Jack: "I don't believe in destiny."
Locke:"Yes you do, you just don't know it yet."
Undoubtedly, one of my favorite Lost dynamic duos is the castaways' science/faith debate team that is Jack Shepherd and John Locke. Jack is the troubled doctor who was almost immediately chosen to be leader of the Oceanic 815 survivors. John is the mysterious passenger who revealed his mastery of hunting and sage wisdom that proved he was one of the castaways' most valuable assets. Despite the fact that Locke supported Jack as the survivors leader, he was also a rebel who didn't like to be told what he couldn't do. Though early on they tried to be civil to one another when dealing with Island drama, tensions soon rose as Jack began to find Locke untrustworthy after his actions led to Boone's death. But the main problem between the two was a philosophical one. Locke believed the Island was a special place where miracles happened, seeing as how he was cured of paralysis the moment he was thrown to the beach. Jack, disillusioned by doubt, the past, and his unwavering sense of the possible, thought Locke was crazy for thinking such things. Throughout the series, the two men are almost at constant odds with each other. But I have a theory on what this violent and angry relationship may have meant.
I for a long time envisioned both Jack and Locke to be two men with completely different arcs. I always felt that Jack was meant to lead his friends the castaways and Locke was meant to watch over the Island. That idea didn't quite pan out when Locke died. But then something happened, something I didn't see coming but it happened anyway. After Locke died doing everything he could to convince Jack that he and everyone else was special and important, Jack had an epiphany. He suddenly found himself in the role of the man of faith that Locke was not around to fill. He starts to see the signs of fate, not coincidence. He starts to realize what John Locke had been saying all along was true.
After bombing himself back to the future and causing the death of Juliet, I felt Jack was going to go back to same old cynical and angry Jack. For awhile he was and after his centric episode of season six "Lighthouse" in which he discovered Jacob watched him because he was special, I was sure Jack was going to go on a self destructive turn to the dark side by joining The Man in Black. But I was wrong, Jack's sense of faith has only increased as well as his newfound respect in the memory of Locke.
The fact that in the sideways world the still living and paralyzed Locke is working as a substitute teacher at a school is only more symbolism. From seasons 1 to 4 I had thought Locke was shaping up to be a leader and the show's eventual hero. But now I think all along, Locke wasn't supposed to be the big hero of Lost. He was supposed to be the mentor of the people he believed were special all along. He was a teacher who tried to help them understand what they had to do was important, but like uncooperative kids they didn't listen until it was too late. He was an especially crucial teacher for Jack, a substitute to be more precise, because of the failure of his first one. Christian Shepherd, Jack's father. Christian all along had burrowed it into Jack's mind that he "didn't have what it takes" to be a hero, a statement Jack had rebelled against his entire life until his rebellion eventually led to him destroying his father. Before finding out he was dead, Jack didn't have much respect for his father anymore. When he did find him, Jack only had regret that he had been the main reason his father's life was ruined and he died. When he met Locke and was subjected to another idea he might not want to accept: destiny, Jack once again rebelled. He found another father to prove wrong. Jack believed he drove Locke to his death as well. The suicide note "I wish you had believed me, Jack." didn't help much either. But unlike his father, Locke believed in Jack. And he had an idea that Jack could believe in too but just didn't want to until he saw the truth of that idea in his own situation. Jack decided he did have what it took when it came to destiny. Locke, the substitute father and teacher of men, had succeeded even in death.
Now I would have liked for Jack and Locke to have at one point set aside their differences and maintained a partnership, but that just wasn't in the cards. Sacrifice is a major theme in Lost, especially sacrifice of one's self, and Locke did just that to help just one of his students get what he had been teaching. Jack Shepherd, the class rebel. After Locke died, all of the survivors left school. They are all starting to grow up and discover what it takes to become Jacob's Candidates. A part of me would like to think this was Jacob's plan for Locke. To be the mentor. I noticed, how helpless and disappointed Jacob looked when he met John when he fell from that eighth story window and broke his spine. He said "Don't worry, everything's going to be alright. I'm sorry this happened to you." I believed what he said right there. But maybe this was a code Locke could not understand at that time. Everything is going to be alright = you will do your duty, your friends will listen to you, and they will come through for all of us in the end. I'm sorry this happened to you = I'm sorry, this is just the beginning, it doesn't get better, but that's the way it has to be. Maybe it is all part of that master design. Perhaps more than anything, it was John Locke's mission in life to bring forth The Candidate, the true one who will watch over the Island. Perhaps this is just something to give me hope for the future of Jack Shepherd, and to give me peace with the death of John Locke. Probably, but still I think the point has a chance if one looks just right.
This has been another Lost analysis. The second to last episode airs tonight. Follow Your Modest Guru as he checks it out. And thanks for reading.
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