‘Damages’: Patty’s very bad week

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Hey Patty, pick up your phone. It’s karma on line one. OK, fine, don’t pick up. It’s more fun if you don’t learn your lesson.

Monday begins with Patty getting word that the judge in the Frobisher case is ready to rule for dismissal unless she can come up with a coherent argument by Friday to continue the litigation. She goes into Stage 5 workaholic mode, returning to her office to rally the troops -- only to find a grenade has been anonymously sent to her in the mail.

This brings up some ugly memories for Patty, namely that she was slashed by a deposed CEO after a court case several years back and almost died. Since then, she’s had a recurring dream in which she’s something like Agent Smith in ‘The Matrix’ -- that there are numerous of her body doubles getting out of limousines in front of her apartment in order to confuse a lurking assassin. No anxiety there at all.

Patty’s husband, Phil, hires an ex-Secret Service agent to protect his wife -- which, unfortunately, doesn’t do much good for his own welfare because he finds a grenade in his glove compartment. Phil panics and crashes the car but isn’t seriously hurt.

Amid all this, Patty’s son, Michael, is at risk of being expelled for his sociopath-in-training behavior: identity theft and stealing exams and distributing them, as well as general petulance. After getting not-so-frail Uncle Pete to examine Michael’s laptop, Patty realizes that her son is the one that’s been sending the grenades. Charming kid, right? Patty thinks so, too, and has him hauled off to a behavioral rehab that starts with Michael being thrown into a van in a staged kidnapping. Aw, tough love.

At the office, Ellen is running to and fro doing Patty’s bidding, eventually missing her engagement party in order to suck up to the judge in the Frobisher case. And, finally, we return to the scene-of-the-crime cam, in which Ellen confesses that she didn’t kill David -- because she was being attacked by an unidentified assailant wielding a gigantor butcher knife in what appears to be Patty’s apartment. Patty, is that you? Or a body double?

-- Ann Donahue