The intriguing, engaging conclusion to Damages Season 4

Damages Season 4 does manage to tie up all its loose ends - I'm always impressed with how well the producers and writers manage these complex plots with the unusual use of time: all four seasons begin with a dramatic event (in season 4, an apparent ritual beheading by a terrorist group) and then flash back six months or so, and in each episode, give us a few more pieces of the approaching denouement so that we gradually begin to understand the culmination of the plot, even as we're watching the plot unfold - and then all the pieces cohere in the final episode, as, for the first time, we see that final (and initial) dramatic scene in full. In other words, the season begins with its ending and gradually fills in the pieces, keeping you constantly guessing and always engaged. I think the plotting of Season 4 was the best and most coherent of any of the seasons - not that the plots are entirely believable, there are always improbabilities and absurdities, but at least they make dramatic sense: Season 1 was probably too complex, I never could figure out who killed whom or why; season 2 relied too much on a sudden surprise appearance of a marginal character; season 3 was a good conclusion but one of the key "clues" from the opening scene turned out to be a red herring - unfair! Season 4 plot involves the CIA and illegal extradition of suspects from Afghanistan for interrogation who knows where - the CIA agent a very strong a intriguing character. So it's a really good series - carried very much by Glenn Close (though I did tire by the end of her clench-jawed mannerisms) and the ever-improving Rose Byrne. A weakness, however, is the very ordinary writing - as if all the writers' attention goes into plot, and much less into dialogue; way too many dead spots and long pauses where supposedly meaning develops but it doesn't always. Examples: Close's final session with her psychiatrist, not even close in drama and revealing content to scenes in The Sopranos, or the final Close-Byrne confrontation, in which Ellen/Byrne ultimately walks off saying nothing more than: Good-bye, Patti (Close). She could have, should have, really let her have it! Anyway, lots of entertainments and very admirable series for its willingness and ability to take big risks with dramatic form and structure.