Jack Shephard

For other people with a similar name, see Jack Shepherd.

Template:Infobox Lost character Dr. Jack Shephard is a fictional character on the ABC television series Lost played by Matthew Fox. Jack is the de facto main character of the series. Template:Spoiler

Background

Jack has the most "centric" episodes out of all the characters with a total of 10 centric episodes to date. He is the son of Christian Shephard, half brother of Claire Littleton, and uncle of Aaron Littleton, though neither he nor Claire know this.

Jack is a talented spinal surgeon at St. Sebastian Hospital in the Los Angeles area, where his father, Christian, is Chief of Surgery. Jack had previously attended Columbia University and went on to graduate from medical school ahead of the rest of his class. Jack has been portrayed as a “man of science” and a natural leader. He is taciturn, but speaks bluntly, and is somewhat emotionally reserved which has caused him relationship problems with women. He lets go of matters that appear important to him with great difficulty and has a tattoo on his left shoulder.

After the crash of Oceanic 815, the survivors sense Jack’s natural leadership abilities and treat him as their leader from the start. Though reluctant at first, he gradually grows comfortable with taking charge. But as time passes and pressures mount, Jack’s mental condition worsens, and he begins lashing out angrily with increasing unpredictability. Before long, his authority is challenged by Locke, leading to an intense rivalry between the two.

Fictional character biography

Before the crash

Template:Spoiler Early in his career at St. Sebastian, Jack is called on to operate on a woman, Sarah, who had been paralyzed in a car crash. Unknown to him it was the collision with her vehicle that results in the death of Shannon Rutherford's father, the parent of a character he later will be marooned with. Jack is convinced that surgery will not help and, characteristically of his bedside manner, is cold and blunt to her about her prognosis. During the operation, though, Jack has an emotional change of heart and promises to “fix her.” His doubts return immediately after the surgery, and he is agonized at having made a promise he cannot keep.

Needing to relieve stress, Jack leaves the hospital to run the steps of a nearby stadium. There, he encounters Desmond Hume for the first time. During their brief chat Jack talks about Sarah's situation and the promise he gave to her. Desmond tells Jack he has to believe in miracles although in a situation such as hers recovery is impossible. Upon returning to the hospital, Jack is startled to learn that his operation had been a success: Sarah can “miraculously” move her toes and has regained feeling in her legs.

Jack and Sarah eventually marry, despite Jack’s apprehension in the days preceding the ceremony. Jack's wedding date was August 15, or 8/15, the same number as the doomed flight, and also the same as two of the numbers. Their marriage is soon strained under the pressure of his work and Sarah's different work schedule, which causes them to see little of each other.

Some time later, Jack and his father are working on a tumor patient named Angelo. Angelo's daughter Gabriela is his translator. Jack and his father think that the operation will not work like his miracle operation on Sarah. He gets home to Sarah; she says that her pregnancy test was negative, and Jack is relieved. Christian, Jack's father, sees that Jack is attracted to Gabriela and tells him not to cheat. Jack performs the operation on Angelo and thinks that he did succeed in removing the cancer, but Angelo's illness has weakened him, and he dies on the operating table of a heart attack. On his way to his car, Jack sees Gabriela, whom he tries to console. Gabriela ends up kissing Jack, but Jack tells her that it is not the right thing to do. When he gets home, Jack confesses to his wife about what happened. She, in turn, tells him that she had been cheating on him and that she is leaving him, with her final words to him being, "You will always need something to fix." Jack, being a workaholic, feels he caused the failure of the marriage.

Jack soon becomes obsessed about the man that Sarah left him for, as she refuses to reveal his identity, even during their divorce proceedings. Jack stalks Sarah from afar, even stealing her cell phone bill and calling every number on it in hopes of discovering the man. When one number turns out to be Christian's phone, Jack believes that his father is the man seeing Sarah. He follows Christian to an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, where his suspicion boils over and he ends up attacking him. Jack is jailed but released on bail, thanks to Sarah, who was asked to post Jack's bail by a drunk Christian, who has relapsed thanks to the incident at the meeting. Sarah tells Jack that she was on Christian's phone because they were both concerned about Jack's mental state after the marriage ended. Jack sees an unidentified man waiting for Sarah, and she tells Jack that he finally has something new to fix: his relationship with his father.

To escape from his troubled life, Jack stays in Phuket, Thailand for several months. There he meets a mysterious woman named Achara and has a relationship with her. However Achara refuses to divulge much about herself to Jack, although she is often paid by numerous people for her "talent." Jack secretly follows her one night to her place of business: a tattoo parlor. Achara says her talent is that she can see who a person really is, but she refuses to do that for Jack because he is an outsider, but eventually relents after Jack demands it. Achara sees a great and selfless leader, but because he is a leader, he is lonely and angry. Jack asks for a tattoo representing that on his arm; instead, she puts a tattoo meaning "outsider." The next morning, Jack is no longer welcomed by the people he has come to know. Achara's brother and a group of his friends seek him out, beating him on the beach. They tell Jack to leave the country and never return, while a saddened Achara looks on.

Later on, Christian operates on a woman while under the influence of alcohol; when a nurse tells Jack about this he relieves his father and takes over the surgery. He is unable to repair the damage, however, and the woman dies. Christian pressures Jack to sign a report saying the woman was beyond medical assistance, but during the inquiry Jack discovers that the woman was pregnant and reveals that his father had caused fatal damage by severing her hepatic artery. His father flees with his medical career shattered, eventually ending up in Sydney. There unbeknownst to Jack he discovers a woman he had a daughter with has been in a car accident and is in the hospital. He pays all the costs of her stay. The daughter turns out to be Claire Littleton a passenger that is also on the doomed Oceanic flight. They have currently not discovered this connection. Christian Shephard later dies of a massive heart attack brought on by alcohol poisoning. When Jack leaves the United States, he knows only that his father is missing. Eventually he finds him in a Sydney morgue. Jack has trouble getting the casket onto the plane and has an emotional outburst while at the checking counter, stating that he has to bury his father.

Prior to the flight back to Los Angeles, Jack has a conversation in the airport bar with Ana Lucia Cortez, who will also be on the same flight. The two flirt and promise to meet each other later during the flight, though they are seated in different sections of the plane. It is later revealed that she was Christian's bodyguard and drinking buddy while in Australia.

On the plane, he is seated next to Rose Henderson. He is greeted by stewardess Cindy, who slyly offers him two extra bottles of vodka to add to his drink. When the turbulence strikes, Rose's husband, Bernard is in the bathroom and Jack promises to take care of her until he returns. Before the plane's tail section breaks off, Jack loses consciousness.

Jack's seat number during the flight is 23 B; it should be noted that this is one of the numbers.

After the crash

Season 1

At the beginning of "Pilot: Part 1," we see that Jack was thrown into the woods and had multiple gashes, including a large one on his back. Upon finding the plane's wreckage on the beach, he tends to many survivors but is unable to save all of them. He enlists Kate to sew the gash on his back, marking the beginning of their friendship. He leads an expedition with Kate and Charlie to find the cockpit and the plane's transceiver. Together they find it but also witness the pilot's death at the hands of the "monster".

Jack is quickly thrust into a leadership role by the other survivors because of his medical training and take-charge attitude. He quickly develops a rivalry with Sawyer, mainly over Kate and her feelings towards them. Starting in "Walkabout" and continuing in "White Rabbit," Jack begins glimpsing his father distantly. He chases the image, which eventually leads him to a cave shelter and source of fresh water. He also finds his father's empty casket and destroys it. Jack gets some of the survivors to join him in the caves, while others refuse to leave the beach, hoping to spot a rescue ship.

Until "All the Best Cowboys Have Daddy Issues," Jack is mainly seen performing medical duties, such as trying to help Shannon with her asthma, or Claire with her false labor pains. In that episode, he hastily tries to find Ethan after he abducts Charlie and Claire. When they find Charlie, Jack attempts to save him with CPR, but to little avail at first. Even when Kate tells him to give up, Jack continues until he resuscitates Charlie.

When Kate tries to get a case that belonged to the U.S. Marshal, she gets Jack to help exhume the Marshal's body to find the key. After Jack finds the guns in the case, he takes it and the key and hides it. He first takes them out when he, Sawyer, Charlie and Sayid decide to trap Ethan. In "Deus Ex Machina" and "Do No Harm," Jack works furiously to save Boone, who had suffered fatal injuries in the previous episode. However, he finds himself still having trouble letting go, as evidenced when he reveals that he is O-negative and gives Boone some of his blood. This problem with letting go was foreshadowed in most of his flashbacks. Boone eventually tells Jack to let him go, to which Jack agrees. Since then, Jack's distrust of Locke has grown due to Locke not telling Jack everything that's going on.

In "Exodus," Jack is part of the team that retrieves the dynamite at the "Black Rock" and that plans to open the mysterious hatch. Before he leaves, he and Sawyer make up when Sawyer tells him about the encounter he had with his father. Jack and Locke put aside their differences in order to open it, although Locke says that the reason they don't get along is because Jack is a "man of science," while Locke is a "man of faith."

Season 2

In "Man of Science, Man of Faith" and "Adrift," it is Jack who descends into the hatch after Kate and Locke. He explores the rooms underground and is surprised by Locke and his kidnapper. Jack discovers that the man who has taken them prisoner is none other than Desmond, whom he met the night he operated on Sarah.

In "Collision," Jack is surprised to hear that Ana Lucia survived the crash along with other members of the tail section of the plane, and that she accidentally shot and killed fellow castaway Shannon Rutherford.

In "What Kate Did," Jack struggles with his unresolved feelings for Kate. The situation is complicated when an injured and delirious Sawyer declares his love for her in front of Jack, and when Kate suddenly kisses Jack in the jungle. At the end of the episode Jack reaches out to Ana Lucia, who has distanced herself from the other survivors. He offers her tequila, the drink she had with him in the bar so many weeks before, and the two reconnect.

In "The Hunting Party," he, Locke and Sawyer search for Michael, who had gone in search of Walt. Even though he asked Kate not to come, she follows them anyway, and is taken hostage by Tom. After a brief standoff, the flight survivors drop their weapons, and Kate apologizes for following the group. Later, Jack asks Ana Lucia how long she thinks it would take to "train an army."

In "The Long Con," after Locke moves the guns they argue about the state of their trust in each other.

In "One of Them," as the interrogation in the armory get out of control, Jack holds Locke against the wall and demands him to unlock the armory. The timer goes off and with few seconds to spare, Locke complies with Jack and lets him in to stop the interrogation.

In "Lockdown," Jack takes care of Aaron, who is running a fever, and is approached by Libby, who was stung by a sea urchin. He comments to Libby that some Neosporin should help, to which she replies that the going rate of exchange for Neosporin is 10 loads of laundry, alluding to Sawyer, who stole all the medical supplies from the hatch. Sawyer is playing poker with Hurley and Kate for mangoes. Jack shows some knowledge of poker when he advises Hurley to fold, implying he can read in Hurley's face that he doesn't have anything good. Sawyer goads Jack into playing a few hands with them, figuring Jack was someone who just played poker online. It is revealed that Jack learned to play poker in Phuket,Thailand, and is later suggested by Sawyer that this is where Jack got his tattoos. Jack agrees to play a few hands and ends up winning all the mangoes and fruit. As he gets up to leave, Sawyer raises the stakes, offering one final hand where Jack names the stakes of the game. After thinking for a second, Jack asks for the medical supplies from the hatch, and beats Sawyer with a pair of nines. As Jack goes to leave, Sawyer asks why he didn't ask for the guns, to which Jack replies, "When I need the guns, I'll get the guns."

In "S.O.S.," Jack, fed up of Henry's unwillingness to co-operate, decides to go into the jungle to propose a trade with the Others; Henry for Walt. Jack heads to the beach looking for Kate and ask her to go with him into the jungle to find the Others. Kate, surprised, says yes. Sawyer, who was with Kate at the time, wonders about the gun that Jack is carrying. He asks him where he got the gun, to which Jack replies "Does it really matter?" While in the jungle, Kate finds a small play doll lying on the ground. Jack senses that it's a trap and tries to prevent her from picking it up, but Kate picks it up and they both get caught in one of Danielle's traps. They eventually make their way out of the trap by shooting the rope holding them up, and they continue into the jungle. They eventually get to the line that Mr. Friendly marked out, and Jack starts to call the Others out. By nightfall the Others still haven't appeared. Kate thinks that the Others can't hear Jack, but Jack thinks otherwise. After a while, Kate says, "I'm sorry I kissed you," referring to the episode "What Kate Did." Jack replies, "I'm not." Immediately, the sound of a twig snapping gets Kate's and Jack's attention. Jack readies his gun as they both watch a torch move through the distant jungle. The figure gets closer and falls over at their makeshift camp. Jack and Kate both help the person up. It is Michael.

In "Two for the Road," Jack is taking care of Michael. After Michael explains the situation with The Others, Jack confronts Sawyer, telling him to give up the guns. After he doesn't get them, Locke tells Jack why Sawyer doesn't have his gun and what happened to Ana Lucia earlier that day. Jack sets off along with Kate, Sawyer, and Locke back to the Hatch.

In "?," Jack is going back and forth taking care of a wounded Libby and Michael. Jack is unaware that Michael is the shooter, but he tells Sawyer to give him some heroin, so as to put Libby in a more peaceful state. Jack and Hurley are there to hear Libby's last word: "Michael..."

During "Three Minutes," Jack and Sawyer's friendship becomes slightly more visible as they begin talking a little more. Sawyer asks Jack about his trek into the jungle with Kate, to which he replies, "We were caught in a net." Later on, Sawyer finally tells Jack how Ana Lucia got his gun, and confides that Jack is the closest thing he has to a friend. Jack and Sawyer both go to the funeral for Ana Lucia and Libby; Jack speaks for Ana Lucia and Hurley speaks for Libby. Jack is later confronted by Sayid, who tells him that he believes Michael has been "compromised." Jack is one of the people Michael says has to go with him, otherwise, "it won't work."

In "Live Together, Die Alone," Sayid tells Jack that he will sail around the island and ambush the Others when they arrive. Jack does not put any bullets in Michael's gun to be safe, and when the group kills an Other following them, Jack reveals to everyone that Michael is a traitor, which Michael admits. Jack reveals Sayid's plan, but it does not work - Sayid sets off a signal fire from the Others camp, but it is miles away; Michael has not led the group there. Jack and the rest are suddenly ambushed, bound and gagged, and taken to a long dock.

Jack, Sawyer, and Kate watch as Michael leaves the island with Walt via boat. Hurley is let go. The fate of the three is unknown, although "Henry Gale" states that they will not be harmed and that they will live with the Others.

Season 3

In "A Tale of Two Cities," Jack is now imprisoned in the DHARMA Hydra Installation, in what initially appears to be a jail cell--later revealed to be an emptied aquarium--for questioning by Juliet, one of the Others. After initially refusing to cooperate with her in exchange for food, he gives in after trying to escape and finding out that the cell is underwater. He then finds out that the Others seemingly have medical records, employment papers, and other documents relating to his life and his family. Upon asking about how she got his father's autopsy report, he is simply told, "We got it."

Later, "Henry" sits down with Jack in "The Glass Ballerina," revealing his real name: Benjamin Linus. He tells Jack that he can take him off the island, just as he did with Michael and Walt, but he wants Jack to see where the Others are coming from so he won't think of them as enemies. He proves to Jack that they all have access to the outside world, using examples of events after the crash (up until November 2004), such as the reelection of George W. Bush, the death of Christopher Reeve, and the Boston Red Sox winning the World Series. Jack is skeptical about the Red Sox winning the Series, because of his (and his father's) belief that the Red Sox are cursed by fate. Ben shows him videotaped footage of the Red Sox's victory, leaving Jack speechless.

In "Every Man for Himself," Jack refuses to answer Juliet's questions and only wants to answer to Ben. This looks like to be a sore spot with Juliet. Soon after, Jack hears Sawyer's muffled screams over the intercom in his cell. Juliet then enters with blood-stained scrubs, asking for Jack's help. Jack refuses, believing the Others are torturing Saywer, but is told that someone is seriously wounded and they need Jack to save her. Jack has a bag placed over his head and is marched to an old operating room, where an Other named Colleen is on the operating table, suffering from a gunshot wound to the abdomen. As he scrubs up, Jack notices an X-ray of a spine with a large tumor on it. The bullet in Colleen was already removed by Juliet, but she lacks any surgical experience and is more confused than helpful when assisting Jack. When Colleen's vital signs fail, Jack asks for a defibrillator, but the only one available is broken. Colleen dies. Jack is handcuffed to the operating table while the Others leave. He tells a sad Juliet that Colleen was already too far gone before she arrived. He then asks Juliet about the X-ray, believing the Others want him - a professional spinal surgeon - to remove the tumor from that person's spine. This person is revealed to be Ben, who discovered this tumor two days before the crash.

Ben confides in Jack that everything that the Others have been doing to Jack during his captivity was to gain his trust so that he would agree to operate on Ben, and not view him as an enemy during such a delicate procedure. Juliet later puts on a movie for Jack, but to his surprise, the movie is of Juliet holding various cue cards, warning Jack not to trust Ben and asking him to "accidentally" kill Ben on the operating table.

In "I Do," Jack refuses to even operate on Ben at all. Juliet brings Kate - who has been locked in a cage above ground with Sawyer - to Jack. Kate says that if Jack does not operate, the Others will kill Sawyer. An angry Jack tells Kate not to trust what the Others say and tells her to leave. Later on, a mysterious voice over the broken intercom in Jack's cell tells him that his door is unlocked. Jack leaves the cell and finds a room full of monitors. He sees Kate and Sawyer post-coitus via one monitor. Ben suddenly appears commenting that he thought that Kate would end up with Jack rather than Sawyer, and an extremely upset Jack agrees to the surgery only if the Others give him a way off the island. Ben agrees.

During surgery, Jack purposely cuts an incision in Ben's kidney sack. He has an hour to live, and since Jack is the only one who can repair it, the Others must obey his demands. Jack tells Tom (Mr. Friendly) to contact Kate via walkie-talkie. He tells Kate to run, since he just gave her an hour's head start. When she reaches safety, she is to contact Jack again and tell him the story he told her when they first met so he knows that she has not been re-captured. Kate refuses because she doesn't want to leave without Jack. Jack again tells her to run.

Juliet attempts to call Jack's bluff, but also reveals that Kate and Sawyer can't escape because the Hydra is located on a smaller island off the main one (which Kate confirms soon after via walkie-talkie). Jack counters by revealing to Tom about Juliet's plan to kill Ben. Ben amazingly wakes up from his anesthesia, having heard everything. He asks Jack to leave the room so he could speak to Juliet. As Jack watches from above, he sees a short conversation between the two that makes Juliet cry. She then tells Jack that Ben has given permission for Sawyer and Kate to leave, so she leaves to find them. Jack returns to surgery to restitch Ben's kidney sack, but he accidentally cuts an artery. During his panic, Kate radios in, telling him they have a boat. She starts to re-tell Jack's story, which was how he once made a huge mistake during surgery, so he counted to five and calmed down. Jack manages to sew up Ben's artery and kidney sack. He then asks Kate not to come back for him. After removing the tumor, he asks Juliet what Ben said to her, which was that she is allowed to leave the island if he survives the surgery.

In "Stranger in a Strange Land," Jack is confronted by Tom, upon completing the surgery, who moves him from his cell in the Hydra station. On the way out, he sees Juliet, handcuffed, being led into the cell he came from. Jack finds himself outside in the cages, the same cage that Sawyer was held in. Tom visits him and explains that Juliet is in trouble. Later that night, Jack is visited by Juliet. She explains that she was allowed out to check up on Ben, and asks Jack to examine him with her, to which he refuses. He is soon visited by the 'sheriff', Isabel, who comments on his tattoos. She takes him away to be questioned. Jack is questioned about Juliet's intentions to kill Ben. Jack denies being asked to kill him, and instead says that he planned on turning the Others against each other to help Kate and Sawyer escape. When Isabel suspects him of lying, Jack defiantly requests to be returned to his cage.

Jack finds himself being watched the next morning by a group of people, one of which happens to be Cindy. He quizzes Cindy, but becomes angry when she asks about Ana-Lucia. Shortly after, Alex arrives, smashing the surveillance camera, and asks him why he helped Ben. During this conversation, Jack learns of Juliet's predicament, and he eventually decides to examine Ben. Jack bargains with him to free Juliet in exchange for his services, to which he obliges. Ben writes a note for Jack and Alex to give to Isabel, but his presence at the trial causes a stir in Tom. When Isabel reads Ben's note, she calls off the execution, but prepares to 'mark' her for her crime. After this, Jack tends to Juliet's mark. Soon after, they meet up with Ben and the rest of the Others, and sail back to their village.

When Kate, Sayid, Locke, and Rousseau approach the village, they see Jack playing football with Tom, showing he has adapted to his surroundings. ("Par Avion")

However, he claims that he has made a deal with the others, and that they will let him escape on the submarine along with Juliet. Before leaving, he tells Kate that he will come back for her. However, Locke destroys the submarine with C-4 right before Jack can leave ("The Man from Tallahassee"). The next day, in "Left Behind", Kate discovers Jack lying unconscious in a hallway in one of the houses. She breaks down and apologizes for ruining his chance of escape. As they leave, Jack decides to take Juliet back to the beach with them, to the dismay of Kate and Sayid. On their way back, in "One Of Us", Jack protects Juliet from interrogation when Sayid begins questioning her. The four of them return to camp the next day, but everyone doesn't take to Juliet too well. That night, Jack tells everyone about his ordeal, but is interrupted when Claire falls critically ill. Juliet reveals that she is responsible for this, and can also help her. Jack allows her to retrieve medicine, and the next day he and Juliet administrate it to Claire, much to Charlie's resentment. Jack explains to Juliet that the rest of the camp are willing to forgive and forget, but will need to know some answers eventually. The two appear to have bonded deeply over time when they smile at each other.

Jack has dinner with Juliet in "Catch-22", much to Kate's despair. The next morning, Sawyer interrupts a conversation with Juliet to challenge Jack to a game of ping pong. At this point, many of the survivors are questioning whether Jack has joined the Others. Sun and Desmond each voice their suspicions of Jack on separate occasions (D.O.C., The Brig). In The Brig, Jack is speaking with Juliet on the beach when he is approached by Kate, who informs him about the parachutist. When asked why no one told him sooner, she reveals that he is no longer trusted by most of the camp. Jack and Juliet then argue whether or not to tell her something, and they leave soon after.

In "The Man Behind the Curtain", Jack and Juliet return to camp at nightfall, just in time to hear the recorder play Juliet's message to Ben. Sayid and Sawyer immediately question Jack why he didn't tell them sooner. Jack says that he wasn't sure what to do at the time, but tells the camp that they have some catching up to do.

Trivia

• It should be noted that the first episode of every season begins with a Jack-centric episode.
• Jack and Kate are the only two characters to appear in every episode of the first season.

Behind the scenes

• In the original outline of the pilot episode, Jack was supposed to be killed halfway through the two-part pilot; however, early readers claimed killing him off would lose viewers. The producers subsequently cast Fox in the role as a permanent character after considering a well-known guest star such as Michael Keaton.
• Fans frequently speculate the unimportance of the character because they at one time planned to kill him in the pilot. However, the producers have said on numerous occasions that the idea was abandoned very early in planning the show.

• Jack's tattoo is an actual tattoo Matthew Fox has in real life. It contains a 5, two letters BC, a Lebanese Phalangist symbol, and four Chinese characters 鹰击長空, which means eagle striking the sky, a sentence taken from Changsha, a poem by Mao Zedong.
• In the Season 3 episode "Stranger in a Strange Land", It was revealed that Achara tattooed the four Chinese characters for Jack. Isabel translates the words and reads "He walks amongst us but he is not one of us." Jack replies "That's what it says, but that's not what it means." It should be noted that Isabel's translation is not the actual meaning of the Chinese phrase nor has any relation with the poem from where it originates.

• Both Jack and the actor who portrays him, Matthew Fox, are graduates of Columbia University.