(no subject)
Because I ordered myself to finish this during my week off, before I lose interest and it joins all the other forever unfinished fanish posts in their folder. (OTOH? I'm almost tempted now to take out again the Angel/Wesley one. Almost.)
Not that it matters much either way, but... eh. If my brain insists on starting this kind of posts. ::shrug::
Thoughts about the Jack/Ianto... we can call it a relationship, right?
Starting with the kiss that shouldn't have been a surprise, but still was, somehow.
I'd seen the kiss before (small clip, out of context, months before I ever saw an episode), I wasn't really in doubt/denial about the stopwatch-scene, and it still caught me by surprise, in a way. After all there's the kind of old-fashioned tv show convention that makes you expect the first kiss you see between two main characters to be the, well, first kiss. You don't expect it to be the kind of kiss that signals familiarity and emotion and makes you stop and ask yourself how long these two had been sleeping together again, and mentally go over the evidence, or lack thereof.
Because (to qualify somewhat: for me) what was lacking was... pretty much everything leading up to this kind of relationship-y kiss, except a very few rather disconnected moments.
If you assume that Ianto and Jack were in some kind of sexual relationship from (at least) They Keep Killing Suzie onwards, it still begs the question how (to quote myself, after having finished watching the series for the first time) they went from 'Execute her, or I'll execute you both' and 'You're the biggest monster of all' to sleeping together in five easy steps the space of four episodes. Or rather one episode, two at most, because things between them are still strained in Coutrycide (Ianto hurting; Jack angry at the memory, or at Ianto for bringing it up, almost accusingly, without a hint of embarrassment or contriteness), and from the glimpse Tosh gets into his thoughts Ianto is (not surprisingly) still in a whole lot of pain in Greeks Bearing Gifts.
The start of the Gwen/Owen relationship is built up during Coutrycide (and before) - the only thing that gets build-up in They Keep Killing Suzie is the stop-watch. (Unless you want to interpret the moment where Ianto hands Jack the phone in this light, which IMO would take hindsight and/or a fanishly prejudiced perception.) Now granted, people do strange and unexpected things all the time and as often as not don't need profound - or even good - reasons to jump into bed with each other, but, again, there are narrative conventions and the resulting expectations and from a viewer's perspective one really would have liked to see a little more development and motivation here; a few more dots to connect.
Personally I would find it less problematic to assume they had already been involved before Cyberwoman, mainly because to me it would seem easier to rebuild what would probably have been a mostly rather casual sexual relationship and then transform it, or allow it to transform, into something a bit deeper and more emotional, than to start one after that kind of trauma, especially in such a brief space of time. Rather casual on Jack's side, who I doubt would have looked too closely beneath the pretty surface at the time; convenience and maybe loneliness, because the Jack we see on Torchwood is a lonely man beneath the flamboyant, charming surface, someone who doesn't allow anyone too close; on Ianto's a mixture of guilt and loneliness, possibly with a dose of keep-the-boss-happy-and-distracted, which is not something I'd put entirely past him, especially as a justification to himself why he was doing this.
And IMO everything that happens between them would fit just a little better, have more weight and meaning under this assumption. Ianto's frustration - admittedly I'm a very private, self-contained person, but personally it wouldn't make me angry if my boss didn't ask after my private life, especially if I had taken great pains to keep the most important parts of it hidden; I can't really imagine Ianto inviting inquiry into his life under those circumstances, and from what we see in the first episodes they don't have such a close working-relationship to warrant such an outburst. Now if I were sleeping with said boss, it would be a different matter, more so if I had any kind of feelings for him, however conflicted. Ianto's frustrations seems to be mainly directed at Jack - the accusing 'you' seems to be a singular rather than a plural one. It's certainly very personal when he pleads for Lisa: 'I love her. Do you understand that, Jack? ['Jack', not, 'sir'.] Haven't you even loved anyone?'.
Jack is justifiably angry at Ianto's betrayal - after all it did massively endanger Torchwood, if not the world at large; his initial reaction might seem shocking, but isn't entirely unwarranted - but he's already putting the gun away when he learns who Lisa is and that the whole mess is the result of love and incredibly bad judgement, and not some evil ploy to bring down Torchwood; he's actually almost trying to be gentle, considering the circumstances and Jack's temper, he's trying to reason with Ianto and he apolgises for what he does to Lisa and means it, which is a lot more than Toshiko gets a couple of episodes later, even if there really is no proper way to apologise for feeding someone's girlfriend to the pet-pterodactyl.
When things escalate so badly after the escape from the Hub it becomes an entirely personal matter between Ianto and Jack, though. Even if Jack painstakingly sticks to 'we', 'us', 'the team' throughout, in a way that seems a deliberate exclusion of personal feelings, it's very clear that he is furious on a very personal level when Ianto calls him a monster, twice, and chooses Lisa again and again, against all reason, without the slightest hesitation and with an absolute disregard for the team, for Torchwood, and for Jack himself; furious to the point where he's only a hair's breadth away from shooting Ianto and possibly tears of rage, even when Tosh is horrified and Gwen is trying to physically hold him back. His team most certainly doesn't want Jack to force Ianto to shoot Lisa on their behalf.
[And what, btw, does it take to get fired from Torchwood, if hiding a semi-cyber girlfriend in the basement and defying and hindering your boss attempting to deal with the threat every step of the way, resulting in the death of two innocent people doesn't? (Quite a bit less for Owen, apparently.) It's pretty astounding in and of itself that Jack apparently makes staying or leaving Ianto's decision.]
There seems to be some history even then, although admittedly though this is pure speculation, since there isn't any direct evidence, except the lack of any to the opposite; then again there was no indication that Ianto was hiding his girlfriend in the basement, either, before it turned out that he had. (The ersatz CPR 'kiss' is interesting in that it parallels the Gwen/Owen kiss and thus perhaps should have been read a s a hint/foreshadowing even then, but in the end probably can't be counted as evidence - there's most likely a reason we were shown the energy transference kiss in Day One. But it's perhaps worth noting that there already seems to be a level of familiarity, a lack of appalled reaction on Ianto's side to what would have been the oddest-timed first kiss ever. And half a minute, a minute, later when Owen stabs Lisa, Ianto is still cradled in Jack's arms, and only scrambles up when he hears her scream.
Does Ianto's 'And I don't care' translate as 'And I know more than any of you, but I'm not telling'?
Fast forward to the end of They Keep Killing Suzie.
IMO Ianto's proposition to Jack makes more sense under the assumption that it wasn't a first time ever offer. Not only is it relatively comfortable, without a hint of uncertainty, but also who proposes sex with stopwatch innuendo (even if they're uncommonly fond of their stopwatches), unless the stopwatch had featured in some sexual scenario before? It makes a lot more sense if you assume there are (fond) memories connected with it.
It's not so much that I find Ianto taking the first step problematic per se (not a fan of the seduced!submissive!shirking violet!Ianto school of fanficwriting), and it's clear that at this point any move must come from him, because anything else would create an uneasy relationship dynamic and somewhat dubious issues of power, consent and obligation that I doubt even Jack would be unaware of/willing to disregard. Not to mention that he presumably likes his partners to be enthusiastic participants rather than guilt-ridden or driven by similar questionable motives.
At the same time there must have been something to give Ianto the confidence and certainty to assume his offer would (still) be welcome (there's the hand on the shoulder, which clearly surprises him, in Small Worlds, but other than that on-screen at least Jack's flirting has stopped entirely after Cyberwoman), rather than be turned down and/or complicate things between them further. After all, Jack is still his boss, and there's been a big strain on their (working, if nothing else) relationship on both sides that can't have entirely been smoothed out yet.
There must have been some development we haven't seen on screen, a clearing of the air at least, something to sufficiently motivate Jack to not only take Ianto up on his offer, but to appreciate it (and Jack is surprised, but certainly pleased), not to question his motives (without Ianto's obvious grief in End of Days I would have questioned his motives and emotional involvement) and to trust him, and their relationship enough to be reasonably convinced that this wouldn't turn ugly fast further down the line and mess up the team. Essentially, for it to be worthwhile to start a sexual relationship with someone who's betrayed you before - and there's always the 'I'll watch you suffer and die' threat (which Ianto probably remembers once or twice during End of Days)-, who's probably still an emotional mess on many levels. Directly put, if you're looking for an uncomplicated, non-committal, recreational office shag, the guy with whom you've exchanged threats at gun-point and who probably still bears you something of a grudge for killing his girlfriend (twice, if you count the attempt) probably wouldn't be right on top of the list.
And it's not as if Jack never gives these things a thought. He didn't follow through with Gwen in Ghost Machine, despite the - can you even call that flirting? foreplay, more like; he let the silence stretch a little too long, and allowed the moment pass; probably with some regret, maybe because he wouldn't risk jeopardising either the good working relationship, the developing friendship, or Gwen's relationship with her boyfriend, but pass it did, and the relationship between Gwen and Jack changed into something less sexually charged for the rest of the series. Jack may not be opposed to no stings attached sex with whomever is gorgeous enough, but he's perfectly capable and willing to consider the implications and impact of sex on personal relationships, especially with people he's already close with or if the situation warrants it - he's rather slow on taking up the original captain Jack's hints, too.
So if he does take Ianto up on his offer, it's either in total, deliberate disregard for him as a person, which I don't think is likely at this point, because why even have bothered to keep him in Torchwood then - and, if anything, the events of Cyberwoman must have taught Jack not to overlook or underestimate Ianto -, or a certain amount of (prior?) attachment/affection. I can see Jack go for sex on the basis of 'looks good in a suit' (and out of it) and a cute Welsh accent before Cyberwoman, but not after; at this point, there has to go some thought and consideration into it. After a melt-down of this scale and all the resulting emotional baggage between them, 'Jack is easy and Ianto is pretty' doesn't seem to be sufficient explanation to me, unless the Torchwood characterisation is so sketchy that it will default to 'Jack will shag anything' at a pinch. Things must have been resolved to some extent between them. Perhaps it's Ianto's way of signaling a beginning of forgiveness?
And it's worth noting that Ianto's offer seems to be a reaction to Jack's sadness and vulnerability after the Suzie disaster (take two), which might make one think that this wasn't the first time this happened like that - a distraction, an offer of comfort. Which might also suggest that Ianto had seen - been allowed to see - more of the vulnerable, darker side of Jack than any of the others.
[And maybe it doesn't come quite out of nothing, after all. The scene at the beginning of Small Worlds - it isn't very obvious, because it's such a brief moment; or maybe I'm particularly dense since I had to replay it several times to really see it, but there's a lot of intimacy in that moment, despite the slight awkwardness and tension. It's, I think, the only time we see Jack wholly out of 'uniform', not dressed formally, and that already removes a layer from his persona. Combined with the night-time setting, the fact that Jack had just got out of bed and his uneasiness about the dream it echoes the intimacy that Gwen had evoked asking, 'Doesn't it get lonely at night?'.]
And while again there isn't any real follow-up after They Keep Killing Suzie for the next three episodes, although in Combat Jack and Ianto at least have some (strictly professional) screen-time together, something about the sexual tension, or at least a certain amount of attraction on Ianto's side, must have transpired at least off-screen, to trigger Owen's 'part-time shag' comment, unless it was a total shot in the dark that just happened to hit closer than to the truth than he could have imagined. What I find interesting, though, is Ianto's reply - 'I'm much more than that. Jack needs me.' -, because Ianto doesn't strike me as someone who would make such a claim, even under provocation, if it were totally unfounded, even if admittedly it's a bit hard to tell what Ianto would or wouldn't do, because for the most part of the series we see him either in extreme situations, or not at all/being very formal.
Regardless, there remains the fact that except for those few moments and a bit of flirting early on, up until the last episode most of the time Jack and Ianto are almost doing the antithesis of what in other shows creates slashy vibes between people who never had and never will have an on-screen kiss or any kind of relationship in canon. No looks, no touches, no standing in each other's space. Except for Cyberwoman, the first time they're even on screen together for any length of time is Combat. There's nothing in the body-language of either to even hint at anything until End of Days, when Jack is leaning on Ianto and they're holding onto each other after having escaped from the Hub. (Interestingly enough there's yet another moment when Jack is - physically, this time - vulnerable and Ianto is supporting him.) (1)
Still, theirs might be a more complex relationship than is visible in the glimpses we get, and a more mutual one. Not true love for ever after, not all hearts and flowers either, but something drawing them towards each other; a bit more than just casual sex, and on Jack's part, too. Not enough to make Ianto stay on Jack's side in End of Days, but enough for Jack to believe he would and even when it turned out he wouldn't, that he'd be the one where he could drive a wedge in the 'united front', when, if you look at the on-screen history Jack has with the members of his team, Ianto's loyalty would have been the one most in question; as if Jack hadn't pulled the trigger as much as anyone, not to forget the pterodactyl or the gun to Ianto's head. What reasons does Jack have to believe that Ianto has really, if not forgotten, then forgiven him?
It may also be a more equal relationship than their respective positions in Torchwood might suggest and is often seen in fanfiction. clarity_lore wrote an interesting post about Jack treating his team like his children in some fashion (which is somewhat logical from Jack's seen-it-all-and-several-times-over perspective), but Ianto more as an equal partner. Certainly there's a distinct lack of those moments where Jack is the kind, yet slightly fatherly boss in their relationship.
And Jack might not be a regular boss, but he is the boss of the team, and he will over-ride them in a crisis without a second thought when he thinks it's necessary. When push comes to shove, Torchwood is not a democracy and there are distinct power issues here that could easily make any relationship with someone from the team problematic, which, IMO, is why Gwen/Jack, who had plenty of chemistry in the first few episodes, was nipped in the bud and shifted to Gwen/Owen instead. Cyberwoman defines the Jack/Ianto relationship - It makes sense that any relationship that Jack would have with someone from his team would be with Ianto, who defied him every step of the way, made him lose his composure entirely, driving him into a spitting rage and not backing down an inch, even with a gun to his head, and (at least on-screen) never apologised for it afterwards. Tosh's comparatively rather minor betrayal is resolved in a conversation that is certainly amiable, but where Jack still is a bit boss, a bit father figure, and where it is established that Mary had lied, the pendant was a curse best to be destroyed and what Tosh had done was wrong. The terse nods and silent looks that Jack and Ianto exchange in the aftermath of Cyberwoman are a very different thing. Ianto, although he (one assumes) does feel guilty enough about the deaths he caused, is not ever apologetic or contrite as far as Jack or any of the team are concerned.
And it's not so strange that Jack might be attracted to that, once he got over being seriously pissed off - if what he appreciates in Gwen is the emotional warmth and lack of detachment, he'd also finds that in Ianto who wouldn't compromise at all when it came to the person he loved, only in him it's tempered with a sense of distance and privacy and a dark streak that Jack would recognise in himself. I have no problem believing that Jack would want the more complex person that suddenly emerged from under the pretty facade.
And the kiss? Ianto still gets it, even after having let down Jack a second time.
(1) Part of the reason for this rather sketchy relationship development seems to be the change of importance of Ianto's character who apparently initially wasn't even meant to last past Cyberwoman. The other part seems to be that they deliberately went for a) lack of making A Gay Relationship Issue out of it, which I really, really appreciate, although one might (probably unfairly) wonder whether not pinning Jack on the gay side of omnisexual too soon mightn't have played a part, too; and perhaps more importantly, b) ambiguity and (somewhat) plausible deniability until the last episode, to make the kiss something of a surprise. (Which seemed to have worked so well that apparently there are people who still are in denial, which personally I find rather baffling.) And considering how the Jack/Ianto relationship is conspicuously Not Talked About in any of the DVD extras (when there's plenty about the Jack/Jack episode) the ambiguity seems to extend to the second season and the direction they're going (or not going) to take the relationship. Did they even know at the time of the last episode or the production of the DVDs? Or did/do they, and don't want to spoil? [wishful thinking] There must be some follow up, you can't have two main characters kiss in the final episode after a season of relatively obscure hints, finally making their relationship canon, and never mention it again?! [/wishful thinking]
And, as a final tangent and addendum: Jack hopping onto the TARDIS without a backward glance doesn't bode well for the Jack/Ianto relationship at first (or second) glance, but (Who fans correct me) the TARDIS can travel through time with some precision, right? Couldn't Jack have reasonably expected to be dropped off at Torchwood again minutes or hours after he'd left, rather than weeks, months or years? (At least to sort out everything, say good-bye, etc.) It's a chance he can't miss, the one he's been waiting for two centuries or so, and I'm certainly going to be interested in how they're going to resolve the problem of making Jack want to stay on Earth and in Torchwood at all, when what he clearly wants is to be gone from this backward planet he's stuck on, but leaving would perhaps not have been as final in his mind.
[ETA: A longer, post-CoE discussion of their relationship through seasons 1-3 can be found here.
An analysis of the time motif in their relationship arc can be found here.]
Not that it matters much either way, but... eh. If my brain insists on starting this kind of posts. ::shrug::
Thoughts about the Jack/Ianto... we can call it a relationship, right?
Starting with the kiss that shouldn't have been a surprise, but still was, somehow.
I'd seen the kiss before (small clip, out of context, months before I ever saw an episode), I wasn't really in doubt/denial about the stopwatch-scene, and it still caught me by surprise, in a way. After all there's the kind of old-fashioned tv show convention that makes you expect the first kiss you see between two main characters to be the, well, first kiss. You don't expect it to be the kind of kiss that signals familiarity and emotion and makes you stop and ask yourself how long these two had been sleeping together again, and mentally go over the evidence, or lack thereof.
Because (to qualify somewhat: for me) what was lacking was... pretty much everything leading up to this kind of relationship-y kiss, except a very few rather disconnected moments.
If you assume that Ianto and Jack were in some kind of sexual relationship from (at least) They Keep Killing Suzie onwards, it still begs the question how (to quote myself, after having finished watching the series for the first time) they went from 'Execute her, or I'll execute you both' and 'You're the biggest monster of all' to sleeping together in five easy steps the space of four episodes. Or rather one episode, two at most, because things between them are still strained in Coutrycide (Ianto hurting; Jack angry at the memory, or at Ianto for bringing it up, almost accusingly, without a hint of embarrassment or contriteness), and from the glimpse Tosh gets into his thoughts Ianto is (not surprisingly) still in a whole lot of pain in Greeks Bearing Gifts.
The start of the Gwen/Owen relationship is built up during Coutrycide (and before) - the only thing that gets build-up in They Keep Killing Suzie is the stop-watch. (Unless you want to interpret the moment where Ianto hands Jack the phone in this light, which IMO would take hindsight and/or a fanishly prejudiced perception.) Now granted, people do strange and unexpected things all the time and as often as not don't need profound - or even good - reasons to jump into bed with each other, but, again, there are narrative conventions and the resulting expectations and from a viewer's perspective one really would have liked to see a little more development and motivation here; a few more dots to connect.
Personally I would find it less problematic to assume they had already been involved before Cyberwoman, mainly because to me it would seem easier to rebuild what would probably have been a mostly rather casual sexual relationship and then transform it, or allow it to transform, into something a bit deeper and more emotional, than to start one after that kind of trauma, especially in such a brief space of time. Rather casual on Jack's side, who I doubt would have looked too closely beneath the pretty surface at the time; convenience and maybe loneliness, because the Jack we see on Torchwood is a lonely man beneath the flamboyant, charming surface, someone who doesn't allow anyone too close; on Ianto's a mixture of guilt and loneliness, possibly with a dose of keep-the-boss-happy-and-distracted, which is not something I'd put entirely past him, especially as a justification to himself why he was doing this.
And IMO everything that happens between them would fit just a little better, have more weight and meaning under this assumption. Ianto's frustration - admittedly I'm a very private, self-contained person, but personally it wouldn't make me angry if my boss didn't ask after my private life, especially if I had taken great pains to keep the most important parts of it hidden; I can't really imagine Ianto inviting inquiry into his life under those circumstances, and from what we see in the first episodes they don't have such a close working-relationship to warrant such an outburst. Now if I were sleeping with said boss, it would be a different matter, more so if I had any kind of feelings for him, however conflicted. Ianto's frustrations seems to be mainly directed at Jack - the accusing 'you' seems to be a singular rather than a plural one. It's certainly very personal when he pleads for Lisa: 'I love her. Do you understand that, Jack? ['Jack', not, 'sir'.] Haven't you even loved anyone?'.
Jack is justifiably angry at Ianto's betrayal - after all it did massively endanger Torchwood, if not the world at large; his initial reaction might seem shocking, but isn't entirely unwarranted - but he's already putting the gun away when he learns who Lisa is and that the whole mess is the result of love and incredibly bad judgement, and not some evil ploy to bring down Torchwood; he's actually almost trying to be gentle, considering the circumstances and Jack's temper, he's trying to reason with Ianto and he apolgises for what he does to Lisa and means it, which is a lot more than Toshiko gets a couple of episodes later, even if there really is no proper way to apologise for feeding someone's girlfriend to the pet-pterodactyl.
When things escalate so badly after the escape from the Hub it becomes an entirely personal matter between Ianto and Jack, though. Even if Jack painstakingly sticks to 'we', 'us', 'the team' throughout, in a way that seems a deliberate exclusion of personal feelings, it's very clear that he is furious on a very personal level when Ianto calls him a monster, twice, and chooses Lisa again and again, against all reason, without the slightest hesitation and with an absolute disregard for the team, for Torchwood, and for Jack himself; furious to the point where he's only a hair's breadth away from shooting Ianto and possibly tears of rage, even when Tosh is horrified and Gwen is trying to physically hold him back. His team most certainly doesn't want Jack to force Ianto to shoot Lisa on their behalf.
[And what, btw, does it take to get fired from Torchwood, if hiding a semi-cyber girlfriend in the basement and defying and hindering your boss attempting to deal with the threat every step of the way, resulting in the death of two innocent people doesn't? (Quite a bit less for Owen, apparently.) It's pretty astounding in and of itself that Jack apparently makes staying or leaving Ianto's decision.]
There seems to be some history even then, although admittedly though this is pure speculation, since there isn't any direct evidence, except the lack of any to the opposite; then again there was no indication that Ianto was hiding his girlfriend in the basement, either, before it turned out that he had. (The ersatz CPR 'kiss' is interesting in that it parallels the Gwen/Owen kiss and thus perhaps should have been read a s a hint/foreshadowing even then, but in the end probably can't be counted as evidence - there's most likely a reason we were shown the energy transference kiss in Day One. But it's perhaps worth noting that there already seems to be a level of familiarity, a lack of appalled reaction on Ianto's side to what would have been the oddest-timed first kiss ever. And half a minute, a minute, later when Owen stabs Lisa, Ianto is still cradled in Jack's arms, and only scrambles up when he hears her scream.
Does Ianto's 'And I don't care' translate as 'And I know more than any of you, but I'm not telling'?
Fast forward to the end of They Keep Killing Suzie.
IMO Ianto's proposition to Jack makes more sense under the assumption that it wasn't a first time ever offer. Not only is it relatively comfortable, without a hint of uncertainty, but also who proposes sex with stopwatch innuendo (even if they're uncommonly fond of their stopwatches), unless the stopwatch had featured in some sexual scenario before? It makes a lot more sense if you assume there are (fond) memories connected with it.
It's not so much that I find Ianto taking the first step problematic per se (not a fan of the seduced!submissive!shirking violet!Ianto school of fanficwriting), and it's clear that at this point any move must come from him, because anything else would create an uneasy relationship dynamic and somewhat dubious issues of power, consent and obligation that I doubt even Jack would be unaware of/willing to disregard. Not to mention that he presumably likes his partners to be enthusiastic participants rather than guilt-ridden or driven by similar questionable motives.
At the same time there must have been something to give Ianto the confidence and certainty to assume his offer would (still) be welcome (there's the hand on the shoulder, which clearly surprises him, in Small Worlds, but other than that on-screen at least Jack's flirting has stopped entirely after Cyberwoman), rather than be turned down and/or complicate things between them further. After all, Jack is still his boss, and there's been a big strain on their (working, if nothing else) relationship on both sides that can't have entirely been smoothed out yet.
There must have been some development we haven't seen on screen, a clearing of the air at least, something to sufficiently motivate Jack to not only take Ianto up on his offer, but to appreciate it (and Jack is surprised, but certainly pleased), not to question his motives (without Ianto's obvious grief in End of Days I would have questioned his motives and emotional involvement) and to trust him, and their relationship enough to be reasonably convinced that this wouldn't turn ugly fast further down the line and mess up the team. Essentially, for it to be worthwhile to start a sexual relationship with someone who's betrayed you before - and there's always the 'I'll watch you suffer and die' threat (which Ianto probably remembers once or twice during End of Days)-, who's probably still an emotional mess on many levels. Directly put, if you're looking for an uncomplicated, non-committal, recreational office shag, the guy with whom you've exchanged threats at gun-point and who probably still bears you something of a grudge for killing his girlfriend (twice, if you count the attempt) probably wouldn't be right on top of the list.
And it's not as if Jack never gives these things a thought. He didn't follow through with Gwen in Ghost Machine, despite the - can you even call that flirting? foreplay, more like; he let the silence stretch a little too long, and allowed the moment pass; probably with some regret, maybe because he wouldn't risk jeopardising either the good working relationship, the developing friendship, or Gwen's relationship with her boyfriend, but pass it did, and the relationship between Gwen and Jack changed into something less sexually charged for the rest of the series. Jack may not be opposed to no stings attached sex with whomever is gorgeous enough, but he's perfectly capable and willing to consider the implications and impact of sex on personal relationships, especially with people he's already close with or if the situation warrants it - he's rather slow on taking up the original captain Jack's hints, too.
So if he does take Ianto up on his offer, it's either in total, deliberate disregard for him as a person, which I don't think is likely at this point, because why even have bothered to keep him in Torchwood then - and, if anything, the events of Cyberwoman must have taught Jack not to overlook or underestimate Ianto -, or a certain amount of (prior?) attachment/affection. I can see Jack go for sex on the basis of 'looks good in a suit' (and out of it) and a cute Welsh accent before Cyberwoman, but not after; at this point, there has to go some thought and consideration into it. After a melt-down of this scale and all the resulting emotional baggage between them, 'Jack is easy and Ianto is pretty' doesn't seem to be sufficient explanation to me, unless the Torchwood characterisation is so sketchy that it will default to 'Jack will shag anything' at a pinch. Things must have been resolved to some extent between them. Perhaps it's Ianto's way of signaling a beginning of forgiveness?
And it's worth noting that Ianto's offer seems to be a reaction to Jack's sadness and vulnerability after the Suzie disaster (take two), which might make one think that this wasn't the first time this happened like that - a distraction, an offer of comfort. Which might also suggest that Ianto had seen - been allowed to see - more of the vulnerable, darker side of Jack than any of the others.
[And maybe it doesn't come quite out of nothing, after all. The scene at the beginning of Small Worlds - it isn't very obvious, because it's such a brief moment; or maybe I'm particularly dense since I had to replay it several times to really see it, but there's a lot of intimacy in that moment, despite the slight awkwardness and tension. It's, I think, the only time we see Jack wholly out of 'uniform', not dressed formally, and that already removes a layer from his persona. Combined with the night-time setting, the fact that Jack had just got out of bed and his uneasiness about the dream it echoes the intimacy that Gwen had evoked asking, 'Doesn't it get lonely at night?'.]
And while again there isn't any real follow-up after They Keep Killing Suzie for the next three episodes, although in Combat Jack and Ianto at least have some (strictly professional) screen-time together, something about the sexual tension, or at least a certain amount of attraction on Ianto's side, must have transpired at least off-screen, to trigger Owen's 'part-time shag' comment, unless it was a total shot in the dark that just happened to hit closer than to the truth than he could have imagined. What I find interesting, though, is Ianto's reply - 'I'm much more than that. Jack needs me.' -, because Ianto doesn't strike me as someone who would make such a claim, even under provocation, if it were totally unfounded, even if admittedly it's a bit hard to tell what Ianto would or wouldn't do, because for the most part of the series we see him either in extreme situations, or not at all/being very formal.
Regardless, there remains the fact that except for those few moments and a bit of flirting early on, up until the last episode most of the time Jack and Ianto are almost doing the antithesis of what in other shows creates slashy vibes between people who never had and never will have an on-screen kiss or any kind of relationship in canon. No looks, no touches, no standing in each other's space. Except for Cyberwoman, the first time they're even on screen together for any length of time is Combat. There's nothing in the body-language of either to even hint at anything until End of Days, when Jack is leaning on Ianto and they're holding onto each other after having escaped from the Hub. (Interestingly enough there's yet another moment when Jack is - physically, this time - vulnerable and Ianto is supporting him.) (1)
Still, theirs might be a more complex relationship than is visible in the glimpses we get, and a more mutual one. Not true love for ever after, not all hearts and flowers either, but something drawing them towards each other; a bit more than just casual sex, and on Jack's part, too. Not enough to make Ianto stay on Jack's side in End of Days, but enough for Jack to believe he would and even when it turned out he wouldn't, that he'd be the one where he could drive a wedge in the 'united front', when, if you look at the on-screen history Jack has with the members of his team, Ianto's loyalty would have been the one most in question; as if Jack hadn't pulled the trigger as much as anyone, not to forget the pterodactyl or the gun to Ianto's head. What reasons does Jack have to believe that Ianto has really, if not forgotten, then forgiven him?
It may also be a more equal relationship than their respective positions in Torchwood might suggest and is often seen in fanfiction. clarity_lore wrote an interesting post about Jack treating his team like his children in some fashion (which is somewhat logical from Jack's seen-it-all-and-several-times-over perspective), but Ianto more as an equal partner. Certainly there's a distinct lack of those moments where Jack is the kind, yet slightly fatherly boss in their relationship.
And Jack might not be a regular boss, but he is the boss of the team, and he will over-ride them in a crisis without a second thought when he thinks it's necessary. When push comes to shove, Torchwood is not a democracy and there are distinct power issues here that could easily make any relationship with someone from the team problematic, which, IMO, is why Gwen/Jack, who had plenty of chemistry in the first few episodes, was nipped in the bud and shifted to Gwen/Owen instead. Cyberwoman defines the Jack/Ianto relationship - It makes sense that any relationship that Jack would have with someone from his team would be with Ianto, who defied him every step of the way, made him lose his composure entirely, driving him into a spitting rage and not backing down an inch, even with a gun to his head, and (at least on-screen) never apologised for it afterwards. Tosh's comparatively rather minor betrayal is resolved in a conversation that is certainly amiable, but where Jack still is a bit boss, a bit father figure, and where it is established that Mary had lied, the pendant was a curse best to be destroyed and what Tosh had done was wrong. The terse nods and silent looks that Jack and Ianto exchange in the aftermath of Cyberwoman are a very different thing. Ianto, although he (one assumes) does feel guilty enough about the deaths he caused, is not ever apologetic or contrite as far as Jack or any of the team are concerned.
And it's not so strange that Jack might be attracted to that, once he got over being seriously pissed off - if what he appreciates in Gwen is the emotional warmth and lack of detachment, he'd also finds that in Ianto who wouldn't compromise at all when it came to the person he loved, only in him it's tempered with a sense of distance and privacy and a dark streak that Jack would recognise in himself. I have no problem believing that Jack would want the more complex person that suddenly emerged from under the pretty facade.
And the kiss? Ianto still gets it, even after having let down Jack a second time.
(1) Part of the reason for this rather sketchy relationship development seems to be the change of importance of Ianto's character who apparently initially wasn't even meant to last past Cyberwoman. The other part seems to be that they deliberately went for a) lack of making A Gay Relationship Issue out of it, which I really, really appreciate, although one might (probably unfairly) wonder whether not pinning Jack on the gay side of omnisexual too soon mightn't have played a part, too; and perhaps more importantly, b) ambiguity and (somewhat) plausible deniability until the last episode, to make the kiss something of a surprise. (Which seemed to have worked so well that apparently there are people who still are in denial, which personally I find rather baffling.) And considering how the Jack/Ianto relationship is conspicuously Not Talked About in any of the DVD extras (when there's plenty about the Jack/Jack episode) the ambiguity seems to extend to the second season and the direction they're going (or not going) to take the relationship. Did they even know at the time of the last episode or the production of the DVDs? Or did/do they, and don't want to spoil? [wishful thinking] There must be some follow up, you can't have two main characters kiss in the final episode after a season of relatively obscure hints, finally making their relationship canon, and never mention it again?! [/wishful thinking]
And, as a final tangent and addendum: Jack hopping onto the TARDIS without a backward glance doesn't bode well for the Jack/Ianto relationship at first (or second) glance, but (Who fans correct me) the TARDIS can travel through time with some precision, right? Couldn't Jack have reasonably expected to be dropped off at Torchwood again minutes or hours after he'd left, rather than weeks, months or years? (At least to sort out everything, say good-bye, etc.) It's a chance he can't miss, the one he's been waiting for two centuries or so, and I'm certainly going to be interested in how they're going to resolve the problem of making Jack want to stay on Earth and in Torchwood at all, when what he clearly wants is to be gone from this backward planet he's stuck on, but leaving would perhaps not have been as final in his mind.
[ETA: A longer, post-CoE discussion of their relationship through seasons 1-3 can be found here.
An analysis of the time motif in their relationship arc can be found here.]