Skip to main content

Soda Water: An Early Look at Tonight's Episode of "Damages" ("Hey! Mr. Pibb")

I received an unexpected treat yesterday afternoon in the form of tonight's outstanding episode of FX's Damages ("Hey! Mr Pibb"), a fantastic hour of serpentine plot twists paints a convincing picture of a larger conspiracy at work as it pushes the characters to some dark places so far unseen this season.

Plus, don't be surprised if one of the episode's many reveals leaves you wondering just what you truly believe after all.

Want a few hints about what to expect for tonight's episode? Let's dive in.

For those of us who are spoiler-averse, I won't divulge full-on spoilers here but will merely hint at some developments in this week's episode. So what can you expect?
  • That water sample that journalist Josh Reston (Matthew Davis) managed to steal from one of Ultima National Resources' coal plants in West Virginia? It becomes increasingly valuable to everyone involved in the case... and proves the lengths that some interested parties will go to conceal the truth.
  • Look for a suitcase full of money to make an appearance in an intriguing way.
  • Saturday Night Live's Darrell Hammond turns up as a shadowy chapstick-wearing mystery man. Yes, seriously.
  • Christine Purcell's ruby ring resurfaces, as does the stringy-haired blonde man who pawned it.
  • Patty makes a self-sacrificing decision that could change everything.
  • Claire Maddox (Marcia Gay Harden) is a high-powered attorney but I am glad that she still has time to shop at farmers' markets and question her boss about Ultima's involvement with the Purcell murder and middleman Wayne Suttry (Brett Cullen).
  • Tom is a bluegrass and classic country music aficionado. (Really?)
  • Just what is that smell in the air?
  • Ellen and Tom make a good team and are a far shrewder pair than we typically think.
  • This is exactly what scares me about small towns.
  • Watch the legs.
  • Dream deciphering reveals just as much about the analyst as it does the dreamer.
All in all, tonight's episode of Damages is a simply fantastic installment that ramps up the tension and narrative stakes this season and alters the ongoing plot in an incredible and unexpected way. It also proves just why serialized dramas still work in an age of procedural dramas: the subtle way they get under your skin and can manage to surprise even the most jaded of viewers.

Tonight on Damages ("Hey! Mr. Pibb"), Patty concentrates on defending Daniel Purcell in the murder case against him, while Ellen and Tom travel to West Virginia research the case against Ultima National Resources.
Labels:

Comments

Anonymous said…
I'm glad we'll see more of Ellen and Tom working together. Even though Ellen almost let Tom hang himself (with the planted bribe) I think they have a kinship and need to stick together if they're going to survive working under Patty.
1/28/2009
Anonymous said…
I'm a little concerned that the water sample will become like Gregory's tape in Season One -- the MacGuffin that everyone's chasing. Of course, the writing is so twisty that they might be able to put a spin on that cliche...
1/28/2009
Anonymous said…
Now that I get what you meant by "Dream deciphering reveals just as much about the analyst as it does the dreamer" I am worried about Phil! And it's so bizarre how close they've grown if you consider the fact that Michael actually put that grenade inside his car. Don't trust him Phil!
1/29/2009
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Have a Burning Question for Team Darlton, Matthew Fox, Evangeline Lilly, or Michael Emerson?

Lost fans: you don't have to make your way to the island via Ajira Airways in order to ask a question of the creative team or the series' stars. Televisionary is taking questions from fans to put to Lost 's executive producers/showrunners Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse and stars Matthew Fox ("Jack Shephard"), Evangeline Lilly ("Kate Austen"), and Michael Emerson ("Benjamin Linus") for a series of on-camera interviews taking place this weekend. If you have a specific question for any of the above producers or actors from Lost , please leave it in the comments section below . I'll be accepting questions until midnight PT tonight and, while I can't promise I'll be able to ask any specific inquiry due to the brevity of these on-camera interviews, I am looking for some insightful and thought-provoking questions to add to the mix. So who knows: your burning question might get asked after all.
253 comments
Continue reading full story...

What's Done is Done: The Eternal Struggle Between Good and Evil on the Season Finale of "Lost"

Every story begins with thread. It's up to the storyteller to determine just how much they need to parcel out, what pattern they're making, and when to cut it short and tie it off. With last night's penultimate season finale of Lost ("The Incident, Parts One and Two"), written by Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, we began to see the pattern that Lindelof and Cuse have been designing towards the last five seasons of this serpentine series. And it was only fitting that the two-hour finale, which pushes us on the road to the final season of Lost , should begin with thread, a loom, and a tapestry. Would Jack follow through on his plan to detonate the island and therefore reset their lives aboard Oceanic Flight 815 ? Why did Locke want to kill Jacob? What caused The Incident? What was in the box and just what lies in the shadow of the statue? We got the answers to these in a two-hour season finale that didn't quite pack the same emotional wallop of previous season
135 comments
Continue reading full story...

In Defense of Downton Abbey (Or, Don't Believe Everything You Read)

The proof of the pudding, as they say, is in the eating. Which means, if I can get on my soapbox for a minute, that in order to judge something, one ought to experience it first hand. One can't know how the pudding has turned out until one actually tastes it. I was asked last week--while I was on vacation with my wife--for an interview by a journalist from The Daily Mail, who got in touch to talk to me about PBS' upcoming launch of ITV's period drama Downton Abbey , which stars Hugh Bonneville, Dame Maggie Smith, Dan Stevens, Elizabeth McGovern, and a host of others. (It launches on Sunday evening as part of PBS' Masterpiece Classic ; my advance review of the first season can be read here , while my interview with Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes and stars Dan Stevens and Hugh Bonneville can be read here .) Normally, I would have refused, just based on the fact that I was traveling and wasn't working, but I love Downton Abbey and am so enchanted with the proj
55 comments
Continue reading full story...