[DMG] Trust Me

TV Programme: Damages
Season: 2
Episode: 13
Date I watched this episode: 07/06/2009
Time since I last watched this programme: 2 months, 11 days.

Don't get me wrong - "Trust Me" was the best episode of season 2 by a mile. But there was something which felt not quite right about it. Rarely have I seen a season finale with such moments of amazing brilliance, but which can also be so patchy all over the place. In fact I can't think of another finale like it: finales are either good or they are bad. This season finale wasn't truly bad (like [ALS] "All The Time In The World", [DS9] "In The Hands Of The Prophets", [FAR] "Dog With Two Bones" or [MMN] "The Wheel") because it did have some really great, unexpected and well-executed plot twists, which none of the aforementioned did have. But it fell short of the mark due to several things: notably that it followed a very mediocre season, it left several things hanging in the balance with no hope of a real explanation, and it contained at least a couple of scenes/segments which seemed to be totally irrelevant (no surprises there though for Damages Season 2).

Let's start off with the good, the really good. I think Ellen's choice not to kill Patty was believable, unexpected and dramatic. The moment when you see the sheet stating "THE FEDS ARE WATCHING US" is a classic moment of serial television, one of those "WTF" moments that I have referred to before (e.g. in my review of "Burn It, Shred It, I Don't Care"). So Ellen had realised Patty's true nature and the fact that the world does actually need people like her. She knew that Patty had grown to care for her very much, and that she could cause Patty a great deal of pain by forcing her to admit to her crimes face-to-face. So this was her new strategy - no surveillance, no FBI. It's really very believable.

I'll move on to discussing the acting in this episode. In general I thought the acting was pretty average; no real surprises. But Dave Pell and Walter Kendrick were typically brilliant. Cool and collected to the last, these two really carried us through some less good parts of the episode, and I hope to see them again in future.

There were also a couple of moments where some questions were answered from earlier in the season. Rick Messer was the one Wes shot in the car - I could have seen that coming, but to be honest I'd totally forgotten that happened. In fact many parts of this episode were shown a lot earlier in this series and then not mentioned again; seems hardly worth it really. However the blood being caused by Finn Garrity was a great red herring that was completely unprecedented. This whole device didn't really feel like it was just done to keep Glenn Close in the series, though that was inevitably one of the motivations behind it.

Katie Connor and Arthur Frobisher only appeared in one scene each in this episode. Arthur hasn't been seen around much recently, and I'm struggling how they're going to make a storyline seem original with him, when he is going to be in the same situation as before. As for Katie, she hasn't been around much this season at all. Her presence was necessary for the "baiting" that Rick Messer had organised, but it still seems hardly worth Anastacia having to come to the shoot.

Patty had a dream during this episode that was seemingly irrelevant. In the dream, several men, some of whom were dead (Pete McKee and Ray Fiske) were smoking cigars and laughing at her, while Ellen told her that everyone hated her. I presumed this dream to be a pre-cursor to something later in the episode, but it seemed completely irrelevant.

Talking of irrelevance, there were several storylines from earlier episodes which now seem to be irrelevant. The main one is Michael and his "girlfriend". I expected this one to come to a head here but it didn't. Michael hasn't really explained himself as to what he is actually up to, and why he is bringing this lady home who he clearly isn't in a relationship with (as seen in "Uh Oh. Out Come The Skeletons.") Patty's charity from "I Lied, Too" has seemingly completely disappeared. The remote control, which formed a large part of the story of "Look What He Dug Up This Time", was not even mentioned.

I think perhaps the most heartbreaking part about this whole thing though is that there are things that don't make sense. First of all, Tom Shayes came to Patty's office to try to warn her about Ellen, ranting about the unlawful dismissal. Why would he do this if Cynthia was working to take down the corrupt FBI investigation? Ellen wasn't there to see him and be fooled. More importantly though, why did Patty arrange to save Ellen when she knew Ellen was working against her? How did Patty find this out? When did she find out? I have a sneaking suspicion that these questions will be brushed under the carpet in season 3.

As for that third season (which was confirmed at the same time season 2 was confirmed), well we hardly know anything about it. Season 1's "Because I Know Patty" gave us loads of details about season 2: we knew Ellen would be working for the FBI, undercover for Patty, we knew that Rick Messer was still about, and so on. But here, Ellen tells David's grave that she has got a new job. What new job? It could be just about anything. And she talks about meeting Wes, who has now proved himself to be loyal and capable of protecting her, although he had bad intentions to start with (which Ellen may or may not be bothered about). Arthur is very likely to make a comeback, and hopefully Ellen will start on her rampage against him again, aided by Wes. But in general, I think the third season has even less hope for it than the second one did.

The name thing: I kind of got it both right and wrong. I think the main quote was said by Patty to Tom, and so in that sense I got it wrong. But Patty did tell Ellen to trust her when she asked her to bribe the judge. Maybe I would award myself "half a point".

And that's it for this season. One of the worst seasons I have watched recently, I have to say, but not as bad as the second half of 24 season 7, and I will inevitably be back for more next year. All in all, this season finale was well above average, but not enough to redeem this season. Then again, I don't see how it could have been.