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Ianto Jones (19 August 1983-2009) was an ex-member of the ill-fated Torchwood One and a member of Torchwood Three, initially serving as more of a "support man" or "tea boy", but later took a more active role in missions. He first approached Captain Jack Harkness with enthusiasm about joining the team, eventually winning him over. Ianto soon became integral to the group, though his attempts to shroud his past impacted them in a bad way. He later fell in love with Jack and became his romantic partner.
However, Ianto met an early demise as part of a mass murder instigated by the 456 ambassador when it spread a deadly virus through Thames House. Following Ianto's death, the after-effects would leave Jack riddled with guilt and grief, ultimately spelling the end of Torchwood Three.
Biography
Early life
Ianto was born on 19 August 1983 in Cardiff (TV: Fragments, TV: From Out of the Rain) to Glenda Jones and her husband. His father worked in Debenhams, but Ianto often told people that he was a master tailor. (TV: Children of Earth: Day Five) He claimed that his father enjoyed taking him to the cinema, (TV: From Out of the Rain) but his sister Rhiannon implied that their relationship was not as strong as he made out. Rhiannon and Ianto recounted that his father pushed him too hard on the swings in his childhood and broke his leg. (TV: Children of Earth: Day Two) He was brought up to never speak ill of the dead. (TV: Something Borrowed)
He had no criminal record apart from one minor conviction for shoplifting in his teens. An able but not exceptionally-gifted student, Ianto took a series of temporary jobs. (TV: Fragments) For some time, he worked at a museum. (AUDIO: Blind Summit) He moved to London because his father disagreed with certain life choices of his and his mother and sister were "very Welsh". (AUDIO: New Girl) However, his father found where he was staying and forcibly moved in, breaking in whenever he forgot his key and often passing out drunk and urinating on the carpet.
Whilst working at a coffee shop in London, Ianto met Yvonne Hartman several times. Yvonne repeatedly confided in him before using retcon on him. Eventually, he became aware of this and was enlisted to help her investigate Blind Summit, after which he was retconned per his request. Yvonne also had him re-hired by the museum. (AUDIO: Blind Summit) He always wanted to work in a skyscraper. (AUDIO: New Girl)
Torchwood One
Ianto's father died in hospital, waiting in vain for a call from his son. (AUDIO: The House of the Dead) Shortly after his death, (TV: Children of Earth: Day One) Ianto met Yvonne once more when she came for his expertise at the museum. He subsequently joined Torchwood One (AUDIO: Blind Summit) in March 2005 (AUDIO: New Girl) as a junior researcher. (TV: Cyberwoman, Fragments)
In his first week, Ianto helped Yvonne stop a monster in Cardiff. A few days later, Torchwood One went into meltdown and his line-manager disappeared, presumed dead. Within a few months, he had become Yvonne's personal assistant. (AUDIO: New Girl)
He remained on good, if distant, terms with his sister, although he was not as friendly with her husband Johnny Davies. (TV: Children of Earth: Day Two) He would occasionally call his mother. (AUDIO: Broken)
Ianto had an attraction to colleague Lisa Hallett, but only went on two dates before deciding that it did not work out. He met and befriended Rachel Allan when she first joined Torchwood and the two had a brief relationship. He later assisted Yvonne in returning to power after Rachel had her framed for Kieran Frost's murder and replaced her as director of Torchwood One. (AUDIO: New Girl, Through the Ruins, Uprising)
In 2006, Ianto assisted Yvonne and Tommy Pierce in combating the Law Machines and WOTAN. (AUDIO: The Law Machines) He later infiltrated Temporary Solutions with Yvonne and came to wonder if he was simply a tool to her. (AUDIO: 9 to 5)
During the Battle of Canary Wharf, Lisa was partly converted into a Cyberman. He saved her and took her to safety. (TV: Cyberwoman) Before fleeing Torchwood Tower, he was given Object One by a colleague. (AUDIO: The Torchwood Archive)
Torchwood Three
Back in his native Cardiff, Ianto tracked down Jack Harkness to try to find work with Torchwood Three. Despite Harkness' initial reluctance, Ianto so impressed Jack during the capture of a stray pteranodon that he was eventually offered a job. (TV: Fragments)
Jack said to Gwen Cooper that he "cleans up after us and gets us everywhere on time". (TV: Everything Changes)
Hoping that the cyber-conversion process could be reversed, Ianto smuggled Lisa into the Torchwood hub, hiding her in a chamber in the Archive until a "cure" for the partial cyber-conversion could be found. She was still attached to a cyber-conversion unit, which acted as her life support. (PROSE: Slow Decay, TV: Cyberwoman)
Ianto operated a fake information desk at the entrance to the Hub. He opened the way to Gwen Cooper as she first entered, posing as a pizza delivery girl. When Gwen was succumbing to the effects of retcon Jack had put in her drink, he deleted all the notes she had made about Torchwood from his computer at the Hub. (TV: Everything Changes)
Lisa's Cyberman conditioning slowly won over her humanity. She laid siege to the Hub from inside and killed several people, including an innocent pizza delivery girl whose body she appropriated, before being killed by the other members of the Torchwood team. (TV: Cyberwoman)
The other Torchwood personnel appeared at this time to have taken the quietly efficient Ianto for granted. They paid little attention to him before the mayhem started. Ianto was "temporarily suspended from active duty" but returned to work four weeks later.[source needed]
Ianto began to take a more active role in field work, though he still disliked the day-to-day Torchwood operations. He described to Toshiko Sato his inability to comprehend the adrenaline rush she and the other Torchwood members shared in the face of danger. Ianto travelled with the rest of his team to the Welsh countryside to investigate a series of gruesome murders. The Torchwood SUV was stolen by a group of cannibals that harvested travellers once every ten years. The team followed the cannibals to their village. Right as his team were captured, Jack stepped in and incapacitated the cannibals. The cannibals were arrested by the police. (TV: Countrycide)
Ianto became very sad after Lisa's death. His grief was so intense that he attempted suicide after the ordeal, but was unsuccessful. Because of Mandy's advices, he tried to connect more with the Torchwood team, and become more active. This led to him becoming closer with Jack. (AUDIO: Broken)
His email address was [email protected]. He was on the SkyPuncher when Zeynap called him about injury at work insurance. He asked her to help him find any information she could on the SkyPuncher. She also helped with some first aid. He was on the ship because of the number of high profile celebrities and he wanted to make sure nothing went wrong. He had predicted something would go wrong. He also bought insurance for Myfanwy. Zeynap then helped him to pilot the plane through the procedure get the ship into a mode to land it. Trying to find a phone charger, he found out that that Ephraim Salt was alive and he bit him. Zaynap later suggested that he was being framed. He was onboard to get close to Salt to learn more about The Committee. Shortly afterwards the autopilot was switch on by remote, and he found out that the the ship was being piloted towards the call centre. He wanted his colleagues to trust him again after Lisa. He realised that that spaceship was homing into Zeynap's headset. He found a parachute and used the ejector seat to escape the ship. Shortly afterwards Zeynap rang him to let him know she survived. (AUDIO: Fall to Earth)
Ianto named the Life Knife and gave the Resurrection Gauntlet the nickname "risen mitten". When Suzie Costello was resurrected by the resurrection gauntlet, she tricked the Hub into lockdown. Despite being cut off, Ianto got a signal for his mobile phone by using the water tower above the Hub as a relay so Torchwood could call for help. (TV: They Keep Killing Suzie)
Ianto found out what car had killed Eugene Jones. (TV: Random Shoes)
After discovering the Rift trapped Jack and Tosh in 1941, Ianto and Owen sparred for leadership of the team. Although Owen asserted that, with Suzie Costello dead, he was now second-in-command, Ianto displayed authority in Jack's absence that Owen was not aware he had, and even shot Owen in the shoulder to prevent him using the Rift Manipulator. However, as he was shot, Owen succeeded in activating the Rift Manipulator and brought Jack and Tosh back. (TV: Captain Jack Harkness)
Owen's actions had caused cracks in space and time to spread from the Rift. During this incident, Ianto saw an apparition of Lisa, telling him to reopen the Rift and undo the damage. The team turned against Jack. Owen shot Jack and reopened the Rift to send everything that had come through back. The opening of the Rift forced out Abaddon, which Jack defeated. (TV: End of Days)
Shortly after Jack's revival from this encounter, Jack disappeared from the Hub to chase after the Doctor's TARDIS parked on Roald Dahl Plass. (TV: End of Days, Utopia)
During the months that Jack was gone, Ianto, along with the rest of the Torchwood Three, was dispatched on a "wild goose chase" to the Himalayas by Mr Saxon. (TV: The Sound of Drums)
During Jack's absence, Ianto became further involved in missions. While chasing after a Blowfish, Jack arrived out of nowhere, saving a family. He took over Torchwood again.
When Jack returned from travelling with the Doctor, also seeing the end of the world, he asked Ianto on a date- to which Ianto said yes.
Torchwood met an old lover of Jack's, Captain John Hart, who had came through the Rift searching for some canisters that had also come through. He told Torchwood that they contained radioactive bombs. While John tried to kill Jack to take the canisters' contents for himself, he challenged Ianto to save his wounded and poisoned teammates. He succeeded. Ianto caught up with John, but the contents of the canisters were actually components of a bomb that latched onto the DNA of the owner of the canisters' murderer. Torchwood found a way to confuse and safely get rid of the bomb and John forcibly left 21st century Cardiff. (TV: Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang)
Ianto kept a paper diary, which he used to write down interesting Rift activity as well as more personal concerns. When he confronted Adam Smith about his role in the Torchwood team, Adam gave Ianto false memories of killing three women. Strangely, Ianto appeared to have more resistance to Adam than the others, though this may be because he never fully trusted him. When he did succumb to Adam's influence it appeared, as with the rest of the team, that dormant or unused parts of his psyche were awakened. In Ianto's case, a darker, more malevolent side of his personality was awoken which enjoyed killing and violence. Ianto was eventually able to rid himself of these memories when Jack used retcon on the team in order to purge Adam's influence. (TV: Adam)
Ianto assisted Martha Jones when she entered the Pharm as a tester for Reset. Reset was a "medicine" containing unhatched alien Mayflies that fed off of viruses and diseases in the blood, and would hatch and grow inside the person taking the meds. When the Pharm was shut down and Martha had the gestating Mayfly safely removed from her body by Owen, Owen was shot in the chest by the Pharm's owner, Aaron Copley. Ianto attempted to save Owen, but he died. (TV: Reset)
Ianto watched Jack bring Owen back with another resurrection glove, and after dying again, he remained conscious, but with no lifesigns. When Martha and Jack embalmed Owen, Ianto watched and used a hockey stick as a weapon against the glove when it attacked Martha but ultimately the glove was stopped by Owen shooting it. He visited the hospital with the rest of Torchwood Three but they were all locked out by Owen. Ianto later explained to the team that 'faith' was a resurrected child. (TV: Dead Man Walking)
The Medusa Cascade incident
When Earth was stolen by Davros and the New Dalek Empire and transported to the Medusa Cascade, Ianto, Gwen, and Jack, with help from alien supercomputer Mr Smith, were able to use the Rift Manipulator to boost the signal of Martha Jones' superphone to call the Tenth Doctor. Jack obtained the missing digit of a code for his vortex manipulator and teleported from the Hub to meet with the Doctor. After he had left, Gwen and Ianto were confronted by a Dalek entering the Hub and opened fire with assault rifles, vowing to die fighting. (TV: The Stolen Earth)
This proved unnecessary as a time-lock, devised by Tosh before her death, protected them. Eventually the Dalek was destroyed along with the rest of its race, and Ianto and Gwen helped tow Earth back to where it belonged by sending the Rift power to the TARDIS after being contacted by the Doctor. (TV: Journey's End)
456 incident and death
Ianto and the rest of Torchwood investigated when all the children on Earth started chanting "We are coming". He and Jack wanted to take a child to study. Ianto went to his sister Rhiannon Davies to see if he could use his niece or nephew, but she refused. Later that night, Torchwood was attacked by MI5 agents led by Agent Johnson and blown up — with Jack inside (by a bomb inside of Jack). (TV: Children of Earth: Day One)
That night, Ianto escaped while under attack from Johnson and her men. He contacted his sister and told her to keep a watch on the government. He also found where MI5 was keeping the remains of Jack Harkness, who had now healed himself. Ianto saved him and also found Gwen Cooper and her husband Rhys Williams. (TV: Children of Earth: Day Two)
He and the team headed over to an old Torchwood One warehouse and set up a base. They found out what the 456 were and what their intentions were. (TV: Children of Earth: Day Three)
That night, Torchwood came up with a plan to blackmail the government. If the government did not follow their exact orders to counteract the 456, they would release to the public information about what happened in 1965. The next day, Ianto and Jack got into Thames House. There they threatened the 456 ambassador, telling it to back away from Earth or else they would tell the whole planet about its intentions, inciting the whole of Earth to fight back against the alien. The 456 chose to give them a 'taste of war'. It released a virus into the air. Thames House shut itself down, trapping everyone inside. It sent a high-pitched shriek directly into Clement McDonald's brain, killing him. Jack and Ianto tried to fight the 456, but their efforts were fruitless. Ianto died from the virus in Jack's arms. Jack also collapsed, and the next day woke up next to Ianto's body with Gwen. (TV: Day Four)
Afterlife
Six months after Ianto's death, Jack visited the House of the Dead in Wales in an attempt to see Ianto's spirit. Ianto had been recreated by ancient being within the Rift, along with many other spirits — such as his father — in an attempt to convince Jack to free it. For a time, Ianto thought he was alive. He was physically tangible and believed that he was in contact with Gwen. However, it later transpired that Jack, not anticipating Ianto would be "so real", had come with the plan of using the House of the Dead and an explosive device containing Rift energy-soaked materials from the Bay to close the Rift forever. Jack figured that he would be sucked into the Rift for eternity as well, making his attempt akin to suicide. Ianto convinced Jack they could both leave the House, and Jack could continue his life alongside a resurrected Ianto. Ianto tricked Jack into leaving so that he would live, and vowed to seal off the Rift and die again to give Jack a chance at a new life. (AUDIO: The House of the Dead)
Shortly after this incident, Jack left Earth behind out of grief. (TV: Children of Earth: Day Five)
Later references
During the events of Miracle Day, Jack and Gwen continued to mourn his death, and wished that the Miracle had happened sooner so that he would still be alive, along with all their other deceased friends.
When Jack spoke to another of his dying former lovers, Angelo Colasanto, whom he discovered he had been watching him throughout the 20th and part of the 21st century. He inquired as to whether Colosanto observed him and Ianto, and speculated as to whether the two would like each other or not. (TV: End of the Road)
Alternate timelines
Ianto once noticed an attractive coffee saleswoman who introduced herself as Mairwyn. She was a time-traveller who had come to manipulate Ianto into travelling back in time, acquiring some vital technology from Torchwood One with which she could enslave the world. She had chosen Ianto because of his access to Torchwood One security and because, with the knowledge of Torchwood Three's destruction, Tosh and Owen's deaths, Ianto's own demise, he was exploitable. He was later visited by Rhys Williams and John Hart, who had travelled from the future to stop Mairwyn, who knew John Hart by the name "Beatrice"; she had stolen a vortex manipulator from him.
When Mairwyn next dropped by Ianto, she used a device to show him his future and told him that Captain Jack was not a loyal lover, was a heartbreaker, and wouldn't take long to get over Ianto's death. Ianto later looked at Hub CCTV footage of Jack's attempt to romance Gwen. When he found out about her engagement, not long before Jack formally asked Ianto out, Jack said, "I don't know what I'd do without you", when he recommended Ianto get on with his computer work; his wonted coldness left Ianto visibly upset.
When Mairwyn next appeared to Ianto, he kissed her, took her home and had sex with her. When he used her device again to see the future he would be responsible for creating, he refused her original offer and knifed her. After saying goodbye to John and Rhys, he sent his sister Rhiannon Davies an uncharacteristically friendly email saying he loved her before retconning himself. The timeline restored, Gwen and Jack attended Ianto's funeral, watched from afar by Captain John. Further afar were alternate universe doppelgängers of Ianto and Mairwyn; Ianto commented, "I can't believe there's a reality where I said no." (COMIC: Shrouded)
In an alternate timeline in which John Hart took control of the Torchwood Institute and became King of the British Empire, he hired Ianto as his personal assistant, making him dress in bondage-themed outfits and torturing him for fun. (AUDIO: The Death of Captain Jack)
Parallel world
In a parallel world, Ianto and Gwen sacrificed their lives in defeating the Sontaran invasion of Earth. (TV: Turn Left)
Other information
Duties
Organised Ianto supported the main team. He staffed the Tourist Information Centre above the Hub and in general worked to "clean up their shit... no questions asked". (TV: Cyberwoman)
He hacked into Gwen Cooper's computer and erased a document containing information about Torchwood. (TV: Everything Changes)
Though not precisely one of his duties, he also kept a detailed journal of day-to-day operations. (TV: Adam)
Relationships
Can we leave information about Lisa on the Lisa subheader, and info about Ianto's relationship with Jack on the Jack subheader?
Lisa Hallett
Ianto and Lisa had a very close relationship and he risked a lot to keep her alive. Pain over her death still lingered. (TV: Countrycide) He explained he would not use a second Resurrection Gauntlet. (TV: They Keep Killing Suzie) An apparition of Lisa, in her human form, convinced Ianto to side with Owen against Jack and open the Rift. (TV: End of Days) Lisa's death affected Ianto deeply. He promised that if he ever got the chance he would leave Jack for dead. The two men later developed a sexual and romantic relationship. (TV: They Keep Killing Suzie et al)
Jack Harkness
In an attempt to show he had put the incident behind him, Jack tried to be friendly and even patted Ianto on the back. (TV: Small Worlds), although the conversation about the team's last kisses reveals that there was still some lingering tension between the two over the incident. (TV: Countrycide)
After going through a difficult time, Ianto asked that Jack kiss him. Ianto then kissed Jack, Ianto insisted that he did not want a relationship beyond the sexual. (AUDIO: Broken)
Gwen caught on to the relationship between Jack and Ianto and Ianto explicitly referred to being bisexual. (PROSE: The Twilight Streets)
Owen made remarks about the sexual nature of Ianto and Jack's relationship and, after believing Jack was dead, a distraught Ianto breathed in the scent of his coat. The two kissed upon reunion. (TV: Captain Jack Harkness, End of Days)
When Jack returned to the Hub, he asked Ianto out on a date, which Ianto accepted (TV: Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang)
This was followed by another kiss between the pair. (TV: To the Last Man)
The existence of the relationship was confirmed verbally in a conversation Ianto had with Martha Jones (TV: Reset) and in another conversation Ianto had with Owen Harper. (TV: A Day in the Death)
The first public display of Ianto and Jack's relationship was when they danced together at Gwen's wedding. (TV: Something Borrowed)
Gwen accidentally walked in on Jack and Ianto in a decidedly sexual scene when she stormed into the Torchwood greenhouse, angry about the secrets Jack was keeping from her. After their conversation, Jack called Ianto back into the greenhouse to finish what they had started. (TV: Adrift)
Later, Ianto expressed a little jealousy when Jack mentioned having learned about Project Indigo by meeting a soldier in a bar; Jack had to reassure Ianto that it was strictly business. (TV: The Stolen Earth)
When his sister confronted him about rumours that he was gay, he reluctantly acknowledged his relationship with Jack. He tried to explain that Jack was the first man he has ever taken to in this way, and also that he was insecure about the exact status of his relationship with Jack. His brother-in-law, Johnny, took a more simplistic view of Ianto's sexual ambiguity, crassly concluding, "Ay ay, gayboy." (TV: Children of Earth: Day One)
After Ianto collapsed from the virus the 456 released, Jack cradled him in his arms and the two cried. Ianto then told Jack, "I love you". (TV: Day Four)
After Ianto's death at the 456, Ianto and Jack reunited one more time with Ianto as a spirit. Jack confessed that he wanted to be trapped in the rift forever as he couldn't bear to live in a world without Ianto. Before Ianto's spirit disappeared forever, the couple confessed their love for each other for the first and last time. (AUDIO: The House of the Dead)
Personality
Ianto was at first quite distant and reserved in the company of the other Torchwood members, with a quiet and dutiful nature like a butler. Ianto was highly organised. He was often neglected and unnoticed by the rest of the team, being left to manage the Torchwood Archive. The rest of the team knew little about what he did; they were often too busy and never interested enough to ask. (PROSE: Slow Decay)
Ianto wasn't the sort of person who hugged anybody, nor did he ever punch somebody playfully on the arm or even put an arm around somebody. It wasn't like him to touch anybody. He could throw the Torchwood SUV into a hairpin turn, knock down a Weevil with a well-placed blow and ran a hundred metres, according to Owen, like Christian Malcolm. Owen assumed he was probably gay and hiding his sexuality. (PROSE: Another Life)
However, when the discovery of his girlfriend was made, Ianto revealed a tormented and passionate side that would do anything to help and save Lisa even if it destroyed him. His behaviour during a conversation with Doctor Tanizaki about Torchwood One suggested that there was some mental scarring from the incident, as he quickly and abruptly changed the subject. A sign of this scarring appears to be an occasional lapse in speech during a conversation, and also the odd "twitch" before he continued speaking, usually in a different tone and in a manner that changed the subject. (TV: Cyberwoman)
Conversations with his sister about their parents suggested that their relationship had been or became difficult. One such conversation about Ianto breaking his leg in an accident showed Ianto perceived his father as someone who always pushed him. His sister pointed out that his father had cared about him and had been only trying to bring out the best in him; maybe Ianto should have "held on tighter" instead of buckling. The results seemed to have caused more problems than solutions. (TV: Children of Earth: Day Two)
When Tosh received the mind pendant from Mary, she caught a glimpse into his mind, revealing that he was in pain, but, because of his withdrawn nature, he kept it to himself. Ianto gradually came out of his shell a bit, showing a quick and humorous wit, usually at serious moments. Despite this, it was hinted that there was a darker side within him. (TV: Greeks Bearing Gifts)
Ianto had difficulty expressing himself emotionally, being reserved and stiff in conversation. He was uncomfortable around emotional people; he went rigid around his brother-in-law when he greeted him with a large bear hug and a slight tease about being gay. (TV: Children of Earth: Day One)
When he did lose control of his emotions, the outbursts were quite intense and he later seemed to regret his actions and behaviour. When the team chided him about Lisa, he angrily and venomously told them that they had no idea what his life was like and how he put up with cleaning up their mess without question because that was how they liked it. (TV: Cyberwoman)
After the incident he was very apologetic and tried to avoid the team whenever possible. When he got into an argument with Owen over whether or not to open the Rift, a more commanding part of Ianto took over and he ended up having to shoot Owen to stop him. This shocked both of them. It also hinted at his dark side when Owen joked afterward that he was glad Ianto was a bad shot; in response Ianto stared at him darkly, saying, "I was AIMING for your shoulder", implying that if he'd wanted to kill Owen, he would have. (TV: Captain Jack Harkness)
Behind the scenes
Death
When writing the initial outline of Series 2, Russell T Davies' original intention was that Ianto would die and be resurrected instead of Owen. This was changed only hours before production. (REF: The Writer's Tale)
Ianto was eventually killed off in Day Four of the Children of Earth mini series. This spurred an online campaign to resurrect the character[1], which branched into a drive to give to the Children in Need charity "in memory" of Ianto. As of October 2010, over £15,000 has been raised[2]. The slogan used by the online community is "Save the Coffee Boy, Save the World," a takeoff of the Season One slogan for the American science fiction television show Heroes: "Save the Cheerleader, Save the World."
Other matters
- According to Russell T Davies in the January 2008 radio special Torchwood: All Access (released on CD with Lost Souls in September 2008), Ianto Jones' name is based on another character (Yanto Jones) created by Davies for another television production (Mine All Mine); Gareth David-Lloyd played that character, too.
- It was originally intended for Ianto have a much darker personality but he was ultimately toned down to only a few hints. [source needed] It should be noted that in TV: Adam, Ianto told Jack that he always felt that there was something inside of him that wanted to kill. This could have just been a result of Adam's influence, but his sudden violent behaviour in episodes like Countrycide and Meat and the dark voice Toshiko heard through Mary's pendant suggests there was more to Ianto's character that we had chance to see.
- Ianto was dubbed in German by voice actor Marius Clarén on both Doctor Who and Torchwood.