"Smoked," this week's Lie To Me has a strong, if not stellar, "A" story exploring family relationships, but what really grabbed my interest were the relationships between Cal and the women in his life. I love it when the show picks up on past plot points and develops them further, and I also love that as much of a handful as Lightman is, the women he loves are also no pushovers. In fact, they sometimes have him on the run. In this episode, Cal spends quite a lot of time ducking and weaving, quite unsuccessfully, which makes for entertaining television, while Torres, in a small but intriguing "C" story, finds a new "natural" lie detector.
The main storyline revolves around the murder of a young girl, Kira, while she was at her family-owned restaurant. Wallowsky brings Cal the case because she is fond of the family patriarch, Big Jim (John Amos), who is dying from cancer and devastated about his daughter's death. Cal takes the case, and he and Foster quickly decide the apparent robbery by two masked thugs was actually an execution of Kira.
Wallowsky and Lightman interview the other person at the killing, the restaurant manager and Jim's best friend, Teddy (Frankie Faison). Teddy is heartbroken, but throws suspicion on Jim's two estranged sons, Marcus and Rudy. Cal decides it's time he met Jim, though Wallowsky throws up as many road blocks as she can think of. They don't work, of course, and Cal pushes his way into the sick man's room.
Lightman's conversation with Jim reveals the theme for the A story. The cancer-riddled man tells Lightman he's refusing morphine so he can be clear-headed for the investigation. With pride, he says, "When I go, it will be with my eyes wide open." The words are a clear bit of foreshadowing that Jim will have some unpleasant surprises in store for him as he gets more clarity than he will perhaps want about his relationships. Cal, too, indicates he may not see the shape of this plot clearly, as he says about Marcus and Rudy, "I've been led to believe they killed your daughter."
Cal rounds up the sons and to Wallowsky's irritation, decides to break protocol and interview them both together in his interview room. Predictably, the two men end up at each other's throats, quite literally, mostly because Cal, in full scorpion mode, stings first one and then the other, getting first a baseline and then confirmation that the boys do indeed hate each other and their dad, and that Marcus saw Kira shortly before she died.
Article comments
1 - Latitude24
I think you're right about Cal & Gillian, and I think they are headed for a huge confrontation. Probably in the season 3 finale, or half season finale.
I found it amusing that Cal was trying to hide Wallowski from Gillian and Emily both, and that Gillian kept pressing him about her. (Of course, if my company were in trouble financially, I would also be very interested why my partner would take on a pro bono case, and for whom.).
Especially amusing since Gillian hid her last "whatever" from Cal and everyone else, only 'fessing up in one of their best scenes together when she thought Cal suspected. I also think that Wallowski prefers to be hidden, at least from Gillian. I'm sure she has many skeletons in her closet, and Cal must suspect.
I found Gillian's line very telling, after Cal says that Wallowski is very good at what she does: "You don't treat her as if she is." (or something like that.)
It's difficult to figure out whether Gillian is personally jealous, being platonically protective or is worried about how a crooked cop will affect their struggling company. As much as Cal likes to think that he's inscrutable, it's obvious how he feels about her. Not so obvious how Gillian feels about him. She flirts with him sometimes, but she doesn't really give away much. We need to see a little more of her slip out.
I really REALLY hope they bring this series back in the spring. There are so many unanswered questions and unexplored motives and emotions. And I'm very interested in finding out what Emily read in Cal's mother's diary.
2 - Gerry
Hi, Latitude, thanks for commenting! I found much about the cat and mouse relationship among Cal, Sharon and Gillian amusing--there was some nicely detailed writing and acting in the episode. I'm delighted Cal's behaviour over Wallowsky hasn't been forgotten by anyone, because I'd find it hard to swallow if it had been.
I agree that Gillian is proving hard to read and I really hope there's a lot more driving her than jealousy. Cal needs to look at what he gave up to save Wallowsky from the IA investigation--especially since he involved Foster in his scheme. I still have a bit of a hard time accepting he would push his partner to lie because he admires Wallowsky for supporting her partner, especially when Gillain let him know so clearly she didn't want to. And from there, I have a hard believing he's just carrying on with Wallowsky and wants Foster to pretend she doesn't know. Mind you, I am still willing to go along with it all and wait to be shown how everyone is really feeling under the surface, so, well done writers.