When did Janto happen?
The entry behind the cut contains SPOILERS for the entire two seasons. It's a detailed step-by step study of the Jack/Ianto relationship throughout the series – according to my personal opinion, which differs a bit from the general opinion. I love reading fanfic but I don't have the gift of being able to write it myself, so I'm hoping to convert a few writers to my opinion so they'll write stories according to it. Give it a chance, see what you think. Comments are welcome. :)
There is really only one single thing to imply a relationship between Jack and Ianto in season one, and that's the stopwatch scene.
Ianto: If you're interested, I've still got that stopwatch. Jack: So? Ianto: Well. Think about it. Lots of things you can do with a stopwatch. Jack: Oh yeah. I can think of a few. Ianto: There's quite a list. Jack: I'll send the others home early. See you in my office in ten. Ianto: That's ten minutes [starts stopwatch] and counting.
The innuendo is undeniable, but the words themselves are still ambiguous. Ambiguous means that it can be taken two ways. That means it doesn't absolutely HAVE to be taken the smutty way. I choose to take it the other way and interpret it as quite innocent. I can't really think of many erotic uses for a stopwatch anyway, and I don't usually have trouble getting my mind in the gutter. Sure I can think of a couple of obvious things, but they seem really juvenile for a man whose lovemaking is later described as "innovative bordering on the avantgarde", and not all that rewarding. The guys could be talking about some extremely silly schoolboy games involving stopwatches, beer mugs and burping. Probably so silly that that's why Jack wants to send the others home.
I know this is a stretch, but I honestly can't wrap my mind around the other interpretation. Look: Jack and Ianto certainly weren't together in any way before Cyberwoman, because Ianto would be faithful to Lisa. Three episodes later, in Greeks bearing gifts, Tosh reads Ianto's mind and it's filled to capacity with pain and grief. I can't believe that he'd be open to anything with anyone else yet. The next episode after that is They keep killing Suzie, with the stopwatch scene. There is absolutely nothing before that scene to indicate any kind of change between Jack and Ianto, and all of a sudden they're playing obscure sex games? And if the scene is taken that way, it's certainly not the first time, the way Ianto so casually suggests it and Jack so easily accepts. It. Makes. No. Sense.
So if you do the stretch and go with my interpretation, where does it get you? We know from Fragments that there was an attraction between them from the start. Jack is very lonely all through the first season. Maybe he's attracted to Gwen as well, but she's with Rhys and part time with Owen (ugh, don't get me started on that woman...) Jack's got no one. He loses Suzie, then Ianto betrays him in the worst way. If it hadn't been done for love no way would Ianto have been allowed to stay at Torchwood. Then there is the Captain Jack Harkness episode, where Jack tells the original Jack that "there's no one." I can't believe he'd be so callous about Ianto if there was anything between them, so if you believe there had been, then you must believe it was over by this episode. After this heartbreak, the mutiny of his entire team in End of days, getting shot by Owen and severely killed by Abbadon, Jack doesn't want to be alone anymore, so he gives Ianto not only a hug but a kiss. It's impulsive, straight from Jack's heart, the first kiss between them with both of them conscious. Watch the beginning of that hug. Ianto seems unsure whether he can hug his captain and holds out his hand as if expecting a handshake. But Jack pulls him in. That does not look like they've already been lovers.
I'm sure that kiss gave Ianto a lot to think about while Jack was gone. When Jack comes back Ianto needs some reassurance that he won't leave again. "Are you going back to him?" "I came back for you." But next thing Ianto sees is Captain John bragging about his past relationship with Jack, so when they get to the office building Ianto is not in the best mood. There's so much subtext in the office scene, but there's certainly reassurance there from Jack that he's not tempted in any way by Captain John, and that he seriously wants to start a relationship with Ianto. It makes sense: Jack is no longer waiting for the Doctor. His life no longer has that singular purpose, and in a way, that is freeing to him. He has to find his own meaning now, and he can commit to Torchwood and the people in his life – he's no longer prepared to leave at any moment.
Note another thing about the office scene. It's the last time Ianto says sir. All through first season it's been "sir", with just one "Jack" in the stopwatch scene and then back to "sir" in the end of the very same scene. Frankly it creeps me out to think of an employee sleeping with his boss and calling him sir the whole time, when he doesn't need to (Torchwood is not Buckingham Palace and Jack certainly never asked anyone to call him sir). In the office scene, it's "All the better for having you back, sir", then Jack asks "Can we maybe drop the sir now?" and asks about a date, and a little later Ianto calls out "Jack!" After that, all through the second series, Ianto only calls him Jack. The "sir" is gone. Something changed between them in that scene – and not before.
If you're with me so far, the relationship unfolds in such a straightforward and joyful way. Two episodes later, in To the last man, Ianto kisses Jack in his office. To me that's their first real kiss, the first mutual and passionate one. And it arises not from physical desire, but from Jack's reassurance that he wants to be where he is, and his implied statement that he counts Ianto among the people he's loved.
In the next episode, Meat, Ianto and Jack exchange charged looks while their oblivious teammates discuss the possibility of having relationships, and there is a wonderful deleted scene (it's in the DVD extras and you can find it on YouTube) that depicts their first grope. Two episodes after that, in Reset, Martha Jones asks Ianto about his relationship with Jack and gets the answer, "We're... dabbling." "Really?" "Yes." "So what's his... dabbling like?" "Innovative. Bordering on the avantgarde." So they're definitely lovers at this point.
Two episodes later, in A day in the death, Owen knows by now and taunts Ianto by tossing out "... you're shagging Jack..." to which Ianto replies, "It's not like that... Me and Jack." Since they ARE in fact shagging, what he's saying is that their relationship is more than that. In the next episode, Something borrowed, Gwen obviously knows about them when dancing with Jack, or she would react differently when he says, "The usual: pizza... Ianto... save the world a couple of times." Minutes later Ianto possessively claims Jack on the dance floor, finally enlightening Toshiko as well just in case she didn't know before. So now, at the latest, the whole team knows.
The next episode is From out of the rain. Really weird episode, and I have to admire the actors for keeping a straight face while saying some of the lines. But I do like the interaction of Jack and Ianto. It has a quiet, intimate, almost dreamlike quality to it, even though there's nothing said or done actually about them or their relationship, they're just working together. This episode has the two of them working as a team more than any other, and it looks like a great team to me.
Next episode: Adrift. Gwen interrupts Jack and Ianto all naked and stuff, in case we didn't get before that yes, they DO sleep together. :) But there's something else in Adrift, too: Ianto is the only member of the team who knows about Flat Holm. It ties in with the image that's been gradually emerging over both seasons: Ianto's the one in the know, Jack's right hand man. Earlier, in A day in the death, when Ianto claimed and then returned Owen's gun and credentials, he came across almost like the number one muscle man for mafia boss Jack. Watch Jack's minimal gesture to Ianto to return Owen's stuff. Ianto is completely loyal to Jack now and Jack completely relies on him.