Ianto Point of View picspam - part 3 c
Now to look at how Ianto views Jack.
Images from http://www.torchwood.time-and-space.co.uk, http://www.stripedwall.com/gallery.php?dir=television/Torchwood and the fabulous cowboyhd
Again in episode order, starting with the relevant part of Fragments.
Part 1 a - Fragments | Part 1 b - Fragments | Part 1 c - Fragments | Part 2 - Everything Changes to Ghost Machine | Part 3 a - Cyberwoman | Part 3 b - Cyberwoman
Enjoy
Cyberwoman - part c
What is the first thing Ianto feels?
He seems a little shocked to realize that it was Jack kissing him, but he does acquiesce with Jack’s request to stay quiet. Until he hears Lisa scream and is brought back to the situation of being the piggy in the middle between the team and Lisa.
What is interesting to note is that Ianto comes back to life with the same breathy motion as Jack does every time he comes back from the dead. Listen to the audio at 1:46 onwards and Ianto sounds very like Jack does when he comes back from the dead. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7nXpQHw-aM&feature=related So, up until the end of the kiss from Jack, Ianto is dead.
We then have Ianto finding Lisa who has been stabbed by Owen seemingly dead. When she opens her eyes, instead of rejoicing in her being alive, his first instinct is to jump back and away. Gwen has to push and pull him to run away from her and that is what he does, runs with Owen and her to find Jack. He is with the team here, not Lisa.
He stands with Owen and Gwen behind the protection of Jack.
Lisa threatens and that mobilises Ianto into action. But it is to plead with Jack to give Lisa a chance to surrender. Lisa is fully cybernised and there can be no arguing against it, but Ianto has been so set on this path of helping Lisa that he just can’t seem to get off it.
Gwen and Owen have to now hold him back from going to Jack. He is manhandled by them onto the lift while he continues to struggle. He only stops when Jack looks back at him and tells him that he is sorry.
Now we get one of the few times Ianto swears. For all the adult nature of the show, the two people who have sworn the least are Jack and Ianto. Ianto’s eyeline is split between Jack and Lisa here, glancing back and forth as the list ascends. He is back to trying to help Lisa, who everyone else realises is beyond help.
Once up on the Plass, they all fall off the lift stone, Ianto is pushed off by Gwen and Owen after Jack steps off, hands on knees. Ianto wanders a little away, his head bowed, shoulders hunched in.
He then turns back to Jack.
He has a pretty good right hook.
Gwen again has to hold Ianto back, Ianto accuses Jack that he could have saved her. Is this faith in Jack’s ability to do the extraordinary, that Ianto knows that Jack has knowledge above and beyond most humans or is it his blind faith in Lisa still being in there and wanting her back or is it his own guilt that he has failed coming through and he just can’t seem to step off the path? He tells Jack that he is worse than anything else that is down there.
“One day I’ll have the chance to save you, and I’ll watch you suffer and die”
Ianto is putting Jack in his shoes here, Ianto had the chance to save Lisa and has had to watch her suffer and die, he believes.
Gwen has to stand between the two men, for all of Jack’s anger here, he physically intimidates Ianto but does not raise his gun or his fists, they are at each other with words and looks.
Ianto then does his invisible trick, while the rest of the team focus on Jack and Tosh. He wanders away, separating himself from them. Until he hears Tosh say that the base is open again.
He now legs it back to the Tourist Office, with the team in hot pursuit, grabbing his gun from behind the counter. A gun he didn’t seem to have when Carys escaped out that way. When the team enter he aims the gun at whoever is speaking, they are the ones who might be able to talk him out of his path, so they are who he sees as the threat to stopping him.
Ianto tells Jack that if anyone tries to stop him from saving Lisa, he will shoot them.
Jack then responds that if he makes a threat like that, he better be prepared to follow it through.
Ianto has a gun to his face and yet he now shows defiance again to Jack.
before, when he had the gun, there was almost a pleading look in his eyes and his stance, body slumped against the wall, now that he does not seemingly have any power and his body is rigid and he struggles and defies Jack.
Jack turns him back to face him, and orders him to execute her. His focus is fully on Jack, on Jack accusing him of hiding away from them, that the girl he loved is gone. We get an inkling in the quick little expression that he understands this. The little quivering of his lips when Jack says that she is gone.
His loyalty is to the team, according to Jack, so he needs to execute Lisa and if he doesn’t do it Jack makes his own threat to execute them both.
How does Ianto react to a threat to his own and Lisa’s life?
He continues on his earlier vein that Jack is a monster, and is ordered to pick up the gun and follow Jack’s orders. It is now that he glances at the rest of the team once he has picked up the gun, before heading down to the Hub.
Once down, he discovers another death, and Lisa has transplanted her brain. He tries to carry out Jack’s orders, but like through the rest of this time he wavers back and forth, wanting to be loyal to both his memory of Lisa and to Jack.
He hugs her, then holds a gun to her head, resolved to try and pull that trigger, he tries but can’t, Lisa continues to play on his emotions, his caring, his weakness. As he walks away and she lets us all know that it isn’t Lisa, it is the cyberman talking using Lisa’s memories to exploit him, her intention is to upgrade. Before Ianto can make a decision if he can kill her now knowing that, it is taken out of his hand by the team. The first shot by Jack. Ianto then walks back to stand in front of both bodies, placing himself in the line of fire of Jack. Jack had told him that if Ianto didn’t kill her, he would execute them both. Here is Ianto in prime position waiting to see if Jack will follow through with his own threat after he had earlier told Ianto that if he makes a threat, he needs to be able to follow through on it.
Jack doesn’t so Ianto throws one final look of defiance before turning his back on him and dropping between both bodies to grieve, but it is the cybernised body of Lisa that he is angled slightly more towards, the one that represents Lisa to him.
Later that day (has to be because of Jack’s cut lip *huggles TW for the bad continuity*) he enters back into the Hub, in a clean suit. He enters slowly, arms down at his side glancing around briefly before looking up at Jack and Gwen in the boardroom. He continues to walk towards Jack until he has to stop because of the railing.
Jack lowers his eyes and nods at him and Ianto repeats the gesture back. It is our first clear indication of them mirroring each other.
Ianto then moves off to do his job, quietly and efficiently.
Thus ends the picspam of death, otherwise known as Cyberwoman. For many this is one of their favourite episodes as we seem to learn so much more about the man who has been working away quietly in the background.
How does he regard Jack in this episode? He wavers between seeking Jack's help and understanding and defying him. Jack and Lisa are the two that have been warring in his mind for attention. We know this from his little looks and flirts from the previous episodes, not to mention the guilty look on his face from Day One when Gwen asks why they are enjoying themselves while a girl fights for her life.
What I found most interesting here, is that although Ianto primarily stays submissive in his stance for most of his interactions, there is complete defiance on his face when dealing with Jack at times. We are given clues that he understands that Lisa is no longer Lisa, but he is on his path and he doesn't know how to stop or get off it. He wants help, but doesn't know how to ask and when he is finally forced to ask and gets rebuffed he just can't let go.
His loyalty at this stage is for Jack and the team as well as Lisa which is where you get such a conflict from him and it is hard to say which one is the dominant loyalty. All I can go on is his first instinct after discovering Lisa has been stabbed by Owen. His first instinct is to get close, but he doesn't touch her and when she opens her eyes he jumps away from her. She is alive and he doesn't stay by her side but leaves and once pushed by Gwen runs to stand behind Jack. While Owen and Gwen are focused on Lisa, Ianto is looking at Jack. Even through all this tragedy of losing once and for all the woman that he loves (he really lost her at Canary Wharf but can't see that) Jack still creates such strong passionate responses from him. Jack can draw his attention away from her.
What we can also look at is what they say to each other.
They both make threats that neither seem to follow through.
They both try and reason with each other, but both are so set on their paths and can't seem deviate. Ianto accuses Jack of not listening to him and not asking about him and yet we know from the start of the episode that Jack has noticed him, he has talked to him, even if it is just about his eating habits. They do listen to each other very carefully as Ianto turns Jack's words back onto him and Jack does the same back. Jack refers to Lisa as a creature and pretty much takes care to distinguish that she isn't human. Ianto then states that she isn't a monster and later he turns that around to call Jack it. Also the whole part of Ianto asking for help and then Jack using 'together' towards him in response. They are listening, but both are trying to dominate the other, get the other to their way of thinking. For all his supposed loss of power in this episode Ianto remains defiant and we end on him mirroring Jack's expression and them communicating without words.
Part 4 - Small Worlds to Countrycide
Images from http://www.torchwood.time-and-space.co.uk, http://www.stripedwall.com/gallery.php?dir=television/Torchwood and the fabulous cowboyhd
Again in episode order, starting with the relevant part of Fragments.
Part 1 a - Fragments | Part 1 b - Fragments | Part 1 c - Fragments | Part 2 - Everything Changes to Ghost Machine | Part 3 a - Cyberwoman | Part 3 b - Cyberwoman
Enjoy
Cyberwoman - part c
What is the first thing Ianto feels?
He seems a little shocked to realize that it was Jack kissing him, but he does acquiesce with Jack’s request to stay quiet. Until he hears Lisa scream and is brought back to the situation of being the piggy in the middle between the team and Lisa.
What is interesting to note is that Ianto comes back to life with the same breathy motion as Jack does every time he comes back from the dead. Listen to the audio at 1:46 onwards and Ianto sounds very like Jack does when he comes back from the dead. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7nXpQHw-aM&feature=related So, up until the end of the kiss from Jack, Ianto is dead.
We then have Ianto finding Lisa who has been stabbed by Owen seemingly dead. When she opens her eyes, instead of rejoicing in her being alive, his first instinct is to jump back and away. Gwen has to push and pull him to run away from her and that is what he does, runs with Owen and her to find Jack. He is with the team here, not Lisa.
He stands with Owen and Gwen behind the protection of Jack.
Lisa threatens and that mobilises Ianto into action. But it is to plead with Jack to give Lisa a chance to surrender. Lisa is fully cybernised and there can be no arguing against it, but Ianto has been so set on this path of helping Lisa that he just can’t seem to get off it.
Gwen and Owen have to now hold him back from going to Jack. He is manhandled by them onto the lift while he continues to struggle. He only stops when Jack looks back at him and tells him that he is sorry.
Now we get one of the few times Ianto swears. For all the adult nature of the show, the two people who have sworn the least are Jack and Ianto. Ianto’s eyeline is split between Jack and Lisa here, glancing back and forth as the list ascends. He is back to trying to help Lisa, who everyone else realises is beyond help.
Once up on the Plass, they all fall off the lift stone, Ianto is pushed off by Gwen and Owen after Jack steps off, hands on knees. Ianto wanders a little away, his head bowed, shoulders hunched in.
He then turns back to Jack.
He has a pretty good right hook.
Gwen again has to hold Ianto back, Ianto accuses Jack that he could have saved her. Is this faith in Jack’s ability to do the extraordinary, that Ianto knows that Jack has knowledge above and beyond most humans or is it his blind faith in Lisa still being in there and wanting her back or is it his own guilt that he has failed coming through and he just can’t seem to step off the path? He tells Jack that he is worse than anything else that is down there.
“One day I’ll have the chance to save you, and I’ll watch you suffer and die”
Ianto is putting Jack in his shoes here, Ianto had the chance to save Lisa and has had to watch her suffer and die, he believes.
Gwen has to stand between the two men, for all of Jack’s anger here, he physically intimidates Ianto but does not raise his gun or his fists, they are at each other with words and looks.
Ianto then does his invisible trick, while the rest of the team focus on Jack and Tosh. He wanders away, separating himself from them. Until he hears Tosh say that the base is open again.
He now legs it back to the Tourist Office, with the team in hot pursuit, grabbing his gun from behind the counter. A gun he didn’t seem to have when Carys escaped out that way. When the team enter he aims the gun at whoever is speaking, they are the ones who might be able to talk him out of his path, so they are who he sees as the threat to stopping him.
Ianto tells Jack that if anyone tries to stop him from saving Lisa, he will shoot them.
Jack then responds that if he makes a threat like that, he better be prepared to follow it through.
Ianto has a gun to his face and yet he now shows defiance again to Jack.
before, when he had the gun, there was almost a pleading look in his eyes and his stance, body slumped against the wall, now that he does not seemingly have any power and his body is rigid and he struggles and defies Jack.
Jack turns him back to face him, and orders him to execute her. His focus is fully on Jack, on Jack accusing him of hiding away from them, that the girl he loved is gone. We get an inkling in the quick little expression that he understands this. The little quivering of his lips when Jack says that she is gone.
His loyalty is to the team, according to Jack, so he needs to execute Lisa and if he doesn’t do it Jack makes his own threat to execute them both.
How does Ianto react to a threat to his own and Lisa’s life?
He continues on his earlier vein that Jack is a monster, and is ordered to pick up the gun and follow Jack’s orders. It is now that he glances at the rest of the team once he has picked up the gun, before heading down to the Hub.
Once down, he discovers another death, and Lisa has transplanted her brain. He tries to carry out Jack’s orders, but like through the rest of this time he wavers back and forth, wanting to be loyal to both his memory of Lisa and to Jack.
He hugs her, then holds a gun to her head, resolved to try and pull that trigger, he tries but can’t, Lisa continues to play on his emotions, his caring, his weakness. As he walks away and she lets us all know that it isn’t Lisa, it is the cyberman talking using Lisa’s memories to exploit him, her intention is to upgrade. Before Ianto can make a decision if he can kill her now knowing that, it is taken out of his hand by the team. The first shot by Jack. Ianto then walks back to stand in front of both bodies, placing himself in the line of fire of Jack. Jack had told him that if Ianto didn’t kill her, he would execute them both. Here is Ianto in prime position waiting to see if Jack will follow through with his own threat after he had earlier told Ianto that if he makes a threat, he needs to be able to follow through on it.
Jack doesn’t so Ianto throws one final look of defiance before turning his back on him and dropping between both bodies to grieve, but it is the cybernised body of Lisa that he is angled slightly more towards, the one that represents Lisa to him.
Later that day (has to be because of Jack’s cut lip *huggles TW for the bad continuity*) he enters back into the Hub, in a clean suit. He enters slowly, arms down at his side glancing around briefly before looking up at Jack and Gwen in the boardroom. He continues to walk towards Jack until he has to stop because of the railing.
Jack lowers his eyes and nods at him and Ianto repeats the gesture back. It is our first clear indication of them mirroring each other.
Ianto then moves off to do his job, quietly and efficiently.
Thus ends the picspam of death, otherwise known as Cyberwoman. For many this is one of their favourite episodes as we seem to learn so much more about the man who has been working away quietly in the background.
How does he regard Jack in this episode? He wavers between seeking Jack's help and understanding and defying him. Jack and Lisa are the two that have been warring in his mind for attention. We know this from his little looks and flirts from the previous episodes, not to mention the guilty look on his face from Day One when Gwen asks why they are enjoying themselves while a girl fights for her life.
What I found most interesting here, is that although Ianto primarily stays submissive in his stance for most of his interactions, there is complete defiance on his face when dealing with Jack at times. We are given clues that he understands that Lisa is no longer Lisa, but he is on his path and he doesn't know how to stop or get off it. He wants help, but doesn't know how to ask and when he is finally forced to ask and gets rebuffed he just can't let go.
His loyalty at this stage is for Jack and the team as well as Lisa which is where you get such a conflict from him and it is hard to say which one is the dominant loyalty. All I can go on is his first instinct after discovering Lisa has been stabbed by Owen. His first instinct is to get close, but he doesn't touch her and when she opens her eyes he jumps away from her. She is alive and he doesn't stay by her side but leaves and once pushed by Gwen runs to stand behind Jack. While Owen and Gwen are focused on Lisa, Ianto is looking at Jack. Even through all this tragedy of losing once and for all the woman that he loves (he really lost her at Canary Wharf but can't see that) Jack still creates such strong passionate responses from him. Jack can draw his attention away from her.
What we can also look at is what they say to each other.
They both make threats that neither seem to follow through.
They both try and reason with each other, but both are so set on their paths and can't seem deviate. Ianto accuses Jack of not listening to him and not asking about him and yet we know from the start of the episode that Jack has noticed him, he has talked to him, even if it is just about his eating habits. They do listen to each other very carefully as Ianto turns Jack's words back onto him and Jack does the same back. Jack refers to Lisa as a creature and pretty much takes care to distinguish that she isn't human. Ianto then states that she isn't a monster and later he turns that around to call Jack it. Also the whole part of Ianto asking for help and then Jack using 'together' towards him in response. They are listening, but both are trying to dominate the other, get the other to their way of thinking. For all his supposed loss of power in this episode Ianto remains defiant and we end on him mirroring Jack's expression and them communicating without words.
Part 4 - Small Worlds to Countrycide