Would you want Cal Lightman as a friend?

It can’t be easy knowing a guy like Cal Lightman. Having a human lie detector could really cramp a guy’s style, let alone a teenage daughter, an ex-wife, colleagues, or more importantly murderers, thieves, or all-around bad dudes. Lightman doesn’t have many friends, as we found out last week. I imagine that, like his ex-wife, there is a very long list of people who have realized that he wasn’t worth the trouble.

Along with the former Mrs. Lightman, there’s also Tel, his pal from across the pond. Things didn’t end so well between them, Tel having betrayed him, and Cal cleaning his clock. Last season it was his college roommate, Jeff Buchanan (played by Friday Night Light’s resident Kanye-bag, D.W. Moffett), and another relationship ruined by trust, in this case Cal’s lack of it in his friend.

We know that he holds Foster in the same regard. Truthfully, I’m pretty sure that he loves her, but I think show runner Shawn Ryan will be smart enough to slow-play that hand. There’s obviously his daughter (the best teenage character on TV today, in my humble opinion) and ex-wife who he’d probably do anything for. But, what about his colleagues? He said tonight to Agent Reynolds that family doesn’t stand on ceremony, with the implication that Reynolds is inside that inner circle.

That’s a twist I don’t buy. While the timeline of last season and this aren’t very well defined, there’s no way that Reynolds has been around long enough to enjoy that kind of trust. I doubt that Loker and Torres are at that same level. In fact, they’re still students to him, and while he looks after them, I’m not seeing Lightman putting his reputation on the line for them the same way he did with Reynolds.

Lightman’s obsession with the truth does provide a fairly reasonable expectation as to how he would react. If he thinks you’re innocent, he’d stand beside you all the way down.  Unfortunately, I think there are very few that he would protect, instead of personally lighting the match to burn them at the stake if he thought otherwise.

Clacked by Ivey West
on Nov 10, 2009 @ 10:00 EST5EDT