Thoughts on the love triangle that dare not speak it's name.
I meant to write a small comment in a reply to a post on the jackxianto community about spoilers for episode 4 and 5 and the whole Jack/Ianto/Gwen/Rhys issue but my waffle meter must be set to high because instead of a one or two line reply I came up with this essay.
I need some sleep.
I really hope that the writers aren’t going to try to push what is obviously wrong on us like they did in Season 1. Gwen can’t do that to Rhys again and still pretend to be the moral/ethical compass of the show. And even if she did hook up with Jack the show would immediately do a 12ft jump over Jaws and it would all be downhill from there.
Having said that, I can see where the writers may be coming from.
I don't think that Jack is so much in love with/attracted to Gwen but rather he covets what she has - a normal life. I think that under all the bravado and cockiness Jack is tired, both of living and of being. He knows he can’t die which makes any relationship he chooses to pursue a limited one. His partner will grow old and die and he will be left behind to start again.
Gwen, for Jack, represents what he can never have. He doesn’t feel that way about any of the others because they don’t have what she has. Gwen brought with her when she joined a loving relationship and is now engaged to the man she loves. Soon she will marry him and have her happily ever after (whether she deserves it after what she did to him is another matter). No one from the rest of the team has that. They are already jaded by the job and so their actions and relationships and in turn they themselves are tainted. That’s why I think Jack is so attracted and gives off the vibes of being in lurrv. You always want what you can’t have.
His relationship with Ianto is built on both attraction and, dare I say it, love. Ianto seems to genuinely love Jack. He wants to pursue a relationship with Jack, go on dates and all that jazz because he loves him. Jack, despite flirting with anything that moves, wants that too. With an exceptionally long life behind him and an even longer one stretching out before him he must feel incredibly lonely so when the opportunity to ease some of that loneliness comes along in the form of that someone special, I’d say he grabs for it with both hands. In Ianto’s case he has the added bonus of not having to hide so much of himself. Ianto knows he can’t die, knows he doesn’t age normally (at least I assume he has figured that part out by now he is a birght spark after all) and knows the true nature of his job. That’s why I think their relationship would actually have a chance at working and providing better story lines for future episodes i.e. Jack flirts and Ianto gets jealous leading to hot and steamy revenge sex and happy, happy fan girls and boys.
This is purely based on a non biased opinion and is in no way influenced by the fact that I think Gwen looks like a troll and should be shot out of a canon and into the place where annoying, useless characters go to be punished for being annoying, useless and unforgivably clichéd.
………………… I NEED SLEEP!!!!!