'Damages' finale: Confession is good for the soul

In terms of putting the pieces of this season's puzzle together into a coherent picture, Wednesday's "Damages" finale did the job pretty well. I'm just not sure I really care for what that picture turned out to be.

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After a season full of jukes and teases and what looked like a looming head-to-head confrontation between Ellen and her boss, the woman who tried to have her killed, we basically end the season on the notion of, Patty FTW. The bad guys get theirs, because Patty was running a game on them. Ellen gets free of her past, because Patty came clean to her. Tom is back at her side, because she realized she needed him.

Frankly, it feels a little too clean. And the scene we've been confronted with all season, with Ellen shooting in the direction of Patty? Total fakeout. I'll grant that I didn't see that particular twist coming, but the way it was executed really stretches credulity.

What Ellen shoots is not Patty, but the surveillance camera over Patty's shoulder so that Agent Werner won't be privy to the conversation when she extracts the confession that Patty tried to have her killed. Patty gives her what she wants, and Ellen, rather than exacting some sort of violent revenge, simply says, "No. You're just gonna have to live with this."

Ellen doesn't notice, however, that the distress Patty's exhibiting is physical as well as emotional -- the result of Finn Garrity having stabbed her with a letter opener in the elevator ride up to Ellen's room. The show chose not to reveal that to us until after the fact, but it casts Patty's confession in a much different light -- if she thinks she's dying, following the Ghost of Ray Fiske's advice and unburdening herself becomes a no-lose proposition.

But dontcha think Ellen might have noticed that Patty's distress was physical as well as emotional? Patty Hewes is one tough woman, but I have to think that over the course of their conversation, a little bit of blood might have leaked out. (Worse, it also takes a little bit away from what I thought was pretty magnificent work by Glenn Close in that scene. The little trembles in her face as Ellen started pressing her to confess what she did were marvelously subtle, but in hindsight knowing that she was playing physical pain too somehow makes the choices a little less interesting.)

Also: Is Agent Werner the world's slowest runner, or did he just park his surveillance van ridiculously far away? Watching the episode live, it dawned on me that Ellen and Patty had a rather lengthy conversation after Ellen fired her gun. So I went back to the tape and timed it: From the time of the shots to the time Patty staggers out into the hallway is better than five minutes, and there's no reason to think it's not all in real time. And as we know, Werner doesn't get to Patty until she's back on the ground floor, so add maybe another minute. If you're an FBI agent on a stakeout, shouldn't you be closer to your subject than that?

As for the UNR case, we discover that her machinations about getting Ellen to deliver a bribe to the judge is all part of a con to get Kendrick and Dave Pell to show their hand. The timing of this is a little fuzzy to me, but I'm guessing that following her meeting with Dave in a church -- curiously, neither the church nor either of them bursts into flame -- which Patty taped, she "reached out" to Tom and he got his U.S. attorney sister involved to bring down UNR. So after Werner follows Dave's orders to arrest Ellen after she passes money to the judge, federal marshals swoop in and arrest Werner, while others take out Dave and Kendrick.

So I guess all that stuff about Tom being fired and him filing a wrongful termination suit is cool now. Sure.

After bringing the UNR case to a close, we jump ahead one month for the coda/setup for season three. Patty is recuperating at her shore house, where Tom informs her that the EPA is cleaning up UNR's mess in West Virginia, but he still can't track Ellen down. Ellen, meanwhile, is at David's grave, looking happier than she has in a long time and talking about how good it feels "to let it all go," how she's met someone new and how she's thinking about taking a great new job. Cut back to Tom telling Patty he's not sure if they'll see Ellen again. "She'll be back," Patty says. "Trust me." And, fade out.

That leaves the possibilities for season three pretty wide open -- which might be a good thing for "Damages." The show sort of cast the die for season two at the end of the first season, when Ellen agreed to help the FBI take Patty down. By essentially wiping the slate clean with this finale, the show can let its characters re-engage in any number of ways next time. That might help freshen things up a little, because I'm leaving this season feeling a little let down.

Other notes from the finale:

• I'm curious if the new guy Ellen mentions is Wes, and regardless of whether that's who she's talking about, if she'll ever know how big a part he played in freeing her of the past year by putting a bullet in the back of Detective Messer's head.
• One piece of the UNR case wasn't resolved: the company's role in the murder of Christine Purcell. William Hurt got just one scene in the finale, telling Patty he's confessing to the murder so he can "find peace." I wonder if Daniel would still feel that way if he knew that he didn't, in fact, kill his wife.
• I'm not sure what to make of the brief scene of Frobisher exulting over moving into his new green building and telling his wife how excited he is to see her again. Was this a character who really needed to be redeemed like that?
• Also, I half-expected Ellen to walk away from David's grave and into a waiting limo with Frobisher in that last scene. I was not disappointed to be wrong about that.

What did you think of the "Damages" season finale? Did you like how everything came together? And where would you like to see the series go next season?