Damages Season 3, Episode 12

What caught my ear about this episode was not the episode itself, but the scenes from next week. We’ll be getting a 90-minute wrap-up, which indicates to me that everyone knew from the get-go that they were going to be closing up shop.

And that’s okay.

I think I was more struck by the “90 Minutes Next Week!” only because the first two seasons closed off a lot more plot threads during their respective twelfth episodes. Or maybe it’s just that most of the surprises to be found in this episode weren’t really surprises at all.

We already knew Tom was working with Winstone. We already knew that Tom ended up in a random building – we just didn’t know it belonged to Winstone. And that doesn’t strike me as the kind of shock big finishes are made of.

Joe learned that Winstone had been lying about his identity, and dropped Winstone as their lawyer. A shock? Not really, since we already knew he would eventually work with Tom, and the very fact that he had a secret identity had to come out sooner or later.

Tom forced his own resignation in order to tear the Winstone family apart. That was a surprise, I’ll grant you. And we finally got a couple scenes that make it appear we’re finally going to wrap up the murder of Ellen’s fiancé.

I suspect that next week won’t be filled with shocking revelations, but rather with hideous violence, as we finally learn who killed Tom, and why, and how, and Arthur finally gets his just desserts.

Here’s hoping for a great 90 minutes.