On the subject of Jack and Ianto

[mllelaurel]

As of the end of episode eight, it's pretty strongly implied that Jack and Ianto are now in a sexual relationship. I don't know if this has polarized the fandom or anything like that, since I admittedly don't really follow the fandom, but it does bring up some questions.

In the early episodes, the two of them had a great chemistry. Without knowing about Lisa, I may have even assumed there was something between them already. Then, we got episode four, by the end of which Ianto made it pretty clear that he hated Jack's guts. I believe his words ran something like this: "There will come a time when you're in danger. And I could save you, but I won't. I'll just stand there and watch you die." Pretty firm statement, that.

So how do we go from that to getting involved with the guy? There's always the possibility of a love-hate relationship; strong emotions crossing the line from one to the other. Except I don't think that's it.

Ianto, as I understand him, is a primarily rational man, rather than a creature of emotion. Oh, he certainly emotes, and strongly, but if he's at all capable of acting rationally, he'll act rationally. If he'd said all those things to Jack calmly, days after the tragic events of "Cyberwoman," then I'd hold him to his word. He didn't, though. He said them in a panicked, desperate, terrified and furious state. To say nothing of the sheer grief he must have been going through. Think back - we've all said some pretty strong stuff, when upset. Did we mean it? Some of it - an underlying part - yes. Most of it, no.

And that's the beauty of emotions. If we vent them, the ache (or the euphoria) fades. If we keep it to ourselves, the emotional response takes hold, grows and takes over. Ianto's feelings of anger are all out in the open, and thus dealt with, to an extent. The very fact that he still shows up to work the next day serves as evidence for this.

So it's fairly reasonable to conclude that Ianto would have taken the rational road, eventually, coming to the conclusion that while Jack said some pretty nasty things, he meant it about as much as Ianto meant his side of it - fully so at the time; notsomuch in the long run. And where Jack's *actions* were harsh, they were also necessary. I don't think I'm giving him too much credit here. Ianto strikes me as a smart guy.

"But Lily," you say. "Ianto's feelings on the subject haven't faded. Didn't you see 'Greeks Bearing Gifts?' He was pretty depressed in there, and that was just an episode ago."

That's just it, I say. He's depressed. He's in pain. He's grieving. Did Ianto ever get the chance to ever air those emotions? Nooo. So they stay, and I imagine fester. Ouch. (I swear, Torchwood needs a psych staff like burning. I'll even nominate the detective from ep. 8, just cause she's made of win. I don't even care if she has no psych quallifications whatsoever - it's still better than nothing.)

Take the slow, eventual forgiveness (or at least acceptance), add to that a desperate loneliness, and you get perfectly reasonable motivation for Ianto to sleep with Jack. Hell, you could even add in some of the love-hate thing, but only on a subconscious level.

As for Jack, since when did he need specific motivation to sleep with someone, beyond liking and attraction?

Comments

[livii.livejournal.com]

Part of my problem with it is that as much as I love my intergalactic space slut, I've always felt that he did have at least a bit of common sense, and especially as we've seen him in Torchwood, I can't see Jack going along with that and thinking it was at all a good idea. He's not purely a physical creature (for me) and so I find the suggestion he'd go along with Ianto bothersome.

If they were going for Ianto-motivation as you suggest (which I don't necessarily agree with, but is perfectly plausible) then I just wish they'd shown some of it, rather than one week being emo and the next week making cheap innuendo about stopwatches. You could make it work, I think, but the way they did it was laughably dumb. Boo.

[mllelaurel.livejournal.com]

Agreed on pretty much all counts. They're expecting the viewers to do the between the scenes work. For my part, I don't mind it. Enjoy it, actually. But yes, I do wish they'd built a few of the bridges themselves, rather than making us do it.

On Jack's end, I think he's doing this as a part of his keeping an eye on Ianto. Admittedly, this is mostly how I fanwank it, but the website does provide some evidence to support this theory:

http://www.torchwood.org.uk/html/suzie/im.shtml