#You gotta think#Jack went to canary wharf#after everything was over#and he saw the wreckage and new that his doctor had been there#but he’d missed him#so he checked the lists#just to see#and found rose tyler#and it had to shake him#he probably mourned#once he was alone#one more person he’d outlived#so to hear the doctor say this#had to be a miracle (via merindab )
And it’s even worse than that, because he had to be thinking that Torchwood London has basically killed her, and there he was running Torchwood Cardiff.
Also, you know, the last time he saw her, he told her not to worry because he was going to run off into battle against the daleks and fight for her (die for her). And now he’s holding a list that says she died in a battle with the daleks anyway.
Also you have to keep in mind that Rose has been his source of comfort and his one connection to the Doctor for the last twenty years. He checked in on her a couple of times, knowing that he couldn’t interact with her, because just seeing her made him feel less lonely and lost. And now she’s gone.
Sorry. I have a lot of Jack/Rose feelings about what must have been going on in Jack’s head after the Battle of Canary Wharf.
Oh don’t apologize. Those are good points too. He was basically forced to work for Torchwood in the first place. But it’s after the battle of canary wharf that he really tries to mold into something the Doctor might be proud of. Tries to make it something ‘in your honor’. Something better, like the Doctor made him a better man.
Well, I figured that Jack was already doing his best with Torchwood Cardiff before Canary Wharf. He became the team leader back in 2000, after all. Still, I can’t imagine that the thought didn’t eat at him a little after Canary Wharf.
I wonder what Canary Wharf was like for Jack, Tosh, Owen, and Suzie. I’m sure they had cybermen in Cardiff, though I doubt they had anything to do with the ghosts. It must have been a really awful situation, but at the same time, they had 100% survivors while Torchwood London suffered 97% causalities…
Which would only feed Jack’s guilt even more. Maybe that’s part of why he didn’t want Ianto. Not only did he want nothing to do with Torchwood London, but he really didn’t need a reminder hanging around every day either. Even if he was cute and made good coffee.
And then of course there was that girlfriend in the basement.
I’ve always thought so.
And Lisa. Jack must have been on an emotional rollercoaster over that one, because on one hand, he now has a very personal grudge against cybermen. On the other hand, Jack had to have asked himself at one point how far he’d go to save Rose, if he’d had even the slightest chance. I think that’s a pretty big part of why Ianto lived to see Small Worlds. (Another huge part of it is Suzie and his guilt about her death and his lack of desire to see another member of his team die, but that’s not on-topic.)
Oh yeah. I have no doubt guilt played a major part in why Ianto wasn’t killed or retconned.. And why Jack really didn’t fight back against Ianto, and tried to save him. Jack has done some pretty awful things in his life to try and save people (the kids and the 456, for one). So maybe in his books a girlfriend isn’t so bad. Even if he maybe wished Ianto had just told him so he could try to help. But I think he understood why he didn’t.