Jack/Gwen, 2x01
It has totally come to my attention that my random insight-meta over on the NaNo boards is spoilery and therefore distracting to those who have high self-control. As I am not one of those people and feel the need to squee loudly about everything, here I shall ramble. My entries will be short and disconnected, but I don't think it matters. At some point I will combine all my previous meta into one archived post, but I'm a bit lazy right now.
So here we go--further KKBB meta.
Also, I totally need to go find myself some Torchwood iconage.
****!!!SPOILER ALERT!!!****
This thought randomly occured to me as I was babysitting earlier. It has probably already been said, because this episode has been picked apart like CRAZY, but The Jack/Gwen Thing was still bothering me a lot.
And it's hard to come up with an exact meaning behind the thing because the various shipper-camps think differently.
Anyway, here is my view:
Jack has just come back to Torchwood. At the end of DW s3, the Doctor I think claims Jack has only been gone for three days. Whether or not this was actually said I can't recall, but it doesn't matter. The point is, the team has been on their own longer than Jack thought, and Jack himself has been away for a year. He, I think, sort of expects everything to either be unchanged or in total chaos. Instead, he returns to find everyone working efficiently. Gwen is in charge (I'm assuming this is because Owen has spent the last season going off the rails and lacks people skills and Tosh is too involved in her techy stuff, so that leaves Gwen with leadership ability) and has obviously pulled the team together in a way that Jack could not (note he claimed he wasn't very good at being a boss).
So, Jack comes home to a team that has done incredibly well in his absence. Then he gets a message from an ex-partner and runs off again to have a snog and a barfight, and finally brings the man back to Torchwood. After which we get The Jack/Gwen Scene.
I do NOT think that Jack was in love with Gwen and upset that she was marrying Rhys. He was NOT angry with himself that he couldn't be there to stop her. Yes, I think he was angry with himself, but more because everything's changed again and he missed it and he messed up. He obviously cares about his team a great deal, and cares about Gwen, and when Gwen tells him that "no-one else'll have me" I think it hurts him because it cuts just a little too close.
Jack realises that Gwen is going to have a stable (well, stable-er) life with Rhys now, something she didn't have last season. Last season Jack kept telling her to keep hold of her private life and not to let it drift, yet he kept interrupting. Now, he realises, she's getting married and that means she was able to hold it together better on her own than with Jack there.
So, anyway. I think on Gwen's part there is some residual attraction, but there is none on Jack's. The news is simply a shock for Jack, and it kind of reminded me more of a father finding out his daughter's gotten engaged than someone with a crush finding out the love of his life is engaged to someone else.
It also gives him something else to think about regarding his and Ianto's relationship--could this be what Ianto's thinking, that no one will have him? Is this what Ianto wants, an actual relationship? Is this what Jack wants?
Whatever it is, I think this scene had nothing to do with any romantic attraction between Jack and Gwen.
So here we go--further KKBB meta.
Also, I totally need to go find myself some Torchwood iconage.
****!!!SPOILER ALERT!!!****
This thought randomly occured to me as I was babysitting earlier. It has probably already been said, because this episode has been picked apart like CRAZY, but The Jack/Gwen Thing was still bothering me a lot.
And it's hard to come up with an exact meaning behind the thing because the various shipper-camps think differently.
Anyway, here is my view:
Jack has just come back to Torchwood. At the end of DW s3, the Doctor I think claims Jack has only been gone for three days. Whether or not this was actually said I can't recall, but it doesn't matter. The point is, the team has been on their own longer than Jack thought, and Jack himself has been away for a year. He, I think, sort of expects everything to either be unchanged or in total chaos. Instead, he returns to find everyone working efficiently. Gwen is in charge (I'm assuming this is because Owen has spent the last season going off the rails and lacks people skills and Tosh is too involved in her techy stuff, so that leaves Gwen with leadership ability) and has obviously pulled the team together in a way that Jack could not (note he claimed he wasn't very good at being a boss).
So, Jack comes home to a team that has done incredibly well in his absence. Then he gets a message from an ex-partner and runs off again to have a snog and a barfight, and finally brings the man back to Torchwood. After which we get The Jack/Gwen Scene.
I do NOT think that Jack was in love with Gwen and upset that she was marrying Rhys. He was NOT angry with himself that he couldn't be there to stop her. Yes, I think he was angry with himself, but more because everything's changed again and he missed it and he messed up. He obviously cares about his team a great deal, and cares about Gwen, and when Gwen tells him that "no-one else'll have me" I think it hurts him because it cuts just a little too close.
Jack realises that Gwen is going to have a stable (well, stable-er) life with Rhys now, something she didn't have last season. Last season Jack kept telling her to keep hold of her private life and not to let it drift, yet he kept interrupting. Now, he realises, she's getting married and that means she was able to hold it together better on her own than with Jack there.
So, anyway. I think on Gwen's part there is some residual attraction, but there is none on Jack's. The news is simply a shock for Jack, and it kind of reminded me more of a father finding out his daughter's gotten engaged than someone with a crush finding out the love of his life is engaged to someone else.
It also gives him something else to think about regarding his and Ianto's relationship--could this be what Ianto's thinking, that no one will have him? Is this what Ianto wants, an actual relationship? Is this what Jack wants?
Whatever it is, I think this scene had nothing to do with any romantic attraction between Jack and Gwen.