Responding to Comments - Christian Shepherd is Dead

This post is a response to a comment posted recently by my pal Gret, one of the fantastic people you'll meet at http://www.lostusers.com/. Specifically, Gret questions whether or not Christian Shepherd, father of both Jack and Claire, is somehow alive in the future. Well, lostophiles, let me be clear on this one - the man is dead.

This question, which has been a popular one that developed once viewers began unpacking the dialog of the flash-forwards in "Through the Looking Glass," came from three primary pieces of evidence:

1. The visions/ empty casket. Since way back in Season 1, we found Christian's empty casket (and no sign of his body), and Jack has, from time to time, seen visions of Christian walking through the jungle.


2. In flashforward, Jack told the pharmacist that he had a pain pill prescription written by Christian Shepherd before angrily stomping out of the pharmacy.


3. Also in flashforward, when confronting the new chief of surgery in the hospital, Jack snapped, "you get my father down here, and if he's less drunk than I am, you can fire me."

All compelling evidence. (Gret adds a fourth point - that the pharamacist was strangely unaware of the death of such a prominent local neurosurgeon). Here's why I say Christian is still dead.

1. The producers have said so. They did in the April 20, 2007 abc.com podcast, and, if I'm not mistaken, did so again at the 2007 San Diego ComicCon. Frankly, before Damon and Carlton went dark due to the WGA strike, I believe they reaffirmed this on several occasions.


2. Matthew Fox said so. Now, we all know that the cast of Lost is generally as in the dark as the rest of us about what's going on (other than their having read/ shot 8 more scripts than we've seen). But in the recent EW interview, Matt Fox said he confronted Damon Lindelof with this question when he read the script for "Through the Looking Glass." The explanation he got from Damon was logical enough that it gets its own point here....


3. Future Jack is a drunk and an addict. He lied at the pharmacy to try to score pills. That's it. Flat out lied. As for his rant with the chieft of surgery, per Lindelof (through Fox), it is thoroughly common for people under the influence to conflate time and speak of the dead as though they were still living. Moreover, Jack's point at the time, that he was less drunk than his father, was simply that the hospital knowingly turned a blind eye to Christian's drinking on duty, not that Christian was inebriated (but breathing) at that very moment.


4. Christian's death predated the flash-forward by three years. This is but one reason why the pharmacist may not have reacted with suspicion at the naming of a dead surgeon. After three years had passed, would anyone not closely associated with the Shepherds make the connection between the famous dead guy and the name on the prescription pad? For that matter, just how famous are neurosurgeons, even in their local areas? I've lived in L.A. for nearly 12 years now, and have read the L.A. Times almost every day since I've lived here, and I have never known the name of a single neurosurgeon in this town. Granted, pharmacists may be more in touch with the medical community than video editors turned lawyer are, but again, three years have passed. The pharmacist may not have even been local when Christian was at the peak of his career. Indeed, if you were a drug seeker trying to fill an illicit prescription, wouldn't you pick a pharmacy nowhere near the office of the doctor on whose pad you forged the scrip?


5. Lots of cargo got tossed around by the crash, and I can't imagine coffin clasps are designed to withstand being dropped from a crashing airplane. It's a jungle, full of boars and bears and lord knows what else, so any number of things could have happened to the body. And as for Jack's following Christian around the island...well, Kate saw a horse that saved her from capture in Iowa, and Eko saw his brother, Yemi (whose rotted corpse he also found). For whatever the reason, people see s__t on the island that ain't there!

So there you have it. Sure, some mystery on the topic has been built into the show, but at the end of the day, Christian Shepherd is dead.