Children of Earth, Day 2

[rm]

Holy Fucking Shit.

And also, We Want A Pony.

Still cracky, but who cares. This is the show I always thought Torchwood could be. This is the type of narrative that I'm craving when I read and write fic -- not fanservice, no, but the examination of real emotion, real fear and real pain. This episode was at times almost unwatchable for me.

HUGE kudos to everyone for not making Jack's imortality cool and sexy. We finally get the horror, right there on screen. Alice trying not to cry (and let's face it, calling Jack's voicemail over and over to listen to her daddy's voice); Jack screaming in pain; Jack terrified, absolutely terrified with the cement thing, because he's been buried alive before, and this time there isn't any acceptance on his part, any misguided trust of people's he's loved, it's just him and that woman.

HOW MUCH DO I LOVE AN ACTION SEQUENCE WITH TWO WOMEN AT THE LEAD ON OPPOSITE SIDES? AND IT WASN'T GRATUITOUS OR FILLED WITH LESBIAN SUBTEXT? Wow wow wow. Gwen and that woman facing off, fucking amazing.

Ianto Jones is the best boyfriend ever. He also just got the greatest bit of backstory writing ever, and fandom, I want you to pause here, and think before you write fic and NOT FUCK IT UP. Because that conversation about "where dad broke my leg" and how he always pushed too hard and how the sister says maybe he should have held on tighter? That's gorgeous subtext about Ianto's family relationships and absolutely confirms in my mind what I thought about yesterday's coming out scenes, which is that the pressure on Ianto to "be a man" in his super ordinary and kinda rough upbringing was massive, subtle and constant. Of course, his father always pushed too hard. Of course he did. And I bet Ianto idolized his dad as much as he ran out the door the second he could and tried to never look back. It speaks to every obsessive, studied gesture Ianto has ever made to do things correctly, and it's heartbreaking. But remember this fandom -- Ianto Jones's father was not an abuser, and if you write that, I will roll my fucking eyes at you. This bit of writing is a testament to life being complex and difficult, fucking cherish that shit, fandom, it's rare stuff.

And seriously? Poor Ianto... what agony for him, but with Lisa, he's been through worse, right? Knew what to do, knew how to use his emotions if he couldn't push them aside. Dear god. Him climbing out of the Hub wreckage, talk about echoes or trauma there from his TW1 days.

I love Gwen in this. Love Gwen. Sweet, competent, gorgeous Gwen, who's instinct to mentor people is really gorgeous (and arguably learned from Jack).

Lois! I love the fuck out of Lois.

PC Andy!


SPECULATION:

Ianto is not going to die. Because in the preview, someone says "Frobisher was a good man" -- the "He Was a Good Man" track on the soundtrack, which has caused people so much consternation with its placement next to "The Ballad of Ianto Jones" IS ABOUT FROBISHER (as some people had already speculated), which I think means we can be a lot less worried about Ianto.


QUESTION:

So, like, does Ianto not have a flat? Did the government raid it and we didn't see it because that would be boring because no one would be there? Or has he chucked it and moved into the hub? Or has it been registered under a fake name since he snuck up to Cardiff with Lisa and he never changed it back and the gov't couldn't find it -- because only seeing the gov go to his sister's place (which was hilarious -- again, I love the look that we're getting at that community -- it feels honest and ugly, that lens, but loving) made that murky. Should have been a line about Ianto's own flat, or else, what the fuck? Not important, but fandom will go crazy over this surely.


TRIVIA:

Anyone remember that interview Barrowman gave ages ago about how he likes roleplay in his sex and mentioned that he was really into builders and construction guys at the time? Anyone else remember that while watching today's episode? Tell me I'm not going to hell alone, people.

Comments

[rm.livejournal.com]

I'm already sort of thinking about a Ianto backstory piece. I think we think of tailors as fuss, delicate men, especially those of us that don't go to tailors or only go to certain sorts of tailors, but in New York the best tailors are in some areas which have been until very recently very poor and even while offering you nice, quiet defferential service have a poster or two of a flash car or a chick in a bikini on the wall, hidden behind current projects wqhile there's the poster explaning how long to wear your shirt sleeves up in the front. I just see Ianto's father as having these massive, thick fingers, so much so that as a boy Ianto wonders how the man can even thread a needle and I'm just stuck on this idea that somehow, through that sort of contrast and the secret glee of going to the movies (stories of others!) Ianto's father taught the boy that your body is not you life, and yet felt so strongly that his son, who was a bit awkward and odd "be a man" -- it's like a conversation Lifty and I had the other day, how our parents give us tools to allows us to live lives they never ever would have wished for us.

[verasteine.livejournal.com]

I'm so looking forward to that fic! I recognise what you talk about; my local tailor's a little like that, just a guy, not at all the fussy image or the campy stereotype. And what I like about what we've seen of Ianto's background so far is how much we see that he both fits and doesn't fit; he cares about Rhiannon and can relate to her and his nephew and niece (but not his brother in law, even though there's caring there, too), but he doesn't look the part any more, in an expensive coat and suit.

And it reminds me of my own childhood so much more than I was expecting. Ianto is so clearly the brainy one, but that didn't make him unhappy growing up. But there must have been conflict with his father, whom he admired and yet couldn't emulate. So much to work with. And we're only at ep two. I'm loving it.