Hi Ed,
Having worked with a lot of broken displays in my lifetime, it looks pretty definite to me that the LCD itself is broken - the curves of the blobs are the edge of the cracked glass you're seeing. The only good news here is that the cracks don't extend across much of the screen so the TV is still mostly usable.
On a 55" TV the cost of replacing the LCD will easily exceed the price you would pay to simply buy a used TV of the same make and model, and sometimes it's even more than the cost of a brand new television.
So I'm afraid the bad news is that in my opinion you'll either have to just live with it as is or else you're in the market to replace the TV. Sorry, wish I had better news for you.