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Okay, so I'm late to the party. Like, eleven years late. I don't do audio plays, as a rule, but I've finally been working my way through a few of them over the last couple of years, starting with the ones focussing more on Jack, because he's what I've always been interested in. But I've started getting more interested in TW in general recently so I've been slogging my way through the Torchwood Collected Radio Dramas (and it has been a slog, tbh, because most of them have been extremely mediocre!) and finally made it to The House of the Dead.
And woah. If you consider the audio plays canon (and I'm kind of half-and-half on that front, but TARDIS Wiki certainly considers them canon) then okay, that really does kind of clear up how much Ianto actually meant to Jack. I mean, I'd read the synopsis, obviously, but the sheer level of emotion displayed there... Okay, partly JB overacting as usual, but, yeah. Can't really deny his feelings for Ianto there, even if it's only six months after his death and so obviously he's still grieving, not just for Ianto but Steven, and hell still for Tosh and Owen too. But yeah. Feelings.
Anyway, other observations. Six months after CoE, so presumably this happens right before Jack goes back to Cardiff to collect his wriststrap and beams off-world? (Ah yes, Wiki says this too) This is perhaps what he was waiting for, as much as getting the strap back?
I thought the whole ghost thing was very well done. Even having foreknowledge that Ianto was a ghost, I then found myself unsure if this was in fact that story and started second guessing myself! Nicely done. Interesting to meet his dad, and the hints at the tailor thing, which was interesting considering what Rhiannon said, that he wasn't in fact a tailor. Just pretending, still?
I liked the way Ianto managed to con Jack into stepping back into the real world, pretending he was going to (try and) go with him, because he knew it was the only way Jack would go. And that Ianto then did actually get to die a useful, heroic death.
And woah. If you consider the audio plays canon (and I'm kind of half-and-half on that front, but TARDIS Wiki certainly considers them canon) then okay, that really does kind of clear up how much Ianto actually meant to Jack. I mean, I'd read the synopsis, obviously, but the sheer level of emotion displayed there... Okay, partly JB overacting as usual, but, yeah. Can't really deny his feelings for Ianto there, even if it's only six months after his death and so obviously he's still grieving, not just for Ianto but Steven, and hell still for Tosh and Owen too. But yeah. Feelings.
Anyway, other observations. Six months after CoE, so presumably this happens right before Jack goes back to Cardiff to collect his wriststrap and beams off-world? (Ah yes, Wiki says this too) This is perhaps what he was waiting for, as much as getting the strap back?
I thought the whole ghost thing was very well done. Even having foreknowledge that Ianto was a ghost, I then found myself unsure if this was in fact that story and started second guessing myself! Nicely done. Interesting to meet his dad, and the hints at the tailor thing, which was interesting considering what Rhiannon said, that he wasn't in fact a tailor. Just pretending, still?
I liked the way Ianto managed to con Jack into stepping back into the real world, pretending he was going to (try and) go with him, because he knew it was the only way Jack would go. And that Ianto then did actually get to die a useful, heroic death.