Jack Point of View Picspam - part 10
Part 10 of the Jack’s point of view picspam.
These are in episode order (with the relevant part of Fragments at the start). It is very image heavy, well it is a picspam! But consider yourself warned.
Enjoy.
Images from http://www.torchwood.time-and-space.co.uk and the fabulous cowboyhd
Part 1 - Fragments | Part 2 - Everything Changes to Ghost Machine | Part 3 - Cyberwoman | Part 4 - Small Worlds to Greeks Bearing Gifts | Part 5 - They Keep Killing Suzie to Captain Jack Harkness | Part 6 - End of Days
Part 7 - Kiss Kiss Bang Bang | Part 8 - Sleeper to To The Last Man | Part 9 - Meat |
Adam
Now Adam as an episode is very interesting. I have always been of the mind that Adam has removed Jack and Ianto as a 'couple'. We have the mirror in the episode of the roles almost being reversed between the pair of them in the way they interact. Now I will use this fabulous explanation from fodian here because it is plain brilliant, but I will just pull out the relevant bits for the Jack/Ianto but please read as the rest of her meta on the team is very well done.
So, essentially, the episode breaks down into three distinct pairings: Gwen/Rhys & Owen/Tosh & Jack/Ianto. Torchwood likes to say things about Jack/Ianto by juxtaposing them against more established pairings. Adam gives us an opportunity to see Jack and Ianto in a different environment and paralleled against everyone else as they fit together in different ways.
Jack refuses to believe Ianto is a murderer; this act is the catalyst to figuring out what Adam has done. Jack's belief in Ianto changes everything.
Anyways, so I keep asking myself. HOW are Jack and Ianto, and Jack/Ianto, different in the Adamverse? Augh, Torchwood, as if it wasn't enough that I'm racking my brains trying to figure out what the hell Jack and Ianto are *actually* doing, you have to give me an AU (basically) in which they also may or may not (or may?) (or may not?) be sleeping together. I HATE YOU SO MUCH. Please never leave me.
My theory is that Jack and Ianto *aren't* sleeping together in the Adamverse. Adam got rid of the Jack/Ianto. nightanddaze joked that perhaps Adam was the first homphobic character on the show? Hahaha. Let's look at the secondary information first:
Owen: Kissing in work; wasn't expecting it.
Suggests that, well, there's no kissing at work. No Jack kissing Ianto or vice versa, specifically. No kiss after Jack coming back from Abaddon. Perhaps no Jack coming back from Abaddon in the first place, thereby destroying the opportunity for a public kiss. But maybe they are just much more discreet!
Gwen & Jack -- she spanks him, he seems startled; his response is playful but not sexual in any way, there's no quip, no leer. The way Gwen clings to Jack in her apartment; the way he deliberately, physically pushes her away. I kind of feel like in the realverse, if Gwen was this upset, he'd stay with her. Or insist that she stay at the Hub. It's possible that Jack just thinks that Rhys is perfectly capable of taking care of Gwen, and that's a really nice touch. But you could also read this as Jack being generally, much more reserved than he is in the realverse. He's more distant, more hands off. More boss. But then the question becomes: HOW does cutting Jack off, or allowing Jack to cut himself off, from the rest of the team make him HAPPIER? It's confusing.
Now let's look at the primary information --
Jack/Ianto #1:
Does catching have the same connotation in British English that it does in American English as it applies to sex? They make such a big deal about how Jack tosses things and Ianto catches them and then in the Averse, it's Ianto who tosses the keys to Jack. Hmm.
This is what they say:
Jack: I'll drop you off and check out the siting.
Ianto: I could come with you. It's been a while since we went hunting together.
Jack: I'll be fine on my own.
This is how they are:
Jack is all business here and Ianto is looking at him so longingly. I mean, even more longingly than the way Ianto looks at Jack in the realverse. This is the first indication to me that their relationship, however close, is not sexual. Ianto wants in Jack's pants, he's willing to pursue it. Jack basically turns him down. This is either how things were in the realverse (at some point prior to Cyberwoman), or this is how things never were (Jack always pursued Ianto). You can see Jack and Ianto's interactions in Adam as a microcosm of their extended relationship in the realverse. Ianto flirts with Jack; Jack doesn't take advantage of it; something traumatic happens with Ianto; Jack's eyes are opened; Jack realizes what he feels for Ianto; they come together. The details are different, but the story is the same.
Jack/Ianto #2
Jack comes back to the office after leaving Adam. Ianto's whispered, "Jack," startles him. Jack's, "Ianto," back really read as relief to me, not a moment in which Jack is thinking, "Aha! Here we are alone. And now we will have the smex." Instead, Jack just seems really fucking relieved to find that the whisper is Ianto and not another memory apparition. He also seems surprised to see Ianto, as if Ianto being at the Hub so late is not a regular occurrence.
Ianto is the monster in this scenario. Ergo, Jack is the monster in the realverse. Or, Ianto only *thinks* he's a monster, ergo he only *thought* Jack was a monster in the realverse. Or, they are both monsters. *hands*
Jack's, "Hey! Come here. Come here," as Ianto freaks out and launches himself towards the door to the vaults. And then again, he says, COME HERE, dragging Ianto by the arm, Ianto holding on to the railing, not wanting to, resisting. Jack demanding that Ianto face the truth, watch the CCTV footage to learn what is going on. To see himself for who he truly is.
When they're interrupted, hahahahahaha, they've got these hysterically guilty looks on their faces. Jack grabs a BLANK NOTEBOOK and Ianto can't even do that, he just stands there, looking totally caught in the act, hands in his pockets, staring at Owen and then glancing back at Jack repeatedly, like, WHAT DO WE DO WHAT DO WE DO.
All of this stuff illuminates how they are in the realverse, either by providing an opposite or by providing similarities. I JUST DON'T KNOW WHICH. I can see Jack being this person and I can see him not being this person. I can see him not giving one god damn if he and Ianto are caught making out. But are we wrong about Jack? What does it say if, even in the realverse, he might be this person, all flustered at being caught at intimacy. You can read the kiss in End of Days as an anomaly, an occurrence that only happens because he's just come back from an extended death, one that felt more permanent than any other death has felt in a long time. Under all that bluster, all that insinuation, all that winking and goosing, is Jack Harkness...discreet? He wears those high-necked undershirts, all those layers and layers of clothes. It's a form of modesty; undershirt, shirt, trousers, braces, belt, coat that covers everything. You have to peel away a lot to get to the real Jack Harkness. You have to really work to get to the skin.
So to go with those words, I bring you pictures
Ianto trying to talk to Jack, get Jack's interest
Jack is all business in the Adam!verse
Jack hears a voice in the Hub calling his name
He then realises that it is Ianto, not another visitation from his past.
Typical Jack closed off posture, but very different from how he talks to Ianto, look back and you will see that often Jack is 'open' when talking with Ianto, arms by his side or in his pockets. Jack uses the crossed arms when talking with the other team members or other people. Rarely with Ianto
As he listens to Ianto telling him that he needs to be locked up, that he is a danger, Jack starts to lower his arms
Very concerned about Ianto
Holding on tight
Ianto tells him that Ianto is a monster
Does Jack believe it?
He is trying to use technology to prove to Ianto his own belief in Ianto. Trying to use something tangible to show his faith. But the technology has let him down. Nice analogy they’re trying to show of faith never being able to be 'proven'
This look shows the concern from Jack towards Ianto, the caring and the disbelief that the man in front of him is the one that he 'knows'
The lie detector doesn't work, so Jack tries to find other ways. Again Jack reaches out to Ianto, pulling him in close
Jack using touch on Ianto, the imprint in him his belief in Ianto. It is tight and not gentle at all, look at the grip on the shoulder of Ianto. Interesting that he is making Ianto watch Adam put his hand on his shoulder and stating "remember" is the vision and sound on the screen, that at the same time here Jack is putting his own hand on Ianto's shoulder wanting him to 'remember'.
Jack is right, Ianto is the man who he thinks he is, not who Ianto thinks he is
and Owen arrives, the pair caught in the Hub and not knowing how to deal with it. Hide that they are there.
It is only when Adam mentions to Ianto that he could "murder a coffee" that Jack is ready to take on Adam. There were other earlier opportunities for Jack to approach Adam, when Owen and Tosh were talking, but he doesn't. It is the comment to Ianto that is what drives him to action.
In the boardroom and Jack wants them to find the real memories, "find a memory that defines you". He wants them to go back before they all met. "Feel around for anything that makes you what you are ... the hidden and the forgotten."
When Ianto says "Losing Lisa. (out loud) Like the world had ended. " This is how Jack looks at him
Ianto says that coming "here gave me meaning again." He then looks at Jack and says "you"
Jack has put his hand on Gwen's shoulder, caresses the side of her face as he moves away, he also puts his hand on Tosh and Owen's shoulders. With Ianto he starts at the top of his head. Not the shoulder like the others, Ianto is treated differently.
Jack then reaches down to kiss Ianto on the forehead like you do to a loved one
When he gives Ianto the pill, he slides his hand down to cradle the back of Ianto's head
Instead of straightening and moving away quickly, like Jack has with the others, he lingers for a moment, caressing the face of Ianto
Neither are looking at each other, both have eyes closed, just using the sense of feel
Jack looks at Ianto when he tells them to "go back to who we were"
If anyone doubts Jack's feelings for Ianto then this scene is interesting. Jack has called Ianto to his office. Ianto enters very nervous, back in his three piece suit, amoured against the world. Jack holds out his diary. Just out of reach, so that Ianto has to enter the room to retrieve it. Jack is pulling Ianto to him.
and when Ianto is close enough to him, this is how Jack looks at Ianto
He teases and is very fond of him
Part 11 - Reset to A Day in the Death
These are in episode order (with the relevant part of Fragments at the start). It is very image heavy, well it is a picspam! But consider yourself warned.
Enjoy.
Images from http://www.torchwood.time-and-space.co.uk and the fabulous cowboyhd
Part 1 - Fragments | Part 2 - Everything Changes to Ghost Machine | Part 3 - Cyberwoman | Part 4 - Small Worlds to Greeks Bearing Gifts | Part 5 - They Keep Killing Suzie to Captain Jack Harkness | Part 6 - End of Days
Part 7 - Kiss Kiss Bang Bang | Part 8 - Sleeper to To The Last Man | Part 9 - Meat |
Adam
Now Adam as an episode is very interesting. I have always been of the mind that Adam has removed Jack and Ianto as a 'couple'. We have the mirror in the episode of the roles almost being reversed between the pair of them in the way they interact. Now I will use this fabulous explanation from fodian here because it is plain brilliant, but I will just pull out the relevant bits for the Jack/Ianto but please read as the rest of her meta on the team is very well done.
So, essentially, the episode breaks down into three distinct pairings: Gwen/Rhys & Owen/Tosh & Jack/Ianto. Torchwood likes to say things about Jack/Ianto by juxtaposing them against more established pairings. Adam gives us an opportunity to see Jack and Ianto in a different environment and paralleled against everyone else as they fit together in different ways.
Jack refuses to believe Ianto is a murderer; this act is the catalyst to figuring out what Adam has done. Jack's belief in Ianto changes everything.
Anyways, so I keep asking myself. HOW are Jack and Ianto, and Jack/Ianto, different in the Adamverse? Augh, Torchwood, as if it wasn't enough that I'm racking my brains trying to figure out what the hell Jack and Ianto are *actually* doing, you have to give me an AU (basically) in which they also may or may not (or may?) (or may not?) be sleeping together. I HATE YOU SO MUCH. Please never leave me.
My theory is that Jack and Ianto *aren't* sleeping together in the Adamverse. Adam got rid of the Jack/Ianto. nightanddaze joked that perhaps Adam was the first homphobic character on the show? Hahaha. Let's look at the secondary information first:
Owen: Kissing in work; wasn't expecting it.
Suggests that, well, there's no kissing at work. No Jack kissing Ianto or vice versa, specifically. No kiss after Jack coming back from Abaddon. Perhaps no Jack coming back from Abaddon in the first place, thereby destroying the opportunity for a public kiss. But maybe they are just much more discreet!
Gwen & Jack -- she spanks him, he seems startled; his response is playful but not sexual in any way, there's no quip, no leer. The way Gwen clings to Jack in her apartment; the way he deliberately, physically pushes her away. I kind of feel like in the realverse, if Gwen was this upset, he'd stay with her. Or insist that she stay at the Hub. It's possible that Jack just thinks that Rhys is perfectly capable of taking care of Gwen, and that's a really nice touch. But you could also read this as Jack being generally, much more reserved than he is in the realverse. He's more distant, more hands off. More boss. But then the question becomes: HOW does cutting Jack off, or allowing Jack to cut himself off, from the rest of the team make him HAPPIER? It's confusing.
Now let's look at the primary information --
Jack/Ianto #1:
Does catching have the same connotation in British English that it does in American English as it applies to sex? They make such a big deal about how Jack tosses things and Ianto catches them and then in the Averse, it's Ianto who tosses the keys to Jack. Hmm.
This is what they say:
Jack: I'll drop you off and check out the siting.
Ianto: I could come with you. It's been a while since we went hunting together.
Jack: I'll be fine on my own.
This is how they are:
Jack is all business here and Ianto is looking at him so longingly. I mean, even more longingly than the way Ianto looks at Jack in the realverse. This is the first indication to me that their relationship, however close, is not sexual. Ianto wants in Jack's pants, he's willing to pursue it. Jack basically turns him down. This is either how things were in the realverse (at some point prior to Cyberwoman), or this is how things never were (Jack always pursued Ianto). You can see Jack and Ianto's interactions in Adam as a microcosm of their extended relationship in the realverse. Ianto flirts with Jack; Jack doesn't take advantage of it; something traumatic happens with Ianto; Jack's eyes are opened; Jack realizes what he feels for Ianto; they come together. The details are different, but the story is the same.
Jack/Ianto #2
Jack comes back to the office after leaving Adam. Ianto's whispered, "Jack," startles him. Jack's, "Ianto," back really read as relief to me, not a moment in which Jack is thinking, "Aha! Here we are alone. And now we will have the smex." Instead, Jack just seems really fucking relieved to find that the whisper is Ianto and not another memory apparition. He also seems surprised to see Ianto, as if Ianto being at the Hub so late is not a regular occurrence.
Ianto is the monster in this scenario. Ergo, Jack is the monster in the realverse. Or, Ianto only *thinks* he's a monster, ergo he only *thought* Jack was a monster in the realverse. Or, they are both monsters. *hands*
Jack's, "Hey! Come here. Come here," as Ianto freaks out and launches himself towards the door to the vaults. And then again, he says, COME HERE, dragging Ianto by the arm, Ianto holding on to the railing, not wanting to, resisting. Jack demanding that Ianto face the truth, watch the CCTV footage to learn what is going on. To see himself for who he truly is.
When they're interrupted, hahahahahaha, they've got these hysterically guilty looks on their faces. Jack grabs a BLANK NOTEBOOK and Ianto can't even do that, he just stands there, looking totally caught in the act, hands in his pockets, staring at Owen and then glancing back at Jack repeatedly, like, WHAT DO WE DO WHAT DO WE DO.
All of this stuff illuminates how they are in the realverse, either by providing an opposite or by providing similarities. I JUST DON'T KNOW WHICH. I can see Jack being this person and I can see him not being this person. I can see him not giving one god damn if he and Ianto are caught making out. But are we wrong about Jack? What does it say if, even in the realverse, he might be this person, all flustered at being caught at intimacy. You can read the kiss in End of Days as an anomaly, an occurrence that only happens because he's just come back from an extended death, one that felt more permanent than any other death has felt in a long time. Under all that bluster, all that insinuation, all that winking and goosing, is Jack Harkness...discreet? He wears those high-necked undershirts, all those layers and layers of clothes. It's a form of modesty; undershirt, shirt, trousers, braces, belt, coat that covers everything. You have to peel away a lot to get to the real Jack Harkness. You have to really work to get to the skin.
So to go with those words, I bring you pictures
Ianto trying to talk to Jack, get Jack's interest
Jack is all business in the Adam!verse
Jack hears a voice in the Hub calling his name
He then realises that it is Ianto, not another visitation from his past.
Typical Jack closed off posture, but very different from how he talks to Ianto, look back and you will see that often Jack is 'open' when talking with Ianto, arms by his side or in his pockets. Jack uses the crossed arms when talking with the other team members or other people. Rarely with Ianto
As he listens to Ianto telling him that he needs to be locked up, that he is a danger, Jack starts to lower his arms
Very concerned about Ianto
Holding on tight
Ianto tells him that Ianto is a monster
Does Jack believe it?
He is trying to use technology to prove to Ianto his own belief in Ianto. Trying to use something tangible to show his faith. But the technology has let him down. Nice analogy they’re trying to show of faith never being able to be 'proven'
This look shows the concern from Jack towards Ianto, the caring and the disbelief that the man in front of him is the one that he 'knows'
The lie detector doesn't work, so Jack tries to find other ways. Again Jack reaches out to Ianto, pulling him in close
Jack using touch on Ianto, the imprint in him his belief in Ianto. It is tight and not gentle at all, look at the grip on the shoulder of Ianto. Interesting that he is making Ianto watch Adam put his hand on his shoulder and stating "remember" is the vision and sound on the screen, that at the same time here Jack is putting his own hand on Ianto's shoulder wanting him to 'remember'.
Jack is right, Ianto is the man who he thinks he is, not who Ianto thinks he is
and Owen arrives, the pair caught in the Hub and not knowing how to deal with it. Hide that they are there.
It is only when Adam mentions to Ianto that he could "murder a coffee" that Jack is ready to take on Adam. There were other earlier opportunities for Jack to approach Adam, when Owen and Tosh were talking, but he doesn't. It is the comment to Ianto that is what drives him to action.
In the boardroom and Jack wants them to find the real memories, "find a memory that defines you". He wants them to go back before they all met. "Feel around for anything that makes you what you are ... the hidden and the forgotten."
When Ianto says "Losing Lisa. (out loud) Like the world had ended. " This is how Jack looks at him
Ianto says that coming "here gave me meaning again." He then looks at Jack and says "you"
Jack has put his hand on Gwen's shoulder, caresses the side of her face as he moves away, he also puts his hand on Tosh and Owen's shoulders. With Ianto he starts at the top of his head. Not the shoulder like the others, Ianto is treated differently.
Jack then reaches down to kiss Ianto on the forehead like you do to a loved one
When he gives Ianto the pill, he slides his hand down to cradle the back of Ianto's head
Instead of straightening and moving away quickly, like Jack has with the others, he lingers for a moment, caressing the face of Ianto
Neither are looking at each other, both have eyes closed, just using the sense of feel
Jack looks at Ianto when he tells them to "go back to who we were"
If anyone doubts Jack's feelings for Ianto then this scene is interesting. Jack has called Ianto to his office. Ianto enters very nervous, back in his three piece suit, amoured against the world. Jack holds out his diary. Just out of reach, so that Ianto has to enter the room to retrieve it. Jack is pulling Ianto to him.
and when Ianto is close enough to him, this is how Jack looks at Ianto
He teases and is very fond of him
Part 11 - Reset to A Day in the Death