30 Days of OTP: Day Fifteen, Not Necessarily Romantic OTP
Juliet Burke & Jack Shephard, LOST
So, there are two things to understand about me while I watched LOST in real time: I HATED JACK SHEPHARD WITH THE FIRE OF A THOUSAND SUNS and the actress who played Juliet (Elizabeth Mitchell) was a huge reason that I really ever took an interest in the show, and Juliet is my favorite LOST character of all time. I didn't start "watching it-watching it" until S3, though I had seen a few episodes here and there because in the early years, LOST was THE phenom of network TV. You couldn't own a TV and not hear something about this show, especially those first few years. So I had seen it here and there, but hadn't gotten particularly invested even though I had loved Charlie Salinger back in the day (any Party of Five fans still around??). But when I got into LOST all I could see about Jack was what an obsessive stalker he was.
But any time he was on-screen with Elizabeth Mitchell, I could forget about it, for a little while at least. Jack and Juliet were a pairing that made all the sense in the world, and I'm still not sure why the writers (whom I love, please understand, Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse are demi-gods to me) felt that Jack and Kate were endgame. I get that Jack loved Kate, but I don't see how, not when Juliet was in his world. They were perfect for each other, really. But, their pairing wasn't overly romantic, and they had nothing but a couple of kisses and some WOWSA exciting fights (I still adore the shower scene in S5 where I literally though Juliet might WHUP HIS ASS!) and in the end, I was okay with where the show went and what didn't happen between them, and here's why:
THE SIDEWAYS 'VERSE.
In S6, they use this odd storytelling device, in the which we see our characters in another life, doing things slightly better than they had actually done them -- it's all very confusing if you haven't seen the show (and pretty confusing even if you watched it faithfully), but the thing that soothed my shipper heart about these two were the choices that Jack made in the Sideways 'Verse about Juliet. It was perfect and brilliant and beautiful, and made me love them even more. And really, the only time I could ever love Jack was when he was with Juliet, so it's really important that I got those little bones thrown to me.
Here's a really beautiful post from another J/J shipper.