alethea

My woman is named after a character from Kung Fu, played by Jodi Foster. We watched the episode tonight. It aired while Allie's mom was pregnant with her. Her parennts were both big fanns of Kung Fu. Inspired by this episode late in the first season, they decided to name their first born after the show's young hero. Might be the best Kung Fu episode ever. Could we have expected less?

Episode 10: Alethea

A very young and precocious Jodie Foster co-stars as Alethea, a girl believing she has witnessed Caine, who she had just befriended, kill a stagecoach driver during a robbery. Of course, Caine is innocent but her testimony sends him to the gallows, whereupon she decides to trust his word and "lie" about what she saw in order to spare his life. To prove his innocence to Alethea and thus turn her "lie" into a truth, Caine hunts down the real killers. A flashback story at Shaolin temple concerning Caine's childhood loss of innocence to a benevolent lie mirrors Alethea's predicament and makes for a wonderful tale about the difficult transition children are forced to make from a untainted world of absolutes to an adult world of ifs and maybes.

How perfect that Alethea, the one I watched "Alethea" with, should become a journalist.

Alethea is Greek for truth, and is also the name of the Greek goddess of truth.

In the show, Foster's Alethea testifies truthfully about what she saw. But both she and the jury draw a false conclusion from it. She ultimately realizes that the truth was a lie and vice verse. All reporters have experienced this at one time or another.

In the end, Alethea says to Kung Fu Caine, "I love you."

"I have never loved anyone more," Caine replies.