Episode Report Card LuluBates: B+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT I Want Matlock!
By LuluBates | Season 2 | Episode 3 | Aired on 01.21.2009
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.Daniel Purcell is lying to everyone. Or at least that is what everyone thinks. He swears to Claire Maddox that his wife didn't know about their affair. She's not convinced. He swears to the police that he didn't kill wife and points to her missing ruby ring as evidence of a stranger's assault. They aren't really buying it. Even his own lawyer…er, make that especially his lawyer doesn't believe a word he says. She is so skeptical that she makes him take a lie detector test, which undoubtedly she billed him for. The results were inconclusive, obviously.
Tom's suspiciously sudden withdrawal from the infant mortality case makes the FBI want Ellen to lay low for awhile. But Ellen just won't stop. She is doggedly determined to find a case, any case, that will bring Patty's downfall. She wastes her billable hours by digging around into Patty's past dealing with Purcell and finds potential evidence that Purcell is the father of Patty's son. Better evidence is that Patty's son thinks Purcell is creepy. Desperate for more dirt, Ellen begs to get in on the Purcell case. Patty isn't really interested in running a law school, but Ellen is determined. Ellen digs some more and finds what might be evidence of Patty paying off Purcell to throw a case, but Ellen's got it all wrong, unless by "paying off" you mean "knocking up." But their darling child does not stop Patty from enacting a vigorous defense of Purcell, so vigorous that she has him arrested at the airport. She seems to think that shackles and an orange pantsuit will loosen his tongue about the Big Energy conspiracy. And she is right. Damn I wish they taught this stuff in law school!
The Big Energy conspiracy gets new legs when Goodwin meets up with the Big Boss to develop a plan of attack for Purcell's defection. 'Cause you know, potentially murdering the guy's wife just wasn't enough. Elsewhere, a young intrepid reporter in West Virginia does some asking after a pig. Seems that a lot of livestock in the area has been keeling over for no apparent reason. The reason becomes more apparent when he gets the beat down from some goons from the coal mines after illicitly gathering water samples. Suddenly it's like we're watching Silkwood with a much more attractive cast.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!Previously on Damages, Patty Hewes turned down the FBI's bait case and convinced Tom to turn it down too in order to work on Daniel Purcell's murder trial. She is convinced that there is a deep conspiracy involving Big Energy and the use of the chemical compound Aricite. Ellen so far isn't on the case and hopefully her screen time will shrink as much as her neck and both she and her role on this show will wither away to nothing and let the big kids play. Also, Mario Van Peebles rules.
Daniel Purcell sits in his car in the dark in the pouring rain. He is contemplative and quiet and at first you don't realize that Claire Maddox is in the car with him. She asks him if anyone found out about them. He says no. She asks if his wife knew. Despite flashing back to the scene of a marital fight that involved enough screaming and yelling to be about an affair, Daniel says no. I am pretty sure he is lying. The fight looks like it took place the night of the gala... and the murder. Claire takes a deep breath as if she is either relieved or not really believing him or, heck, maybe both. She takes another deep breath and breaks the news that somebody leaked his toxicity reports to Patty Hewes. He shrugs, because, you know, it was him. She is stunned and really wants to know why he is so stupid. He doesn't want to tell her anything to, you know, protect her, although I don't think that line has ever worked once and whoever is on the receiving end of that line is probably just completed annoyed and never grateful. Like, thanks for putting me in a situation where I need protecting, but not actually telling me what I need protecting from, ensuring that when whoever is doing the threatening is coming at me with the pliers I will have no answer to give them. So, yeah, thanks. So Purcell doesn't want to tell her some stuff and Claire sort of sighs and then asks who killed his wife. He shrugs in resignation, "Who do you think?"
Tom and Patty are sitting inside Patty's office, I think. They are sitting at a metal or poly-wood slatted table that looks like outdoor patio furniture, but is indoors. Maybe they aren't in her office. I have no idea where they are. These people seem to work in different rooms all the time, like Hewes & Associates is just a Mad Hatter's tea party of offices. Anyway, Tom is briefing Patty on the legal history of Ultima National Resources, the third-largest energy provider. And, yes, numbers one and two were busy. You don't become the number one or two energy company by doing guest appearances on television shows. According to Tom, Ultima is destroying the environment. Walter Kendrick is the CEO and Patty gazes at his headshot. Why do they have a headshot? And Mr. Kendrick really should have taken advantage of the bargains over at Glamour Shots and gotten a little dolled up for his photo shoot. Oh wait, that's Deputy Police Commissioner Rawls from The Wire, so he just looks like that all the time. Tom explains to Patty that the acid rain in West Virginia is entirely due to Mr. Kendrick and his evil money grubbing bottom line ways. The good people of the state of West Virginia tried to bring a class action lawsuit against the company, but the judge threw it out. Obviously he was being paid off. Tom adds that they have been sued over 200 times and the only case they ever lost, to the tune of $100 million, they didn't bother to appeal because to them that is just two days' profits. Just something to lose behind the couch or down a sewer grate. And, holy frijole, how much do I want to embark on a career of crushing the environment in the name of massive profits just so I can pay off my Buick and buy a new TV? Tom agrees with Patty's assessment of the Purcell case, namely, something big is going on, but he can't figure out what it has to do with the murder. Patty's not sure yet, but she knows there is a link between the murder and the fact that Purcell's consulting firm has worked for Ultima National Resources for over a decade. And? And? That sounds like a false causality to me. I've eaten at Burgerville for two decades, if my husband is strangled in a home invasion will it be their fault? Not to say that Burgerville is an all-powerful and evil corporation or anything, it's just that they make a mean onion ring so they are foremost in my mind. A lot. Tom asks Patty if there is anything he should know about her relationship with Purcell since it is obviously not just business. Patty shakes her head nope. I assume Tom is smart enough not to believe her.