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{{work}}
[[File:Damages_screen_shot_4795.jpg|frame| Margaret Thatcher has nothing on '''this''' [[Iron Lady]]]]
{{quote|''When I Am Through With You, There Won't Be Anything Left...''}}
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Now has a fledgling [[Damages/Characters|Character Sheet]] that needs some Wiki love.
{{tropelist}}
* [[Aborted Arc]]: Wes's Krulik's past and motives for going after Ellen: it's implied in season two that he both has his own personal interest in hurting Frobisher, as well as his own past (implied to be a former cop for whom Rick Messler was blackmailing to get him to keep an eye on Ellen).
* [[Advertised Extra]]: Marcia Gay Harden as Claire Maddox in
* [[Affably Evil]]: Arthur Frobisher and, to a lesser extent, his [[The Dragon|Dragon]] Ray Fiske.
* [[Amoral Attorney]]: Oh, God, yes!
* [[Anachronic Order]]: Every season. An interesting use - each episode reveals two sections of plot, months apart from each other, with the "past" segments telling [[How We Got Here]] and the future ones unfolding the story.
* [[Anyone Can Die]]: If your name isn't Ellen Parsons or Patty Hewes, keep your life insurance premiums current.▼
** Of the main cast members of the first three seasons only {{spoiler|Ellen, Patty, Wistone or Claire Maddox}} aren't dead or in prison.▼
* [[Anti-Hero]]: Patty Hewes, full stop.
* [[Anti-Villain]]: Joe Tobin in
** Ray Fiske may also apply. While he is guilty of insider trading he is a [[Boy Scout]] in comparison to Patty and resists Frobisher's attempts to resolve his problems through violence.
▲* [[Anyone Can Die]]: If your name isn't Ellen Parsons or Patty Hewes, keep your life insurance premiums current.
▲** Of the main cast members of the first three seasons, only
* [[Arc Words]]: "Trust no one."
* [[Ate His Gun]]: {{spoiler|Ray Fiske does this in front of Patty after she blackmails him near the end of
* [[Badass|Bad Ass Lawyer]]: Say what you will about her methods but Patty Hewes will always get her job done.
* [[Be as Unhelpful as Possible]]▼
* [[Beard of Evil]]: {{spoiler|Rick Messer}} sports one of these.
▲* [[Be as Unhelpful as Possible]]
* [[Big Bad]]: Arthur Frobisher in
* [[Bittersweet Ending]]: Season 3's finale for sure.
* [[Black and Grey Morality]]: At best. There's these people, see, and they go around blackmailing, burgling, bribing, and occasionally having people killed. And they're the good guys. The bad guys do all that stuff, but not for good reasons.
* [[Blackmail Is Such an Ugly Word]]: Patty gives one of these to {{spoiler|Ray Fiske}}.
* [[Break the Cutie]]: The entire first season is one of these for Ellen Parsons.
** Season four has that for Chris, Ellen's love interest.
* [[Broken Bird]]: Ellen by the end of
* [[Bungled Suicide]]: {{spoiler|(Season 2) Uncle Pete attempts to kill himself rather than help the FBI against Patty. Patrick finishes the job after Pete wakes from his coma
* [[Bury Your Gays]]: {{spoiler|Happens in
* [[Butt Monkey]]: Arguably Tom Shayes. He is one of the few characters in the series with black and white morals and he gets little to no respect for it.
▲* [[Broken Bird]]: Ellen by the end of season 1, and it's heavily hinted that Patty has this in her backstory.
* [[Chekhov's Gun]]: The phone calls one of the FBI agents in
* [[Cleanup Crew]]: Uncle Pete calls one in to {{spoiler|get rid of the evidence that someone attacked Ellen}}.
* [[Clear My Name]]: Arthur Frobisher's chief motivation. {{spoiler|Subverted, in that he's actually guilty as sin, and does even worse things to win
* [[Cold-Blooded Torture]]:
* [[Completely Missing the Point]]: Arthur Frobisher in the Season 1 finale. He tells his son that, "I made a very big mistake, and I'm going to be paying for it for the rest of my life." And just what was this big mistake? "I trusted too many people."
* [[Corrupt Corporate Executive]]: Arthur Frobisher. Walter Kendrick. Dave Pell. George Moore was actually listed in the credits as "The Executive" for a while.
* [[Detective Mole]]: {{spoiler|Rick Messer retrieves the one piece of incriminating evidence at the David Connor murder scene by flashing his badge and walking straight in the front door
* [[Dirty Cop]]: The favored henchman of the show's villains. It makes cleaning up after a bit of [[Dirty Business]] much easier.
* [[Dramatic Irony]]: An enormous source of tension for the show, provided by the [[Anachronic Order]].
* [[Driven to Suicide]]: Multiple characters. So far
** {{spoiler|Season 1 -- Ray Fiske after being blackmailed
** {{spoiler|Season 2 -- Uncle Pete after being nabbed by the FBI
** {{spoiler|Season 3 -- Both Marilyn and Louis Tobin. Louis by poison, Marilyn by drowning
** {{spoiler|Season 4 -- Kinda sorta Gerald Boorman. More of a [[Suicide by Cop|Suicide by Shell-shocked soldier whose men he killed]]
* [[Dying Clue]]: Whoever {{spoiler|Arthur Frobisher}} got to kill {{spoiler|George Moore}} should have been fired. They didn't check his pockets for the key piece of evidence that ended up blowing the case wide open.
* [[Even Evil Has Standards]]: Ray Fiske, who doesn't have the stomach for what he's gotten into. {{spoiler|He [[Ate His Gun]] for it
* [[Everyone Is a Suspect]]
* [[Evil Versus Evil]]: Depending on your interpretation of Patty Hewes. If you see her as a very dark [[Anti-Hero]], then it's [[Black and Gray Morality]], but certainly her behavior would make her the villain in any other show.
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* [[Family Values Villain]]: Frobisher, [[Jumping Off the Slippery Slope|at first]].
* [[Faux Affably Evil]]: Dave Pell.
* [[Foregone Conclusion]]: In Season 3, you know via a [[Flash Forward]] in the first episode that {{spoiler|Tom Shayes is going to die}}. Doesn't make the scene itself any less heartbreaking though.▼
* [[Flashback Effects]]: Used to show shifts between the present and future timelines. The ''removal'' of the effects is used to great effect, showing the present catching up to the future and the conclusion of the story.
▲* [[Foregone Conclusion]]: In Season 3, you know via a [[Flash Forward]] in the first episode that
* [[Good Is Not Nice]]: Define "good".
* [[Guilt Ridden Accomplice]]: Arthur Frobisher's Achilles' heel.
* [[It's All About Me]]: Both Patty and the show's villains are [[Death Note|childish and hate to lose]].▼
* [[Heel Face Turn]]: {{spoiler|Ray Fiske
** Season four takes the cake with Jerry Boorman; a corrupt CIA Agent who has gleefully broken EVERY law imaginable, all in the name of ensuring no one can out him for the laws he has broken part of the "War on Terror". Seven episodes into the season, pretty much EVERY act of murder or violence can be linked to Boorman, either directly or through him forcing his cohort, Howard Erickson, into doing it under threat that if he doesn't and Boorman gets busted, that he will take Erickson down with him.▼
* [[He Knows Too Much]]: Chris in
▲* [[Heel Face Turn]]: {{spoiler|Ray Fiske.}} {{spoiler|[[Subverted Trope|Subverted]]. He decides to kill himself instead.}}
* [[Hijacked by Ganon]]: In
▲** Also {{spoiler|Wes in season 2.}}
▲* [[Heel Face Revolving Door]]: {{spoiler|Frobisher.}}
▲* [[Hijacked by Ganon]]: In season 1. The one behind the blackmail of {{spoiler|Gregory Malina}}? {{spoiler|Frobisher.}} The one who put a hits on {{spoiler|George More}} and {{spoiler|David}} respectively? {{spoiler|Frobisher.}}
* [[Hitman with a Heart]]: {{spoiler|Wes Krulick}}.
* [[How We Got Here]]: Each season had numerous [[Flash Forward|flash forwards]] throughout, but you're not given the full context until the very end.
* [[Idiosyncratic Episode Naming]]: Each episode is named after a line of dialogue spoken by a character in said episode.▼
* [[Incompatible Orientation]]: {{spoiler|Ray Fiske}} in regards to Gregory Malina.
▲* [[Idiosyncratic Episode Naming]]: Each episode is named after a line of dialogue spoken by a character in said episode.
* [[Instant Mystery, Just Delete Scene]]: The show ''loves'' this trope.
* [[Insult Backfire]]: Walter Kendrick is being told to "Go to hell". His response?
{{quote|''I probably will. But while I'm here no one's gonna take away my goddamn company.''}}
* [[Invisible to Gaydar]]: Ray Fiske.▼
** He seems to genuinely love his wife, so it may be [[If It's You It's Okay]] or [[Bi the Way]]. {{spoiler|He doesn't live long enough to make it clear
* [[Ironic Echo]]: "Because I know Patty..."
* [[Iron Lady]]: Patty Hewes, oh so very much.
▲* [[It's All About Me]]: Both Patty and the show's villains are [[Death Note|childish and hate to lose]].
▲** Season
* [[It Was Here, I Swear]]: When Ellen Parsons sends detectives to Patty's apartment looking for the man who attacked her, the body, the blood, and the broken window are all gone, and the place is (almost) spotless.
* [[I Was Quite a Looker]]: Marilyn Tobin murmurs something along those lines to herself in the
* [[Jerkass]]: Arthur Frobisher, who continues to see himself as [[The Woobie]]. It apparently does not even enter his mind that he has actually done some very bad things, and has therefore earned the bad things that keep happening as a result.
* [[Justice by Other Legal Means]]: Patty Hewes steps in where law enforcement has failed.▼
* [[Jumping Off the Slippery Slope]]: Frobisher does so with gusto once he gets past his conscience. He starts out as a [[Family Values Villain]] and goes downhill rapidly.
▲* [[Justice by Other Legal Means]]: Patty Hewes steps in where law enforcement has failed.
* [[Killed Off for Real]]: Everyone the show kills off is actually dead, although some keep coming back in dreams and flashbacks.
* [[The Killer Becomes the Killed]]: The ultimate fate of {{spoiler|Rick Messer}}.
* [[Mad Mathematician]]: Finn Garrity, the coked-up math whiz turned energy trader in
* [[Make It Look Like an Accident]]: These were {{spoiler|Rick Messer}}'s ''exact words'' to
** Also in
* [[Manipulative Bastard]]
* [[The Mole]]: {{spoiler|Wes}}.
* [[Motive Misidentification]]▼
* [[Morality Pet]]: Frobisher and Patty's sons.
** Howard Erickson and his kids as well.
▲* [[Motive Misidentification]]
* [[Murder Is the Best Solution]]: This is {{spoiler|Jerry Boorman}}'s philosophy, as well as
* [[Naive Newcomer]]: Combined with [[Break the Cutie]] in
* [[
* [[New Old Flame]]: {{spoiler|Daniel Purcell}} is this for Patty.
** Season four Chris is this too for Ellen, introduced as her high school sweetheart.
* [[Nice Guy]]: Tom Shayes.
* [[No Name Given]]: Many, many characters, some important, some not. Most get names eventually, but even then, the credits continue to refer to them as "Bearded Man" or "Pockmarked Man
* [[Not Quite Dead]]: At the end of Season 1, {{spoiler|Ellen assumes that she killed the attacker in Patty's home, but he actually survived}}.
* [[Not So Stoic]]: Patty Hewes, just not in front of anybody else.
* [[
{{quote|''' {{spoiler|Messer}}''': ...shit.}}
* [[Older Sidekick]]: Uncle Pete.
* [[Once a Season]]:
* [[Only Mostly Dead]]: In
* [[Out, Damned Spot!]]: The spot of blood on Patty's shoe {{spoiler|later revealed to be from Ray Fiske [[Ate His Gun|eating his gun]]}}.
* [[Pay Evil Unto Evil]]: SO. MUCH.
* [[Perfect Poison]]: Used by {{spoiler|Louis Tobin}} and on {{spoiler|Daniell Marchetti}} in Season 3.
* [[Pet the Dog]]: Patty genuinely loves her son. She
** Most characters on the show get them. Frobisher has his son as a [[Morality Pet]], Fisk has {{spoiler|Gregory Malina}}, and so on.
* [[Photo Psychic]]: In Season 3, Ellen only learns that {{spoiler|Carol Tobin}} visited {{spoiler|Danielle Marchetti}} on the night she died because she happened to be in the picture that Ellen wanted a witness to identify {{spoiler|Joe Tobin}} from.
* [[Pretty Little Headshots]]: Frequent.
* [[Put on a Bus]]:
** The few supporting characters of any given season that don't get killed off usually end up getting put on buses at the end of their season.
* [[Reformed but Rejected]]: Frobisher plays at being this, but it's fairly obvious that, his claims of spiritual renewal aside, he's still every bit the selfish and egocentric bastard he was before.
* [[Retcon]]: According to a line spoken by Patty, Michael Hewes is 18
* [[Revolving Door Casting]]: With the exception of
* [[Ripped from the Headlines]]: The season-spanning plots are made of this. The first two seasons split up the juicier details of Enron's collapse. With a company rife with accounting irregularities and professed ignorance of wrongdoing by subordinates, Frobisher is a take on Ken Lay; UNR's manipulation of the energy grid by traders to rack up huge profits fictionalizes Enron's role in the California electricity crisis of 2000-2001. In
* [[Sacrificial Lion]]: Both
* [[Screw the Rules, I Have Connections]]: Dave Pell's M.O. as well as Howard Erickson's.
* [[Screw the Rules, I Have Money]]: Arthur Frobisher's M.O.
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* [[Sliding Scale of Cynicism Versus Idealism]]: Firmly leaning towards the cynical.
* [[Stalker with a Crush]]: Lila. Doubles as [[Clingy Jealous Girl]], and {{spoiler|subverts [[Ax Crazy]]}}.
* [[Stepford Smiler]]: Ellen became this after her fiance's murder in
* [[Strange Bedfellows]]
▲* [[Invisible to Gaydar]]: Ray Fiske.
▲** He seems to genuinely love his wife, so it may be [[If It's You It's Okay]] or [[Bi the Way]]. {{spoiler|He doesn't live long enough to make it clear.}}
▲* [[Strange Bedfellows]] : {{spoiler|Frobisher helps Patty to start the case against Kendrick in season 2}}
* [[Strictly Formula]]: There's a [[White Collar Crime]] case, there's a 3 months later [[Flash Forward]] story usually involving one of our heroes in danger or possibly even dead, the audience follows the bread crumbs, there's twists, people die, Patty and Ellen win the case while losing something personal in the process, the season's film actor bad guys die or go to jail, roll credits.
* [[Stuffed Into the Fridge]]: David.
* [[Supporting Protagonist]]: Ellen is arguably this. While Patty is the central character most of the show is focused on Ellen's [[Character Development]] as a result of being involved in Patty's world.▼
* [[Suspect Existence Failure]]
* [[Suspiciously Idle Officers]]: {{spoiler|Detective Rick Messer}}, big time. Does he even ''have'' any actual duties? In Season 2, this is justified for the {{spoiler|FBI agent on Dave Pell's payroll}}, because it's explained that his supervisor is in on the conspiracy.
▲* [[Supporting Protagonist]]: Ellen is arguably this. While Patty is the central character most of the show is focused on Ellen's [[Character Development]] as a result of being involved in Patty's world.
* [[Throwing the Fight]]: Patty occasionally does this, in order to get her opponents to tip their hand.
* [[Took a Level
* [[Twist Ending]]: Several plot threads seem to point to one solution then out of the blue will head for another, completely unexpected resolution. One of the reasons why critics loved it.
▲* [[Ugly Guys Hot Daughter]]: With inverted gender roles for Patty Hewes and her son.
* [[The Un-Reveal]]: The contents of David's wedding gift to Ellen.
* [[Villain with Good Publicity]]: {{spoiler|Rick Messer}}'s public image is that of an exemplary police officer. [[Complete Monster|He's anything but.]]
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* [[Worthy Opponent]]: Ray Fiske, during Season 1.
* [[Wrongful Accusation Insurance]]: Ellen apparently has some.
* [[You! Get Me Coffee!]]: Patty likes to do this to her employees, just to torture them.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Law Procedural]]
[[Category:American Series]]
[[Category:
[[Category:TV Series]]
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