When did Jack decide? Maybe he never really did; maybe he was just biding his time for a while......I'm still haunted by the card Ennis sent to reconnect with Jack! and which came back "deceased". When did Ennis send the card? How long after the last meeting with Jack? The card must mean that Ennis, despite the harsh words exchanged at that last get together, was not about to have Jack quit him, and if the card had been sent earlier, maybe it would have precluded Jack looking for another relationship.....what do you think?
This is my perspective. Others could and probably will differ.
We have to go back to the last night around the campfire. Jack tells Ennis he is having an affair with a ranch forman's wife. We know that is a lie. Nobody except Randall could stand her and I think even he was getting sick of her. No, Jack was having an affair with Randall.
But, Jack also told the truth when he says to Ennis, "Tell you what. . .truth is, sometimes I miss you so bad I can hardly stand it. . ." [tissues please]
I believe Jack is, yet again, giving Ennis a chance to say, 'Ya bud. I feel the same way. We gotta do something about this situation." But, once again Ennis doesn't say a word, he just looks into the fire.
Then we go to the argument where Ennis tells Jack that if he ever finds out Jack is cheating on him with other men he will kill him.
They argue, Ennis breaks down and cries, I start crying so hard I can't see the picture. [tissue please]
Next we see the flashback. Now, it is unfortunate that the movie didn't convey the meaning of that scene as well as the story. Annie puts it this way;
"What Jack remembered and craved in a way he could neither help nor understand was the time that distant summer on Brokeback when Ennis had come up behind him and pulled him close, the silent embrace satisfying some shared and sexless hunger. ...SNIP ENTIRE SCENE... Later, that dozy embrace solidified in his memory as the single moment of artless, charmed happiness in their separate and difficult lives. Nothing marred it, even the knowledge that Ennis would not then embrace him face to face because he did not what to see nor feel that it was Jack he held. And maybe, he thought, they'd never got much farther than that.[/u][/b] Let be. Let be."
[all emphasis is mine]
In other words, Jack started to think that the only moment when Ennis was
in love with him was that moment when Ennis held him. The rest was the love of a best best friend who he could talk to like he could talk to nobody else. And the sex was great too. To Ennis, Jack was the closest person he had ever gotten to and Jack was the only person Ennis had allowed to get as close to him as he did. Ennis was never, with the possible exception of that one time while holding Jack,
in love with Jack. I don't think he could even conseve of being in love with Jack he was so homophobic and hung up on their sexual encounters.
Now, having said that, we
know Ennis was in love with Jack, it's just that Ennis didn't know it. Ennis couldn't even understand that Jack could be
in love with him. (At the end I will try to defend my theory)
So the next scene we see is Ennis driving away. Then, we see Jack watching him drive away with a sad, resolved look on his face. He had decided he was in love with Ennis so much he couldn't stand to see Ennis hurting like this any longer. He decided to let Ennis go to hopefully make a better life for himself. He had decided to live with Randall. Certainly not as good as Ennis, but something he could have and who might be willing to live together because they were both gay. Remember Randall came on to Jack so there was more interest on Randall's part than on Jacks. Perhaps Randall fell in love with Jack in a way Ennis could not. We will never know if Jack ever fell in love with Randall. I personally doubt it.
Now, we know from later on in the movie, that Jack did indeed go to his parents house to visit and he told his dad that he was going to bring Randall up there to help out. He had come to grips with the fact it could never be Ennis so now it would be Randall.
Now, allow me to defend this theory, and that is, after all, all it can be, a theory. Neither the story, the screenplay or the movie tells us what actually happened.
I base all this on the scene when Ennis finds the shirts in Jack's closet. Mrs. Twist knows Jack was in love with Ennis. That is why she sent him up to Jack's room, to find the shirts and then HE could know Jack was in love with him. Look at Ennis' face when he finds the shirts. His mouth falls open (well, open for closed mouth Ennis), his eyes widen as if he is in shock. It is
THEN that Ennis realizes Jack was
in love with him in the same way a man and a woman are in love. [box of tissues please]
Ennis now understands that a man CAN be in love with another man. The shirts, Ennis being held by Jack, for
twenty years taught him that. He then realizes that he has been
in love with Jack all this time but didn't realize that is what it was or at least couldn't admit it to himself. Ennis then hugs the shirts and tries to smell Jack. Ennis is holding Jack (the shirts)
from the front! Ennis lifts the sleeve of the shirt to hold Jack's hand. [MAJOR TISSUE SHORTAGE!!] He is going to take Jack home to live with him. Something Jack has always wanted.
With Jack safely at home, he takes care of Jack symbolically by buttoning Jacks shirt. He says, "Jack, I swear. . . " (Jack, I swear, I didn't understand your love. Forgive me.) [major meltdown here]
