Nobody messes with Patti

Next-to-last episode (12) of "Damages" season 2, we learn more crucial info and have some terrific scenes. Now we learn that Purcell actually killed his wife (or thinks he did) and calls Kendrick to help him out of the jam - but it happens that she's still alive and Kendrick's guy finished her off. That could prove relevant - episode ends with Purcell turning himself in, for a crime that we know he did not actually commit (tho he did strangle her). Turning himself in leaves his daughter very vulnerable - seems odd. Wes is about to shoot Ellen (on orders from the crooked detective), but backs off. Now it becomes clear, as Marge observed, that he is taking guns to Ellen's apartment to protect her, not to shoot her - as the earlier flash-forwards led us to believe. Tom, pressured into bribing a judge in the UNR case, refuses to go along, and Patti fires him. What's with this? Why would she want to make Tom her enemy? There has to be a reason. We know from earlier flash-forwards that Tom provides Ellen with a gun - with which Ellen will shoot Patti? Most exciting in this episode is the screaming match between Patti and Phil. Patti realizes that Phil has been betting against her, buying stock in UNR. She makes him see that the UNR people put him up as energy secretary just to derail Patti's case. He seems contrite for a moment - he's a fool, he obviously did not know he was being played - and then he explodes, and then Patti/Close lets him have it. A great scene! She throws a coffee cup and orders him out. He says he's fight her in a divorce suit, and she raises her hand and says: Good luck! Nobody messes with Patti. He is completely overmatched.