A Perfect Score - Recap

The scene opens with Lightman looking at things from Africa. Foster walks in and is intrigued that Lightman is rehashing his time in New Guinea. Special Agent Dardis is there and Lightman talks to Emily on the phone. She tells that Zoe is gone and that she is going to stay with a friend. Lightman picks up that she is lying and tells her to have fun. Foster tells Lightman to let Emily have her secrets. Meanwhile, Dardis is waiting in the conference room and he tells that Danielle Stark was reported missing and later found murdered. Danielle’s mother Judge Kathleen Stark is grief stricken but can’t account for her whereabouts during the time that her daughter went missing. Lightman tells Dardis that he has his first suspect and Dardis wants to know if Judge Stark is lying or telling the truth. They visit the house of Kathleen and Torres takes out a video camera. Lightman starts to interview Kathleen and she is not that responsive to the questions that he is asking and says that they are not relevant. At the Lightman Group, Lightman talks about the signals that Kathleen is making on the video and compares it the Susan Smith case. Whereas Susan Smith is showing no emotion, Kathleen is showing it all.

Lightman and Foster are in the office and Torrres walks into the room to ask what is next. There is a funeral for Danielle Stark and Foster can’t go because she has to interrogate a pilot that crashed an X-48 and now is under investigation. Emily walks in escorted by the police. Emily was caught having a party at her mom’s house while she was away. Lightman tells that she is going to organize a file room with Loker as punishment. At the funeral, Lightman and Torres enter and Lightman asks for a piece of gum. He puts the gum on the light and tells Torres to watch the reaction of Kathleern. The light bursts and there is no surprise on Kathleen’s face and Lightman realizes that she is taking Botox and it is hiding her expressions. Meanwhile at NASA, Foster and Loker are there to interview Commander David Markov who is under suspicion for ejecting out of an X-48 jet and causing it to crash. Markov talks with Foster and Loker and tells about his experience and says that he tells that he wanted to be an astronaut but didn’t see that happening soon. Foster tells that he has a father that defected from the USSR and Markov tells that he did not crash the X-48 on purpose. Back at the funeral, Lightman picks out a particular girl, Riley, that is showing signs that she is lying of being Danielle’s best friend. Outside, they find out that Danielle was into heavy things and had a supplier of drugs.

Lightman and Torres go to Strivers Magnet School, the school Danielle attended and Headmistress Jonas tells that there are no drugs in it. Lightman tells Jonas to only make an announcement that they are going to search everyone’s locker and Lightman goes around and seeing who he is going to pick out of the crowd. He picks Troy Dixon out of everyone. Meanwhile Foster and Loker tell Director Schaumburg that Markov is not lying, but tell that he might have wanted to commit suicide and then changed his mind the last second. Emily is organizing pictures and files and comes across a picture of Lightman stoned with the Moroccans. Emily calls him a hypocrite and Loker tells that he is just scared for Emily. Loker tells that she is prime age to be experimenting with Alcohol, dugs, and other things. He tells that she is more likely to be killed in a car crash with her friends. Foster is reviewing videos of Markov before the accidental crash and he is depressed until 2 weeks prior to the incident. Something changed his mood.

Back at Strivers, Lighman is meeting with Troy and Troy tells that he doesn’t have to tell Lightman anything. They tell that he doesn’t have to talk and that the District Attorney will give Troy a harsh sentence for giving drugs if he didn’t want to cooperate. He tells that he gave Danielle MPH to help her study. That drug is to treat Attention Deficit Disorder and all the students are taking it because it helps them focus. Lightman gets called out by Kieth Berenson and Headmistress Jonas and He tells it is inappropriate what they are doing. Torres tells that they have kids taking drugs to compete. Jonas doesn’t believe that it has something to do with Danielle’s death but doesn’t believe what she is saying. Lightman excuses Torres and himself and they leave. Waiting for the headmistress to come out, Torres talks to Jonas and tells that she wants to congratulate her for having the highest test scores in the city. She asks how she did it and Jonas tells that she gave incentive and the right motivation that if they passed, then they would have a future, if not, then no future. Torres tells that she needs a copy of Danielle’s test scores and the classmates as well. Jonas tells that it doesn’t have to do with Danielle’s death. However, she shows signs of doubt again. Foster talks to Hilary Markov and she asks if David’s mood has changed in the past 2 weeks. She tells that there is nothing wrong with anything. However, in the other room, there are lies in her conversation which Foster that Loker pick up on. Foster and Loker think that he was taking drugs to calm him down and stopped taking them during the flight. The withdrawals would mean that he would have suicidal tendencies.

Lightman enters in the room that Emily is organizing and tells that she did a good job. Emily apologizes that she got caught with the party but gloats that she made over 200 new friends because of the party. Lightman asks why she wants to be so popular and tells that a girl her age could get hurt. He tells that her “friends” are only using her for a place to drink and get high. Emily points out that Lightman got high, but he says that it was research and he had to gain the Nomad’s trust while in Morocco. Torres walks in and tells that Kathleen Stark’s alibi checks out but there is an issue on Danielle’s academics. She scored only average on her SATs the first time and scored above average everywhere else. Danielle took it a second time and scored low again. However, the third time, she scored in the very high category. But the test was taken 2 days after Danielle was murdered. They go through the copies of the ID badges for the test and they find Danielle’s ID, but the picture is of Ms. Fife, Danielle’s teacher.

They meet Ms. Fife with Dardis and she shows fake anger to what they are accusing her of doing. She tells that she didn’t know that Danielle was dead when she took the test and that she had an argument the day before with Danielle. FBI Agent Dardis is ready to arrest the teacher but Lightman tells him to wait. He wants to see the video of the hallway during the argument. Back at the Lightman Group, Foster helps Emily with a bag and asks how she is. Emily complains that Lightman doesn’t let her do anything fun. Foster tells that Lightman knew she was lying but didn’t say anything. Loker enters with the test results from Markov’s drug exam and he tested positive for depression drugs and that the side effects are what caused him to crash. Foster and Loker meet with Markov again and he is positive that he never has taken any depression drugs. Foster realizes that his wife has been giving them to him. She admits it and says that he was happier when he was on the drugs.

Lightman is examining the video of Danielle and Ms. Fife in the hallway and Danielle is surprised at what Ms. Fife is proposing. They realize it was the Kathleen, Danielle’s mother that contacted the teacher to take the test for her. Lightman tells that he wants everyone in the Lighman Group that Ms. Fife took tests for. Torres is interviewing Riley on the fact that Ms. Fife took the test and she is denying the entire thing. After a few minutes of questioning, Keith, Riley’s dad, confesses that it was him that killed Danielle. But Lightman doesn’t believe him. He enters a room that Keith is in and shows him a picture of a clown, a dog, and Danielle’s murder photo. Keith shows surprise on his face and Lightman tells that he is lying and not to protect his daughter.

The next scene shows a distraught Riley being escorted in handcuffs and Keith is sad about it too. Lightman sees Emily passing by and goes to the room that she has finished organizing. She tells that she understands why Lightman acts the way he does and appreciates that he doesn’t point out that she is a liar. She tells that he can’t tell that she is lying all the time.


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