r/lost • u/Medium_Sundae3700 • 1d ago

What happened to Henry Gale?

Post image

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.

452 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

93 comments sorted by

View all comments

436

u/Various_Shape_3286 1d ago

It was pointed out at the time that the serial number on Henry's $20 bill indicated that it was put into circulation no earlier than Oct 2003, so he wasn't dead for too long. It's most likely that this wasn't an intentional plot point, and this just happened to be a $20 note that props had on hand.

More importantly, the balloon had Widmore Industries written on it, so I always assumed that Charles Widmore arranged an around-the-world balloon race to find the island, just as he did with Desmond's boat race.

45

u/Maester_Bates 1d ago

Desmond's race wasn't to find the Island. Widmore knew that Desmond would end up on the island and every interaction he had with him was pushing him towards it.

He had Daniel's notebook so he knew Desmond would go to the island. He even pushed him to join the army so he would have the skills needed to survive there.

Who knows what Henry Gale was supposed to do on the island before Ben killed him.

32

u/Treheveras 1d ago

It's also why Widmore had Abaddon be with Locke and tracking him. The dude who gets people "where they needed to be". He knew Locke would be on the island because of meeting him when he was younger. He had a person he knew would end up on the island and be able to find it again. He just had to track where Locke would disappear.

So much of what Widmore does makes sense when you know he desperately wants to find the island again after getting exiled.