- Tom and Ellen continue with their plan to get information on the Tobin family's Ponzi scheme from Leonard Winstone even though Patty has inexplicably told them to stop. It all starts to go wrong when Stuart Zedeck learns that someone impersonated him and withdrew money from the charity's account. He sends his henchman to find out what is going on which leads to a confrontation with Tom. Marilyn Tobin meanwhile goes to Patty and agrees to confess to knowing about the Ponzi scheme and to murder if only they will leave her son Joe alone. Patty makes her views on that point quite clear. Patty is surprised when she runs into her son Michael's pregnant girlfriend. She let's Patty know in no uncertain terms that she has no intention of leaving town and that she and Michael are very much enjoying the money Patty gave her. Patty gets her revenge. Ellen's old boyfriend tells her who was responsible for the death of her fiancé David.—garykmcd
- May 1972 Patty meets with her doctor, who says he knows she's got a bar exam coming up, but being a mother is more important. She visits a farm to pet a horse and young Patty runs into Julian Decker. She's very pregnant. He warns her a baby is a big responsibility. "I've always wanted a child," she says.
(roll credits) Lenny Winstone drops by the apartment he owns to meet Tom. He sees the financial statements Tom has posted everywhere and meets Ellen, who tells him the DA's office has agreed to give him immunity.
Patty visits with Jill, her teen son's baby mom. Jill pretends like she didn't just take half a million of Patty's dollars to leave her son's life, instead thanking Patty for her generosity.
She shows Patty the Jaguar she bought for Michael. "You don't want to do this," Patty says. "I can play power games, too, Patty," Jill says, adding that she didn't tell Michael that Patty tried to buy her off. She hands Patty an invitation to her baby shower.
Zeddeck's attorney drops by the bank to make a withdrawal, and learns that someone named Zeddeck made a withdrawal recently.
The attorney takes this news to Joe and Zeddeck. Zeddeck tells Joe he shouldn't have cut Lenny off.
Ellen waits for Wes (Timothy Olyphant!) in a restaurant. He shows. He apologizes for disappearing. She points out he never told her he was a cop, or about Detective Rick Messer. Wes tells her Messer is the one who killed her fiance David (in season one), and Frobisher was behind it. She asks how he fits in. Wes explains Messer knew about some stuff he pulled when he was a rookie and Messer asked him to track her. "So you were lying to me from the beginning," she says. "Sorry," he says, adding that what happened between them was real. She realizes Wes killed Messer. He says he can link Frobisher to Messer and Messer to David. But he'd have to give himself up to do it. She tells him not to, she's let go.
Tom buys a beater from some guy, the one that later crashes into Patty.
Patty thinks about 1972, we see her holding her belly on the farm and bleeding.
Tom comes into her apartment and reports to Patty and Ellen that Lenny will deliver the money and evidence to the apartment. Ellen will pick it up and bring it to Patty. Tom gives Ellen the keys to the beater so she won't be followed.
Patty asks if they're sure they can trust Lenny Winstone. Tom says it's a risk they have to take.
"All right," Patty says, "let's do it."
Wes meets Frobisher on the street. Frobisher claims he didn't know Messer was a cop. Wes suggests Frobisher turn himself in. Wes says he knows Messer killed David Connor on Frobisher's orders. Frobisher asks who killed Messer. He says Messer told him Wes was protecting Ellen and implies he knows Wes killed him.
Joe tries to convince his mother that Lenny is stealing from them.
Thanksgiving Night Flash back to Louis telling everyone about the fraud and Louis later telling his wife Marilyn that he and Lenny perpetrated the fraud because of Joe, to cover over-confident promises Joe made to investors years back.
Back in the present, Joe asks his mom why she didn't tell him before. He pours a stuff drink from the hotel mini-fridge and downs it. Joe realizes his mom knew if he knew the truth, he'd turn himself in. He asks if there's anything else, but his mom says no. He reminds her that he warned her what would happen if she lied to him.
Joe gets in his mom's face and tells her she's on her own, she won't be allowed to see her grandson again, she's dead to him. He throws her out of the room.
Michael pulls up to his apartment with Jill, who is promptly arrested.
At the station, Patty gets to break the news to Jill that she's being arrested for statutory rape. Jill says Michael wouldn't testify against her, but Patty pulls out the chromosomal tests he gave her - which have the date of conception. Jill tries to offer Patty her money back, or to just leave like she wanted. But it's too late. Patty tells Jill when her baby is born in prison, Michael will get sole custody and she'll make sure he has plenty of help. "You forced him to make a choice he should have never had to make," Patty tells her.
Patty meets with Marilyn Tobin. Marilyn wants to know if she'll leave Joe alone if she confesses. She offers to tell Patty more. She says she had Tessa Marchetti killed, so Joe would never find out Tessa was his.
Marilyn says Danielle came to her instead of Joe years ago when she got pregnant and she told Louis to give Danielle money to make it go away. Marilyn didn't want Joe "saddled" with a baby. Patty, of course, can relate. Thanksgiving night she learned Danielle hadn't gotten rid of the baby, but she was never Louis' lover, he took care of her because Tessa was his grandchild. Marilyn pleads with Patty to take her instead, but Patty wants Joe.
Frobisher parties it up at a nightclub with Terry's producing partner. She says Terry told her about their wild night in his Escalade. She asks what the worst thing he's ever done is and then leaves to get her coat to join him for a ride. Frosbisher turns and sees the ghost of Ray Fiske (Zeljko Ivanek) sitting next to him. Ray says Frobisher has said too much, but he tells Ray to lighten up, pointing out Ray's the one with a hole in his head.
Lenny gets in the beater call with Ellen with the immunity papers. He says he doesn't trust Patty or Tom, but trusts Ellen because she quit Patty's office. She tells him the case is going to make her career and she has no desire to share with Patty. She promises after Tom gives her the money and the evidence, she'll skip Patty and go straight to the DA. She asks about his evidence. He tells her about the details of the fraud Louis left the night he died, and that Joe has it. But he'll get it.
He hands her his signed immunity agreement and gets out of her car with her purse in his hand.
Patty stares at the hole in her apartment wall and remembers her 1972 bloody farm visit, her telling Tom she was making him partner, Ellen promising her her secrets are safe and Michael saying people either leave her or die, those are the only two possible endings with her.
Tom and Ellen wait for Patty by the river. She's 20 minutes late.
Lenny's dad knocks on Joe's motel door as a maintenance man and goes through his things. He finds the Louis Tobin fraud envelope.
Patty tells Tom and Ellen she wants them to call off the deal with Lenny. She doesn't care that it'll mean the end of the case. She warmly tells Tom she'll provide whatever his family needs.
Ellen calls the police about her stolen purse and she and Tom check that they're still on. It's a go.
Frobisher gets in his car. Wes pops up from the backseat and holds a gun to his head. Ellen may say she doesn't want justice, but he'd like to provide it. Frobisher tries to offer him money and talk his way out of it, claiming he's a better person now, even volunteering at a "youth thing." Wes is unmoved. Frobisher cries and begs for his life.
Wes makes a call, saying he'd like to help solve a murder. "You know what, make it two: David Connor and Detective Rick Messer."
Lenny contemplates a gun then picks it up. In the apartment, Tom waits for Lenny. Barry the homeless guy stands guard outside. Lenny brings the cash and leaves.
Cut to Frobisher being arrested. He sees Ray in the backseat. He looks to Ray for encouragement, thinking he'll find a way out of it. "Not this time," says the ghost of Ray.
At Lenny's apartment, Zeddeck's lawyer confronts Tom inside. He says he's looking for Lenny and asks about their deal. Lenny waits outside the apartment and watches Ellen pull up. He takes her purse and plants it in the beater car she's driving. Barry the homeless guy sees all.
Ellen knocks on the door and Tom tries to convince the lawyer to let him get Ellen to leave, then he'll tell her where Lenny is. Ellen walks in and Tom hands over the cash. Ellen asks if he still wants her to take it to Patty. He says yes and tells her to leave.
Barry goes through Ellen's purse, which is full of cash. He takes it out of the car.
Inside, Zeddeck's guy asks Tom where Lenny is. When Tom says he has no idea, the lawyer stabs him in the leg. He calls Zeddeck to report Lenny isn't there, but he thinks Tom made a deal with him. He takes out his knife and sticks it in Tom's face. Tom tells him Lenny got nothing in return for the money and gets stabbed in the kidney for his trouble. When he won't talk, he gets stuck again. "You better start talking because the next one's gonna go in your throat," he threatens Tom. He asks again what Tom got for the deal and a gunshot rings out. It's Lenny, standing with a pistol. The lawyer is knocked down and Tom and Lenny start to get away, but not for long. Soon the lawyer has Lenny by the throat and is choking him, seemingly to death.
Driving down the road, Ellen pulls over and looks in the bag of money. It's fake.
Tom bashes the lawyer over the head with a wrench, blood splatters on the wall. He beats him without stopping.
Ellen goes to Patty's and walks in looking for her. Instead, a man walks up behind her. It's Michael, mad as hell and looking for his mom.
Tom stumbles out of the apartment, holding his gut, but alive. He sees Barry, with Ellen's purse. He touches it, leaving blood on it. He tells Barry there's something he needs him to do upstairs.
Ellen puts the bag of fake cash in the beater car trunk outside Patty's place. Patty calls. Tom stumbles down the street to a phone. Ellen talks to Patty outside the beater. Patty tells her they'll talk soon and that Michael is waiting for her at her place. Behind Ellen, the beater car drives off with the fake cash in the trunk. Patty starts the red Jag. Tom leaves a message for his family, telling his wife he loves her but he made a mistake. He tells her to take the kids and not to come home when she gets the message.
Up in the apartment, Barry finds Zeddeck's lawyer shot in the back of the head and Lenny gasping for air on the ground. He helps Lenny up.
The beater drives down the street and crashes into Patty.
Joe stands on a street corner drinking. He gets a call from Lenny, who tells him it's over, the DA is coming for him.
At the police station, Detective Noonan meets with Patty after her accident. Again, we see her get out. But this time we and she see the driver: it's Michael.
Tom stumbles in his front door, still bleeding. His family is gone. But Joe Tobin is there. Tom calls Joe's dad Louis a "greedy scum bag." Joe punches Tom in his stab wound then holds his head in the toilet. Thrashing around, Tom grabs Joe's glasses off his face before he finally goes limp.
Marilyn Tobin laughs and sobs over old home movies.
Meanwhile, her son Joe contemplates Tom, the man he recently murdered. He grabs a blanket to wrap Tom in. He's stumbling drunk still and tries to steady himself. He drags Tom to a Dumpster and throws him in.
Patty gets the news about Tom's death at the police station.
Marilyn, her face streaked with tears, gets in a cab and asks the driver to take her to the East River. Moments later, we see a body plunge over the side.
At the station, Noonan asks Ellen how Tom's blood got on her purse and in Barry's cart.
A hysterical Patty comes home, leaving the message saying "I told you not to go through with it! I told you to stop!" on Ellen's phone.
Ellen tells Noonan she can't help. She gets the voicemail from Patty. Then Lenny calls. He tells her the documents are in her bag, he didn't trust Tom. She asks where he is and we see he's at a private airport, boarding with a bagful of cash. Lenny Winstone/Lester Wiggins gets away.
Ellen goes back to Noonan, asking what was in her bag. He shows her nothing was inside.
Ellen goes to Barry, who recognizes her as Tom's friend. He gives her the Louis Tobin envelope.
Cut to Patty in an interview room at the station telling Joe Tobin they have all the evidence they need to get the money and, by the way, Tessa was his daughter and his mom's body was found in the East River that morning. She shows him photos. Ellen and her boss Curtis Gates watch from behind the one-way glass.
Patty tells Joe there's only one way he'll be able to live with himself. She turns off the intercom.
Cut to Patty leaving the room and telling Gates Joe's ready to talk. He admitted to killing Tom.
Patty and Ellen are left alone. Ellen asks what Patty said to him. "We talked about confession," she says.
Patty stands on her oceanfront property and remembers 1972, the doctor telling her law school might be important, but motherhood is more important. Ellen joins her. It's after Tom's funeral. Patty says she's going to miss him. She tells Ellen she wants to be cremated when she dies and her ashes scattered there.
She asks Ellen what she's going to do next, and that she'll have to decide. She mentions the stillborn daughter she had. "Her father was probably the only man I ever loved, but he didn't have my ambition," she says. She was offered a job at a firm in New York, to be the first woman to work there. She had to decide whether to move to the city and be a single mother or stay put.
Flash to 1972, Patty talking to Julian Decker on the farm, him mentioning a baby is a big responsibility and asking if she's sure as she pets the horse. Cut to her bleeding. She tells Ellen she was perfectly healthy at the time. But in 1972 the doctor tells her she's having complications and if she loves her baby she'll stay on complete bed rest with no exertion. Cut to her walking along the country road. The doctor telling her she'd be a great mother and her bleeding. "It just...happened...so I was free to start my career," Patty tells Ellen.
Ellen says she wants a family some day. She says it's time she leaves, but she wants career advice. "You've accomplished everything you set out to do, was it worth it?" Ellen asks. Flash to Patty sobbing over her dead daughter's grave. She doesn't answer.
Ellen leaves.
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