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‘Flashpoint’s’ Hugh Dillon Discusses Ed Lane’s Struggle With Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

by: Lindsay Zier-Vogel Date: 11/2/2012

Spoilers ahead!

Ed Lane has had quite the season (and we’re only just past the half way mark!)

In the very first episode, the character played by Hugh Dillon took the fatal shot in a particularly complicated case, a shooting that’s haunted him throughout the season, and in last night’s episode, he was shot by a new “smart gun” and then was held hostage by a weapons dealer.

The guy can’t get a break!

The episode started with Ed and Sam (David Paetkau) shooting swinging golf balls with for sniper practice, and even though Ed’s three-for-three, the golf ball becomes the face of the girl he shot in the season’s first episode – the an undisputable glimpse into the Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Ed is dealing with.

Even still, the Team One leader remained grounded and calm, even after he was shot and was taken hostage with the bullet still lodged in him.

“Sometimes I’ll be doing something ordinary and for no reason at all, I see something and I remember a girl I saw die and the images flood my mind and I can’t control it,” he says, explaining his PTSD symptoms to his fellow hostage, a young man, cursed with a perfect memory who was abducted and forced to penetrate a high-tech research facility to memorize the design of a new ‘smart gun.’

“And the more you try not to think about it, the worse it gets,” Ed continues.

Dillon did a lot of research to better understand what it’s like to be a first responder dealing PTSD, and spent quite a bit of time talking with Jim Bremner, “Flashpoint’s” Emergency Task Force consultant.

“A lot of people can’t imagine living with what you live with,” Sgt. Greg Parker (Enrico Colantoni) says at the end of the episode, recognizing Ed’s symptoms.

“Buddy, I need help,” Ed admits. “There are things I can’t get out of my head.”

“The reality is that (‘Flashpoint’) helps promote awareness in society of things like PTSD and people become aware of what it all entails on a personal level,” says Dillon.

“I love that this show is more than just a show, that it really is delivering a positive, realistic message.

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