The following story is fictional and does not depict any actual person or event
You really want to help the governor pardon a murderer?
The guy killed a cop.
He started the most vicious Latino gang in DC.
Manny Trillo is the original gangster.
He is responsible for half the crack trade in DC.
Guys like that don't change.
Not generally,no.
Which is why this case is so interesting.
You have a visitor.
Lieutenant Governor Goldin.
I hear he's bringing friends.
Hey,lambache.
You going to kiss the governor's ass again or what,ese?
Pucker up,ese.
Dr. Lightman.
I'm Lieutenant Governor Goldin.
Mr. Trillo's on his way.
The governor really wants to make him
the poster boy for early release?
Manny Trillo was up for a Nobel Prize
for the antigang work he's done in here.
We believe he can do even more on the outside.
Well,one in every 100 Americans is in prison.
Can understand why the governor wants him for a poster boy,right?
GOLDIN: Of course, before we issue any pardon,
the governor wants to make sure Mr. Trillo is truly rehabilitated.
That's why you're here.
I think you should get him out of there.
Excuse me? Get him out of there right now.
Get down... get down on the ground!
Get down on the ground right now.
Stay down.
Lie To Me
Season 1 Episode 5
Unchained
You know,I treated a few firefighters in grad school.
It's amazing what these guys have to deal with.
You got a bit of a fireman thing,huh?
I'm just saying these guys are heroes.
Is it the helmets?
I mean,even I like the helmets.
Dr. Foster?
I'm Mike Adams with the National Fire Safety Board.
Hi. Hi.
Is that for the firefighter who was killed last week?
Yeah.
Eric Mitchell.
Had less than a year on the job.
His grandfather served for 30 years in the 23rd Engine Company.
He stops by almost every day.
Mr. Mitchell.
These are the people from that firm I was telling you about.
Well,I'm glad someone is trying to find out what really happened to my boy.
I'm sorry about your grandson.
This just couldn't have been an accident.
We're going to do everything we can to figure out what happened, Mr. Mitchell.
So,that's what it takes to get the feds involved.
Grieving relative.
We investigate any time a firefighter's killed on the job.
The building fire was a bad one,
a two-alarm blaze.
Eric Mitchell and his company went in, did a preliminary sweep.
Now,Eric came out with a kid.
Then,he headed back in.
The company got separated.
They didn't find Eric's body until they'd put out the fire.
So,the fire didn't kill him?
The coroner couldn't find a cause of death.
Eric's burns had no inflamed edges.
He was dead before the fire even got to him.
It's unusual,
and it raises the possibility that another firefighter killed him
and left him there to burn.
I hired you because if someone is lying
about what happened in that fire,I need to know.
That won't be easy.
A firehouse is a behavioral in-group.
They become more cohesive in the face of adversity.
Is that so?
Chief Morrow, Lieutenant Clayton.
You know, that shrink mumbo jumbo
won't get you far with our boys.
That's why I won't be interviewing the men.
Dr. Lightman will be conducting the interviews?
No,no, we'll get the most deception leakage from these firemen
if they're interviewed by someone that they respect.
So,we won't be asking the questions.
You will.
Name? David Caddick.
And how long have you been a firefighter?
Eight years.
Anything notable?
Well,Caddick's okay,
but Clayton is biting his lip, tugging at his ear.
He's showing an increase in manipulators.
It's a sign of anxiety.
The lieutenant's nervous?
Yeah,it's normal.
He's already lost one man.
Last thing he wants to do is indict another.
Tell us about the fire.
Our truck,Truck 5, responded right away.
We started searching.
We followed procedure.
One man on the wall, human chain.
Wall comes down.
Screaming across the hall.
Suddenly,we're all in different directions.
We split up.
I was low on oxygen,
so I cleared a couple of rooms, and then I hit the door.
And I didn't see Eric again.
I got down the hall.
Found an exit.
I didn't see Eric again.
I checked the stairwell.
I left the building.
I didn't see Eric again.
Their stories were consistent.
They were.
Can you pull up the response latency analysis?
Response latency?
It's the time between when a question is asked and the answer is given.
Tell us about the fire.
Alarm went off at 3:00 A.M.
CLAYTON: Tell us about the fire.
We got the call around 3:00 A.M.
Tell us about the fire.
Must have been about 3:00 in the morning.
FOSTER: Response time is under a second.
If they were lying, they'd be longer,right?
A lot of people think you take longer to respond if you're lying,
but that's just if the lie is spontaneous.
If a lie is prepared ahead of time,
you're eager to get it over with.
So,which one of them is lying?
They all are.
Something happened in that fire,
and from the looks of it,
every one of them was involved.
GOLDIN: This was the second attempton Manny Trillo's life this month.
Tensions between La Salva
and Trillo's old gang have escalated.
Trillo's been speaking out.
A lot of guys want him dead.
The only thing worse than the street violence
we'll see if Trillo is killed in prison
is the violence we'll see if he takes over El Punio again.
The governor believes Trillo's changed.
He thinks he could do some real good on the outside,
but we need to know he's telling the truth,
that he's not going back to gang life.
All right.
More than happy to put my reputation on the line.
First couple of years here, I was angry,
so I took on the other prisoners.
I took on the guards.
I did a lot of solitary.
Got so bad,
I started stealing books from the prison library and carrying them around.
I wouldn't have picked you for a bookworm.
That much time in the hole...
I read anything I could got my hands on.
Gardening manuals, economic textbooks,
Spanish poetry.
"There is no cry of pain without,at its end, an echo of joy."
Ramón de Campoamor.
I read that and...
I don't know.
I caused so much pain.
What joy could come from that?
And then,I'd realized...
I had to be the joy.
That's a charming story.
Would you mind?
I missed lunch.
So,you're saying that you regret what you did.
All I cared about was the power,the money.
And I took a life.
Just the one?
I ruined the lives of many young Latinos,
kids who could have had a chance.
Do you have any... plans,
you know,for after prison?
I have a plan for street peace.
We need a social agenda for the barrio.
I've been stabbed twice the last month.
15 stitches this morning.
My life is in your hands.
I couldn't agree more.
Do you think it might be helpful to clue me into your little experiments?
Nope.
Gang leaders like Trillo learn early that respect is key to survival.
They need to respond to perceived disrespect,
and it becomes what we call an emotional trigger.
He needs me to believe that he's reformed,
but when I talk to him with my mouth full,
this is what we get.
Nostrils flared.
Lips tightened.
Anger.
He can't control himself.
Disrespect is still a trigger.
You're saying Trillo hasn't changed.
Not necessarily.
When he talks about his past,
he shows us something else.
And I took a life.
Shame.
He's truly ashamed for what he's done.
Yeah,but the anger trigger... No.
That's a survival trigger,
and they're really hard to turn off.
Doesn't mean he hasn't changed.
You need to compare this to an emotional baseline-- old videos.
Call the governor's office
and see if they have anything they can send over.
Preferably before someone sticks another fork in Mr. Trillo.
Yeah.
No problem.
You see that?
You think you made the right call putting her on this case?
Well,who wouldn't want to be on this case?
Evolution generally takes millennia,
but change in a lifetime,now...
that's something to see.
All the naturals that we have seen,
they share two traits.
They are uneducated and...
And the other trait should have nothing to do with the scientific question of whether a man can evolve.
Yes, but psychologically,if she has dealt with a history of...
Hey,if she has strong feelings about Trillo,
then she has to learn to put them aside.
Oh,so I guess, if someone's got to teach her how to avoid her feelings,
then you're the most qualified.
Anything else I can do for you?
I do need some help with my,uh,my firefighters.
Well,all three firemen showed increased manipulators,
but only two of them showed micro expressions of fear.
Well,take me through the one that didn't show fear.
Uh,I thought we were looking for the guy
most likely to tell us what happened.
We are.
Okay. Doug Donovan.
No increased anxiety, no notable signs of...
Oh,stop it there.
Take it three seconds back.
Freeze it there.
Cheeks raised,
lip corners depressed...
Remorse.
Maybe he knows something.
Maybe the group is forcing him to lie.
Well,he's the one you want to focus on.
Monkey with the interview conditions.
Keep him with someone he respects.
Use the chief. The more guilty the kid feels,
the more likely he is to tell you what he knows.
Training drill,
1500 Beecham Drive.
Truck 5,go,go,go!
All right,men.
We have a fire on the second floor.
asdfasd
And don't lose touch of the man in front of you.
Probie,get back in line!
Wallace,take over.
Probie!
Chief Morrow?
What the...?
Didn't work out like this for Mitchell,did it?
You saved the chief.
Why didn't you save him?
You're not the type of guy to leave a man behind.
Hey,we know how guilty you feel.
There must be a good reason you lied.
Come on.
Why won't you tell us what happened?
I left him.
I found him in the fire.
I'm supposed to pull him out.
The flames had already got to him,
but I'm supposed to pull him out.
I'm just as guilty as those other guys.
What other guys?
The ones who were hazing him.
According to Mr. Donovan,
your men have been involved in some pretty extensive hazing.
He wouldn't say who was involved,
but it went beyond the silent treatment.
Baking soda showers,
bottle rockets in the bathroom stalls...
Did you know Eric Mitchell had a severe peanut allergy?
No,I didn't.
Donovan heard that slipping Mitchell a little PB&J was the next big gag.
Well,he's junior. He wasn't one of the hazers,
but that's why he didn't pull Eric's body out.
He was protecting the men.
He thought that they had killed Eric.
Were you aware of what was going on?
Hazing is as much a part of this life as alarm bells.
And if one of your men goes into anaphylactic shock and dies,
c'est la vie?
You don't understand,
but when you're trapped inside a burning building,
you got to know that the other guys
are going to put code before cowardice,
walk through a wall of fire and come get you.
He's right.
I need men who are willing to risk their lives on a daily basis.
And Mitchell just didn't have it in him.
So you looked the other way?
He needed to learn.
But make no mistake about it,
I demand a certain level of respect out of my men.
There's a line.
And they wouldn't have crossed it.
Then you won't mind if we talk to the other men in the company?
No.
Kerry-- the chief's niece-- she'll help you out.
I got real work to do.
It's like they never left the frat house.
You know,it's not just frat houses.
Initiation rites can be found in all major cultures.
You're defending these guys?
Hazing can serve an important psychological function.
Oh,that's funny.
I don't remember reading any articles in the APA journal on swirlies.
Initiation for you MIT mathletes was pretty hard-core,huh?
You make fun,but you try waking up in a shower stall with a killer hangover
and a quart of macaroni salad shoved up your...
What?
t her self-hushing emblem.
She knows something.
Yeah,she does.
And she's hushing herself
because part of her wants to tell.
I knew he was hiding a badge.
La policia siempre asi.
Shield don't make no difference to me.
Chota got what he deserved.
Making any headway with the old Trillo videos?
Not really.
No evidence of emotional change at all?
Trillo doesn't seem all that different to me.
Let's run the tape.
I've been watching video surveillance from before Trillo's arrest.
That's good. Natural habitat--
that's the best baseline.
All right...
Let's drop the sound and run it side by side
with the video we shot at the penitentiary.
Anger. Contempt.
Contempt.
Trillo's emotional palette was substantially different back then.
I'm surprised you missed it.
Shocking.
Anger.
Disgust.
Though,that expression was practically default back then:
the brow lowered, upper eyelid raised,
and that glare is the mark of a hostile personality.
How many of these did Trillo flash in the old video?
I don't know.
Three or four a minute?
Well,he didn't show any in our interview.
Not until the burger incident.
Seems like a pretty big change to me.
Whatever.
Well...
Well,that is the kind of emotionally detached
scientific analysis we value around here.
I'll be sure to pass that on to the governor.
Do you have any idea how much worse the Punio-Salva war will be
if Trillo gets out and takes over?
Much,much worse.
I'm sure there'd be a boom in the crack trade,too.
What if Trillo's just conning us?
Well,emotional evidence suggests he's not the same man.
Do you know how many kids in the barrio
want the kind of power Trillo had before he went away?
The guy is pretty good at working the system.
Sure he is.
Read your Darwin.
Survival of the fittest: it's not about being fit;
it's about being adaptable to change.
Violent people are violent.
They don't change.
HEIDI: Did you see the message from Lieutenant Governor Goldin's office?
Nope.
Holly Sando,the widow of the officer Trillo killed,
has decided to speak to the parole board.
So she's testifying against Trillo's release?
No. She's speaking on his behalf.
Tell Goldin we'll be there.
Rough interview?
I just...
You know,they're just all so tough.
You know,acting like nothing's wrong.
I mean,the last thing they're going to do is talk to a woman.
I'm sorry. I...
I shouldn't be telling you this.
No. It's...
I understand.
No,it's,it's completely inappropriate.
No...
I know how they can be.
I don't think anybody meant to hurt Eric.
The hazing got pretty bad,huh?
God,they'd... they're going to kill me
if they know that I'm talking to you right now.
Someone has to.
There's something you should see.
No! No,but what happens on an emergency call
when you don't wear your helmet?
What happens on an emergency call when you don't wear your helmet?!
It's milder than I thought it would be.
LOKER: One of those guys killed Eric Mitchell.
Okay,but this just looks like a bad joke.
Whoa,wait. Look... look at Wallace.
FOSTER: What? He's smiling.
Yeah,sure,he's enjoying the joke,
but,uh...
every time he looks directly at Mitchell...
Intense disgust.
That's more than a bad joke.
When Manny Trillo killed my husband,I...
I was angry.
For years,I couldn't even say his name.
Then one day, someone told me about his book.
I had a morbid curiosity.
So I went out and bought a copy.
I read the whole thing...
in two days.
I was shocked.
How could that man have written such a...?
I was just...
Everything I had believed...
It changed the way I look at things.
Ms. Sando?
Do you believe Mr. Trillo has changed?
Yes.
Yes,I do.
I believe he's repented.
He's changed his heart.
And he's changed mine.
That's quite a statement.
Yeah.
Of course she doesn't believe a word she just said.
do you believe Mr. Trillo has changed?
Yes.
Yes,I do.
LIGHTMAN: There it is.
Slightest head shake no.
Now,
we do this by accident when we don't mean what we say.
Holly Sando did it every time she said she thought Trillo had changed.
And then there's this.
You can't let him die in this prison.
There.
Classic glare, which is a bit surprising from a true believer in Mr. Trillo.
Why then lobby for the release of a man who killed your husband
if you don't believe he's changed?
She may be trying to convince herself.
Maybe she believes he's changed intellectually,
but she can't quite get there emotionally.
Or maybe Trillo got one of his old buddies to threaten her.
People always think that anger is the most dangerous emotion,
but disgust is the language of hatred.
Hitler talking about the Jews.
Bin Laden talking about Americans.
And you during the hazing of Eric Mitchell.
What did you have against Eric Mitchell?
The kid made my life hell.
You've been with the department for almost a decade.
How does a probie like Mitchell make your life hell?
Nine years.
Nine years,and I never had a problem.
I mean,the occasional bad joke,
watermelon in the locker.
But I kept my mouth shut.
We're not black. We're not white.
We're firemen.
So we get hazed.
Mitchell gets hazed, he runs to the Vulcans,
the Black Firefighter Society.
Requested a transfer.
Mitchell made this racial.
So,you had to choose sides?
I tried to protect him,
but he was young and proud.
He wouldn't learn.
And the more he pushed, the worse it got.
So,you hopped on the fire wagon.
You found out he had a peanut allergy,
and you thought, well,that'll teach him?
Yeah. We did that months ago.
The kid got hives all over,
and it was funny as hell, but it didn't kill him.
No.
Things got much worse.
My guess-- someone screwed with his equipment.
Wasn't you?
I wouldn't touch another firefighter's equipment.
Now,I may have hated the kid, but I didn't want him dead.
Someone did.
Who had the racial problem with Mitchell?
A lot of guys.
It could have been any one of them.
I can't believe Wallace didn't come forward earlier.
Yeah,the black firefighter won't rat on the racists.
It is a little surprising,isn't it?
Well,not really.
The firehouse is a more important association for Wallace than race.
And in his mind, race wasn't an issue until Mitchell came along.
You're saying this was Eric's fault?
No,No. This is the new face of racism.
Instead of overt prejudice,
you see unconscious discrimination.
Nobody's joining the Klan, but a lot of people
still hire the white guy over the black guy with the same resum?
And when unconscious racism surfaces,it can be lethal.
And then what starts out as reasonable hazing turns deadly.
So,how do we find the men responsible?
We'd like to run the company through a little experiment.
As I said earlier,
I... I've read his books, and I've seen him interviewed,
and I really believe that Manny Trillo was a... is a changed man.
I asked Holly Sando to come in, and she wasn't up for it,so,
I pulled her statement to the press after the parole hearing.
I think it's-it's amazing the way he's-he's turned himself around.
She keeps flashing contempt,anger.
She still hates the guy.
You may be right.
Trillo may be threatening her.
LIGHTMAN: No. I told you,
everything we've seen from Trillo up till now--
the old videotape, the interview--
everything sugges he's evolved.
He's not the same man at all.
Did any of the reporters ask her why she decided to testify for Trillo?
Um,yeah,they did.
MAN (on tape): Miss Sando,tell me,
what made you come forward after all these years?
SANDO: I had heard that
the governor was considering a pardon,and I thought,well,it...
It-It's time.
Eyebrows up, pulled together.
Fear.
There's your answer.
Stopping by for lunch?
No. Just a question.
Did you get someone to threaten Holly Sando?
I'm not threatening Holly Sando.
Really?
Because that would be your typical gangbanger move,right?
Get in touch with your old familiars.
Send her a message.
Look,that's not me, not anymore.
You sure you haven't called any of your old friends?
I don't talk to those lacras.
Oh,now,that is not the truth.
You see how you're hunched over?
Well,we do that when we're lying.
We try to take up as little space as possible.
And you really ought to work on that anger trigger,mate.
Raises the blood pressure,
and the heart rate.
It's not good for you.
Okay.
The truth is,
I'm in contact with some of them.
I'm working with the gang task force
on a truce between Punio and La Salva.
They told me to keep it quiet.
It's dangerous.
But I haven't been sending anyone out after Holly Sando.
I don't believe you.
He hasn't changed.
His truce? Just so that the cops won't notice
that he's taking over El Punio again.
Nada es real ni es mentira.
Nothing is real or a lie.
It all depends on the color
of the glass you're looking through.
Look,there's so much good I can do if you just get me out of here.
Get me out of here, and I'll prove it to you.
Over the next ten minutes,
you'll be shown a series of images.
Each image will be followed by a series of adjectives.
If the adjective describes the image, click yes.
If not,click no.
Hey,Sylvia.
What are you guys up to?
We're testing for racial bias.
People with unconscious bias find it easier
to associate positive adjectives with Caucasian faces.
When we shift to
an African-American face-- the biased firefighters
still associate the adjective with the image.
It just takes them longer.
Clock the racist.
Oh,they're all racist.
Yeah,80% of people who take this test are biased.
We're just looking for the the guy who takes the longest.
FOSTER: Oh,they're just about done.
All right,can we,uh,
pull up the average association time for each of them?
LOKER: It's taking David Caddick
three times as long to say nice things about African-Americans.
Looks like we have a winner.
I am not a racist.
FOSTER: No,you don't think you are.
But it would explain why you took
such an active role in the hazing.
I didn't do anything different than the other guys.
You didn't mess with Eric Mitchell's equipment?
I didn't have a problem with Mitchell.
We know that you hated him.
You don't even realize how much you hated him.
How much you hate all of them.
I'm telling you that I didn't have
any kind of a racial problem with Mitchell.
But you had another problem with him.
The guy couldn't keep it in his pants.
This was...
about a girl?
You see the disgust?
Yeah.
Well,that's hate.
I'm guessing it's racially motivated.
Was that your problem?
Was it that he was black and she was white?
I didn't know Eric was dating a white girl.
Is that why this happened?
Well,we're not sure.
Racial hatred is about disgust,
but when we pressed Caddick about the girl...
The predominant emotion was anger,
which suggests that Eric may have crossed some other line.
That maybe Caddick was angry because he disrespected his code.
By dating a white girl?
That's not part of any code that I remember.
Well,we don't think this was just any white girl.
Might have been anothe firefighter's girl.
He knew better.
He was smarter than that.
Did he ever bring anyone home from the firehouse?
Oh,God...
She came by.
After Eric died.
She was upset.
She brought me a meal.
Do you remember her name?
Kerry.
The chief's niece.
Should I call DC Gang Task Force?
Ask if they've heard of a threat against Holly Sando?
Nope.
Trillo didn't show any deception leakage.
Not when he denied threatening Sando,
not when was talking about the truce.
He's a criminal.
He's a fantastic liar.
He's an appalling liar.
He's atrocious.
The one time he did lie, he was...
completely transparent; you should've seen that.
So you think he's telling the truth?
I don't think he's going back to the gang.
Then why is Holly Sando lying?
If Trillo isn't threatening her, why is she lying for him?
Well,I don't know.
Could be any number of reasons.
Yeah,but there aren't any.
Man,you need to listen to me.
You saw his anger.
You know this guy is violent.
You need... you need to listen to me.
You need to stop making this personal.
I'm not making this personal.
Yeah,you are.
Your procerus doesn't move,
which means you had your nose fixed,right?
You don't strike me as particularly vain,so...
So what is it then?
Who was it?
Was it your dad?
Your dad smack you around?
I know violent people.
They don't change.
You said so yourself.
Once people learn this kind of trigger...
Who are you calling?
I think you might be right in a way.
Put me through to Lieutenant Governor Goldin,please.
I think you should go ahead and announce Trillo's release.
Let him go.
Yeah,just one thing,though.
I have...
I met Eric on his first day.
He was so excited.
He moved here from DC, and he didn't know anyone,
so I... I offered to take him out.
I was being friendly,and...
and six months later, he asked me to marry him.
Your relationship-- it was a secret?
It had to be.
Working in the house,it's like having a dozen overprotective brothers.
And my uncle,he...
He didn't know?
He wouldn't let me date a fireman,
not... not one in his house.
That's why Eric put in for a transfer.
I thought that if we made a clean break...
We were going to move to a little town outside of Philly.
He wanted a family.
Jack?
I had no idea.
I had no idea that they were in a relationship.
That's true.
LOKER: Apologies.
I took the liberty of taping your reaction just now.
When your niece started describing her relationship...
And six months later, he asked me to marry him.
Surprise.
So,this has nothing to do with Mitchell's murder?
FOSTER: It did.
Eric Mitchell was killed because he stepped out of line.
He slept with the chief's niece.
He disrespected the code.
Now,the chief sets the rules,
but he doesn't enforce them.
That's somebody else's job.
I taped you,too.
And six months later,
he asked me to marry him.
Anger and disgust:
the language of hate.
You?
You killed him?
No.
I didn't.
I just wanted to humiliate him.
He needed to learn humility.
He was one of our men.
No,he wasn't one of my men.
My men respect the code.
My men don't complain when they're forced to broom the latrine,
and my men know damn well not to crap where they eat.
For God's sakes,Tommy.
You killed a man.
Arrest him.
I was just following the code.
Holly Sando?
Hi.
What have you got there,a .38?
.38 special?
Police said you registered that a couple of months ago.
Long enough to figure out how to use it,eh?
He's right.
I've been practicing.
Drop the weapon!
Easy now,easy.
Okay,everybody, calm down.
Move out of the way!
Just give me a minute to talk to her.
TRILLO: Just want to talk to Ms. Sando.
Holly.
Listen to me.
Can you listen to me?
If you have to do this,
I understand.
I want you to know that I understand.
I don't care if you've changed.
I don't care.
Manny,you're still the man who killed my husband.
I know.
You took him away from me.
I know.
You took him away.
I know. And you,
you can change all you want.
You can never change that!
I know.
And I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
* If I have
* Been ungrateful
* I've been unwise
* Restless
* From the cradle
* Now I realize
* It's so hard to see the rainbow *
* Through glasses
* Dark as these
* Maybe
* I'll be able
* From now on
* On my knees
* I am weak
* Oh,I know I am vain
* Take this weight from me
* Let my spirit be
* Unchained. Got a minute?
Trillo wanted you to have this.
I'm sorry about before.
Sometimes I see so much,
I don't know how not to tell people.
Yeah,I get that.
You're right.
Most people don't change.
I mean, I've been there,
hoping for it,
and then they just don't.
But there are a few, I think,
who can.
Any other life lessons?
When someone...
bashes you around,
who's twice your size,
just whenever he feels like it,
you learn to read emotions pretty fast.
We adapt to survive.
Your abuse made you a natural.
He made you what you are.
Well,I'll be sure to thank him.
So what about you?
I'm not a natural.
I had to learn this.
Why'd you want to learn?
What,you all of a sudden became obsessed with facial expressions?
I didn't think so.
So who was it?
Who made you who you are?