angela’s eyes
lyin’ eyes (9/13)

Continuing tonight on Five is the US drama series that focuses on the work of Angela Henson – an FBI agent with a unique talent for seeing through lies. In tonight’s episode, Angela’s life hangs in the balance after a mysterious assailant shoots her at home; and flashbacks reveal how Angela joined the FBI and tackled her first ever case.

Angela has an important evening ahead as her doctor boyfriend, Dylan, is about to meet her brother, Jerry. But little does she know that Dylan is spying on her for her boss, Gene, who has asked him to retrieve a file from her apartment. “Angela got some papers from an old Korean cleaner,” Gene tells Dylan. “They’re in a bright red folder and I want them.”

At Angela’s apartment, Jerry has spotted the files himself and is keen to look over them, believing them to contain new information about their jailed parents. The documents are in Russian, and Jerry has only just started to read them when Angela goes to answer the doorbell. To Jerry’s horror, the man on the doorstep shoots Angela in the stomach and disappears. As his sister falls to the ground, she can only whisper one word: “Bluebird!”

Jerry phones for an ambulance, but with a storm raging outside, the line is jammed with calls. He is relieved when Dylan arrives and quickly sets up a saline IV. Dylan calls Leo and Dozer for help in raising an ambulance and passes on Angela’s cryptic message. When Leo hears the word “bluebird”, he knows what it means: “It was her first case,” he says. Leo and Dozer set to work reviewing the Bluebird case for any clue as to the identity of Angela’s shooter. Meanwhile, as Dylan and Jerry wait for the paramedics, the doctor spots the red folder on a table. Will he bow to Gene’s wishes and steal the documents, despite his girlfriend’s condition?

As Angela’s life hangs by a thread, flashbacks recount her recruitment into the FBI and her handling of the Bluebird case exactly a year ago... Before joining the bureau, Angela struggled to live with her remarkable lie-detecting abilities, and only Gene recognised her potential: “Why don’t you let us help you turn this liability into an asset?” he says. Passing her FBI exams with flying colours, Angela is partnered with Leo for her first case: an operation to trap notorious smuggler and poker player Christopher Wren – also known as “Bluebird”.

The FBI does not know what Bluebird looks like, so Angela’s mission is to participate in an illicit poker game and identify their suspect. Her unique gift will help her stay in the game long enough to deduce which of the players is Bluebird: “I always know when they’re bluffing,” she says. Leo is on hand posing as a bartender, but Angela does not yet trust him, so she has enlisted the help of her old school friend Dozer to monitor the game via a hidden camera. As the game progresses, Angela uses her skills to win big – angering some of the players in the process. Could it be that one of these players has now returned to wreak revenge?

Also this week, Gene’s pursuit of the mysterious red folder takes him back to the jail where Angela’s parents are incarcerated for spying against their country. Angela’s mother declines to answer his questions about the Russian documents – even as sparks fly between them. “Have you ever considered telling Angela the whole truth about us?” Gene asks. But just what is the truth to which Gene alludes?