(no subject)

[solitary_summer]

A question for the TW watchers - has anyone ever managed to successfully date Jack' wedding picture from Something Borrowed? Clicking around on google a bit suggests a date around 1900, 1910-ish, but that's as far as I got.

The thing is... Jack died the first time in 1892. At some unspecified date later, but definitely before 1901, he came to Cardiff, got drunk a lot, got himself killed another 14 times in the space of six months, and was finally picked up by Torchwood. Now granted, Jack is a law unto himself, but it was clearly not a happy time for him, and I find it hard to believe that between coming to terms with his immortality, trying to find the Doctor, and being forced to work for Torchwood he'd have thought getting married was a good idea. What would make more sense to me is to date the wedding before 1892, but I'm not sure the style of the dress supports this theory.

Or am I overthinking this?

Comments

[elisi]

Hmm.

Presuming that working for Torchwood gives him a purpose and a solid base, I can see him falling in love and deciding to do some actual living. And then if it all ends very tragically it'd explain why he lets the war separate him from Estelle, why he lets Lucy's mother go into hiding and have very little contact, why he never makes a move where Gwen is concerned - he's lived through one nightmare, and won't allow himself another.

ETA: When I say nightmare, I don't mean something *horrible* happened per se - maybe it was just her ageing and him not (he is smiling when he looks at the photo after all). But he is an optimist and I could see a Highlander scenario maybe? And he won't allow himself to get that close anymore, to share someone's life to that degree, because of the pain?

[solitary-summer.livejournal.com]

Could be. In the end I guess we simply don't have enough canon characterisation for Jack in this era to say anything with any certainty. Like I said to rm, I just can't quite see Jack actually being willing to walk up to the altar and consciously make a promise based on a lie, especially not if he loved her. For me that's too much cognitive dissonance even for Jack. On the other hand, if she was a Torchwood employee and knew about him, and for whatever reason (maybe it was a practical thing, not a big love thing) they decided to go ahead anyway, and were making jokes about the whole 'till death do us part' thing... that I could definitely see.

In any case what I think stands out is that the wedding picture is the last in the pile, clearly the oldest one. After that it's only ever Jack alone. The link/contrast between the wedding picture and the way Jack steps back and lets Gwen marry Rhys is probably deliberate.