Torchwood, season 2

[rm]

Sleepers

Damn, could that woman playing Beth act. So so so so good. Jack's various emotions about the inevitability of having to kill her and going along with Gwen's plans to avoid that anyway was great.

Loved that the morgue drawer they put her in ws number 007. Hilarious.

Ianto and his "I know everything" routine seems cute, but unsettles me.

Jack's immortality / nuclear blast -- how would that turn out?

I've always liked Tosh, but I've really fallen in love with her character in the last two episodes.

ladypeculiar you would love this episode. It's so much about identity and stuff about whether there's a Self and all that.

Random note, more about me than Torchwood. Acting huge amounts of physical pain is something I have always thought was totally fucking fun; I think because just doing it gets your endorphins up anyway. I was so like "oh my god, totally awesome actor time" through most of this episode.

Thought the Jack/Gwen ting stablized into something that made more sense here. Like, oh, Jack's back and over whatever cracked out things he convinced himself of while he was away.

Comments

[redstapler.livejournal.com]

A second viewing of this stunned me.

Knowing what was going to happen made it easier to really study the performances, which were outstanding.

Everyone knocked it out of the park, especially, as you said, the woman playing Beth.

[marchek.livejournal.com]

Damn, could that woman playing Beth act.
I second that

Ianto and his "I know everything" routine seems cute, but unsettles me

It is unsettling, but I kind of like it that way.

[britgeekgrrl.livejournal.com]

Ianto and his "I know everything" routine seems cute, but unsettles me.

*nod* the way he delivered the line, the second time (I think it was) it set a couple of alarm bells ringing in my head. He sounded just a little too confident and strangely sinister.

(mind you, I love the idea of occasionally-sinister Ianto...)

[tommx.livejournal.com]

Ianto Jones: More than just another bottom.

[britgeekgrrl.livejournal.com]

"The teaboy from Mossad" was a former nickname by which I used to refer to him. ;)

(all through S1, I was desperately hoping for the other shoe to drop in a big way, especially post-Lisa...)

[rm.livejournal.com]

Hahahahahaha. hahahahahaha.

I'm actually less and less convinced of Ianto being a bottom in any way, shape or form except maybe sometimes in the actual sex act. But again, that is part of a long rant for later.

[britgeekgrrl.livejournal.com]

Over on my fannish journal, I tried writing Ianto-as-top fic - mostly as a mouth-frothing reaction to some of the truly awful Jack/Ianto d/s fic I'd encountered - but I just couldn't make it work. (Hm, maybe I was a little rough on those other authors, oops...)

I even went as far as re-starting the series with a rather torturous¹ premise on Jack's past, post-Valiant (but I'll stop there, as you haven't reached that point in the show, yet, rm) but it still didn't work. I just don't seem to have the knack for writing a plausible d/s dynamic, I think...

¹ - I swear to heaven, that was an unintentional pun.

[rm.livejournal.com]

I can't see either Jack or Ianto as consistently taking one role or the other in a D/s scenario. Jack loves sensation and sex too much not to be amused with both. And I think Ianto is instinctively toppy and has spent his life try to smother it or being told he should, or something, and is now twisted up enough about it to find something of use to him in both (after the mental gymnastics about it, of course).

[britgeekgrrl.livejournal.com]

I can't see either Jack or Ianto as consistently taking one role or the other in a D/s scenario

I agree with you.

And that's probably another reason why I couldn't tackle the topic competently. I'm even worse at handling a switchy dynamic. ;)

And I think Ianto is instinctively toppy

It's the office management thing. Turns 'em all into bossyboots, eventually. ;)

(after the mental gymnastics about it, of course)

I'd love to see a fic which tackled those mental gymnastics (er, so to speak). I don't suppose your relentless search of decent Jack/Ianto fic has turned up anything of the sort?

[rm.livejournal.com]

No, but I'm sort of working on something on that topic, although I'm not sure if there will actually be sex in it. There will be guns; I'm sure of that part.

[britgeekgrrl.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure if there will actually be sex in it.

I think your loyal readership will survive. :)

There will be guns; I'm sure of that part.

Now I'm really curious!

[rm.livejournal.com]

This all started in my head after watching Kiss Kiss Bang Bang when Jack takes out the blow fish because Ianto is hesitating. And I decided Jack needs to have a talk with him about that, on the firing range. Because the issue is less than Ianto is making a decision there slowly, but that he's stuttering while trying to make it, and it's that lack of smooth arrival at conclusion and action that makes his hesitation dangerous. And as far as Jack is concerned, it's bullshit.

[britgeekgrrl.livejournal.com]

I like it!

I look forward to seeing the fic, if you decide to write it.

[rm.livejournal.com]

It's all in my head, I just need to structure it and do it. I may not get much of anything done before I leave for Italy, but then come back with a sheaf of fics to type in as I'll be away from keys there.

[tommx.livejournal.com]

One of the things I like about Ianto is because he can deliver lines like that dryly and make them work. Despite Captain John's jealousy laden taunting of him last episode, Ianto is not someone I'd want to be on the wrong side of.

I suspect that Jack would simply reconstitute during a nuclear blast. His immortality is not so much a physiological thing as it is an accident of time or something like that. The Doctor gives a description of his condition that sort of explains this, but not really.

What amazed me about the early episodes of this season was how much I started REALLY liking Owen. I no longer wanted to rip his lungs out through his nose. I've always liked Tosh.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Ianto is a pretty dangerous guy and not just because of the secrecy/smarts thing. I think he's a lot like (a younger) Jack; I think he's got leadership qualities in spades and I think he's a total alpha, just no one has bothered to mention this to him before, and he's figuring it out, which makes him just erratic enough to be really dangerous.