Episode Report Card DeAnn Welker: C- | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Play It Again, Sam
By DeAnn Welker | Season 2 | Episode 9 | Aired on 03.04.2009
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.Patty continues to grieve for Uncle Pete, especially since she thinks he martyred himself to protect her. Ellen doesn't tell her otherwise, although she and the FBI know Pete was killed, but not who did it. Patty's sadness leads Phil to contemplate not having their planned dinner party, but he thinks being around people might help. She tells him to go ahead.
Dave has an insider-trading golf game with Kendrick, and then pays Finn a visit to talk to him about salty nuts and wasabi peas, mostly. He also threatens him, but Finn threatens right back -- that if they know someone who can do what he does, go right ahead. If only I could understand what it is anyone does on this show. After that visit, Dave checks in with Phil, and asks for his suggestion for a new Energy Secretary. He suggests Sam (who? Oh, right, that guy from earlier this season who didn't seem like he mattered) and then invites Dave to the dinner party so he can introduce them. At the dinner party, Sam sings (or, rather, lip-synchs) a heartfelt "Danny Boy" while Patty stabs him in the back -- telling Dave he is the type who will stab you in the back. Later, when Phil asks Dave what he thought of Sam, Dave says they're going in a different direction: Phil's direction. It just gets more and more convoluted and incestuous.
When Patty tells Tom about the FBI investigation, he's pissed she didn't tell him sooner. But he quickly redirects his anger, asking his sister -- an assistant U.S. attorney -- to find out what the FBI has on Patty. She finds nothing. No file on anyone associated with the firm. Tom tells Ellen and Patty, and Ellen goes to the FBI agents to find out what the hell is going on (though you'd think she'd be at least a little relieved Tom's sister didn't find a file naming her as the informant). The FBI agents try to be funny (unsuccessfully) by referencing a 12-year-old Will Smith movie. Then they explain it away, saying the pulled the file. Turns out they didn't know there wasn't a file, though. Their boss tells them the order to make this case "need to know" comes from above him, but that it means it's the type of case that can make or break a career. Patty storms in to that same boss's office later (she found him, presumably, because the FBI has such a small New York office) and tells him to back off, or she will bring him down. He tells her not to make threats, and she says they're not threats. This doesn't bode well for Mr. FBI boss, who we don't know or care about.
Meanwhile, Wes continues to try to infiltrate Ellen by going out to girls' night (pool in a dive bar) with her and Katie. After that, their group leader calls Ellen in and tells her she and Wes are getting too close, that it's emotionally unhealthy, and that they should start going to different sessions. She says she already told Wes, who agreed. Later, Wes apologizes to Ellen for asking her out, saying he realizes they shouldn't be more than friends. Ellen agrees, but you can tell this reverse psychology is totally working on her. He takes it a step farther, asking if she'd care if he asks Katie out. She doesn't, and gives him Katie's number. She basically tells Katie not to tell him anything, but Katie -- always the blabbermouth -- tells him all sorts of stuff. Then she stops and says she can tell he likes Ellen, so she leaves. She apparently called Ellen immediately, because she shows up later and starts making out with Wes. So, Wes goes to Cheeseburger and tells him all sort of stuff that Ellen knows. Cheeseburger tells him to kill Ellen, make it look like an accident, and the he's done. What exactly does Cheeseburger have on Wes, anyway, that would make him think he could get Wes to kill someone?
Some details are obviously missing here (the stuff about insider trading, mostly, involving Kendrick's golf games and Darrell Hammond and Finn in the SUV; and Finn's prostitute, Susie, who becomes Patty's bitch in this episode). Poor LuluBates: This is the hardest show in the history of the world to write a recaplet for. Too much happens to sum it up quickly. I promise more detail than you could ever hope for in the recap.
Discuss this episode in our forums, then see what vlogger Sean Crespo thinks about Damages when he has No Prior Knowledge! And check back next week for the full recap!
Want more? The full recap starts right below!Previously: UNR's lead counsel defended Finn's prostitute on drug charges, leading Tom and Patty to figure out Finn's connected to all of this: Kendrick could be using him to manipulate the energy market. Finn used a GPS to do just that. Dave was a go-between between ... well, just about everyone. Tom talked to the prostitute, and asked her about Kendrick. Dave told Phil to invest in UNR, so he did. Because he is an IDIOT. Wes asked Ellen to dinner and she freaked, awkwardly. Cheeseburger thought about taking Wes off the Ellen detail, but he told Cheeseburger she'd come around. Cheeseburger mentions Katie as Plan B. Uncle Pete tried to kill himself instead of turning on Patty. At his hospital bedside, she told him to give them whatever he needs to. Ellen called to tell Patty that Uncle Pete had died. Patty was devastated.
Anorexic Ellen walks toward the FBI agents in broad daylight to tell them that she was wrong; Patty didn't have Pete killed. She knows because Patty seemed genuinely thrown by his death, and Patty actually believes he killed himself to protect her. Agents Dumb and Dumber wonder who killed him then. Ellen doesn't know, but she knows Patty's blaming the FBI, so this is like a call to war, meaning they're not just targeting her anymore. She's also targeting them.
Patty's telling Tom that the FBI is investigating the firm. When he asks how she knows, Ellen pipes up that they came to her, and asked her to inform, but she turned them down. Patty tells him that then the FBI went to Pete. Tom asks if that's why he... but Patty interrupts that he didn't want to give them anything that could get to her. She says now they have to circle the wagons and asks Tom if anyone's approached him. He scoffs: "Of course not." But she asks if there have been any unusual overtures. He says he would have told her, and asks when she was going to tell him. That's Tom: always the whiner. Patty says, "I'm telling you now."
"2 Months Later": Tom's trying to get into the office, but some guy on security detail flashes a gun and says he has strict orders from Patty that Tom's not allowed in the office anymore. Tom walks off, but pauses at the elevator for more whining (see? Two months later and he's still whining, probably about the same thing!). He tells the security guy to tell Patty he tried to warn her, and that he's filing suit against her for wrongful termination. I couldn't tell if he was trying to warn her about the suit, or if him trying to warn her was a completely different thought, but I guess we'll (hopefully) find out. Then Tom's in some dark tunnel under a building somewhere. He's stopped there to pick up a gun that's wrapped in a towel. Ellen gets in a car with him, and he gives it to her. He hopes she knows what she's doing. She says she does.