Damages (season 3)

Patty Hewes has been appointed by the U.S. government to recover billions of dollars lost to the largest investment fraud in Wall Street history. The new case pits Patty against the powerful Tobin family, which includes Joe Tobin (Campbell Scott), Marilyn Tobin (Lily Tomlin), and the family's trusted attorney Leonard Winstone (Martin Short). Meanwhile, Ellen Parsons adjusts to the challenges of her new job and life away from Patty Hewes, by trying to get a drug dealer to give the name of his supplier to the D.A.'s office. Patty promotes Tom Shayes to named partner, and Tom speculates about whether Ellen might want to return to the firm.

Patty and Tom investigate the Tobins further, and stumble upon a mysterious woman with the initials D.M.M. In trying to find her, Tom asks Ellen for a personal favor. Meanwhile, Joe Tobin decides to start using his father's secret funds to help his family, and Patty turns to her ex-husband Phil when her beloved dog stops eating. Tom receives devastating news that threatens to tear his family apart when he learns his investments were tied up with Tobin's fraud and that he has lost everything.

Patty convinces Curtis Gates to postpone Louis Tobin's sentencing for a day so that she can personally interview him about the fraud. Ellen tries to confront Carrie about the drugs, but gets a cold reception and is later pulled back into Patty's life. Joe Tobin, who is an alcoholic, begins drinking again but manages to stop cold turkey. Patty's son, Michael, lies to Patty about having gotten a job and broken up with his girlfriend Jill. Rather than face a life sentence, Louis commits suicide by poisoning his tea, leaving behind an envelope addressed to Patty Hewes, which Joe takes.

As Patty's birthday draws near, she goes head-to-head with Curtis Gates over access to Danielle Marchetti, who is released from hospital. Ellen becomes more involved with the Tobin case and winds up having a romantic interlude with Josh Reston, an investigative journalist she met while working on the UNR case. Marilyn Tobin meets with Patty and confides in her that Danielle and Louis had a child together, and that her daughter, Carol, is not coping well with her father's death. Patty gets Danielle to plead the Fifth at her deposition. Afterward, Carol Tobin pays Danielle a visit; that night Tom finds Danielle dead in her apartment. Carol is shown throwing an empty vial into the river.

Stuart Zedeck and Joe continue to play games with each other over Louis Tobin's hidden money. Under pressure from the judge to make progress with the case, Patty turns to an unlikely source: a man whom she jailed for fraud. His information leads Patty and Tom to an offshore financial scheme in Antigua. Ellen and Curtis question Louis' doctor about his patient's apparent heart attack, and the doctor confesses that he aided in Louis' suicide but had nothing to do with Danielle Marchetti's death. Tom's financial problems weigh heavily on him, and he attacks the broker who reinvested his funds with Tobin. Tom figures out that the Tobins must have been using Danielle Marchetti's daughter to smuggle money out of Antigua.

Patty sends Tom to Antigua to find the Tobins' hidden money, but he finds he already has enemies on the island. Ellen has Josh Reston write an article about Alex Benjamin that she knows Patty will dislike, knowing Patty will eventually figure out Ellen is behind the scheme. Leonard learns that his mother has died and winds up being blackmailed by his own father, Albert Wiggins, who knows a dark secret about Leonard. Ellen tells Patty that Carol Tobin visited Danielle Marchetti on the night Danielle died, and the two agree to collaborate on the case. Patty joins Tom in Antigua, and they meet with a contact who can help them gain access to the Tobins' bank accounts; the same man who was having Tom followed and who blocked the bank from giving Tom the information Tom requested.

Carol Tobin has disappeared, and Ellen works closely with Tom in to track her down. Tom takes Ellen to the homeless man, Barry, and he agrees to keep an eye out for Carol, who has been making credit card charges in the area. Arthur Frobisher returns to the fold to promote his new wind power initiative and tries to attach a young actor named Terry Brooke to promote it; the actor proposes producing a movie about Frobisher's life. Patty discovers that Jill and Michael are still together, and that Jill is expecting. Patty offers Jill money to leave Michael, but the offer is refused. Leonard tracks down Carol, who has been hiding out the whole time in an apartment he owns, and he learns that Carol poisoned Danielle Marchetti. It is revealed that it was Leonard who threw away Louis Tobin's phone and boots on Thanksgiving night, as was witnessed by Barry.

Patty and Tom try to get closer to Carol Tobin, while Ellen has to deal with something more personal when her sister Carrie is arrested on drug charges. Leonard worries about Carol, who seems to be coming unhinged under the stress of having murdered Danielle and of being hidden away. Frobisher has Terry and his movie-producer partner meet Patty, in hopes of dissuading them about their intention to simply portray Patty as a villain in his upcoming biopic. But when Patty deeply insult Frobisher at the meeting, he abandons his inclination to give her a fair portrayal and agrees the film should portray Patty as a villain. Patty and Tom intercept Carol at a fake therapy appointment they had set up, and Carol starts feeding them information. From this, they discover that Tessa Marchetti did spend Thanksgiving with her mother and wonder why she might be lying to them. Ellen asks Patty to help Carrie, and Patty brings Julian Decker (Keith Carradine) back to redecorate her apartment.