Torchwood 202: Owen and Ianto, Day in the Death
This is the second of a series of metas where I analyze character interaction in TW scenes by body language. Part 1 is here. If you missed the three-part discussion of common body language elements in Torchwood, start here.
MASSIVE SPOILERS FOR DAY IN THE DEATH, DEAD MAN WALKING, MEAT, ADAM, AND FRAGMENTS BEHIND THE CUT. Also contains occasional spoilers for TW S1 and Doctor Who S1 and S3, and spoilers for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Half-Blood Prince, and Deathly Hallows. Yes, really.
I was asked in a comment to the body-language meta to consider using this scene in Dead Man Walking where Jack and Owen are having a hurt-comfort moment. I did think about it, since it is such a sweet and touching scene, but eventually decided against it because Jack/Owen HC is actually quite common in Torchwood. Jack uses a blend of closeness and tough-love with Owen, often in the same episode. Think of the grapes in Combat, standing on the pier in Day in the Death, the big hug in End of Days, or the hug/fight in Fragments. Fragments tells us that Jack's relationship with Owen has been like this since the moment they met. For the purposes of this meta, I wanted to pick moments that had special significance, which typically means that the characters are doing something dramatically different than their "normal" routine. Jack/Owen HC is comparatively routine. This scene, in conjunction with a series of other scenes, marks a major shift in Owen. There are several other scenes in DMW and DITD that I could have used, but I think that all three actors did such a lovely job that it's worth exploring further.
If you want to follow along, use this link here. Like the previous one, I will be referring to specific moments at specific times, e.g. Sally throws a red ball at 1:15. I chose that particular scene clip for a reason--Jack is in the beginning. It starts about 30 seconds before Ianto and Owen go down to the coffee machine. Since we are watching body language, remember to watch it through once with the sound on and once with the sound off.
The backstory: Ianto, Owen, and Jack are in Jack's office. Jack has just relieved Owen of his post and tells him to hand over his badge and gun. Ianto moves behind Jack. Owen is still resisting, so Jack leans in and says, "I'm asking you, Owen." Jack is standing well into Owen's private space. Ianto is standing just behind Jack off Jack's right shoulder, also in Owen's personal space, effectively making himself an extension of Jack's body. And.....action.
Analysis by the Clock
0:03. Ianto speaks to Owen for the first time. Owen looks at him, body tense and rigid, but does not turn his body away from Jack. He is partially minimizing Ianto's role in the interaction and partially keeping his body turned toward the main "threat" (the power in the encounter, who is Jack). He gives Ianto an ugly look.
0:09-0:15. Owen gives Ianto his gun, using a series of quicky, jerky, exaggerated motions. He is angry and unwilling, and making a huge show of it. At the end of the interaction, Owen turns back to Jack.
0:15-0:30. Ianto asks Owen for his security pass. Owen gives him another ugly look, and Ianto asks him please. Owen looks back at Jack, then out the window at Martha, then back at Jack, then gives Ianto the badge. Owen is hunched over and looking for an escape route. He is feeling crowded by both other men, really wants them out of his space, but has nowhere to go. Jack supervises the transaction, body held in his best "authority" pose. Jack holds all the cards, and Owen's display of aggression is a face-saving move. Ianto is reacting to his aggression with what I can only describe as silence--body is not moving, face is still, and he doesn't say a word.
0:31-0:43. Owen keeps looking around for an escape route and finds none. He finally submits to Jack, but by flipping his head when he says "Doctor Jones," he is belittling her. Martha can't hear this, but we can see her looking into the office. Jack ends the interaction and walks off--he has what he wants, and so he "rewards" Owen by getting out of his private space. Ianto moves out of Owen's personal space and stands well behind him.
0:45-0:50 Now that Jack has left Owen's space, and has put room between them, Owen feels safe enough to lash out. Jack doesn't want to hear it, and dismisses him. Owen and Ianto mirror each other at the mention of the coffee machine.
0:52-1:02. Ianto takes a moment to enjoy the coffee. Owen is sulking, he's not paying attention to Ianto. He is moving very rapidly and is jerking his body around, saying that he is still angry and resentful. Ianto isn't bothered by that, and moves past him so that Owen can make the coffee without Ianto in his personal space.
1:03-1:09. Ianto makes a comment without thinking, and hurt flashes across Owen's face. Ianto takes the coffee away and apologizes by briefly dropping his head and lowering his eyes. This is a submissive gesture, like all apologies are, but Owen isn't willing to accept Ianto's brief submission. Owen's posture is still very tense. At 1:09, he makes a classic "head threat" gesture at Ianto: staring into his eyes, he jerks his head back and chin towards Ianto. It's an extremely aggressive move and one you will almost never see in polite company. If you've ever seen a barfight in real life, one or the other of the combatants will make this gesture. Ianto doesn't react. At this point, Owen is leading the encounter.
1:10-1:16. Owen spins away from Ianto, closing himself off. Ianto steps back away from Owen; he has moved to a distance where he feels comfortable. Owen messes with the coffee machine, somewhat aggressively, then flicks a glance back and sees that Ianto is still there. Ianto has lowered his head and looks "tucked in" on himself; he's feeling uncomfortable but doesn't want to reach in and correct Owen.
1:18-1:30. Owen gets progressively more frustrated and agitated. He assaults the coffee machine. Ianto has no clue what to do, and keeps his head down and voice low. Owen looks over at Jack and Martha, who look at him, then turn away. Owen leans forward on the coffee machine. His face looks tired, and he is physically supporting himself with the machine. The anger has drained away for the moment, and he looks hurt and sad.
1:33-1:48. Ianto tenses up, moves slightly forward, and offers concern. Owen whips around and reacts with more aggression, the a defeated posture. Ianto's eyes are on Owen until Owen starts on him having more of a life than he used to. Ianto grow suspicious after that. Owen whips his head up in frustration.
1:49-1:52. Owen has ranted about Ianto shagging Jack. Ianto grows defensive. His posture is rigid, head down, and he walks to face the coffee machine. He is protecting his vulnerable front, but also signifying to Owen that Owen has crossed the line between Ianto's work life and Ianto's private life. When he moves forward and closes himself off to Owen, Ianto is trying to maintain that privacy. When he cuts Owen off and starts using his body to both push Owen around and to block him out, Ianto assumes control of the encounter.
1:53-1:57. Owen gets into Ianto's space, whispering into Ianto's ear. Owen is an aggressor on Ianto's space, showing his scorn and disregard for Ianto by crossing almost into Ianto's intimate space. Ianto frowns, raises his head, and turns so that Owen is behind the center of his back rather than his shoulder.
1:58-2:02. Owen has one more aggressive outburst, culminating in a thrown tea towel. He has moved away from Ianto and is not looking at him. The aggressive move is not directed at Ianto--this is a general-purpose outburst that is not directed at Ianto. He leans against to wall to support himself; emotionally he is exhausted and needs to brace himself before he falls down.
2:03-2:07. Ianto walks past Owen without looking at him, but is still close enough to Owen that Owen understands Ianto is continuing the conversation. Owen's eyes follow Ianto as he walks around. He is so emotionally out that he's wide open and vulnerable. Ianto stands in front of a plant, folding the tea towel. His back is arrow-straight, and he flicks a quick, over-the-shoulder glance at Owen to make sure Owen is paying attention to him.
2:08-2:19. Ianto is making aggressive motions, but is not making them towards Owen. He's making them towards the coffee machine, wall, tea towel, etc, saying he's not so much angry at Owen (although he is upset) as he is frustrated and doesn't know how to express what he's feeling. Owen looks down very briefly as Ianto passes by him, but otherwise keeps his eyes on Ianto the entire time. Owen is paying attention. Ianto ends the conversation by leaving the kitchenette.
The Cracking of the Ice
This scene is one of those that is more than meets the eye. It looks like a fairly mundane squabble combined with the understandable agony of somebody who just had a big, bad life change. It could be a divorce, or a bereavement, or loss of job, it wouldn't really matter. What makes this scene so significant is that it is the culmination of a long, slow thaw in Owen and Ianto's personal relationship--in fact, I'd go so far as to say this is the moment the ice between them finally cracks for once and for all--and is a sea change in how Owen deals with, well, everybody.
The big thaw started back in Meat. At the beginning of Meat, we see Owen and Ianto working together in a purely professional dynamic. They have a careful space between them, just barely close enough that they could hear one another in a regular conversational tone of voice. When Owen shoots the lock off, Ianto throws out a snarky line, which is a verbal jab back at Owen's nonspoken snark of shooting off the lock with a cheeky look. That's not uncommon between partners in a stressful situation...think of Maverick and Goose in Top Gun. Anyway, snark time over, they go right back to working soon after. Once they are recalled, the interaction ends.
Later on in Meat, when they are back in the building, the thaw continues. Owen watches Rhys and Ianto get hauled off at gunpoint and Owen stays hidden. Seeing a teammate get hauled off in mortal danger is never easy, and Owen is clearly relieved to see Ianto up and OK (sorry about the bottle, but if you watch the episode it's easier to see). They are leaning into one another, looking each other in the face, and both of them look concerned. Somebody please correct me if I'm wrong but I think that is the first one in S2 (and possibly the first one period) where the two men show any kind of personal concern for one another.
The next "warm spell" between Owen and Ianto occurs in Dead Man Walking. When Owen is on the gurney, ready for autopsy, Gwen and Tosh are standing side-by-side, taking comfort and support in one another. Ianto is standing by himself, apart, looking like he's about to cry. Remember that he's not touchy-feely anyway, and so him reacting to grief by pulling away is normal. Even though distance-wise he isn't far from Gwen and Tosh, the directors emphasize the fact that he is standing alone by always showing the women together and Ianto separately. This is the first scene where Ianto is publicly showing any affection for Owen. The thaw continues when Owen is walking back to the autopsy bay, preparing to be euthanized by a formaldehyde shot. He and Gwen hug, he pushes Tosh away, but with Ianto, he walks up to him, slides his hand along the rail, and then the camera pans to Ianto's face. Both men follow each other with their eyes. We assume, but don't know for sure, that Owen covers Ianto's hand and gives it a squeeze or something. It's emotionally loaded and poignant and beautifully acted and directed. This is the first public display of any kind of affection between them. The ice is still there, but it's distinctly thinner.
Finally we come to the scene in Day in the Death. This scene plays out in three distinct "phases:" Owen and Jack in job-space where Ianto acts as an extension of Jack, Owen and Ianto in job-space, and Owen and Ianto in personal space.
At the start of the scene, Ianto exists as an extension of Jack. He is standing close to Jack, not quite shoulder-to-shoulder, but close. He is also a little bit behind Jack. When Jack moves in on Owen, Ianto moves in at the same speed. The effect is that Jack has doubled in size, and the twice-as-large Jack is standing in Owen's private space in an attempt to get him to capitulate. Jack is using his size to push Owen around and push him into submission. Owen doesn't look at Ianto until Ianto speaks to him. This is a twofold thing: first, his attention is on Jack as Jack is the aggressor into Owen's space and Jack has the power in this boss-employee moment. Second, he's attempting to show that he doesn't consider Ianto worth his attention. Ianto isn't worrying about that; he's just trying to do his job, and he is being as tactful and respectful as he can. He shows his respect by backing away as soon as he gets Owen's pass.
The second part of the scene is at the beginning of the moment by the coffee machine. This scene is not only unique in that we have a rare Ianto-Owen moment, it is also a rare moment with Ianto on the job in Ianto-space, and not Ianto as Jack's ever-present silent wingman. Turns out he doesn't act too much different, he might show us something he's interested in, but he's not any more free with his gestures or his willingness to engage in physical contact with anything. Ianto is paying close attention to Owen the entire time, facing him and watching him. Owen is aware of Ianto, but he is acting in such a way that he is telling Ianto he holds him in contempt. He messed with the machine, turned to see if Ianto were still watching him, then went back to messing with the machine. Ianto moves closer to him, the first time he has moved close to Owen aside from taking the cup away from him, and expresses concern. This is the first publicly shown (e.g. the audience can hear them) expression of personal concern between the two of them, and is the start of the personal interaction phase.
Owen has to blow off some steam before he explodes, so he takes out his anger on the nearest convenient target, Ianto. Owen is angry at his death/resurrection, sad because he feels unloved, and afraid that Jack plans to abandon him, but can't express that, so he targets Jack's boyfriend. Owen's fear of replacement is valid: Torchwood is an office, even though it's a bizarre one, and as the team doctor his position absolutely cannot go unfilled. Suzie had a similar reaction when she came back. The difference between Suzie and Owen is that with Owen it's a personal thing--Jack's affection as well as the job, whereas with Suzie so far as we can tell she only cared about the job. Anyway, as long as Owen is just ranting, Ianto stands fast, letting the waves of Owen's anger just wash right by him. He is wide open and obviously concerned and looks somewhat bewildered at Owen's outburst. The concern goes well beyond professional into and into genuine worry for Owen's well-being...until Owen starts in on Ianto's relationship with Jack. Once Owen says that, a switch flips (watch it) and Ianto shuts Owen down. Once Owen finishes his tantrum, Ianto gives him a good talking-to. That's the kind of thing friends do for one another--when you're acting like a jackass, a good friend will give you a good swift kick in the pants, then forgive you and move on. Ianto has just acted like a friend to Owen for the first time that we can see, and judging from his expression when Ianto walks off, Owen knows it. That is the first public (as in audience) between-friends interaction they have, even though it's more of a tough-love than comfort-love affair. It's significant that everything Ianto has said to Owen has conveyed Ianto's respect for Owen, and what appears to be faith on Ianto's part that Owen has the courage and mental wherewithal to deal with his problems. After watching DITD, I think that Ianto is the first one to actually enquire about Owen's mental well-being. Martha, Jack, and Tosh all take turns later in trying to ease the emotional pain, but the quiet one in the office is the one who offers the first helping hand.
On the verbal side, this scene tells us Owen's real problem with Ianto. It's not gunshot wounds or cyberwomen or murder, it's jealousy. Owen is jealous of Jack and Ianto's (and Jack and Martha's) relationship. When Ianto tells him he wasn't aware they were in a competition, the whole mood changed. That's the icebreaker. You could almost hear the big, resounding crack. It took Owen a little while to figure it out, but by the end of the scene he has figure it out. Future Ianto/Owen interactions, such as the Tin Tin nonsense (which was really funny and brotherly), the trip to the theatre in FOOTR or the scene with Jack, Ianto, Owen, and the singularity scalpel in SB have a much more lighthearted, friendly, affectionate feel to them. In Fragments, after they've all had a big trauma, Owen clasps Ianto on the shoulder. This fits in the pattern we've seen so far--they're not comfortable with big gestures of affection a la Owen and Martha, but they are now open enough to one another to offer comfort in times of crisis.
Looking at Owen
We found out in Adam that Owen has parental abandonment issues. His mother, to be specific, but one wonders where his father is in all of this. I've noticed more than a few fics that suggested that Owen's mother was a single parent, and so even though he would have had active abandonment from his mother, his father was flat-out nonexistent. The theory certainly fits with the way Owen clings to Jack as a father figure. Burn Gorman even said that in an interview in Torchwood Declassified for EOD, saying that Owen killing Jack was like the son killing the father. We see more evidence of this at the end of EOD, where Jack greets Tosh like a friend, Ianto like a lover, and Owen like a child. The father-son vibe comes across in Adam, Fragments, and even to some extent in Meat after Owen euthanizes the alien. Owen thrives on that attention and reacts quite strongly when he feels like somebody is going to pull Jack away from him.
Martha got some of that, especially in the beginning of Reset. Owen felt threatened personally and professionally by Martha. Martha's cool-as-a-cucumber, Big Damn Hero personality went a long way to defuse that, but in this scene in Day in the Death Martha is the pink elephant in the room for at least 30 seconds. Owen is blaming Martha for Jack suspending him, and he is in no mental state to see that Jack is doing the right thing. We see him look at Martha in the office several times, and before the scene begins he blames Martha for horning in on his turf to Jack. Later, after assaulting the coffee machine, he looks over at Martha and Jack, who are looking at him. He can't attack Martha directly because he knows Jack would intervene, so he attacks the only other person who is monopolizing Jack's attention, Ianto.
Ianto is a good surrogate target for a few different reasons. First off, he's there. Owen is about to lash out at anybody and everybody within shouting distance, and Ianto happened to be closest at hand. Second, he's a safe target. Jack won't tolerate Owen attacking Martha, but he stays out of conflict between Owen and Ianto. Third, in terms of the office hierarchy, Ianto is the lowest on the food chain. Jack is the boss, Owen is the doctor, and Ianto is the tea boy. This is Owen's POV, mind, and so Owen is not acknowledging how Ianto's role in the office has changed to include security, field ops, intel, and so on in addition to ordering pizza and sitting in the tourist office. That's where the comment about going on more missions comes from--Owen is feeling professionally threatened by Ianto, especially since Ianto just disarmed him, so threatened that he's forgotten how not too long ago Ianto took covered his back twice (saying that he and Rhys were alone, protecting Owen, and later tasing the guy next to Owen). Finally, and most obvious in the dialogue, is that Owen is feeling rejected and unloved in the midst of personal crisis, and standing right in front of him is the man who is in a relationship with an object of Owen's (platonic and child-to-parent) affection. Owen touches on all three of those points, but because he's in so much pain, he just goes straight for the jugular and the one thing that he knows will get a reaction from Ianto, his relationship with Jack.
Owen doesn't want a sexual/romantic relationship with Jack, and Jack doesn't appear to want a sexual relationship with Owen. I've never seen that kind of vibe from either of them, so that isn't the source of his jealousy. He does see that Ianto is in a major emotionally intimate relationship with Jack, to a level that Owen will never reach, and that is the crux of the problem. Owen feels that despite being a field agent for longer, a qualified doctor, and in many ways the team's counselor, there is nothing he can do to get to that same level of emotional intimacy (in a father-son way) with Jack that he so desperately craves. He tries to downplay Ianto's relationship as merely shagging the boss, implying that the reason he's gone so far so fast is by giving sexual favours. We as the audience know better. We've already seen the date scene in KKBB where Jack is emotionally naked in front of Ianto and the scene in Adam where Ianto is falling to pieces and Jack picks him up, so we have evidence that Jack/Ianto is more than just sex. It's reasonable to assume, though, that Owen doesn't know that (b/c Jack and Ianto keep their private relationship private), and so Ianto steps up and defends their relationship. Because Owen is so lost in hurt and frustration and anger and fear, he completely misses the fact that Jack loved him enough to bring him back from the dead, and completely misses the fact that Jack's heart is big enough for both of them to coexist.
Side note: one of the reasons this scene was so powerful for me is that my sister's husband pitched a similar conniption fit about her and my relationship. He came from a pretty messed up family, unlike mine which has its problems but has a generally good dynamic, and he reacted extremely badly to her and my relationship. He didn't understand that she could love him with all her heart and love me with all her heart and didn't understand that it was a different kind of love. As a result, in his view I was a direct and immediate threat to his relationship with my sister, and all of his interactions with me were influenced by that perception. Unfortunately I lived in a different country from my family when this was happening, so I could neither see it coming nor defend myself, and the upshot is that for all intents and purposes he managed to poison my relationship with my sister to the point where it was hanging by the thinnest of threads. After five years, her not being a good correspondent, and my permanent immigration to another country, I've given my relationship with my sister up for dead. My little personal tragedy is a triumph for the writers, actors, and directors of Torchwood. In order for a scene to have any kind of sticking power with an audience, it has to have emotional resonance. This scene had big-time emotional resonance with me.
Back to Torchwood and Owen.
I've commented in the past that Owen is Jack-lite, and that whatever happens to Jack will sooner or later happen to Owen in a somewhat watered-down fashion. In Doctor Who, KKBB, and TTLM, we saw the emotional awakening of Captain Jack Harkness. In the three-story arc of Reset, DMW, and DITD, we are seeing Owen undergo the same emotional awakening. Jack is his Doctor and Martha is his Rose. He's let Martha in, let Ianto in, and, surprisingly, let Tosh in as well. The scenes with Toshiko were all charming. She's been chasing after him with little success for a long time, even pushing her away as hard as he could (sandwiches in Meat). Now that he's allowing himself to cope with his emotions, he tries to throw her away too, but when she refuses to back down, he accepts her feelings as valid and the tiny sparks of a true friendship have begun. She holds his hand at the end of DITD, drags him to the wedding and dances with him in SB, and he supports her physically when she is injured in Fragments.
Regarding Fragments, I don't see that scene as greatly important to what happened in the 6-7-8 story arc, other than it establishing more grounds for Owen's abandonment issues and establishing Jack and Owen as a father-son relationship right from the start. Same thing with Diane--she reinforced Owen's abandonment issues, but in terms of what happened in S2, she wasn't part of his awakening. Had she stuck around, he might have opened himself up sooner, but she didn't. The abandonment after Diane was made worse because by that time, Jack was so depressed and emotionally isolated that he couldn't help Owen, any more than he could have helped himself.
Another side note: Jack taking responsibility for Owen for the rest of his existence is a beautiful, shining, jewel-like touch on his and Owen's parent-child relationship. I've compared Doctor/Jack and Jack/Owen before, but here their paths diverge sharply. The Doctor abandoned Jack and treated him like the proverbial redheaded bastard stepchild. Jack took full responsibility for what he did. It's a powerful parenthood metaphor: Jack brought Owen into undeath, and because he "created" Owen, he accepts that for the rest of Owen's undeath Jack is charged with his care and safe keeping. His reluctance to send Owen into danger reminds me very much of a parent watching a teenager about to do something the parent doesn't want said teenager to do. It is also a sign of just how much Jack himself has grown. The man who partnered John would have left Owen to rot. A year earlier, Jack was too much of an emotional hermit to even consider such a thing. Now, he has the emotional wherewithal to cope with such a relationship.
Ianto's Role
Not too long ago I had a long discussion with my mother about Harry Potter characters, specifically Hermione and Luna. One of the things we talked about was how J.K. Rowling uses Hermione Granger and Luna Lovegood to introduce plot elements. Hermione is used to introduce major plot and character elements, such as figuring out that the Half-Blood Prince was Severus Snape or snapping him to the reality of the war they are in when she tells him about altering her parents' memories and sending them off to Australia. She is close enough to the main character (Harry) that she can do this. Harry doesn't go to Hermione, though, when he needs somebody to guide him through life's mysteries. She is too close to him for that, and so what she says would end up being painted in broad brush strokes. Luna is used to introduce subtlety and layers of complexity, or to discuss more private topics that Harry can't talk about with his best friends such as the nature of death, resurrection, faith, and friendship. I offer Luna and Harry talking to each other at the Veil in the Department of Mysteries as an example. Harry has been profoundly affected by his experience there, and when he talks about it with Luna, she in her charming, off-the-wall way explains that what he saw was real and there, and that what he experienced was normal.
Ianto appears to play a role similar to Luna's role in Harry Potter. We have major plot and character elements introduced by other characters, notably Owen and Gwen, but in at least four separate occasions the writers have used Ianto as the catalyst for exploring and expanding on characters we already know. He does this most often for Jack, which makes sense as he is closer to Jack than anybody else on the team, but he also does this for Owen and Martha. He lets us see the "softer" side of Jack in the date scene in Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang and in FOOTR. He lets us see how much Martha knows and the depth of her professionalism when he is telling her how to be a covert operative, something she already knows more about than he could ever know, but she never once does anything to disrespect him. He is the vehicle by which we see Owen's emotional awakening. The others all help, but Ianto, as I discussed above, is the one that caught our eye. He later shows us more depth and texture in Jack's character in Adrift and the GPS. The last one is especially interesting to me in that it is a combination of large-scale character development told by Gwen and detailed character development told by Ianto. The large-scale character development is Gwen seeing that the road to hell is paved with good intentions, and true to pattern the character development is introduced by Gwen herself. The detailed character development is instigated by Ianto giving Gwen the GPS, and the character detail is all about Jack. Several viewers noticed this last instance, and many, many fics sprang out of it.
Ianto is also used to let us see plot detail. The best example is in Something Borrowed. Owen has set up the large plot, telling us about the Nostrovites, and Ianto's line of questioning lets us know what Nostrovites are and why they are so dangerous. Jack and Owen know what Nostrovites are, but we the audience don't, and without Ianto's line of questions we would be left in the dark. This is relatively uncommon compared to Ianto's role as introducer of character detail, but it works.
I think the reason characters like Ianto and Luna succeed as purveyors of nuance and texture is that they aren't part of the main flow of the story. They are more satellites around it, vital to it, but not directly in it. Because they have that fundamental detachment, they are able to see things that the central characters (either Jack, Gwen, and Owen or Harry, Hermione, and Ron) cannot see or cannot express--you can't comment on the sports match if you are one of the players. Because they are distinctly different from the other characters, Ianto with his suits and self-imposed physical isolation and Luna with her eccentricity and fey nature, we automatically expect that they will have a different point of view. Both characters are written to be extremely intelligent and perceptive as well, so we expect that they will offer insights that other characters (e.g. Ron or Owen) may not have or draw conclusions that the others will not. I don't want to imply that Owen isn't intelligent and capable of picking up on fine detail, but because he is in the middle of the action, he can't do the same kind of thing as Ianto.
Next up will be Tosh and Tommy.
MASSIVE SPOILERS FOR DAY IN THE DEATH, DEAD MAN WALKING, MEAT, ADAM, AND FRAGMENTS BEHIND THE CUT. Also contains occasional spoilers for TW S1 and Doctor Who S1 and S3, and spoilers for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Half-Blood Prince, and Deathly Hallows. Yes, really.
I was asked in a comment to the body-language meta to consider using this scene in Dead Man Walking where Jack and Owen are having a hurt-comfort moment. I did think about it, since it is such a sweet and touching scene, but eventually decided against it because Jack/Owen HC is actually quite common in Torchwood. Jack uses a blend of closeness and tough-love with Owen, often in the same episode. Think of the grapes in Combat, standing on the pier in Day in the Death, the big hug in End of Days, or the hug/fight in Fragments. Fragments tells us that Jack's relationship with Owen has been like this since the moment they met. For the purposes of this meta, I wanted to pick moments that had special significance, which typically means that the characters are doing something dramatically different than their "normal" routine. Jack/Owen HC is comparatively routine. This scene, in conjunction with a series of other scenes, marks a major shift in Owen. There are several other scenes in DMW and DITD that I could have used, but I think that all three actors did such a lovely job that it's worth exploring further.
If you want to follow along, use this link here. Like the previous one, I will be referring to specific moments at specific times, e.g. Sally throws a red ball at 1:15. I chose that particular scene clip for a reason--Jack is in the beginning. It starts about 30 seconds before Ianto and Owen go down to the coffee machine. Since we are watching body language, remember to watch it through once with the sound on and once with the sound off.
The backstory: Ianto, Owen, and Jack are in Jack's office. Jack has just relieved Owen of his post and tells him to hand over his badge and gun. Ianto moves behind Jack. Owen is still resisting, so Jack leans in and says, "I'm asking you, Owen." Jack is standing well into Owen's private space. Ianto is standing just behind Jack off Jack's right shoulder, also in Owen's personal space, effectively making himself an extension of Jack's body. And.....action.
Analysis by the Clock
0:03. Ianto speaks to Owen for the first time. Owen looks at him, body tense and rigid, but does not turn his body away from Jack. He is partially minimizing Ianto's role in the interaction and partially keeping his body turned toward the main "threat" (the power in the encounter, who is Jack). He gives Ianto an ugly look.
0:09-0:15. Owen gives Ianto his gun, using a series of quicky, jerky, exaggerated motions. He is angry and unwilling, and making a huge show of it. At the end of the interaction, Owen turns back to Jack.
0:15-0:30. Ianto asks Owen for his security pass. Owen gives him another ugly look, and Ianto asks him please. Owen looks back at Jack, then out the window at Martha, then back at Jack, then gives Ianto the badge. Owen is hunched over and looking for an escape route. He is feeling crowded by both other men, really wants them out of his space, but has nowhere to go. Jack supervises the transaction, body held in his best "authority" pose. Jack holds all the cards, and Owen's display of aggression is a face-saving move. Ianto is reacting to his aggression with what I can only describe as silence--body is not moving, face is still, and he doesn't say a word.
0:31-0:43. Owen keeps looking around for an escape route and finds none. He finally submits to Jack, but by flipping his head when he says "Doctor Jones," he is belittling her. Martha can't hear this, but we can see her looking into the office. Jack ends the interaction and walks off--he has what he wants, and so he "rewards" Owen by getting out of his private space. Ianto moves out of Owen's personal space and stands well behind him.
0:45-0:50 Now that Jack has left Owen's space, and has put room between them, Owen feels safe enough to lash out. Jack doesn't want to hear it, and dismisses him. Owen and Ianto mirror each other at the mention of the coffee machine.
0:52-1:02. Ianto takes a moment to enjoy the coffee. Owen is sulking, he's not paying attention to Ianto. He is moving very rapidly and is jerking his body around, saying that he is still angry and resentful. Ianto isn't bothered by that, and moves past him so that Owen can make the coffee without Ianto in his personal space.
1:03-1:09. Ianto makes a comment without thinking, and hurt flashes across Owen's face. Ianto takes the coffee away and apologizes by briefly dropping his head and lowering his eyes. This is a submissive gesture, like all apologies are, but Owen isn't willing to accept Ianto's brief submission. Owen's posture is still very tense. At 1:09, he makes a classic "head threat" gesture at Ianto: staring into his eyes, he jerks his head back and chin towards Ianto. It's an extremely aggressive move and one you will almost never see in polite company. If you've ever seen a barfight in real life, one or the other of the combatants will make this gesture. Ianto doesn't react. At this point, Owen is leading the encounter.
1:10-1:16. Owen spins away from Ianto, closing himself off. Ianto steps back away from Owen; he has moved to a distance where he feels comfortable. Owen messes with the coffee machine, somewhat aggressively, then flicks a glance back and sees that Ianto is still there. Ianto has lowered his head and looks "tucked in" on himself; he's feeling uncomfortable but doesn't want to reach in and correct Owen.
1:18-1:30. Owen gets progressively more frustrated and agitated. He assaults the coffee machine. Ianto has no clue what to do, and keeps his head down and voice low. Owen looks over at Jack and Martha, who look at him, then turn away. Owen leans forward on the coffee machine. His face looks tired, and he is physically supporting himself with the machine. The anger has drained away for the moment, and he looks hurt and sad.
1:33-1:48. Ianto tenses up, moves slightly forward, and offers concern. Owen whips around and reacts with more aggression, the a defeated posture. Ianto's eyes are on Owen until Owen starts on him having more of a life than he used to. Ianto grow suspicious after that. Owen whips his head up in frustration.
1:49-1:52. Owen has ranted about Ianto shagging Jack. Ianto grows defensive. His posture is rigid, head down, and he walks to face the coffee machine. He is protecting his vulnerable front, but also signifying to Owen that Owen has crossed the line between Ianto's work life and Ianto's private life. When he moves forward and closes himself off to Owen, Ianto is trying to maintain that privacy. When he cuts Owen off and starts using his body to both push Owen around and to block him out, Ianto assumes control of the encounter.
1:53-1:57. Owen gets into Ianto's space, whispering into Ianto's ear. Owen is an aggressor on Ianto's space, showing his scorn and disregard for Ianto by crossing almost into Ianto's intimate space. Ianto frowns, raises his head, and turns so that Owen is behind the center of his back rather than his shoulder.
1:58-2:02. Owen has one more aggressive outburst, culminating in a thrown tea towel. He has moved away from Ianto and is not looking at him. The aggressive move is not directed at Ianto--this is a general-purpose outburst that is not directed at Ianto. He leans against to wall to support himself; emotionally he is exhausted and needs to brace himself before he falls down.
2:03-2:07. Ianto walks past Owen without looking at him, but is still close enough to Owen that Owen understands Ianto is continuing the conversation. Owen's eyes follow Ianto as he walks around. He is so emotionally out that he's wide open and vulnerable. Ianto stands in front of a plant, folding the tea towel. His back is arrow-straight, and he flicks a quick, over-the-shoulder glance at Owen to make sure Owen is paying attention to him.
2:08-2:19. Ianto is making aggressive motions, but is not making them towards Owen. He's making them towards the coffee machine, wall, tea towel, etc, saying he's not so much angry at Owen (although he is upset) as he is frustrated and doesn't know how to express what he's feeling. Owen looks down very briefly as Ianto passes by him, but otherwise keeps his eyes on Ianto the entire time. Owen is paying attention. Ianto ends the conversation by leaving the kitchenette.
The Cracking of the Ice
This scene is one of those that is more than meets the eye. It looks like a fairly mundane squabble combined with the understandable agony of somebody who just had a big, bad life change. It could be a divorce, or a bereavement, or loss of job, it wouldn't really matter. What makes this scene so significant is that it is the culmination of a long, slow thaw in Owen and Ianto's personal relationship--in fact, I'd go so far as to say this is the moment the ice between them finally cracks for once and for all--and is a sea change in how Owen deals with, well, everybody.
The big thaw started back in Meat. At the beginning of Meat, we see Owen and Ianto working together in a purely professional dynamic. They have a careful space between them, just barely close enough that they could hear one another in a regular conversational tone of voice. When Owen shoots the lock off, Ianto throws out a snarky line, which is a verbal jab back at Owen's nonspoken snark of shooting off the lock with a cheeky look. That's not uncommon between partners in a stressful situation...think of Maverick and Goose in Top Gun. Anyway, snark time over, they go right back to working soon after. Once they are recalled, the interaction ends.
Later on in Meat, when they are back in the building, the thaw continues. Owen watches Rhys and Ianto get hauled off at gunpoint and Owen stays hidden. Seeing a teammate get hauled off in mortal danger is never easy, and Owen is clearly relieved to see Ianto up and OK (sorry about the bottle, but if you watch the episode it's easier to see). They are leaning into one another, looking each other in the face, and both of them look concerned. Somebody please correct me if I'm wrong but I think that is the first one in S2 (and possibly the first one period) where the two men show any kind of personal concern for one another.
The next "warm spell" between Owen and Ianto occurs in Dead Man Walking. When Owen is on the gurney, ready for autopsy, Gwen and Tosh are standing side-by-side, taking comfort and support in one another. Ianto is standing by himself, apart, looking like he's about to cry. Remember that he's not touchy-feely anyway, and so him reacting to grief by pulling away is normal. Even though distance-wise he isn't far from Gwen and Tosh, the directors emphasize the fact that he is standing alone by always showing the women together and Ianto separately. This is the first scene where Ianto is publicly showing any affection for Owen. The thaw continues when Owen is walking back to the autopsy bay, preparing to be euthanized by a formaldehyde shot. He and Gwen hug, he pushes Tosh away, but with Ianto, he walks up to him, slides his hand along the rail, and then the camera pans to Ianto's face. Both men follow each other with their eyes. We assume, but don't know for sure, that Owen covers Ianto's hand and gives it a squeeze or something. It's emotionally loaded and poignant and beautifully acted and directed. This is the first public display of any kind of affection between them. The ice is still there, but it's distinctly thinner.
Finally we come to the scene in Day in the Death. This scene plays out in three distinct "phases:" Owen and Jack in job-space where Ianto acts as an extension of Jack, Owen and Ianto in job-space, and Owen and Ianto in personal space.
At the start of the scene, Ianto exists as an extension of Jack. He is standing close to Jack, not quite shoulder-to-shoulder, but close. He is also a little bit behind Jack. When Jack moves in on Owen, Ianto moves in at the same speed. The effect is that Jack has doubled in size, and the twice-as-large Jack is standing in Owen's private space in an attempt to get him to capitulate. Jack is using his size to push Owen around and push him into submission. Owen doesn't look at Ianto until Ianto speaks to him. This is a twofold thing: first, his attention is on Jack as Jack is the aggressor into Owen's space and Jack has the power in this boss-employee moment. Second, he's attempting to show that he doesn't consider Ianto worth his attention. Ianto isn't worrying about that; he's just trying to do his job, and he is being as tactful and respectful as he can. He shows his respect by backing away as soon as he gets Owen's pass.
The second part of the scene is at the beginning of the moment by the coffee machine. This scene is not only unique in that we have a rare Ianto-Owen moment, it is also a rare moment with Ianto on the job in Ianto-space, and not Ianto as Jack's ever-present silent wingman. Turns out he doesn't act too much different, he might show us something he's interested in, but he's not any more free with his gestures or his willingness to engage in physical contact with anything. Ianto is paying close attention to Owen the entire time, facing him and watching him. Owen is aware of Ianto, but he is acting in such a way that he is telling Ianto he holds him in contempt. He messed with the machine, turned to see if Ianto were still watching him, then went back to messing with the machine. Ianto moves closer to him, the first time he has moved close to Owen aside from taking the cup away from him, and expresses concern. This is the first publicly shown (e.g. the audience can hear them) expression of personal concern between the two of them, and is the start of the personal interaction phase.
Owen has to blow off some steam before he explodes, so he takes out his anger on the nearest convenient target, Ianto. Owen is angry at his death/resurrection, sad because he feels unloved, and afraid that Jack plans to abandon him, but can't express that, so he targets Jack's boyfriend. Owen's fear of replacement is valid: Torchwood is an office, even though it's a bizarre one, and as the team doctor his position absolutely cannot go unfilled. Suzie had a similar reaction when she came back. The difference between Suzie and Owen is that with Owen it's a personal thing--Jack's affection as well as the job, whereas with Suzie so far as we can tell she only cared about the job. Anyway, as long as Owen is just ranting, Ianto stands fast, letting the waves of Owen's anger just wash right by him. He is wide open and obviously concerned and looks somewhat bewildered at Owen's outburst. The concern goes well beyond professional into and into genuine worry for Owen's well-being...until Owen starts in on Ianto's relationship with Jack. Once Owen says that, a switch flips (watch it) and Ianto shuts Owen down. Once Owen finishes his tantrum, Ianto gives him a good talking-to. That's the kind of thing friends do for one another--when you're acting like a jackass, a good friend will give you a good swift kick in the pants, then forgive you and move on. Ianto has just acted like a friend to Owen for the first time that we can see, and judging from his expression when Ianto walks off, Owen knows it. That is the first public (as in audience) between-friends interaction they have, even though it's more of a tough-love than comfort-love affair. It's significant that everything Ianto has said to Owen has conveyed Ianto's respect for Owen, and what appears to be faith on Ianto's part that Owen has the courage and mental wherewithal to deal with his problems. After watching DITD, I think that Ianto is the first one to actually enquire about Owen's mental well-being. Martha, Jack, and Tosh all take turns later in trying to ease the emotional pain, but the quiet one in the office is the one who offers the first helping hand.
On the verbal side, this scene tells us Owen's real problem with Ianto. It's not gunshot wounds or cyberwomen or murder, it's jealousy. Owen is jealous of Jack and Ianto's (and Jack and Martha's) relationship. When Ianto tells him he wasn't aware they were in a competition, the whole mood changed. That's the icebreaker. You could almost hear the big, resounding crack. It took Owen a little while to figure it out, but by the end of the scene he has figure it out. Future Ianto/Owen interactions, such as the Tin Tin nonsense (which was really funny and brotherly), the trip to the theatre in FOOTR or the scene with Jack, Ianto, Owen, and the singularity scalpel in SB have a much more lighthearted, friendly, affectionate feel to them. In Fragments, after they've all had a big trauma, Owen clasps Ianto on the shoulder. This fits in the pattern we've seen so far--they're not comfortable with big gestures of affection a la Owen and Martha, but they are now open enough to one another to offer comfort in times of crisis.
Looking at Owen
We found out in Adam that Owen has parental abandonment issues. His mother, to be specific, but one wonders where his father is in all of this. I've noticed more than a few fics that suggested that Owen's mother was a single parent, and so even though he would have had active abandonment from his mother, his father was flat-out nonexistent. The theory certainly fits with the way Owen clings to Jack as a father figure. Burn Gorman even said that in an interview in Torchwood Declassified for EOD, saying that Owen killing Jack was like the son killing the father. We see more evidence of this at the end of EOD, where Jack greets Tosh like a friend, Ianto like a lover, and Owen like a child. The father-son vibe comes across in Adam, Fragments, and even to some extent in Meat after Owen euthanizes the alien. Owen thrives on that attention and reacts quite strongly when he feels like somebody is going to pull Jack away from him.
Martha got some of that, especially in the beginning of Reset. Owen felt threatened personally and professionally by Martha. Martha's cool-as-a-cucumber, Big Damn Hero personality went a long way to defuse that, but in this scene in Day in the Death Martha is the pink elephant in the room for at least 30 seconds. Owen is blaming Martha for Jack suspending him, and he is in no mental state to see that Jack is doing the right thing. We see him look at Martha in the office several times, and before the scene begins he blames Martha for horning in on his turf to Jack. Later, after assaulting the coffee machine, he looks over at Martha and Jack, who are looking at him. He can't attack Martha directly because he knows Jack would intervene, so he attacks the only other person who is monopolizing Jack's attention, Ianto.
Ianto is a good surrogate target for a few different reasons. First off, he's there. Owen is about to lash out at anybody and everybody within shouting distance, and Ianto happened to be closest at hand. Second, he's a safe target. Jack won't tolerate Owen attacking Martha, but he stays out of conflict between Owen and Ianto. Third, in terms of the office hierarchy, Ianto is the lowest on the food chain. Jack is the boss, Owen is the doctor, and Ianto is the tea boy. This is Owen's POV, mind, and so Owen is not acknowledging how Ianto's role in the office has changed to include security, field ops, intel, and so on in addition to ordering pizza and sitting in the tourist office. That's where the comment about going on more missions comes from--Owen is feeling professionally threatened by Ianto, especially since Ianto just disarmed him, so threatened that he's forgotten how not too long ago Ianto took covered his back twice (saying that he and Rhys were alone, protecting Owen, and later tasing the guy next to Owen). Finally, and most obvious in the dialogue, is that Owen is feeling rejected and unloved in the midst of personal crisis, and standing right in front of him is the man who is in a relationship with an object of Owen's (platonic and child-to-parent) affection. Owen touches on all three of those points, but because he's in so much pain, he just goes straight for the jugular and the one thing that he knows will get a reaction from Ianto, his relationship with Jack.
Owen doesn't want a sexual/romantic relationship with Jack, and Jack doesn't appear to want a sexual relationship with Owen. I've never seen that kind of vibe from either of them, so that isn't the source of his jealousy. He does see that Ianto is in a major emotionally intimate relationship with Jack, to a level that Owen will never reach, and that is the crux of the problem. Owen feels that despite being a field agent for longer, a qualified doctor, and in many ways the team's counselor, there is nothing he can do to get to that same level of emotional intimacy (in a father-son way) with Jack that he so desperately craves. He tries to downplay Ianto's relationship as merely shagging the boss, implying that the reason he's gone so far so fast is by giving sexual favours. We as the audience know better. We've already seen the date scene in KKBB where Jack is emotionally naked in front of Ianto and the scene in Adam where Ianto is falling to pieces and Jack picks him up, so we have evidence that Jack/Ianto is more than just sex. It's reasonable to assume, though, that Owen doesn't know that (b/c Jack and Ianto keep their private relationship private), and so Ianto steps up and defends their relationship. Because Owen is so lost in hurt and frustration and anger and fear, he completely misses the fact that Jack loved him enough to bring him back from the dead, and completely misses the fact that Jack's heart is big enough for both of them to coexist.
Side note: one of the reasons this scene was so powerful for me is that my sister's husband pitched a similar conniption fit about her and my relationship. He came from a pretty messed up family, unlike mine which has its problems but has a generally good dynamic, and he reacted extremely badly to her and my relationship. He didn't understand that she could love him with all her heart and love me with all her heart and didn't understand that it was a different kind of love. As a result, in his view I was a direct and immediate threat to his relationship with my sister, and all of his interactions with me were influenced by that perception. Unfortunately I lived in a different country from my family when this was happening, so I could neither see it coming nor defend myself, and the upshot is that for all intents and purposes he managed to poison my relationship with my sister to the point where it was hanging by the thinnest of threads. After five years, her not being a good correspondent, and my permanent immigration to another country, I've given my relationship with my sister up for dead. My little personal tragedy is a triumph for the writers, actors, and directors of Torchwood. In order for a scene to have any kind of sticking power with an audience, it has to have emotional resonance. This scene had big-time emotional resonance with me.
Back to Torchwood and Owen.
I've commented in the past that Owen is Jack-lite, and that whatever happens to Jack will sooner or later happen to Owen in a somewhat watered-down fashion. In Doctor Who, KKBB, and TTLM, we saw the emotional awakening of Captain Jack Harkness. In the three-story arc of Reset, DMW, and DITD, we are seeing Owen undergo the same emotional awakening. Jack is his Doctor and Martha is his Rose. He's let Martha in, let Ianto in, and, surprisingly, let Tosh in as well. The scenes with Toshiko were all charming. She's been chasing after him with little success for a long time, even pushing her away as hard as he could (sandwiches in Meat). Now that he's allowing himself to cope with his emotions, he tries to throw her away too, but when she refuses to back down, he accepts her feelings as valid and the tiny sparks of a true friendship have begun. She holds his hand at the end of DITD, drags him to the wedding and dances with him in SB, and he supports her physically when she is injured in Fragments.
Regarding Fragments, I don't see that scene as greatly important to what happened in the 6-7-8 story arc, other than it establishing more grounds for Owen's abandonment issues and establishing Jack and Owen as a father-son relationship right from the start. Same thing with Diane--she reinforced Owen's abandonment issues, but in terms of what happened in S2, she wasn't part of his awakening. Had she stuck around, he might have opened himself up sooner, but she didn't. The abandonment after Diane was made worse because by that time, Jack was so depressed and emotionally isolated that he couldn't help Owen, any more than he could have helped himself.
Another side note: Jack taking responsibility for Owen for the rest of his existence is a beautiful, shining, jewel-like touch on his and Owen's parent-child relationship. I've compared Doctor/Jack and Jack/Owen before, but here their paths diverge sharply. The Doctor abandoned Jack and treated him like the proverbial redheaded bastard stepchild. Jack took full responsibility for what he did. It's a powerful parenthood metaphor: Jack brought Owen into undeath, and because he "created" Owen, he accepts that for the rest of Owen's undeath Jack is charged with his care and safe keeping. His reluctance to send Owen into danger reminds me very much of a parent watching a teenager about to do something the parent doesn't want said teenager to do. It is also a sign of just how much Jack himself has grown. The man who partnered John would have left Owen to rot. A year earlier, Jack was too much of an emotional hermit to even consider such a thing. Now, he has the emotional wherewithal to cope with such a relationship.
Ianto's Role
Not too long ago I had a long discussion with my mother about Harry Potter characters, specifically Hermione and Luna. One of the things we talked about was how J.K. Rowling uses Hermione Granger and Luna Lovegood to introduce plot elements. Hermione is used to introduce major plot and character elements, such as figuring out that the Half-Blood Prince was Severus Snape or snapping him to the reality of the war they are in when she tells him about altering her parents' memories and sending them off to Australia. She is close enough to the main character (Harry) that she can do this. Harry doesn't go to Hermione, though, when he needs somebody to guide him through life's mysteries. She is too close to him for that, and so what she says would end up being painted in broad brush strokes. Luna is used to introduce subtlety and layers of complexity, or to discuss more private topics that Harry can't talk about with his best friends such as the nature of death, resurrection, faith, and friendship. I offer Luna and Harry talking to each other at the Veil in the Department of Mysteries as an example. Harry has been profoundly affected by his experience there, and when he talks about it with Luna, she in her charming, off-the-wall way explains that what he saw was real and there, and that what he experienced was normal.
Ianto appears to play a role similar to Luna's role in Harry Potter. We have major plot and character elements introduced by other characters, notably Owen and Gwen, but in at least four separate occasions the writers have used Ianto as the catalyst for exploring and expanding on characters we already know. He does this most often for Jack, which makes sense as he is closer to Jack than anybody else on the team, but he also does this for Owen and Martha. He lets us see the "softer" side of Jack in the date scene in Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang and in FOOTR. He lets us see how much Martha knows and the depth of her professionalism when he is telling her how to be a covert operative, something she already knows more about than he could ever know, but she never once does anything to disrespect him. He is the vehicle by which we see Owen's emotional awakening. The others all help, but Ianto, as I discussed above, is the one that caught our eye. He later shows us more depth and texture in Jack's character in Adrift and the GPS. The last one is especially interesting to me in that it is a combination of large-scale character development told by Gwen and detailed character development told by Ianto. The large-scale character development is Gwen seeing that the road to hell is paved with good intentions, and true to pattern the character development is introduced by Gwen herself. The detailed character development is instigated by Ianto giving Gwen the GPS, and the character detail is all about Jack. Several viewers noticed this last instance, and many, many fics sprang out of it.
Ianto is also used to let us see plot detail. The best example is in Something Borrowed. Owen has set up the large plot, telling us about the Nostrovites, and Ianto's line of questioning lets us know what Nostrovites are and why they are so dangerous. Jack and Owen know what Nostrovites are, but we the audience don't, and without Ianto's line of questions we would be left in the dark. This is relatively uncommon compared to Ianto's role as introducer of character detail, but it works.
I think the reason characters like Ianto and Luna succeed as purveyors of nuance and texture is that they aren't part of the main flow of the story. They are more satellites around it, vital to it, but not directly in it. Because they have that fundamental detachment, they are able to see things that the central characters (either Jack, Gwen, and Owen or Harry, Hermione, and Ron) cannot see or cannot express--you can't comment on the sports match if you are one of the players. Because they are distinctly different from the other characters, Ianto with his suits and self-imposed physical isolation and Luna with her eccentricity and fey nature, we automatically expect that they will have a different point of view. Both characters are written to be extremely intelligent and perceptive as well, so we expect that they will offer insights that other characters (e.g. Ron or Owen) may not have or draw conclusions that the others will not. I don't want to imply that Owen isn't intelligent and capable of picking up on fine detail, but because he is in the middle of the action, he can't do the same kind of thing as Ianto.
Next up will be Tosh and Tommy.