Midway through another great season of Damages, lots of plot lines are bubbling, converging, and getting ready to boil over.
So, Damages is gliding along on its typically elegant, intriguing, and slightly menacing kilter, when all of the sudden a guy I haven’t seen in a while walks onto a subway in Jamaica, Queens.
“Uncle Junior!” I shouted in pure delight.
Anything with Uncle Junior (Dominic Chianese) in it – and particularly a high-quality show like Damages – automatically gets my full approval. (And as a sidenote, I made a ton of references to The Sopranos in my last review of Damages, even going so far as to subtitle it “Pie-O-My”). So enough on that score.
The bit with Mr. Zedeck saying, “He didn’t give it to his mother?” with reference to the mysterious package (a mink coat) that was delivered to Joe Tobin… couldn’t this bit have been achieved without all the spy craft? In other words, Zedeck could have alluded to the fact that this was a real sign that he was to be trusted and that the money is in safe hands versus the perceived notion that it was a weird and arbitrary “go to hell” package. Or something. I thought at first that this plot thread would be left dangling but relatively quickly Zedeck shows up and explains that it was a gesture to test Joe’s faith.
More thoughts on “Don’t Forget to Thank Mr. Zedeck:
- When Leonard Winstone (played by scary good Martin Short) sent Joe Tobin (Campbell Scott) out to meet Mr. Zedeck/Uncle Junior packing a gun because he was “nervous,” I got the feeling that he was setting him up to be murdered.
- Patty Hewes (Glenn Close) drops a “special assignment” on the ambitious attorney interviewing for the associate’s position. Like conjugal visit special assignment down at the penitentiary. Yeah, it looks like it’s gonna be that kind of gig. (Though it turned out to be a little bit less unseemly than it was made to at first to seem.)
- Tom Shayes (Tate Donovan) not telling Patty about his financial problems relating directly to the big Tobin case is not gonna… go well. Which we know actually, as the flash forwards show Shayes dead, Patty’s car wrecked, and a weird shopping cart and homeless dude involved somehow!
- “I didn’t say I liked her.” – Ellen Parsons (Rose Byrne) to Patty with reference to the conjugal visiting associate wannabe. Great line.
- “It’s not a mink… it’s a sable!” Classic Uncle Jun’!
- Tobin’s bag of cash ends up in Shay’s busted up car four months later… interesting.
Some stats and info about Damages, “Don’t Forget to Thank Mr. Zedeck”
TV SHOW – Damages
SEASON/EPISODE – Season 3, Episode 6
AIRED ON – March 1st, 2010
NETWORK/STREAMING SERVICE – FX
GENRE – Drama, Crime Dramas, Thrillers
CREATED BY – Glenn Kessler, Todd A. Kessler, Daniel Zelman
CAST – Glenn Close, Rose Byrn, Tate Donvan, Zachary Booth, Ted Danson, Anastasia Griffith, Michael Nouri, Noah Bean, Tom Noonan
This review originally appeared on TV Geek Army.