Thursday, September 16, 2010

"Black and White" ...and every color in between

by Jonathan Bredemeyer

Lie to Me
(S02E22) [season finale]

"Black and White" opens with a white reporter meeting her source (a black guy) in a motel room. She phones Lightman on the way and assumes he's coming after leaving a message. Cal stops home in the middle of the day to find his daughter there with some guy when he gets the message. As Cal drags the boy out to take him home, his daughter utters the phrase that every parent loves to hear: "It's just sex, dad." (Let's hope the plan is to enlighten her by the end of the episode...)

On the way to the home of his daughter's new lover, Lightman stops at the motel room specified by his reporter friend. The locks busted and he finds the reporter dead on the floor. Lightman tells Emily to take her boyfriend home and calls the cops. Reynolds and his FBI boss (who turns out to be a prick) show up. He tells Lightman to not visit the mayor (the suspect in the case Julie the reporter was working on). Lightman gets a good line in: "Are you telling me I can't go and look the man in the eye?" "And do what?" "You must be joking."

In a somewhat brief conversation with the mayor, he takes the news of Julie's death well and Lightman pokes at him a bit. On their way out Lightman spots Julie's source, who takes off only to show up immediately at the Lightman's Group conference room. The source walks in and bares all as two detectives from Baltimore show up. As Lightman goes to hide the source, Foster shakes her head disapprovingly. We learn the Lightman Group's building is pretty big as Lightman follows the source down the 5 flights of stairs to lose the detectives. He brings Lightman up to speed on the Councilman who's after him for bailing on doing some dirty work for him.

Foster and Loker have disappeared and have seemingly gone to cut-off the source while Lightman and Torres talk tactics and run around the office. Lightman ends up in his office where he finds Emily and her still-unexplained boyfriend. Foster comes strolling up and Lightman updates her on his offspring's sex problem and asks for her help on the matter. (Great camera work this episode.) "No bees on toast?" - Damn odd phrase.

Foster and Lightman visit the councilman to actually question him about recent events. He tests Lightman, claiming he knew his books and all of his techniques. He gives Lightman a long handshake and Lightman clarifies his involvement with the FBI as a business arrangement only... Seems like we're setting up Reynolds to leave...

As Foster and Lightman head to the most awkard dinner of the year, he notices someone snooping around his house. He maces someone in the face and Foster flips on the lights to show someone with a gun on them. It turns out to be the Baltimore cops and Lightman had maced the female one. Foster and Lightman grill the now-confirmed-dirty Baltimore cops who work for the Councilman and the dinner is called off. Torres and Loker continue their awkwardness lately as Loker has procured all the dead reporter's files. Torres isn't impressed much to his dismay...

Torres and Reynolds go to visit the man the source claims to have threatened in the name of the Councilman. A 'representative' comes instead and they push to meet with the real character as Torres shows off her lie-detecting skills. Reynolds' boss shows up behind Lightman's desk and tries to pull him off the case by telling him to investigate a dead civil war re-enactor's death. If his doesn't investigate, his "relationship with the FBI is over." Reynolds then questions Lightman about whether he failed his boss in a security check based on evidence or if he wanted to several years before. Lightman takes a call and leaves, basically confirming Reynolds is gone from the Lightman Group.

Moving on to a train station, Lightman goes to meet his source to get a copy of the evidence. A fellow in a leather jacket shoots him before they can reach each other. Reynolds comes in jumping over benches and yells FBI, to which the gunman just turns and shoots him 3 times. Lightman tends to Reynolds as the gunman walks out. Lightman keeps pressure on the wound, right next to a wire. Reynolds' boss showed up to explain that Reynolds wanted to wear a wire to prove Lightman's innocence. Back at the office, Torres sees guilt on Lightman's face and asks if it was his fault. Cal's obviously feeling guilty over being mad at Reynolds when he was trying to protect him.

Cook shows up taking everyone by surprise. Lightman sets up Reynolds' boss in the lab as the interviewer, while they surprisingly interview Cook in the room outside. Piping the audio into the room so they can watch both reactions to the new information, Lightman then goes in to grill the FBI boss on nefarious dealing with prostitutes. He basically confesses noncommittally but claims it has nothing to do with the death of the reporter.

They show Reynolds in the ER on lifesupport (hey! Mekhi Phifer returns to the ER!) as Cal and Foster visit. Back at the office, Loker has all the reporter's stories spread across the floor searching for clues. The Councilman has come down to the Lightman Group's office on his own free will and they begin questioning him on his 'Fornicatorium.' Lightman describes the 14th amendment as a "gray area" (nice try to fit the title in...) before walking out to setup the FBI boss for a confrontation between the two. Cal then literally locks Cook and the Councilman in the clear-walled room together.

Cook start making accusations against the Councilman and Cal steps back in to interpret his facial reactions. Lightman then turns the tables on Cook to reveal how he set up Julie's death and used the source as his hitman. Apparently, Cook was doing this to get back at the Councilman for giving him a DUI and stealing his fiance some years earlier. Lightman enrages him to attack the Councilman who promptly gets him in a headlock (ex-cop...) and Lightman makes him feel worse about having Julie killed before the FBI boss is finally allowed in to arrest him. Before he leaves, the Councilman sees all of Julie's work sprawled out on the floor. Cal says it's all about him and says he's basically going after him.

Back to the sex storyline, Lightman tries to warn Emily about sex and she reveals they really didn't have sex, but she has already had her first time a while back. Cal's definitely shocked by this and basically looks defeated as the episodes ends on this.

Best line of the episode: "Emily's lost her virginity." "Lost it?" "Well, misplaced it, you know..."

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