Episode 3: And My Paralyzing Fear of Death*

High states litigator Patty Hewes (Glenn Close) is faced with a challenge in her case against Arthur Frobisher (Ted Danson), a billionaire who allegedly cheated his employees out of their retirement funds. The judge presiding over the class-action civil case orders Patty to prove that she actually has a case by Friday or the suit gets dropped. Unfortunately, a package addressed to Patty arrives at her office with a grenade in it. Now, amongst a Federal investigation, Patty must rally her staff to participate in creating the brief to present to the judge. Anyone who can’t hack it, will get fired.

We find out that Patty has a lot of enemies and that ten years prior, she was slashed and nearly killed in an attack by a former CEO she won a case against. We finally see Patty’s vulnerability in this episode as she talks about how she always felt she would die a violent death. Of her harrowing experience, she says, “Taking power away from a man is a dangerous thing, someone always pays.”

We know Patty demands loyality from her employees to the point where she expects them to put their job before their family, as evidence in how she manipulates her junior associate Ellen (Rose Byrne). While Patty will go so far as to insidiously make Ellen choose between a career opportunity and her own engagement party, we see in this episode how much Patty loves her husband and to what lengths she’ll go to reach out to her troubled son.

Meanwhile, Katie (Anastasia Griffith), Patty’s potential key witness in the case (who’s also Ellen’s fiance’s sister), struggles to remember information that could be used against Frobisher. But Katie, who we learn had a drug-filled past, also continues to lie to Patty and Ellen about her involvement with Gregory, the man she was with on the night she saw Frobisher in Palm Beach. If Katie can tie Frobisher to his broker on the night in question, then she’ll be a viable witness for the defense. Meanwhile, Patty has former employee Tom (Tate Donovan) — who everyone thinks was fired — do a background check on Gregory.

But all of these events occurred five months prior. There’s still the matter of the present-day murder investigation. Ellen is still in questioning at the police station, but now she’s finally talking. She swears she didn’t kill anyone — namely her fiance David (Noah Bean). Though, we find out that the couple had had a falling out and the engagement had been called off. We see in yet another flashback to building in the scene that opened the pilot, but this time we hear what sounds like Ellen screaming in the elevator, then flash to an unidentified person attacking her with a knife.

All of this leaves the following unanswered questions: Are Patty’s son’s actions that of a typical teenager or is there more to his story? Why is Katie lying about her involvement with Gregory and what does Gregory have to do with the big picture? Why was Ellen and David’s engagement called off? And most importantly, what happened to Ellen the day of David’s murder?

*This episode aired last Tuesday. I ran late on this review, but should have the one for episode 4 (which aired last night) up soon.