Ouch... (SPOILERS)

Once again, I don't agree with you, and I really don't appreciate your condescending tone. I think you have a very black and white, cynical, and cutthroat perspective of the character, but I simply think Jackie's character development was more complex than that.

Yes, Jackie was an addict throughout the show, but there is a definite shift in desperation and continual loss of morality that progresses throughout the show. By no means was she a good person in the beginning, but the extents that she goes to get her fix become more and more desperate as time goes on.

In the first season, Eddie outright offers her narcotics, and for a majority of the season, THAT is how she attains drugs. Whether or not she slept with him simply to get drugs or if she felt any actual attachment to him in the beginning is never stated outright. It is not stated outright if her reason for being upset over him being replaced by the Pill-o-Matix is only because of his supplying to her, or if she actually liked him. You may think she only cared about the drugs, but once again, that is never stated outright.

In season two, she starts to sink a little bit deeper. She steals a crippled person's MRI to convince O'Hara to give her Oxycontin. She also steals several bags of Roxicodone off of the drug dealer as he had an epileptic seizure. There is also a huge pharmacy bill, which is never fully explained, but suggests that there had to have been some point in time in which she was legally being prescribed these drugs.

In season three, Kevin, O'Hara, and Akalitus become aware that she has a problem. She lies through her teeth to everybody that she's clean, then goes as far as to steal Fentanyl patches that were intended to be for patients who were suffering from cancer. Then, although Kelly was also guilty for stealing some of them, she covers her crime by pinning her theft on him as well.

In season four, she realizes how low she has sunk when the junkie overdoses in her living room. She says herself that she needs rehab. From that point, until her relapse at the end of season five, she stays clean. Yes, she left rehab early against the advice of her counselor, she struggles with cravings, and she outright says that she doesn't like the group therapy program, but she stayed sober. If she truly had no intention to stay sober, and was only trying to create an illusion that she was being persecuted, why would she wait an entire year before using again? When she managed to attain a handful of narcotics from the athlete at the beginning of the season, she flushed all but one of them, and didn't take the one she saved until the end of the season. There was a scene in which drugs were littered all over the floor of the pharmacy, and she did not take any of them. When Grace was caught with Adderall, Jackie did not take any of them (yes, she stated she didn't care for Adderall, but that doesn't mean she couldn't have still taken it). With all those opportunities to slip up, why wouldn't she if she truly had no intention of being sober throughout all that? Yes, she did relapse, but I still think the time that she had stayed clean signified that there was a sense in her that truly wanted to improve as a person.

I truly don't think it was until season six that she decided she never wanted to quit using. She became more desperate, ruthless, and calculating than ever before. There were times in the earlier seasons that she would drag other people into her problems, such as the incident with O'Hara and the MRI, but she goes to much more extreme measures in terms of involving other people in her addiction in season six. She steals Carrie Roman's DEA number, and then frames Helen for the crime. She had Gloria run over her foot, so she could trick her into getting a prescription for Vicodin filled and feed it to her. She uses in front of her sponsor, Antoinette, and convinces her to get drunk, under the impression that they'll go to rehab together, and then abandons her there. She outright tells Frank that she took seven Oxycontin, and when he gets upset with her, she shows absolutely no remorse and says "I don't need anything from you". When Kevin had found her stash in season three, she at least pretended that she was clean, to spare his feelings. With Frank, she did not care in the least bit.

You may believe that the level of mercilessness that she reverts to in season six was in her all along, but I simply don't think that was the case. I think she initially had some sort of boundaries in the beginning, but as time went on, her sense of morality continued to decline. I couldn't have imagined her doing any of those things in the prior seasons.

You say that her staying sober was meant to create an illusion of being persecuted, and while I still don't believe that was the case in seasons four and five, I will admit that it was the case in season seven. She was only sober because she was left with no choice. The moment she had her nursing license back, she went back to using, and I think that was the final line that signified that she would never try to be sober again. In the final episode, she sees that she has lost the respect of Zoey and Dr. O'Hara, and says herself "this is me at my best" when O'Hara confronts her about being stoned. I think her reason for offing herself with the heroin was that she finally decided that she didn't want to live unless she could be both a nurse and a drug user. She didn't want to have just one or the other. She knew her life would have no purpose if she weren't a nurse, but she also wanted to continue using because her life felt incomplete without it.

It's important to keep in mind too that a lot of the show was left up to the viewer's interpretation. It is never outright stated that Jackie's reason for being with Eddie is only for drugs. It is never outright stated why Jackie relapsed at the end of season five, or if she truly never had the intention to stay clean. It is never outright stated why Jackie overdosed in the series finale. You have your own ideas as to why the show played out the way it did, well these are mine. In the first episode, Jackie's comparison to Augustine sums up her rationalization the best; she knew there was good in her, but she didn't want to give up her drug use until she was ready. I think the good in her that was there started to slip away as time went on. She tried to be better in seasons four and five, and once she screwed up and relapsed, she let that last bit of humanity slip away. By the time of the series finale, she had accepted that she was never going to get better or try to become "good", and thus, she did herself in.

I want to reiterate too, that by no means am I trying to excuse her drug usage or say that was she was doing was ever "okay". The point I am attempting to make is that there is a gradual build-up of desperation and ruthlessness in her drug usage. After a year of being clean, any kind of remorse or humanity that she had completely disappeared in season six. You cannot possibly tell me that there isn't some kind of change in personality or character traits between seasons one and six. If you sincerely believe that, then perhaps it is you who needs to watch the show again.