Torchwood - Fragments

[tencrush]

Fragmented because this one kind of killed me a little and I don't think I've quite recovered.

Okay, story by story, then:

Jack

• Again with the overacting, JB! Get a grip. You're dead, we get it.


• Yeah, okay, so maybe the Victorian steampunk lesbians were a bit over the top, but I do kind of like the implication that once you start working for Torchwood and associating with alien life forms, human categories of gender and race and such perhaps do start to seem terribly arbitrary. Even in Victorian times.


• I wish bustles were still in fashion. They're kind of hot.

Tosh

• I thought this one was kind off dull, I must admit. Though Tosh is a technical genius, it's always nice to see that on screen, they don't show enough of her l33t skills.


• And WTF happened to UNIT?? I've mentioned Guantanamo before in discussions about this season, but really. UNIT? I never thought they'd go there.

Ianto

• Jones, Ianto Jones. Wait... is that a l33t manwhorespy I see before me?? Remember when that was a funny thing I made up? I'm so glad they went with it. I really, really, really am.


• His background story is a plant, yes? Give me one good reason Yvonne Hartman's Torchwood would hire a 20-year-old average-student drifter from Wales... with a shoplifting conviction? NOPE, NO WAY. Also, the excerpts from his diary in Adam seem to imply he has some sort of engineering background, he seems highly skilled technologically, and he seems to know all sort of non-technical stuff as well. Basically, he seems to be REALLY CLEVER. See also "surviving Canary Wharf and getting his girlfriend out"


• HIS FAMILY ARE ALL DEAD, YES? I'm not going to say it again, peeps, pay attention. (Either that or he really is the Doctor's son, right? Ianto, John junior?)


• The Ianto Jones school of being a manwhorespy is a really thorough one, isn't it? The Dressing and looking and walking and talking like you're cruising the park for gay sex module is one where he paid a lot of attention, I noticed. Adjusting your wardrobe until you hit the right kink and then running with that as hard as you was can also a popular subject. And when all else fails, make coffee, catch a dinosaur, roll around the floor... in short, cheat. I like this school.


• Oh, and I'm usually the first to be annoyed when Ianto cries, as well you know, but that small bit there was the nicest bit of characterisation I've ever seen in this show and was absolutely fucking wonderfully done. I don't want this boy to EVER be off my screen AGAIN. I LOVE that he's attracted to Jack even while Lisa's still alive, I still maintain they were probably having no-strings sex right from when he was hired, or at least at whatever time Ianto felt the need to REALLY distract Jack from the cyberchick in the basement. And I love seeing how he feels about whoring himself out like that. Beautiful.


• I'm very tempted to say the "51st centrury pheromones" line is just a continuity error on the part of the writers that nobody picked up on. If not, it's HELLA INTERESTING.


• Can you tell this was my favourite bit?

Owen

• Nah. Don't try to make me care about him this late in the proceedings. It's not going to wash.


• Though: brain eating alien? Coooool.

Don't know what I made of Captain John. I'll wait and see.

Comments

[off_coloratura]

His background story is a plant, yes? Give me one good reason Yvonne Hartman's Torchwood would hire a 20-year-old average-student drifter from Wales... with a shoplifting conviction? NOPE, NO WAY.

She's a people person!

No, but seriously. Jack could just be exaggerating the negative. Or maybe Lisa brought some focus to Ianto's life and got him in with a recommendation, and he discovered his squandered potential. But either way, yeah, the thing Jack spiels does not resemble Our Ianto in any way.

Which is to say: manwhorespy. In every sense of the word. Well done, you.

Did you notice the tiny edges of desperation he let creep through, though? Not TOTALLY l33t yet. His nervousness at the coffee (which I like to think he'd brewed several cups of till he got it just right) and his desperation RIGHT AFTER he mentions TW3's looting of TW1 (and taking all the valuable Cyberequipment he needs to keep Lisa alive). Oh, brilliant and beautiful and god I love him.

However, the listing off of things he could do "Receptionist! Building services! Food and drink! Butler, I could be your butler!" made me cringe a little, as if he was trying to show Jack the depths to which he would stoop to join Torchwood. But then, after thinking about it a bit, I realized he wants to be under the radar, to paint himself as someone to whom all those ESSENTIAL PIECES OF CYBEREQUIPMENT wouldn't mean anything whatsoever. Nonthreatening. Safe to hire. Oh, Jones Ianto Jones, you're good.

I am also uncertain as to how much of the panting on top of Jack was calculated and then "oh, shit, what have I sunk to" and how much of it was attraction and shame. I MUST assume that Ianto has feelings for him now, of course, but the point at which the relationship (and I do believe there was one before CW) turned from show to actual feelings is still unclear for me.

The Owen we saw in the flashback bears abslutely no resemblance to any Owen we've seen up till now. But Burn Gorman is a terrific actor, so I was moved. A good actor can sell the crappiest of retcon.

We only see Ianto once, falling down, in the trailer. PLEASE TELL ME HE DOES NOT DIE NEXT EPISODE. He's the best damn thing on this show.

[tencrush]

She's a people person!

Or, of course, my personal fanon, he fucked her. Perhaps again with an agenda, maybe his family aren't dead but were abducted by aliens and he needed access to TW to find out what happened to them?
*handwaves crazy-style*

[off_coloratura]

That is indeed crazy. Infiltrating TWO DIFFERENT Torchwoods, successfully, for reasons of Personal Spyage? I think the slight desperateness of his attempts with Jack indicates someone not QUITE as pulled together as that.

And YET, knowing Torchwood, not out of the realm of possibility.

[rowanswhimsy.livejournal.com]

Well. I'm not sure about the fucking but I could believe that Ianto's family was wiped out or kidnapped or something by aliens and that prompted him joining TW. Maybe he has a long lost little sister. If he finds her, maybe she can date Grey.

[rowanswhimsy.livejournal.com]

Yes, it came off to me as if this was his FIRST manwhorespy attempt. He let some desperation come through as well as some impatience with Jack at various points. He couldn't quite conceal Ianto entirely under the personae he was trying to create to lure Jack. And ultimately, Jack was ensnared when he got a glimpse of the real Ianto, not the facades. I almost imagined Ianto sitting down with pen, paper, and some books writing up various ways to approach Jack.

I also cringed at the list (and the desperation underneath it all) but perhaps you're right and he wanted to get into a position where he was underestimated.

I just hope he wasn't offering his sexual services to Jack in the subtext. That does bother me a bit. I think the panting may be unplanned. They were having a great time and laughing at first, then I think the adrenaline led them into the sexual situation. I think Ianto may have actually been caught up in it himself genuinely, forgot what he was doing, felt the attraction himself, then freaked out because he couldn't bring himself to use it to his advantage. Jumping up wasn't Ianto trying to tease Jack, I think it was Ianto realizing that he himself was swept up in a moment and that also he wasn't able to actually go quite that far to whore himself out.

I mean, could Jack have WANTED to be kissed any more than what we saw? I mean, he was actually sort of moving his head around as if imagining they WERE kissing. I guess it could be that Ianto was being calculated enough to think he'd better further his objective by withholding the kiss from Jack and teasing him with the UST, but I just don't see Ianto as being quite that sophisticated in his manwhorespying at that point in time.

[off_coloratura]

I totally agree with you, it looked unplanned to me too, and that he was caught up in it. I was only wondering whether he actually did feel an attraction for Jack at that moment, or whether he recognized the opportunity and just wasn't able to go there.

His tears would suggest the former, but I'm still not sure.

[tencrush]

I really got the impression it was the former, I must admit. And I didn't think it was planned either.

[rowanswhimsy.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm not sure we're going to be able to find any evidence either way because the evidence for either scenario likely looks the same and it comes down to interpretation. That's frustrating because I'd like to know, too. I think unless they tell us outright, we'll likely never know.

I agree that the tears suggest the former. But the tears could also just be sheer relief that he achieved his objective and was going to be able to help Lisa. He was under so much strain at that point that it's probably really hard to figure out what's causing all of it. One of the reasons I could never go along with the 'Ianto should have been fired and retconned' line of thinking was because I really think he was suffering from PTSD. It's amazing to me that he was even functional given what had happened at Canary Wharf and what he was trying to accomplish with Lisa.

My guess is that given that Ianto was laughing in a rather carefree, artless way right before that moment with Jack, I think Ianto felt the
attraction too. It seemed like a moment where all of the feelings were entirely shared between them and they were sort of swept up in the moment and then Ianto's brain kicked in.

I've always thought given how angry Ianto got at Jack during CW and how he denied that Jack was his last kiss in CC that Ianto was genuinely attracted to Jack while Lisa was still alive and those feelings of guilt were part of what was making Ianto act so irrationally. If he was genuinely attracted to Jack (and not just stringing him along to blind him to what Ianto was doing) then his guilt over betraying Lisa like that might have made him even more determined to save her when otherwise he might have come to his senses.

All of this backstory is making my brain explode.

[off_coloratura]

We won't be able to find evidence either way, because "ambiguity" is this show's middle name and is the primary way it keeps people watching. By making things deliberately vague they draw us into guessing what might be going on, discussing much like we're doing now.

Not to mention vagueness covers up a multitude of bad-writing sins. And then when they DO get specific, like in tonight's episode, it uncovers holes in the world and the characterizations big enough to drive an SUV through.

But of course, that just gives us more fuel to wanwank with.

[erinnthered.livejournal.com]

a big yes to all of what's been said here. And I do believe that was genuine emotion with Jack, and his reaction was part of the shock of realizing a real attraction despite his devotion to Lisa. It just makes the whole first part of the first season so much more heartbreaking. He was betraying both of them, in a way.

Except, while I can absolutely believe this was Ianto's first attempt at manwhorespying, I don't think that this was his first con job. I don't know. Just an impression.

[rowanswhimsy.livejournal.com]

I think they did an excellent job showing us some of Ianto's story but raising lots of interesting questions for the future.