she just killed was not one of the two sent by Frobisher.
She rushes home. She picks up the ornamental bookend and drops it in the bathroom as she discovers David’s dead body. There’s someone at the door so she escapes through the window and runs into the police on the street.
The police find Mr Nye’s card on Ellen so goto see him. He makes a call after they leave: “We have a problem. The police came to see me abotu ellen parsons”.
10 Days Later - Ellen is with her family. She can’t go to the funeral because of the conditions of her bail and she doesn’t know if David’s family want her there.
Patty is at home, seemingly still shocked and upset. Following a meeting with the clients, Patty returns to her office which Uncle Pete has made “as good as new”.
Patty, along with Hollis Nye, meets with the District Attorney and tells him she will expose him for ignoring key evidence unless he reopens the crime scene. Patty is keen to know where the tape is. Ellen assures her its safe.
Hollis is meeting two men in a car and telling them what happened in the meeting.
Ellen visits the murder scene with police to see if she can find any evidence. Frobisher’s men left a penlight in the flat which is on a table in the apartment. The killer, aware the penlight is in there, is outside the apartment and makes his way into the building as the search is underway. He walks right into the apartment and gets the light - it turns out he is a policeman. He tells Ellen he is very sorry for her loss.
Flashing back to 1972, a doctor tells Patty he is very sorry - implying she lost someone close to her.
Frobisher meets up with Larry and complains he hasn’t given him anything for weeks. He can’t work out why he won’t settle for $500million. He loses his temper with Larry and says he has given him shit, so that’s all he will get. Frobisher tells him he won’t be paying him a penny and drives off.
Frobisher is talking to Marshall - his new lawyer - and remembering what happened in Florida. George Moore had gone to the condo Malina had rented and the girl - Katie Connor - was staring right at him. Moore gave Frobisher the report prepared about him by the SEC. Moore and Frobisher had known each other for 40 years. Frobisher tells his lawyer that nothing at all happened in Florida.
Marshall wants to petition for summary judgement to flush out from Patty if she has the tape. She tells him she wants to go to full trial before a jury.
Ellen tells Patty to cut a deal with the DA to get her off.
Frobisher talks to his son on land he has bought about his plans for the future. He tells him he “trusted too many people” and made a big mistake.
Patty Hewes goes to the DA and tells him, “Let’s cut the bullsit and talk business”. She gets a deal and goes to tell Ellen: “You’re a free woman.”. She wants to the tape
“I dont have it” says Ellen. The tape is actually at the police station inside the murder weapon - the ornamental bookend which has has appeared through the series. Tom goes to the station to get it - it has a false bottom and is the hiding place that Ellen and David have referred to. He find the tape and their wedding rings in it.
Patty Hewes goes to see Frobisher with a copy of the tape. She is finally willing to settle at her price. He asks her, “Why do you hate me so much?”. She just walks out.
Frobisher talks to his lawyer. He is willing to give up everything he has apart from the new land that he bought. His lawyer is advising against giving so much but Frobisher is adamant. He tells him he is “done with this” and needs to move on. The lawyer, Marshall, visits Patty to tell her that Frobisher has a new settlement figure which she accepts.
Patty and the clients celebrates. She tells them, “your trust won this case” which is ironic because theme of trusting nobody has run right through the series.
She takes Larry aside. Despite him thinking he had made amends, they (the other client representatives) have all decided he should get nothing from the settlement.
Patty tells Ellen the job is there for her anytime she is ready. Ellen leaves the party and is met by Mr Nye who ushers her into a car. In the car are men from the FBI. Hollis has been working with the FBI to help being down Hewes. They know that Ellen was there the night of Fiske’s suicide.
They want her co-operation. She isn’t interested and gets out of the car.
Ellen goes to David’s funeral. She talks to Katie afterwards and they make up.
Patty goes to Judge Toomy and gives her the Malina videotape. she tells him to sit on in until the next election and then send Frobisher to jail.
Frobisher is on his land which eh wanted to keep when he is shot by Larry, who has been driven to desperation by the bad hand he got dealt. Larry walks off and leaves him bleeding on the ground in a field.
Tom is talking to Ellen. He wants to know how she and Patty won it, but she gives little away.
In flashbacks, we quickly learn that Patty had a daughter that died in childbirth in 1972 and it was her grave she visited whilst away.
Patty is at the beach house when Ellen visits. Patty tells Ellen that she does regret what they did and is ashamed. “I deeply regret it”. She wants her to come back and work for her. Ellen agrees to go back if she can use the firm’s resources to prove Frobisher had David killed. “It’s a deal”, says Patty.
As Ellen walks off, we get the final twist. It flashes back to the conversation with the FBI. She got back in the car and agreed to work for them. She wants to bring Patty down because it WAS Patty that tried to have Ellen killed. Because Ellen admitted to regretting what they did, Patty - sensing a weak link - arranged a murder attempt, aided by the ominous Uncle Pete and the building concierge. It was this which has caused Patty to shake hysterically as we saw earlier. The FBI want her to go back to work at Hewes, working for them undercover.
“See you on Monday”.
Episode 12: Theres no ‘we’ anymore
David and Ellen discuss wedding rings. She wants him to hide the rings in their “hiding place”. She gets a phonecall. She tells David its her sister but its Patty. She goes to see her at the office where Fiske is still on the floor, dead.
Patty gives Ellen the blackmail evidence and tells her to hide it. Tells her that nobody can know, not even David. She asks if she can trust Ellen. “Yes”.
Jumping forward to Ellen in prison. She is joined by a rough “roommate” and they use their charges to establish who is more senior and getting lower bunk. Ellen trumps by saying “I killed my fiance”.
A week earlier, Ellen gets home to the apartment having just been to Patty. She’s hiding the blackmail evidence. David is leaving for work.
Police interviewing Patty and asking how she knows Fiske. She gives a slightly different version of the truth saying he came over to discuss a settlement offer and then killed himself.
Frobisher is at home when Fiske’s senior partner and the police turn up. They tell him he took his own life. Frobisher is upset but lies about the last thing Ray told him.
Tom Shayes meets Patty in the park. She tells him to shut down the office for a few days and handle Judge Toomy. She tells him she will be gone for a while.
We get a quick shot of Patty shaking hysterically at the beach house, as we have seen before during the last few episodes. Do we know now that it was Fiske’s suicide that caused her hysteria? Patty goes to a visit a grave.
Judge is talking to Tom and Marshall, the senior partner from Fiske’s firm. Marshall asks for a six month extension. Tom asks for only a one month deferrment which is granted.
Frobisher goes to Fiske’s office and reads a letter left for him by Fiske. It is the letter from Greg Malina. He reads it and screws it up.
Ellen comes home to find David sitting waiting for her. He knows she lied about the Patty/Sister thing the night before. They argue and she admits about the blackmail. He tells her to choose between the job and them. She can’t choose so he tells her “we’re done”.
He starts packing his things. Ellen takes off her ring and leaves. Lila calls him and he is shouts at her and throws his phone at the wall. The door knocks and its the ominous looking maintenance man.
Katie is waiting outside.
Frobisher is talking to his contacts that get rid of people. He tells them that there is a tape which could ruin his life. He is told that Malina went to Katie Connor. “Do anything you have to do but get me that tape”
Katie goes to see David and gives him the tape. She is being watched as she leaves. Ellen walking in the street after the argument She goes to the office and is resting and Tom is there. They chat and she collects her stuff.
Frobisher is taking cocaine when Fiske’s widow, Mallory turns up. He’s high and gets rid of her before some prostitutes turn up.
Ellen visits Patty at her apartment and they talk - jigsaw pieces start falling into place, with seemingly cryptic scenes shown before now being showing context.
Ellen: Maybe we went too far. Do you regret what we did?
Patty: ……
Ellen: Because I do.
Patty: You do?
Ellen: We crossed a line.
Patty suggests Ellen stays she’s at the apartment whilst Patty goes to the beach-house.
David watches the video left by Greg whilst Patty sets off to the beachhouse leaving Ellen at the apartment, telling her “everything’s going to be alright”. David called Ellen to tell her about the tape. He leaves a voicemail and says he has put the tape in their hiding place.
Ellen comes home from walking Patty’s dog. There’s a man in Patty’s apartment. Ellen comes downstairs and is in the kitchen when the man in the shadows reveals himself to be Michael, Patty’s son.
David is asleep when Lila lets herself in. She goes into the bedroom and wakes him. David throws her out of the apartment and starts to call the police. He turns round and two men are there. “You really should lock your door” they tell him before whacking him on the head with one of the ugly bookends we saw at the start of the series.
Jumping forward to Patty at the grave, she take Tom’s phonecall at last. She says she was visting family. He tells her that Ellen thinks she tried to kill her. Patty seems stunned and then says she is coming home.
Ellen gets bail, paid for my Patty Hewes, and walks out into the daylight to be met by Mr Nye. She goes home to the apartment. She looks around the place at the blood that is left.
We are shown what happened to David. The intruders hit David and then ransacked the place looking for the videotape. David tried to escape so they hit him again. They ask him again where the tape is but he won’t tell them so they kill him in the bathroom.
The killers leave with the blackmail file on Fiske and but dont get the tape. They goto Frobisher and tell him that they couldn’t find it so they went to Patty Hewes apartment and things got a “little fouled up”.
Whilst Ellen is looking through her ransacked apartment, the door knocks. Patty is there. “Where the hell have you been?”. Patty tells her she had nothing to do with this. Ellen says “I know” and says she said that just to get her back.
Ellen tells her that she has the tape and that if Patty helps exonerate her, she can have the tape. Ellen is hardened by it all and tells Patty “there’s no ‘we’ anymore”. She credits Patty with teaching her one valuable lesson…. “trust no one”.
Ellen walks off. Mr Nye - seemingly the most genuine character in the series - is talking on his mobile: “Ellen Parsons is out on bail. You know where to find her”. As Ellen turns a corner, two men appear to be following her.
Damages Episode 11: I Hate These People
Ellen telling Mr Nye what happened with Patty Hewes.She wants a job from him but he tells her to concentrate on wedding and take a break.
8 days later, Patty is filling her car with fuel when she sees blood on her shoe. She goes to the toilets and tries to clean it off.
Going back 8 days, Ellen is planning the wedding with David when Patty turns up at Ellen’s apartment. Patty tells Ellen to go back to George Moore and she can have her job back. Ellen says she doesnt want the job but will talk to him because she wants her to win the case.
Ray Fiske’s wife brings him lunch at his office. We then flashback to Ray in a restaurant in 2002. Greg Malina is a waiter serving him. They get chatting together after the place closes and discuss each others lives. Greg came to New York to get a new start, telling Ray, “I’ll try anything once I guess”.
David comes home to the apartment and find maintenance people in the apartment because Patty Hewes told them to take “extra special care” of them. He’s angry and wants them out.
Jumping forward, Patty is listening to her 57 pending voicemails and quickly skipping through them. She seems stunned to hear from Tom that Ellen is in jail. She drives off and the police are behind her. She nervously eyes them in the mirror but is relieved when they drive past her.
Ellen meets up with George Moore and challenges him about the weekend in Florida. He says he cant give them Frobisher but can give them somebody.
David comes home and is being watched by Lila. Ellen comes home and is chatting with David - making breakfast after his shift and before bed, he tells her he is living “live in reverse” which is kind of funny considering the series started with his dead body.
Tom wants to announce Ellen’s firing to the staff - she tells him to go announce it.
Ray is in a bar remembering a conversation with Greg Malina. He is furious with Gregory. Fiske has ordered him to rent an apartment and not be there so George Moore could use it, but because Greg took Katie there, FIske is furious that Moore could have been seen. Greg tells him that the girl didn’t see anything. He tells Greg to sell the stock in Frobisher’s company that he gave him. His memories are interrupted when Frobisher comes into the bar to meet him. He tells Frobisher that that Moore sold him out. He has photos of him meeting with Ellen. “It’s all him. He sold you out.”
Ellen meets with Patty at her home to discuss the case. She gives Ellen some money to hold her over - “everyone needs to eat”. Ellen doesn’t want the money and leaves it when she goes. Ellen’s son comes in and thinks Ellen is “kinda hot”.
Ellen goes to meet Moore but he has been shot in the head. She goes through his things looking for what he was going to bring her. The photos and documents he brought show that Fiske was involved with Malina. She gives the stuff to Patty and tells her to use it. “It’s blackmail, ellen”. “Just do what needs to be done”.
The senior partners in Fiske’s law firm have lost confidence in his abilities to try the case. He is told that he will shadowed from now on. Fiske is in the park with his dog when Patty shows up. She tells him she knows about him and Malina. She tells him she wants to come to an arrangement. She doesn’t want a settlement, she wants it to go to trial.
Fiske receives a letter sent by Gregory Malina before he died, informing him of the videotape confession he made.
Ellen receives sexy underwear from Lila with a message saying “I miss you David, Lila”. Ellen calls her and leaves a voicemail telling her to stay away from David.
Days later, David is packing to leave after argument with Ellen - shortly before he is killed - when Lila calls him. He tells her to stop calling him and throws the phone at the wall. As Ellen leaves the apartment, Katie is waiting outside with the videotape.
Jumping forward, Patty is by a lake and seems makes a decision, getting in a car and driving off.
Ray is in his office and has more flashbacks. He remembers trying to kiss Gregory but Greg pushes him away saying that’s not who he is.
Ray calls Arthur Frobisher and tells him “it’s over” and that he got a letter from Malina. He goes home and tells his wife she has to pack and they need to leave the country.
Ellen comes home and Lila is sitting in the dark in the apartment.
Ray visits Patty at her office. She tells him she became a lawyer because she “thought she could change the world”. She tells him she wants him to lose the case and offers to hire him later on. He agrees to her terms and then leaves. Then Ray comes back into the office and says he always wanted to work with her. “Not anymore”. He takes out a gun and shoots himself in the head with blood splattering everywhere, including her shoe.
Marilyn Kershaw from Grimsby. Well done Marilyn. The DVD boxset has had its release postponed til next week so you will receive the boxset sometime after that.
Thanks to all that took part in the competition. If you didn’t win and would still like to be able to relive the entire fantastic season of Damages, why not buy it yourself from Amazon.co.uk
Episode 10: Sort Of Like A Family (aired March 17th, BBC One)
Episode starts with David and Ellen passionately making love at Patty’s beach house they are staying at. David looks up and it is now Patty Hewes straddling him, prompting him to quickly wake from his disturbing dream.
Tom Shayes is asking Patty how long she intends to keep Ellen on for, as she isn’t her kind of lawyer. “Ellen brought us Katie. Katie brought us as Gregory. So as long as Gregory is in play, so is Ellen. Simple as that”.
David gets a call from Katie to say that Gregory Malina is dead.
Reverting to Ellen in jail talking to Tom, he tells her that Patty was at the beach house but she was gone and left in a hurry. He tells her that he doesn’t know what to believe. Ellen says someone tried to kill her.
One month earlier, Patty and Tom tell their junior lawyers that Gregory was killed in a hit and run and now they must “move on” to Frobisher’s deposition and crack his facade by revealing the truth of Arlington, and his MO for obstructing justice.
Frobisher is leaving home to prepare for the case. His wife gives him his lucky golf club to take with him. Patty and Ray Fiske are trying to agree the terms for deposition. She agrees to 3 days rather than 7, and he concedes to her demand for it to be filmed.
She tells him that Gregory Malina is dead. Fiske feigns ignorance and Patty simply tells him, “shame on you”.
Patty tells Ellen she’s taking her off the deposiition and asks her to report to Felicia on another case.
Frobisher gives a press conference about the events in Arlington, aimed as a spoiler against Patty’s plan against him. He says he gave the family stock in his company because he loved their daughter.
Jumping forward a month, Tom is talking to Ellen in jail. Tells her he doesn’t know what to believe. She tells him to get her bail and she’ll do the rest. He goes to the apartment where she says someone tried to kill her.
Ellen wants to meet George Moore to see if he leaked to Frobisher about the Arlington angle. Patty says no, and then tells Tom do it.
Fiske meets with George Moore and they are starting to argue. Moore threatens to tell Frobisher that it was Fiske that gave Gregory stock in his company. Fiske warns him to be careful because he can take him down.
Frobisher and Fiske talk. Frobisher thanks him and says he may be the only one he can trust. Frobisher’s deposition begins - says he is the CEO, not the COO or the CFO. He compares himself to a “coach… sometimes even a cheerleader” and says his duty was to inspire his employees. After it ends, he calls his wife to tell her about it, who is at dinner with another man.
Ellen secretly arranges to meet George Moore. Angry that Frobisher knew that the Arlington issue would come up, he tells her that someone in the Hewes office is in Frobisher’s pocket. She tells him if there’s a connection between him and Frobisher, she’ll find it. Their meeting is seen and photographed by someone in a car nearby.
Ellen is independently investigating Moore. She finds an ex employee of Moore who says Moore never properly investigated Frobisher. She tells Ellen that George Moore was in florida the same weekend as Arthur Frobisher.
The deposition continues and Patty asks Frobisher about Katie Connor and Gregory Malina. He says he doesn’t know the man. He seems genuinely suprised at the revelations coming from Patty’s questioning: that Malina is dead, and that he was an owner of Frobisher stock and sold it on the same day as him.
Frobisher asks Fiske if he gave Malina stock but he denies it. Fiske goes on to implicate George Moore, telling Frobisher he thinks Moore leaked Arlington to Patty Hewes.
Ellen goes to Patty with what she has discovered about George Moore. Patty is furious - “Who told you to do that?”, “Who told you to think?”
Ellen tells her “I’m so sick of your bullshit.”, causing Tom to whince. Patty fires Ellen, who walks out but leaves her dossier with reception and tells them to give it to Patty.
Quickly jumping forward a month, Tom is looking around Patty’s apartment where Ellen says someone tried to kill her. An ominous looking concierge comes in and makes Tom jump. After he leaves, Tom finds an ornament with blood on it.
Back a month, Ellen returns home after being fired. She wants to go out with David and get junk.
Frobisher is about to go into next deposition session when Fiske gives papers to Frobisher saying Holly wants a divorce. During his questioning, Patty uses a family metaphor (we later learn that info was leaked to her about the divorce) - suggesting he was husband and father to his employees - and it gets to him, causing him to lose his temper and storm out.
After his wife leaves their home, Frobisher is broken and says he is sick of it and tells Fiske to make an offer. Ray offers Patty $500 million but she says “no deal”. She starts to read the dossier prepared by Ellen and calls her, but Ellen lets it goto voicemail.
Back in jail, Tom tells Ellen he found blood in Patty’s apartment. Ellen tells him Patty doesn’t want to come back because she knows things. She tells Tom to call Patty and tell her that Ellen knows she tried to kill her.