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Look, another "Just Write Damn It" philosophy piece based, of course, on 24.
Theme Topic from '24' Episode 5.2 -- Truth and nothing but the truth...
In "24" Jack is hiding out renting a room with Diane and her 15-year-old son, Derrick. Derrick believes that Jack is lying to them about his past. Because of that he doesn't like or trust Jack. Diane also thinks that Jack is lying about his past, but she doesn't care. In a later episode (because I'm not actually managing to write these in order), Diane says to Audrey that she doesn't have to know about Jack's past because "she accepts him for what he is".
Isn't that a little naive? Ok, let's skip naive and jump right to stupid. It's one thing to rent a room or befriend someone who doesn't share things about his/her past, but it's totally different to have a relationship with that person. Especially a relationship that affects your child – teenager or not. I find it interesting that at one point Jack is starting to tell her something about why he has to be secretive, but she shuts him down. She doesn't want to know, because she doesn't have to accept that which she doesn't know. It would even be threatening to have Jack admit that he's deliberately hiding something from her. Not pressing the subject, not questioning Jack's past allows her to live in the fantasy the Jack is just a private person and that nothing that has gone before will affect her.
Derek, on the other hand, is all about truth. As a 15-year-old he's really all about awful truths. He's reached the age when he knows that people don't have to be good and honest and true. He's the child of a single parent, whose mother has a propensity for getting involved with losers. That insures that he's had several lessons in the less-than-pleasant side of humanity. So Derek is all about the truth. He's going to push and prod every person he comes across looking for weakness and dishonesty. Not because he wants to find it, but because he want not to find it.
Derek wants to be able to find the cold hard truth and he wants it to be good.
Once Derek is alone with Jack – after he's been kidnapped and threatened by Jack, almost killed by assassins, seen Jack cold-bloodedly shoot a wounded man, and been filled in on some of Jack's past – he asks Jack he asks Jack only one question: "Why did you lie about who you are?"
Everything that Jack did after he forced Derek on the helicopter, he did with a raw and brutal honesty. He didn't lie to Derek about anything... he may not have answered all his questions, but he never lied. Jack never once hid anything about who he was and he never disguised what he was capable of doing.
After Derek asked him "why", Jack didn't even bother answering the question, he just apologized for the lie. He didn't do it in a backhanded, not-my-fault way either. He said he was sorry, that he didn't think he would care for Derek and his mom the way he does. He accepted full and total responsibility for the lies and for the pain that it caused.
The truth that Derek was shown wasn't warm or fuzzy, it was bloody, nasty and hard, but it was honest. Derek could look at that truth and know that whatever decisions he made based on that – right or wrong, good or bad – would at least have a firm foundation. He would know that his decisions, his mistakes were his alone.
On the other hand, Diane's decisions would be based on lies or "instincts". If she turns out to be wrong, it won't be her fault because she didn't know the truth of the situation. She would never have to make a decision about what she could or could not accept, because she wouldn't know what she was expected to accept. She was happy going along and not knowing about anything, because what you don't know can't hurt you.
Me, I'm with Derek on this one. The past may be in the past, but it has ramifications on the here and now. I'd rather know the truth and stake my claim. I'd rather make the decision and be wrong then never decide at all.
Theme Topic from '24' Episode 5.2 -- Truth and nothing but the truth...
In "24" Jack is hiding out renting a room with Diane and her 15-year-old son, Derrick. Derrick believes that Jack is lying to them about his past. Because of that he doesn't like or trust Jack. Diane also thinks that Jack is lying about his past, but she doesn't care. In a later episode (because I'm not actually managing to write these in order), Diane says to Audrey that she doesn't have to know about Jack's past because "she accepts him for what he is".
Isn't that a little naive? Ok, let's skip naive and jump right to stupid. It's one thing to rent a room or befriend someone who doesn't share things about his/her past, but it's totally different to have a relationship with that person. Especially a relationship that affects your child – teenager or not. I find it interesting that at one point Jack is starting to tell her something about why he has to be secretive, but she shuts him down. She doesn't want to know, because she doesn't have to accept that which she doesn't know. It would even be threatening to have Jack admit that he's deliberately hiding something from her. Not pressing the subject, not questioning Jack's past allows her to live in the fantasy the Jack is just a private person and that nothing that has gone before will affect her.
Derek, on the other hand, is all about truth. As a 15-year-old he's really all about awful truths. He's reached the age when he knows that people don't have to be good and honest and true. He's the child of a single parent, whose mother has a propensity for getting involved with losers. That insures that he's had several lessons in the less-than-pleasant side of humanity. So Derek is all about the truth. He's going to push and prod every person he comes across looking for weakness and dishonesty. Not because he wants to find it, but because he want not to find it.
Derek wants to be able to find the cold hard truth and he wants it to be good.
Once Derek is alone with Jack – after he's been kidnapped and threatened by Jack, almost killed by assassins, seen Jack cold-bloodedly shoot a wounded man, and been filled in on some of Jack's past – he asks Jack he asks Jack only one question: "Why did you lie about who you are?"
Everything that Jack did after he forced Derek on the helicopter, he did with a raw and brutal honesty. He didn't lie to Derek about anything... he may not have answered all his questions, but he never lied. Jack never once hid anything about who he was and he never disguised what he was capable of doing.
After Derek asked him "why", Jack didn't even bother answering the question, he just apologized for the lie. He didn't do it in a backhanded, not-my-fault way either. He said he was sorry, that he didn't think he would care for Derek and his mom the way he does. He accepted full and total responsibility for the lies and for the pain that it caused.
The truth that Derek was shown wasn't warm or fuzzy, it was bloody, nasty and hard, but it was honest. Derek could look at that truth and know that whatever decisions he made based on that – right or wrong, good or bad – would at least have a firm foundation. He would know that his decisions, his mistakes were his alone.
On the other hand, Diane's decisions would be based on lies or "instincts". If she turns out to be wrong, it won't be her fault because she didn't know the truth of the situation. She would never have to make a decision about what she could or could not accept, because she wouldn't know what she was expected to accept. She was happy going along and not knowing about anything, because what you don't know can't hurt you.
Me, I'm with Derek on this one. The past may be in the past, but it has ramifications on the here and now. I'd rather know the truth and stake my claim. I'd rather make the decision and be wrong then never decide at all.
