#Joey: oho is there tension between them??? me: YOU FOOL THEYRE MARRIED

[inkdemonapologist]

Do you think Jack and Sammy's relationship could possibly be a little strained in the canon? I mean, it's kind of obvious that Jack is a little envious of the attention Sammy gets, and when they start working at the studio together, its seems like the two keep distance from one another? Like, you have Jack working far away from the music department in the sewers by himself, and it's also interesting to note that Sammy never mentions Jack in the tape recordings either in the game.

(Grain of salt, as always, that I haven’t gotten to read through TIOL for myself yet -- I’ve had excerpts transcribed and shared with me, and the scenes with Sammy and Jack are ones I’ve seen big chunks of, but u know, general disclaimer!!)

I don’t agree with the conclusion that it’s “obvious” that Jack is envious, though that does seem to be the popular takeaway! I think it’s just one possibility, and I definitely read it differently myself. But, I do think this is a very possible and easily supported reading of the text and game -- 

-- the idea that Jack and Sammy are partners with opposite personalities who need each other but also grate on each other; Jack putting up with Sammy’s general condescension and disrespect because of his musical skill, and Sammy dealing with Jack because he needs someone to Handle People for him or else he’d drive away every potential job -- and once Sammy has Joey and the music director job, he no longer needs Jack for that. Jack’s audiologs then follow a really easy arc, too -- Jack complains about how aggravating working in the music department is, Jack runs off to the sewers to get away from Sammy’s nonsense, Jack sees too much in the sewers [and probably gets murdered], Jack is gone by the events of DCTL and never mentioned or noticed despite previously being important enough to have “meetings” with Joey every day. There’s definitely evidence to support this reading!

It is also… not how I read it!

I take Joey’s story of what happened mostly at face value, and we absolutely do see them getting irritated with each other here (Sammy doesn’t wanna be part of Jack’s comedy routine, Jack is frustrated when Sammy gets fixated on recognising Joey from his old job), but the whole scene with Sammy and Jack has to be at least a little filtered through the fact that Joey clearly has just the biggest crush on Sammy Lawrence. Jack is nice, but he’s not Interesting to Joey the way Sammy is -- unreadable, mysterious Sammy who won’t give him the time of day. So is it any wonder that the guy who thinks Sammy understands his vision, that Sammy is like a god, that Sammy is so unknowably brilliant, is going to zoom in on the strain he sees between Sammy and his much more Ordinary partner, the ways they don’t match and shouldn’t work, the way that Sammy was always better suited to be his? The tension makes for a more interesting story for Joey anyhow!

You can certainly read Jack’s “haha that’s nice but let’s return to a conversation I’m in” interruption as being jealous of attention, but to me it’s actually a kinda funny and candid comment (that, if u want, could hint at sentiments of “wow y’all are getting pretty gay over there please remember I am also here” that Joey for obvious reasons glosses over lmao). I ALSO can’t stop thinking about how surprisingly direct it is, like, Jack’s figured out how to stay casual and jokey while also expressing his frustrations very directly and unambiguously to his neurodivergent partner -- “don’t cut me out of the conversation, talk about something I can talk about too” -- and Joey caught that it wasn’t really a joke, but despite his obsession with What’s Sammy Thinking, he doesn’t report Sammy being annoyed at this interruption and redirection. To Sammy, this was normal, and he gets back on track afterwards.

I know I said before that Sammy’s autistic but it’s REALLY getting harder and harder to read him ANY OTHER WAY, which makes me squint a bit at how much Joey reads into Sammy’s “seriousness” and “unreadable” emotions. Meanwhile Jack doesn’t apologise for Sammy’s behaviour, even when it’s weird or rude, and in fact speaks with some fondness, as if this is just how Sammy is -- you could read his comments about Sammy as sarcastic or exasperated, but I love the idea that he’s just… used to this and takes it in stride? Like, nah, he wasn’t snubbing you when he didn’t shake your hand, he just doesn’t shake hands. That’s just Sammy. There’s frustrations between them, but ultimately they handle this whole thing as a pair -- Jack handles the friendliness, the performance, but he trusts Sammy when Sammy barges in with questions and demands, and he doesn’t always know what’s in Sammy’s head but he rolls with it. It seems like there has to be a lot of trust, and so much that seems unspoken? Like, this is such a HUGE SHIFT IN JOB, and they don’t even discuss it with each other -- Jack clearly wants the job, but waits until Sammy’s satisfied that it’s good for him; Sammy makes his demands and just leaves, Jack takes that cue and shakes Joey’s hand -- it’s as if they’re two parts of a whole and they both know it. Like when old married couples only look one way when turning into traffic, because they know the other is looking the other way and they don’t even have to check….

I JUST HAVE A LOT OF FEELINGS,,,,,,, ANYWAY,,,,,,

I’ve talked before about my pre-TIOL takeaways on things like the audiologs between Jack and Sammy (suffice to say, I don’t think it’s surprising that these two prefer to have some space and quiet when they’re working), but really, there’s never… been any canon at all for their interactions before, haha. Seeing them as a pair like this has given my Jack x Sammy heart more fuel than it had ever hoped for!!!

But questions about what I think might be true in “the canon” are something I’m never sure how to answer. Like… just in the sense that, while I do get a kick out of working within the canon info whenever possible, I definitely didn’t get into this fandom to puzzle out what was intended! When I first got into BatIM and delighted at the evidence for Joey x Henry and Joey x Sammy, it wasn’t because I thought those things were intentional -- quite the opposite; at the time, I strongly suspected they were an accident. When I’m figuring out my own headcanons, I’m not trying to figure out authorial intent; I’m usually looking at the canon we have and trying to find something that makes sense with what we know that’s the most compelling to me! Not necessarily trying to do My Own Unique Take, but also I’m not really here to try to guess how the franchise is gonna go or what the True Canon is or anything.