A Question for the Torchwood Watchers

[gnomi]

So, a friend of mine who is also a Torchwood fan posed the following question after watching "Fragments" (2.12):

OK... in the Ianto flashback, we see Ianto flirting with Jack and trying his hardest to get a job at Torchwood. But as my friend J pointed out, at this point, he was still in love with Lisa-the-half-Cyberwoman. So, was he eager to get the Torchwood job because he wanted a place to stash Lisa (and, perhaps, access to whatever Torchwood intel he could to perhaps find a way to help her), or was he eager to get the job because he was lusting after Jack?

Any and all speculation is welcomed.

Comments

[kuroshii.livejournal.com]

my guess is, "both."

[perpet.livejournal.com]

I say A and B. I'm very fond of the idea of Ianto as a sneaky bastard who was trying to play on Jack's probably well-known sexual relaxation to get in the door. I also think that Ianto was perhaps a bit over-confident in his own ability to resist said advances, since he had Lisa and obviously cared for her, and that his attraction to Jack was a surprise to a certain extent.

In short, Ianto is smart and has a conniving streak. Jack is easy. Ianto is pretty and young, so Jack was willing to take him at face value, and Ianto used that to his advantage. Jack would not want Ianto if Ianto were as bland as he appears sometimes, so I'm fully behind Ianto has sneaky.

[betra.livejournal.com]

Ianto was working out of the London office of Torchwood at the time. He could have had a bit of ambition as well as lust.

He certainly was trying to impress Jack, at any rate.

Some from column A and some from column B.

[marsgov.livejournal.com]

I had the distinct impression that Jack said the London office had already been destroyed.

[betra.livejournal.com]

I thought he said they were unaffiliated. But even if it was destroyed, Ianto could have been there and was then unemployed, as it were.

I suppose I should go watch it over. May as well, to see Ianto in those jeans and leather jacket again.

[kuroshii.livejournal.com]

marsqov is right. the london office had been destroyed at the time of the flashback: that was the "canary wharf" incedent they were talking about. ianto rescued some equipment, like the rift activity locator...

...and the contraption sustaining his girlfriend, but of course he doesn't mention that to jack.

[suzvoy.livejournal.com]

A little of B, but mostly A in my opinion. I think the attraction came as a surprise to him but he was willing to use it to get help for Lisa. Look at the expression on his face when he's walking away from Jack at the end of the flashback - that's not a man who's happy that he's got someone to flirt with. He's thinking of Lisa.

[marsgov.livejournal.com]

"Do not seek continuity in Torchwood, grasshopper."

[kradical.livejournal.com]

Yes, he was trying to get into Torchwood 3 so he had somewhere to stash Lisa. If that meant flirting with Jack, so be it. And there was probably at least some attraction there, anyhow....

[peggin.livejournal.com]

I'd say he first approached Jack with his mind entirely on finding a place to stash Lisa, but when he met Jack (with his apparently extremely potent pheromones), lust very quickly became a major part of his motivation.

[fizzixrat.livejournal.com]

Clearly, Ianto had heard about Captain Jack's cyber-threeway of love and misinterpreted its meaning.

[michelel72.livejournal.com]

This subject came up over on the TWoP forums. A popular theory is that when Jack's TW3 combed the ruins of TW1, they might have gleaned Lisa within some kind of enclosed system without realizing it, and that Ianto was desperate to get into the facility to help her. I'm not sure I buy that; I suspect they didn't really consider where Lisa was in that overlap ... though I think a case could be made that he had evaded the TW3 scavengers and stashed Lisa offsite for a while.

I got the impression that Ianto did experience some degree of attraction with Jack, but that it was a mixture of surprise to him and deliberate manipulation. That is, I think he primarily wanted the facilities for Lisa. Was his switch from jeans to a suit a deliberate part of the manipulation, for example? But I'm pretty sure his first concern at that point was Lisa, though he was certainly content that Jack think otherwise.