I am not sure about how much time passed, but Jack and John MUST have had another conversation after the short one they had in the hospital. Here is transcript of full Jack/John convo from L&DOJB:
[Inhales sharply]
LOCKE: Oh!
[Inhales sharply]
JACK: What are you doing here?
[Bathing deeply]
LOCKE: Jack, how did you find me?
JACK: You were in a car accident and you were brought into my hospital. What are you doing here?
LOCKE: [Grunts] We have to go back.
JACK: [Laughing] Of course. Of course we do.
LOCKE: Jack, the people I left behind need our help. We're supposed to go back--
JACK: --because it's our destiny? How many times are you gonna say that to me, John?
LOCKE: How can you not see it? Of all the hospitals they could've brought me to, I end up here. You don't think that's fate?
JACK: Your car accident was on the west side of Los Angeles. You being brought into my hospital isn't fate, John. It's probability.
LOCKE: You don't understand. It wasn't an accident. Someone is trying to kill me.
JACK: Why? Why would someone try to kill you?
LOCKE: Because they don't want me to succeed. They wanna stop me. They don't want me to get back because I'm important.
JACK: Have you ever stopped to think that these delusions that you're special aren't real? That maybe there's nothing important about you at all? Maybe you are just a lonely old man that crashed on an Island. That's it. Good-bye, John.
LOCKE: Your father says hello.
JACK: What?
LOCKE: A man--the man who told me to move the Island--the man who told me how to bring you all back--he said to tell his son hello. It couldn't have been Sayid's father, and it wasn't Hurley's, so that leaves you. He said his name was Christian.
JACK: My... my father is dead.
LOCKE: Well, he didn't look dead to me.
JACK: [Voice breaking] He died in Australia three years ago. I put him in the coffin! He's dead.
LOCKE: Jack, please, you have to come back! You're the only one who can convince the rest of 'em. You have to help me! You're supposed to help me!
LOCKE: John, it's over! It's done. We left, and we were never important. So you... you leave me alone. And you leave the rest of 'em alone!
---
Now, this does not account for these aspects of dialogue in previous episodes:
From Season 4 finale:
KATE: Who do you think you are?! You call me over and over again for two days straight, stoned on your pills! And then you show up here with an obituary for Jeremy Bentham. (Sighs) When he came to me and I heard what he had to say, I knew he was crazy. But you... you believed him.
JACK: Yes.
KATE: Him, of all people.
JACK: Yes, Kate, I did, because he said that that was the only way that I could keep you safe--you and Aaron.
... more from same episode:
BEN: Hello, Jack.
[Jack is startled almost off his balance by the voice. The sound of vehicles passing by can be heard from outside.]
BEN: Sorry. Didn't mean to scare you. Did he tell you that I was off the island?
JACK: (Exhales deeply) Yes, he did.
BEN: When did you speak to him?
JACK: (Inhales deeply) About a month ago.
BEN: And Kate?
JACK: Yeah. Yeah, he came to see her, too.
BEN: And what did he say to you?
JACK: He told me... that after I left the island, some very bad things happened. And he told me that it was my fault for leaving. And he said that I had to come back.
---- From "Because You Left":
BEN: [Sighs] On the Island... in the Orchid station, below the greenhouse. I told him I was sorry for making his life so miserable, and then he left. So obviously John's visit to you made an impression. What did he say to make you such a believer?
JACK: Sawyer, Juliet, everyone from the boat... and everyone we left behind--John said that they'd die, too, if I didn't come back.
BEN: Did he tell you what happened to them after the Island moved?
JACK: No. No, he didn't.
---
Add to that the following observations about time passing:
- Sayid's drastic change (something happened and time passed enough for him to relocate to US, etc)
- Walt calling Locke Bentham, and feeling the need to go see Hurley about it.
- Jack's beard. :-)
- The character arch of Jack: His still being allowed normal rotations in the hospital, him not seeming too messed up on pisses or booze, etc.
- The scars from car crash and the fresh leg-cast do imply that Locke attempts suicide right after the Jack/John conversation. But, I prefer to think the make-up continuity guys got it wrong (with bruises) then the whole script pattern built over three years is messed up. (And, as per the leg cast, when I broke my arm I had *several* casts placed on it over a few months, so a new one can be put on it.)
Anyway, I just don't see how Lock could not have had another conversation with jack (keep aaron safe, keep jack safe, bad stuff happened because jack left, Ben is off the island, sawyer/juliet dying--all were NOT mentioned in the brief conversation we saw in the hospital.)
Just to restate. I am not sure about exact timing, but there is no way that is the only conversation that Jack and John had off island. John said almost NONE of the things that Jack told Kate/Ben he said in that meeting. There MUST be another conversation of Gregg Nations should lose his job. Theory by JSMILL
[Inhales sharply]
LOCKE: Oh!
[Inhales sharply]
JACK: What are you doing here?
[Bathing deeply]
LOCKE: Jack, how did you find me?
JACK: You were in a car accident and you were brought into my hospital. What are you doing here?
LOCKE: [Grunts] We have to go back.
JACK: [Laughing] Of course. Of course we do.
LOCKE: Jack, the people I left behind need our help. We're supposed to go back--
JACK: --because it's our destiny? How many times are you gonna say that to me, John?
LOCKE: How can you not see it? Of all the hospitals they could've brought me to, I end up here. You don't think that's fate?
JACK: Your car accident was on the west side of Los Angeles. You being brought into my hospital isn't fate, John. It's probability.
LOCKE: You don't understand. It wasn't an accident. Someone is trying to kill me.
JACK: Why? Why would someone try to kill you?
LOCKE: Because they don't want me to succeed. They wanna stop me. They don't want me to get back because I'm important.
JACK: Have you ever stopped to think that these delusions that you're special aren't real? That maybe there's nothing important about you at all? Maybe you are just a lonely old man that crashed on an Island. That's it. Good-bye, John.
LOCKE: Your father says hello.
JACK: What?
LOCKE: A man--the man who told me to move the Island--the man who told me how to bring you all back--he said to tell his son hello. It couldn't have been Sayid's father, and it wasn't Hurley's, so that leaves you. He said his name was Christian.
JACK: My... my father is dead.
LOCKE: Well, he didn't look dead to me.
JACK: [Voice breaking] He died in Australia three years ago. I put him in the coffin! He's dead.
LOCKE: Jack, please, you have to come back! You're the only one who can convince the rest of 'em. You have to help me! You're supposed to help me!
LOCKE: John, it's over! It's done. We left, and we were never important. So you... you leave me alone. And you leave the rest of 'em alone!
---
Now, this does not account for these aspects of dialogue in previous episodes:
From Season 4 finale:
KATE: Who do you think you are?! You call me over and over again for two days straight, stoned on your pills! And then you show up here with an obituary for Jeremy Bentham. (Sighs) When he came to me and I heard what he had to say, I knew he was crazy. But you... you believed him.
JACK: Yes.
KATE: Him, of all people.
JACK: Yes, Kate, I did, because he said that that was the only way that I could keep you safe--you and Aaron.
... more from same episode:
BEN: Hello, Jack.
[Jack is startled almost off his balance by the voice. The sound of vehicles passing by can be heard from outside.]
BEN: Sorry. Didn't mean to scare you. Did he tell you that I was off the island?
JACK: (Exhales deeply) Yes, he did.
BEN: When did you speak to him?
JACK: (Inhales deeply) About a month ago.
BEN: And Kate?
JACK: Yeah. Yeah, he came to see her, too.
BEN: And what did he say to you?
JACK: He told me... that after I left the island, some very bad things happened. And he told me that it was my fault for leaving. And he said that I had to come back.
---- From "Because You Left":
BEN: [Sighs] On the Island... in the Orchid station, below the greenhouse. I told him I was sorry for making his life so miserable, and then he left. So obviously John's visit to you made an impression. What did he say to make you such a believer?
JACK: Sawyer, Juliet, everyone from the boat... and everyone we left behind--John said that they'd die, too, if I didn't come back.
BEN: Did he tell you what happened to them after the Island moved?
JACK: No. No, he didn't.
---
Add to that the following observations about time passing:
- Sayid's drastic change (something happened and time passed enough for him to relocate to US, etc)
- Walt calling Locke Bentham, and feeling the need to go see Hurley about it.
- Jack's beard. :-)
- The character arch of Jack: His still being allowed normal rotations in the hospital, him not seeming too messed up on pisses or booze, etc.
- The scars from car crash and the fresh leg-cast do imply that Locke attempts suicide right after the Jack/John conversation. But, I prefer to think the make-up continuity guys got it wrong (with bruises) then the whole script pattern built over three years is messed up. (And, as per the leg cast, when I broke my arm I had *several* casts placed on it over a few months, so a new one can be put on it.)
Anyway, I just don't see how Lock could not have had another conversation with jack (keep aaron safe, keep jack safe, bad stuff happened because jack left, Ben is off the island, sawyer/juliet dying--all were NOT mentioned in the brief conversation we saw in the hospital.)
Just to restate. I am not sure about exact timing, but there is no way that is the only conversation that Jack and John had off island. John said almost NONE of the things that Jack told Kate/Ben he said in that meeting. There MUST be another conversation of Gregg Nations should lose his job. Theory by JSMILL
