‘Damages’ Turns 15: Relive the Legal Thriller’s Most Shocking Moments
Just try to a find TV lawyer more cutthroat than Patty Hewes, the Glenn Close character who toggled between protagonist and antagonist on the critically acclaimed TV show Damages.
When Damages premiered on July 24, 2007—15 years ago now!—we learned just how ruthless Patty could be, as did her protégée, Ellen Parsons (Rose Byrne).
But over the course of the legal thriller’s five seasons—split between FX and the now-defunct Audience Network—Ellen leveled the playing field and Patty started paying the price for her many misdeeds.
And now, a decade and a half after the show’s debut, here are the Damages shockers we remember most.
The Statue of Liberty kills David
OK, a Statue of Liberty bookend was the weapon that a hitman used on Ellen’s fiancé, David (Noah Bean), in a flash-forward in Damages’ series premiere. And even though Ellen was covered in her love’s blood, she was ultimately cleared of his murder.
Patty has a dog killed
While building a case against embezzler Arthur Frobisher (Ted Danson) in Season 1, Patty had her uncle and fixer Pete (Tom Aldredge) kill a key witness’s dog to ensure the woman’s cooperation, knowing she would think Frobisher was behind the heinous crime.
Fiske dies by suicide
Larry Riley/FX Network/Courtesy: Everett Collection
After Patty blackmailed Ray Fiske (Željko Ivanek), Frobisher’s attorney, he fatally shot himself in her office. And his suicide haunted Patty for years to come.
Patty orders a hit against Ellen
At the end of Season 1, Ellen stayed at Patty’s place during a fight with David, and it was there that a hitman tried to kill her. We would later find out Patty ordered the hit so that her secret would die with Ellen.
Ellen appears to shoot Patty
Barbara Nitke/DirecTV/Courtesy: Everett Collection
We spent many of Season 2’s flash-forwards watching Ellen confronting Patty at gunpoint in a hotel room, getting her to confess to ordering the hit on Ellen, and then Ellen pulling the trigger. We also saw a bloodied Patty stumbling out of an elevator. But Ellen actually aimed her gunshot at the feds’ camera so that she and Patty could talk privately, and Patty was bloody because she’d been stabbed by a potential witness.
Michael hits Patty with a car
Talk about family dysfunction! Patty’s relationship with son Michael (Zachary Booth) hit a low point in Season 3 when she sent his much-older girlfriend to jail for having sex with him before he was 18—and Michael rammed a car into Patty’s vehicle, nearly killing her. (He later died at the hands of Ellen’s would-be assassin, who was covering his tracks.)
Patty admits she caused her own baby’s death
Craig Blankenhorn /FX Network/Courtesy: Everett Collection
At the end of Season 3, we learned that a young, pregnant Patty went on a long walk, knowing full well that her doctor had urged her to stay on bedrest. Her daughter was stillborn, which was Patty’s intention, since she wanted to pursue her law career unburdened by a child.
Tom dies in a toilet bowl
That Season 3 finale also solved the season-long mystery over the death of Tom Shayes (Tate Donovan), Patty’s longtime righthand man. As Patty pursued a case against Ponzi schemer Louis Tobin (Len Cariou), his son Joe (Campbell Scott) drowned Tom in a toilet.
