lonelybrit | Meanwhile...

I am aware that the odd soul out there might not have seen all or any of Torchwood. And for no apparent reason I thought I might as well try and round up some of what we've learnt about Jack during Season One. So, ladies and gents, I present to you...

A Torchwood Guide to Captain Jack.

(1) New powers/skills.

Jack has picked up a certain new characteristic as a direct result of his time with the Doctor and Rose. He generally keeps it under his hat as, in his words, 'it tends to freak people out'. This new skill has been used to save his team/baffle the enemy/save the world more than once.

From Everything Changes:
Jack: Something happened to me a while back, long story and far away... One day I'll find a Doctor, the right sort of Doctor and maybe he can explain it but until then- *shrugs*

(2) Would the real Captain Jack Harkness please step forward.

Once upon a time an ex-time agent and conman found himself in London 1941, working undercover and in need of an identity fast. He took that of one Captain Jack Harkness.

The real Captain Jack Harkness was an American volunteer, flying with the RAF before the events of Pearl Harbour. He was considered a hero, killing 26 in the Battle of Britain and never losing a man. On 21st January 1941 he and his men went out on their last routine training exercise, only to be surprised by two formations of enemy planes. Captain Jack stayed behind to give his men time to escape. "He destroys three of the enemy. His men listen to his whoops of joy over the radio. Then it all goes quiet. He can't bail out because his whole plane is on fire but his men all make it back to safety."

The conman falsified the records to make it seem like Jack was still alive. Fast forward a couple of decades and according to official records:

From Everything Changes:
Yvonne: The only Captain Jack Harkness on record was American... American Volunteer, Royal Air Force 133 Squadron. Except he disappeared, vanished off the records, presumed dead- 1941 at the height of the Blitz. On the morning of January the 21st, 1941, Captain Jack Harkness failed to report for duty. Never seen again until now.

(3) Loves loved (and lost).

To put it mildly, Captain Jack is not a happy man. It's uncertain as to how long or how often Jack has lived through the 20th/21st Century. He's certainly a lot less care-free and light than he was when Rose and the Doctor knew him. In Out of Time he meets John Ellis who is also trapped in a century not his own.

John: Who are you?
Jack: A man, like you, out of his time. Alone and scared.
John: How do you cope?
Jack: It's just bearable, it has to be. I don't have a choice.

Since Jack left the Doctor, we've been shown two people for certain who he has fallen for.

i.) Estelle - "In London, at the Astoria ballroom, a few weeks before Christmas. She was 17 years old and she was beautiful. I loved her at first sight. But nothing lasted back then. Promises were always being broken."
As Jack put it, once upon a time they were inseparable and made a vow that they would be with each other till they died. But it was wartime. He (Captain Jack) was posted abroad and Estelle volunteered to work on the land. They lost contact and when they next met Estelle was an old woman and Jack hadn't aged a day. Jack pretended that he was Estelle's Jack's son and kept in touch with her that way. Eventually Estelle was killed during a Torchwood investigation, Jack arriving too late to save her.

ii.) Captain Jack Harkness - yes, our Jack is indeed cool enough to fall in love with himself. In Captain Jack Harkness, he and another Torchwood team member are trapped in Saturday 20th January 1941, at a Kiss The Boys Goodbye dance. There they meet the real Captain Jack Harkness. The TW employee is understandably a little perplexed that this Captain shares her boss's name, and when questioned Jack admits: It's not my name. It's his. I took his. But I didn't realise he was so hot...

It becomes clear that our Jack is more than a little smitten with his namesake. The two men bond but like all star-crossed romances, it's doomed. They part. Captain Jack is killed in battle the following day whilst our Jack returns to the present.

(4) Keep the home fires burning.

Of all the Torchwood team, Jack seems most emotionally invested in/connected with Gwen Cooper who's the newest recruitment and who, unlike most of the TW team, has a semi-decent personal life outside of work. Jack admits to her that Torchwood could be doing more to help people and in the series she is brought in as a way to put the heart back into the team.

In terms of pieces of tart of the side, there may or may not have been some offscreen goings on between Jack and Ianto Jones (the archivist/'teaboy' of the group). If you've noticed any sly comments about stopwatches since TW started, there is a reason for that.

And although, yes, Jack seems to care a great deal for his team and feel very responsible for their welfare, that has not stopped each and every employee betraying him at least once (and sometimes all at the same time), occasionally trying to kill him or at least cause bodily harm, and/or nearly bringing about the end of the world. Torchwood are one big happy family. Really.

When Jack leaves (to the sound of the TARDIS), Gwen's reaction is: "Something's taken him."

(5) Old scars.

When bonding with his namesake, Jack gave us pretty much the only tale from his life before the Time Agency or the Doctor. It's easiest just to let the boys tell the story.

Jack: A Captain needs to explain the risks. Tell his men what to expect.
Real!Jack: So what do I do. Tell the men I saw a young boy get shot in the eyes mid-flight.
Jack: I understand.
Real!Jack: Do you? Did you hear him on the radio yelling for his Mom... All I can hear on the radio-
Jack: -is screams. I went to war when I was a boy. I was with my best friend. We got caught crossing the border over enemy lines. They torture him, not me, because he was weaker, they made me watch him die. Then they let me go.
Real!Jack: Who are they?
Jack: The worst possible creatures you can imagine. I persuaded him to join up, I said it would be an adventure. He hadn't lived.
Real!Jack Have any of us?

Perhaps linked to this is another comment Jack makes to a captive he's about to 'persuade' to say where the rest of the Torchwood team are being held hostage. Apparently Jack had a bit of reputation in the Time Agency as the 'go-to guy' when they needed information extracted/someone tortured. He was good at his job.

The only other tale we've been given is that Jack was once in charge of 15 men on a troop train in Lahore, 1909. The train went into a tunnel and when it came out, all 15 men had suffocated on rose petals. Turns out they'd pissed off some fairies in a local village. Jack was obviously shaken by (still has nightmares about) the incident.

(6) Never doubted him, never will.

Jack is still waiting for the Doctor. He has his hand in a jar (the hand lopped off in the Christmas Invasion). In the finale all the team bar Jack are shown visions of people they love/trust in order to trick them into breaking the number one Torchwood rule of never meddling with the Rift. They are fooled and almost destroy the world, as you do. Once Jack has saved the day (again), he and Gwen share a few thoughts.

From End of Days:
Gwen: What would have tempted you? What visions would have convinced you to open the Rift?
Jack: The right kind of Doctor.

The series ends with a wind rushing through the Hub, Jack looking as though Christmas has come early, and the sound of the TARDIS starting to swell. By the time the rest of the Torchwood team arrive on the scene, the Hub's a bit off a mess and Captain Jack is nowhere to be seen.