In this new segment, I try to quickly recap (in a few paragraphs, or less) the history and current placement of all the main characters - consider this a quick "Best Of".
Jack
Caught in a destructive loop with his father, Jack and Christian cycle through the emotions of doubt, guilt, failure and heroic aspirations. Or, as the case may be, Jack and his son David learn to reach a stage where the cycle breaks and they stop worrying about perfection and disappointment.
Original flavour Jack finds himself literally in the middle of our Island of madness, forced to battle with the contradictions of wanting to save everyone and thereby being unable to save anyone. His battles include debating with Sawyer about manners, debating with Sayid about leadership and debating with Locke about everything. In almost all circumstances, Jack loses, but his willingness to sacrifice everything in order to save everyone is both his most endearing and utterly idiotic personality trait. In essence, he is the classic hero that is both refreshingly and realistically unable to rush back into the burning building to save the trapped cat.
Currently, he is on his 400th attempt to 'let go' and simply accept the Island's mind-games and subsequent frustrations, by utilising his award-winning "Playing With Unstable Explosives" strategy.
Current Location - Beach.
Current Team Members - Ben, Sun, Frank, Miles, Ilana, Hurley, Richard (debatable), Jacob (deceased).
Jack doesn't lose. Sawyer is a ignorant hillbilly who does need manners. Sayid when he's not depressed from getting his latest girlfriend kill is not a leader, his role has always been the muscle to Jack's leadership.
ReplyDeleteIdiotic personality trait? I totally disagree and I believe that Jack would rush into a building to save a dumb cat. Why should he automatically let go and not question anything? Blind faith in anything will get you killed.
Totally agree that he shouldn't automatically let go and not question anything - when he does, bad things happen, like getting Juliet killed for automatically believing everything Daniel said, even though Daniel himself was on the verge of a breakdown.
ReplyDeleteAnd I agree, Jack WOULD go into the building to save the dumb cat - but he would fail in doing so, as 99% of us would, whereas television tends to show the hero SUCCEEDING 99% of the time, so it is refreshing that Jack occasionally fails.
Season 1-3 Sayid was an infinitely better leader than Jack, Sawyer and Locke combined, in my opinion. Season 4 onwards Sayid has been rubbish in the leadership department, however.
Debating is fun, huh? Thanks for stopping by anonymous :)
Sayid was the SAME leader as Jack. Aside from the caves they've always been on the same team. Using the sat phone to call the freighter, widely thought of as a Jack failure was Sayid's plan enacted by Jack while the blow uo the others who come to kidnap our women plan (which was successful via Hurley) was Jack's. Jack's plan to get back to the island = also successful. Juliet's dying "It worked" to Sawyer would indicate Jack's (Faraday's) bomb plan was similarly successful. ITA though that his unconventional hero's path makes him far more interesting of a character.
ReplyDeleteAll fair points, and I would agree with all of them with the exception of detonating the nuclear bomb - that was just crazy, and a 'decision' he reached by blindly following his faith that the Island/Jacob/Locke/Daniel knew what they were talking about - in that position, I would have taken the road of "Well, a disastrous Incident occured at this point in time and I have time-travelled to be faced with the decision of whether to detonate a nuclear bomb, at point blank range, or not - hmm, perhaps this is the Incident and I should try to avoid it". Personally speaking.
ReplyDeleteAs you point out, most of Jack's successes have actually been Sayid's doing - calling the freighter (which I think was the BEST move Jack has ever made), the intial survival of everyone can be put down to Sayid and not Jack - while Jack was worrying about the Marshall and falling for Kate, it was Sayid who was organising groups of survivors to get food, water, trying to get a working radio to make contact with the outside world, keeping a fire going, etc.
And let's not forget, Jack's blind faith in people would have had him walking right into Michael & Ben's trap had it not been for Sayid pointing out the fact that Michael was clearly acting shady.
Perhaps my original wording was a bit harsh and gave the impression I don't like Jack - I do actually, but I think he does some stupid things (such as setting off the nuclear bomb) as well as some smart things (calling the freighter) and in the end he is more human than superhuman, which makes him a great character. What I meant by him "losing" is that things don't turn out great for his plans:
- Trying to trap Michael with the help of Sayid = Jack, Kate and Sawyer getting kidnapped.
- Trying to contact the freighter for help = Keamy's crew attacking the Island.
- Trying to come back to the Island = enabling Smokey to gain Locke's body and kill Jacob.
- Trying to reset events with the bomb explosion = nothing having really changed (in HIS timeline) except Juliet dying and Sayid being infected.
See what I mean? It's not Jack's fault, necessarily, but things don't turn out great for him.