Obvious insight is obvious.

[elisi]

Torchwood was always Jack's story. (And the story of Jack's people.)

Miracle Day isn't. It's just a story that happens to have Jack in it.

(He might be pivotal to events, but so far? It's not his story. Not even close. And hey, that's fair enough, it's Rusty's show, he can do what he wants. Although it does please me how (as always) I can see him as a mirror to Buffy: 'Oh, poor little lost girl boy. She He doesn't fit in anywhere. She's He's got no one to love.')

Comments

[solitary-summer.livejournal.com]

IMO, because that's what Jack is like. He doesn't often share his thoughts and feelings, and very rarely unasked and unprompted. His midnight call to Gwen in ep. 3 almost shocked me with its openness, because it showed in what a bad state he still was. Gwen is the only one who might have got an answer to the question of whether he wanted to die, and she's not the kind of person who would ask that question, she's too positive and pragmatic for that. Gwen doesn't like to contemplate death, and she certainly doesn't want to contemplate the possibility of suicide, Jack's or anyone's. None of the new team members knew Jack well enough to even know this much about him, and probably wouldn't have got an answer if they'd asked.

And there's another thing — becoming mortal again after so many years, completely unexpected, is a huge thing, and Jack himself would have needed time to think about what this meant for him. It's not the same as wishing for death when you know perfectly well that it's out of your reach. If it'd happened right after CoE, he probably would have killed himself, but time has passed since then, he's started to heal, he's probably seen things that might have made look life a bit better at least from time to time, and even if he still contemplated the option, it wouldn't have been such an automatic reaction any longer.

He'll have to make yet another decision, though, when it'll come down to the question of whether to die, or become immortal again...

[elisi]

Gwen is the only one who might have got an answer to the question of whether he wanted to die, and she's not the kind of person who would ask that question
Like I said... 'Oh, poor little lost boy. He doesn't fit in anywhere. He's got no one to love.' It's a problem though when your central character is inaccessible. It was a problem in S1 and it's a much bigger problem now. (For me, at least.)

ANYWAY. I'm off on holiday! *runs away*

[solitary-summer.livejournal.com]

*wishes you a lovely holiday*!

[elisi]

Thank you! :)

[promethia_tenk]

*claps* This, all this. I just mainlined all the episodes earlier this week, so I haven't had a lot of time to think over Jack's situation, but I absolutely agree. I think it would be very strange to be getting more out of Jack at this point (and that call was shocking). He's clearly doing a lot of just going through the motions, but then, he also cares enough again to go through them.

[solitary-summer.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I agree with elisi that with Jack you have to read between the lines a lot, and that it can be frustrating sometimes, but they've established the character like that, and there's really no good way of changing this now. And personally speaking, I do enjoy this kind of less obvious, show-don't-tell storytelling, where not everything is spelled out and you do have to connect the dots sometimes...