Killers of The Flower Moon, The Truman Show, and finding a true connection

The last scene of the Osage story shows Mollie going to Ernest and asking what drug he used to administer to her instead of insulin.

Ernest says it was insulin. This enrages Mollie as if she knows Ernest is administering something else. This is not a giant leap since Mollie was feeling very sick before the police took her and gave her the proper treatment, and she started feeling better.

But the question remains: why did she ask this and only this question to Ernest at the end of their relationship?

In the previous scene of the trial, Ernest has publicly admitted to conspiring to kill Mollie's family members. He admitted that he acted against the Osage family members for years and used his relationship with Mollie to gain their wealth.

There were so many other things that Mollie could have asked Ernest, like the circumstances of her sister's death or whether Ernest had any remorse for his actions.

However, she chose to ask an unimportant question, and she could already guess the response.

I wondered what was going on in Mollie's mind that led her to ask this. And why was she disappointed when Ernest didn't tell her the truth?

The Truman Show

The Truman Show is a reality show about Truman, the only person on the show who doesn't know he is on a show.

The creators display Truman's antics in a fabricated world where everyone, from his wife, his best friend, and his dead father to his newspaper guy, is an actor hired to keep his fake life going in circles.

Those who are unfamiliar with the movie should watch it. But the point to note here is that Truman started doubting the whole thing after a specific incident.

That incident was a genuine connection with another person. For once, he met someone who saw him as the person he was and not the persona that the audience expected him to be.

That brief heart-to-heart profoundly impacted Truman's mind, so much so that he lost interest in everything he had created for himself (albeit fake, but he didn't know that).

It probably was not difficult for Truman to realize his life was a fake. Once he started observing, he could see all the patterns circling back in his tiny world.

But the point remains that the doubt that prompted his inquiry was his first deep connection with a person without the veils his surroundings provided.

It acts as a metaphor for all the egos we have built in ourselves based on the identity our environment has provided us. We have forgotten our true nature. It's like we have taken up a character in a video game made by someone to make us keep playing that game. We have involved ourselves so much in that game that we think that the character in the game that we are playing is our true identity, so much so that we have lost every sense of desire to return to our authentic selves.

This also explains what happened in Mollie's head while talking to Ernest.

A desire for a genuine connection

A true connection is rare. It requires us to drop all pretenses and illusions we have chosen to live with. The latter is much more challenging because we don't even know we live in it.

With all her family wealth, Mollie probably never had a true friend. Her family is dysfunctional, and it is safe to assume that she always craved someone who could see her beyond the persona of a wealthy oil lady- someone who could see her for the human being she is, not the role she plays in society.

During his public confession, Ernest admitted to all the wrongdoings. But when the prosecutor asked if his courtship of Mollie was also fake, Ernest replied that it wasn't. Mollie was listening to Ernest throughout his testimony, but that reply generated a spark in her eyes.

She wanted to know if Ernest felt a true connection with Mollie.

This desire to be able to connect with another human being trumped all her pain of losing her family and years of her life.

She wanted to confirm if Ernest had really transformed and was telling the truth. If he has, the last part of his testimony would also be true. And if that is true, she can feel alive knowing that she, Mollie the human being, and not just Mollie the oil-rich wealthy lady, exists.

So she decides to test it. She asks Ernest a question, knowing he will only answer honestly if he really loves her. And she knows that if he lies, the connection never existed.

She was never interested in finding the truth or making Ernest feel bad about one more evil deed.

I think the director wanted to show us that the desire to find a true connection is so primitive that even death or pain is insignificant in comparison.

Death and pain and temporal. In contrast, the desire to find a true connection is spiritual.

I wonder if this connection exists or is achievable in some way. But I know that almost every human being is looking for it. In theory, it can help us realize our true potential and let go of every materialistic desire holding us back.

"There will be persons in whose presence we learn to prepare ourselves for surprise. It is in the presence of such persons that we first recognize ourselves as the geniuses we are."

- James P. Carse (Finite and Infinite Games)