Damages – Is Patty protecting herself by not knowing everything?

I’ve said it before: Patty Hewes is one cool cat. Well, most of the time. Unless she thinks she’s being had by one of her own, as in this week’s episode.

Everything Patty does is calculated. At the beginning of the episode, she was so sweet to Ellen, taking her to the spa and inviting her to the 10-year party for Tom at her apartment. And then afterward, saying how nice it was to have Ellen there. Aw, soft puppies and warm sunlight. Patty seems almost human and friendly.

And then Wham! When she starts to suspect that Ellen is working with the feds to bring her down, Patty goes all devil-wears-prada on her and turns ice-cold, demanding to know what’s going on. Then again, how stupid is Ellen to check her phone during a meeting? Really stupid!

But is Patty protecting herself by not knowing everything? It appears that Pete was the one who staged the attack on Ellen in Patty’s apartment. He paid off the attacker (who, amazingly, survived Ellen stabbing him with a kitchen knife!) and in this episode, gave him more cash, told him to get out of town, and said his boss (Patty) can never know about him.

But what gets me is that when Pete and Patty were having their sit-down talk, Pete said that it’s never seemed right that Ellen would come back to work for Patty after everything that happened. And then afterward, he got on the phone to a mystery person and said, “Patty’s getting nervous. Yeah, it’s about the girl. We need to take action.”

Apparently, Patty is paying Pete to protect her interests and has been for years, but she doesn’t want to know the details. Is that what you’re thinking? Or do you think Pete is working independently?

Clacked by Jane Boursaw
on Feb 06, 2009 @ 18:14 EST5EDT