Lie to Me (2009–2011): Season 2, Episode 14 - React to Contact - full transcript

A decorated war hero who is suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder claims that someone is trying to kill him, and Dr. Lightman is brought in to investigate.

Wake up, sweetheart.
Jakey?{\ Jakey?}

Dad, you're hurting me.

Get under the bed.

There's somebody out there{\, jakey},
so get under the bed.

Daddy.

Dad!
It's just the rain!

Do not move! Copy?

Jake!

- I told you not to move!
- You okay?

- You all right?.
- I'm okay, mom.{\ I'm okay.}

Damn it, Jeff!



You need help!

I told him not to...

{\pos(192,220)}{\Well, }I think somebody should say it.

{\pos(192,220)}It sounds a lot like PTSD.

Sergeant Turley got back
from Iraq 6 months ago.

He was one
of my most effective NCOS.

I read your bio, Dr. Lightman,
and I'm begging you,

do whatever it takes.

All right.

Are you going to help my dad?

Who are you?

Jake.

- Becky.
- How do you do?

Are you a soldier?



My dad was.

My dad's getting a silver star.

Your dad must be really brave.

We're just going to sit over there.
Come on.

Restraints?

Turley nearly took out his own kid

with a weapon
he's no longer authorized to have.

We're lucky he's not
in a cell downtown.

I'll be right back.

All right, Jeff.

I'm Cal Lightman.

Only joking.

So...

What you so scared of, then?

Say again?

You heard.

You have any idea what it's like
to get back from Iraq,

and somebody's still trying
to kill you?

I can only imagine.

A bit basket case, if I were you.
No offense.

Colonel said he'd call you in,

says you can see if I'm lying.

What are you doing?

I'm getting you out of here.

{\fad(1000,200)}{\pos(192,250)}La Lie to team pr?sente:

{\fad(200,200)}{\pos(192,250)}Episode 214: React to Contact

{\pub}{\pos(192,230)}Sergeant turley saved the lives
of 14 soldiers in Iraq.

{\pos(192,245)}Including a wounded man
he carried to safety.

{\pos(192,245)}Army medical files make
no mention of PTSD.

{\pos(192,245)}{\No, }They haven't run all the tests {\on him }yet.
The hospital has been overwhelmed.

{\pos(192,245)}It's a 6-month wait, minimum.

{\Do you really think }Somebody's trying to kill him?

The point is, he believes it.

File, please.

{\pos(192,245)}Thank you very much.

{\pos(192,245)}Lightman talked to the VA.

They're going to let him use the magnet.
Colonel Powler cut through the red tape.

- The magnet?
- Their FMRI machine.

All right.

{\pos(192,245)}Says here...

{\pos(192,245)}that you killed your house

{\pos(192,245)}with an armor-piercing round.

{\pos(192,230)}Who exactly is after you?

I don't know.

I wish I did.
Trust me.

{\pos(192,230)}Let's talk about your boy...

- I couldn't live without him.
- {\Well, }You almost blew his bloody head off.

Up yours{\, man}.

Calm down.

Look at me. Come on, I dare you.
Look at me.

What do you see?

A smartass limey bastard.

No, though,{\ I mean,} apart from that.

Friend or foe?
Be honest.

Sorry. Sorry.

{\All right.}We'll take a break, then, calm down.

{\Listen, }I'm fine, okay?

Take a breath.
Take a deep breath.

- I'm good.
- I believe you.

When did you last have
a decent night's sleep{\, Jeff}?

One or two months ago.

Army gives me pills,
but they don't do squat.

{\What, }The little white one?

Listen,{\ I know...} I know what you're thinking.

No, you don't.

I don't have PTSD.

{\pos(192,230)}Excuse me, where did you do
your post doctorate work?

Think about cheese.

- What?
- Think about cheese.

{\pos(192,230)}We're go{\*ing to}nna take {\a few }pictures of your brain.
You might as well be smiling.

{\pos(192,230)}{\So, }A bunch of pictures will appear
on the screen{\ above him},

{\pos(192,230)}and the machine will record
what happens in his brain

when he looks at them.

Let's get started.

{\pos(192,230)}Flash them at 1/10 of a second.

Jeff, when you see the angry face,

your amygdala, here, lights up.

We would expect that.

It's primal warrior neurons firing,
the fight or flight reflexes.

Which is good,
if you're a soldier in combat.

But if you're home with
your wife and kid, not so good.

When we flashed

the neutral face...

This area should light up.

- But there's no change.
- Right.

So at the neuron level,
where our emotions begin,

you see this face

as angry.

So you're reading neutral faces
as hostile. Everyone is your enemy.

That's PTSD.

So you've seen a lot of combat,
and you're having trouble moving on.

I've moved on.

It's okay, babe. We're getting you
the help that you need.

{\And }That's avoidance.

You won't let people
get close to you,

even your wife,
who we know you love.

Having PTSD

doesn't mean someone out there
doesn't want me dead.

Absolutely.

And no one said they did.

So?

You're getting awarded
the silver star{\, right}?

What for?

{\See, }I would have thought
you'd be proud to tell me that.

I don't want to talk about it.

You seem more ashamed
than you are proud.

I told you...

{\Yeah, }I know. You don't want to talk about it,
which is why...

we're going to go back.

Back where?

Back to the root of the problem.

{\pub}Why are we doing this?
He isn't being deceptive.

But he is being lied to.

Yeah, by his own brain.

During moments of extreme trauma,

part of the brain can just
shut down.

And in Jeff's case, the only real
memories he has of the events is...

In the form of nightmares
or flashbacks.

So the idea is to...

retraumatize him
in a controlled way.

Right,
so that his memories reintegrate.

The truth is the only way
to help him recover.

So this is Foster's pet project?

Virtual reality.

Foster got a DOD grant
to build this prototype.

{\You know, }They say
truth is the first casualty of war.

Foster thinks virtual reality
can change that.

All right. The day that you
earned your silver star,

where were you?

In my Humvee

outside Zirmaya.

Put the old...

things down.

That's it.

Look at that.

Same crap hole I just left.

Look to your right.
What do you see?

- Ronnie's sitting next to me.
- Ronnie?

Sergeant Bacca.

He's what?
Your army buddy, is he?

We were in the sandbox together.
He always had my back.

All right. Now,
use the remote control.

Yeah, to move about.
It's like a video game, really.

We were number 2 in the convoy.

Yeah. We were heading into Zirmaya.

Anything important?

Uh, topcover.
2 helos above us.

Kiowa oh-58s.

And an a-10 Warthog in support.

I'll see your Kiowas,

And I will raise you one warthog.

We're going to turn
right down this alley.

It's a routine patrol, but the
road was blocked right down here.

This lead humvee's going
to get hit by an IED.

Survivors?

Sutton, Cortez, and Tanaka,
all dead, just like that.

Never even went to their funerals.

Some hero.

Survivor's guilt.

- {\Blood }Pressure and heart rate are elevated.
- Want some water?

No.
Let's just do this.

So we're going
to take some incoming.

{\Yeah. }Incoming right here.

- Where?
- RPG, 11 o'clock!

{\All right. }They set my engine block on fire,

And Jeffers is up on top,

{\And }We're taking{\ major,} major heat.

All right. We're going to lose
Jeffers in a second here.

{\Uh, }God. We're taking major fire.

Jeffers goes down. Jeffers is down.{\Jeffers is down.}

He's pounding on my window, {\He's }yelling.
He's going to haul my ass out of here.

Who is?

OK. We're taking major fire.
He's yelling at me.

He's telling me that we
got to take this compound

with this red door.
If I don't go through{\ it}, he'll{\'s going to} kill me.

Who's going to kill you?

Who's going to kill you?

Who's going to kill you?

What, you're a coward now, are you?
Are you scared?

You calling me a coward, captain?

Who you calling a captain, sergeant?

All right.
Foster? Torres?

Find this man's captain.

Private Johns got shot
with a 7.62 round.

First{\ thing }he's going to{\ be doing is screaming}scream
for his mama.

Now, you reach into his pack
to find the pressure bandage.

Instead, you find tobacco.

Pressure bandage.
Upper right-hand pouch as you wear it.

With a large wound, you can use
the plastic to contain any mess.

At ease, gentlemen.

Afternoon, ladies.
You work with Dr. Lightman?

-{\ Yes. I'm } Jillian Foster.
- Torres.

Colonel Powler said I
could be of help to you.

You served
with sergeant Jeff turley?

Sorry to hear he's having some trouble
readjusting. Glad he's working with you.

We used to study Dr.
Lightman's work at West point.

Really?
At West point?

Every officer reads
Dr. Lightman's book.

In Iraq, we used his facereading
techniques to help identify insurgents.

I can't tell you how many
soldiers he helped save.

What are you doing here?

Nothing. I, uh, I got you a cactus.

- Why?
- Why not?

What have you done?

I haven't done anything.
I just...

It... it reminded me of you.

So can you tell us what happened
at Zirmaya, after the convoy was hit?

Turley froze, terrified. We were
in a kill zone. His gunner was K.I.A.{\killed in action}

I had to get him out of that humvee.
Otherwise, he'd be dead, too.

Why would he say
you want to kill him?

Because at that instant, I did want
to kill him. And I wasn't the only one.

I had to yank him out of that humvee.
30 seconds later, it blew up.

Yet you recommended him
for the silver star.

Bravery is overcoming your fear.
Turley did that.

He stepped up, saved lives
without regard for his own.

Sir, battalion update briefing
is moved from 1800 to 1630.

I'm sorry. I have to go.
We're deploying in 3 days.

Let me get you the afteraction
report from Zirmaya.

Taw will be back with it
in 2 minutes.

Ladies.

{\Well, }If you want my read,
he's telling the truth.

{\That's }The kind of guy I'd follow into war.

That's because he was flirting
with you the entire time.

Well, it gave me a baseline.

This is a guy who's deploying
back to the war in 3 days.

His voice, the pride in it?

He's hiding something.

- Oh, neat car.
- {\My }Dad gave it to me.

Jake, Emily.
Emily, Jake.

- Is he your dad?
- Yeah.

He's helping my dad.
{\My dad}He's a soldier.

- Ahh.
- You can talk about that later.

- {\Go. }Go on.
- Bye, Jake.

Off you go. Go on.
Keep going.

Nice to meet you.

Keep going. Keep going.
That's it. Go on.

Based on the afteraction report,

Here is the official story.

Right. So, humvee gets
blown up here{\, right?}.

Now, they're taking fire
from here and here.

Jeff, Ronnie, and the captain,

They assault the red door.

{\Right. }Jeff goes {\through the red door}first.

Yes. And he clears the
snipers nests here and here,

And he shoots a combatant here, OK?

And a firefight happens here.

- And that's the official version.
- {\What do }You think there's more than one{\ version}?

There's always
more than one version.

Can I have a go?

Sure.

I think I broke it.

- It's an accident.
- It's all right.

It does that sometimes.

When you asked me if I was a soldier,
Were you hoping that I was{\going to be} one?

Yeah, like my dad.

Oh. Well, I'm not.

Come here.

I...

- How'd you get that, then?
- My dad gets scared.

What, like, when he fired his gun?

That was an accident, too.

- Are you scared of your dad?
- How do you know?

Well, I was a boy once, you know.

Only I was about, um...

Well, I was much shorter.

My dad was trying to protect me.

From what?

The bruises.
They're from Ronnie.

Your dad's army buddy?

He lives above our garage now.

Hey, Jake...

When you say that Ronnie hurts
you, that's a big deal.

You know that, right?
Hmm?

I saw Ronnie and my mom
once in the kitchen.

He touched her face like this.

Jake is afraid of losing his dad.

He blames Ronnie.
That's why he's telling lies.

A boy sees his father falling apart,
and then, another soldier moves

into the house and provides support and
comfort to his mother.

Put yourself in his shoes.

Is there something going on
between you and Ronnie?

Ronnie's very special to us.

We're{\ very} lucky to have him{\ around},
Particularly with what's going on.

Yeah. You said no, but...

what you were actually doing
was nodding yes.

She never actually said no.

Did you, Becky?

And right there, you just
sucked in your cheek,

Which means you were trying to wipe away
an obvious emotion.

Ronnie's the only friend we have.

Jeff never came back from the war.

He grabs his knife,
and he vanishes at night,

And the only person
I can call is Ronnie.

So there's nothing more
than that between you two?

No. There's not.

Not yet.

Problem. Jeff's gone.

Go to my house and see Ronnie...

Like I have to all the time.

- You going somewhere, Ronnie?
- One-eyed night at the ice rink.

- Who's asking?
- I'm Dr. Foster.

This is Dr. Lightman.
We're looking for your friend Jeff.

You look a little nervous.

Mind you, I would be, too, if I was
bashing another man's son around.

Jake says you hit him.

He's a kid.
It's been a rough 6 months.

I'd never layed a hand on Jake.

Are you sleeping with
your friend's wife?

I'll take that as a "not yet."

Mind you, I've seen her.
I mean, you know, she is tasty.

I feel your pain.

The man saved my life.

I'm not going near his wife.
End of story.

{\All right.}OK, I'll buy that.

I got his back, all right?
It's all good.

Hot date at the ice rink, Ronnie?

Jeff was here.
I'm going to go find him.

All right.
All right.

Becky says
he goes walkabout at night.

To the veterans cemetery.
See some friends.

5 months ago,

In Iraq,

You busted through a red door

with your squad.
What happened at the other side?

Well, I took the hit pretty quick.

You're going to have to
ask Jeff, or the captain.

You don't like the captain.{\ much, do you?}

He's a good officer.

What about Jeff?
How does he feel about the captain?

Not much?

What else are you hiding from us?

My gun's missing.

You don't take a gun
to a cemetery, do you?

Captain Renshaw.

Dr. Lightman.
Dr. Foster.

Your man Turley's
on the loose with a gun.

Really?

- We thought he might come see you.
- Why?

{\Well, }That was going to be
our next question.

{\Well, }He's not here.

Can we do this in the morning?

I actually need to get as much sleep
as I can before we ship out.

- I'm sorry we bothered you.
- We thought we would just let you know.

I appreciate that.

You should get your head down,
get some sleep.

I will do my best.

Good night.

{\Well, }He's in there.

{\PUB}That doesn't look like a man
reaching for a drink.

That looks like a man
who knows how to fight dirty.

{\Well, }It takes one to know one.

I'm going to go stall him
at the front door.

{\Well, }That's a good idea.

Hi. Captain Renshaw.
Just one more thing.

Dr. Foster, I did tell you
that we're shipping out tomorrow.

I was planning on going to bed.

What is so important that you need to
talk to me in the middle of the night?

Look, we think that Jeff
is under the impression

that he has unfinished
business with you

about the war.

I nominated him for a silver star.

Getting it pinned on him
is our only unfinished business.

We know that he is an honorable man.

He's a hero.

And we also know
that those are words

that he would never use
to describe himself.

Sounds like sergeant Turley to me.

Can I come in?

Put the gun down, Jeff.

You are way out of your depth.

Absolutely.

I'm coming in from your left,
and I am armed, all right?

Here I come.

Right, see?
There it is.

Why do this?

Why do this?

Ask him.

He knows. Don't you?

Why don't you enlighten me,
sergeant?

Did you come here to kill the captain,
or just talk about killing him?

Give him the gun.

Come on. Give it to him.
Give it to him!

He wants to kill me,

he can go ahead and do it himself.

You want to kill me?

Do it.

You need help, sergeant.

Why does the captain
want to kill you?

Because you deserve it?

Or think you do?

You're trying to kill
yourself here, aren't you?

{\Well, }It's a bit different
with the gun in my hand{\, isn't it?}.

- I let everybody down.
- You didn't do any such thing.

When you got shot up in that humvee,
it was on fire. You were afraid.

But in my book, bravery is what
you do in spite of fear, son.

You know what?
Sod this, all right?

I mean, really.

What happened behind the red door?

What happens over there
stays over there.

Really?

{\Well, }Not for him, clearly.

It doesn't do him or anyone else
any good to keep going over it.

Anyone else?

You got someone particular
in mind, have you?

Look at him.

You think this is helping?

Enough.
He doesn't have a gun.

And even if I did,
I don't want to kill you.

Put the gun down.

Here I come.

Here.

So you're outside the humvee, right?

Now what?

I'm okay. Ronnie, me
and the captain were the assault team.

The rest of the convoy
is pinned down.

Look, let's skip ahead
to the bit with the red door.

The insurgents are in there.

{\All right, }So, you go through the red door,
you're going to save the convoy, right?

Kick it in.

Kick it in.
Come on, Jeff.

Come on, kick it in. Go on, I dare you.
Kick it in, kick it in.

- I can't. I can't go in there.
- {\Look, }It's just a bloody video game, Jeff.

- It's safe as anything.
- I can't.

- Why not, Jeff?
- My son is in there!

Right.

Your son is 9 years old.

Right? Right?

So he's not in this war.

No, he's not.

So kick the door down.

Kick the door down.

I can't.

Well, then your story
is a load of bullocks.

{\Look, }You're running out of options.
You either kick the door down

Or you're raising your kid
from the looney bin!

{\PUB}Right, in you come.

Faster, come on.

Ronnie banks left,
takes out a sniper.

I went right, captain goes high.

There was a car{\ there},
I took some cover behind it.

{\All right, }You're afraid. That's good,
'cause that means you're there.

- React to contact. {\It's what }We train for.
- {\Now }You were taking sniper fire.{\, right?}

I return fire with my M-4,
Pop off a 40 millimeter grenade round.

Carry on.

We move forward through the market,
I'm on point.

I take a turn,

and there was...

There was resistance.

Resistance?

I saw a combatant.

There's a combatant?

A combatant?
He's not an enemy this time.

{\No, }He's making a distinction.

But he came out of nowhere!
He came out of the archway.

It's a kid.

I was looking right down
the barrel of his gun.

Up like that?

He was 10 years old.

That's about the same age
as your son.

What'd you do?

Did you kill him?

They train you for everything,
they don't train you for that.

What you just told me...

was a lie.

What are you talkin' about?

What are you talkin' about? I told you!
We came through the market,

I turned left, he came out of nowhere
and I returned fire!

All right, fair enough.

But...

why does that make the captain
want to kill you?

I don't know.

I don't know.
Maybe he doesn't.

Maybe I am nuts.
I'm just...

I'm telling you everything I know.

Something definitely happened
that day.

{\Well, }If you can't tell me what it was,

I'll have to get it
out of the captain.

All right, Jeff lost it in Zirmaya.

And since that place has been
completely blown off the map,

this'll have to do.

I thought the point of therapy
was to put the day behind him.

What, you're a psychiatrist
in your spare time?

Neither am I.
She is, however.

Turley's gotten worse
since you've been in his life.

I have to agree.
He's completely unstable.

- Lightman has that effect on people.
- Try being her.

{\All right, }You said you'd take a bullet for Jeff,
didn't you, captain?

Anything for one of my men.

All right.

{\Well, }Let's put that to the test.

So you come through the red door.

{\All right, }Then what?

I go to the right with Renshaw.

I head left, take out the sniper,
Upper window.

Captain?

You're awfully quiet.

I laid down suppressive fire
to cover the upper floor.

{\Well, t}Then what?

I cleared through the market.

One more enemy K.I.A{\killed in action}. At the end.

And that's when the kid
came through with the a. K.

{\What, r}Right here?

Right. Gillian. Be the kid.

Go on.

Heels off, make yourself shorter.
You know, shouldn't be too difficult.

OK, so you see the kid.

- Then what happens, Jeff?
- I killed him.

You killed him?

Is that before or after

Ronnie becomes a cyclops?

I got shot. I don't {\remember}know.

{\Yeah, b}But you would remember If Jeff's gun
went off before you got shot{\, right?}.

I heard a lot of shots that day{\, OK?}.

No, no, no.

I froze.

I froze.

I didn't kill the kid.
I froze.

I froze.

I should have fired, but I didn't.

Is that because it was a kid?

Ronnie!

All right, Foster,

Point at Ronnie.

Go on.

Well, say, "bang."

Bang.

All right, brilliant.
All right, Ronnie, on the ground.

Jeff.

What then?

Uh... I went to him.

Ronnie!

I covered them.

In the report,

It doesn't say anything
about Jeff freezing.

You wrote the report up, captain.

Why'd you leave that out?

His best friend got hurt as a
direct result of his inaction.

- You see that, right?
- Defensive posture.

Yeah. Defensive of...
Yourself?

I saw something.

- The kid?
- No, no, no.

The kid ran away.

Right, so the kid legs it, right?

And then,{\ uh,}

What? You saw something else?

I saw someone else.

You saw "someone" else?

Who'd you see, Jeff?

Who came through here?

Ronnie!

Oh, my eye!

Get him up!

Friendly fire.

Your report was fiction, captain.

You killed one of your own men.
Game over.

He was from another company.

Got cut off from his squad.

Sorrow?

Remorse?

It was an accident.

Your senior officer

Had you lie about friendly fire.

He had to, if he was going to keep it
out of the report.

Sergeant here is an unstable man.
History of mental problems.

Oh, yeah, yeah,
he's absolutely crackers,

But one minute later,

Zirmaya gets blown off the map,

Right?

Who called in the air strike?

Captain?

I wonder.

Renshaw, he asked you a question.

When I picked up Ronnie and ran...

- Come here, man. Come here.
- Up, up!

Unh! Come on, come on, come on!

I could hear a warthog above us.

And Renshaw was calling
in an air strike.

Cobra seven, this is bulldog six.
You are cleared hot!

Friendly fire isn't a crime.

But covering up friendly
fire with an air strike...

That...

That's a war crime.

You know how many people
died in that air strike?

You see that?

That...

Is what your mind couldn't handle.

All right.

So this is our friendly
fire victim, eh?

I wanted to honor him somehow.

Well, you've done that.

Saved Ronnie's life,
got a silver star.

Well done, mate.

Got something better {\than that }last night.

- Oh, yeah?
- A good night's sleep.

Oh, 'cause I was thinking,
you know, the other.

Mind's in the gutter.

Thanks for helping my dad.

No worries.

- Comfortable, Dr. Lightman?
- Does it matter?

You want me to run the
whole battery of scans?

Yeah, the usual suspects.

Have you finished
checking my homework?

I'm nearly done.
Yeah, look at this.

You're gonna like this.

Yeah. Check that out.

Take a look at this.
What do you see?

Uh, wrinkles.

Like... like one of those dogs
with the scrunched-up faces.

Like a shar pei.

Brains are ugly.

That's my brain, that is.

{\Oh. }Well, you have
a very handsome brain.

Thank you very much.

OK, you see this area here?

That is supposed to be love.

Aww, when you look
at a picture of me?

All right, now see what this says.

- Fight or flight?
- A picture of mom triggered that.

- Yeah, so flight, mostly.
- You're making that up.

No, look at me, read my face.

Huh? There.

OK, now Foster.

Whoa, fourth of July.

Oh, yeah? Shepherd's pie.
All right. Here.

That's your granddad, that is.

- And this you?
- Yep.

He was a soldier.

You never told me that.

You never asked.

He didn't talk about it much.

- You know, I'm curious about him.
- Yeah. Me, too.

But you never asked him
about the war?

No, it was a matter of respect,

Really, you know?

I mean, he came out of the war,

And he went straight back to work
In the rail yard.

He put me through college,
so that was that.

I'd like to meet him someday.

Well, one day, eh?