Jack Will Never Be Happy

[D-Roc]

I was watching 'Stranger in a Strange Land' the other day (a vastly under-rated episode imo!), and something Achara said pricked my cerebrum. She said that her gift is that she can 'see' into people..she can see who they are:

"I am not a tattoo artist. I am able to see who people are. My work is not decoration, it is definition. And this, this is my gift"

Jack asks her to tell him who he is, she replies:

You are a leader, a great man, but this... this makes you lonely, and frightened, and angry.

Whether or not you choose to believe her is subjective, but I think it's interesting nonetheless because it suggests that Jack was always going to be a leader..he was always going to be a 'great man', but he is also always going to be lonely, frightened and angry - does this description remind you of a certain someone in that forward-flash..not to mention any period of Jack's life.

Achara speas of 'definition', of who someone is (not what they will or can be..but who they 'are', period)..she speaks of a fixed mark which defines a person - like a brand, which paralleled nicely in this episode with Julie getting marked for murdering Danny.

With this in mind, does help the fate vs freewill debate? Afterall, even despite getting what he wants and getting off the island..Jack is ALL of those things which Achara said he was by definition - lonely, frieghtened, angry..
I think this is potentially powerful stuff as it could tell us how LOST..or at least Jack's role in LOST will end..lonely, frightened, angry..

[Murgatroyd]

Sounds like your typical fortune-cookie slice of mock-prediction to me. Any leader's likely to feel isolated and overburdened with responsibility: if she thinks Jack's a leader, that's going to apply to Jack. I can't really take anything useful out of the worst episode in the series, I'm afraid (I think it's even worse than Everybody Hates Hugo - at least that didn't pretend that the issue at its heart was of great significance).