Sanctuary Musings: Why I Don't Run Screaming From Jack The Ripper

[grav_ity]

Because I should. I really, really should. Tesla describes him in season three as a stone cold killer, and that's just not true. Stone cold killers don't have that kind of rage. John is something else, and he's really kind of terrifying.

But I'm not scared of him. I imagine it's because Helen is not scared of him (well, at least she's not scared of what he might do to her).

There is one very important thing to keep in mind when you thinking about John. I've seen it get overlooked in fic from time to time, but I believe it is one of the absolutely necessary parts of his character. It's also a spoiler, so this will be the place where we go under a cut.

John, you see, spends over a century believing that The Source Blood awoke some kind of monster in him that was already there. In fact, that's what they all believe. That the power of the blood brought out the darkness that was in his soul and unleashed it on the world with a bonus new super power to make killing even easier for him. And he tried to fight it. And he tried to compromise with it. And then he tried to just survive it. But the whole time, he thought it was him.

We get hints, leading up to "Haunted" that this is not the case (starting with "The Five" and our first encounter with Tesla), and later we'll see a parallel in Adam Worth who was also misdiagnosed because people didn't understand things that could go wrong in people's brains, but basically when John wakes up on the table after Helen revives him, we are meeting him for the first time. I am aware that this "cop out" bugs some people. Because humans are capable of Great Evil on their own, and don't need tag-alongs to do it for them, and if this was the show of the webisodes, I'd agree.

In the webisodes, John is horrifying. He gets WAY too close to Ashley (and Helen, if we're being honest), and he's definitely more of a "stone cold killer" than he is in the actual show. If they were setting him up to be The Big Bad, they were certainly doing their job right. After the webisodes, I don't want Helen and John within a hundred years of one another (and I don't want Ashley in the same millennium). But the show went a different route, I think, because the show explores what happens when you alter your own nature.

And that's exactly what Helen did. And she did it to four other people. And three of them are comparatively harmless. And two of them are really, really not. But she manages them. She effectively neuters Tesla (and don't think for a moment that he takes his meds because he doesn't want to kill people. He can replace his suits if he gets bloodstains on them. No, he doesn't kill people because Helen doesn't want him to). And when John gets ill, she injects him with even more Special Blood to help cure him.

This is what I think happened: I think that somewhere between 1886 and July of 1888, after they inject the source blood (preferably as close to July of '88 as possible for reasons I'll discuss below), John teleported and picked up the energy being. Then he got very sick, because the being was killing him. To save him from death, Helen injected him with her blood effectively making him the perfect host. Then he started killing people under its influence, possibly after fighting it off for no small amount of time.

[Someone has written an AU where John was teleporting with Helen or James or someone else and they picked up the being instead of him, right?]

And that is John Druitt's tragedy. Not that he lost Helen and his friends, not that he barely knew his daughter, not that he wants redemption in the most incalculable way and will probably never get it...but because something took advantage of him and made him believe that he was evil to the core.

(So when John thought he was fighting his own nature, he was actually wrestling with a completely different thing.)

This brings me firmly up against my biggest squick in terms of shipping Helen/John (which I do, btw, even though I write multi). I cannot abide when someone has sex with someone who is actually someone/thing else. This would not be a problem if I didn't watch so much science fiction, I'd imagine, but there it is. There's a scene in Battlestar Galactica where Boomer and Helo have sex (and Helo thinks Boomer is Athena), and I just screamed at the TV while it was airing, and then had to go and vomit. I haven't watched Fringe in MONTHS because of what's going on there. I can't stand the idea of John and Helen having sex unless they know about the Energy Being.

This basically limits me to nothing below the waist from August 31, 1888 (at the latest) until "Haunted" when it comes to reading fanfic. It also means that Ashley was almost definitely conceived when John was not himself, and the idea of that makes my skin crawl. Once they know about the being, I am a little bit more comfortable with fics like the amazing I'll Leave With Every Piece of You, because everyone knows who (and what) they are getting into bed with.

As with Tesla and his medication (which was never a plot point, which I think is funny because as soon as Helen said "Are you taking your medication?" I was all "And file that one away for season two!"), Helen effectively neuters John (or as close as possible) by inspiring his complete loyalty. He allows himself to be leashed by her, not because he think she can control him (she can't, but then neither can he really), but because she will end him if she has to. Or at least lock him up behind a shield. It sounds ridiculous and cliché, that he's held in check by the power of love, but it's also true.

(That's really where "Piece of You" hits home with me...along with another fic I can't remember the link to where John and Helen try to make a go of it after he gets cured and it's just REALLY AWKWARD, and, amongst other things, he can't teleport into her bedroom because he's never been there.)

Also, they almost never touch. Which kills me.

All of this means that when they do sort of start to loosen up in season three (particularly in "For King and Country" and in "Vigilante"), I'm caught somewhere between desperate hope and this terrible and quiet revulsion (admittedly, the revulsion might be a hold over from their scene on the bridge in the flashback which I don't understand at all because WHY WOULD SHE GO OFF ALONE WITH HIM?). It's confusing.

What I'm left with is possibly the most complicated romantic relationship I've ever had to deal with on television. It's taken me nearly three weeks to write this, for example, and I've been 'shipping them since the pilot. And the weirdest part is that I shouldn't like it at all.

I have a well documented history of not liking this type of relationship (see also: Logan/Veronica, Buffy/Spike, Elena/Damon, Sookie/Eric, Kara/Lee, etc), and that's before I account for demonic possession or body switching. But when Logan describes his relationship with Veronica as "[...] epic, you know? You and me. Years, and continents. Lives ruined and blood shed.", he is looking to the future and hoping that this will be his story. Helen and John have already lived it (and I think that no small part of my love for them is that neither of them is even remotely close to being a teenager, eternal or otherwise), and they are too smart to want it to stay that way forever.

And that, I think, is the key difference. They have both done terrible things, though admittedly he's done a lot more than she has, and her terrible things typically have a silver lining to them. But they have this weird balancing effect on one another, and they've gone so far past love that it's not even a question of if anymore. Heck, I'm not even sure it's a question of when.

It's how. And that is ten kind of compelling.

Comments

[angelqueen04.livejournal.com]

Wow. I love that you're so good at putting the Sanctuary meta out there to make me think. :)

This is what I think happened: I think that somewhere between 1886 and July of 1888 (preferably as close to July of '88 as possible), John teleported and picked up the energy being. Then he got very sick, because the being was killing him. To save him from death, Helen injected him with her blood effectively making him the perfect host. Then he started killing people under its influence.

Huh, that's an interesting take. I was always under the impression that The Five were all normal human beings to begin with. Granted, they were all brilliant (they'd have to be, to get into Oxford), but still genetically normal human beings. They all gather together while there, slowly getting involved in their experiments and Helen in her father's work, which is how she obtains the untainted Source Blood. The Five geek out over it and run their experiments (with Adam Worth scratching at the door, wanting to come in and play too), before they finally get to the point that they can't learn anything else unless they can observe a live specimen injected with the Source Blood. Since Helen was the one who brought the SB into their midst, she maintained that she'd be the first to inject the stuff [see the flashback where the boys try to talk her out of it ("No unnecessary heroics!"), but fail].

So, they inject her, and we saw at the end of that flashback that Helen seemed to be in some pain right after the injection. I figured she might have been ill for a little bit, as her body changed and learned to accomodate the SB. Then, once she's well, The Five start comparing new blood samples she gives them to ones she gave before the injection. They might be able to see some difference in her DNA, but they don't know what it actually means. I figure it would take them a little while to see that Helen's stopped aging. As a result, they figure that the side-effects won't be too bad, and inject themselves. Only it effects them all quite differently than it effected Helen -- Nigel goes invisible, James is able to use a higher percentage of his brain, John is able to teleport, and Tesla goes all vampire (I think it was speculated that Tesla had a vampiric ancestor, hence why the SB affected him the way it did -- his latent vampiric characteristics were brought to the fore).

Let's face it, The Five have their moments of arrogance, and I'm betting the aftermath of them injecting themselves was one of them. They probably went a little crazy with their new powers, using them however they could, so they could study the experience as well as glorifying in it. Nigel probably had a ton of fun running around naked and invisible, pranking people left and right, and John probaby teleported everywhere he could (think the Weasley twins in OotP, apparating every few feet just to annoy their mother). It might have been around that time that he picked up the Abnormal.

As for how things worked between John and the Abnormal, I kind of figured it was kind of a twisted symbiotic relationship, as it were. Everyone has a darker side in them, but most people are able to control them. I figure that once John had the Abnormal inside him, it worked on his darker instincts continually until he lost control, thus beginning the Ripper Era. But while he's doing all these horrible, terrible things, John kept fighting it, however unconsciously. Eventually, that battle exhausted both John and the Abnormal, allowing John to make mistakes enough in the killings that James and Helen were able to figure it out. Helen shoots him, and he goes on the run for the next couple of decades until he and the others are recalled to deal with Adam Worth.

As for the idea that the Abnormal might have been in control when Helen and John were intimate... *shudders* Yeah, I can see why that would squick you out. Squicks me out too. But maybe it wasn't? Perhaps it was like I said above, that the Abnormal influenced John until he snapped. So it was John that Helen loved, but being blinded by that love, didn't see that he was crumbling under the constant battling with the Abnormal?

[grav-ity.livejournal.com]

This might be the longest comment I've ever received...;)

I was always under the impression that The Five were all normal human beings to begin with

Um, yes. Until 1886 (which is the earliest they could have taken the Source Blood).

I like the idea that they all took the blood at the same time (even though it's reckless...but hey, these people aren't exactly models of sanity 99% of the time).

I kind of figured it was kind of a twisted symbiotic relationship, as it were. Everyone has a darker side in them, but most people are able to control them. I figure that once John had the Abnormal inside him, it worked on his darker instincts continually until he lost control, thus beginning the Ripper Era. But while he's doing all these horrible, terrible things, John kept fighting it, however unconsciously. Eventually, that battle exhausted both John and the Abnormal, allowing John to make mistakes enough in the killings that James and Helen were able to figure it out.

This is kind of what I think too. Which is why he never killed Helen. And why some of his victims had quicker deaths. (DO NOT look at the pictures of Mary Kelly!)

Most of my fic is Five related, and the one I'm working on now is back to figuring out more of the John/Helen dynamic at this point in their history. I think what makes me crazy is that we have very few firm dates (and one date in the canon that only makes things MORE CONFUSING).

[angelqueen04.livejournal.com]

This might be the longest comment I've ever received...;)

This is what tv meta does to me -- I get really chatty. :D

Um, yes. Until 1886 (which is the earliest they could have taken the Source Blood).

Ah, I thought you were speculating that some of them were Abnormals to begin with, even before the SB. :)

I guess it's possible that they might have all taken the SB at the same time, but I always figured that they were scientists first and foremost at this point, and all of them taking it all at once wouldn't be the most responsible thing to do. Someone had to be in their right mind to observe the experiment.

Though, I imagine that there wasn't much time in between Helen taking it and then the others. Because you gotta figure that Daddy Magnus would have stopped the guys from taking it if he could have, if he found out only after Helen had taken it. I'm betting he was off on a trip at this time, and that was one reason why Helen was so eager to be the first -- she knew he would have taken the SB from them if he knew what they were planning to do with it.

Ah, the Ripper pictures. *shudders* Too late. History Channel airs the pictures when they do the occasional Jack the Ripper special. Ick.

Ooh, fic on Victorian!JohnandHelen! *bounces and dances*

[grav-ity.livejournal.com]

I'm a little bit convinced that Helen talked Gregory into taking some himself, actually. Or he did it on the sly when he was hiding it. Because otherwise I'm not sure how a person goes from missing in 1892, to prisoner of the Cabal in 2008, to Hollow Earth by 2010. Actually, of all of them, Gregory's timeline is probably the most screwed up! ;)

I wrote a fic (http://grav-ity.livejournal.com/1200804.html) about them all taking the source blood at once mostly off of Nigel's line about wanting to see what it did to Nikola.

[oparu.livejournal.com]

I concede and appreciate that this is the best written explanation of Helen and John, and the first that made me understand why she should not flee from him or shoot him every time he shows up.

I still don't think they should ever be together again. I'm moving away from the idea that there's an OTP, and yes, they loved each other, and do, but I'd rather see them both with other people, and continuing their tortured love affair.

There's a point where you love each other like crazy but it still won't work. There's no relationship left in any functional way, yet you still love each other, and always will.

I'd rather see them not. It's too tortured, it's been too long, and even with everything fixed, putting them together again is too star crossed lovers happy ending for me. I think it's too 'love conquers all' for me. Love, and everything else, being thrust into the background for the greater good and loss are much bigger themes on the show.

I prefer the disharmony. Their commitment to staying at arms length of each other is part of them I like. I love you, but I won't give in, is so Victorian. I don't want them to give in. I like them in love, apart and semi-tortured about it.

You get huge points for me admitting that I like them in love at all. ;)

[grav-ity.livejournal.com]

I like them in love, apart and semi-tortured about it.

I...kind of want both? I have no idea. "It's complicated" barely begins to cover it.

[querulouspeg.livejournal.com]

I think really what makes them a compelling pairing is that it's the kind of relationship that they will both carry with them forever but never be able to resolve to anyone's satisfaction. That's the tragedy, and lord knows we all love tragedy. It's why we love to watch them and write them. I have to say though that those who sail this ship are doomed to be as heart brokem and tormented as Helen and John themselves because when all is said and done, he is still Jack the Ripper. Whether or not it's his fault re energy being, Helen could never get beyond that. Furthermore, whether or not you ever intended to hurt someone, you don't spend all those years blaming and trying to kill someone without it causing a few bumps iin the road of future happiness together!

[grav-ity.livejournal.com]

Furthermore, whether or not you ever intended to hurt someone, you don't spend all those years blaming and trying to kill someone without it causing a few bumps iin the road of future happiness together!

Indeed. I'm not saying they have sunshine and roses in their future, heck I'm not even sure if they have light rain instead of a tornado...but that's not going to stop me from quietly cheering for them. Because I'm a dork.

[couplechemistry.livejournal.com]

This is amazing work. Usually things like this are going on in my head, but I can never seem to get them written down :) I am actually working on a piece of fic that takes place in 1888 and you are right about not having any definite dates! And the one that we do have totally messed up my timeline.

I love how you talked about how different John's character is in the episodes, compared to how he was in the webisodes. I know that some people were disappointed in the change, but I think the change made him a more 3D character, instead of just The Big Bad. And this brings up something else about this show...other than Ashley (IMO) everyone has a story. Even the Henry, who seems to be the comic relief, has a story and we actually get to delve into it!

As far as John and Helen's relationship -- so complicated! You really hit on some important points and I totally agree. As much as I would love to see them together, I don't really think that is plausible any time in the near future, and this tormented love is so much better! I liked "For King & Country" but I think that their ease with each other in "Vigilante" was a little much -- for me.

You should totally join my Sanctuary community: sanctuary_cafe Your insight would be great. We started with Season 1, and each week we are discussion a different episode. Since finishing up with SFA, we've had a little trouble getting the discussions really going. Maybe because the next couple episodes really aren't anyone's favorites. But it would be great to see you over there.

[grav-ity.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I tend to write a lot. There will be Tesla later, I'm sure. ;)

I love Ashley a lot, and am really sorry she's dead (she's not dead! NO ONE DIES IN SCIENCE FICTION!). And even though it's weird sometimes, I'm glad the show didn't have A Big Bad, the way they usually do. I do think as well that the parts of John that got taken out of him after the webisodes show up in spades in Adam, and that the elongation of the storyline is for the better.

I spent most of Vigilante waiting for the other shoe to drop. In my mind, I believe Helen really does think she's dying, and is allowing herself a bit more joy in John's company than she otherwise would.

[couplechemistry.livejournal.com]

I spent most of Vigilante waiting for the other shoe to drop. In my mind, I believe Helen really does think she's dying, and is allowing herself a bit more joy in John's company than she otherwise would.

Yes, I did feel on edge most of the episode. And the fact that Helen really thinks she is going to die and therefore getting as much time near him as she can, makes a lot of sense. I really can't wait until the rest of season 3 airs!! *dying here*

As far as Ashley . . . I liked the fact that she gave Helen's character another dimension and she did bring that special touch of sass to the show :) TPTB did leave themselves open to write her back into the story if they wanted to. Which I think was a good idea, because you never know. Like you said: "No one dies in science fiction."

[grav-ity.livejournal.com]

Also, I've written up a review of "Sanctuary For All". Can I post the link in the Cafe even though I'm a bit late?

Sanctuary For All (http://grav-ity.livejournal.com/1199190.html)
The Webisodes (http://grav-ity.livejournal.com/1200142.html)

[couplechemistry.livejournal.com]

Definitely!! Just make sure you title your entry as stated in the rules - just keeps things organized. I am sure everyone would still love to discuss SFA! And you have a Webisode review too? Cool. Post them both, please! :D

[jerusha]

Oh, yes. I think you've hit on the reason I love Helen/John so much--because they're adults. Neither of them have clean hands. They've each shed blood, and they each have some understanding of the darkness inside them, and each other. And yet, there's an undeniable connection. I tend to think that neither of them will ever get over the other, but it's not Romeo and Juliet. There's nothing stupid or callow about either of them.

[grav-ity.livejournal.com]

I don't know when I just stopped caring about teenagers (though I expect it was at some point between decided I hated Logan Echolls and deciding I loved Laura Roslin), but yes: GROWN UPS FTW!

(That's also why I love Tesla so much, but that's a post for another day. Like, uh, tomorrow!)

[jerusha]

I think turning 30 did it to me. I just...I'm not a teenager anymore. I want to see adults responding in adult ways, rather than kids being immature, because I'm pretty much OVER that.

(And may I friend you? It seems as though we might have more than a few things in common.)

[grav-ity.livejournal.com]

Sure!

[sheikah]

This was interesting, to be sure, and I like your opinion regarding it being wrong or off to go to bed with someone possessed and not be aware of it. I never thought about it that way. That said.

I hate the way John is in the series. I feel like the energy being is an absolute cop out and ends up being a way for fandom to "defang" him, so to speak, so he and Helen are off being hand-holdy together. Your opinion is a much more logical one by far.

I feel like she loves the idea of him, by now. I don't think, even if everything could work out and he wasn't a killer any longer, that she could be with him. She was with him, she loved him, they had a child together. I don't necessarily think it can work now just because Helen and John both have diverged SO much from who they were originally.

I think he probably pines after her more than she does him and in FKAC and Vigilante, I think she wants to recapture some of that old relationship because she does think she's dying and it's something familiar and something that, once, was lovely and a fond memory.

Although I would like a point of clarification. What is it that squicks you about Helen/James? As far as I'm aware, he never became anything other than himself with a greater intellect. Did you mean maybe Helen/John?

[grav-ity.livejournal.com]

I did mean Helen/John. Too many J names!

Your opinion is a much more logical one by far.

I am totally taking advantage and having it both ways, though, because I blame 95% of the murders on the Being (somewhere, I think, John and the Being compromised on who they'd kill and how often and with how much ferocity, and the other 5% is John doing damage control at the cost of his soul), but I also really, really 'ship them. IT'S COMPLICATED. :)

[sheikah]

Ah okay. I was like, wait a second.

I did like this and I'm glad I read it in spite of the fact that there would be no love lost between me and the show if they just killed Druitt off entirely. Very good food for thought.

[grav-ity.livejournal.com]

I, on the other hand, would be devastated. NO MORE DYING, SHOW! And bring back Ashley! And I would like a pony!

[sheikah]

I miss Ashley toooooooo. And James. And the pony wouldn't be bad either.

[annienau08.livejournal.com]

Oh, I have so much to say to this that I don't know where to begin.

This...this is pretty much exactly the way I view John, too. I actually had more sympathy for him than most even before we found out about the energy being, because even then it was understood that it was the Source Blood that made him that way. As Helen tells Will at one point, everyone has that darkness within them - it's just a matter of how well you are able to control it.

And that's why the energy being angle didn't upset me the way it did others. The creature might be John's rage, but it isn't his darkness. That comes from John himself. I firmly believe that it was something within John's own psyche that caused him to kill prostitutes. The energy creature is clearly indiscriminate in its desires, so John would have had to be the one to cause it to focus on those women. He is not all the sudden completely off the hook now that we know about the being.

And I love your theory that it's Helen that makes John the perfect host. It makes sense, and it adds to the epic tragedy of their relationship. Because Helen blamed herself before she knew about the energy being. After? I can't imagine the guilt she feels now.

He allows himself to be leashed by her, not because he think she can control him (she can't, but then neither can he really), but because she will end him if she has to.

This. Yes. I think this is exactly what happened in "Haunted". Because I think John hoped that after Nikola's shock treatment that he was cured, that just maybe he had the tiniest shot at redemption. But then the creature got stronger and he started killing again, and the agony of realizing the evil was there and would never really be gone was too much for John to take anymore. So he set up this confrontation between himself and Helen, confident that she would do everything in her power to end him. Helen's right, he wanted her to kill him. That "why?" when he first wakes up has a tinge of betrayal in it for me, because he didn't want her to bring him back. He just wanted it to end.

There are a dozen other things I could say about this, but LJ has that pesky comment limit. So I'll just reiterate that this is genius, and I'm glad someone was able to articulate the epic tragedy of John's character arc, and his relationship with Helen.

[grav-ity.livejournal.com]

I firmly believe that it was something within John's own psyche that caused him to kill prostitutes.

I...kind of don't. But I do believe that John and the Energy Being reached some kind of impasse (unbeknownst to John) wherein they just killed whoever was easier and where the greatest potential for violence lay. But at the same time, John did come up with the idea (self-preservation, access, ease, etc), so there's that.

I do love that he always asks her "Why?" and sounds so very betrayed by it when he find outs it's not to kill him.

[shadadukal]

Reading this was very interesting. And yes, John is very complicated. And I never really thought of that, but yes John being possessed makes Helen/John kinda creepy. Unless you want to believe the energy elemental is at times not in charge, but from the way John acts, I can't go for that explanation. He was for too different in Haunted.

I don't think that Nikola is only taking his medication because Helen doesn't want him to kill people. At least not at first. I think at first he really didn't mean to kill people and wanted to manage his bloodlust. But after his 'death', this went out of the window and he's kept on taking it because of his promise to Helen, except for those times when he kills anyway.

[grav-ity.livejournal.com]

I don't think that Nikola is only taking his medication because Helen doesn't want him to kill people.

Agreed. I've kind of changed my mind about that since I wrote this. :)

I do think he took it originally out of desperation, and then kept taking it, but every time he thought "Why shouldn't I be myself?" he thought of Helen, and kept taking it.

Of course, after he "dies", all bets are off for a while.

[shadadukal]

every time he thought "Why shouldn't I be myself?"

I've been thinking about that and it bothers me a little that their solution was for him to bury half of himself away like that. It would be interesting had they gone for the route of him embracing his part-vampire side and trying to mesh it with his half-human part. But because he tried to live as a human, repressing his vampire side, I can totally believe there was a backlash and that the vampire side came to the front later with a vengeance, which may not have happened had their solution for dealing with Nikola's vampirism not been lock it away. Boy, was that a convoluted sentence!