Damaging Acts

The first episode of the series Damages, is broken up into four acts that are separated by commercial breaks. Each of the acts ends with a beat, a semi-climactic moment where the plot twists or the momentum of the episode changes.

The episode begins with a pre-credits teaser. After the credits, the episode shifts back in time 6 months to tell the events leading up to what was seen in the teaser. This is the hook. Who is this woman? What is she running from? Where is she running to? Why is she bleeding? Who did this to her? All of these questions are unraveled throughout the episode.

The episode rewinds to her finding a job at a law firm. She really wants to work for Glenn Close, but rejects an interview because it interferes with her sister’s wedding. At the end of this act, Glenn Close dramatically shows up at the wedding and hires her anyway. This is the end of the act.

Another act climaxes around the time when the protagonist’s sister is being tormented and when the protagonist comes up with a theory for why she was hired. We are later told that theory was false, and her sister agrees to testify as the key witness. This beat acts as a counter to one’s which came before it. While we got suspense from thinking that maybe the protagonist was hired only to deliver her sister as the key witness, we are relieved when told otherwise.

The end of the episode marks the end of the final act. It is revealed that the protagonist’s suspicions were indeed accurate as to why she was hired. Though the episode wraps up everything that happened in that given time, telling us who the woman at the beginning was, what happened to her, and why she was running, it ends on a beat making us want more. It raises questions about Glenn Close’s character when it is revealed was terrorizing the protagonist’s sister to get her to talk.