Can you imagine Lost without Jack? The Pilot that aired was as it was initially conceived, except that Jack was supposed to be killed by the Smoke Monster. The producers thought that killing the character we most identified with would be groundbreaking television. The network executives, however, thought this might be too groundbreaking, and asked for Jack to survive. Michael Keaton, who had been cast as Jack, was out, and Matthew Fox was in. The killing still occurred, but it was the pilot of the plane, played by Greg Grunberg, JJ Abrams’ childhood friend, who was plucked from the cockpit of the plane and tossed to his death by the Smoke Monster.
Since then, the producers, writers, and Fox have developed a very complex and flawed character. Jack was the child of an alcoholic with a strong drive to fix things. He became the de facto leader after the plane crash, caring for the sick, planning for the future, and trying to get rescued. Jack’s primary rivals for leadership and the attentions of the winsome Kate were John Locke and Sawyer, respectively. A lot can be said about Jack’s relationship with Sawyer, but I am going to save it for a fuller discussion on the Dreaded Quadrangle (in case you don’t know: Jack, Kate, Sawyer, and Juliet).
Cross the Road, JackBut Jack’s rivalry with John Locke is of most interest here. For most of four seasons, Jack had been the logical one, the rational doctor, who relied on his intelligence, senses, and skills as a leader. He didn’t believe that the island had mystical powers, didn’t know that so many surrounding him had been miraculously healed (John (paralysis), Rose (cancer), and Jin (low sperm count), among others), and didn’t think that everyone was supposed to remain on the island indefinitely. Jack had no faith in the island, and didn’t believe in destiny. John, of course, clearly felt otherwise, and the two frequently clashed on the island. There seemed to be no meeting of the minds between the Man of Science and the Man of Faith.
Once off the island, however, Jack fell apart, despite a relationship with Kate and a promising career, afflicted by self-doubt, drug abuse, and alcoholism. All of his vaunted strengths and leadership skills seemed to desert him, and he disappointed Kate, Hurley, and Sun. His path toward drug and alcohol abuse, interrupted by his time on the Island, returned. Jack had nothing to live for, nothing to fix. \
And so it was when John Locke, calling himself Jeremy Bentham, arrived at Jack’s hospital emergency room. A bloated, unshaven Jack confronted John. It went from hostile to worse:
JACK: What are you doing here?
LOCKE: Jack, how did you find me?
JACK: You were in a car accident and you were brought into my hospital. What are you doing here?
LOCKE: [Grunts] We have to go back.
JACK: [Laughing] Of course. Of course we do.
LOCKE: Jack, the people I left behind need our help. We're supposed to go back—
JACK: --because it's our destiny? How many times are you gonna say that to me, John?
LOCKE: How can you not see it? Of all the hospitals they could've brought me to, I end up here. You don't think that's fate?
JACK: Your car accident was on the west side of Los Angeles. You being brought into my hospital isn't fate, John. It's probability.
LOCKE: You don't understand. It wasn't an accident. Someone is trying to kill me.
JACK: Why? Why would someone try to kill you?
LOCKE: Because they don't want me to succeed. They wanna stop me. They don't want me to get back because I'm important.
JACK: Have you ever stopped to think that these delusions that you're special aren't real? That maybe there's nothing important about you at all? Maybe you are just a lonely old man that crashed on an Island. That's it. Good-bye, John.
LOCKE: Your father says hello.
JACK: What?
LOCKE: A man--the man who told me to move the Island--the man who told me how to bring you all back--he said to tell his son hello. It couldn't have been Sayid's father, and it wasn't Hurley's, so that leaves you. He said his name was Christian.
JACK: My... my father is dead.
LOCKE: Well, he didn't look dead to me.
JACK: [Voice breaking] He died in Australia three years ago. I put him in the coffin! He's dead.
LOCKE: Jack, please, you have to come back! You're the only one who can convince the rest of 'em. You have to help me! You're supposed to help me!
JACK: John, it's over! It's done. We left, and we were never important. So you... you leave me alone. And you leave the rest of 'em alone!
JACK: What are you doing here?
LOCKE: Jack, how did you find me?
JACK: You were in a car accident and you were brought into my hospital. What are you doing here?
LOCKE: [Grunts] We have to go back.
JACK: [Laughing] Of course. Of course we do.
LOCKE: Jack, the people I left behind need our help. We're supposed to go back—
JACK: --because it's our destiny? How many times are you gonna say that to me, John?
LOCKE: How can you not see it? Of all the hospitals they could've brought me to, I end up here. You don't think that's fate?
JACK: Your car accident was on the west side of Los Angeles. You being brought into my hospital isn't fate, John. It's probability.
LOCKE: You don't understand. It wasn't an accident. Someone is trying to kill me.
JACK: Why? Why would someone try to kill you?
LOCKE: Because they don't want me to succeed. They wanna stop me. They don't want me to get back because I'm important.
JACK: Have you ever stopped to think that these delusions that you're special aren't real? That maybe there's nothing important about you at all? Maybe you are just a lonely old man that crashed on an Island. That's it. Good-bye, John.
LOCKE: Your father says hello.
JACK: What?
LOCKE: A man--the man who told me to move the Island--the man who told me how to bring you all back--he said to tell his son hello. It couldn't have been Sayid's father, and it wasn't Hurley's, so that leaves you. He said his name was Christian.
JACK: My... my father is dead.
LOCKE: Well, he didn't look dead to me.
JACK: [Voice breaking] He died in Australia three years ago. I put him in the coffin! He's dead.
LOCKE: Jack, please, you have to come back! You're the only one who can convince the rest of 'em. You have to help me! You're supposed to help me!
JACK: John, it's over! It's done. We left, and we were never important. So you... you leave me alone. And you leave the rest of 'em alone!
At this point, it is clear that Jack was still clinging to his belief as the Man of Science. Jack had already told Hurley that he would never return to the island. It would have seemed that Jack was immobile on the subject.
But we know that was not so. Indeed, Ben informs John that Jack had bought a ticket to Australia after John’s visit. We already knew after the first flash forward in Through the Looking Glass that Jack subsequently booked numerous flights to Australia in the hopes that one of the planes would crash, returning him to the Island. At the very least, the Man of Science believed he needed to return to the island.
Just Who Is This Guy, Anyway?
Apparently, turning from science to faith also turns a man from one of action to one of passivity. The first evidence we had occurred in Jack’s first confrontation with Sawyer. When Jack found Sawyer reading a novel instead of, I don’t know, breaking Sayid out of Dharma-jail, Jack threw a punch, “Because it looks to me like you were reading a book.” When Sawyer stood up to himself (beautifully, may I say?), Jack did something I didn’t think he could do. He backed off. He appeared content to let Sawyer lead.
Jack continued to allow himself to take a backseat to the action. Instead of saving Ben (a task he was uniquely qualified to do), he made sandwiches. Why? “We can’t change what’s already happened. This has nothing to do with me.” Oh, and “I’ve already saved Benjamin Linus, and I [operated on him] for you, Kate.” Oh, and “when we were here before, I spent all my time trying to fix things. But did you ever think that maybe the island just wants to fix itself? And maybe I was just getting in the way?”
Oh, okay. You can’t change it, you did it once before, and you would just be in the way?
And now you believe in the island?
But as the season ended, we learned the real reason for Jack’s decision to return to the island. It turns out, it was all about Kate. This played out with Jack’s decision to adopt Daniel Faraday’s crazy plan to blow up the island. If Jughead is detonated, then everything that happened, every “miserable” moment, is wiped away. He’ll have never lost Kate, since they’ll be back on the airplane, he slowly but surely getting toasted on airplane liquor, and Kate in handcuffs. And, if it’s meant to be, Jack and Kate will have another chance to get back together.
Right.
It’s not just that Jack acted uncharacteristically. I’m okay with people on Lost doing that. But Jack’s change wasn’t organic. It seemed forced and false, and not necessarily a logical occurrence based on everything that had happened to him before. What changed the active man of science into the passive man of faith? Was it the alcohol/drugs? The mention of his father? The general disintegration of his life? We don’t know. And I think we needed a few more clues or signs to help us feel this change that Jack undergoes in Season Five.
The Actor
Matthew Fox made headlines this year when he announced that he was done with television to focus on his movie career. The blogging public guffawed loudly at this. Some found it ludicrous that Fox would leave television for what has so far been a lackluster movie career. Others bemoaned the David Caruso-hubris Fox showed by turning his nose up at television. Just who does he think he is?
Honestly, I think we should give the man a break. Granted, he’s been in a handful of movies, of which only We Are Marshall gathered him any critical praise, as far as I can tell. But Matthew Fox’s first series, a failed drama called Freshman Dorm, aired in 1992. Party of Five came along in 1994, lasting until 2000. Another failed show, Haunted, aired in 2002. Lost, of course, started in 2004. That’s 13 seasons. That’s a lot of time. From what I understand, an actor playing a main character on a television show doesn’t have much of a life when the show is taping. Fox has a wife and children that he moved to Hawaii for this gig. I imagine the paychecks have been pretty nice. If he’s saved enough, he might not really need the work.
The comparison with Caruso is absurd. Until NYPD Blue, Caruso had been a minor character actor in various movies and series, including Hill Street Blues, where he played an Irish gang-member. Caruso famously left NYPD Blue under the impression that his movie career was going to take off. Clearly that didn’t happen. Now Caruso has spent nine seasons phoning it in on CSI: Miami. Caruso did not earn the respect he demanded; Fox has. More power to you, Fox.
But we know that was not so. Indeed, Ben informs John that Jack had bought a ticket to Australia after John’s visit. We already knew after the first flash forward in Through the Looking Glass that Jack subsequently booked numerous flights to Australia in the hopes that one of the planes would crash, returning him to the Island. At the very least, the Man of Science believed he needed to return to the island.
Just Who Is This Guy, Anyway?
Apparently, turning from science to faith also turns a man from one of action to one of passivity. The first evidence we had occurred in Jack’s first confrontation with Sawyer. When Jack found Sawyer reading a novel instead of, I don’t know, breaking Sayid out of Dharma-jail, Jack threw a punch, “Because it looks to me like you were reading a book.” When Sawyer stood up to himself (beautifully, may I say?), Jack did something I didn’t think he could do. He backed off. He appeared content to let Sawyer lead.
Jack continued to allow himself to take a backseat to the action. Instead of saving Ben (a task he was uniquely qualified to do), he made sandwiches. Why? “We can’t change what’s already happened. This has nothing to do with me.” Oh, and “I’ve already saved Benjamin Linus, and I [operated on him] for you, Kate.” Oh, and “when we were here before, I spent all my time trying to fix things. But did you ever think that maybe the island just wants to fix itself? And maybe I was just getting in the way?”
Oh, okay. You can’t change it, you did it once before, and you would just be in the way?
And now you believe in the island?
But as the season ended, we learned the real reason for Jack’s decision to return to the island. It turns out, it was all about Kate. This played out with Jack’s decision to adopt Daniel Faraday’s crazy plan to blow up the island. If Jughead is detonated, then everything that happened, every “miserable” moment, is wiped away. He’ll have never lost Kate, since they’ll be back on the airplane, he slowly but surely getting toasted on airplane liquor, and Kate in handcuffs. And, if it’s meant to be, Jack and Kate will have another chance to get back together.
Right.
It’s not just that Jack acted uncharacteristically. I’m okay with people on Lost doing that. But Jack’s change wasn’t organic. It seemed forced and false, and not necessarily a logical occurrence based on everything that had happened to him before. What changed the active man of science into the passive man of faith? Was it the alcohol/drugs? The mention of his father? The general disintegration of his life? We don’t know. And I think we needed a few more clues or signs to help us feel this change that Jack undergoes in Season Five.
The Actor
Matthew Fox made headlines this year when he announced that he was done with television to focus on his movie career. The blogging public guffawed loudly at this. Some found it ludicrous that Fox would leave television for what has so far been a lackluster movie career. Others bemoaned the David Caruso-hubris Fox showed by turning his nose up at television. Just who does he think he is?
Honestly, I think we should give the man a break. Granted, he’s been in a handful of movies, of which only We Are Marshall gathered him any critical praise, as far as I can tell. But Matthew Fox’s first series, a failed drama called Freshman Dorm, aired in 1992. Party of Five came along in 1994, lasting until 2000. Another failed show, Haunted, aired in 2002. Lost, of course, started in 2004. That’s 13 seasons. That’s a lot of time. From what I understand, an actor playing a main character on a television show doesn’t have much of a life when the show is taping. Fox has a wife and children that he moved to Hawaii for this gig. I imagine the paychecks have been pretty nice. If he’s saved enough, he might not really need the work.
The comparison with Caruso is absurd. Until NYPD Blue, Caruso had been a minor character actor in various movies and series, including Hill Street Blues, where he played an Irish gang-member. Caruso famously left NYPD Blue under the impression that his movie career was going to take off. Clearly that didn’t happen. Now Caruso has spent nine seasons phoning it in on CSI: Miami. Caruso did not earn the respect he demanded; Fox has. More power to you, Fox.
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