"The Whole Truth"

NOVEMBER 9, 2010

FOCUS: SUN
EPISODE: 2.16
AIRED: MARCH 22, 2006

As I mentioned before, starting in Season 2, my job hours occasionally kept me from watching Lost live, as I had done for every S1 episode. And as I mentioned yesterday, the show was getting back on track around this point in the season. So when I discovered that my Tivo had cut "The Whole Truth" about 90 seconds short, right around when Ben started explaining what he'd do if he WAS an Other, I pretty much freaked out and almost considered switching jobs (not long after this I discovered that my office had the East coast network feeds and more often than not I'd just watch it there, with the added bonus of not having to worry about seeing spoilers online). This was before Hulu and all that, so I had to download the damn thing off a torrent site (sorry) to see the end. And yes, I waited up all night until it downloaded.

Of course, it wasn't really worth all the effort, because at the end of the episode we STILL don't know if Ben is an Other or not. Or even if they have milk in the hatch! Speaking of "the hatch", it never really occurred to me - why do they call it the hatch? Wasn't the hatch the door that they use to get INTO it? Wouldn't "bunker" or even "the Swan" make more sense? Locke even refers to it as "My hatch" at one point. I think I'll start referring to my car as "the door".

Anyway, another good episode, and one of my favorite Jin/Sun episodes (though this one is fully a Sun episode - Jin only appears in two of the 5-6 flashback scenes). You get more of Jin speaking English (but also another backwards talking scene!) - his "I. Love. You." to Sun at the end of the episode is probably one of his all-time most "awww" moments, and I still laugh at the part where he understands Sawyer's earlier comment ("Daddy-o"). And it explains why he was always so nice to Claire, because we learn he wanted a child very badly, only to discover it wasn't possible. Poor bastard.

But what makes it a good episode is that they find a use for many of the other characters, an increasing rarity. Jack and Locke have a great scene in the bathroom, with Locke shaving while Jack showers, because the steam opens his pores and there's no shaving cream (which is odd - they have every other goddamn thing in there, why not shaving cream?), and their seeming truce is becoming fractured. Then we have Sawyer revealing he has somehow managed to reclaim his stash of medical supplies, including a birth control test, for some reason. And I love that he's reading "Are You There God, It's Me, Margaret".

Then we have Sayid, Charlie, and Ana Lucia (odd team) going off to find Ben's balloon, which includes its share of tense moments, like when Ana discovers Charlie has a gun. I particularly like that he admonishes her for killing someone the last time she had a gun, despite the fact that the same could be said for him. And how creepy is it when Sayid is just watching her sleep? Good stuff.

One thing really bugs me though - the final scene between Jin and Sun, when she swears to him that she never had an affair, because we learn in S3 or S4 that she was lying. But watching the scene again, there isn't a hint of falsehood in her statement, nor does she appear to feel guilty once he walks away. So it just feels like they forgot about this scene when writing the future episode, or poor writing HERE if they knew that she was lying to her husband's face.

Tomorrow: AWESOME EPISODE! Big-time bummer for Locke, the crazy black-light map on the blast door, and the reveal of the real Henry Gale! I'm excited.

Where are we?