Cancellations all Around!

by Amy K. Bredemeyer

ABC canceled Brothers & Sisters, No Ordinary Family, V, Detroit 1-8-7, Better with You, Mr. Sunshine, and Off the Map.

FOX canceled Lie to Me, Human Target, The Chicago Code, Breaking In, and Traffic Light.

Hugh Grant was yet another name that was thrown out to replace Charlie Sheen on Two and a Half Men. But, Ashton Kutcher got the role in the end!

Jenelle from Teen Mom 2 went to rehab. She may be "clean" and just wanting to get her life together, but who knows.

Matthew Perry is also in rehab. Maybe it's needed because his show got canceled, LoL.

House will move to 9pm on Mondays in the fall, to make room for Terra Nova at 8pm. But, it will be without Cuddy, who chose not sign a less-money-than-previously contract.

Seth MacFarlane is going to reboot The Flintstones. Don't get too excited... we're looking at Fall 2013.

If you want to take a look at everything that was canceled and renewed, try here.

Random Thoughts: Cancellations

by Amy K. Bredemeyer

So maybe this question isn't as random as some of the others that I have posed. But, since there have been many, MANY cancellations this past week (including three shows that appear in the reviews on this site), I thought I might ask which cancellation YOU are most disappointed in. And it doesn't have to be a show that was cancelled just recently - if you were in love with a show that was cancelled earlier in the season, share that one!

Regardless of whether we saw it coming, whether the ratings were bad, or whether it just wore out its welcome, the networks cancelled a ton of shows this year. ABC's cancellations were referred to by many as a "bloodbath," for starters. As the fall lineups roll out (for the major networks. the cable ones have their own thing going on) and pilots get picked up, I'm most upset about Better with You. Although I liked Mr. Sunshine, it had its flaws. My husband was a fan of Lie to Me, of course, and is a bit sad to see it go. I wasn't really into The Paul Reiser Show, so I'm not complaining on that one. Plenty of people are mourning everything from Smallville to All My Children, though those both had long runs. So, what are you sad about? If you haven't been following all of the sources that are covering renewals and cancellations, here's a limited list of shows that have been cut from future lineups...

All My Children
Better with You
Big Love
Brothers & Sisters
The Chicago Code
The Closer
Glory Daze
Human Target
Law & Order: Criminal Intent
Law & Order: Los Angeles
Lie to Me
Medium
Mr. Sunshine
No Ordinary Family
Off the Map
One Life to Live
Outsourced
The Paul Reiser Show
Running Wilde
$#*! My Dad Says
Smallville
Terriers

More FOX Renewals; Charlie Sheen on Entourage?

by Amy K. Bredemeyer

There will be a Glee 3D movie.

Negotiations didn't work out, so Katie Couric won't have her own CBS talk show.

Ted Nugent will be running for President next year... on The Simpsons.

Teen Mom got renewed for a 4th season... and, bonus.... season 3 will begin July 5th.

House faced a lot of potential issues in getting renewed, like the licensing fees, but it ultimately was renewed. However, the actors who play Foreman and Cuddy likely took a pay cut.

Some people think that maybe Netflix will come in and pick-up Lie to Me, which still hasn't been cancelled or renewed.

As we reported earlier this week, Jerry Seinfeld can't stand to watch Seinfeld.

Charlie Sheen wants to do a show on another network, since things aren't working out well over at CBS. Entourage wants him for their final season.

Bristol Palin will get a reality show on BIO.

I've been enjoying the new show, Pregnant in Heels. Crazy things like this are fun for me. Parodies are even starting to develop.

Family Guy and The Cleveland Show both got renewed.

MTV UK is going to have Geordie Shore, a British adaptation of Jersey Shore. Read this in Entertainment Weekly, and I must share their commentary with you! "Finally, a version of Jersey Shore in which people speak English!" hahahaha.

Teen Wolf Coming; Grey's Anatomy App

by Amy K. Bredemeyer

Well, at this point it's not a spoiler that Dana from Delaware won Cake Boss: The Next Great Baker, but it is news that the show was renewed, and will do another season! I'm excited.

I have not seen MTV's Skins, but enough people have that at least NINE advertisers have pulled their support for the show, including Subway, Orbit, Extra, Foot Locker, and L'oreal.

I find it amusing that, apparently, rich people (defined as household making more than $100,000/year) are more likely to watch major sporting events.

In case you missed it being all over every media outlet, Oprah has been reunited with her long-lost sister, that was born 9 years after Oprah.

It's possible that FOX's Lie to Me was not properly credited... aka the idea was stolen. I wonder if this story will continue to make headlines... since that show isn't doing too well...

Another bit that was all over the media... NBC is doing a pilot in the fall backed by Steven Spielberg. The big deal is that it is to be a competitor for Glee. The story revolves around the mounting of a Broadway musical, and will be titled, Smash.

Lifetime has been jumping on getting the ball rolling on their movie about William & Kate's courtship and royal wedding. The role of Kate has already been cast!

Jennifer Aniston has stated that she hated "The Rachel" haircut that was so famous, and Luke Perry admitted that he loved Dylan's pompadour-of-sorts on Beverly Hills, 90210.

The Kennedys may finally have found a place... Tribune Broadcasting might pick up the eight-part miniseries.

New to Netflix Steaming for February: all of The Cosby Show, Roseanne, 3rd Rock from the Sun, and That '70s Show.

The Burn Notice prequel tv-movie has now been cast, and will air on USA this Spring.

Starting with tonight's Grey's Anatomy, there will be opportunities to interact with the show through the iPhone/iPad app.

Sal Picinich, of Cake Boss, passed away from cancer on January 30th. TLC added a small note to the new episode that aired on the 31st. Sad.

Charlie Sheen has been all over the news lately, from asking a porn star to babysit his kids to being rushed to the hospital. Last week, rumors went wild over whether or not he entered rehab, and CBS has had its hands full dealing with the change in production schedule for Sheen's hit show, Two and a Half Men. Well, the latest is that he's having rehab come to his house, LoL.

Beavis & Butthead will return to MTV. Not sure when, but apparently the tv series of Teen Wolf will premiere on June 5th.

Lie to Me - The Last 2 Episodes?

by Jonathan Bredemeyer

Are these the last 2 episodes of Lie to Me? I hope not...

"Gone" - S03E12
Opening with a strange family breakfast consisting of an emo teen and a colorful baby, the brilliant mom heads to the store and decides to leave the baby in the car unattended. Surprise, surprise, her little bundle of joy is gone when she comes out. Fast forward to the Lie offices and Lightman and Foster are watching the mom lie to the news about being held up for her kid...

After more analyzing of the video of the very bad press conference, Foster and Lightman interview the first person the mother called, her OBGYN. Meanwhile, Torres and Loker review the videotape as Lightman's former cop-squeeze shows up with the baby's dad (a police lieutenant) and mom. Splitting them up, Lightman attacks the dad while Torres sympathizes with the mom in the light box. Torres and Loker break down the mom and guilt her into revealing the truth.

Lightman brings the dysfunctional couple together for the mom to confess the truth. Mom confesses the truth and the dad storms off mad, after Lightman confirms that the mom had an affair with the OBGYN. At the house, Lightman messes with the emo teen, LJ, and tries to get his official and unofficial opinions of things. (My money is on him.) Foster and Lightman head to LJ's school, which is also where his mom works. Lightman accuses the principal of sleeping with her, which he admits. Apparently, she gets around... are cops not good lovers?

After messing with Loker at the office a bit, Foster, Lightman, and his cop friend head to the family's house to watch the husband take the news of his wife's affair. Lightman gets punched in the stomach by the now-pissed-off dad.

Back at home, Lightman interrupts a debate practice session between Emily and her boyfriend. Lightman gives his secret to lie-detecting: "I shake people up until they lose control and forget to hide their emotions."

The dad returns to the Lie offices at the summons of the lie team. Lightman questions him further and learns that they couldn't conceive, which the dad admits he knew that he couldn't be the father of both kids. This leads Foster and Lightman back to the OBGYN for questioning on how exactly the process worked for the Bradleys.

Loker nabs some video of the dad buying diapers, which lands him an appointment in the cube. Lightman breaks him rather quickly and tells him to bring in the family to watch the OBGYN's big finale.

The Doc watches (via a monitor) as the Mom confess in the cube to having known that her boss is the true father of the missing girl. They continue watching as the mom admits to keeping a spare key to the car in the kitchen... This switches the Lie team from questioning the Doc to questioning LJ about pictures of his reactions to his dad. Lightman breaks him down in about 3 questions, but seems to take a bit to get the actual location of the baby from him. After making the kid feel that his situation wasn't that bad, he confesses that she's at a friend's house.

Of course LJ still gets arrested for kidnapping despite the father's protest. Back at home, Lightman declares Emily the winner of a debate between her and her boyfriend.


"Killer App" - S03E13 (a bit strange to end on lucky #13???) [season finale]

This episode begins with Foster covered in blood and Lightman (in a hoodie for some reason) sprinting towards her. Flashback 2 days earlier to a trade show of sorts where Lightman is wandering around with the latest 'killer app.' Zack (obviously supposed to be Zuckerberg) pegs Lightman as being hired by Claire, the sole remaining partner in the now-billion-dollar company.

In the Lie cave, Lightman tries to convince Claire to fight Zack for the business. She refuses and then says goodbye to Foster as an old friend (ex-therapist). Loker and Torres rile up Foster by continuing to ask questions about what Claire is hiding. They question Foster's motives and whether Claire is actually paying them...

Meanwhile, a dark fellow shows up at Claire's request. After passing Lightman's $100 test, he gives him instructions and sends him out.

Lightman gets home and enters to heavy breathing... which ends up being Emily and her boyfriend stretching after a 3-mile run... and her emulating orgasm sounds. Unfortunately, Foster's call interrupts this scene and we're back to the beginning of the episode. Lightman finds Foster at Claire's covered in blood. He wanders in to examine the crime scene and his cop-squeeze shows up, who he gets a bit pissed at for being late. Later at the station (in an interview), Foster describes the scene and her failed attempt to save a bleeding Claire. They see the other burned partner Kyle come in. Lightman tries unsuccessfully to convince his ex-squeeze that Kyle didn't do it.

Lightman and Foster seem to head straight to Zack and confront him about the murder. He reveals Lightman was searching for Emily's boyfriend online. (Zack is 'plugged in' and 'socially awkward' just like another web CEO we know...) Lightman reads Zack enough to figure out Zack knew Claire's secret, but Zack reveals he already had a signed statement from Claire, giving him everything. Lightman persists with intimidation, "Did you know that Einstein couldn't do mets (math)? Every genius has his weakness, genius."

Cop-squeeze shows up at the Lie offices claiming Kyle looked very guilty and refuses to submit to Lightman's pleas to bring in Zack. Loker runs into the dark newcomer eating in the break room and questions him to no avail before Foster comes in and makes Loker clean up the remnants of the meal.

Lightman heads to a coffee shop to interview Kyle, who's just gotten away from the police. Kyle claims he can prove Zack planted evidence on his laptop, and Lightman convinces him to come back to the Lie cave to help them.

Lightman catches his ex-cop-squeeze investigating the crime scene and discovers that Claire had sex before she was murdered. Lightman catches up to Zack at a bar and confronts him about the new information. After attacking Foster, Lightman gets a bit personal with him, but doesn't get anywhere. At the office, Foster and Torres drive a love confession out of Kyle and get the history of keeping his and Claire's relationship a secret. While trying to drum up more evidence against Zack, apparently a worm from Zack gets in and deletes everything on the Lie office's computers. Lightman is encouraged by this though, "It's bound to be perfect, totally our type."

Squeeze-cop shows up to arrest Kyle but looks the other way. Next, she's interviewing Zack at a strange-looking building. Zack tells her that he knew about Kyle and Claire's relationship, but she she insists she needs evidence. Zack heads back to his desk to get this evidence, and Lightman shows up right in the middle. Foster and Kyle show up to further anger Zack with Lightman continually firing questions. Lightman gets Kyle to admit that he and Claire were planning a takeover in a ruse to get Kyle to confess. Lightman streams out Zack's claim that the truth doesn't matter and then leave him to the mercy of the internet.

Lightman's dark secret agent returns and, after some banter, he tells Lightman all about Emily's boyfriend who Lightman hired him to follow. After more banter, Lightman hires this fellow for future... sleuthing.

Lightman visits Zack in jail to threaten him with the thought of being transferred to a mental hospital and on a regime of pills prescribed by Foster...

Back at home, Emily reveals that she broke up with Liam because he wouldn't have sex before marriage. She then asks if Lightman loves Foster, which he does admit.

They finally get this in the open and this might be the last episode??? D@mn it...
Either way, it's been revealing...

Lie to Me - Saved

by Jonathan Bredemeyer

(S03E10)

This episode starts off with a bang as we witness a woman help an injured girl from a recent accident with an exploding car. We then see Lightman's office with the DA presenting a video of the car accident. Lightman is constantly eating nowadays... In the video, Lightman reads guilt on the face of the woman rescuer and the team brings in the other members in the car for questioning.

Lightman heads off to stalk the woman who performed the rescue. She turns out to be an EMT who he classifies as an adrenaline junkie. After pushing Ilene about her addiction, he leaves - convinced that she caused the crash. In the meantime, the lie team is still questioning relatives and others on who could have caused the crash (which claimed the life of a sports star).

Driving home (on the phone with her daughter), Lightman gets T-boned at an innersection. Who comes running up but Ilene to help him! Cal wakes up and immediately tells Ilene to 'get lost.' He sends Emily away on a tea run and then tells Foster his theory about Ilene's problems. Lightman takes his time in the hospital as an opportunity to break into Ilene's locker and look around. Ilene catches him and they have a discussion on trying to save the person blamed for killing the sports star she couldn't save, or not... Lightman doesn't convince her.

Loker and Torres interview the troubled youth blamed for the crash and confirm that she didn't run a red light. They head to Lightman's house with Foster to run through how Ilene could be responsible. They find that Ilene is causing an accident once a year around the time her mom died. They head off to visit Ilene and only find her brother at home. They get a description of the accident that orphaned them. Back at the office, the lie team determines it's actually Kent, Ilene's brother, causing the accidents and she just cleans them up.

Torres and Loker quilt the DA into doing the right thing and arresting Kent while Lightman goes to confront Ilene at her place. While there, Kent gets hit by a car on purpose to prove his sister can't save him. Lightman eggs sibling rivalry to try to end the craziness. Ilene saves Kent's life by re-inflating a collapsed lung. Ilene and Kent get pinned for the accident and their pattern of destruction and saving gets broken forever.

Back at home, Emily brings down a photo album from the attic and gives Lightman a memory test. Turns out this is just a ploy to ask for a trip to Cancun...

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.

Lots of Spring Starts; More Cancellations

by Amy K. Bredemeyer

Animal Planet's Pit Boss got renewed, and the new season starts January 29th.

ABC's Secret Millionaire will start at 8pm on Sunday, March 6th... opposite Amazing Race.

Mr. Sunshine will be on at 9:30pm on ABC starting February 9th.

Happy Endings will be on 10pm on ABC starting April 13th.

A&E's new Beyond Scared Straight premieres Thursday, January 13th at 10pm.

F/X's Terriers got canceled.

FOX's Running Wilde got dropped from the normal lineup.

Lie to Me didn't get a full-season order, so things aren't looking so well for the long-term.

Love Bites got cut from 13 episodes to 9, so that's even worse.

Apparently there's a show called, You're Cut Off! that was renewed by VH1, and the second season will begin at 9pm on Monday, January 10th.

Glee also suffered this week... apparently tonsillitis has been going around the cast and they had to cancel some shooting, haha.

The Closer will not continue past this season.

Ken Jennings will be back on Jeopardy!, along with Brad Rutter and... a supercomputer. February 14-16, 2011.

Lie to Me - Veronica Belm... er, nm...

by Jonathan Bredemeyer

A quick blogging note: Lie to Me entries are going to be a bit less verbose from here on out. For a rather direct show, shedding so much little on such shallow details doesn't seem to be enlightening anyone any extra. So, let me know what you think: Is this version better or worst? Thankyaverymuch. -JB

S03E07

This episode puts us following an elderly woman having issues which culminates with Emily plowing her with a car while texting. Emily gives the woman (Veronica) a 'ride home.' Veronica starts going nuts and Emily texts daddy. Cal shows up and questions her about Charlie who Veronica's freaking out about and says killed her sister Rose. Veronica calls Cal 'Burt,' but he seems to be ok with this..

At the 'Lie Station,' Loker walks in apparently beat up, claiming 'life' happened to him. Veronica is there and attempts to clean up Loker. Meanwhile, Foster interrupts Lightman watching the whole scene from a computer in another room. Foster claims it's not Alzheimer's, but Lightman refuses to turn her in to anyone. Foster reveals she talked to his cop girlfriend to get information on Veronica. Turns out she's a murder suspect...

Cal and Foster visit Veronica's dead husband's brother who she had apparently been living with. Cal puts on the hostile bit and they at least learn that she was put into care for going crazy. Back at the office, they listen to an old tape of an interview and determine Veronica did know something about her sister's murder. Lightman returns Veronica to her care facility and convinces the doctors to delay her meds long enough to show her a family video. She points Lightman at 'Charlie Eaton'... apparently Charlie isn't made up.

Lightman heads off to see Charlie and gets no place. After some more inspection of family photos by the Lie Team, Lightman confronts Charlie again and claims his expressions say he thinks Veronica killed her. Next, they bring Veronica home to try to bring 'Burt' back to life. After some role-playing, Veronica reveals that her sister died trying to have an abortion back in 1968. Lightman's sold on her story but Foster still thinks her Alzheimer's is messing things up.

Lightman heads to the care facility to be around Veronica when Foster shows up with pictures of people Veronica had named. She names them off one by one, and confirms that she's naming people that are currently living with her in the facility. Lightman and Foster conclude that the 'Charlie' who is killing people is in the facility with her.

They bring one of Veronica's doctors into the lightbox. After calling him an 'angel of death,' he adamantly denies that anyone in his facility could be doing this. The Lie Team gets full access to his staff and starts interviews. They find one person who loves what they do there, and Cal interviews him personally...

Lightman spends the night again with Veronica and yet another person dies. Lightman spots one of the doctors heading in to see Veronica. Cal heads in, confronts him, and learns that a white coat is the trigger for Veronica seeing Charlie.

Loker is waiting for Lightman at home and the subject of his broken face comes up. Apparently, he's been doing research like Lightman does... on the street, with real people. The doctor at the facility attempts to kill another patient, but Lightman swaps the drugs in his office so he ends up injecting Loker with saline.

Emily attempts to drive someplace only to find the club on her car. Lightman makes her choose between her phone and the car. Emily picks the phone and makes yet another new boy come and pick her up...

Lie to Me - "Beyond Belief"

by Jonathan Bredemeyer

... without much excitement...

S3E06

We begin in an assembly in what appears to be 'mega-church' or massively popular self-help conference of some sort. At the same time as a motivational speech by the presenter, a mother seems to be in the process of attempting suicide and makes a last call to her daughter. The speaker says "The goal is transcendence. Believe and be free," as the woman appears to have successfully completed the attempt.

The woman's daughter shows up at Lightman's office begging to hire them to go after Jim Stafford (the speaker). She says she received a call from her mom from Stafford's office and that she was taken to the hospital believing to have attempted suicide, but was immediately released and was sequestered by Stafford. Lightman promptly claims he'll go after him and runs out. "You had him at suicide" Foster tells the girl (obviously).

Loker and Torres show up at the woman's doctor's car to harass him a bit about the suicide case. They grill him on why the woman was allowed to leave so soon after a suicide attempt (the standard required hospital stay is 3 days?). Torres lays one question after the doctor gives an excuse... "Would that appropriate care be 'scientific repatterning?,' the name of Stafford's new religion.

Lightman and Foster crash Stafford's rehearsal and go straight for him. Stafford is extremely cool and offers to let them see the woman (Carol) to verify her health. After a few questions, Lightman pegs her as under duress and basically a captive.

Back at the bat-cave, Foster doubts Lightman's conviction to what he saw. He catches Loker and Torres 'going for coffee' and turns them around to dig up dirt on Stafford. Foster goes after them and demands they leave for coffee after they say it's fine to stay in.

Lightman heads home to find his daughter with a new guy. Lightman asks him to leave in not so many words... He accuses Emily of getting a large boyfriend to mess with him. He develops the nickname of 'Willie' before heading out.

Loker and Torres are still digging into Stafford and find an ex-member of his religion. They try to contact her...

Foster and Lightman head back to Stafford's to talk to Carol again. She claims she was unclear before, but Lightman pegs it as shame and runs off into the building for a tour. Stafford follows him and Lightman questions him as he roams the very lavish office. Lightman accuses him of holding back angry expressions and accuses him of misdeeds. Stafford turns the questioning onto Lightman and accuses him of being a bully. Meanwhile, Foster tries to interview Carol but has a tail named Jill. She questions her anyway about the suicide, and forces her to say her daughter's name. Foster seems to have figured out the way they 'brainwashed' her.

Lightman finds a list of 'The Seven Transitions" on a wall:
1. Recognize/Accept spiritual dissonance.
2. Re-align our environment.
3. Breakdown problem - "Negative Patterning."
4. Become nothing. Embrace the void.
5. Substitute solution- Negate the void. "Positive Re-Patterning"
6. Release of Negative Pattering. Fire/Pain of release.
7. Self-deliver and re-environmentalize self recreation and freedom. Share new knowledge with others.

Lightman questions a nearby 'initiate' and he says he's in the fourth transition. Stafford comes in and begins what appears to be a 'group session' of sorts. Carol starts on her issues with transition 6. Lightman tries to 'wake her up' and Stafford interrupts. Lightman bugs out with one last shot at breaking Stafford's hold.

At home, Lightman finds a flyer for 'Living the Positive Life' on his counter. He yells for Emily and questions her about it. She has no knowledge of it and claims she's been home with the doors locked... So they head to the office. He tells Emily to cancel her date with Willie to proof his book instead (claiming he never understood semi-colons). Foster comes in and he drags her away to talk about the flyer that Stafford snuck into his house.

Foster and Lightman interview the former SRP member, Jane, in the "Lightbox." Lightman calls most of what she's saying lies and he breaks her into telling the truth... a bit too easily. She claims she knew Stafford from the beginning of the 'cult.' She tells the story of how Stafford grabbed control of the 'group' and killed others in the process. (They flash Palin as an example of shame...) Foster determines Stafford's a narcissist and wants to use that: "I call him a narcissist, and you make this about you?" Lightman: "I want a big, wanky picture of myself to put up in my office." Foster and Lightman crash Stafford's session and search the crowd for Carol. They don't find her and note Stafford keeps on going with no worry...

They directly confront Stafford after the talk about Carol's whereabouts. Lightman tells him he can't see any lies OR any truth on Stafford's face. They do peg him about knowing something about Danielle. Foster and Lightman bring Danielle in for questioning, and find out Stafford had sex with her nearly every day for a year. She admits she came to the Lightman Group for herself as much as her mom for them to go after Stafford. Torres interrupts to show Lightman why they couldn't read him. Lightman immediately concludes he's had subcutaneous muscle damage on his face and thinks he's beat Torres to all her news. She reveals a picture of him before as Carl Weatherly of a former life with a wife and kid.

Lightman heads back to one of Stafford's 'shows' and interrupts in front of the entire crowd. He introduces Stafford's wife and daughter than he abandoned 14 years ago... and then cheers mockingly as everyone murmurs in disbelief. Lightman continues his introductions and Stafford calls for a break. Lightman, Foster and the 'family' head backstage where Stafford apologizes. Stafford breaks away, but his wife chases him down and lays a pretty good guilt trip on him for abandoning his daughter. Stafford tells Lightman that "I'll take care of my family and you take care of your family."

Lightman heads back to the office to find Emily, who's in the 'Lightbox' with Loker listening to one of Stafford's talks. Lightman confines them to his office, and heads home. He finds one of Stafford's men out front. He breaks the window with a tire iron and runs him off carrying a threat for Stafford.

Stafford shows up at his storage facility to find it's been cleaned out. Lightman drives up soon after, and begins to heckle him. He tells him the cop took all the items inside. "We'll call this the eighth transition: to jail." The cops show up to arrest Stafford, and Lightman heads home.

Liam and Emily are at home again at the kitchen table. Lightman casually has a seat and tries to strike up a conversation. Emily threatens him with semicolons as a topic, which Lightman lofts at Liam... who smashes an explanation. Lightman then uses one, and heads to make tea.

Back at the office, Loker and Torres are apparently returning with coffee and talking about Stafford's 'transitions' program. Torres compares him to Lightman... who's following them. Lightman steals Loker's coffee. Foster is talking to Danielle about how awful Stafford was and encouraging her with kind words to recover. In his office, Lightman is sitting with Carol when Foster and Danielle walk in and the Lie team leaves them alone...

Interesting episode... but only Lightman's one-liners made this episode mildly interesting despite a great premise...

Lie to Me - The Canary's Song

by Jonathan Bredemeyer

S03E05

We enter with a miner complaining to a bad boss for a late paycheck that ends with the dick boss being... a dick. The boss heads down to the mine to check on things and enters an area with danger signs everywhere. A door gets closed behind him and his 'safe air' meters turns red. He gets locked in and tries to chop his way out, igniting the gas that was leaking into the room, blowing up the mine.

Flash to Lightman's office: the owner (who started in the mine) is trying to hire Lightman to vindicate his company and prove it's not at fault. Reynolds' former FBI boss shows up to see Foster. He lets her know Reynolds is riding a desk since Lightman 'got him shot.' He blackmails her into taking a pro bono case by showing her video of Lightman illegally gambling (and winning of course...). Back to Lightman and the mine owner, the secretary comes in with pictures of the dead miners to rattle the owner, which turn out to be mostly random people. After Cal finds out Dylan the FBI dick is in Foster's office, he tries repeated to go in and aggravate him. Torres and Loker appear just in time to cover that Lightman is gone.

Lightman accompanies the mine owner to the funeral for the dead miners. Lightman spots the fellow who had the confrontation at the beginning of the episode, and sees he is drunk. Lightman also spots racism as the other miners and workers are introduced. Lightman calls the first funeral speaker out as a big liar quietly in the back, and then makes eye contact with the only black guy in the room. Lightman tracks down the guy he pegged in the beginning at a bar afterward and tells him he'll find the truth. Wallance (the mine owner) walks into the bar and gets attacked by the angry miners. Lightman breaks a bottle and holds back the miner. For some reason, Loker breaks a bottle a ways down the bar and no one knows where he came from. Lightman says 'he's with me' which seems to work, but why the heck is he even there? Lightman takes the bat (?) from Loker and he mentions that the sheriff's outside. Loker and Lightman head into the bar bathroom to talk. Loker confesses he trailed Lightman to the bar. Lightman asks if Foster put him up to it, but apparently he thought to do this on his own.

Foster and Torres are back at the office working Dylan's pro bono case, which is apparently arresting everyone in the video of the poker game which Lightman attended.

Lightman goes back to harassing his original pegged miner (Bryan) and questions him and his girlfriend (the bartender). Lightman tries to provoke a fight but it gets broken up. Loker tries to get info from other miners playing pool, but that gets shot down also.

Torres and Foster question one of the poker players to sniff out the game organizer. They ask him about Lightman (who he knows as Jimmy the Mouth) and who brought him.

Wallace brings Lightman down into the mine. Needless to say, the other miners aren't thrilled about this. Lightman learns the engineers were warned about the explosion and didn't go down into the mine. Lightman asks the mine owner to stop the fans and let the methane build up for an hour.

Loker's still back in the bar and gets questioned by the bartender on why Lightman is down there. Lightman continues questioning the miners while they work. Loker finds a handle of sorts in the pocket of a miner in the bar and shows it to Wallace. The guy admits his men locked the mean boss in the tool closet to teach him a lesson. A combination of cycling the fans off and him using the axe appears to be what caused the explosion that killed the 6 men.

Lightman's still down in the mine pushing the miners who tried to kill the foreman. After breaking one, the methane buildup hits the red mark. Lightman pulls out a lighter and threatens to blow everyone up. The miner Lightman pegged sticks around and explains when happened (a prank to teach the foreman to listen went bad) while the other two leave.

Back at the office, they drag in 'Wheels' to question about Lightman. He was shot twice in the spine and is in a wheelchair. Dylan and Foster ask him about 'Jimmy the Mouth' and were chatting when Torres enters with pictures and they convince him to help, then find the floating poker game in order to help 'Jimmy.' Wheels coughs up the details for the next poker game, and Foster trades it for Dylan to 'lose their number for good.'

In the bar, a drunk miner pulls a gun on the bartender and Loker is there to hit him with a bat. She grabs the gun and runs off, while the miner takes off out the back. Down in the mine, one of the miners that took off shows back up with a sledgehammer to deal with Lightman. He talks him out of hitting him, and then the other one pulls a knife, only to be knocked out by the first. Lightman shows up in the bar to find Loker with a bat, pouring himself a drink. The bartender has gone to get revenge for her cousin...

Lightman and the original miner head to Wallace's office to find her pointing a gun at him. Lightman talks them through an apology and negotiates the company paying out for all the damages.

Foster and Torres drink some 50-year-old malt whiskey from Lightman's stash and celebrate their 'work.' Lightman shows up with a miner hat still on to find Torres passed out and Foster on the balcony. "Loker's earned his stripes finally," Lightman claims. Foster drunkenly demands Lightman say thank you, which he does. Foster notices Lightman is looking at her with more and more lust lately...

Foster: "I can't wait until tomorrow."
Lightman: "Why, what's tomorrow?"
Foster: "I get better looking every day."

Lie to Me - "Double Blind"

by Jonathan Bredemeyer

(S03E04)

Two 'police officers' seem to enter a building with night vision after an alarm goes off and get shot by a 'rent-a-cop.' Torres gets a call from a client who hired Lightman to 'vet' his security staff and threatens to sue if she screwed up. Lightman shows up on the scene to defend her and then heads to the hospital to talk to the only remaining cop-robber alive. After getting rid of a nurse, he questions the robber as to what he was stealing. The 'item' they went in for is already sold to a buyer, but before Lightman can get any more details, he goes into cardiac arrest (thank you, House M.D.).

Foster shows up at the hospital to give Lightman 'company'. Torres explains the situation and seems genuinely upset, to which Lightman responds with a question: "What's the difference between a viceroy and and a butterfly, Torres?" "No." "Look it up." Lightman spots a hot blond about to be kidnapped and intervenes at the last second. He takes a seat next to her and tries to figure out her story. She claims she was there for a coworker, but he calls her on the lie. She asks about his reasons for gracing the waiting room, but he stonewalls her pretty hard and gets up to leave. She of course calls him back when the guy comes after her again. Lightman again takes a seat and starts guessing her problem. The nurse from earlier comes out and tells Lightman the second robber is dead from internal bleeding. At this news, the advancing guy gets up and leaves.

Foster is reassuring the mueseum boss that Torres didn't screw up. Lightman reassures the man that there's every reason for a second attempt at the robbery. The museum man leaves pissed. The blond (Naomi) comes to check on Lightman and meets Foster. She's convinced Lightman is dealing with a family member's death and takes him to coffee. He asks her to 'call me Lightman' and have real introductions when she notices he isn't in mourning. She confesses it was her ex-boyfriend chasing her in the waiting room and Lightman passes on his card for next time.

Foster wakes a sleeping Lightman back at the office and they get cozy on the couch. Loker bursts in on them and goes on about painting at the museum, but Lightman ignores him and finishes talking about the hospital janitor. Lightman jumps on Torres about not noticing the painters and bring ups his earlier question, which Loker knew the answer to... (The viceroy has natural camouflage to look like the monarch which are poisonous in order to passed over by predators). Lightman sends Torres in to interview the painters as he responds to a 911 text from Naomi. Torress switches to Spanish in the interview and learns the painter was threatened. Lightman shows up in a parking garage to Naomi's ex raging against her car. He scares him off with no physical contact (surprisingly).

Lightman questions Naomi about the government plates on her ex's car as Torres faces off with painter #2. She learns the curator is paying off someone in a towncar in regular intervals. Torres heads to the back rooms and learns that her interview was a decoy for a camera in the lobby that Loker was watching. They bring in the curator to review the video with Foster and Torres. They peg painter #2 as the inside man and Torres extracts her revenge on being doubted before as she hits him with a question about him paying loads of cash for towncars.

Meanwhile, Lightman is playing the flirting game with the hot blond... and winning as she offers him 'a bite.' After some heavy petting via dialogue, Lightman leaves her hanging and calls her bluff. Back in the fort, the 'lie girls' are confronting the curator about his drug problem. Lightman gets the tables turned on him a bit as Naomi starts questioning him about relationships, and specifically whether he was attracted to her. This of course leads to a make-out session that is interrupted by her 'ex', who Lightman gets the drop on him sneaking in the back way. Cal pegs him as an ICE agent and Naomi joins then in the garage. ICE guy calls Naomi the 'worlds biggest liar' and then leaves. Lightman confesses: "I have a habit of jumping into things."

Foster spots Torres beating herself up over the things she's missing and asks if Lightman's giving her a hard time. On cue, Lightman enters to interrupt and sends Torres to question Naomi in the bathroom.

Lightman: "Good news! My new bird is trying to play me..."
Foster: "Good news? You're working on it? For both of us?"

Torres baits her a bit, claiming Lightman's distracted, and leaves her to pretending to put on makeup. After coming out of the bathroom, Lightman actually reassures Torres over her screw up (why do they have him checking out every single ass that walks by nowadays?). Loker brings the 'inside guy' to Lightman in the hallway and he refers to Naomi as 'mistress'.
Painter: "When life gives you lemons.."
Lightman: "Chuck 'em at people."

Lightman confronts the painter about being involved after seeing how passionate he is about his paintings. Cal also questions him about his connection to Naomi, and the painter claims Naomi got to Lightman. Foster verifies what the robbers were trying to steal with the painters and they blackmail him in setting up a sting. (Yes! back to a diner... Sorry, I always get exiting when Tim Roth's in a diner...) Sitting in a booth with Torres, she realizes Lightman got played by Naomi and calls the cops on them while Lightman heads off to string her along a bit longer.

Setting a romantic scene, Lightman strings Naomi into thinking she's won (we see a flash of Sara Palin???). Lightman talks her into going to the Gala at the museum where the theft was to take place. Torres shows up all fancy (she dresses up quite nicely). Lightman tells her to watch out for a janitor from the hospital earlier and starts tailing his 'mistress' more closely. Loker claims all white people look the same as Lightman 'breaks up' with Naomi to let her wander by herself and goes to dance with Foster (to no music). A congressman passes out and Lightman recognizes it as the one Naomi passed a drink to. An alarm goes off and the emerald that is supposed to be stolen is gone. The entire 'Lie crew' is fooled temporarily and stands there (seemingly) dumbfounded. Lightman runs to Naomi, looks at her, then runs out to the street to see the janitor from the hospital getting away in a cab. He fake chases it and smiles after the smiling 'janitor' thinks he gets away.

Returning to the scene of the crime, Naomi is outside waiting for him. She tells him of the tragic history of the emerald that was just stolen. She explains 'Jack', her partner, got tired of freeing jewels and wanted money. Lightman confesses he didn't see her as a decoy... so apparently Lightman liked getting fooled. She offered him dinner and he walks away.

The next day, Foster's pissed and the FBI wants to question Lightman. After Lightman tells Foster that she looked good the previous night, he reveals that he switched the emerald for a fake. She gets mad she was kept in the dark, to which Lightman responds "It's cat and mouse, not cats and mouse."

Lie to Me - "Dirty Loyal" ... 3 good examples

by Jonathan Bredemeyer

(S03E03)

We get right to the point with this episode opening with Loker on the phone with a new potential job. Lightman strolls by and stops long enough to make fun of him and get the evil eye from Foster for it. He notices Foster's a bit off and shows Lightman a video of the new cop friend's partner kicking the crap out of someone. Apparently, Internal Affairs is hesitating giving the Lightman Group the case because of Cal's relationship to his partner. Foster's pissed about this....

Lightman heads to the shooting range (of all places) to confront this dirty cop about the beating. He ticks off the cop and then heads over to talk to his brand-new best friend, dirty female cop. She pegs him as working for IA and they have a 'close encounter' (including discussion about 'squeezing in the sack'). Lightman grabs a gun and proves he can cluster 3 shots in the crotch of a target. She gives a little and claims she can take care of herself, but a rebuke by Lightman and he grabs a flask out of her back pocket shows her otherwise.

She (let's call her Val this time around) and Lightman are off to talk to the suspect who got beaten (Prince John). "A Prince where I come from is a burden on a tax payer." After some smart-ass answers in front of his friends, they haul PJ into Lightman's clear room. Once there, Lightman determines the cop is out to kill PJ, but Val protests. Lightman sticks to his guns...
PJ: "You see me running?"
Lightman: "My advice to you: Dust off your sneakers, princess."

In the meantime, Foster, Torres, and Loker are in looking at pictures from the beating. Torres pegs Val as not having a poker face. Lightman walks in and he and Foster get a bit testy at each other. After kicking out the other four, Foster seems pretty pissed and presents him with IA pictures of Val and Lightman on a date. They get a call and head off to see PJ's dead body.

Val is at the scene and IA shows up to talk to Foster as soon as they arrive. Her partner is standing by looking scared as hell as Lightman grills Val on the situation. IA comes over and tries to arrest her for the murder, based on an eyewitness.

Lightman shows up at the jail and begins to mess with an unhappy Val dressed in an orange jumpsuit. Her partner shows up to speak with her alone. Cal goes and talks to the arresting IA blonde woman about the situation. She threatens him, he threatens her, and finally make a deal to let him interview Val's dirty partner if he turns over Val, too.

Lightman returns to the fort to find Loker listening to a 911 tape. "I thought I took your desk away." Loker ignores him and proceed to explain how the caller is lying. Lightman's skeptical of Loker's initiative. Foster joins the party and Lightman pretends she scared him. Foster disproves one of Loker's findings in the tape, and then she and Lightman head off to follow up with one of her leads. They arrive at one of PJ's gang friend's houses, and Lightman heads in to mess with him while searching his room. He finds a gun, disables it, and watches the kid leave. Foster finishes interviewing the woman and she confirms she definitely saw Val kill PJ.

Lightman and Foster go to another murder scene and see the kid who Lightman just chased out. Talking to Val's dirty partner, Lightman gets the background on them. Cal then skips off to pressure and pick a fight with Ronnie as his friends watch and re-question him again. After he says it wasn't the 'lady cop,' he lets him punch him in the stomach to look good, and takes off. Lightman asks Foster to have IA get him an interview with one of the other kids, as he pegs him as involved. This seems true as the gang member makes eye contact with the dirty cop before the facial examples of hiding something flash on the screen.

Lightman gets Val outta jail and pours them some wine for them. They talk dirtily about how dirty cops work... Torres and Loker are now providing their analysis to Foster on how Val has been gradually getting more disgusted with her partner. Torres & Loker think that Lightman has missed this even though he has watched all her interviews... Back to the dirty convo, Val gives Lightman examples of how she started her corruption. Of course, Lightman cuts straight to the point and asks her to skip to the two murders when they hear someone coming. The two immediately set up an intimate scene (without lube) and Val calls in a break-in. She loses her outer shirt and they grabs guns from her personal stash in the bedroom. What appear to be 2 gang members come in and start shooting up the bed with machine guns. Cal yells a distraction and Val shoots 2. They let the third leave, and Lightman suggests she ditch her illegal gun stash...

Lightman confronts Val about Foster's IA connection and claims he doesn't like betraying her by sticking up for Val. He claims he's doing it because he thinks Foster is sometimes wrong about Lightman in the same way.

Lightman moves on to confronting her corrupt partner in a waiting area. He accuses him of ignoring Suarez (leader of the problem gang) because he's his son. Lightman says, "Choose: your partner or your son." Val and Lightman leave him after that to talk to the IA woman. Apparently, Far (the corrupt partner) goes in and tells all because she then shows up at Foster's office wanting to yell at Lightman. The IA woman claims she's either going after Lightman or Val and one will go down. Clearly intimidated, Foster gives her the proof she needs. Lightman shows up to find Foster turning on him; Foster sees him.

Lightman goes to coach Val for her date in the cube, teaching her how to hide contempt. Foster and Torres prep the IA woman for the interview and explain how to question Val. It flashes back to Lightman still prepping Val for the lies she's about to tell. It's kinda neat watching Foster and Lightman prep to 'face off' (lets see that more...).

Torres questions Val in the cube. It's pretty obvious that she's beating them: Lightman makes Loker announce it. Lightman tries to makes Foster commit to claiming Val is clean, and Foster runs out.She , Lightman, and the IA blonde face off in the hallway and Foster lies for Lightman and says she's clean except for calling her partner a good father. Val's partner and his son get booked. Lightman starts laying into Val, and Foster actually defends her. They start talking and Lightman leaves unnoticed in hopes they'll talk more, but Foster denies Val's coffee invite. I'll guess these two will be squaring off for Lightman's attention in the future...

The 3 examples? Loker & Lightman, Lightman & Foster, and Corrupt Cop & son... you could make the case for Lightman & Val, but you'd be wrong...

Lie to Me - "The Royal We"

by Jonathan Bredemeyer

(S03E02)

Great opening with Lightman knocking down the smoke detector after he burns toast from frustration from trying to write his book. Emily wants to help and tries writing the first line... which Lightman immediately changes to "Let there be Lightman."

Deaf intern girl makes her first appearance at the office as Lightman takes out his frustration on her by snapping at her bit, clearing Loker's desk, and sticking her at Loker's computer. Foster tries to make intros as he drives her guest away with smart-assness. In a rare appearance by the office admin, Lightman blackmails her into hacking into Foster's computer. Loker gets slightly annoyed as Cal put the deaf intern doing the red dot test at his desk...

Lightman heads off to the rehearsal of a beauty pageant to meet the pageant coordinator to vet the contestants. He notices the girl with an attitude towards her mom (pouring soda on herself on purpose), as he's told to leave by a mad dad. Foster and the coordinator show up as Cal pegs the seemly snotty girl as the favorite and predicting the cause of some future trouble. He continues to plead that the girl is screwing up deliberately and will cause trouble. Loker admits to job hunting to Torres as he searches for jobs on Lightman's laptop. (poetic vs pathetic justice... someone thinks they're clever.) The Lightman Group is doing 'preinterviewers' for the pageant. Lightman grills the Mom of 'attitude girl' and ticks her off pretty good. He then asks the girl if she's thought of suicide to which she says no but he spots as a lie. Next, he says it was abuse and they find a wicked bruise on her shoulder. The girl blames the pissed off dad from earlier which Lightman doesn't buy: "You just rang a bell you can't un-ring."

Lightman calls the 'dodgy' cop who's been drinking to scare the accused dad (Mr. Fletcher). Lightman makes fun of 'cop speak' as they briefly interview and then release the man. After a short exchange with the pageant coordinate, Lightman checks out Foster on the way out. He and Foster go to interview the mom and attitude girl and find no separation in their references to each other (the 'royal we,' perhaps?). They split the two to interview them separately: Lightman take the girl and entices her interest by stealing from the vending machine. (They're starting to add flashbacks to what Lightman sees in people...)

Back at the office, Admin makes an appearance again and Lightman asks if Loker has been at his desk. He smells him on his Mac and notices a missing pen. Attitude girl and her mom show up and this time they switch: Foster interviews the girl and Lightman and the mom watch from behind the glass. The girl tells a fake story of the Dad getting her alone and touching her. Lightman tells the mom shes enjoying her, lying in front of her. The pagent coordinator shows up all upset because two more girls have made the same accusations against Mr. Fletcher.

Cal and his dodgy cop show up to take Fletcher's daughter to social services. Someone has spray painted 'pervert' on the side of his motorhome. Fletcher now asks for 'Laura,' and Lightman starts the work of helping him prove his innocence. Fletcher mentions that Megan (attitude girl) did come by and attacked him with scissors. Lightman says Megan's getting what she wants. As Lightman and Fletcher rejoin the pageant people, Fletch takes a punch from a pissed-off dad of one of the girls accusing him.

Returning to the office, Loker apparently put deaf girl and boy on the red dot test for 10 hours to get back at Lightman (which he admits he's never finished). Torres has been going over footage of past pageants and discovers Megan's fake fall on the runway.

Lightman: "You know what causes that? Constant criticism and lack of affection."

Torres: "You mean how you treat Loker?"

Pause.

Lightman: "Who?"

At a meeting with the pagaent coordinator, Megan, and her mom, Lightman adds Fletcher and tries to convince the coordinator to disqualify Megan because 'pain is her drug of choice.' After refusing, Lightman exits with "enjoy the freakshow." Foster interviews the other accusers with the Dodgy Cop and discovers they are repeating the same story. D.C. gets a call about Megan going for a walk and not returning.

An angry mob has surrounded Fletcher's trailer. Loker shows up at the pageant site to confront Lightman about giving away his desk. Loker suggests one of the crowd knows where Megan is, as DC shows up. Fletcher's daughter is in intensive care and DC takes him to the hospital. After a 2nd badgering from Lightman, Loker returns his stolen pen.

Lightman goes to the hospital and waits in a hospital bed (where the injured girl is supposed to be) for Megan, who shows up and immediately gets close to him. After some taunting, he restrains her to find a piece of metal in her hand. She proceeds to show him the self-inflicted cuts on her leg. She threatens to claim Lightman attacked her if he tells, right before he throws back a curtain and reveals D.C and her mom.

Back at the fort (LG office), it's discovered the girls were reading Megan's mom's diary and repeating the attack story from there. Megan had been acting out her Mom's memories (She went to see Back to the Future...) from the diary in between pageants.

Now at the pageant stage, Lightman finds Megan dressed in her angel costume (ironically) up in the catwalk ready to jump. Lightman goes up and tries to talk her down by explaining that his mom killed herself. He explains he knows about the diary, and Megan finally breaks down and confesses to hating her mom's constant correction of her (hm... a dig at child pageant shows?). Lightman must convince her as Megan ends up competing in the pageant and getting second place, which pleases Megan and ticks off her mom (making Megan feel great).

Lightman gets the chance to comfort Megan's mom after the pageant and reveals he has her diary. Megan comes out and says she found it and wants to quit pageantry. The mom (still using the royal 'we'/'us' tense) protests and Lightman leaves. Returning to the office, Lightman plays soccer with the ball Fletcher sent him (being a soccer mom) in Foster's office. Torres tries to convince Loker that Lightman cleaned off Loker's desk because he wants him on the street, not behind a desk. Loker claims he applied for a job at the pentagon and will leave if he gets it. Torres is pissed.

Lightman returns home to Emily claiming she's warming dinner. Lightman actually opens up to her a bit (despite persistent urging from Foster earlier). Emily says she's writing a forward to his book as he starts dinner. He later sits down in the dark to begin Chapter 1 of his book for the third time. He starts with:

"Let me be clear. I understand very little, least of all the people closest to me."

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).

"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..."

Lie to Me - Darkness & Light ...of The Lightman Group

by Jonathan Bredemeyer

Lie to Me (S02E21)

We open with Lightman and Foster soliciting a videographer to make a porn video. They make a good show of it as Foster asks for a threesome with a girl in a previous video of the videographer. After confessing he doesn't have the girl's number, they bribe him further and he caves.

Ironically, this is the day Emily gets to shadow Cal. Today's case appears to be tracking down a coach's missing daughter (pro bono) who turned up in several porn videos. Emily knows the coach's other daughter (conveniently) and Lightman questions Emily about her (this is probably hinting at something later). Lightman delivers the porn videos to Loker and Torres and creates a porn-watching contest for a promotion. Cal moves on to interviewing porn stars, the first of whom is the missing girl's (Molly) ex-roommate. The roommate guesses Molly was the 'damaged' type of porn star and leaves after (surprise surprise) Cal offends her. The coach/father reassures Foster and Lightman that he never molested her.

Meanwhile, Emily was in the middle of reassuring the missing girl's sister when the coach busts in and to tries to get out of there. The daughter defends the dad and they storm out. Reynolds comes back with a lead on a hospital bill. Foster, Lightman, and Reynolds crash a brothel at the address and find the missing girl upstairs. Lightman brings the girl his house where she adamantly refuses to go home. Cal, Emily, and Foster finally wear her down into telling them that her dad killed her mom.

Molly goes on to tell how she witnessed her dad ignoring her mom's fall down the stairs and repressed the memory until a year ago. Reynolds and Lightman head to the coach's house to threaten him with losing his other daughter and murder charges in hopes he'll talk. Emily, Foster, and Molly have some girl-bonding time. Emily and Foster try to convince her to like her real sister, Amy. Emily gets cold feet about getting to know a troubled girl like Molly. Foster encourages her to keep going (probably getting chastised by Lightman later for it).

Torres and Loker try several mind games on each other, including trying to get one another not to play Lightman's game. After another rather intense girl-bonding session with the girl trio, Loker and Torres end up drinking in a bar. They play 2 truths and a lie, which ends up in a make-out session. Meanwhile, back at the office, we're introduced to a new interrogation 'cube' as Lightman interviews the coach. He starts with telling him Molly has HIV, which freaks him out. Cal proposes that he put both he and Molly in the same room. This works as the coach finally tells his story and reveals it was Molly's fault that his wife died, as she was emulating a monkey in a cartoon by leaving toys around for people to slip on. The coach apparently kept this from everyone by picking up all the toys before the police got there to protect Molly.

Foster and Lightman suggest that the family keep this secret from Molly as it would traumatize her too much. Emily drops a hint that she's not cool with the situation, after Lightman reveals he was 18 when his mom killed herself with pills. Amy claims she has an idea for a lie that would work. Loker and Torres have slept together and have the awkward 'first work conversation' the next morning. Ironically, the office secretary reads their awkwardness and confirms the rumor of a new VP position. Torres confirms her desire for the promotion and turns downs Loker's offer to keep things the same.

Reynolds and Foster begin the hunt for the 'HIV spreader' in the local porn business. They track down the offender who proudly hands over a laminated card 'proving' he's clean... Lightman heads off to the 'clinic' to get tested. They arrest the doctor and give the coach a chance to confront the guy who infected his daughter. The 'story' they feed Molly is that her sister Amy is the one who left the toys out. Molly buys the collaborated lie that her dad was protecting both daughters by hiding the act.

Loker gets the promotion and Torres turns down his offer to 'celebrate.' Emily and Cal end the episode by bonding a bit and Emily deleting her essay.

So glad Fox has decided to have 'summer finale's as well... Lie to Me's is in two weeks.

Funniest Line: "Who said the FBI was just a bunch of puppets?" "That would be you, dad."

Lie to Me - Exposed (I like the 'Sneakers' version better)

by Jonathan Bredemeyer

This episode begins with Lightman stalking Foster and her new love interest (Burns). Lightman reads her like a comic book and pegs that she's hiding a secret for him. Lightman begins tailing the guy and he and Reynolds watch him get kidnapped.

The Lightman Group's spectacular interrogation room gets a name: The Cube. Burns' DEA boss comes in to provide no useful information except to provide a link to a mysterious girl that was warning Burns before he was kidnapped. Lightman slips a code to Foster telling her the combination to his safe. Inside, she finds a file he's been keeping on Burns and repeats a phrase he said earlier: "No more secrets." (The beginning of a trail of innuendos to the movie Sneakers?)

Lightman visits the mysterious girl (Michelle) and learns she's an ex-partner of Burns and gives Lightman the recent history of the guys she thinks kidnapped Burns. Michelle leads Lightman to a snitch, who, after dramatically saving his life, calls 'Little Moon' the kidnapper. Turns out he was after Burns to find his dad's killer. Lightman convinces Little Moon to hire him to interrogate Burns. Foster crashes the interview and tags along with the now-also-kidnapped Lightman to find Burns bloody and beaten. After a bit of hostile negotiation with a few quick-witted arguments, Lightman gets Burns tended to by Foster and the Moon man to let him properly question him.

After throwing together a psychological game plan, Lightman and Co. begin Act 1 of their strategy. Torres, Reynolds, and Loker hold down the fort and continue to interview Burns' ex-partner while Cal's daughter worries and reads their lies to her about where Lightman is. There's a nice parallel interrogation sequence with the two partners: Burns by Lightman and the vengeful son and Michelle by Torres and Reynolds. Michelle confessed a relationship and Lightman gets Burns to reveal she was pregnant with Big Moon's baby.

As Cal 'removes' Foster from the danger of Moon and his gang, Emily discovers Lightman's safe that Foster left open in his office. She pulls out what looks to be an old journal. Meanwhile, Lightman fakes Burns into thinking he was going to attempt an operation and he agrees to talk. The safe yields Cal's mom's journal and a paternity test for Emily.

Michelle remembers a spot where baby Moon was beaten and leads the cops to capture Foster's gang escort. It's assumed he leads the FBI back to where they're holding Lightman and Burns. They arrive just as Lightman turns Moon against a childhood friend while Burns plays along. The FBI rolls in right after Moon shoots him.

Burns and Cal have a nice chat about the truth in the hospital when Foster comes in. Burns knows he'll be moved around for protection due to his undercover work. Ironically, it seems the only time Foster ever read Burns correctly was the very last time they ever saw each other. She could see he didn't want her to find him.

Cut back to the 'hotel art' breakfast eatery, Emily and Lightman have the airing of grievances over what she found in his safe. He claims the paternity test was just to verify her mom was telling the truth. Emily makes an all-too-poignant point claiming "you never trust anyone, that's why you'll always be alone." Lightman foreshadowing-ly spies Foster sitting outside, disagrees with Emily, and walks out to sit with her. Let's hope they don't pull a House M.D. and slam the two into a relationship in the season finale. Too bad more clues from Sneakers weren't slid in...

Ironic line of the episode: "Never" from Lightman's mouth always equals a lie.

A line for possible use in everyday conversation with your best enemy: "How can you tell when I stop lying?" "You shut your mouth."

Lie to Me - Pied Piper ...kinda

by Jonathan Bredemeyer

This week's Lie to Me starts with a truth. Lightman sees truth in a man being put to death for murdering a child. Lightman's ex-wife resurfaces as Lightman wants to investigate the dead man's final truth. Reynolds walks in with a new recording mimicking the recording used in the murder 17 years before. Also, Lightman helped convict the man originally, so Foster questions his motives in pursuing this. After Lightman tears up the parents' house to make sure the parents aren't perpetuating the story for personal gain, the dead man's brother shows up threatening to sue Lightman for getting his brother killed. In the meantime, the underlings (Torres and Loker) wonder if Lightman's a psychopath for not feeling remorse over the situation.

Presumably, they go behind the father's back and get the mother of the dead child to take a call at the Lightman Group's office. The call that actually comes is from her still-living son's roommate that says he's been missing. Sporting a soccer scarf, Lightman and Reynolds visit the photographer who was the last one to see Oliver alive. After discovering he gets boys into his studio to take their naked pictures, they learn he doesn't know where Oliver went. Meanwhile, Loker wants to look for a new job and is trying to convince Torres to do the same. Foster learns of this and gets ticked claiming they should defend Lightman to the death (of their jobs of course). After a female bonding moment, Foster and the Ex send over the daughter to try to soften Lightman up enough to ask for help. It works as Lightman beings collaborating, but Reynolds insists he's off the team. Lightman goes to get himself committed in order to speak to the deadman's girlfriend who recently became a guest in a psychiatric ward right after the killer calls Oliver's mom using the same scary, kiddish voice and asking her how to play 'bloody murder.'

Let me just say, Lightman makes an absolutely perfect psycho. He appears all too comfortable as he plays up crazy while gradually cornering and explaining to her that he knows she is in there for protection. Getting her to admit that she received a death threat the day her buddy was put to death, Lightman tries to leave the ward but is refused. He calls his ex-wife to come 'bail him off' while Oliver's mom receives another threatening call and Reynolds finds the boy's abandoned car.

It's a flashback to House, M.D. as for some reason, Lightman's team is now using a whiteboard in a meeting with the FBI. Lightman delivers his ward report to Reynolds from the dead man's ex-girl. After running his eyes all over Foster, Lightman placates his daughter with answers to her seemingly unrelated questions about her conception. Torres begins a plan to befriend the brother of the dead man to stop him from suing Lightman. She and Loker take him pastries and the plan appears to work. Lightman immediately receives a call from the eerie kiddish voice asking more riddle questions and if he knows where his daughter is. And... cue the House, M.D. commercial during the break... (good job Fox at working in the 'hints'). Lightman's daughter is discovered to be fine as his Ex is now fully (and neurotically) on board with helping find the killer. They begin to go through old evidence and determine the dead man's brother is actually the killer while he just lured them in. Lightman finds a fake wall while all the FBI agents disappear and the real killer attacks Lightman. He stabs him and everyone seems to go home happy...

In the end, Emily still wants a car. The previews for next week were the most exciting part of this week's episode...