Christian Shephard/Theories
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Dead or Alive?
Theory 1: Three Christians - (1) Christian: the dead one from Sydney, (2) "Christian": the apparition on the island, and (3) Jack's hallucination of the former out of guilt over not intervening to help his father before he died.
Evidence for Christians 1, 2 and 3:
- 1), 2) & 3) According to the producers, there is no literal resurrection of the dead on the island.
- 1) We know Christian is dead, he was in the morgue in Sydney.
- 1) & 2)
- 2) When "Christian" is seen on the island by people who did not know Christian Sheperd in life (i.e. Locke, Hurley, Miles), this is evidence that "Christian" is somehow an apparition that exists independent of the memories that anyone has of him.
- 2) The apparition of Christian is a manifestation of Jacob (like "I'm not your brother" "Yemi" was). When he says he "speaks for" Jacob to Locke, that's because he is Jacob. He is only appearing as Christian because Claire is in the cabin with them, and he wants to appear as someone familiar to her to gain her trust so she will do as he asks.
- 1) / 3) He's dead and the fact that Jack mentions him being alive more than once is a plot element used by the writers to convince you it is indeed a flashback instead of revealing too early that it is a flashforward in Through the looking glass.
- 3) Jack was obviously drunk in the scenes where he mentions his father Through the looking glass, and so would not be in his right mind.
- 3) The excuse for Jack's obvious mistakes in Through the looking glass is that he was messed up and in denial that his father is dead or he is reverting to himself pre-crash.
- 3) It could be that he was not actually saying that he wanted to see his father, he was just comparing himself with him (Through the looking glass).
- 3) He could also have been making a joke, saying to drag him down from "upstairs".
- The writer's make this aspect of the show confusing on purpose, mixing dreams, visions and hallucinations of the same characters. However, if you watch carefully, characters will often specify a reason for why they see apparitions (i.e. stress, dehydration, lack of sleep). The only way to be sure an apparition is "real" in any sense is if that character is confirmed by another character who does not have a history with the person appearing as the apparition (i.e. when Sawyer confirms that Kate's vision of the black horse is real, or when Locke sees Christian in Cabin Fever).
- Ben doesn't know about Christian in the cabin, he tells Jack that his father is dead in Through the Looking Glass part 2
Theory 2-a: "Christian" on the island is "real" - he has been brought to the island by the Others who went back in time to get him for their own (still unknown to us) purposes.
Evidence:
- This is similar to the Others getting Cooper, though presumably they did not have to go back in time to get him. However, the latter is a possibility, since Cooper described being in a car accident before waking up on the island.
Theory 2-b: "Christian" on the island is "real" and is actually close to Jacob
Evidence:
- He never literally died. We have never seen him actually die.
- The fact that he was drinking a lot and not concentrating on his work was just because of the same thing that is happening to Jack after they returned to the mainland. He was craving to go back to the island but could not find a way back. He may have activated the device at the Orchid Station just like Ben did.
- He is alive because he is the only claimed death apparition so far who is manipulating real life objects. He lifts Aaron up. Also he is the only claimed death apparition so far who appears for a long time span. Other apparitions we have seen were right on the spot apparitions and they disappeared, but it is evident that he walked with Claire all the way to the cabin.
Theory 3: The island brought the real Christian Shephard (from the coffin in the plane) back to life.
Evidence:
- We see him walking around the island and the coffin is empty
- Just as the island "fixed" johns back but not Ben's tumor, the island may selectively bring people back to life. But this possibility is not proof that the island has done so.
- Christian was given a drug or some other form of relaxer (medusa spider?) in the alley, making it look like he was dead; The doctor showing Jack his corpse worked for Ben or the island. He woke up while on the plane, crashed, then walked out of his coffin.
Counter-evidence
- If Christian Sheperd was alive he would be saying things like "I would like a drink" and "I need medical attention" and "I am hungry and need shelter, please help me" and sleeping on the beach with the rest of the losties, not wandering around the jungle in a suit, talking for Jacob in his cabin, and appearing and disappearing to people on the island.
- It does appear the the island can heal people, but there is no proof that the island can bring dead people back to life. For example, Yemi's corpse was still in the crashed plane, and yet when he appeared to Eko the last time, the apparition "Yemi" clarified that he was not in fact the real Yemi, i.e. Eko's brother.
- Many Others, Losties, and Rousseau have been killed on the island (e.g. all the pregnant women who died, Goodwin, Colleen, Tom, Danny, Shannon, Boone, Libby) and so far, NONE of them have come back from the dead - at least in a way that could not be explained as a guilty hallucination on the part of someone who remembers them from their past.
- The writer's make this aspect of the show confusing on purpose, mixing dreams, visions and hallucinations of the same characters. However, if you watch carefully, characters will often specify a reason for why they see apparitions (i.e. stress, dehydration, lack of sleep). The only way to be sure an apparition is "real" in any sense is if that apparition is confirmed by another character who does not have a history with the person appearing as the apparition (i.e. when Sawyer confirms that Kate's black horse is real, or when Locke sees Christian in Cabin Fever).
- Quick healing and bringing people back from the dead are not the same thing. When members of the Others die, or when their lives are threatened, they do not act as though those people will be coming back to life. Pickett is beside himself when Colleen dies, Ben is terrified when he gets a tumor, Juliet is very upset when Goodwin dies and Ethan doesn't come back.
- Presumably the Dharma Initiative bodies would not be decomposing in a pit then, and also there would have been no point killing them in the first place if they simply came back to life.
- It seems likely that part of the power of the Island is to make ghosts / apparitions clearer (linked to why Miles has been brought to the Island). Christian is a ghost, and Hurley is one of the people capable of seeing these ghosts (Jacob is also a ghost). It appears Vincent is also capable of seeing ghosts.
*According to the producers, there is no literal resurrection of the dead on the island.
- Christian Shephard is the angel of death of the Island; he appears to Claire after the explosion at the barracks ("Cabin Fever") and in a later episode on the Kahana to Micheal ("There's No Place Like Home, Parts 2 & 3") right before the explosion to take their lives.
Inventory: Encounters with the apparition of Christian Shephard on the island
- Locke - saw C.S. in the cabin with Claire.
- Hurley - saw C.S. in the cabin when he accidentally stumbled across the place, then ran away.
- Michael - C.S. told him his mission was complete, right before the Kahana exploded with Michael on board.
Christian Shepherd's Body
- Where is it? In any case, like Yemi's, it should be around somewhere.
- Two words: polar bears.
