"The Candidate" is the 14th episode of the American Broadcasting Company's sixth season of the serial drama television series Lost and 117th episode overall. The episode aired on May 4, 2010, on ABC in the United States. The episode was written by Elizabeth Sarnoff and Jim Galasso and directed by Jack Bender. The episode is centered on Jack Shephard and John Locke.

The sixth and final season of the American serial drama television series Lost commenced airing in the United States and Canada on February 2, 2010. The sixth-season premiere was the first to climb in the ratings year-over-year since the second season, drawing 12.1 million viewers. The season aired Tuesdays at 9:00 pm from February 2 to May 18. The series finale aired on Sunday, May 23, 2010. The finale ran two-and-a-half hours starting at 9:00 pm—pushing the local news back a half—followed by the previously announced post-finale special, Jimmy Kimmel Live: Aloha to Lost, at 12:05 am. The season continues the stories of the survivors of the fictional September 22, 2004 crash of Oceanic Airlines Flight 815 on a mysterious island in the South Pacific. The survivors must deal with two outcomes of the detonation of a nuclear bomb on the island in the 1970s. While the on-island story continues, "flash sideways" show a second timeline, in which Flight 815 never crashes. The season was released on DVD and Blu-ray on August 24, 2010, alongside a complete series box set. Included in the special features was "The New Man in Charge", a previously unaired shortened episode that serves as an epilogue following the events of the finale.