"If you back down like this, you will never win any of the cases that you believe in."
Going into the finale of what has been a tremendous season of Damages, it looks like Ellen and Patty are on the ropes with their case against private security contractor Howard Erickson (John Goodman) and his High Star company. The two may have made it farther than most in terms of pursuing the unpursuable, but thanks to the deal that Ellen made at the tail end of last week's episode, it all may be for naught.
This is all assuming, of course, that Chris Sanchez (Chris Messina) is still alive and not the beheaded man that Ellen walks in on during the show's flash forward this season, as Ellen will only be dropping the case against High Star if he's returned safely to the United States. When last we saw Sanchez, he was knocking on death's door, being hauled around by a group of men hired by High Star to kill him before he leaks any information about the illegal activities of Erickson and henchman Jerry Boorman (Dylan Baker).
In the promo below, the only real details about the episode that are revealed relate to the dissolution of the Ellen/Patty partnership. This season, Patty's seemingly gotten more respect for Ellen than she's ever had, but the video tells a different story, from the curt "goodbye, Ellen" to Patty (Glenn Close) snarling at "ungrateful child" Ellen (Rose Byrne). The show has already flashed to Ellen threatening Patty on the phone, so the truce that the two declared at the end of season 3 may be on the verge of destruction during "Failure is Lonely".
Other than (awesome) Patty/Ellen drama, we see Boorman shooting an unidentifiable men at pretty close range, a shadowy figure entering the warehouse where the little boy is lurking, Erickson giving the order for his men to get Boorman, and a whole lot of imagery that implies that Sanchez is the man in the flash forward that gets beheaded.
In short, the finale looks to be a fitting capper to a season whose intensity has seriously ratcheted up in the last few episodes. I would make predictions as to what I think will go on in "Failure is Lonely", but after 49 episodes of twists, intrigue, and misdirects, I think that Damages has proven itself to be anything but predictable.
The season finale of Damages airs tonight at 10:00 on DirecTV's Audience Network (Ch. 239).
Thanks for actually caring about this show! This season is beyond excellent, and my only complaint is there is very little Glenn Close. But I think next season is going to be different, and I can't wait when Patty faces her toughest challenge: her son. :)
Warning: may contain spoilers!
Season 4 was a BIG disappointment. The acting was tremendous as always, but the writing took a BIG nosedive. We had some of the oldest TV cliches in the book (John Goodman as a hypocrite Christian and there was also a psycho CIA agent who kills people without abandon). The best subplot of the series involves Patty's son and it gets the least airtime. Ellen makes herself look like a schoolgirl in the last episode when she explains her feelings to Chris. While it still had many unexpected twists, overall there were some parts of the story that were resolved just too easily. And why did the series end after 10 episodes?
Here's to hoping that Season 5 is much better than Season 4. This one was way below the level that Damages normally achieves.
I completely agree, the writing really stunk this season. I miss the personal turmoil that all the characters go through and the suspense if Ellen and Patty will turn on each other. I all think Ellen's character is just too weak to be believable. I don't like seeing Patty become an alcoholic and John Goodman's character is so stereotypical.
The under cut of left wing politics stinks as well. Christians are the bad guys so hate them, Muslims are the victims so sympathize with them, and corporate greed is the root of all evil, and the US government is the devil…sorry the real world operates in much more shades of grey.
I got bored after the 3rd episode and only finished the season to see where it would end. I am not sure I will watch next season. It's boring.
agreed Tensigh, 100%. Why 10 eps? Uhhh…cause of the massive budget cuts? Remember how they switched networks and are operating at a fraction of the cost they were before, so in order to keep it on the air at all they had to air only 10 eps? Yeah, I think we can all agree they should've kept it off the air and quit after 3 seasons. Tragically obvious lack of funding in the hilarious locations that had upstate New York obviously standing in for "Afghanistan," not to mention the ridiculously bad lighting, direction, acting…has me missing the good ol' days of boring season 2.
I loved it, though I did not realize that last week's episode was the season finale. Ten episodes is short.