Jack Shephard

Played by: Matthew Fox 
Reason for trip: Returning his father's body to the United States
Profession: Spinal surgeon at St. Sebastian Hospital

Jack's Island Experience

Jack's Pre-Island Experience

Jack Shepherd is a brilliant neurosurgeon living in at once in the shadow of his father, Christian Shepherd, and under the harsh glare of his father's expectations. He is a man full of determination, commitment and certainty in his own skills.

As a child, Jack's heroic nature got the best of him when he stepped in to save a friend from a cruel bully. The bully, originally uninterested in attacking Jack, turned on him for trying to defend his friend. When Jack tells his father what his happened to him, Christian delivers a crushing speech to the young Jack:

"I had a boy on my table today. I don't know, maybe a year younger than you. He had a bad heart. It got real hairy, real fast. Everybody's looking at your old man to make decisions. And I was able to make those decisions because at the end of the day, after the boy died, I was able to wash my hands and come home to dinner. You know, watch a little Carol Burnett, laugh till my sides hurt. And how can I do that, hmm? And even when I fail, how do I do that, Jack? Because I have what it takes. Don't choose, Jack, don't decide. You don't want to be a hero, you don't try and save everyone because when you fail. . . you just don't have what it takes."

As an adult, Jack becomes a doctor, just like his father, and works in his father's hospital. One day a young woman, Sarah, is rushed into the emergency room after a car accident. Jack makes a snap decision to save her, at the expense of the other victim of the crash. Jack saves the woman's life, and goes on to promise that she will dance at her wedding, despite the debilitating injuries she's suffered. Worried that he's failed, he goes jogging, and meets Desmond, who suggests that perhaps miracles are possible. When he returns to Sarah's room, it appears that indeed, she has been "fixed."

Jack marries Sarah, despite some apprehensions. He desperately afraid of failing, and most of all, worried that he'll fail at being a good husband to her. Indeed, some tensions grow over the course of their marriage. At one point, Sarah tells Jack that she took a pregnancy test, and added "don't worry, it was negative."

Later in his career, Jack and Christian are approached by a wealthy Italian man looking for help with his aggressive spinal tumors. It looks like a lost cause, but Jack is confident that he should at least be allowed to operate on him. Jack grows close to the man's beautiful daughter, and Christian warns him to not cross the line with her. Unfortunately for jack, the Italian does not survive the surgery. While Jack comforts the daughter in the hospital parking lot, the woman kisses him. It's a kiss that he reciprocates. Feeling guilty, he returns home to Sarah, confesses everything, and tells her that he will fix this--but Sarah has her own news. She's been seeing someone else, and she's leaving Jack.