TV Recap: Lie To Me's "Better Half" - Page 2

Cal’s relationship with Zoe is really the A story, as the arson case fuels his conversations with Zoe on why their marriage failed. Cal, Zoe, Foster and Loker have to probe all the relationships in the family, and of course find secrets and betrayals in all the dark corners. The writing beautifully allows the focus to slide from the case to Cal and Zoe’s marriage after every interrogation. As Zoe takes over the Lightman Group’s offices as if she owned them, Foster tries to establish some boundaries, tartly asking if the office still has a receptionist to announce visitors. But she’s playing a losing hand, because Cal sees no boundaries himself.

When Cheryl, the mother in the family whose house burned, confesses to an affair with Garcia, the suspected television reporter, she falls under suspicion herself, as does her husband Frank, who has a mountain of debts. Both spouses manage to convince Cal they are innocent of the arson, but the guilt of the affair strikes a chord with Zoe and Cal. Lightman answers his ex-wife’s unasked question of why he never had an affair during their marriage by saying he didn’t want to hurt their daughter and sex was never an issue between them. He then has to ask Zoe why she didn’t—and her first response is simply, "Because you would have known." The answer is not exactly the most ringing endorsement of her commitment to him, but one that gets to the core of her resentment of him. Just to keep things complicated, her next response is more ambiguous, as she tells Cal she wanted to kill him, but she never wanted to hurt him. Which answer has the real emotional weight?

Zoe and Cal then have to interview Garcia and his wife, and his wife admits she knew about his affair, but says, "Marriage is about figuring out how to get through when things change." Again, the interrogation slides from the suspects to Zoe and Cal as Cal accuses Zoe of changing and leaving him instead of figuring things out. Zoe exposes the main issue of their marriage as she tells Cal she didn’t change—she just got tired of living with a man who had to know everything about her and who grabbed on to every passing emotion as significant. Bitterly, she tells him, “Let me tell you, sweetheart, there’s such a thing as too much honesty is a marriage.”

Article Author: Gerry Weaver

Gerry loves film, books, a few television shows (House, True Blood and Lie To Me come to mind), and writing about them.

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