marbleglove: (Default)
marbleglove ([personal profile] marbleglove) wrote2010-01-29 03:54 pm

Plot-bunny: Lie to Me / Highlander

So, I just recently watched the first disc of Season 1 of Lie To Me. And despite my initial qualms, I enjoyed it a great deal.

Of course, now I want the Lightman Group to come across Methos and MacLeod, and possibly Joe Dawson, too, of Highlander. Because really, they’re constantly around dead bodies, and they’re constantly lying.

First, there’s the simple character confrontations:

At some point, Eli Loker says something or another absolutely honestly which is against all social custom, as is his personal custom, and while Dawson and MacLeod look nonplussed, Methos only looks mildly and momentarily startled.

“You remind me of an old friend of mine, Thomas.”

All the Lightman Group people can see the flash of grief on Methos’ face as he mentioned his friend.

“And was he killed by his unhappy coworkers?”

Unhidden humor. “No, despite our doubts, all the evidence pointed to a natural cause of death.”

“Thomas?” Dawson asked doubtfully. He just knew that Methos was talking about Thomas the Rhymer, cursed by the Faerie Queen to never tell a lie. Thomas the Rhymer was a myth. Wasn’t he? “For real?”


Then there’s the actual meat of the matter:

“What’s odd is the group of them.  They are all extremely talented liars, however they differ on the extent of their lies. Dawson appears to have secrets just like any other man who may know that his friends are serial killers.”

“Oh yes, because there are so many such men that there’s a type.”

Lightman ignored that comment, in order to continue. “MacLeod appears to be lying about everything he does or thinks with the shining exception of what his name is. Meanwhile, Pierson appears to be telling the absolute truth about everything, with the shining exception of what his name is.”

“And did you catch the fact that both MacLeod and Dawson think that Pierson is lying?”

“Oh yes. Which begs the question: is he a good enough liar to fool us or a good enough truth-speaker to fool them?”

[identity profile] marbleglove.livejournal.com 2010-02-01 05:01 pm (UTC)(link)
Plus, a lot of the deception detection has to do with seeing how people feel about what they're saying or seeing. Are they surprised, ashamed, guilty, etc?

Methos probably shows those feelings in the universal way, he just doesn't have them in reaction to the same things as most people do.

[identity profile] lita-of-jupiter.livejournal.com 2010-02-01 05:24 pm (UTC)(link)
and he really does see things from different perspectives... and with a unique set of values which would further complicate any readings done on him.

[identity profile] marbleglove.livejournal.com 2010-02-01 06:04 pm (UTC)(link)
Yeah.

And MacLeod's probably still modern enough to not have quite so different a perspective from most of the people the Lightman Group interviewed but he might give them some odd readings with his tendency to have flashbacks all the time. They ask him about one thing, but he'll be thinking about something similar but different when he answers.

[identity profile] lita-of-jupiter.livejournal.com 2010-02-01 08:07 pm (UTC)(link)
hehehe yeah... especially if they ask him something about criminals and he flashes to Amanda, Cory and his own adventures...

than mention murder and he flashes to Kurgan and Kronos, etc

everything slightly screwed...

kind of reminds me in an episode of Angel's early seasons where the client is a Geek and he asks:
"Are you familiar with dungeons and dragons?"
and Angel replies
"yeah, I've seen a few..."

misunderstanding due to different life experiences

[identity profile] marbleglove.livejournal.com 2010-02-02 01:07 am (UTC)(link)
I had forgotten that quote from Angel but it is awesome. And exactly illustrates the point: communication does break down occasionally. Hee.

It would make an awesome parallel story as the interview is told from both perspectives.

MacLeod would have all of these interesting historical questions and, while he certainly wants to help solve whatever crime is being investigated, he'd still be almost completely focused on his own issues.

Lightman, on the other hand, would be getting all of these peculiar cues and trying to piece together what they said about the particular crime.

[identity profile] lita-of-jupiter.livejournal.com 2010-02-02 01:02 pm (UTC)(link)
i wonder what the rest of Lightman's group would be getting from the exchange?


would be very confusing