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In last night's Lost episode, "Namaste", Dr. Jack Shepherd is finally relieved of his stressful burdens as both surgeon and savior. Following his return alongside Kate, Hurly and Sayid to the island, circa 1977, Jack's former rival, James "La Fleur" Sawyer, has now arranged for him to spend his years free of hospital scrubs and iodine cleansing. Instead, he'll savor his new found freedom in a janitor's jumpsuit doing a different kind of scrubbing. Toilets. How's that for a responsibility free existence?
"You don't ever get to tell me what to do. Ever again."
Okay, let's just get it out there. Sawyer is the man. He's the shit. He's the stud. He's the tough, funny guy men hope to be and the hunk the girls want to end up with. Better, he's the bad boy who actually has the good guy ready to go on the fly. Best of all worlds. Last week's Lost episode, "La Fleur" showed us the laconic con man was a hippie at heart. Hippie by way of Han Solo.
It's easy for the audience to love the wise-cracking mercenary who can be morally ambivalent when it suits the moment. Much tougher to appreciate the guy who is always trying to do the right thing even at his own personal loss, like our poor, down-trodden and down-to-his-right-hand, Dr. Jack Shepherd.
Apologies to all for the brazen parallel between Han Solo and Luke Skywalker.
Whereas Jack pees all over his idyllic game of house with Kate and Aaron in a booze-soaked fit of jealousy, Sawyer romances Juliet, sticks to her side and becomes the perfect house hubby. But TV shows never follow logic. Throwing a bone at the Star Trek geeks by quoting Spock, "logic would dictate" that three years in a stable environment would forge a much more realistic and lasting bond between any two people. Much more than a few weeks in a cage-lockup where they hump on closed circuit TV. So of course, Sawyer's bond with Juliet is much more solid than it ever could have been with Kate. And in the future where Jack and Kate paired up following her acquittal, poor Jack was carrying the burden of the secret he had the balls to put forth to protect the others back on the island. Oh, and he did have his DEAD father showing up from time to time when he wasn't saving people's brains in surgery. What did Sawyer have to deal with while picking flowers for Juliet? Seventies jive talk from horny Dharma potheads and ketchup instead of salsa?
Will the writers ever circle back with Jack and Juliet? Juliet had romantic feelings for Jack even though it mainly stemmed from survival mode, the same mode that one could argue forged the Sawyer/Kate bond. However, Juliet did back off completely when she realized his heart was with Kate.
It would seem the writers have ruled out any Kate and Jack possibility since they had their shot after the Oceanic rescue, and Jack blew it. Coupled with the trauma of giving up Aaron, Jack will forever be tied to some pretty raw memories for Freckles. Too bad. It's not like she turned out to be his sister, so it really is too bad. And now it seems that he won't get Juliet either.
We must be the only folks in the room who not only feel for Jack Shepherd but also likes the character and want to stick with him. It's easy to root for the stubbly, wispy haired rogue who gets the best one-liners. Maybe the writers just need to give Jack a few more zingers. Then again, he's a brain doctor, Jim, not a comedian! Going into his apparent integration with the rest into the Dharma commune in the episodes to come, it looks like he's growing his hair out. Good start. It's easy for people to overlook him in favor of Sawyer, because he seems bland by comparison. And he lacks the asskicking, Boba Fett talents of Sayid. Nor the wise paternal, Obi Wan qualities of John Locke. And he's not the friendly Chewbacca like Hurly or the annoying but lovable C-3PO that Charlie was. Someone stop us before we call out poor Desmond as Admiral Ackbar. "It's a trap!"
Jack Shepherd is not the louse who makes good. He's the guy who makes good but louses it up. That's tragic and compelling. He seem like a whiner, but give the guy a break. He got people off the island the best way he could, and he manned up and took the heat for concocting the lie that they all agreed to, by the way. We at the Mung Hour completely empathize with his ire against Locke, because until you actually pull that time machine lever on me, we'd be just as skeptical. OF ALL OF IT.
Sure, he's not as funny and suave and interesting as Sawyer, but similar to Desmond, he's the guy who wants to please those he loves but gets smacked down by a father figure for his efforts. Jack's the guy who wants to help the people that end up turning on him on some level. He's the guy who demands proof not just faith. He's the guy who wants to get the girl but isn't roguish enough nor confident enough to enjoy it when its right there. He's the island's Bill Pullman. He's the guy that people count on when their needs come first, then shit on him the minute he makes a mistake.
Maybe he has a shot at redemption ... and getting laid. Maybe there's some hottie we haven't seen yet that he can make amends with, if it's not Kate. Or maybe not. Perhaps he'll just have to settle for watching Sawyer and Kate huddle around the fire celebrating with the Ewoks while he stares off at the ghostly specters of Christian Shepherd, John Locke and Ben Linus.
In last night's Lost episode, "Namaste", Dr. Jack Shepherd is finally relieved of his stressful burdens as both surgeon and savior. Following his return alongside Kate, Hurly and Sayid to the island, circa 1977, Jack's former rival, James "La Fleur" Sawyer, has now arranged for him to spend his years free of hospital scrubs and iodine cleansing. Instead, he'll savor his new found freedom in a janitor's jumpsuit doing a different kind of scrubbing. Toilets. How's that for a responsibility free existence?
