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Lost Trivia
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Lost Christian Shephard Biography
Dr. Christian Shephard is a recurring
fictional character on the ABC television series Lost played by John
Terry. He is the father of lead character Jack
Shephard (Matthew Fox), who becomes the de facto leader of the
survivors of Oceanic 815 after it crashes on an island. Christian died
of an alcohol-induced heart attack days before the flight, leading to
much of his story being told through flashbacks. In the fourth season
and fifth season he is again featured on the Island several times,
acting as a messenger for the leader of the Others, Jacob.
Christian is introduced in the fourth episode of the series, and goes
on to feature in thirteen more, as well as two webisodes. He is an
example of two of the main themes in Lost: father issues and character
crossovers.
Before the crash
Initially Christian works as the chief of surgery at St. Sebastian
Hospital. He is a recovering alcoholic. He marries Margo (Veronica
Hamel), and later the two have their only child together, Jack. When
Jack comes home following a bullying incident, Christian discourages
Jack for trying to be heroic, saying that he doesn't have what it
takes. Years later, Christian meets Carole Littleton (Susan Duerden), a
woman from Sydney,
Australia. The two have a brief relationship before she returned to
her home country, and later she gives birth to Christian's daughter,
Claire (Emilie de Ravin). Christian would often fly over to visit,
supporting the two the best he could. Carole and her sister, Lindsey
(Gabrielle Fitzpatrick), do not approve of his juggling time between
two families which leads to Christian being told he is no longer
allowed to visit.
His son Jack grows up to be a doctor, working at the same hospital as
Christian. Christian prompts Jack to try and give more positive news
when dealing with patients, most notably when Sarah (Julie Bowen) is
brought in with severe injuries to her spine; he states that "false
hope is still hope". Jack and Sarah grow close and eventually marry.
When he learns Carole has been in a car accident, Christian travels to
Australia and pays for the medical treatment to keep her alive. While
at the hospital, he introduces himself to Claire for the first time,
much to Lindsay's resentment. Christian takes Claire out for coffee and
tells her of his other family. Claire doesn't
react well and walks out on him, so he returns to Los Angeles.
After Jack and Sarah's marriage fails, Jack finds Christian's number on
her phone bill, and assumes he is the man Sarah was now seeing,
confronting him at an AA meeting. After being assaulted, Christian
slips back into drinking heavily after being sober for fifty days.
Later, Christian operates on a woman while under the influence, and is
exposed by Jack, shattering his career. At an airport bar, Christian
meets Ana Lucia (Michelle Rodriguez). The two agree to travel to
Australia together under different aliases; Ana Lucia names him "Tom",
and Christian calls her "Sarah". Once in Australia, Christian asks Ana
Lucia to serve as his bodyguard. The two drive to Lindsey's house,
where he angrily demanded to see his daughter. After almost becoming
violent, Christian is restrained and driven away. He is dropped off
outside a bar, where he meets
Sawyer
(Josh Holloway). The two drink together, when Christian admits his
mistakes, and that he isn't able to call his son and apologize.
Christian later suffers a severe heart attack and dies in an alley. His
body is discovered and placed in a morgue, where he is identified by
Jack. A funeral service was arranged back in LA, but Jack has trouble
clearing Christian's coffin onto the doomed plane.
After the crash
After the plane crashes, Vincent, the dog that was on the plane,
wanders through the jungle. Christian orders Vincent to go wake Jack,
since there is work to do. The first few days on the island, Jack sees
his father on the island and is certain that he's hallucinating from
fatigue. Locke (Terry O'Quinn), a fellow crash
survivor, refers to Jack's hallucinations as the "white rabbit" and
convinces him to follow them. Jack does so and subsequently is led to a
set of caves where he finds his father's coffin. Christian's body is
nowhere to be found. Months later when Hurley (Jorge Garcia) stumbles
upon Jacob's cabin in the jungle he looks through the window and
observes Christian in a rocking chair. Another person inside the cabin
peeps through the window at Hurley, scaring him and causing him to run
away.
When Claire wakes up one night while returning to the beach with
Miles (Ken Leung) and Sawyer, she sees
Christian rocking his grandson, Aaron. Claire recognizes him as her
father, and he then leads her into the jungle. During this encounter,
it is notable that Miles was apparently able to see and hear Christian,
whereas Sawyer slept through the entire encounter. Whether this was due
to Miles' ability to communicate with dead spirits, or if Christian was
directly, physically there and Sawyer just slept through it is unknown.
In the morning, Claire still hasn't returned and Sawyer finds Aaron
lying on a tree stump with Claire and Christian nowhere to be found.
Locke encounters Christian acting as an intermediary for the invisible
Jacob in his cabin. He tells Locke that the people from the freighter
are already on their way back to the island and the only way to keep it
safe is to have the island moved. Claire is also present, but Christian
tells Locke to keep her whereabouts to himself.
After several times trying to kill himself, Michael is on the freighter
which is going to the island. Christian appears to Michael just before
the C-4 on the freighter explodes, saying "You can go now Michael". The
bomb on the freighter then explodes and Michael is killed.
Christian also appears, this time to John Locke, when Locke is
attempting to enter the Orchid Station during a time before it was ever
built. Christian appears, criticizing Locke for letting Ben move the
Island and not moving the Island himself, as per Christian's
instructions. Christian gives Locke additional instructions on what to
do when he moves the wheel, including how to contact Eloise Hawking
when he goes through the Orchid. Christian asks Locke to "tell my son
hello.", but Locke vanished before hearing that it was Jack. Before
encountering Jack three years later, Locke deduced that Christian was
Jack's father.
After the Island
Some time later, after Jack has escaped from the Island, he sees
Christian late one night in the lobby of his hospital. Due to the
sudden fright, Jack has a fellow doctor prescribe him medication to
deal with the "hallucinations". As Hurley was continually visited by
Charlie during the time in between his appearance in the Season 4
premiere and the years between then and the Season 4 finale, Jack was
continually visited by Christian. The multiple visits have caused his
mental breakdown as shown in the Season 3 finale.
In Namaste, Christian appears to Sun and Lapidus after they have
crashed on the island circa 2007 in the Barracks. He informs Sun that
Jin is on the island, but in 1977 and that they have a long journey
ahead of them. During this encounter, Christian's appearance was
preceded by both the "Whispers" and by the
Smoke Monster.
Characteristics
Whilst living, Christian is a quick tempered alcoholic. He is hard on
his son, but is keen to be a better father to Jack than his father (Ray
Shephard) was to him. A common theme throughout Lost is father issues.
Jack's difficulties getting on with his father are the first instance
of this, with many other characters such as Locke,[16]
Hurley and
Kate
also having difficult relationships with their dads. Christian further
exemplifies this theme with his poor relationship with his daughter,
Claire, where he barely featured in her upbringing. The connection
between characters before the plane crash is another frequently
occurring theme. Christian is present in flashbacks of Jack, Sawyer,
Ana Lucia
and Claire. Ben Rawson-Jones from DigitalSpy describes Christian as
"flawed character with both wisdom and regret".
After his death and reappearance on the island, Christian becomes a
very mysterious figure, acting as a messenger for the even more
mysterious Jacob. Christian is able to appear anywhere, both on and off
the island, at will, and intervenes several times to stop Michael's
suicide attempts.. He was also able to defy time, in appearing to Locke
at the bottom of what would someday be the Orchid Station, at a time
when even the ancient well had not been built, the Statue was still
standing, and before the original Christian had even died. Christian's
posthumous appearances have prompted much speculation from critics. One
reviewer calls Christian's appearance a vision. Erin Martell of TV
Squad pondered that Christian's appearance is "like the Yemi apparition
that turned into the Smoke Monster". Alan Sepinwall notes Christian
holds Aaron, thus making him corporeal, but wondered about the
significance of Miles seeing him. In a review of the season finale he
considers Christian "may be the walking dead". It should be noted that
the first apparition of Christian had him wearing a clean suit, and
having very well kept hair, whereas in his most recent apparition,
Christian is wearing pants and a tattered looking shirt, as well as
having stubble and untidy hair. This could suggest that he is alive in
some sense, though it is unclear. Oscar Dahl commented "I still don't
think that Jacob is Christian Shepherd or anything like that"
Entertainment Weekly's Jeff Jensen calls him "Ghost Dad". Chris
Carabott "expects this mystery will last until the final season". Lost
producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse have confirmed Christian is
dead, stating "In terms of actually physically corporally in
existence... he's dead". They have also described Christian as one of
three characters that are considered "undead", with
Mr. Eko's
brother Yemi and Kate's horse as the others. They elaborate that Yemi's
post-death appearances are incarnations of the monster.
Development
American John Terry portrays Christian in fourteen episodes and two
webisodes, having previously appeared in ER, 24 and Las Vegas. His
early appearances are mostly in flashbacks of various characters. He
begins to feature more prominently on the island throughout the fourth
season.
