DAMAGES: GET ME A LAWYER {SERIES PREMIERE} (TV)
Summary
The first in this dramatic suspense series about the relationships and battles between several high-powered and ruthless New York lawyers. In this episode, young lawyer Ellen Parsons is found wandering the streets, covered in blood and unwilling to talk. Six months earlier, Ellen interviews for a junior associate position with Hollis Nye, who is taken aback to learn that she has also been contacted by the fearsome Patty Hewes of Hewes and Associates. At the same time, Hewes and her loyal sidekick Tom Shayes win their latest case by tricking a crooked defendant into settling for a massive fee. Nye surprises Ellen at a bar and formally warns her that Patty will "own" her if she is hired, while elsewhere Patty meets with her other clients, a large group of employees who were swindled into bankruptcy by their amoral CEO, Arthur Frobisher, and she warns them that Arthur will stop at nothing to intimidate them into settling. Ellen is summoned to a pre-interview of sorts with Tom, who explains that Patty employs a "team approach" and possesses extremely shrewd instincts regarding her employees' skills. Ellen is intrigued, but she ends up turning down the formal interview when she learns that it conflicts with her sister's wedding and cannot be rescheduled.
Ray Fiske, Arthur's attorney, finds Patty and attempts to convince her to settle, and Ellen is shocked when Patty herself crashes the wedding reception and hires her on the spot, apparently impressed with her balance of ambition and personal resolve. Learning that Patty is committed to ruining him, Arthur angrily tells Fiske to "make the call," while elsewhere Patty and her employees commence discovery on Arthur, aware that they must conclusively link him to a certain fateful meeting with his stockbroker during a trip to Florida in order to prove that he illegally conned his employees. Tom warns Ellen not to bother personalizing her new office, and in the future, Nye arrives at the precinct and explains that the still-silent Ellen lives with her fiancé, David Connor, to whom she got engaged shortly after starting at Hewes and Associates. Fiske visits Katie Connor, David's sister, with some legal documents pertaining to her soon-to-be-opened restaurant, and Arthur sits down with Larry Popler, the de facto leader of the plaintiffs, and swears that he is innocent of the charges, asking that the workers simply give him a number on which to settle. Fiske updates Patty, who meets with her clients and tries to convince them that their agreed-upon amount of $100 million is what Arthur "wants to pay" and is therefore insufficient, but the workers suspect that she is merely trying to win the case for herself and vote to accept the settlement.
Patty accepts an award for the sake of PR as Katie grows paranoid that she is being watched, and Ellen is shocked when Patty callously fires Tom, her employee of a decade, for failing in his duties as client liaison. Ellen is then startled to learn from David that Arthur is actually Katie's main investor and that she catered the event in Florida, meaning that she may have witnessed the crucial meeting with the stockbroker. Ellen meets with Patty to tell her about Katie's potentially vital testimony, but as Patty tells Ellen about her trouble-making son and frankly acknowledges that she is "not a good mother," Ellen realizes that Patty may have known about the connection and hired her solely because of her personal connection to Katie. Tom assures her that he himself found her résumé and that Patty chose her because of her talents, and when Fiske updates Arthur about Ellen, he orders his lawyer to "fix this." Katie is soon horrified to find a menacing message in her home alongside her murdered dog, and Ellen later tells Patty that Katie, refusing to be intimidated by Arthur, is willing to be deposed in order to testify against him, meaning that the settlement will be rejected and the trial will proceed after all. Later, however, it is revealed Patty did indeed hire Ellen because of her connection to Katie and staged Tom's "firing" in front of her to make a point, also paying off the firm's fixer, "Uncle" Pete, to stage the threatening scene and scare Katie into compliance. Patty muses to Tom that she is growing to genuinely appreciate Ellen as a lawyer, and in the future, David is found murdered in his and Ellen's home. Back at the police station, Ellen finally speaks and demands a lawyer. Commercials deleted.
This selection from the Alan Gerry Cable Collection has been made available by the Gerry Foundation, Inc.
Details
- NETWORK: FX
- DATE: July 24, 2007 10:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 0:55:00
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: B:91726
- GENRE: Drama, legal
- SUBJECT HEADING: Women's Collection - Drama; Drama, legal; Drama, mystery/suspense
- SERIES RUN: FX - TV series, 2007-2012
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Todd A. Kessler … Executive Producer, Created by, Writer
- Glenn Kessler … Executive Producer, Created by, Writer
- Daniel Zelman … Executive Producer, Created by, Writer
- Mark A. Baker … Producer
- Allen Coulter … Producer, Director
- James S. Levine … Music by
- Glenn Close … Cast, Patty Hewes
- Rose Byrne … Cast, Ellen Parsons
- Željko Ivanek … Cast, Ray Fiske
- Noah Bean … Cast, David Connor
- Tate Donovan … Cast, Tom Shayes
- Ted Danson … Cast, Arthur Frobisher
- Philip Bosco … Cast, Hollis Nye
- Michael Nouri … Cast, Phil Grey
- Anastasia Griffith … Cast, Katie Connor
- Tom Aldredge … Cast, Uncle Pete
- Donnie Keshawarz … Cast, Andrew Vida
- Marlyne Afflack … Cast, Felicia Marquand
- Maya Days … Cast, Detective Rosario Ortiz
- Casey Siemaszko … Cast, Detective Dan Williams
- Robin Thomas … Cast, Martin Cutler
- Victor Arnold … Cast, Larry Popler
- Greta Van Susteren … Cast, Herself
- Miriam Shor … Cast, Carrie Parsons
- Saundra Santiago … Cast, Karen Gonzales
- David Costabile … Cast, Bearded Man
- Joanna Rhinehart … Cast, Susan Marsden
- Kevin Isola … Cast, IT Rep
- Natalie Venetia Belcon … Cast, HR Rep
- Hettienne Park … Cast, Female Associate
- Brian McCormack … Cast, Uniform Cop
- Todd A. Kessler … Cast, Doorman
- Geisha Otero … Cast, Lucia Quintera
- Mark A. Baker … Cast, Former Employee
- Letty Serra … Cast, Madame Foreman
- Nesbitt Blaisdell … Cast, Emcee
- Joseph Kessler … Cast, Angry Employee
- Elliot B. Korte … Cast, Owen Frobisher
- Charlotte Chapman … Cast, Megan