Lie to Me - Double Episode

by Jonathan Bredemeyer

S03E09 - FunHouse

Continuing with single parent trauma, Lightman begins this episode carrying groceries and yelling at his daughter for loud music. After throwing a few grocery items around the room, Emily confesses she brought her friend Amanda over to ask her dad for help with Amanda's father Wayne who's in a mental hospital. So it's off to the loony bin for Lightman, which is also when we find out that this was meant to be a Christmas episode. After starting and then ending a knife fight (all while eating a banana), Lightman makes enemies with the hospital's doctor.

As Foster and Lightman have a conversation on the floor while Lightman cuts cheese for mouse traps, he predicts Dr. Crandin from the mental hospital is on his way to suck up to Lightman. This proves true as he show up at the office. After the Lie Gang beats up on Crandin a bit, he gets angry and Lightman gets hostile.

Torres and Loker head to see Wayne's (the sick dad) sister while Lightman and Foster head back to see Wayne. After fruitful trips and discovering Wayne's condition might be hereditary, the gang reconvenes and compares notes. They load up and send Lightman after the sister as they think she's hiding Amanda from them. Lightman and Foster find Amanda and catch her listening to loud music for the second time... She recounts the story that got her dad committed, as Lightman helps himself to a snack... again. After getting a glimpse at her journal (which looked a bit scary), they get some of Wayne's letters to his sister to analyze. Foster goes through them and tells Lightman to head home for the night, but he heads to the mental hospital. It gets a bit odd here, as Lightman feels the effects of Wayne's juice that he drank earlier, attacks the guard, and then passes out to wind up in a room there in the hospital...

In his hospital room, Lightman has a conversation with his dead mom and asks for more drugs through the security camera. More Christmas music is playing as Foster visits a drugged up Lightman, who is still devious. Emily shows up at the office concerned about her Dad's whereabouts.

Lightman pulls the fire alarm and breaks into the doctor's office with Foster on watch to read Loker all the medicine in the cabinet. He sorta fumbles as he gets too high to finish and the bad guys show up to return him to his room. Emily is upset that her dad is taking risks and Foster is letting him. She reveals it's Lightman's 47th birthday (his mom died at 46).

Meanwhile, Lightman is punching out the hallucination of his dad in his hospital room. He actually argues with him to the point it disappears. The next day Loker comes to visit and give Lightman the results of the drug search (amidst Christmas music). He sends Loker away with a muffin and new theory that the food is being poisoned (foreshadowed by Lightman eating everyplace he went earlier in the episode....). Later, Torres walks in on Loker in the rocking fetal, 'tripping-out-on-speed' position in the light room at the office... with a half eaten muffin next to him.

They bring in Wayne's sister who was making the muffins and sending them to him. After seeing the video of Loker eating the muffin and then going effing crazy, the sister tries to leave but Wayne appears at the office, sane. It's found that she was poisoning him for the estate and a bit of jealousy. Episode ends with Emily giving Lightman a single birthday candle to extinguish... and just the way it began: with loud music.


S03E10 - Rebound
Our second episode begins with a kid looking for money and finding way too much. Fast forward to Lightman escorting Emily off on a trip to her mom's and then Lightman toying with the same kid in his office lobby. Turns out the kid's mom, Lily, has come in because she doesn't trust her soon-to-be-fiance. The kid, Noah, apparently likes his new step-dad-to-be, and Lightman says he'll take the case "for your son." He then follows George and sees him get an envelope with a lot of money. Lightman introduces the dropper's jacket to a loaded hotdog and gets his card and profession, a divorce lawyer.

Back at the office, Lightman introduces Lily to George's current wife... curious. The two Georges that the women describe are completely different, and Lily finally admits this might be fishy. The Lightman Group tracks down yet another wife... and then discover there are more... The deaf intern makes an appearance as they review the list of the information in George's book of shorthand notes which contained names and dollar amounts.

Lightman meets up with the divorce lawyer, posing as Foster's husband in need of his services. He slips him a ton of cash in an envelope, and, surprise, surprise, George shows up flirting Foster into a tennis game, and then dinner. Watching a video of the dinner, the Lie Team finds zero facial expressions, which means "he's such an amazing liar we need to start looking for sociopathic markers." Lightman goes to George's garage to butter him up a bit and discuss terms. George explains how marrying Jillian will get Cal out of paying alimony for the rest of his life, as well as his price for the task. "It's like an installment plan on freedom." Just then, Lightman's cop friend walks in to arrest George, but it's too early in the episode for that to wrap things up... so I'm guessing they let him out to unravel another sin or two.

They put him in the Lightroom just long enough for the divorce lawyer to show up and whisk him away, but not before revealing the last 3 wives he duped had been watching the interview.

George's garage is going up in flames with him in it, which sends Lightman and friends into a frenzy interviewing the ex-wives who would have a grudge. After the interviews, they have video of Noah being very mad at his mom. They brow beat the mom in panic a bit and Noah confesses to protect her. They get the real story (nothing happened) and then a report that the lawyer's car is at the airport. They head there to find George...

Back in the Lightbox, they break down George to confess that the lawyer was killed out of self-defense and to reach an agreement. Emily returns and the episode ends with a touching father-daughter moment.