'Lie to Me' - 'Beat the Devil': Logan the liar

Jason Dohring turns on the creepy as the Tim Roth drama returns.

<p>Tim Roth spars with Jason Dohring on &quot;Lie to Me.&quot;</p>

Tim Roth spars with Jason Dohring on "Lie to Me."

Credit: Fox/Adam Rose

"Lie to Me" is back from a long hiatus to begin a summer run. A quick review coming up just as soon as I turn into a fascist...

These summer episodes will complete Shawn Ryan's stint as "Lie to Me" showrunner, as he's moved on to focus on his two upcoming shows ("Terriers" for FX and "Ridealong" for Fox). One of the things he tried to do in taking over the show was to let the characters drive the science and not vice versa. The A-story of "Beat the Devil" was one that could have gone either way, as Cal meets a college student (Jason Dohring, whose appearance hopefully pleased the "Veronica Mars" and/or "Moonlight" fans) he can't read, and decides the kid must therefore be a psychopath (the scientific explanation), while everyone else suggests he may just be irritated that the kid embarrassed him in front of a lecture hall (the character explanation).

Technically, science wins out, since Cal's analysis is correct, but the story was still very much about Cal's ego. He believes he's right, and wants to prevent Dohring from hurting any other women, but when he demands his two hundred bucks back at the end, Tim Roth adds just a little hint of profesional satisfaction in with all the anger. Cal's mad he almost died, and that this monster ran free for so long, but he's also pleased his instincts were correct, as usual.

(On the other hand, would it have been more interesting if the entire story had proven to be Cal's pride run amok? On "House," the patients occasionally die, after all.)

The UFO subplot wasn't particularly interesting, but I'm not opposed to anything that provides employment to Howard Hesseman and Glenn Morshower.

What did everybody else think?

Alan Sepinwall
Sr. Editor, What's Alan Watching
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