Damages: A Character Guide

If you're a new fan trying to figure out the characters of FX's Damages, you may need a little help (or a season 1 DVD set). Damages is a complex drama with characters who have many sides and intricate connections to one another. Here is a quick guide to the main characters fueling Damages, including some who are no longer with us.

Patty Hewes (Glenn Close) Patty is the show. The head of a larger corporate litigation firm, Patty gives the term high-powered new meaning. She says she is motivated by a hatred of bullies to take on corrupt corporations and other shark lawyers. Whether she is as altruistic as that, we don't know, but we do question whether her ends justify her means which, last season included all kinds of lying, manipulating, blackmailing, spying, and even killing dogs. Her biggest crime so far was putting a hit out on her junior associate, Ellen, because she feared Ellen would turn against her. The result- Ellen's fiance, David, was killed. Patty is married to Phil and has a son Michael, who spent most of last season being an annoying delinquent at a prep school. She also had a baby daughter who died.

Ellen Parsons (Rose Byrne) Ellen went straight from law school to working for Patty Hewes, and though she was smart, she wasn't any match for Patty's machinations for most of the series. Gradually, she caught on to things- like the fact she'd only been hired because her fiance's sister was a witness Patty needed to get Arthur Forbisher, and that Patty just plain couldn't be trusted. The two developed a bond for a while there, and Patty definitely tapped into Ellen's latent killer instincts. But when Ellen discovered it was Patty who tried to kill her - and got David killed, she agreed to work for the FBI undercover to help them nail Patty.

Tom Shayes (Tate Donovan) Is he a yes man, a sycophant, a middle manager who will never rise to the heights he desires? Probably. But don't underestimate the importance of a untrustworthy guy in the middle of things, especially if he is an adept liar and smooth talker. Tom faked being fired to help Patty win against Forbisher last season - watch the DVD for more on that - but then he decided to leave for real because he was being pushed out of the action. He went back to the firm - maybe out of loyalty or self-serving motives, or maybe out of the delusion he could someday get his name on the door with Patty Hewes.

Arthur Forbisher (Ted Danson) Forbisher is the contemporary CEO archetype, to a point: he ran an insider trading scam that cost his employees their pensions. But he's more complex than that- he's got some real sociopath tendencies that go beyond just greed. He's unrepentant. Conversely, he seems to buy his own lies and spends a lot of Season 1 worrying about his reputation, his legacy, and being unfairly maligned. While at first Forbisher managed to cover up his scam with the help of Ray Fiske and George Moore and avoid criminal conviction, he knew he had to up his game when he was dealing with Patty Hewes. His tactics are as ruthless as hers are, lying, using people, even murder. He was shot by a union man he had been playing like a violin for most of the seasons. When we saw him last, he was lying in a field, shot in the gut. He's back for Season 2, but presumably with a lot less money.

Katie Connor (Anastasia Griffith) All Katie wanted to do , really, was open a restaurant. Then, catering in Florida, she had a one-nighter with a guy, Greg, who just happened to be in town to chaperone around a man knee-deep in Forbisher's stock scam. She may have seen something and thus became valuable to Forbisher and Hewes. Forbisher tried to buy her off by investing in her restaurant in New York and Patty tried to reel her in using Ellen, Katie's brother's fiance...plus she had her dog killed and made her think Forbisher did it. Ultimately, Katie tried a little too hard to do the right thing and got caught in a lie during her deposition. Not valuable anymore as a witness, she still paid a huge price- her brother and Greg were both killed in the process of the multi-sided cover up. And yeah, her dog was too.

Ray Fiske (Zeljko Ivanek) Ray spent most of the first half of the first season seeming like the guy whose main job was to fend of Patty and keep lose cannon Art Forbisher from doing something stupid. He had mixed success with both tasks. About midway through the season, though, Ray's true ties to the scam became much evident. He had hired Greg, a New York City waiter he had a crush on, to go babysit Moore, the government guy who's silence Forbisher required and was willing to pay for, down in Florida. Though Greg had rebuffed Ray's advances, he had still befriended the guy and accepted the job - along with the cool new suit and Forbisher stock - and stock tips - that went with it. Ray's insider trading deal and his decision to give Greg an important job he botched --Greg brought Katie to a condo where she saw Moore - basically tied the noose around Art Forbisher's neck. In the end, Ray took the express line through checkout. Between his failing his friend Forbisher, being pushed out at his job for not doing well with the case, and being blackmailed by Patty over photos of him talking to Greg- which would have outed him and gotten him arrested - Ray shot himself through the head in Patty's office.

David Connor (Noah Bean) David and Ellen were a great couple, each with a career dream. Hers was to be a big time lawyer. His was to be a doctor. They thought the biggest thing they'd have to deal with was their conflicting schedules. Soon, the real problem became Patty Hewes who decided to use his fiancee to get to his sister. Poor David, he tried to protect Katie. He tried to protect Ellen. But in the end, he's the one who needed protecting when the bad guys - from Forbisher's camp - went looking for the photos of Ray and Greg that Ellen had tucked away.

Gregory Malina (Peter Facinelli) Greg, a kind of dumb waiter, befriended the obviously-interested Ray while working at a restaurant. Ray wanted more than just to be the platonic sugar daddy, but Greg wasn't into that. He was into Katie, who he met in Florida when he was supposed to be helping George Moore meet with Forbisher and keep a low profile. With that mess up, it was all downhill for Greg. He was a basically decent guy, though, and wanted Ray to be one too, leaving him a last message to do the right thing and expose Forbisher. Greg was hit in a very suspicious hit and run while visiting Katie.

Hollis Nye (Phillip Bosco) A top lawyer, Hollis befriended Ellen when she applied to work at his firm. Or maybe she knew him before. Hollis had a limited role in Season 1, mainly trying to help Patty untangle her flashbacks and figure out why David was dead and why she was covered with blood. Ultimately, at least so far, Hollis proved trustworthy and helped Ellen hook up with the FBI.

Phil Gray (Michael Nouri) This is Patty's second husband. They seem to get along well.

Michael Hewes (Gregory Booth) This is Patty's son. He's in high school and had a huge chip on his shoulder. He chilled out after some tough love. He was almost in the apartment the night Patty tried to have Ellen killed.

George Moore (Peter Reigert) Moore worked for the SEC. He agreed to help Forbisher get off when Forbisher ran his stock scam. It's a long story, but basically, when Greg brought Katie to the Florida condo for some fun, Moore was there, and the fact Katie could, theoretically, connect him to Forbisher, made her a threat. Ironically, she was drunk and high and couldn't remember him anyhow. Moore eventually sought to save his own butt by telling Ellen what he knew. He ended up dead, though, so, maybe not the best butt-saving plan.

Uncle Pete This deceptively frail looking old dude is Patty's dirty-deed doer. Whether it's killing a dog or something bigger, Peter's the go-to guy.

Claire Maddox (Marcia Gay Harden) Maddox is new this season. She is a tough lawyer like Patty.

William Hurt (Daniel Purcell) Daniel is new this season, too, and apparently, he has some connection to Patty's personal life. He is a scientist.

Wes Krulik (Timothy Olyphant) Wes is another new guy. He shows up in Ellen's grief-counseling group. Is he a plant? You'll have to wait and find out.