On the island:
Jack was quickly thrust into a leadership role by the other
survivors because of his medical training and take-charge
attitude. He 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 casket, empty, and subsequently
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.
Before the crash:
Jack is a spinal surgeon who lived in the United States.
He traveled to Sydney to find his father, Dr. Christian
Shephard.
Early in his medical career, he operates on a car crash
victim named Sarah whose spine was damaged in the accident.
He is convinced that surgery will not alleviate her paralysis,
and he is characteristically cold and direct with her about
her chances. Convinced the operation was a failure, both
are startled to find that she can "miraculously"
move her toes and has regained feeling in her legs. They
eventually marry, despite Jack's apprehension in the days
preceding the ceremony. Eventually their marriage falls
apart under the pressure of his work; by the time of the
flight, Jack is unmarried and does not wear a wedding ring.
He admits it is currently 'knocking around in his sock drawer'.
Jack and his father are working a tumor patient named Angelo.
His daughter Gabriela is his translator. Jack and his father
think that the operation would not work like his miracle
operation on Sarah. He gets home to Sarah and 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. Angelo dies on the operating table
after a month of examination. On his way to his car, Jack
sees Gabriela, whom he tries to console. Gabriela ends up
kissing Jack; 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. Jack, being
a workaholic, feels he contributed to the failure of the
marriage.
His father, 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 a major artery.
His father flees with his medical career shattered, eventually
ending up in Sydney. While there, Christian encounters Sawyer
in a bar and tells him that he wanted to apologize and tell
his son that he did the right thing, but is too weak to
call him. 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 but is eventually successful.
Prior to the flight, 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.
On the plane, he is seated next to Rose. When the turbulence
strikes, Rose's husband is in the bathroom and Jack promises
to take care of her until he returns. Before the plane's
tail section broke off, Jack loses consciousness. |
