"The Whole Truth" Discussion Points

Well I was close. My guesses about this episode were pretty much dead on, aside from one item. Here are the discussion points:

1. Here’s where my prediction for the episode was incorrect (see, I told you I’m not really a Lost writer!) - Sun didn’t cheat on Jin. However, the episode really teased you along to make you think that she did.

First, they introduce the bald English tutor character (Baldie), who she has been seeing in secret. Then we find out that Jin isn’t able to make babies (remember my fish in the Tigris analogy below?). Finally, Sun gives this weird look after telling Jin she had never been with another man:

So all signals point to Sun being a hussie, right? Wrong.

Exhibit A: I’m no girl, but I’m pretty sure they get some sort of “signal” each month that tells them if they’re pregnant or not. As it’s been established that they have been on the Island for two months, even if she was hooking up with Baldie the night before they left, you would think she would have known before now.

Exhibit B: She tells Jack “I can’t be pregnant.” Since she knew Jin was the one with reproductive-issues, if she had been with another man, there could have been a chance she was pregnant.

Exhibit C: That look at the end? It’s not a “I’m lying to my husband” look. It’s actually a “Great, now I have to have a baby on this Island – full of baby-stealing Others with no pain medication”, coupled with the acceptance that “Jin and I are tied together forever, even though I was about to leave him prior to Flight 815”, and with an added touch of “Seasons Four through Eight are going to suck, filming in Hawaii with a 40 pound pregnant suit hanging on me in the heat.”

So where does that leave us? With a terrible, terrible storyline. It’s almost like the episodes ran out of order. Shouldn’t we have had this episode before the “Charlie fake kidnaps Sun”, which would have neatly gotten rid of the storyline? Or are we due for an Alias-esque “time jump” on Lost, where the next season will start a few months in the future?

2. Sun is hot. Good work Lost producers…

but Kate is still way hotter, looking particularly good this week, I must say!

3. I thought showing Bernard and Sawyer’s conversation from Jin’s perspective was great, if only to make viewers think they were going crazy for the first few seconds. In case you were curious, they just had the audio playing backwards, and here’s what they said:

Bernard: Well, how do you know?

Sawyer: I got my sources

Bernard: Aren’t you going to tell him?

Sawyer: Not my place

Bernard: You should tell him.

Sawyer: Hell no! Let Sunshine tell him.

4. I meant to comment on this last week, but got distracted. The book that Henry’s been reading is The Brothers Karamazov. It’s a pretty long and unwieldy book, but here are the themes we should note:

The central philosophical conflict of The Brothers Karamazov is the conflict between religious faith and doubt.

“Man of Science” (Jack), “Man of Faith” (Locke) anyone? We’ve gone over this too many times before. But it comes up yet again!

The novel argues forcefully that people have free will, whether they wish to or not. That is, every individual is free to choose whether to believe or disbelieve in God, whether to accept or reject morality, and whether to pursue good or evil. The condition of free will may seem to be a blessing, guaranteeing the spiritual independence of each individual and ensuring that no outside force can control the individual’s choices with regard to faith. But throughout The Brothers Karamazov, Dostoevsky portrays free will as a curse.

Sound familiar? Like the Survivors who are forced to decide if Henry is good or evil, knowing that if they’re wrong, the actions could lead to either the death of an innocent man or the deaths of some of their own?

One of the central lessons of the novel is that people should not judge one another, should forgive one another’s sins, and should pray for the redemption of criminals rather than their punishment.

This also screams “Henry Gale!”

So what’s the deal with this guy?

Choose Your Adventure, Henry Gale Edition!

A. He’s telling the truth.
B. He’s an Other.
C. Both A and B.


A. He’s telling the truth. He withstood a beating from Sayid, cross examination from Jack and Locke, and a big scary black man with a huge knife – all sticking to his story. We’ve seen from the clips from next week (or below in My Most Controversial Blog Post Ever) that there indeed is a hot air balloon crashed on the Island, looking exactly like Henry described it:

So if this is the case, Henry Gale’s purpose on the Island is to serve as a wakeup call to our Survivors – letting them know, “You’re all going crazy with fear and distrust!” which would play nicely into the Brothers Karamazov theme. If they’re going to go this route, they really need to have a Survivor kill Henry, which would really hit everyone hard in a “We’re like Lord of the Flies, what have we become?” sort of way.

But if this is the case, why is he playing everyone against each other so hard? Why is he stirring the pot, making speeches about leading people to traps? Why does he sometimes have pure evil looks?

B. He’s an Other. The Balloon thing is a cover story. All the Others know it since they know the Island like the back of their baby-grabbing hands. Maybe they even know to use it as their cover if they ever get caught. They’re trained on it. Just like there’s a black horse and a pirate ship, there is also a Balloon on the Island. No big deal.

Henry’s intentionally turning Jack against Locke, Locke against Jack, and both of them against Ana-Lucia in an attempt to destroy the Survivors / weaken their relationships. In fact, as the Others are so savvy in the Jungle, he must have gotten himself captured on purpose. Why?

Well, after last week’s episode, seeing that the whole “rustic Others” thing is just an act, I got to thinking – why would you want to look like a derelict unless it’s a new fashion line from Mugatu? Why the smoke and mirrors? Well, during my recent viewing of “Wicked”, I noted the similarities between Oz and the Lost Island. Besides the obvious themes of bad (Others) being good (Survivors) and vice versa (which I’ve already discussed in my Locke Manifesto), in both cases everyone thinks there is some huge powerful leader / group behind it all, but in reality, behind the curtain it’s just a small old man / group.

In a nutshell – I don’t think the Others are all that and a bag of chips. I think they are a smaller than we think group of Scientists who use these costumes to make them seem more mysterious, more crazy, and more desperate than they really are (polo shirt, khaki-wearing logical people). The 815 crash put a lot of people on the Island (like 50, some of them quite strong).

Remember what Zeke said about “not crossing the line” and “you’re still here because we left you alone”? This might be partially true. But I think it’s also true that the Others couldn’t really launch a full scale assault on all of them and succeed. Thus they send in Henry Gale to do some recon and try and shake things up…

C. Both A and B. The most dreaded of all multiple choices because it makes you analyze every possible solution realizing that more than one could be true.

How did the Balloon get there? Because Henry Gale’s story is true. It crashed on this Island, he and his wife lived there for a while… and eventually she died (from the sickness? From the crash of the Balloon?) He buried here and wandered around, eventually being “captured” by the Others (since he was “good”).

At this point, the Others did whatever the Others do to these “good ones” they capture – but in my mind it’s something like a Scientology brainwash. Thus Henry Gale becomes an Other – and has a sweet story if anyone ever questions him on it.



I really could see any of the three being true. Time to put this up to a democratic vote. Use the comment area, people!