Garrett Dillahunt. Most recently he was the doctor in John from Cincinnati. More notably, he was on Deadwood as both Francis Wolcott and Jack McCall. He’s also been on *The 4400 * and ER.
Did we see the full tape of what Gregory Malina had to say? Did he mention Ray Fiske’s inappropriate come-on? The photos that Fiske had did show the attempted kiss, so Fiske may have figured that his homosexuality was going be revealed soon regardless. In any case, obviously he felt guilt and shame about that, as well as his conduct re: Frobisher.
Re: this last ep:
Damn, those Frobisher guys are vicious, and reckless. Do they really think they are so above the law that they can just brazenly off people so close to the case? The bodies really are stacking up: David, Moore, Malina, Fiske (not murder, but still a violent death close to the case) and attack Ellen and not affect the outcome of the trial or have any of it lead back to them?
Rubystreak, a big WORD to that. Not to mention that we don’t know if Katie’s safe – might be another body on the pile.
I’ll be ticked if the older lawyer, the one who warned Ellen about Patty in the first episode, turns out to be involved. That scene with him better turn out to be another misleading teaser, or I’m calling bullshit on the writers. We’ve had no clues that he’s anyone to watch.
Patty’s visit to the cemetery supports the theory that someone close to her died because of Frobisher. Gotta be her sister, from the accident in Arlington.
But one thing from early on might come up again too. Remember how they determined the timeline for Katie and Gregory’s hookup – from gunfire on a surveillance video at or near the nightclub? It’s always seemed weird to me that the writers would use that, instead of something more mundane.
Seconded. I’ve been watching this all season, and I’m afraid it’s just steadily gotten worse and less believable for me. I’ve been waiting all season to figure out what the hell the son is doing in the plot at all–at least it looks like he’s got something to do with the general plot from the episode and next week’s teaser. Lila’s character is just too random for me. David’s an idiot who doesn’t latch his door or bother looking through the peephole when strangers come a-knockin’ and he’s sitting on hot evidence and he knows people are getting offed left and right. I’ve been tearing my hair out at the characters lately. If the old dude ends up being a Frobisher guy, I’m going to completely lose it.
**pulykamell **, I don’t know what to think of Lila and the son and their part of the story. On one hand, peripheral characters add flavor and can help build character. On the other hand, it looks like these two might be mostly red herrings.
Overall, I like how Damages has fleshed out the characters in the midst of a twisty mystery. The actors have all done a good job, except for Fiske’s awful southern accent. Why didn’t they just cast an actor with a natural accent? Or leave it out. It wasn’t important to the story that Fiske be from the south.
I don’t know what to think of how the story was structured, with the flashbacks and all. I wonder how the show would have worked if we didn’t know at the beginning that David would be killed and Ellen charged with his murder. Would we still have watched?
Looks like it, but Lila is pretty central to the part because that’s (apparently) how the two killers found their way into the apartment to get to David. It just seems rather stupid and, if Lila is indeed not involved with David’s murder, the timing would have to be way too perfect and coincidental. Lila’s in the apartment for perhaps a minute or so. In that time, these two guys would have had to follow Lila in without raising suspicion, known she was going to David’s, known she had an extra set of keys and would unlock his door, and had to sneak in and hide in the shadows waiting for David to kick her out. If she is indeed not working for them, this is just not a believable sequence of events.
I also thought the way Gregory was killed was completely unbelievable. His dog runs away and, as he chases after it, there happens to be a big black car barreling down the street to run him over? Come on! Once again, the timing seems too perfect and neat for it to be even remotely believable. What, were the bad guys just circling back and forth waiting for his dog to run away and chase after it? Or, even lets drop the dog, they so perfectly timed and anticipated his run down the street that they were already full speed when he entered the street? Plus what hit men would assume he’s been killed by a simple car strike? Running over a guy with a car does not seem to be a high percentage kill to me.
Then again, do we actually know that it wasn’t an accident? I mean, it is certainly heavily implied Gregory had a hit on him, but I don’t recall if anyone took responsibility for it.
Personally, Fiske’s accent did not bother me–I didn’t even notice it was fake–but I’m a Yank, so who knows.
OK, I feel totally dense and I know I missed something huge, but…
FINALE SPOILERS:
What was the significance of May 24, 1972, the day Patty’s unborn baby daughter Julia died? At first I thought it might have had to do with Arlington, but that was 25 years ago, not 35, right? Help me out-- this explains Patty’s vendetta against Frobisher, and I’m stupidly not getting it. ARgh!
(I may be dense, but,) why the hell would Patty have Ellen killed? What was the big deal about the son being seen by Ellen? (I probably have more questions, but maybe they will occur to me when I see it again.
Plot gripe: the whole nutty Lila subplot was just so the killers could get in the apartment without signs of forcible entry? Either great writing or not-so-great.
Overall, I really hope there is a Wiki or something that straightens the whole series out - I’m still confused by the timeline.
I think things got a little silly there at the end. Or maybe things were silly all along and I’m just noticing.
Both Patty and Frobisher hiring hit men, bodies falling all over the place (not to mention the dog!), and the FBI was watching? Gimme a break. Those killers were practically running into each other!
Oslo, it’s a stretch, but when Ellen said she regretted what they did – blackmailing Fiske – Patty may have thought Ellen would turn on her at some point. The thing is (and there are many things), it would have made more sense to kill Ellen if she refused to hand over the tape, but Patty didn’t even know the tape existed when she and Ellen had that conversation. So she hired a hit on the possibility that Ellen could hurt her in the future. Sheesh.
Rubystreak, I guess the baby and its possible (but doubtful) connection to Frobisher has to wait for the second season. I was expecting the tombstone to be connected to Arlington but you’re right, the timeline is wrong. Arlington was 25 years ago, the baby 35 years ago.
pulykamell, the hit and run on Gregory seems even sillier, now that it’s all over. That, and the thing with Lila and the keys. Just silly silly silly. Convoluted for the sake of convolution.
And Ellen – just because the D.A. is dropping the charges for now, it doesn’t mean they won’t charge you again. Does she think double jeopardy applies to being arrested?
I know a lot of people really enjoyed this series. The acting was excellent and it was fun to try and figure things out, but I don’t trust these writers enough to watch a second season.
So no one knows what the significance of May 24, 1972 is? I thought I was supposed to know but that I had forgotten something, thus rendering that revelation useless to me. I guess not?
Wagers on whether or not Frobisher’s actually dead? I want him to be, but I’m betting no. Larry didn’t put two in the head like you’re supposed to, leaving the door open for Danson in S2.
No clue about Frobisher either. Looked like he was shot low on his right side. What’s there? The liver? I suspect no one will know unless Ted Danson signs a contract for another season.
Well, that was a mess. At least the old guy is working with the FBI, not Frobisher. There’s just so much here that doesn’t make sense, that I don’t know where to start. Too bad. The first two or three episodes showed so much promise…
(And, no, neither my girlfriend nor I know what the significance of Julia or the 1972 date is. Oh, and what did that hitman/cop pick up in David and Ellen’s apartment when Ellen & the rest were going over the reopened crime scene?)
Oslo, I think the deal about Patty’s son being in the apartment is that Patty didn’t expect him to come back. If he had returned at the same time as the guy who attempted to kill Ellen, he may have seen something that would incriminate Patty, or he may have ended up accidentally getting killed himself. None of that happened, but those scenarios may have crossed Patty’s mind when she found out he returned, and she may have been a little freaked out at the possibility her son could have gotten involved.
Auntie Pam, Frobisher could lose enough blood to for his wound to be fatal. Although, presumably he has his cell phone with him and might be able to call for help to arrive in enough time to save him. As you and Ruby said, it all depends on whether or not Danson gets signed to return for next season.
And if he’s been working with the FBI from the beginning, and had done more than hand Ellen his business card with the “You’ve been warned” written on it, there wouldn’t have been a show. In the real world, wouldn’t Nye have simply told Ellen that Patty was suspected of illegal doings?
Which reminds me of something else that was silly – why was Nye’s card the only thing she had on her when she was arrested? She carried that with her all the time rather than oh, say, a driver’s license or a credit card?
Fanwank: she ran out less-than-fully clothed and had the card forgotten in a pocket of the coat she grabbed but didn’t stop on her flight from the dead assassin to find her purse.
She was in bed at Patty’s house when the guy broke in, she fought him, then ran home, only to find the house ransacked and David dead. Then she ran out of her house without anything again. Thus, all she had on her was that coat, which must have happened to have that card in the pocket.
Sorry to arrive late to the party, I just watched the last episode today.
I don’t think the date is significant. I think what is significant is that Patty had a daughter. She was at her beach house, thinking she had just had Ellen killed, and started shaking uncontrollably, and gets an overwhelming urge to visit her daughter’s gravesite – a place she hadn’t been since her daughter died. The date is only important to confirm that, since she said she hadn’t been there in 35 years.
What I got out of it was that Patty, perhaps for the first time in 35 years, felt her conscience. She felt she did something that she maybe could not be forgiven for. When she found out Ellen was alive, she started to realize she may be able to get a second chance – thus her inviting Ellen back to work. I think this experience changed her, and now she honestly cares about Ellen. Ironically, now Ellen is the one with the hidden agenda.