I disagree about Jack being there. I can completely understand why Jack is there, and I've always detested Ennis for the way he treated him in that scene. I wanted to shout at the screen. "Ennis, what the hell?! How can you do that? How can you just let him walk away? Go after him, now!" The part that Ennis doesn't see, the part where Jack cries all the way back on that lonely drive and then decides to keep on driving till Mexico upon reaching Texas...that scene absolutely breaks my heart. I understand the extent of fear that society has instilled in Ennis, but sometimes I feel absolutely frustrated with that, and if I were Jack, I doubt I would have had the patience he had. I'm sorry, but I would have to just let someone like that go...I don't know if it is worth that level of heart ache. I understand it is true love and they are soulmates, but that probably would have been the turning point for me, and I would have just given up on Ennis after that happened. Just think of all the times that Jack made the proposal of living together over they years, the reunion wasn't the only time.
He must have persisted every time he saw Ennis on one of the trips, and every time Ennis turned it down. I can empathize completely with Jack and understand what he felt. He was a dreamer and a romantic. He did everything humanly possible to be with the one person he truly loved, but it is that very person that denied that chance at a happy life time and again. It is also obvious that Jack's pain at not being able to live with Ennis is what caused him to turn to Mexican prostitutes, the heavy drinking, and later the affair with Randall, (whom, I might add, I neither blame Randall nor Jack, Jack needed companionship from another man, and Randall was in the same boat as Jack and Ennis, a gay man living in a homophobic society. I believe Randall had no idea of Ennis's existence, and whether or not he was in love with Jack we don't know, but it's clear he became close to him).
Ennis not even understanding and realizing how much he was hurting Jack. But I do agree that he was taken by surprise, that the reason he isn't the happy Ennis, the real Ennis that only Jack could bring out in that scene, it was only because of his paranoia. He had his two daughters there, and they weren't babies anymore. Also, he was out in the open, where cars could drive by. Therefore someone as paranoid about being found out as him, was very shocked to Jack at that moment, hence he the embrace and his reaction is completely different from that reunion scene under Alma's window. Which also makes no sense if you think about it, since that was out in the open too, but I guess he thought no one could see. That's also another thing about Ennis, not everything makes sense with him.
Sometimes he could be so careless, like he was around Alma, doing things that made it so clear to her what his relationship with Jack really was. Other times, he is clearly bordering on downright paranoia. Unfortunately for Jack, that was one of those times. And he isn't so enthusiastic about the hug because he's afraid of being seen, mostly afraid that his daughters will pick up on what he's up to with Jack and in turn be ashamed of their father. That was really the main reason there. It breaks my heart that he had no idea how much Jack was hurting...that scene where Jack cries alone in his car...it's like the song. "I wish I could make you turn around, turn around and see me cry..." I wish Jack could have reached Ennis on more levels. It is too sad that only his death turns on that bright light bulb for Ennis. When I look at that last scene with Ennis alone in his trailer, looking at the shirts and crying...part of me feels very bad for Ennis, the other part feels like Jack must have felt, that Ennis had a large part in creating his own sorrow, sadness, and loneliness. While Jack was alive, he had to suffer because of the choices that Ennis made, but it gives me some comfort at least that Jack is gone and no longer has to suffer that anymore. I always get the feeling he's looking over Ennis in that last scene, thinking I told you Ennis...now you finally understand.
