The episode ends with a scene recalling the first one. Emily correctly diagnoses her father's frenetic teasing as covering over a bad day. He decides to tell her that he had to speak ill of his mother—which Emily again correctly identifies as meaning her father admitted he was angry at his mother's suicide. She tells him she understands because she would be angry at him if he ever left her that way. The door finally opening to a conversation Cal has feared would be too painful, he reminds his daughter his mother was ill and her despair was not her fault.
Older than her years, Emily senses Cal's writing block was probably related to his blocked emotions and now is the time to for Cal to figure out what his book is really about. She writes a forward to the book, dealing with the difficulty of being the daughter of someone who knows—or thinks he knows—what she's thinking. She's on the right track. The last scene shows Cal writing his first sentence, this time with no smart breezy remarks. Instead, he goes for a very raw beginning, admitting how little he really understands, especially in the people close to him. The book will not so much nail down his knowledge as show how complicated emotions really are.
Article comments
1 - Mike
This show did not appeal to me when it was first introduced. Just seemed a little too "gimmicky". However, after looking at it in a little more depth, and discovering that there really are these rare "human lie detectors" in the world, I now find it fascinating. I hope it continues for many years.
2 - Gerry
Mike, I had the same concern when it first aired. I knew I really liked Tim Roth but thought the show might be a bit too high concept and have a hard time spinning out the focus on the science once the novelty wore off. I think the writers have come to grips with the problem and found a nice balance between the science and the character driven plot. Let's cross our fingers the show gets a back nine order.