The difference between Lie to Me and most procedurals is that Lightman is not law enforcement, has no formal ties to law enforcement, nor did law enforcement control him when he was involved. Without armed backup, Lightman could get hurt easily because he gets into manufactured situations where tensions run high.
"The Canary's Song" is one of those episodes why you wonder why Lightman is being so brazen when he could be seconds from death. And the problem is no one seems to care or acknowledge how fatalistic he is. Every episode, Lightman could almost get blown up, talk back to gangsters, hang around people with guns, and he'd still be fine. The writers make him invulnerable, but at the same time make him act like an idiot. I wish they'd just dial his character back; getting into people's faces is fine, but not when personal health is in serious risk. But then again, it was also a "manning up" episode where Loker acts equally stupid, brandishing the baseball bat and finally gaining Lightman's acceptance. The moral of the story: be rude, make people want to hurt you, don't get hurt and you're a hero.
Built into Lightman antagonizing everyone is that the plot suffers because there are multiple characters who exist only for Lightman and not for plot purposes. Like several episodes from last season, the writers created intense situations which have little relevance to plot or forward momentum.
We finally learned what happened to Reynolds--injury and not death--but an FBI guy shows up to get Lightman's help. Foster covers for him and helps bring down the criminals herself. As far as that final scene goes, drunk Foster possibly kissing Lightman isn't exactly an ideal situation. Lie to Me will probably be canceled, so maybe the writers are putting them together for the final season.
Score: 8.5/10
