The Premise: After a soldier suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder nearly shoots his own son in what he claims was a home invasion, The Lightman Group investigates.
The Personal: Cal confronts memories of his estranged father. A neurological test interprets his brain’s response to a photo of the paterfamilias, as well as pictures of his daughter, ex-wife, and partner. Cal/Ria shippers are pissed.
The Resolution: With the aid of Foster’s virtual reality program and some interesting role play, the soldier recovers repressed memories of witnessing a war crime. His captain is taken into custody, and he begins his recovery. Anyone playing the Lightman/Foster drinking game takes off work the next day.
What We Learned from this Episode:
• Peen is to Torres as Kryptonite is to Supergirl. When Ria misses signs of the captain’s deception because she’s busy making eyesex babies, it becomes apparent that the natural’s sexuality is her weakness—in more ways than one. Though Monica Raymund is inarguably an extremely attractive woman, the recent push to make her Lie to Me’s resident hot chick limits her character’s potential by reducing it to a stereotype.
• Cal has daddy issues. According to the latest version of his backstory, Cal has never been close to his father but remains grateful to him for supporting his education. Sure, that doesn’t quite gibe with what we’ve been told in the past, but it does open the door for Emily—and us—to meet her grandfather.
• Cal has very deep and complex feelings for Foster. While Emily evokes feelings of love and Zoe triggers his fight-or-flight response, the intensely complicated emotions he associates with Gillian cause his brain to glow like a Lite Brite.
• Foster’s into role play. Just don’t ask her to take off her shoes.
Loved the epiisode, thought.... guy playing the PTSD soilder of the week ( I-can't-spell-the-actors-name-George) was excellent. I've missed him since dollhouse got axed.
ReplyDelete1. Tim Roth is lovely, someone needs to tell him not to mumble. (I have to call several people and tell them what he said after the show). EN-UN-CI-ATE Guildenstern!
2. You are dead on about what they are doing to Torres, it's a mistake, they need to stop. They won't though.
3. Whose his daddy? Are they messing with the backstory/canon again???
I often have to watch episodes several times just to understand all of TR's dialogue. (That's my excuse, and I'm sticking to it.)
ReplyDeleteIf they're not changing canon, they're certainly tweaking it in hard-to-follow ways.
My theory concerning Cal's father: He looks like Sean Connery and has an illegitimate son named Greg.
Love your recaps,thank you.
ReplyDeletethere are ria\cal shippers?!
ReplyDeletei dont even remember what she did in that episode...
Thank you for reading, and especially for commenting. Glad you liked it!
ReplyDeleteYes, there really are Ria/Cal shippers. Would I lie to you?
ReplyDeleteRia didn't have a whole lot to do in that episode, other than flirt with the Army captain.
I freaking love your reviews!!!!! You sound like one of #ltmteamwesome. ^^
ReplyDeleteLoving the show - not having any problems understanding TR - he EN-UN-CI-ATE's just fine!
ReplyDeleteI gotta say that when Cal's brain lit up all over for Gillian I about had a heart attack! If that's not canon material, I dunno what is!!
ReplyDeleteThanks! I've heard rumors of #ltmteamawesome, but I've never had the pleasure.
ReplyDeleteI love TR's work, but between the accent choice and his rapidfire speech, Lightman is sometimes difficult on American ears, imho. But what a small price to pay for brilliance!
ReplyDeleteKristen, it's more than canon, it's scientific fact.
ReplyDeleteThanks for reading!