Lie to Me “Beat the Devil” Recap & Review

Photo from Fox

Lie To Me (Fox) returned for a new season with the same cast and interesting cases – one involving a UFO, the other, a serial killer. It made for a very enjoyable episode, with Tim Roth doing an excellent job as the human lie detector, Dr. Cal Lightman.

Lightman lectures for a college class at the request of one of his own teachers, Helen Dezekis (Rowena King), who Cal also had a relationship with when he was her student. During the lecture, one of the current students - Martin Walker (Jason Dohring) poses a question to Lightman, disagreeing with his methods. Lightman essentially challenges him to a dual of sorts – saying he can spot when Walker is lying. When Lightman loses his bet, he realizes that Walker is a psychopath. Lightman makes his concerns known to the school, saying that he bets they have at least one missing student case – they do - and Lightman works to pin it on Walker. Lightman’s trusty sidekick, Dr. Gillian Foster (Kelli Williams) doesn’t spot the warning signs with Walker, thinking Lightman is just rattled because he once had a relationship with Dezekis and knows that Walker is currently having a relationship with her as well.

Meanwhile, back at the offices of the Lightman Group, Eli Locker (Brendan Hines) and Ria Torres (Monica Raymond) are working to clear the reputation of a science teacher, Sam Hendricks (Howard Hesseman) who insists he saw a UFO. This case isn’t quite as compelling – frankly I find Torres annoying - but they both work the case and manage to clear the teacher, obtaining an acceptable answer from the military on what Hendricks saw (and that one of his student had captured video) in order to save Hendricks' job. But the acceptable answer is really a lie – it was crafted well enough to be believable for the teacher’s school, and allowed the military to keep their secret about whatever the UFO really was (if they even knew what it was).

Lightman continues to play cat-and-mouse with Walker posting photos of him around the campus and even trying to get personal information about him from his mother. Walker seems unflappable even when Lightman has him under the glare of the lights in the interview room at the Lightman Group. They also find that Walker had a sister who drowned at a young age, and Lightman thinks that it was at Walker’s hands. When Dezekis tells Walker their relationship is over – an action planned by Lightman – Walker doesn’t take it well and it seems they believe that Walker will go after Dezekis. They have Walker wired and under surveillance, but it’s Lightman who gets captured by Walker, who tortures Lightman by waterboarding. Later, when Walker has Lightman digging his own grave, Lightman gets him to admit he killed his sister and that bodies of other girls are nearby, and the police pounce. Clearly Walker didn't realize that Lightman planned for Walker to go after him, and Lightman was under surveillance.

Afterwards, when Lightman asks Foster out for a bite to eat, she blows him off in order to do paperwork. These two have the strangest relationship, with Foster being the one who seems to blow flaming hot one week and icy cold the next. If there is any big flaw with “Lie to Me” it’s the relationship between these two. I don’t see any chemistry and I don’t have any interest in them getting together in any shape or form. Besides, it’s a plot device that gets overused and I’d rather they’d either put them in a relationship, or just call it quits with the two of them. I don’t want to go through an on-again, off-again thing with these two every week, when I’m not interested in them being together to begin with.

”Lie To Me” is just different enough than other crime-drama type shows that it makes for an interesting hour. Tim Roth grows on me every week – although sometimes I still can’t understand every word he is saying. Still, he is perfect for this role and he creates an interesting character that viewers want to know more about. I’m glad the show is back for the summer.


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