‘Damages’: Tommy, can you hear me?

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So here’s the big question: Is it Tom going after Ellen with a butcher’s knife in the final fight?

This week’s episode focused on Patty’s No. 2 in command, who has the gall to entertain a job offer from a competing law firm. It’s a cushy deal -- a named partnership, more money, more benefits and entry into a high-end music school for Tom’s daughter. He goes so far as to resign from Hewes and Associates, only to be lured back through a little bit of reverse psychology by Patty.

What remains to be seen, however, is how far Tom, with his reenergized loyalty, will go for his boss.

After giving his walking papers to Patty, Tom is approached by the Frobisher employees about taking over their case. He agrees, which presents him with another problem: Should he head out on his own --expecting a big score down the road from the Frobisher case -- instead of joining another firm?

Patty undermines his ambitions by telling him he’s a great consigliere, but isn’t ready now -- or ever -- to take a top job. After dithering for a bit, he seemingly agrees, presenting a list of demands before he will return to her office. The only one she refuses? Making him a named partner. Tom will get the job title but no public glory to go along with it.

Amid all the flashbacks, in near-present time we see Ellen fumbling around Patty’s apartment with a butcher knife. Her mystery assailant -- revealed from the back to be a clean-cut man, but the sepia tone makes it impossible to tell if he’s a giveaway Tate Donovan blond -- nicks her on the neck, but eventually she wrestles the knife away and stabs him. Ellen tells the cops to go to Patty’s to find the body. They instead find a wet-wiped-clean crime scene. No body, no gore, no evidence to back up Ellen’s story, with Patty intoning in voiceover, again, that you can’t trust anyone. So ... X-Files-style, the corpse was kidnapped by aliens? Wha? The truth is out there.

-- Ann Donahue