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Last season the Frobisher case occupied every waking hour of our intrepid girl lawyer Ellen’s singular life. She was so busy she forgot her last name! Okay, that was me. But she did get a job, figured out she was hired because of a connection to a witness in the Frobisher case, lost her job for palling around with the SEC, get her job back, only to have her fiancé bludgeoned by sweet Lady Liberty herself. (Guess that’ll teach her to keep tchotchkes.) She was accused of murder, got the charges dropped, blackmailed Patty, won the case, and now continues to work with Patty in order to bring down Frobisher who was gut shot, but not dead. She’s also working with the FBI to bring down the Patty herself, who most likely tried to kill Ellen last season. Oh I am SO not doing Season One justice. There was so much murder and mayhem and pensions law you really need to just watch Season One. Suffice it to say, paying off law school debt is a bitch!
This season starts with Ellen acting crazy, but isn’t that sort of implied what with all the law school and murder and post-traumatic stress? But let’s not get ahead of ourselves, because as in last season, this season’s drama actually starts six months back. Six months ago Regis and Kelly (for reals!) interview Patty about the charity she is starting. She cares, people! In order to feed the starving masses, she needs money and will torture anyone and everyone to do right by the hungry people of New York. She’ll mostly be torturing, I mean, partnering, with Sam Arsenault, a rich guy who really needs Patty’s help. She’s made sure of that. He can’t wait to fund her charity after she promises to help exonerate his Yale-bound daughter who was mysteriously busted for possession.
William Hurt joins the cast (because cable television dramas are so where the action is these days) as Daniel Purcell, a guy with information that could bring down an entire industry. He needs Patty’s protection, but she’d rather protect his big brown box, which I can’t help but think is filled with Gwyneth Paltrow’s severed head. What, didn’t you see Seven? That movie ruined the reputation of big brown boxes everywhere. Patty changes her mind when Daniel’s wife is killed.
Ellen and her Frobisher revenge fantasies are hitting on my boyfriend, Timothy Olyphant, who has joined the cast (at least temporarily) as a gun-pushing member of Ellen’s support group. I’m not sure the support group is doing it for her since when she finds out that Frobisher is alive and hiding out in a hospital she pays him a visit. That can’t be therapeutic. What is undoubtedly more therapeutic are Ellen’s plans to bring down Patty. The FBI has a dummy case involving infant mortality that they will use to very very slowly entrap Patty. Ellen is eager and anxious, but gets Patty to take the case.
Back to the future, where crazycakes Ellen is waving a gun around. She admits that she lied too, then takes aim and fires. Should be an exciting season!
Want more? The full recap starts right below!Ellen has gotten in touch with her dark side. You can tell because she is wearing black eyeliner and, like Jenny Humphrey before her, wearing black eyeliner means you are a bad bad girl. Ellen is talking to an unseen audience. She is warning whoever it is (or she could be talking to herself) to be scared. She takes a drink of whiskey (another sign of her new and improved bad girl's ways; nice girls drink white wine and maybe appletinis if they're feeling frisky) and glares. She wants the person to say the words. She has brought along a little helper to get the dialogue flowing. She waves a cute little handgun around. This is going to be fun!
Six months earlier. Regis and Kelly host Patty Hewes on their show. I am not a daytime television aficianado, but do Regis and Kelly actually have lawyers on their show to discuss pension embezzlement cases? And even if so, do lawyers really brazenly discuss the fees they made and/or their cases in public? Especially when the defendant in the case was shot? Anyway, in this universe Patty gleefully comes on the show and glibly discusses how much money she made off of the settlement. They banter for a while and Patty announces that she is starting a charity to fight hunger with her take of the settlement. Everyone claps because what lawyers do is endlessly fascinating to alternate universe daytime television audiences. Regis explains that he met one of her associates backstage. They pan over to Ellen waiting in the wings. Her hair looks awesome. Patty introduces her to the viewers and explains that Ellen has been with the firm for less than a year, but she doesn't know what she would do without her. What's that noise? Oh that's the sound of thousands of first-year associates rolling their eyes and then grimly turning back to their Blue booking.
Ellen storms off set and into the waiting car of the FBI agents working to take Patty down. She growls that Patty is full of shit (she said it!) because a few months ago Patty tried to kill her and now she is acting like her best friend. The FBI has a case they want Ellen to take to Patty. She'll monitor the case from the inside and they will use all the information to bring her down. Ellen jumps up and down in excitement and the awesome Mario Van Peebles tells her to chillax already because it is going to take awhile to bring Patty down. Ellen barks that it is easy for them to say because they just want to arrest her; Ellen wants to destroy her.
Arthur Frobisher is not dead. He drags his gut shot proto-corpse through a field and towards a cabin. As he nears the cabin he is lunged at by a guard dog. He makes it past the dog and the door of the cabin opens. It is Ellen. He throws up his hands to defend himself. Ellen's revenge fantasy is interrupted by her grief counselor asking her about revenge fantasies. As she blasts Frobisher to bits in her dreams, she tells the counselor that she hasn't had any fantasies to speak of. Oh that? That wasn't a fantasy, that was pre-meditation. Cut to Patty's office where her aged P(I), Uncle Pete, is recounting Ellen's schedule. Patty tells him to not bother following Ellen anymore, it's all over. With a little pressure from Uncle Pete, Patty relents to have him keep watching Ellen, but she pretends it is for Ellen's own good. As the old man leaves, Tom comes in and pushes Patty to take a case. She promises to consider it. I am kicking myself over the fact that I saw Tate Donovan at Barney's last week and failed to ask him to submit to an interview. I just didn't want to be a fangirl stalker type. But, Tate! Call me!
William Hurt has joined the growing and star-studded cast (who as far as I can tell are all here to make Ellen look even more out of her depth acting-wise than she was last season). He purposefully strides down a hallway in an office building, angrily swipes his badge at a door, and then barges into a meeting presided over by Goodwin, one of the Others from Lost. There's no way he'sa good guy. William Hurt holds up a file and calls it horseshit. Wow they are really making the most of their post-bedtime time slot. He clears Goodwin's table and demands that "it" stop now. He stares at Goodwin for a minute and then charges out of the room. They are playing some subtle crazyperson music and the lighting is fuzzy, so it will be interesting to see where this goes.
Patty finds Ellen to ask how setting up her charity is going. Glad to see she is so hands on with her good works. As if I don't volunteer myself, but the help does and I take the credit is a reasonable outlook to charity work. Ellen assures her that as soon as Sam Arsenault's monetary commitment is confirmed the charity will be in good shape. As Patty turns to go, Ellen makes some under-her-breath comment and Patty calls her on it. She thinks Ellen thinks she is simply starting the charity to ease her conscience over the wacky hijinks (murder, blackmail) they got up to during the Frobisher case. Ellen claims her conscience is clear. If I were Ellen I would be a little cautious about muttering things in front of a woman who sent knife-wielding assassins after me. Perhaps this is why I don't practice law. Patty tries to ask how Ellen was doing, but Ellen shuts her down. She doesn't want to talk about David's murder with Patty. Patty then changes the subject to Frobisher. Patty's investigator (read: Uncle Pete) has been helping Ellen track him. He was in a hospital and had abdominal surgery and then transferred to another hospital, but no one knows where. Is it simply Patty's guilt that is making her help Ellen track Frobisher? Or morbid curiosity? Or is she worried that Frobisher will seek revenge for her evil ways?
We now turn to the man himself. Frobisher is in a hospital room with a breathing tube and a beard. His nurse checks his IV and tends to his dry mouth. Frobisher thanks the nurse for taking care of him and then asks the nurse if he knows who he is. The nurse assures him that he does, but Frobisher doesn't believe it. He is the most hated man in America and the nurse is being nice to him. As Frobisher tears up, the nurse leaves him to it. Has Frobisher gone soft? Or is it just the drugs? And, really, does anyone trust that nurse for a second?
Ellen interrupts Patty's phone call to announce a big problem -- Sam Arsenault is backing out of the foundation. He is withdrawing his entire contribution. Patty rushes over to his office to find out WTF. In his lobby, Sam compliments Patty on knowing how to wear a skirt yet act like one of the boys. Patty interjects, "Except for the vagina." And, yes, folks, Patty's vagina will also be guest starring this season along with William Hurt, Marcia Gay Harden, and Timothy Olyphant. Bet even it will out-act Rose Byrne. Sam Arsenault manages to not be outwardly horrified at the mention of her vajayjay, which probably bodes well for a career in politics. Sam tells Patty that he is pulling his contribution because the Republicans are backing him for governor and the Republicans hate Patty what with all her charitable work. Oh and those big time class action suits. Sam then launches into a dirty story about dictation (nudge nudge, wink wink) where the moral is that he likes to see what he can get away with. That's funny, Patty does to! Patty warns him that he is making a big mistake, but he shrugs. Sam's daughter shows up and he tells Patty that she is going to Yale. Patty sizes her up for her coffin and then turns down their lunch invitation because she has plots to hatch and daughters to frame.
Back at the office, the aged P brings Patty a box that was hand delivered with no return address. Even though security X-rayed the box, she makes Pete open it. It's papers. As she looks through the contents, she gets a phone call. It is William Hurt a.k.a. Daniel Purcell. Uncle Pete is as shocked as Patty to hear the name, so we know Daniel is an old frenemy coming out of the woodwork. Oh please, Patty doesn't have actual friends. Daniel asks her to keep the box. He doesn't know who else to trust with it. He hangs up before she can ask any questions. They play the crazy man waltz some more as Daniel hangs up the pay phone and walks off.
The FBI has Patty's bait case all set. It's an infant mortality case with billions of dollars of damages at the end. Can you imagine trying to create a case to entrap Patty Hewes? She is smart and wily and suspicious. I wonder who the FBI had create the fake case? And how could they possibly vet it well enough to get it past Patty? And who is the plaintiff? An FBI operative? Okay, forget the questions. Let's just watch and see what happens. Ellen has questions, too. She doesn't quite understand how they will use this case to trap Patty. The FBI agent who is not Mario Van Peebles tells her to take it one step at a time. You know, when you have someone as awesome as MVP playing an FBI agent partnered with a guy who is not MVP and not particularly awesome it just seems unfair. He's basically wallpaper. Beige wallpaper. The FBI wants Ellen to get Patty to take the case first, then they will tell her the rest. Is that code for the writers haven't gotten that far?
Tom and Ellen talk through possible cases with Patty. Tom has a large tire product liability case that could be "bigger than Bridgestone." And lucky Bridgestone to have that legacy. Ah heck, it serves them right for making crap tires. Patty isn't really paying attention to Tom's pitch. She chews the arm of her glasses and stares into space. Ellen takes the opportunity to eye Daniel's large box taking up real estate on Patty's desk. Tom calls Patty out for her distraction and she snaps out of it momentarily. Tom then gives her the file on Ellen's infant mortality case. The basic facts of the case are that infant mortality rates are rising because HMOs and insurance companies don't want to pay for Cesareans because they are costly and low income at-risk women are being "forced into natural childbirth." I put it in quotes, because while it is a quote, it is also incredibly infuriating. I will spare you the soapbox lecture, but consider yourself warned that I reserve my right to deliver my opening statement on the matter later. Forced into natural childbirth, as opposed to their god given right to have a c-section. Grumble grumble. Tom is convinced that this is their case. They can take on the insurance industries, make billions in damages, and scare the pants off of anyone considering natural childbirth all in one handy case. He gets up to leave, but Ellen stays to talk to Patty. Patty puts down the case file and Ellen snarks at her for not even bothering to read it. Patty is distracted because of the foundation's lack of funding. I thought she was going to fund it with the booty she took off the top of the pensioners' damage collection? When Ellen asks about the box, Patty snaps at her and Ellen finally leaves the office. I have to mention that Ellen's hair looks fabulous, again. Too fabulous. What I mean by that is that there is no way that any first year associate who is probably doing 100-hour work weeks and is living in a hotel when not in her cubicle could possibly have hair that coiffed. Patty, who arguably could have her hair done daily, is sporting a sensible and realistic bob. Ellen has a curled, tousled, and sprayed low slung ponytail with front wisps that no one could recreate without two extra hands and an hour to spare. But it does look good.
Back in her support group, Timothy Olyphant (my boyfriend!) recounts a horrifying revenge fantasy about kicking off some guy's head. Instead of grimacing and asking him to refrain from such graphic imagery that could upset the traumatized members of the group, the grief counselor applauds his powerful dream telling. She asks Ellen if she is having any dreams, but Ellen can't sleep. Timothy reminds us that her fiancé was killed a month ago and of course she can't sleep.
Patty does not have the same problem. She has fallen asleep on the couch and is haunted by dreams of planning Ellen's demise. She wakes up in a panic with her son staring at her. As she tries to recover from her bad dream, her son continues to stare at her. She swears she is fine.
At Daniel Purcell's house, Daniel's daughter comes to wake him because she heard sounds in the living room. He gets up to investigate yelling to his wife to call the police. He grabs a poker (who has a fireplace in New York?) and chases after the intruder who is ominously (and obviously) wearing a hoodie. All home invaders wear hoodies. The intruder trashed Daniel's office and his wife wants to know what he was looking for, but Daniel doesn't answer. The crazy music plays on.
Sam Arsenault calls Patty for help. His precious Yale-bound daughter was busted for coke possession and they plastered it all over the front page of the newspaper. He thinks they went after her "the first time she did coke" just because she's his daughter. He asks Patty to call the DA and get him to drop the charges. He can't call the DA himself because the DA hates him. And, while he can't contribute to her charity right now if he wants to keep his Republican backing, he will if he has to in order to save his precious daughter and her virginal nose. Patty pish poshes that idea. She would never hold him hostage like that! This is family for her! Glenn Close is such a good actress you almost believe her. She might be a better actress if she could move her forehead, though, if you know what I mean.
Uncle Pete, the aged P(I), knocks on Ellen's door to give her an update on Frobisher's whereabouts. He warns her that she can't go see Frobisher, though, because only family can visit. Pete knows she wants to look Frobisher in the eye, but she should just wait until she can get her chance to prosecute. Ellen thanks him for the advice. I think prosecution is the last thing on Ellen's mind.
Frobisher's nurse asks whether or not they caught the guy who shot him, but Frobisher explains that it's complicated and he didn't get the police involved. Frobisher took the bullet as a wake up call, which is probably still more soothing than the buzzer on my demonic alarm clock. He used to be an asshole (got to love the swearing on this show) and even his wife left him. But she called today and she's going to come see him. He is really excited at the prospect of putting things right with her. He breaks down crying that he doesn't want his wife to see him like this. He pulls himself together and then decides he actually wants to look more pathetic so she'll feel worse. Good to see the old Frobisher is alive somewhere in that brokedown body.
Daniel Purcell cleans up from the break in. His wife is sitting on the stoop watching him clean. As he angrily storms around, she calls after him that he has to make a decision. If the company is hurting people he has to stop them. He yells that he knows and then slams the door leaving her outside staring at a shut door. I know he's having a bad day, but locking your wife outside seems like a bad thing to do.
Back at group therapy, Ellen's grief counselor tells Ellen that she doesn't think she is grieving, but is clinging to her fiancé's killer instead. Ellen clenches her fist really obviously while the counselor lectures her about holding in her rage and then Ellen has had enough. She wipes away a tear, grabs her bag, and walks out while the counselor asks her to talk about it. Ellen walks the lonely streets with her hair still perfectly coiffed. Maybe I'm just jealous.
Patty is walking her dog when Daniel Purcell finds her. And by "finds" I mean, stalks and then creeps up on. She is startled by his sudden appearance, but agrees to talk with him. They sit in his car and he explains that he has information, he's being threatened, and he needs protection. He isn't safe, his family isn't safe, and he needs help. She tells him to call the police and he explains that he did. He doesn't enjoy begging her for help, but if he goes public with what he knows he will bring down an industry. He continues that he kept his distance, he respected her wishes, but, dammit!, now he needs her. At those words she gives him quite the hoary eyeball and it makes you wonder about the history between these two. Patty coolly answers, "Too bad." She moves to get out of the car and he grabs her arm and demands she not turn her back on him because she owes him. She glares daggers and replies that she owes him nothing. Ooh this should be interesting. I can't shake the feeling that Daniel is schizophrenic, though. Although it's probably just the music that they play every time he's on screen.
Ellen drinks alone in a bar. Obviously it's whiskey, because she is a bad girl who refuses her therapy. Timothy Olyphant has followed her to the bar and Ellen is not happy to see him. He points out that it was only fifteen blocks, but she still isn't interested. In him and any line he is going to feed her. He hands her the BlackBerry she left on her chair. Ellen is angrily embarrassed at her misunderstanding. Timothy Olyphant, okay, fine, I'll call him Wes, Wes recounts some depressing factoid about his girlfriend's killer and recites the exact date that he'll get out of jail. Ellen looks impressed. Wes tells her that there are only two options for people like them: Forgiveness or revenge. He hasn't made his choice yet. He leaves Ellen to her naughty whiskey and heads off to hopefully re-grow his moustache.
Patty sits at her desk in her office reading files when her train of thought is interrupted by an incredibly loud gun blast. Seriously, the gunshot was so loud my Chihuahua jumped up from a dead sleep and ran the perimeter of the living room. Patty looks up to see Ray Fiske's bloody corpse slump against the wall. She is open-mouthed in horror. Ray calls to her from the couch where his fully animated and corporeal self sits on her couch. He tells her to get over it and reminds her that setting up a charity is not going to clear her conscience and that the only way to make amends is to tell Ellen what she did to her. As Ray's strange vaguely-Southern vaguely-central European accent recites his lines Patty sees flashes of the gun, the bloody hand, the brains on the wall (gag), and she gasps in horror. Outside Patty's office, Ellen watches Patty shake and cry and just as Ray finishes his turn as the Ghost of Lawyers Past, she opens the door to ask Patty if she is okay. Patty turns away from the door so Ellen can't see her tears and claims that she is fine. She grabs a tissue, dabs her tears, and tells Ellen that they need to talk, but it is personal and she doesn't want to talk about it in the office. They make plans to meet after the gala. Ellen heads out, but then pops back in to ask for the headlines of their meeting. Patty tells her that it is about her and the Frobisher case. When Ellen leaves, Patty takes a big swig of her drink. What is this, Mad Men? Who drinks in the office? If my boss was swilling shots in the middle of the afternoon, that would be wildly concerning to me.
Ellen meets with the Feds. She wants to wear a wire to her meeting with Patty. She thinks Patty is going to confess something big regarding the Frobisher case. Mario Van Peebles warns her that if she wears a wire she becomes a cooperating witness and they can't keep her name out of the court documents and she will have to testify. Ellen is a-okay with that. She knows that Patty is going to tell her something big about the case. The FBI agrees to let her wear the wire. Rose Byrne seems way skinnier this season than last. I mean she was skinny last season, too, but now her head looks really big compared to her teeny tiny neck and itty bitty shoulders. I know celebrities are all keen on seaweed diets and juice cleanses and such, but she could really use five pounds of Big Mac on her little frame.
Daniel Purcell sits on the busted down banks of the East River. I know this because they are about ten blocks from my house. It's not a particularly pretty waterfront and I think the location scout chose it to reflect the chemicals or whatever the Big Bad Company is leaching into the water supply. And, yes, I do glow in the dark. Goodwin comes up behind Daniel, crouches to him, and asks him if he is ready to be reasonable. Daniel just looks at him.
Uncle Pete asks Patty about the contents of Daniel Purcell's mysterious box. From what she could understand, the descriptions of the chemical analyses that Daniel was doing were very interesting. She instructs Pete to take the box up to their guy at Columbia. I wonder if Columbia had to battle NYU for the product placement rights for that name-check? Sam Arsenault is stopping over to talk. While she waits for him to ascend from the lobby, Patty tells Pete that without Sam's money there is no foundation. What happened to her money? Or did she just want to donate someone else's money to the cause and make a tidy 1% interest at her local bank?
Frobisher's wife comes to pay him a visit at the hospital. Unfortunately Frobisher has been knocked out by his painkillers and is sound asleep for her visit. Of course it's not actually his wife. It's Ellen! Why would the nurse believe that Ellen was his wife? His daughter maybe, but his Frobisher is old enough to be her grandpa. I mean sure Frobisher is rich enough to score a trophy wife, but still. It's not very believable. Ellen locks the door behind the nurse and turns to stare at the unconscious Frobisher. As she stares at him she flashes back to all the good times (her engagement) and the bad times (holding his bloody and battered corpse with its creepy wide open eyes) she shared with her fiancé. This show really has no qualms about graphic content. She also hears the disembodied voice of Wes reminding her that she only has two options: forgiveness or revenge. If you hear somebody's voiceover in your head does that mean you are destined to sleep with them? She stares around the room in what seems like a survey of means to off Frobisher. Turn up the IV? Turn off the ventilator thingy? Suffocate? In the end she leaves, ignoring the nurse calling after her. The nurse wakes up Frobisher who sort of sadly asks if his wife came by yet.
Patty tells Sam that despite her best efforts the DA wouldn't drop the charges against his daughter. She commiserates that if the daughter's last name wasn't Arsenault it never would have happened. Sam sighs that his little princess was set up in order to kill his campaign. The Republicans have pulled their support because of her arrest. He abashedly asks Patty to let him back into her foundation because he really believes in the cause. And really needs some good PR, too. Patty apologizes, but she already promised away the naming rights and there is just no way at all that it can be the Arsenault/Hewes Foundation now. No way at all except to double his endowment! Cut to the gala and a giant sign celebrating the launch of the Hewes/Arsenault Foundation. As they talk to the press Patty and Sam praise each other's commitment to the cause. Patty leaves Sam to it and goes to say hello to her son who is shocked over Sam's ability to schmooze with the media while his daughter is being sent up the river. He shakes his head and sighs that he told her Sam's daughter was a cokehead. Patty smiles that yes, he did. Oh you're a mean one, Ms. Grinch! Ellen and Tom show up at the party and congratulate Patty on the event. Ellen's hair is a masterpiece that would make any of the contestants on Shear Genius a winner. Tom hopes that Patty will agree to take a case now that she has launched her foundation. How nice that she only has to take cases when she feels like it. Patty smiles and agrees. She thinks Ellen's infant mortality case is a winner. Ellen smiles in what could pass as pride, but is probably gas. Tom leaves the party to go set up a meeting with the plaintiff. Isn't Ellen the first-year associate and Tom a partner? Why is he making the administrative phone calls while Ellen drinks with Patty? Patty congratulates Ellen on a nice find and Ellen titters to herself. Daniel and his wife show up at the gala. Patty is shocked, but Daniel plays it off like he and his wife are just supporting the cause. When his wife is called away, Daniel apologizes to Patty for the other night. He doesn't want to get her involved and just wants his materials back and she never has to see him again. He asks her to send the box to his house, not his office.
After the party, but before dinner, Ellen is walking down an abandoned back alley or empty street of some sort, which is impressive because Manhattan tends to be on the crowded side. She is walking in heels with a scowl that could launch a thousand ships. She is frightened out of her funk by Wes who is looking for her. She shouts at him for stalking her, but he apologizes and claims he was looking for her because she didn't come back to group. He has a number for her (not his) and if she calls after midnight and asks for Frank, she can get a gun. Ellen is shocked. She has no idea why Wes would think she wants a gun. And, frankly, it is a pretty big assumption on his part, but I guess two years on the set of Deadwood would make you pretty gun happy. He tries to justify his offer by announcing that she is afraid and alone. She informs him that she is actually working on a way to forgive Frobisher for his crimes. She's not sure she is the revenging sort. She leaves him on the street. I love Timothy Olyphant. Even without a moustache.
Ellen gets her wire from the FBI. They give her advice on how to get the best recording and send her out to trap a lion with a butterfly net. I mean I know Patty is guilt addled and haunted, but really? Ellen thinks she can bring her down with one little tape recorder? Ellen swears that she is fine and good to go. Mario Van Peebles records Ellen's voluntary consent to wear a wire. Ellen and Patty are drinking in a rather intimate setting. In fact I think they are alone at the restaurant, which has got to be very stressful for the restaurant's owners. Luckily for them, Ellen is gleefully picking the most expensive wines on the list. Patty giggles and tries to figure out how to expense that Chateau Lafitte. Ellen chugs and wears last season's nail polish while Patty takes a deep breath and offers to clear the air over the Frobisher case. Ellen plays it cool and tells Patty that the Frobisher case is old news and they both need to move on. Patty brushes that aside and sallies forth with her apology. She tells Ellen that after Ray Fiske's suicide things started to get to her. She got overly emotional and had to take a break. Ellen helpfully reminds her that she said she went to visit family, but Patty confesses that wasn't totally true. Ellen looks really tense and the muscles in her chicken-like neck get taut. Patty tells Ellen that she had a daughter who died. She has never told anyone that before, so why not tell a first-year associate at her law firm? Patty thinks that if Julia had lived she would be a different person. Anyway that is neither here nor there and Ellen starts to look confused. Patty explains that during the weekend trip she went to go visit Julia's grave. While Patty was away and Ellen was staying at her apartment, Ellen was attacked. Patty wishes it had been her. Ellen looks confused. Patty claims that if her daughter had survived she thinks she would have been like Ellen. Wide-eyed, chicken-necked and stoic?
The FBI picks Ellen up after her meeting. Before Ellen can tell us how it went we cut to Patty in her car, answering a call on her phone. Cut back to Ellen complaining to the FBI that Patty just fed her some bullshit about being the daughter she never had and how someone was trying to kill her, not Ellen. The FBI is simply happy that Ellen is building a relationship with Patty. Back to Patty, she steps out of her car onto a street crowded with police and lit by sirens. She walks into a house and finds Daniel Purcell surrounded by police and paramedics. Daniel's wife lies dead on the floor with bruising around her neck. As Daniel turns to Patty we see that he has a shallow cut on his forehead. He asks her if she'll help him now. The schizo music plays, which to my mind implies that he strangled his wife to get Patty to help him. But this show is so twisted your mind gets warped and you suspect everyone of everything. I mean just knowing that aged Uncle Pete arranges hits is enough to warp a girl!
Six months later, events have led Ellen to be a bad girl with black eyeliner, hair loose and free, and a jug o' whiskey. She takes a swig and twirls her gun. She tells the unseen viewer not to worry, because she lied, too. She aims and fires two shots. It's all so darn exciting!
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