The third season of TV’s best legal drama, otherwise known as Damages, arrives on DVD July 12, to the delight of its fans. The three-disc set offers plenty more of the complex – and some might even argue sexually charged – relationship between cut-throat power attorney Patty Hewes (Glen Close) and former protégé Ellen Parson (Rose Byrne).
As in the first and second season, there’s more of the cryptic banter between Patty and Ellen, that taken out of context would surely be the words between lovers -- or former lovers as it would be, as the pair reconnect after Rose has left Patty’s firm to pursue a lower-paying but presumably more straight-and-narrow career in the district attorney’s office.
The two are brought back together by a high-profile case against the Tobin family, headed by a Bernie Madoff-type character and his cunning wife, played by Lily Tomlin, and their sidekick crooked attorney played by Martin Short.
Ellen tries to resist Patty, telling her former colleague and confidant Tom Shayes (Tate Donovan), “I need my distance.” With Patty, “I lose myself.”
Patty tells Ellen, “I just want your company.”
Of course Patty is still toying with Ellen, like when she calls her at 4 am to invite her to a dinner party, telling her, “I just want your company.” The party ends up being a setup, where Ellen arrives to find Patty in intimate repartee with Ellen’s replacement. Patty tells Ellen she must have shown up on the wrong night. Oh, the games women play.
Ellen succumbs to Patty’s wills and ends up helping her, indirectly, with the case, causing Ellen to lament, “I let my guard down. I should have never let her back in.”
The third season is all about the past and how it haunts and shapes us, and how we all must ultimately take responsibility for our actions. Sometimes the message is subtle, and sometimes heavy handed, literally, as when in a fit, Patty takes a sledgehammer to a wall of her tony apartment and peers inside to see the regrets of her youth played out behind the ruins.
Some of the mysteries of the past are resolved, but others are left dangling, such as Ellen’s sleuthing to learn the identity of a woman in her childhood photos. The meaning of this intrigue is only partially explained, as is the affect it has on Ellen.
As in the previous two seasons, the pieces all come together in the finale, and everyone gets his or her due. At least, until Season Four, which we are promised is coming this summer on it new home on Direct TV’s Network 101.
Damages: The Complete Third Season The DVD set, available for $45.99, features commentaries with the cast and creators, deleted scenes, blooper reel and featurettes among other extras.
