For a guy whose crime forms this year's main Damages story, Louis Tobin didn't get a lot to do in the first three episodes of the season.
He showed up in a few scenes in the first two episodes -- and then not at all last week -- and what we saw of him was a weak, apologetic man. You almost didn't want him to go to jail, and you felt sort of bad when his son Joe would show up to yell at him.
Now tonight's Louis Tobin?
Yeah, this is a guy who could pull off a massive investment fraud and not think twice about it, very commanding and calculating.
Or rather, this was that kind of guy. Louis Tobin exited the show tonight, downing a tea and unnamed poison cocktail before he and Joe could reconcile, and leaving behind an envelope (labeled "Deliver to Patty Hewes") that's unlikely to reach its destination.
Then again, I'm bad when it comes to calling plot twists on this show. I thought Danielle Marchetti would turn out to be Tobin's illegitimate daughter, but instead, she was his mistress. I thought Ellen's sister's drug addiction would get Ellen working with Patty again, but that seems to be something that will take quite awhile to happen.
So let's just stick with the now, and compliment Len Cariou on his fine work this week as Louis Tobin, along with Campbell Scott and Martin Short (who's quite scary here) for their continued good performances. But the night really belonged to Cariou, who -- thanks to Damages' time jumping -- might get a chance to return down the road, flashback style.
Other thoughts:
- Did Louis Tobin know Patty was more or less estranged from her son? Either way, it was a nice touch, the way a small, seemingly unrelated story wound up connecting with the larger one. And you could have used the scene between Michael and Patty to keep your drink cold, it was that icy.
- Favorite scene of the night: Martin Short in front of the store window. It took me a while to realize what he was doing. Forming an alibi.
- We didn't learn too much about Tom's murder tonight, only that Patty knows more than she's telling the police. And once again, I'm loving Tom Noonan as the detective, especially the moment when he's actually relishing telling Patty her partner is dead. Incidentally, I watched an X-FIles episode that had Noonan in it over the weekend, and it may be one of that series' finest hours.
Tom Coombe
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