Christian Shephard

What exactly is Christian Shephard's role on the island? As the seasons of LOST pile up, it's becoming an ever more important question.

We all know Christian Shephard is the father of Jack and Claire. Christian's role in Jack's younger life was authoritarian and negative, at one time telling Jack never to play the hero because he "didn't have what it takes." Consequently, a great deal of Jack's life can be summarized by his drive to prove his father wrong.

By the end of S5, the question of Christian Shepherd's role has become central. We know by now he is fronting for someone; dead being dead. With the introduction of Jacob and his Nemesis, the question has become more pointed; which one is it? The answer remains open.

First, besides attempting to be a more positive force for his son later in life, we have this touching scene just before Christian dies. Jack told Sawyer his feeling about his father, claiming that "he didn't want to take responsibility for his actions, so he blamed it on fate." When Jack asked why Sawyer was interested, he simply claimed it was out of curiosity. ("Outlaws"). However, Sawyer later revealed to Jack that he had indeed seen his father a week before the crash. Sawyer repeated Christian's words about Jack being the better man and about how Christian's self-confessed inability to call Jack up and tell him that he loved him. Sawyer remarked, "something tells me he never got around to making that call. Small world, huh?" Such a revelation would have a profound effect on Jack, and give redemption to both of them.

Christian's appearances to most Losties seems good hearted and beneficial. Besides helping to wake up his son Jack via Vincent after the crash, he leads him to find fresh water. Later, as Jack rails against his capture on the Hydra island, his anger consuming both him and his rationality, Jack's father tells him to "let it go," using a communication panel that has not worked in years. This council mirrors an earlier time when Christian tells Jack to "let it go" when Jack's anger consumes him while he tries to identify his wife Sarah's lover. Jack does not let it go, eventually accusing Jack's father of being the cuckold, and throwing him off the wagon.

Christian later is responsible for Claire's disappearance, although she seems to voluntarily leave with him. For the first time on the island, Christian is not wearing his funeral garb. More importantly though, she has abandoned her son Aaron to the other Losties. Leaving her son takes on even more significance since she has been warned repeatedly by a clairvoyant not to allow anyone else to raise her son. Does that make Christian a bad influence?

Christian tells Locke to move the island. Ben initially performs the deed, although he leaves the wheel unseated, causing the Losties to time travel repeatedly, and at least one death. In an attempt to stop the Island's jumps through time, Locke descends down to the Orchid station where Christian claims that when he told Locke they must move the Island, he was referring to Locke specifically, and claimed that nothing good happens when listening to Ben's suggestions. Christian encourages Locke to turn the frozen wheel, and confirmed Richard's statement that Locke would die in his attempt to convince the Oceanic Six to return to the Island, calling it a "sacrifice."

Christian also leads Sun to the 1977 DI picture which includes other LOST members, including her husband Jin.

Viewers have little evidence to decide whether Christian's influence serves Jacob or his Nemesis. On the surface, viewers are nonplussed that it was a possessed dead Locke that is successful in convincing Ben to kill Jacob, leading us to believe it was also a Nemesis controlled Shephard that reaffirms Locke's need to die. Doesn't 1+1=2?

Unfortunately, as we know in real life, and have been taught repeatedly and sometimes painfully in LOST, all is not necessarily what it seems. The causality seems to form almost too neat a picture, given the other more basic and beneficial actions Shephard has previously taken.

For now, viewers are urged to keep a wary eye on Christian Shephard. But it remains an instinctual truth that by all outward appearances, Christian is aiding and protecting both his siblings on the island. With all the negative father issues on LOST, it hardly seems logical to nay say the only one that seems now to be positive. We're also reminded that to find his own redemption and silence his own demons Jack most assuredly must learn to trust and appreciate the positive messages his father tried to give him.

There is certainly more to come.