Damage Report: Trust No One

Sigh. Confession time: I'm missing tonight's episode of Damages ("Sort of Like a Family"), as I'm currently in London, and will have to wait until this weekend in order to catch up. (Yes, I'm definitely freaking out that I'm missing one of the penultimate episodes of my current television obsession.)

Instead of getting frustrated about missing this week's installment, I can't help but think about last week's reveal that Patty might just be human after all. Did she fail to heed her own admonition to Ellen to "trust no one"? Or did something truly terrible and unexpected (and outside Patty's realm of control) occur?

In a series where the lead character wisely cautions against putting one's faith in another human being, who do you trust? Or more to the point, given what we've seen so far on Damages, which character can the audience trust any more?

Patty. It's been clear since Day One (or even earlier) that this Prada-wearing devil is evil incarnate. A puppet master pulling the strings of everyone around her, Patty has proven that she's often thinking eleven steps ahead of everyone else and is willing to do anything--at any cost--in order to win, regardless of whom she has to step on (or break down) in order to do so. We knew instantly not to trust her (thanks to her ordering the killing of Katie's dog Saffron) but we can't help but fall under her dangerous spell. Last week's episode clearly showed that she and Ellen have entered into some sort of conspiracy ("Do you regret what we did?") and now she might be cleaning up the mess by having Ellen eliminated once and for all. Still, what was her beach house breakdown all about? Could Patty actually be capable of feeling guilt or shame?

Tom. I really hoped that Tom would be the one trustworthy guy in the bunch, but he too proved to be a consummate liar. Once he got his partner status at Hewes and Associates and took Ellen under his wing, I had assumed (incorrectly) that he'd also be her protector. Not so, as he quickly sells Ellen out to Patty for concealing the fact that HE offered HER a job during his time away from the office. (Bastard!) Then he has the gall to lie to Ellen's face when he visits her in prison, claiming not to know where Patty is and then phoning her and warning her to stay away from Manhattan. Just what does Tom know? I'm not sure, but he seemed just as surprised as us to discover Patty's beach house empty, a glass smashed against the wall, and Patty nowhere in sight. Could he be tangled up in Ellen's attempted murder and the subsequent cover-up? Or is Tom as much a patsy as Ellen in all of this?

Ellen. She's our lead character but over the course of the season, she's turned into a shadowy clone of Patty Hewes before our eyes. I want to believe that Ellen is still a good and decent person but it definitely seems as though she and Patty did something terrible together. (After all, Tom told her that someone is dead.) But is she liar? I don't think so. She's always remained our moral compass on this show, even when her actions have been more in line with Patty's, but she's always managed to tell the truth, even when it came back to bite her in the ass (as it did with Katie). However, given the fact that she soon ends up in prison after killing a man in self-defense and possibly being framed for her murder of her fiancé David, I'm not sure what her honesty has gotten her. Still, is it a sign of things to come that the only truly truthful and decent character still ended up with blood on her hands?

Fiske. I thought up until last week that Ray Fiske's main purpose in life was his responsibility to his client. Has he been involved in some shady dealings? Obviously, as that comes with the territory when you work for someone like Arthur Frobisher, who defrauded his employees of their life savings AND pinned the blame for a fatal car accident on a dead girl. Fiske arranged the rendezvous between Frobisher and George Moore in Miami Beach via Gregory Malina (whom he appeared to have feelings for) and paid him off with Frobisher stock. But I always thought that Fiske would draw a line in the sand as to what moral barrier he wouldn't cross. Sadly, I was stunned to learn that he had no such compunctions; his actions directly lead to the murder of Gregory Malina and, unless he has a crisis of conscience sometime soon, Fiske has now allied himself wholly with the forces of darkness in this case: colluding with an SEC officer, engaging in multiple crimes (including accessory to murder and conspiracy), and even lying to his employer, urging him to settle out of court. Is there any hope of redemption for this bloodsucker?

Uncle Pete. I'll admit that while Patty seems to portray Uncle Pete as a doddering old man who helps out with errands and tasks around the office, there's something particularly nefarious about him. In the pilot episode, he acted as a go-between for Patty and Tom, delivering evidence of Saffron's death to Patty; was he the one who left that gruesome warning to Katie with Saffron's bloody corpse? It's clear that Patty has implicit trust in Pete (possibly the only person to deserve such faith) but after last week's episode, I think he's done some pretty bad things in her employ. Just what was Pete doing rifling around in Patty's desk when Tom surprises him in her office? And what is Pete's real duty for Patty and how far does it extend? I trust him less than I do the people who left a baby in George Moore's possession.

Who do you trust when no one seems to be particularly trustworthy? Is the only way to successfully survive the shark-infested waters of the Manhattan legal system by trusting only yourself? Do the ends truly justify the means when you're attempting to conquer evil? And when we will finally learn the truth about what exactly happened in those six weeks to throw everyone's ordered lives into absolute chaos?

Find out tonight as the countdown to the season finale of Damages continues.

What's On Tonight

8 pm: NCIS (CBS); Singing Bee/Biggest Loser (NBC; 8:30-10 pm); Beauty and the Geek (CW); Cavemen/Carpoolers (ABC); Bones (FOX)

9 pm: The Unit (CBS); Reaper (CW); Dancing with the Stars (ABC); House (FOX)

10 pm: Cane (CBS); Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (NBC); Boston Legal (ABC)

What I'll Be Watching

8 pm: Beauty & the Geek.

I'm a sucker for the CW's "social experiment" Beauty & the Geek. On tonight's episode ("Double Dare"), the teams play truth or dare, a couple begins a romance and the beautoes learn about human anatomy. There's a joke there, but I am just not going to make it.

9 pm: Eureka on Sci Fi.

Season Two of Eureka concludes tonight with the second part of the two-part finale, "A Night at Global Dynamics," in which Carter and Stark try to save Allison's son and stop the spread of a virus.

10 pm: Damages on FX.

FX's brilliant legal drama continues with an-all new episode tonight ("Sort of Like a Family"), Frobisher and Patty face off during his deposition, David receives a surprising visitor, and Ellen, pushed to the sidelines, considers a series of daring moves that might bring her back into Patty's inner circle.