Did Jack Quit Ennis?

[Paul029]

Tit for tat?  Sure, why not.  Just the kind of one ups-manship that men play with each other.

This seems to indicate a preconception, on your part, about how [gay?] "men" relate to each other. Do you have any concrete evidence, I wonder, that this applies to "men," or is it merely an opinion which you state as fact?

I'm not City Girl, obviously, but this caught my eye, Paul. I don't know or need to know whether you personally are gay or straight, but your challenge here interested me. Having been married to a straight man for many years, I am always amazed at the way men wind each other up, try to top each other socially, as in having shinier or newer cars, or bigger hedge trimmers (?  ) whatever, and the way they insult and play tricks on each other.

Hi janjo,
[I don't know where we're going with this. Is it relevant to the thread topic?]

Yes; I suppose it was a challenge, of sorts, and may very well relate to the fact that I have a little feeling that, as males don't seem to be very involved in the thread topic at present [although I suppose they may have been more so, once], discussion appears a little skewed toward a female perspective. Personally I have no problem with that, and believe me when I say I've been taking a rather keen interest in the discussion, irrespective of the gender of the participants. But I must admit that CG's comment roused me to offer a "challenge."

Having been married to a straight man for many years, I am always amazed at the way men wind each other up, try to top each other socially, as in having shinier or newer cars, or bigger hedge trimmers (?  ) whatever, and the way they insult and play tricks on each other. My husband just says it's male humour and doesn't really indicate what good friends they really are.

Trying to "top each other" has a nice ring to it, janjo; even though you mean "socially." There are numerous young bucks here in Australia, and no doubt OS, who seem to think that a bigger, noisier, flashier car (for example) demonstrates they're very well-endowed, genitally speaking. And I'm not saying that your husband agrees with this show of "prowess," or indulges in it for the underlying reason I mentioned, and the way some men "boast" about their acquisitions, while apparently a superficial conceit, can be seen as just 'getting along with the boys' and there's no harm in that. [I think I'm getting into another topic altogether, now, but we'll see... it may spring back to being of relevance to the Quit theme.] But in my circle of friends, and apart from a few men who actually use the male "humour" you mentioned, it's pretty uncommon [perhaps I mix with the wrong people].

Do you think gay men are nicer and kinder to each other? Are they nicer and kinder to each other?

I don't think being nicer or kinder has anything to do sexual preference. I know gay and straight men who are real bastards and to whom I wouldn't give the time of day, and I know both gay and straight men who are really nice and affectionate [one, very straight, actually reminds me of gentle, lovable Ennis].

[janjo]

I know we wander off topic a bit, but it is fun isn't it?

[Paul029]

Tit for tat?  Sure, why not.  Just the kind of one ups-manship that men play with each other.

This seems to indicate a preconception, on your part, about how [gay?] "men" relate to each other. Do you have any concrete evidence, I wonder, that this applies to "men," or is it merely an opinion which you state as fact?

Paul my comment wasn't a condemnation of gay men, it was an observance of men in general.  Some women play the same kind of game of “me, too” but I see it more with men.   Men are by nature competitive animals and as per Janjo example of men upping the ante with each other over bigger, nicer, shiner cars or having the nicer yard, or a bigger television/audio equipment or whatever the unspoken competition is they will up each other with a “me too”.  Also, I forget all the time to add that IMO but I just want to say that IMO is implied in everything I write.
 

Hi CG. Not to worry; it was what I'd call simple question actually, rather than a challenge, and you've come through with flying colours. Apologies if I seemed aggro.

[Paul029]

I know we wander off topic a bit, but it is fun isn't it?

yeah janjo, but my 40 posts against your 4000+ means I have a long road ahead of me...
Personally I think you're all, on this thread, quite crazy (but in a nice way!!); and it's great to thrash things out; so thank you for being so mad and obsessed 
I haven't had such fun [despite my tears, sobs etc] in a while... perhaps I should get out more...
Paul

[City Girl]

One way to consider the Randall situation is to consider what the effect would have been on the film of leaving him out, or alluding to the RN in a much more cursory way -- seems the filmmakers fleshed him out to give us greater insight into Jack's life in TX, his loneliness as well as the realities of cruising and getting hit on while closeted (right under the wives' powdered noses!) plus the possibility that he might have gotten emotionally involved w/another man.  I think they did well to add it, and of course just like everything else in the film, they did it in a way that opens up so many possibilities.   

It's a natural outcome of J&E's situation -- 2 weeks a year leaves 50 wide open! -- that one or quite possibly both would get involved with others eventually, and since Ennis is living the deeply closeted life (far as we know -- I can think of only one piece of slash that implies otherwise ) and only sleeps w/women up in WY when they're apart, it falls to Jack to live this out in the film.  Not to mention, it's implied in the OS. 

It's not that I can't stand Randall, though I hate what he implies about J&E's relationship -- none of which is Jack, Ennis or Randall's fault.  I'm am pretty firmly NQ, BTW, as I don't think that Jack's attachment to Ennis had anything to do with rationality. 

I'm not sure of protocol here and if replying to something several pages back is okay.  But wanted to chime in on this one.  I do believe that Randal was an actual sexual partner of Jack's (sorry Paul, I do think he was).  His inclusion in the story (as was Cassie's inclusion) was, I think, a way to show that both Jack and Ennis had what would be, at least on paper, viable alternatives to each other.  For Ennis, it wouldn't be that another good looking man would show up becasue though gay Ennis couldn't accept that part of himself, he wanted to believe he was straight and his feelings for Jack were an anomaly so a very pretty, very lively, somewhat female version of Jack, a socially acceptable verison of Jack, comes into his life.  Jack knew better, that a female verson of Ennis was not going to cut it for him, so into his life comes a educated, self- accepting, pro-active (if not anywhere near as handsome) version of Ennis.  If nothing else it must have been a breath of fresh air to Jack to have someone come into his life who is willing to do the pursuing and do some of the heavy lifting to get something going, something that Ennis was never willing to do.  (I still can't get over the fact that while Ennis knew exactly how to contact Jack in those 4 years, send him a post card care of LF, that he has the cheek to come off as sounding a little put out that it took Jack so long to find him.)  So, viable alternatives are presented to our boys.  Alternatives that on the surface look pretty good, and may in fact be much easier to live with than the situation Jack and Ennis have with each other, these alternatives would be the "smart", "sane", "reasonable" thing to go for and if this were RL, we as either Jack or Ennis's friends would be pulling for Cassie and Randal as much more viable and healthy relationships. 

But this is not RL, as I've said before, and this is not a story about doing the reasonable, sane, or safe thing to do.  It is about how these two men found the thing in the other that was unique in all the world and simply could NOT be found with anyone else.  If it could have been at least one of them would have been found it with someone else somewhere in those 20 years and would have gone on to have a reasonably happy life.  That didn't happen.  And I don't think would have happened even if Jack had lived.  For Jack it wasn't about having a nice boyfriend to come home to every night.  It was about the unique thing that Ennis could do for him.  Randal couldn't have done it, because with Jack connecting with Ennis so young and so strongly Randal didn't have (nor any man) a ghost of a chance.  You use the word "rationality" and that is spot on.  The relationship between Jack and Ennis, the time apart, the distance, the hostile and dangerous environment, has nothing to do with being rational and yet neither one can break himself away from this distructive relationship. 

I really don't "hate" Randall, if he could give Jack a bit of comfort to ease his loneliness then I'm happy that Jack had him.  To me Randal is the the equivalent of junk food to a starving man.  Not anything actually good or nourshing or what the person really wants, but it keeps the person from starving to death.

[City Girl]

I just had a thought, what we know about Randall (his eduaction, his job, his lack of mechanical skills, etc) all come from his mouthy wife.  Could it be that Randal speaks even less, uses even fewer words, than Ennis? 

Maybe that is part of why so few connect with and feel for Randal, other than looking Jack over like a man at a stock auction, and then with no other signs of trying to get to know Jack the first thing we hear from Randal was a sexual proposition.

Even though talk was behond difficult for Ennis we do see him at least try to engage in some kind of conversation with Jack up on BBM.  We see that when Jack is down about his father Ennis makes an effort to pull Jack up out of his sad mood.  We see that Ennis actually cares about Jack's feelings and cares about Jack as a person and does so before Ennis starts getting the good stuff from Jack.  Maybe that is part of why we pull for Ennis so hard and want to kick Randal to the curb.  We get a clear message early on that Jack is more to Ennis than a piece of meat.  We have nothing but speculation that Randall saw anything in Jack beyond a piece of ass.

[Paul029]

You've raised some interesting points in your two most recent posts, CG, but I'm unable to respond until I first get some sleep.  It's 6.00 am here now zzzz

[Desecra]

Yes, Randall seems like he could be a man of few words.    But he says enough ... he gets his point across, I think.

'A sexual proposition', 'a piece of meat', 'a piece of ass' is as much (if not more!) about Lureen and Cassie's pick ups as it is about Randall's.    It's true in the sense that all of them are sexually attracted (are looking at the guy sexually - as a piece of meat if you want to put it that way) and all of them are letting that be known (although Randall has to be more subtle and less direct).   Jack's sexual approach to Ennis doesn't make it clear that he's attracted to him, true, but it turns out that that may have been a necessary tactic with the guarded, homophobic Ennis.  Normally, approaching somebody for a relationship does involve revealing sexual attraction and hoping that it's mutual.   I don't think Randall does anything out of the ordinary in that respect. 

We only see their first meeting, but Randall must have seen something in Jack - he wants to go away for the weekend with him (which will surely involve some companionship), they apparently continue the relationship, and it's serious enough for Jack to think he wants to live with him.  I agree that he comes across as Ennis-like without Ennis's drawbacks, but unfortunately without being Ennis .  I agree about the rationality too.

[o2binla]

So much conversation in the day and a half I couldn't get online!

Canstandit wrote: "It is after that, we hear about the ranch neighbor; we can put 2 and 2 together, and realize the RN's wife was that 'other one', and we may wonder why Jack let even that much out of the bag with Ennis. The fact that he did is something to ruminate on..I've always seen it as a confession of sorts, with a gender switch. It must've bothered him -unlike the Mexican whores, ie, 'is there a fuckin' problem?'-and he talks about it, when mostly he's been lying by omission-like with the whores. The fact he knows how Ennis would react-'you do it with other guys? Jack?'-tells us this he was taking a real risk that he'd slip up by talking about it;You can see his hesitation in the film....."

After Ennis talks about Cassie (only when prompted by Jack, note), Jack launches into his own little story of an affair, says "truth is" and pauses... here I see Jack debating whether to just be out w/it an admit the RN's wife is in fact the RN, but he knows the shit storm that will cause, chooses not to go down that road, looks even more hopeless and instead says, "truth is, sometimes I miss you so much I could whip babies/can hardly stand it."  Habitual liar Jack lets the lie about the RN stand but cops to an even bigger truth:  he misses Ennis terribly, and the truth of whomever he's sleeping with is a distant second.  Sadly, Ennis just says nothing and acts that way too, for all we know, despite Jack's evocation of his "long as we can stand it."

(The first time I watched the film, I assumed Jack was having an affair w/ a woman, but since then -- sorry Paul -- I've realized  there's no way he'd pine for Ennis all those years, strike out w/Jimbo as we've seen and drive all the way down to Mexico for relief sex too, only to take up with his neighbor's annoying wife.  Jack is certainly screwed up in his way, but I don't think he'd tell himself it was another woman he wanted, not even as an outlet.)

As for the question of why people seem to dislike Randall more than Cassie, I think it has to do with her being female and thus inherently less of a threat, but it also sometimes seems to me that people have more empathy for Ennis than for Jack (which I definitely see in the slash side of the fandom).  I also think it has to do with Jack having been the one to sleep w/other men while Ennis took a more priestly approach, as if Jack's promiscuity meant he suffered less overall.

Would a 39 y/o Jack choose another Ennis?  At bottom, and even if he thought he wasn't, most likely yes.  It's what people do.

City Girl, your remarks about how Jack never turns his back on his father reminded me that I'm NQ b/c I think Jack was not a quitter -- in terms of his major emotional relationships, he'd die first.  It's his nature, and speaks to the intensity of his bonds w/both his dad and Ennis.

But he does seem to have given at least some thought to moving the RN up to LF.  This is one of the reasons I think Randall was more than just a "f*buddy:" that's the progression, from Jack lusting after guys like Jimbo (and Ennis!) who might kick his ass, to being able to buy sex in Mexico and on "buying trips," to Jack finding someone to have a regular discreet thing with close to home, which would open the door for a much-needed emotional connection too.   In many ways Randall strikes me as an updated, more evolved and convenient version of Ennis (and the earlier argument about Ennis moving to TX implies that Jack would have been satisfied to have Ennis as his"good friend" in the neighborhood and would not necessarily have held out for the C&C).  It all comes down to Jack's emotional availability... which I think was not much, easy companionship and sex and all the ways in which Randall was similar to Ennis be damned.  But Randall might have given him more of a warm fuzzy feeling than prostitutes did. 

Somehow, I feel like Jack did have a specific internal time-line for moving north in mind, b/c he's waited so long and must know on some level that he's running out of time.  As for having definitely quit, wanting to quit and actually doing so are two different things.  (I know others disagree, but I still think Jack would live with someone and sneak off w/Ennis anyway, if he could.)

Des, I think you are quite right that J&E's behavior doesn't look very good when seen from other angles -- supposed that was your friend in the truck that Ennis punched after the T-Day argument!  What an utter a**hole, any of us would think.  They are both adulterers, aren't they?  But all of us have chosen to see their adultery as the result of the violation of a higher law, namely their right to choose whom to love in the first place (and I'm fine with that).

Randall's behavior certainly isn't any worse than theirs... and as for Randall being a man of few words who cuts right to the chase, Jack might have appreciated that.  (It's how I picture Ennis being, in some AU where he can deal and hits on another man ).  It took Jack a couple of weeks to get Ennis talking up on BBM, and I don't see any reason why Randall might not have let his hair down a bit more w/Jack in private.  They both know they need to be someplace else for any real "talkin'."

[City Girl]

But my own conclusion remains that the RN was real; and that Jack did some emotional bonding with this guy. But it was nowhere near to the enveloping he has done with the hopes for a life with Ennis. We still have no idea to what extent this neighbor fling happened; we don't ever get a feeling this guy is remotely important-for example, Jack doesn't seem to seek comfort with thoughts of this guy...He just sees the DE in his mind, and knows he has lost hope. I still think it can stop there, regardless of what snow he blows at the father. If the RN is not so important, then the shock of realizing he'll never get another DE, might be enough to offset his desire to go on, if you know what I mean...And I think the drinking would've hindered, rather than helped, his ability to see the light, so to speak. Not even sure if the drinking is not also responsible for him over-fantasizing about a life with the neighbor, sadly,as a way to ease the pain of thinking Ennis would never come around....
 

All I can say to this is YES, YES, YES and YES. 

[City Girl]

But I can't think how else he's supposed to do it - he's got a matter of minutes to get a point across.

They live in the same small town, they have made not only a social connection but with their respective lines of work Randall could have easily have dropped by Newsome's on the pretence of seeing the new models of equipment just before closing time, make some small talk, go out for a beer after work.  In short establish at least the pretense of a connection.  And there would be actually less risk of rejection.  Truth is, for me I would think it beyond odd if some stranger suggested to me going away together for a weekend even if it really was just to go fishing.

Ministering Angel - I don't know why Cassie isn't so hated.   I think it may well be because she's female.  The Randall-hate does make me a bit uncomfortable - the objection seems to be about him admitting to an attraction and desire for sex before being in love, which Jack and Ennis couldn't do.   But that's a fault with Jack and Ennis (due to their background, etc.) not a virtue.   It seems that being open about attraction and desire are only considered OK when people are in love (in this story), unless it's not a gay attraction (Lureen and Cassie don't get hated, but Randall does).  I think that's what bothers me so much about the Randall-hate.  Unless it's just that people really DO see Randall as a 'threat' in a way that the women aren't, and they don't like him inadvertently acting on that.

They (Lureen and Cassie) don't get hated but I've heard enough jokes about their brazeness in RL from people who aren't obsessed like we are about this film but found it remarkable that these two women would be so audacious.  And while there is a sympathy given toward them by these same people there is also a kind of "well, what can you expect when the guy shows such little initiative".

[City Girl]

No date on it, but the implication is 'any time now' rather than 'one a these days'.    If he'd said it was one of these days, then presumably his father would have reported that.     Realistically, if he IS planning to bring the guy up - why wait?   He only waited with Ennis, because Ennis wasn't ready - hence the 'one a these days'.   He seems to think this guy is ready enough.   I don't see him wanting to wait for a year or so.   In fact, I imagine that the process would be set in motion shortly after he got back to LF (as Ennis obviously believes too).

I really don’t see the ‘any time now’ implication in anything that OMT says.  All I see is OMT telling Ennis Jack had an alternative and that he (Ennis) was no longer being spoken of.  That alone would be shock enough for Ennis.  Does Ennis think Jack quit him?  Sure.  He’s predisposed to think that everyone and everything will quit him, (his parents, his siblings, his wife, his employers, his preferred way of rural life have all “quit” him).  We are set up to think that Jack would quit Ennis, given the circumstances who in their right mind wouldn’t?  But the defining factor is Jack himself.  In Jack, we have what Ennis never ever, ever expected to find, the embodiment of that steadfast soul that committed himself to Ennis with his entire soul.  That was what the shock of finding the shirts was all about.  That Jack was that stalwart and devoted love, the one that would have always stood by Ennis come hell or high water if he had only been given the smallest chance and that he would die before turning his back on Ennis.   Had Jack been truly serious about making a new life for himself the first thing that he would have done was folded up and put those shirts away, if not burned or discarded.  Buried by Jack  would have been a good one, a symbolic burying of his feelings and turning away from his old dream.  But he doesn’t do any of those things, he leaves those shirts as they have always been for two decades. 

I don't really understand your point about Jack not giving a specific time.

I really don’t understand your point about Jack and Randall being a done deal and that it was imminent.  I don’t see any true evidence thus why I brought up the complete lack of specificity of a time line.  You brought up that Jack is now verbalizing his desire for a divorce, but we know that desire for a divorce is old news and has existed since at least 1967.  And come to think of it, OMT doesn’t say “and for the first time he said how he was going to get a divorce”.  OMT spoke in fragmented sentences and this piece of information was a fragment, Jack may have even said it before.  We simply don’t know.  You seem to believe that Jack and Randal had spoken of going to LF prior to Jack and Ennis’s last meeting.  I can’t see Jack doing that.  If he was still holding the illusion of being with Ennis I really can’t see Jack hedging his bets of a life with a partner with Randal as the understudy.  A little extra-curricular sex is one thing, but I don’t think his romantic soul could contemplate a relationship with Randal while he was looking forward to seeing Ennis at their next fishing trip. 

And if it was imminent (looming, forthcoming, pending, just around the corner) then it does seem likely that Jack would have been specific enough to say “we’ll be here in time to help with the ________”  And why OMT would tell Ennis would be because it would twist the knife more and also show how Jack let him down yet again by not showing up with boyfriend in tow to do the _______.   Country-wise Ennis doesn’t pick up on it because he’s more than a bit shell shocked.  He is grieving, he isn’t considered the chief mourner (even though he is) and thus is clueless about what to say or do, and he had just found out that his lover had another boyfriend!  All along Ennis was working under the illusion that what he and Jack were a couple of straight guys that were in the grips of some bizarre “thing”, he just found out that his Jack was a queer and that what they had wasn’t unique (because he still hasn’t figured out that what he and Jack had was love) and that Jack could get the same stuff that he gets from Ennis from other men.  And if Jack is queer then what does that make him?  Obviously, Ennis isn’t thinking clearly at this point, he’s doing all he can do to not lose it at that table.  While hearing the news about the RN we don’t go through the extent of the shock that Ennis does.  We pick up on it because we’ve known all along that Jack had been with other men, that both Jack and Ennis were queer, and that both men loved each other deeply.

Yes, Jack may have been seeing other people at the same time as the ranch neighbour (and I think certainly was before the ranch neighbour).   But Jack isn't really the type to just look for casual sex - I think that's a misconception.   The casual sex just gets him by, I think.   We find out by the end that what he really wants is love and approval from a man.    That's tied to Ennis, but I think that's because of the DE and Ennis imprinting on him at a young age - they were a match.   It doesn't mean that Jack would reject love and approval from all other comers, just that they'd be second best and wouldn't really fill that Ennis-shaped gap.  As for Randall, not all gay men are just interested in casual sex, obviously.   He's not in his first flush of youth, and he's seeking out a relationship with a neighbour rather than driving to Mexico or whatever. 

I think you are right that Jack was NOT just looking to get laid and that it is a misconception to believe he was either “easy” or that he ever would have looked at another man had Ennis given him something to go on.  And I do agree that what Jack wants is very specifically tied to Ennis and Ennis only.   I wouldn’t say that Jack would reject love and approval with others, in fact, I’d say that Jack looked high and low for what he got from Ennis.  But he could never find it.  And I find it highly doubtful that Randal would pick up on what Jack truly needed and be able to give it to him.  Ennis didn’t even know.  I doubt he has any real idea how important the DE was to Jack.  Ennis gave that embrace spontaneously and a moment in time when Jack was open enough to take it in.  It was for Jack his defining moment and may have been the moment where he we can say he was doomed.  Jack fixated on getting it right with Ennis, as he had fixated on getting it right with his father.  I’m not sure that tired, worn out, old before his time Jack would risk his heart again after what he’s been through.

It is only after Jack is dead, and Ennis meets the father, and remembers all the references to not being able to get it right with his father that Ennis starts putting 2 and 2 together and realizing that he himself was not so different in terms of being there for Jack than Jack’s father was.  I’m thinking that is part of why the screenwriters included that part at the end where Ennis promises to be there for Junior’s wedding.  He has learned the importance of being there for the people he loves and those who love him.  He has learned about the importance of love even if it costs him a job or an uncomfortable day with his ex-wife.

[City Girl]

For instance the 'Ennis was a great father' thing that I came across a lot - we know he wasn't really a great father - he was OK and he made mistakes.   

This has always bugged me, this fantasy of Ennis as a father of the year.  He wasn't.  It's a whitewash  I'm sure he loved his children but he didn't provide adequately for them and he was perfectly willing to go without seeing them until they were able to make the effort to go see him, he didn't even know if that car that Junior was driving belonged to her or not.  I know it might sound silly but the thing with the car has always blown my mind.  How could he not know if his 19 year old daughter owned a late model automobile?  In their world this car represented a significant amount of money, more money than Ennis could ever scrape together if he had a year to do it.  How little does he see her that he wouldn't know? 

[o2binla]

But I can't think how else he's supposed to do it - he's got a matter of minutes to get a point across.

Not to mention, this scene isn't random; it shows the kind of lead-up '70s closeted Jack might have to a sexual encounter, but also what his marriage and his social circle were like.  Presumably Jack did meet men in bars and at equipment shows and maybe a local guy like Randall would swing by Newsome's to seal the deal (wouldn't surprise me at all if Randall did just that -- or maybe Jack found a reason to pop by Taylor's place), but the filmmakers had to make some choices, and I'd argue the dance hall setting is richer and less on-the-nose than those other possibilities.   

I doubt Jack was under any illusion of Randall as a genuine replacement for Ennis, but it's also quite possible this sidebar relationship, to whatever extent it progressed, is what enabled him to sustain things with Ennis for as many months and years as he did.   

CSI, I won't include your entire quote here, but what is "the light" when you say "And I think the drinking would've hindered, rather than helped, his ability to see the light, so to speak"?  It seems to me that there is no light for Jack to see, only despair, b/c the truth is that Ennis is never going to come around, and drink and other men and a couple of HAFs a year really are what Jack has to console himself with...

[Ministering angel]

I really don’t see the ‘any time now’ implication in anything that OMT says.  All I see is OMT telling Ennis Jack had an alternative and that he (Ennis) was no longer being spoken of.  That alone would be shock enough for Ennis.  Does Ennis think Jack quit him?  Sure.  He’s predisposed to think that everyone and everything will quit him, (his parents, his siblings, his wife, his employers, his preferred way of rural life have all “quit” him).  We are set up to think that Jack would quit Ennis, given the circumstances who in their right mind wouldn’t? But the defining factor is Jack himself.  In Jack, we have what Ennis never ever, ever expected to find, the embodiment of that steadfast soul that committed himself to Ennis with his entire soul.  That was what the shock of finding the shirts was all about.  That Jack was that stalwart and devoted love, the one that would have always stood by Ennis come hell or high water if he had only been given the smallest chance and that he would die before turning his back on Ennis.   Had Jack been truly serious about making a new life for himself the first thing that he would have done was folded up and put those shirts away, if not burned or discarded.  Buried by Jack  would have been a good one, a symbolic burying of his feelings and turning away from his old dream.  But he doesn’t do any of those things, he leaves those shirts as they have always been for two decades. 

Okay, can we close the thread now? Because this sums it up for me. Yes, stick me in the romantic camp on this one but I think this is the final summation of Jack. We learn about him in bits and pieces, never getting the full picture. Most of what we know comes after he's dead and we are thrown a couple of curve balls along the way.  But the shirts are the very last thing. Nothing trumps the shirts - they are the ultimate statement about Jack.