fajrdrako | Torchwood: Theories about Captain Jack...

As fans we have many theories about Captain Jack Harkness and what makes him tick. We don't always agree (since when does that happen in fandom? never!) but there's a fair consensus about the main points, about his timeline as we know it. We don't know as much as Jack knows, though in at least one regard, we know more about him than he does himself - how and why he rose from the dead on Satellite Five.

But the Torchwood team don't know what we know. I keep wondering what they think. As series one progresses, each of them learns more about Jack. We don't know how much they compare notes about him - we know Gwen doesn't tell the others about his immortality, though by "Cyberwoman" they've all seen evidence of it.

My question is: what do they believe?

Things they see or hear with their own eyes, which indicate something unusual about Jack:

In various episodes and at various times, he uses alien tech and scans for alien tech, like his wristband, or Gwen's gun (mentioned in Another Life), or the scanning device we see in "Day One". Obviously sometimes it is clear that the alien tech comes through the rift, but his wristband did not.

All the Torchwood team knows that Jack Harkness doesn't exist in any official records.

I general terms, and after having speculated about Jack's sexual orientation and his love life, they know he is unusually experienced ("Work your way through my back catalogue, we'll be here till the sun explodes"), though they don't know details and it is unclear how many of his comments they believe. Jack makes it clear he doesn't like 'categories'. Ianto, who eventually gets some up-close-personal experience of Jack's sexuality, makes no comment on it.

I various episodes and at various times, Jack shows knowledge of alien devices that is really phenomenal. He can repair an unfamiliar interstellar teleportation device well enough to use it effectively (in "Greeks Bearing Gifts"), he is building his own 'rift machine' (which they know about) and a TARDIS (which they probably don't)./li>
In various episodes and at various times, Jack shows knowledge of alien species, e.g., the boring, watery ones in "Cyberwoman".

In various episodes and at various times, Jack shows knowledge of the future - saying that the 21st century is where everything changes, or that "this wasn't supposed to happen" (in "End of Days").

In "Everything Changes" - Gwen, Suzie, Owen and Tosh hear Jack say, "Love this planet. Still, at least I won't get pregnant. I'm never doing that again."

In "Everything Changes" - Gwen and Suzie see Jack, when shot in the head, recover from death.

In "Day One", everyone except Ianto sees Jack's kiss make a woman possessed by the sex alien glow with golden light and recover from near-death.

In "Day One", they know that an severed hand in a jar is important enough to Jack to let an alien killer escape because of it. Do they know the hand belonged to an alien? Possibly. Do they know which alien? Probably not, but I don't see any evidence there, either way. The hand is not labelled.

In "Cyberwoman", everyone except Ianto sees Jack killed twice by the touch of the Cyberwoman. (I think it's likely that Ianto would have been told about this afterwards.)

In "Cyberwoman", only Ianto knows that Jack revived him from death or near-death with a kiss (though it is unclear how much Ianto understands about what is happening).

In "Small Worlds", Gwen guesses that Jack was Estelle's lover in the 1944 picture, and he confirms it.

In "Countrycide", Jack is in an expansive mood. He says, "No other race in the universe goes camping," and (in the matter of snogging), "Are we including non-human life-forms?"

In "Greeks Bearing Gifts", Toshiko learns that Jack's is the only mind she can't read, with the pendant, though he can speak to her telepathically.

In "Captain Jack Harkness", Toshiko guesses that Jack has been to the 1940s before; he tells her that he was a con man, and that "Captain Jack Harkness" was not his real name.

Am I missing other bits of evidence? I am skipping his two references to "the right kind of doctor" on the grounds that Gwen has no way of understanding what he's talking about.

So what do they make of it all? Torchwood emphasizes the immortality aspect, but not Jack's time travel. Words like "Time Agent" and "51st century" are never spoken. I would expect them to suspect that Jack himself might be an alien - after all, they are dealing with aliens on a regular basis - but no one mentions the possibility, possibly because he seems so human in all matters except the immortality and invulnerability. (I just read that sentence over. That sounds like a big exception.)

No one ever challenges him on his implied knowledge of the future, though Owen challenges him on his identity in "End of Days" (and gets fired for it), and Toshiko asks him who he used to be in "Captain Jack Harkness" (and gets no answer).

So what do you think they think? Do you think any of them suspect him of being from the future? or of having travelled in time? If they all felt he was simply a con man full of lies and tall stories, it's unlikely they'd have the life-and-death kind of respect for him that they do. Clearly he knows more about aliens than anyone else on Earth - do any of them suspect that he's been off-planet?