Lie to Me - 'In the Red'

by Jonathan Bredemeyer

Lie to Me (s03e01) opens with Lightman apparently helping bank robbers rob a bank. We flashback 36 hours to find him doing a bad job explaining why he's late on writing his next book. Loker flashes in long enough to appear to be giving an awkward interview to... someone. After setting up a fake 'interruption' for the meeting through Torres, the mysterious visitor warns Lightman of the impending lawsuit that will follow if he doesn't finish the book (which he apparently didn't tell Foster about). (Why are they making Torres look like an unhelpful slob?)

Lightman heads to the bank where he gets profiled every time (or so he tells the attractive blonde hanging out on a bench). While there, he spots someone actually casing the bank. Of course he asks for a cut and asks when the bank robbery is to occur. The robber ditches him and he follows him to breakfast in diner (flashback to Tim Roth in Pulp Fiction). Lightman lies and claims he used to work at the bank to convince the robber they want the same thing. Cal heads back to the bank and confronts the bank manager who was going to tell him the accounts had been frozen. He drops the fact that his bank is about to get robbed.

Lightman explains to the bank manager (using the security camera footage) who the bank robber was and tries to drum up a plan to stop the robbery. He pegs a security guard as having recognized the robber. Back at the 'LightRoom', we discover the guard is being blackmailed by some guys wanting blueprints for the bank and the vault code. Lightman asks the guard for the information instead and Foster questions his motives... Lightman stares at Foster's ass as he talks of assets...

Lightman turns to the cops who broke into his house for an I.D. on the robber. Back at the fort, Loker gets overruled by Foster on a new hire. They address the absence of Reynolds as Lightman claims he's severed his ties with the FBI. After learning his bank robber's history, Lightman takes off rather abruptly, upsetting the cop a bit, but he drops a few compliments which placates her. We learn Loker's trying to interview grad students. "To replace him?" Lightman asks. Loker is warned by the deaf candidate he's interviewing that he should "Stop worrying about me and worry more about yourself."

Lightman heads off to find his bank robber's partner via tracking a cellmate, who turns out to be in a bar with a rather large black man. This new partner immediately handcuffs Lightman to the bar and puts a wrench to his throat. Lightman uses the bank plans and vault combination to bargain his way out. After 'checking him out,' Lightman calls the dirty cop and has her drop off the bank information.

Foster's coming down hard on a prison therapist who seems to have helped one of the bank robbers out of jail. Torres and Loker are investigating an abandoned house as they discuss Torres' snooping into his calendar and his new therapy sessions.

Back to the 'hostage situation,' Lightman is heckling the guards and keeps asking about the split. As Loker and Torres flirt with each other, Foster learns the therapist is pregnant with the bank robber's baby. Still working on bank robber number one, Lightman learns he owes his ex-roommate from prison. The plans are delivered from the cop to bank robber number two. Foster learns that the therapist was scared of number two and falsified the records for him to get out... nice.

Confronting the ex-wife of bank robber number one after finding a photo of her in his house, she reveals to Loker and Torres that he wanted her to befriend a woman with Luppis (the security guard's wife). She reveals how the bank originally screwed them over and how her husband ended up in jail. Flash forward to the opening scene with Lightman and the bank robbers in the elevator. With Lightman's request for a gun denied, they head into the bank to enact the plan. Lightman tries to scare off bank robber number one and then walks up to the dirty cop, who is working as a bank employee. She relays info to Lightman to help him with bank robber number one while number two gets nervous while waiting in line.

As Lightman counts down with fingers to the dirty cop, he finally convinces number one to head for the door. A cop comes in as he was leaving and screws up the exit, making him go back inside. The number two bank robber gets out of line and heads to pull his gun thinking the entering cop has made them (figured it out/got tipped off). Lightman convinces him otherwise and heads for the cop. Lightman coaches the cop through not blowing his plan.

Number one then pulls a shotgun and starts the robbery. Number two robber keeps Lightman with him to open the safe. In the meantime, number one starts going after the person in charge of home loans, for revenge 3 years earlier. Lightman opens the safe (as the Lightman crew is seen on the floor). There are tons of cops waiting inside and arrest robber number two. Lightman wanders back out of the safe to find number one surrounded by cops with a shotgun on a bank worker (apparently nearly all the people in the bank were cops). Lightman stalls the robber long enough to knock the gun aside, but not before getting a guilty look from the bank manager who was so happy to tell Lightman about his frozen accounts earlier. They scroll through the faces of regret that include Paris Hilton and Lindsey Lohan as Lightman makes robber number one realize he's going back to prison.

The bank manager ends up going to the number one bank robber's wife and apologizing. After forcing him to admit he's a coward, he gives her her house back. Lightman threatens Foster for messing with the finances. The Lightman group gets two new interns (deaf lie specialists should be interesting). Lightman pegs Loker as searching for a new job rather than therapy. On his way out on a date with the dirty cop, he introduces Foster and hints at an orgy (probably the funniest part of the episode).