Favorite Characters: Ianto Jones (Torchwood)

Ianto is a tricky character to sum up.  He’s not always well-served by the writing; his series 1 characterization is incredibly thin, and what little we get doesn’t always cohere (a bit like series 7 Clara, come to I think of it.)  While he’s given more dimension over time, he’s never as well-defined as the others, but despite it, he manages to entertain quite a bit.  (A few series 1 spoilers.)

Ianto’s background working for Torchwood One makes him the only one of Jack’s team with active past experience in aliens and/or alien tech.  (As a researcher, I’m guessing Ianto didn’t see too much action outside of the Battle of Canary Wharf, but his experiences were eyes-wide-open, not blindsided.)  Jack, however, doesn’t view this as an asset, because he doesn’t want his Cardiff operation repeating any of Torchwood One’s mistakes and wants to avoid any association with it.  As such, Ianto doesn’t get much field work in the early episodes.  The team butler/gofer/dogsbody, Ianto’s work assignments tend toward the less fantastical:  make the coffee, do the cleaning up, run the phony tourist desk that serves as Torchwood’s front, perform some light hacking, fake the odd death here and there (menial tasks or not, it is still Torchwood!)  When he does finally start getting out in the field, his initial deportment supports the idea that he didn’t often leave his desk at Torchwood One.  He has sharp observation skills, he’s trained with a gun, and he doesn’t crack under torture, but he doesn’t take the insanity in stride like the more experienced Jack, Owen, and Tosh do.  It freaks him out, and he needs time to get used to it.

Speaking of Torchwood One, I imagine that his attention to detail and diligent work ethic have at least some root there.  Torchwood Three is fairly ramshackle compared to the original’s well-oiled machine, and we see some of that difference between Ianto and the other team members.  The others play basketball around the Hub and lob tools to one another at meteor sites.  Owen dresses down for work and Gwen asks not-always-appropriate questions about everyone’s personal life.  Meanwhile, Ianto gets on with things quietly in the background, pristinely dressed in three-piece suits and trying to make the haphazard organization run like clockwork.  When there are boring but vital jobs to be done, Ianto does them without complaint.  He can keep running totals in his head, he anticipates the others’ needs, and he generally prefers his private life to be private.  Though he starts to loosen up when his relationship with Jack goes public, he sticks mainly to snark, making dry observations about their surreal work lives and some of his colleagues’ less-advisable activities.

Not that Ianto is unflappable – far from it.  The series 1 reveal that he’s been hiding his partially-converted Cyber-girlfriend, a victim of the Battle of Canary Wharf, in the Hub’s basement, more than proves that put-together on the outside may not equal the same inside.  His dedication to Lisa and refusal to accept that she’s past help puts the whole team in serious jeopardy, showing his loyalty to be his worst quality as well as his best.  He’ll do anything for those he loves, which can of course be great.  Taken to extremes, though, as it is with Lisa, that loyalty can endanger himself and others.  Much of the time, this trait is slightly under the surface; for example, he plays his feelings for Jack a bit close to chest.  Again, privacy, and he may have some anxiety that Jack’s not as invested as he is.  But even if he doesn’t usually make a show of saying it, there’s no question of what he’s thinking.  Jack’s well-being is often foremost on his mind, even though, as the resident unkillable man, Jack is the one least worth worrying about, and he’d follow Jack into Hell, his own safety be damned.  Not bad for a former coffee-boy.