Moral Waiver

I'm in Iraq right now and have finally made it through the entire first season on Blu-Ray. While I like the show as a whole, and Tim Roth and Kelli Williams in particular, this episode actually made me angry at certain points. The writer(s) of this episode obviously has/have no personal knowledge of anything military, nor the Army specifically. The US Army has no "Platoon Commanders" and no Enlisted person is ever referred to as "Sir". There is no such thing as an "Article 32 Court Martial Proceeding", it's an "Article 32 Investigation" and is the military equivalent of a Grand Jury. Even a JAG officer would never were his dress green uniform to a rifle range, and certainly not allow his epaulets to be outside of his collar at any time. Even if an epaulet slipped out, any other Soldier would have spotted it and made a correction. Civilians (hell, anybody) on a rifle range with no helmet? Come on; if you're going to write an episode focusing on the military (even if you're going to bash us) at least have somebody with some relevant military experience review it. Those of us in uniform take a lot of crap from the entertainment business, and we can take it when it's right and justified (pssst: we even protect your right to criticize us) but please, at least get the uniforms, mannerisms, customs and courtesies a little closer to reality. Can you do that little favor for us, please? Two stars for this episode, but only for Kelli Williams, who can do no wrong.

The point of this episode isn't to bash on the military, it's to bring to light the fact that there are women serving in the military who are raped by their male counterparts. Don't take this as "oh, they're saying that all men rape women. Now us men are the bad guys". There are women in the military that share the same experiences as the character in this episode and their story has the right to be heard. Shindler's list wasn't meant to be an attack on the German people and this isn't meant to be an attack on the military, unless you find it offensive that bad things do happen in the military. The argument has been made that this is from the left liberal side. So does that mean brining to light some uncomfortable truths is liberal and covering them up is conservative? Also it's been 18% of rape cases are false which would mean that 72% of them are real and even more of them go unreported. It's amazing how upset people get when someone points out some uncomfortable facts. The truth is that the women in the military, or wherever, deserve better from us males. Who do you think that's raping them, other women? This episode is important because for too long the plight of women go unnoticed or slammed by those who are clearly too misogynist to know night from day. This does happen, not often, but it is a truth and I applaud this episode for brining it up. Women should not be treated as liars. The military keeps us safe. We love them. There is nothing wrong with wishing for a better tomorrow, a place where women don't need to be afraid of being raped (which they do, by the way). Women are people too.

The suspect in the rape case had a designation of platoon leader, but had the rank of a sergeant.

And if you saw the episode you'll find a lot of inconsistencies with the military organization, structure, s.o.p.'s etc.

But it was still fun to watch.

The negatives were just probably due to lack of research on the military, owing tot he fact that it was just their 2nd episode, maybe the show was not yet fully staffed at that time, and the net was not that great yet.

But poor research like that may cast a shadow of doubt on their quality of research on body language and other psychological aspects of the show. I'll continue watching it though, just enjoy it, perhaps see improvements as the show progesses in lto later episodes and seasons.

Dr. Lightman is hired by the US Army to investigate an accusation of a female soldier that claims that her sergeant has raped her. He is also hired to investigate a college basketball player accused of taking bribe. Dr. Lightman and Ria Torres interview the soldier and the sergeant while Dr. Foster and Eli Locker investigate the player. Will they find the truth?

"Moral Waiver" is the second episode of "Lie to Me" with two good story lines about a sergeant accused of raping one of his soldier and an Afro-American basketball player that raises his little brother and is accused of accepting Bribe. The subplots are well resolved and the end justifies the means. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Moral Waiver"

Note: On 01 January 2024, I saw this episode again.