Lost Rewatch: The Whole Truth

 

Note: From this point on, I’m resuming watching the series on VHS.

 

In the last minute of the episode Henry has been let out of armory for the first time for some breakfast. He gets his ‘first’ look at his surroundings  and does what most normal people would do in those scenarios. He asks about the computer and everything in the Swan. When he doesn’t get any answers, he says: “If I were I’d be asking all kinds of questions. You don’t even seem that curious.”

We will soon learn that Henry is a complete and total liar about everything, though not the full extent for a while but he’s hit upon a key point of Lost: the survivors have been on the island for more than two months, repeatedly encountering bizarre situations on an almost daily basis and nobody seems to even be that interested in trying to figure out what it means. This was understandable in the first season when they were spending so much time trying to be rescued but they now seem to have settled in for the long haul. And they seem to have just accepted this as the new normal that they basically don’t seem to even care about how weird everything is. This, frankly, is one of the most frustrating things about the characters of Lost: they are maddeningly incurious about sharing information or even dealing with how strange their situation is.

Henry also points out that these people have trust issues which considering who he’s talking too is the understatement of the century.  It’s ironic that this episode is titled The Whole Truth because very few people are telling it. Locke entrusts Ana Lucia with the truth about Henry but it seems to be done as much to outmaneuver Jack as anything else. He only tells him about after he’s made the decision. Ana Lucia clearly recognizes this and decides to circumvent them both.

It’s interesting that she chooses to go to Sayid instead but Ana Lucia seems to be more practical than either Jack or Locke is.  She also knows that if she told either of them what she found they’d spend more time worrying about each other than doing anything. So she takes the map that she is gotten from Henry and the unlikely team of Sayid, Ana Lucia and Charlie go out try and find Henry’s balloon.

That night Ana Lucia actually does tell the truth to Sayid. She is honest about how most people don’t like her, and its obvious she’s not just talking about the island. It’s been clear for a while that Ana Lucia has been damaged by life – how much of it was because of her nearly being killed and the murder she committed will never be known for sure – and she has basically decided to be solitary. In a move not keeping with her tough exterior, she apologizes to Sayid – and Sayid finds it in his heart to absolve her.  Of course he makes it clear very quickly that he has found someone else to hate and that is in fact the real reason he is on this pilgrimage. He does not want to find this balloon, and Ana Lucia has to talk him into searching for it.

However, most of the story is dealing with Sun as she struggles with a new truth. Up until this point Sun has been one of the most sympathetic characters on the show. She has been hiding from her husband that she speaks English but based on what we saw of Jin in her flashbacks, we know she had a reason to hide it from him even after the plane crash. She didn’t know about Jin’s secret, but since they haven’t been talking to each other for a while, that has been forgivable. Unfortunately in this episode our sympathies for Sun are about to take a dip.

In Sun’s flashback we see that she and Jin have been trying to have a baby for awhile and its pretty clear that Jin wants it more than Sun does. Part of it is because Jin may think this will change things between him and Mr. Paik, but we’ve seen enough scenes with Jin on the island to know that he is a caring man and would probably make a good father.  Sun sees it differently: she knows that once she has a child she’s tied to Jin forever and there may be no chance to get away.

Now we see her in a hotel with Jae Lee meeting secretly to…learn English. Now obviously Sun probably doesn’t have a lot of friends or people she could turn to get English lessons from. It does not change the fact that the man she has turned to is someone who was a potential husband – and who makes it pretty clear that his marriage has not been a happy one.  Jae Lee actually points that out in their last meeting when he asks: “Why are you here?” It isn’t just to learn English; Sun’s marriage has deteriorated to the point where she is practically alone. The camera cuts away from the two of them before we see what happens after Jae Lee makes his final confession, so for now we are left to live in the illusion that nothing happened. The writers will break that image in the next episode centered on them/

Now Sun is facing the fact that she might be pregnant and she’s clearly unhappy about in ways that have nothing to do with having to deliver her child on the beach.  She reacts unhappily when Kate sees it and seems very reluctant to tell Jin when Jack confirms it.  Jack gives what is probably his best bedside manner yet when he advises Sun that it’s in her best interest to tell the whole truth. Of course, he then heads back to the hatch and lies to Kate about anything being wrong.

Jin’s reaction in the garden seems out of character for him, but in retrospect it seems like he’s still reeling from his wife’s attack and he doesn’t know the right way to show it. When he comes back to the garden near the end of the episode to ‘fix his mistake’  he is more honest and sad than we’ve seen him since he was about to get on the raft. He makes it clear that he feels truly isolated and he doesn’t want to fight with Sun anymore. In a sense, he is acknowledging what Sun told him when she learned that she knew English: they stopped a long time ago and he’s sorry for that. So Sun tells him that she’s pregnant and she shares the whole truth.

The fertility doctor they see in the episode has told them that Sun is incapable of having children. But in the last flashback, he tells her that it is Jin who is sterile. (You’ve got to admire the sexism of this culture: if the son-in-law of a powerful man knows he’s infertile, you have to protect yourself from his wrath, but if the daughter of that same man is infertile, whaddya gonna do?)

The thing is, Sun still isn’t telling the whole truth and she’s revealed that she knows more than she’s telling even if she’s being honest about not being with another man.  When Jin asks hostilely if she had hidden it from he, she fires back that she did it “to trap the son of a fisherman.” At this point Jin has told her his father is dead and nothing about his background. So how does Sun know this? It is possible that Jin did tell her at some point, but in another flashback we will learn that Sun has been keeping even more secrets than that.

We don’t care for the moment because we love Jin and Sun and it’s clear that this is truly a turning point in their relationship. Watching the two of them speak fondly about their child, joking about whether there’s anyone left to tell, is the happiest we’ve seen them on the island. And its profoundly moving when as Jin is about to walk away Sun almost casually says “I love you” and they both stop. Unspoken is the fact that its been a long time since either of them said to each other. Jin then leans over Sun and says it back to her in English. Sun looks worried for a moment (as she well might; this is going to be a major storyline for the next two seasons and have more ramifications than the viewer can think of) but the last scene we see her, there’s an unguarded smile on her face. It’s the first we’ve seen on it perhaps since the series began.

We will have reason to forget for a while, of course. Because our focus is now on Henry.  There have been scenes throughout his first two episodes that there is more to him than meets the eye but the final moments are the first time its very clear that we can not trust him. In retrospect, considering what we learn about him later, his final speech to Jack and Locke is out of character: the last thing he wants is for them is to suspect they might be right. However, its more logical when you consider that originally Henry Gale was supposed to only be around for a few episodes and then a different character was going to take over as the major figure for the Others going forward. Naturally, it took only a few episodes from Darlton to fall in love with the work that Michael Emerson was doing as Henry and not merely keep his character around but make him the center of the show.

So even though it doesn’t quite keep in with the rest of what we will learn about him, it is logical that Henry does this.  We need real evidence that this man from Minnesota really is an other and this is by far the best way to do it. It doesn’t matter that what he’s telling Jack and Locke is a lie (though as we shall see it’s completely keeping in with his character), what matters is that they believe it could be true. And when he finishes his speech with: “You got any milk?” we truly realize that they are locked in with Henry, not the other way around.

The teaser  for the next episode of Lost reveals that there will be no less than five revelations that change the game. Believe it or not I counted and they are right. Some of them are more important than the others (ha!) but all of them have a major impact.