Lost ReWatch: The Whole Truth
Season 2, Episode 16
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Hero of the episode: Jin for saying “I love you” in English to Sun, knowing how much it meant to Sun to hear it Zero of the episode: Jin for destroying Sun’s garden
Quote(s) of the episode: “Why do you care so much about a baby you wouldn’t ever see?”—flashback of Sun talking to Jin about starting a family | “When a man comes home with blood on his hands that is not work.”—Sun | “Jack and Locke are a little too busy worrying about Locke and Jack.”—Ana-Lucia
Music vibes: soft piano and strum of a guitar
Little things: Locke saying the hatch is his | Rose and Bernard bickering about him forgetting her birthday | Ana-Lucia confiding in Sayid that people didn’t like her off the island either | Sayid and Charlie building a dining table
Episode notebook:
Sun and Jin flashbacks. They’re having fertility problems after a year of trying for a baby.
Locke recruits Ana-Lucia to interrogate Fake Henry.
Sun learned English from her former boyfriend. Was he the best choice for this?
Ana-Lucia tells Fake Henry she was once wrong in thinking a fellow survivor was an enemy, she doesn’t want to make that mistake again.
Ana-Lucia tells Sayid and Charlie about the map. The trio set off into the jungle to find the balloon and grave.
Sun is pregnant and unsure what to tell Jin.
Who is the father of Sun’s baby? Jin or the former boyfriend?
Ana-Lucia apologizes to Sayid for Shannon’s death. Sayid knows the real enemy is the “Others.”
Jin regrets destroying Sun’s garden. She’s the only one he can talk to.
Fake Henry continues to manipulate Locke and Jack.
Episode recap: Sun and Jin started off like a fairytale. A chance meeting after both had disappointing days, led to love and eventually marriage. Each flashback revealing their marriage never got the chance to blossom. As long as Sun’s father was in the picture, there would always be obstacles. On the island, they are finally breaking free of her father’s influence but sometimes the old Jin resurfaces.
Planting in her garden provided Sun a little bit of calm, a little bit of peace. A short-lived peace. Jin is hopping mad to see Sun gardening alone after her recent attack, ordering her to come back to the beach. Eventually pulling all her crops out of the ground, leaving no reason for her to remain in the jungle. That display of anger reminded Sun of how life used to be.
A year into their marriage they were trying to conceive a child, but to no avail. Jin had illusions that a child would fix everything. Sun’s father might give him a better, safer job and they can rekindle their love—a lot of pressure to put on a child. Sun had no illusions; a child would be another person for Jin to ignore or barely see. No longer able to confide in her husband, Sun seeks solace in her former boyfriend—the very one who rejected her before meeting Jin. They meet in secret so he can teach Sun English, but it comes across as rather intimate—like more than tutoring was on the horizon.
While Sun is lost in the past, the power struggle between Locke and Jack is intensifying in the present. Fake Henry (until the episode where his real name is revealed this is what I’m calling him) exploits their trust issues, asking Locke why he lets Jack make the decisions—a sentiment that John rejects. But if a stranger can sense the power imbalance between Locke and Jack, everyone else can too. Locke plays right into Fake Henry’s manipulation by making a move without Jack’s input, recruiting Ana-Lucia to speak to the prisoner. She gets the same story about crashing in the balloon, but where everyone else failed Ana succeeded in getting Fake Henry to draw a map to his balloon and his wife’s grave. Only Ana-Lucia holds back that info from Jack and Locke, choosing to reveal the map to Sayid and Charlie instead. Jack and Locke are too busy worrying about each other. It’s time for a fresh perspective on their captive, Ana, Sayid, and Charlie set off to find the balloon.
Meanwhile, Sun has her own problems to deal with, a brooding husband and a new life on the horizon. With a little help from Sawyer’s stash, a pregnancy test affirms what Sun already suspected—there’s a baby on the way. But is this revelation a cause for celebration or apprehension? Several meetings with her former boyfriend seemed to imply there was more than tutoring going on. Further flashbacks reveal a fertility doctor telling Sun endometriosis/scarring would make a pregnancy near impossible, but the doctor later reveals he was lying. Fearing the wrath of Jin and Sun’s father, the doctor laid the fertility issues at Sun’s feet instead. So, who is the father of Sun’s baby? The island has many powers, Locke being able to walk again, Jack seeing his dead father, Kate seeing a horse, a smoke monster, and so many other incidents, can it also heal fertility issues? Sun and Jin choose to believe in the miracle, but the close-up camera shots of Sun’s face say otherwise.
As a new life takes shape, another potentially hangs in the balance. Sayid is still convinced Fake Henry is a liar, and once he has definitive proof the balloon and grave don’t exist, he will finally have a target for his grief. Ana-Lucia shot Shannon out of fear of the Others, it was an accident. The fear instilled in the survivors killed Shannon, and Sayid can’t wait to make the Others pay for that.
Fake Henry insists he’s not who Jack and Locke think he is, but he can’t resist stirring the pot. Showing a little compassion, Jack lets Fake Henry out of the closet for breakfast. Should be a harmless moment, but Fake Henry reveals he drew a map for Ana-Lucia, stunning the two warring leaders. Trying to be funny, the manipulative prisoner even insinuates that he sent Ana-Lucia into a trap. As a viewer, it’s a great scene. Is Fake Henry evil or is he just bluffing? Actor Michael Emerson, aka Fake Henry, played this scene to perfection. Emerson's portrayal adds layers of complexity to this scene, blurring the boundaries between truth and treachery. Please come back next week for my recap of episodes seventeen and eighteen.
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Monday: (No post due to the holiday)
Thursday: Lost ReWatch for episodes seventeen and eighteen