Torchwood, season 2

[rm]

Last Man Standing

The pacing of this was much more gentle, and while still tight didn't grab me as hard, but that may be a function of iPod viewing where I really need whatever I'm watching to grab my fucking face and hold it there.

So Tommy and Ianto look quite a bit alike, yeah? I sort of noticed that when Jack was appreciating Tommy and telling Gwen to back off as this one was Toshiko's.

You sort of knew exactly how the episode was going to play out with the whole "you're my brave, handsome soldier boy," but I was glad that their going home together thing was even more consciously doomed than it could have been.

That Jack/Ianto moment was so weird and also so nicely parallel to Tosh and Tommy.

"I was afraid you'd see me grow old," she says, but she's also the one in with the power in that situation. Jack has the opposite problem.

Anyway, you could see how long it had taken Ianto to psych himself up to come up there and ask that question, eventhough he was clearly in need of the reassurance. But not in an "oh I couldn't/musn't" way -- it reads very "right, you can do this, this is a perfectly reasonable thing to do. Not only are you shagging, he asked you on a date, you can do this. right." It's one of the things I love about Ianto, the way his internal monologue is all over his every move (I mean, other than the cyberwoman thing).

It's an interesting conversation, the sort of chat one has as pillow talk early in, but it's here instead, and Jack is easy about it although he seems totally distant at the same time. But there's such a nice moment of realization there. Love, love. Yup, both said it, in their own fucked up ways, but it's also NOT THAT BIG OF A DEAL. Hey, fandom, can we write Jack/Ianto being in love where it's not the love to end all loves? Where it's Jack being like, "yup, but I've done this a lot... so don't..." and Ianto being like "well, good, because last time I decided this sort of thing was the most important thing in my life... well, you know, cyberwoman, yeah?"

I'm rambling.

And then the end of the episode gets so sad. We see the menace that is Torchwood: is this really all their fault? We have Jack elegantly explain the time rupture situation with the piece of paper. We get that moment about Tommy being shot for cowardice: holy fuck that. Jack may be the guy we think of as the WWII dude, but seriously, everytime WWI comes up on this show is when he freaks me out the most. Did Jack ever have to shoot someone for cowardice back in Lahore because that's what was done? Or did Jack see that happen to someone he cared about? in Lahore or maybe elsewhere? Maybe in the war he mentioned to the real Jack Harkness? I dunno, but there's depths there, and they aren't nice ones.

Okay, and then projecting into Tommy's consciousness, WHUT? Did that just feel like "we wrote a different ending, but we decided we didn't want Jack to have to hang around from 1918 to the present right here in the plot arc, so we're just going to throw in some psychic gadget shit" to any of you? Because I was pretty "buh, WHUT?" But then the episode made me start crying again, so it was okay.

Final, really trivial note. They are always shooting Jack's office from different angles. It is incredibly disconcerting (it makes it look like he keeps moving his desk), and for me who is trying to get a solid sense of the Hub layout in my head, it creates all these crossing the line problems that they should be fixing by fudging where stuff in the room is but they never do. I really wish they would stop doing that. I'm not even sure this complaint makes sense to anyone else, and it's one of those things I can't explain without using my hands and talking about how you shoot two people having a conversation in a doorway in a movie, but it's annoying.

Comments

[airspaniel.livejournal.com]

This episode, while certainly not the strongest writing or directing of the season, affected me more than just about any other. Tommy was just so crushingly tragic, and I was hoping so fervently for Tosh to have a love interest that wasn't condemned to die horribly. Double-plus sad because he actually made her happy... Oh, Tosh.

I agree with you completely about the Jack/Ianto interaction. I've had people tell me they thought it felt unneccessary and tacked on, but I have to wonder exactly what show they were watching. This was the ep that really made me sit up and go, "Wow, Gareth David-Lloyd is a much better actor than I'd given him credit for."

Also, did you know that the actor who played Tommy is the older brother of the actor who plays Neville Longbottom? I found that incredibly awesome and satisfyingly symmetrical, somehow.

[rm.livejournal.com]

GDL is really good. I can't believe I'm about to make this comparison, but his eyes capture tiny tiny tiny little things in the same way that Kevin Spacey's do (before he just became annoying).

The other thing that disturbed me about this episode, is how scared and miserable Tommy is every time he wakes up. And that is EVERY DAY OF HIS LIFE FOREVER as far as he knows. That's terrifying. Also, that scene was interesting, to get back to Ianto's character -- why do people see Ianto as a delicate guy, when he's the one who is there, grabs Tommy and basically orders him to calm down (and it works), which is a big argument for my Jack/Ianto as a fucked up mentoring relationship thing.

[airspaniel.livejournal.com]

I never would have thought of that, but you're pretty spot on, there.

Man, I know. Poor fucking Tommy. I'd love to write about him someday, because seriously... What a terrifying and sad existence, to see time pass that quickly and be so alone; living to be a lab rat and waiting for his purpose to manifest. Knowing that everyone and everything you ever knew and loved has moved on.

People confuse service with servility and weakness, for some reason, not realizing that it takes a stronger person to follow orders than to give them. Also, I think Ianto's fallen victim to the fandom as well, in that it's easy for the fans to project themselves onto his character to fulfill their Jack-lust fantasies, not realizing that there's infinitely more than the "shagging the secretary" dynamic going on here.

[enemyfrigate.livejournal.com]

Just wandered into your LJ from tencrush's LJ -- I entirely agree about Jack's damn office. Make up your mind, people, or post some kind of schematic. As it's the most "Jack space" we get, given that we see him in bed only once, I believe, and he shares the rest of the Hub, it should be important to the narrative to see his office which will tell us something about him.

It's also the scene of a lot of important interaction. When it happens in the office, and not the generalized Hub, it feels more momentous. It's a smaller space with a more defined purpose, so perhaps it somehow concentrates the attention? Showcases the action? Something like that.

I'd like to believe that they are doing all the different angles intentionally, but there're ways to do that without being confusing. And of course, I don't believe they have any such shadowy motive.

Also, I agree that Tommy reminded me of Ianto, in part because we've seen Ianto do things that were difficult after acknowledging their difficulty in some way - fear, nerves, etc. The bit where he goes after the cannibal in the basement in Countryside comes to mind. That's also what Tommy has to do.