When we left Hewes and Associates last week, Ellen had decided not to kill Arthur Frobisher in his sleep; Patty had taken the infant mortality case bait that the FBI set through Ellen; and Daniel Purcell's wife was killed by home invaders tied to the industry whose environmental scandal he's threatening to expose. But now (after the obligatory flash-forward showing Ellen shooting somebody), Daniel is in full-on William Hurt method-acting rant mode refusing to tell the police why someone might be targeting him. And Patty is handing off the infant mortality case to Tom Shayes so she can focus on Purcell. D'oh!
It's a little hard to have much sympathy for Ellen's entrapment plans, though, when she's trying to help Purcell, who's being stalked by sinister thugs and is a prime suspect in his wife's murder. And Ellen shows a disturbing willingness to throw Tom under the bus if that's what it takes to get to Patty. Just who are we supposed to root for? It would be clever of this show to turn Ellen into an unsympathetic character, some kind of harpy of vengeance, and even cleverer if we start to understand and identify with Patty's motives.
This episode brings the introduction of Marcia Gay Harden as Claire Maddox, the legal hit-woman for Daniel Purcell's thoroughly creepy boss. She's in charge of getting the evidence of the company's misdeeds from Patty Hewes (after that weaselly EPA guy takes the information straight to his corporate masters), and she does so by flirting with a judge on the handball court — a judge with a grudge against Hewes and Associates. But when Patty gets the warrant for the box of evidence, she knows who commissioned the report that Purcell is trying to expose, because Maddox is their lawyer. This isn't a double-cross, though — it's a triple. Maddox and Purcell have a relationship! And then in a flash-forward, Purcell is digging and burning, looking more like the perp than the victim.
The FBI's plan to get to Tom is to have the infant-mortality plaintiff ask for up-front money, an advance on the settlement, and threaten to take the case elsewhere if she's refused. Surprisingly, Tom caves right away and agrees to the transaction on tape. Later he and Patty engineer a spooky reveal of Tom's impending fatherhood, the fact of which (if not the manner) etches cracks in Ellen's resolve to corrupt and then flip Tom. But the FBI aren't the only folks taping Tom; Patty knows, too, and pulls the plug on the case just as the FBI are about to get him.