Damages Season 2 Episode 6 ~ "A Pretty Girl In A Leotard"

In Damages' first season, for Patty Hewes & Associates, it was all about bringing down stock manipulating billionaire Arthur Frobisher. In season 2 for the toughest movers and shakers in the worlds of law and finance it's "all about Ultima National Resources". After renowned scientist, Daniel Purcell [played by William Hurt] committed perjury, sinking the environmental pollution case Hewes & Associates was bringing against UNR's head honcho Walter Kendrick [played by John Doman], Patty is spoilin' to give a smackdown. With the pollution case gone bust [for the moment], she sets out to prove Kendrick commissioned a 'hit'[in which Purcell is complicit] on Purcell's wife Christine, because she let it be known she was not going to keep quiet about UNR's dirty deeds and was encouraging her hubby to blow the whistle. Patty throws down the gauntlet when she publicly accuses Kendrick of murder when she guests on Greta Van Sustern's "On The Record".

That's the quirky thing about this show---every episode is peppered with cross promotional references. hell, the show's main sponsor, Cadillac, has it's products incorporated into the plot lines---but it works. It never feels like an intrusion or a non sequitur. It's the skill with which the writers manage this collaboration that makes this show fun for me.

That and the fact that the scripts are always entertaining, the cast is first rate, and NYC is shown at her best and grittiest. i also like the intersecting of the characters and their motives. The maneuvering they do reminds me of square dancing. Patty has enlisted the help of Arthur Frobisher a prominent UNR shareholder to help bring Kendrick down. "The enemy of my enemy is my friend". 17 years previous Patty and Daniel Purcell had a son. Patty has only recently informed Daniel of this. Daniel is the independent scientist charged with testing the water etc. that Kendrick's energy conglomerate is accused of polluting, but he's also being bought off and blackmailed by the company. Kendrick's council Claire Maddox [played by Marcia Gay Harden] has literally been in bed with Daniel, Kendrick, and anybody else she damn well chooses, and is an excellent opposite number to Ms.Hewes. Patty's hubby Phil's [played by Michael Nouri] business ties and extra-marital affairs overlap with the very people she's investigating and/or bringing to trial. Ellen [played by Rose Byrne] is working with Patty and trying to nail her for trying to have her killed and for the feds who are investigating Patty. There's also Ellen's tricky fledgling friendship with grief group therapy member Wes Krulik [played by Timothy Olyphant] who's spying on her for Kendrick. Krulik being told thanks but no thanks to his 'I'd like us to be more than just friends' advances, figures the best way to get to Ellen is to make a play for Katie [played by Anastasia Griffith] the woman who would have been Ellen's sister-in-law had her fiance David not been murdered.

And promenade her home.

Damages airs on FX Wednesdays at 10:00pm
[please check your local listings].