This week’s Lie To Me, "Undercover," has two main themes: the boundaries between the Lightman Group members and the difficulty in balancing the needs of the individual over those of the group. I had a little difficulty swallowing the scheme Lightman cooked up for his staff this week, and I found the discussion on rights just a touch didactic. Overall the episode was solid, if a bit uninspired. Sadly, Cal’s ex-wife Zoe did not make an appearance this week, so we’re still waiting to see the fallout from that particular piece of boundary crossing.
The A story this week is an investigation by Cal and Gillian into whether the shooting of a black teenage boy, Andre, by policeman Adam Duke (Marty Papazian) was justified. Duke says he only shot after Andre pulled a gun and his partner Kuransky (Currie Graham) says he found a gun by the boy’s injured body after he fell from a roof. The black community is very suspicious about the gun and accuse the police of shooting Andre in cold blood. The mayor’s office wants answers and wants them fast, before the city explodes in violence.
Cal and Gillian are willing to try and stop that violence, but soon find a puzzling conundrum: both policemen tell the same story, but Duke is telling the truth and Kuransky is lying. Adding to the puzzle, Foster notices in old police interview tapes that Kuransky has been lying for years. She wonders if he’s got post-traumatic stress disorder, but the answer lies down another path. Cal learns Kuransky is an FBI mole when the FBI pull him in to warn him off the case. Lightman is less than impressed with being leaned on by the feds, giving us another glimpse into his murky history as we learn he’s had access to top secret information at the CIA in the past.
Lightman learns Kuransky found a sleeper cell of Al Qaeda terrorists in the police force, planning a major attack soon. Duke is part of the cell and about to tell his partner the names of the other members. The FBI want Cal to stop looking into the shooting, allowing young Andre to go to jail on Kuransky’s word, so the terrorist investigation will not be compromised. They too want to stop the city from exploding in violence, and in their view, the rights of the group override the rights of the individual. Cal is not so easily convinced.
Article comments
1 - Phillip Winn
Cal's comment in the last second of the show sounded odd to me, so I rewound: definitely dubbed in. Not because that's not what he said the first time, but because they wanted it to be more clear, no room for confusion. Interesting.
2 - Phillip Winn
Oh, also, it's possible that the investigator didn't know he was being used, and was honestly trying to find the leak.
3 - Gerry
Hi Phillip, thanks for dropping in! I guess it is possible the investigator thought he was conducting a real inquiry, but I don't know that it makes sense to me that Cal would risk the agency's well being to conduct a test on Torres. What if she had folded? Once Cal sets a real inquiry in motion, he can't just stop it when he wants. It would be out of his hands. My impression was he set the whole thing up himself.
I think you picked up on a very interesting point with that "Night, love." It does suggest that there's more to come with the relationships among Cal, Foster, Alec and Zoe. Zoe clearly resented Foster's interference last week. Foster resented Cal's this week, though resentment may be too strong a term--she appreciated the sentiment, leading me to wonder just exactly what the sentiment is. And I also wondered if Foster is still fooling herself to some extent, and Cal knows that but will back away at her request. We had a lot of scenes with Alec lying and I may be wrong but I think at least one of them was to Foster with no one else around. Why use code words when they are alone? That use of "love' by Cal does suggest complications will be ensuing.
4 - Kate
"Zoe clearly resented Foster's interference last week. Foster resented Cal's this week, though resentment may be too strong a term--she appreciated the sentiment, leading me to wonder just exactly what the sentiment is. And I also wondered if Foster is still fooling herself to some extent, and Cal knows that but will back away at her request. We had a lot of scenes with Alec lying and I may be wrong but I think at least one of them was to Foster with no one else around. Why use code words when they are alone?"
Apparently eps 10 and 11 were swapped, which means originally this was to air before Zoe was introduced. If it had been that way, it may have been even more puzzling for Gillian to tell Cal to stay out of her life, while getting involved in his.
As for whether she's fooling herself: it's possible. Or, maybe she does know something but just doesn't want Cal getting involved. It did seem like he sensed there was something more going on. (Something she was trying to "hide".) And you bring up a good point about Alec lying to her when no one else was around. (I think there may have been a scene or two in "Love Always" where that happened. Though, now I'm not sure if they're saying he was using at that time, and maybe that's why he was acting strange.??)
Anyways, good recaps! :)