Torchwood, series 2

[rm]

Something Borrowed


I did not have the problems with this episode a lot of other people had, and I thought it had some really tantalizing stuff in it.

For one thing I liked the comedic elements of it, which is rather atypical for me.

For another, the Scissor Sisters are on my personal Torchwood soundtrack so that made me laugh.

I did not find the Jack/Gwen stuff to be as damming as a lot of people have, and I liked the misdirect there with the shapeshifter. I also thought a lot of Jack's craziness over Gwen's impending wedding throughout the season made a lot more sense when we saw him looking through those photos at the end.

Actually, I think the photos are fascinating. For one thing, a lot more men than women. For another, he didn't marry Estelle, so I am curious to know who that woman was. But the gender balance in the photos confirmed to me what I've been saying all along: Jack tends to fall in love with the people he fights alongside of, which is why there are more men than women (once he's earth-bound), and why Gwen is such a novelty/source of fascination for him. I think it also speaks to the awkwardness of a lot of his stuff with Ianto: Jack has spent a lot of years on earth with male lovers in the most unacceptable times, places and circumstances. Being awkward about things like dancing together makes perfect sense. I know, I know, you're going to bring up the Real Captain Jack Harkness -- but Jack didn't have to stick around for the repercussions of that, and knew that the real Jack wasn't going to be alive another 24 hours, and you see him take a deep breath to have that moment, to give this man something. I think Jack knows how to be friendly and intimate and jovial and inappropriate with men, but I think, at least in his hundred or so years on earth has no idea how to do courtship with them -- hence those Weevil-hunting dates (the funniest thing on the series if you ask me).

When Jack is explaining what the alien is to Owen, I love how the camera flips to Ianto. Because Ianto's a shapeshifter of a sort too. It's subtle. It reminds us just how much Ianto is an unknown quantity at a moment when it's not in Jack's mind at all. Ianto has his back and it's an interesting visual, especially as Ianto then helps him on with his coat -- helping Jack with his shapeshifting too. Those two speak in code and don't even notice it.

Um, loved the really big gun to kill the alien at the end. It was stupid and funny and reminded me of Jack and the gamestation.

Jack telling Rhys that the hero always gets the girl and putting his and Gwen's hands together. That's being a mensch.

The awkwardness of Ianto cutting in to dance with Jack should have been played up -- I wanted a bit more of no one being sure who Ianto wanted to dance with. Should Jack have been more present in that moment? Yeah, I would have liked it. Should the awkwardness of the whole thing for both he and Jack been clearer, yeah, again. But I was okay with it, when it was redeemed by the photos at the end. I just hope Ianto knows about such things, or else it's a mess. I suspect he does (sure, Jack lives in the hub, but Ianto is often the guy left there alone, and I am sure he has rifled through Jack's desk, at least in the pre-Cyberwoman days).

Comments

[elionwyr.livejournal.com]

*big nod*

I've not wanted to ask Movie Watching Buddy to rent them because he - how to put it?

He is an interesting combination of raised-racist-redneck and newage-firewalker-clown. His gut reaction to some of the gay and racially mixed couples on Who is to be very negative..and then he catches himself.

He wants to get over it. But I'm not sure he's ready for Torchwood, so my plan is to get my own Netflix membership and spare him the struggle.