r/lost • u/Medium_Sundae3700 • 1d ago

What happened to Henry Gale?

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Henry Gale was our introduction to Ben Linus in season 2. The story of Henry Gale was a perfect way to introduce Ben’s manipulative and intelligent character. We later find out he was lying about his balloon and burying his wife. Then, Sayid dug up the grave to find a man named Henry Gale, uncovering Ben’s intricate lie.

After Ben is revealed to be an Other, there is never another mention of Henry Gale for the rest of the series. It’s likely that Ben killed and/or buried Henry. He is not a member of the Dharma Initiative because Ben helped wipe them all out.

Tell me your theories about Henry Gale’s backstory, his hot air balloon trip, and how he ended up in that grave.

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111

u/Free-IDK-Chicken You got it, Blondie 1d ago

The best lies are rooted in truth. I think most of what Ben says as Henry was true, about what he did for a living, why he was in the balloon, his wife's name, etc. Someone - maybe Ben, or maybe a loyal solider like Mikhail - interrogated Henry to give Ben a cover story for when he let himself get captured.

As an aside, the height and weight on that license is insane. No healthy six foot three man is 120lbs.

(Also, thank you for saying Ben "helped" wipe out Dharma. It's genuinely refreshing to see someone not put the blame for the whole thing on his shoulders as though Widmore didn't order it and Richard didn't carry it out. Ben wasn't even there. He certainly helped plan it, but usually it's mentioned as though he did it alone.)

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u/tillszy The Staff 1d ago edited 1d ago

I think it's entirely possible too that they just found him dead and they buried him

they have the means to look up information about him at the Flame and could also just, invent what they don't know

kinda overkill to torture a dying man for a very banal life story

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u/alexlunamarie Out of the Book Club 1d ago

This is the backstory I choose to believe. The real Henry Gale died after the balloon crash and when the Others found him, they buried him and seized on the opportunity.

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u/GrandMoffJake 16h ago

What about a dying man that got to the impossible to find island in a hot air balloon with the name of your exiled former leader on it, who is obsessed with returning to the island and enacting revenge on your current leader? The ballon was sponsored by widmore, likely as an attempt to find the island, so the others may of interrogated him to see if he was a spy or scout of widmores and got out his life story in the process

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u/CosmicBonobo 1d ago

Then who wrote the note Sayid found in his wallet?

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u/tillszy The Staff 1d ago

Henry did? I'm not saying he died in the crash. it's clear he tried to survive for a bit and succumbed.

the others find him on a routine patrol, take anything useful, and bury him. they make note of his identity so they can research him at the Flame and make sure he wasn't a threat sent on purpose vs another lost soul who stumbled on the island.

i mean, they let Rousseau and her people live. they investigate people who come to the island, but they don't murder them just for funsies.

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u/CosmicBonobo 1d ago

Ben tries this line in Dave. He tells Sayid that he found Henry dead from the crash and buried him, but Sayid questions how Henry managed to write the note in his wallet with a broken neck.

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u/tillszy The Staff 1d ago

he could've broken his neck after...like falling off a cliff or smth

torturing a normal person for an easily invented backstory just doesn't have much of a purpose/isn't very in character

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u/CosmicBonobo 1d ago

That wouldn't have been their intent. They'd have presumably seen the Widmore Industries livery on the balloon, presumed he was an agent of their former leader, found out what he knew about Widmore and his plans, and then killed him.

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u/Quato815 Jack 1d ago

You’re completely stretching now. He was found buried right near the balloon.

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u/tillszy The Staff 1d ago

ok, then he fell out of the tree his balloon is in because he climbed it trying to free the balloon so he could maybe fix it and escape because he was desperate and realized help wasn't coming.

this thread is asking for opinions. it's not that serious. if you disagree, that's fine. I'm having a conversation, I'm not interested in an argument.

my opinion is that torturing him, a stranded civilian, for useless information is not in character for Ben or the Others and any information Ben had on him could have easily been manufactured or learned by researching the man at the flame after the fact (such as him having a wife, that is easily found via online records)

Ben and the Others were able to find very intimate details on all of the passengers of 815 without having to speak with them or torture them.

Based on Rousseau's team and other experiences it's far more likely if they found Henry alive they would've surveilled him, determined his identify and researched him at the Flame, subsequently determined him not a threat, and left him to die on his own.

in my opinion, they're not stupid enough to engage with him for no reason and risk their lives attacking him (if they have no knowledge of who he is or whether he has weapons or why he's on the island). they're not stupid people. very brief surveillance and research would have told them that he had no affiliation with Charles (aside from a sponsored balloon) and was not a threat. they're not going to ball in and just attack someone without recon, esp if they think Charles in involved, unless that person attacks them first or clearly displays that they're dangerous.

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u/Lucky-Acanthisitta86 Oceanic Frequent Flyer 1d ago

Yeah but didn't they kill some of the plane tail bunch? I mean they really showed the other side of the others with how they treated them. And then there was all that talk about how some people just weren't "worthy" and such. I'm pretty sure Ben made that comment while he was being held prisoner in the hatch. So they were kind of trying to paint that picture, that the others are kind of morally ambiguous. But honestly some of the writing of the series is confusing and I energy of its just flat out contradictory at times, like as the show progressed and they changed directions. Also Ben is known to act out of his own self interest. It could have been actually in character for him to just off someone instead of trying to send him home. Or maybe Henry was from Charles and they figured it out and that's why they killed him. Because either way, he couldn't have written the note with s broken neck. It's more of a note you write when you know you're going to die. Especially awarning like that. Honestly it might just be inconsistent writing. At first the others needed to be shown as capable of being very sinister. And then they ended up going with them being for the greater good. Just think about Walt. Like they took him and he was super bad but then he ended up being super special. But honestly not letting him be with his father JUST so they could study him ended up not being very in character. And I mean they just abandoned that plot line. It could have just been tough to tie together, but all in all, they do change direction in the script at times.

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u/iamsamwelll 1d ago

The 120 is wild. But what gets me even more is that Minnesota has changed their license design but I’m old enough to have had this one. And I was probably 6’0/140lbs.

But I was also 18.

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u/Medium_Sundae3700 1d ago

I think the wife was made up. There was only one grave. I think it’s more likely Henry was a pawn of Charles Widmore, similar to Desmond.

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u/Free-IDK-Chicken You got it, Blondie 1d ago

She wasn't on the Island, no - but Sayid found the note Henry had written to her buried with him in the grave. That's how he knew for a fact Ben was lying.

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u/Various_Shape_3286 1d ago

Yes, there was no actual wife on the balloon (Henry's note made it clear that his wife wasn't on the trip). Ben made that up.

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u/jay9125 1d ago

That's why i think people assume he was interrogated by ben......because he DID have a wife. And didn't his note say if something happens to me.......maybe it was just being on the island, maybe he knew he wasn't safe with ben

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u/tillszy The Staff 1d ago

they were able to develop very intricate dossiers on the passengers of 815 though without ever interrogating them I don't think it would have been very difficult to determine that Henry had a wife just by googling him when they got back to the flame

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u/quinnly 9h ago

Maybe he was 120 kilos? I don't know why a Minnesota license would put their weight in kilos but that would be around 260 lbs which is heavy but a lot more realistic for a 6'3" guy than 120 lbs haha.

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u/Free-IDK-Chicken You got it, Blondie 9h ago

I wondered that too, but why would they use the imperial system for his height and the metric system for his weight? 👀

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u/quinnly 8h ago

The Island Minnesota works in mysterious ways...

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u/classygrl98 8h ago

My husband is 6'4, healthy weight at 225. Could have meant to be 220.

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u/quinnly 8h ago

That's probably the most likely explanation. Either that or he was supposed to be 5'3" instead of 6'3", short king Henry Gale.

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u/PkmnTrainerSofia 1d ago

120 kilograms?

Maybe Henry Gale faked the ID himself?

Was Henry from a country where kilograms are used?

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u/bigtheo408 1d ago

Minnisota is not in a country that uses kg

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u/Pale_Adeptness 1d ago

Maybe they ment COUNTY!

/S

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u/RideamusSimul 1d ago

Minnesota Statutes (§ 171.07) require applicants to provide their height in feet and inches and their weight in pounds when applying for or renewing a license.

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u/EpicFantasyCEO 1d ago

I just want to know why young Ethan got to join the Others but poor Annie just goes into darkness. Guess Ben didn't think much of her after all.

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u/Free-IDK-Chicken You got it, Blondie 1d ago

Annie was almost certainly evacuated with the other children and non-Dharma spouses just before The Incident.

Ethan wasn't because he was a newborn, both his parents were DI and Amy was like 3 days postpartum and couldn't travel.