While I disagree with your characterisation of Jack to a vast degree, I can't help but wonder if you listened to the BBC Radio Plays that were released before CoE.
The Dead Line has some deep emotional affection (i.e. love) being pretty explicitly returned by Jack towards Ianto. Taking the plays as canon and making the logical leap that the events of The Dead Line happened the week before CoE, I'm inclined to say that the awkwardness we witness in the pair is due to the fact that these two emotionally stunted/vulnerable people who basically confessed their love to each other and don't really know how to handle that. Add in the whole way their relationship developed (not healthy) and the fact that the hierarchy of their positions remain central to their interpersonal relationship. Given his reaction when Dr. Patanjali makes an assumption about their relationship, Ianto's clearly uncomfortable with people outside Torchwood knowing that he's with Jack. After that point Jack follows Ianto's lead in defining it. With all this evidence of a deeply emotional dynamic, I don't how you make the leap that there is no love coming from Jack, ever, at all.
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Date: 2009-09-12 09:57 am (UTC)The Dead Line has some deep emotional affection (i.e. love) being pretty explicitly returned by Jack towards Ianto. Taking the plays as canon and making the logical leap that the events of The Dead Line happened the week before CoE, I'm inclined to say that the awkwardness we witness in the pair is due to the fact that these two emotionally stunted/vulnerable people who basically confessed their love to each other and don't really know how to handle that. Add in the whole way their relationship developed (not healthy) and the fact that the hierarchy of their positions remain central to their interpersonal relationship. Given his reaction when Dr. Patanjali makes an assumption about their relationship, Ianto's clearly uncomfortable with people outside Torchwood knowing that he's with Jack. After that point Jack follows Ianto's lead in defining it. With all this evidence of a deeply emotional dynamic, I don't how you make the leap that there is no love coming from Jack, ever, at all.