Torchwood, third viewing
Oct. 24th, 2006 11:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabethI'm on to the fiddly details now
The scene with Owen in the bar - background music "I broke into your house last night" (although I freely admit I watch with subtitles on for a *reason*, and without the writing am not 100% sure on this),
specific wording after the spray "Bloody Hellfire". Violent wording.
I mean it could be played as a love at first sight he sweeps her off her feet thing, there could be romance cliches, but the writers instead choose rude words about the bad place.
I keep watching for the jack the lad amusing rogue reading everyone else is getting out of this Owen bit but I just cannot see it. It looks to me like the classic Angel double layered creepy thing. Superficially okay but with these nasty backgrounds.
Maybe I'm reading it with the wrong brain on or something.
and OMG have I mentioned how bloody amazing Jack looks, specially stood up on that building like that?
ANYways
Gwen has a little stuffed police doll behind her that looks so cute. It reminds me of the little cute dolls Oracle has next to her computer.
Also, I have a weird liking for Gwen in that police vest. I don't know why. Except for it maybe overlapping my crossdressing thing.
Owen clothes - military camo pattern in the bar. He's teh one that says later about period military being not the dress of a straight man. So.
Also it was cheap shirt quality camo. Reminds me of people I'd see going in to shops with those pretty leaf patterns on tins.
Trying to pin down subculture for him... I never bother with US shows because I've no clue what the clues are, but for the UK he looks familiar.
I'm watching on the big TV as I type. My typo rate is way down from all the practice at college.
OOh, back to the sofa for the big scene in front of the waterfall thingy.
her with the gun has this empty circle necklace that I quite like the symbolism of.
That big shiny waterfall that is sometimes a mirror has symbolism layers. I don't know if they're using them but it has reflection and feelings and cascade
Jack emerging, gun in hand, half way between the burned out murderer and the newbie with a heart. Jack face all angsty.
I jump *every single time*. *EVERY* time. It makes my insides do that bad flip exactly as if it was an ordenary character death.
And then he gets up behind her and looks all sad as he heals.
And her face... Shock and then emptiness and then bang.
That sequence right there... Brilliant.
And we see the hole with the blood trickling pretty much just like with Jack. Realism or deliberate reference?
Gwen falling to her knees...
That glove being put in the box fingers up, just like the Doctor hand that we saw earlier... interesting visual echo.
Jack has stuff on both wrists. Wristwatch on one side and whateveritis on the other.
Also braces.
Belt? If he's a belt and braces guy that would be a Thing ;)
I love his coat on so many levels. Why is he so attached to it? Old coat now, no longer good camouflage. But he keeps it, and the title.
Did he earn it? In his own mind?
Colours, blue with some light brown.
Similar to new Doctor colours?
Wrist things on Buffy I figure map to restraint, like Oz wearing stuff on his wrists all the time after the wolf thing.
... Jack is post-Wolf himself ...
Anyway, what I got from the visuals is Jack being positioned between burnout and compassion, with the burnout an apparently deadly danger but actually him getting back up again makes it more of a problem for knock on effects, people around him.
He's wearing layers, which apart from being extremely necessary for the weather can mean a layered character, whcih we knew.
He has a weird kind of non-uniform uniform, where he's wearing the symbols to actually become unique.
Also, given that he told off the Doctor for not blending, it has to be a deliberate attitude statement of some kind, not just time traveller confusion.
That thing in his ear is not the same shape as the ones they were wearing in the Cyberman episodes. It doesn't get in the way the way those ones did, isn't an obvious block between him and the world. Instead it is an extra connection. But like the wrist wrap it puts him very close to tech.
Blue, true blue, loyal.
US bloke in UK uniform, foreign but a citizen, joining in.
Every show has a slightly different visual language so the clothes might be meaningful or might be less so. I don't know where they're writing meaning and where they're being fashionable or convenient. I mean if you try and read the clothes on a low budget thing like Highlander it drives you nuts, from all the clothes sharing.
Incidentally, the chisel in the rock being a problem... It doesn't quite make sense. The rock is a way of getting to Earth, right? A deliberate travel pod? One assumes that, once here, it would want to get out.
That would make it not precisely her fault, because she might have made a hole but it wanted to do exactly what it did and probably had the means to do so.
"I wish I was dead... No, I wish you were dead" she says
careful what you wish for
I think the visuals do a great job of being creepy and sexy both at once.
Also, cloud effect, impressive in detail.
People in clubs also look more familiar in this than they ever do on US shows. Don't know why. All the little details add up to meaning here, and now, and a particular social/economic thing.
Jack must have a belt, he's got a gun on it, yesno? Can't see under the beige layer.
Owen leather is quite different than Toshiko leather, but both dark colors.
Ianto's look is entirely distinct from everyone else. Business suit instead of all that fashion.
Owen leather looks to me like biker in the same style as the army surplus camo.
Gwen is wearing clothes I don't quite recognise, therefore they're fashionable. I can tell, you see, for they'd have to be from where I don't go.
Gwen is also in black. As a group they're black and blue?
But under this lighting Toshiko looks more brown coat.
Think it is just th elighting, the others have a tint too.
Toshiko and Owen noticeably same ear things as Jack now. Again it has a little ear bit but it mostly curls around in an interesting jawline kind of way. Not teh big block between them and the world.
I love the coat and the swooshing from going quick.
I also like the line the gun makes.
He is kind of grey blue. I don't know, it depends if the TV is set to Movie or Custom. Still, different than the rest of the group right when Gwen is matching.
By third watch I'm watching the regulars, the plot concerns me less, however well it works.
But I am interested in the regular characters, so yaay. There's so many shows that haven't managed that.
In Owen's case I'm interested in his immediate comeuppance, but...
Jack with the laser pointer, yup, belt and braces. Proverbial. Also the short sleeve button up over a white t-shirt, still layered.
But so is Owen? Red over grey? Or is that the pattern of the thing?
Gwen is down to short sleeve black and Toshiko is in grey, both button up.
"how do you switch off" got a look between Owen and Toshiko. Uninterpretable by me.
Owen, definitely still layers, can see the inner collar from here.
I think Ianto is actually in pinstripes. Very much a suit, that.
We go from all that steampunk/cyberpunk in Torchwood, blue and rust, to a very, very, very pink fluffy bedroom. Contrast!
And the bad things are in both places. Not just a rainy streets thing then.
Toshiko points a gun with conviction. Having noticed that I'm suddenly more interested.
... I'm predictable...
Owen used illegal tech rather than, for instance, guns or jumping on her.
Useful to the plot, but presumably a character thing.
Toshiko looks dressed for the office, or at least some varieties of office. Owen still looks like I'd find him shopping on the market where it smells interesting.
The 'Silence of the lambs' cells are class.
That 'danger' sign that you can see just inside the door seems to be saying you need protective clothing to leave, though, which don't look quite right.
Gwen has stuff around her neck I can't ever quite get a clear view of. Looks dangly and interesting.
Enslaving, like Xmas Special, yesno?
Alien lives off the energy of orgasms. But apparently not girl ones. Doesn't know how?
Gwen wrists, both metal, right bangle left watch, I think.
Owen is such a git. I mean seriously.
Left wrist brown leather?
Right wrist something dark, I think it was a watch at a different angle.
He was before wearing that white lab coat. Like a uniform but not?
I'm doing that compare/contrast thing again.
If my focus on the clothes seems weird, I've done this to Buffy & Angel eps before and got good data. Also I got a distinction on an essay I did for Cultural Studies on a dress from Buffy. Signs, syntagms, connotations, loads of keywords.
Heh, the cuddly boyfriend has a 'wild west' t-shirt.
Gwen isn't watching her back, leaning up against the cell... I don't know, that don't seem right for a police.
yaay, choking the git!
"She's not some lab rat"
... rat jam ...
"Strictly speaking throttling the staff is my job"
doesn't tell them stop, not giving orders, making a funny that establishes hierarchy. Interesting style.
See earlier post about orientation code being the only one they're paying attention to even though there's big clues in the clothes to completely different codes.
This bit here, when she's all "we should be doing something" (as if feeding themselves isn't something, as if police weren't having coffee over the corpse earlier) - she gets a big list from Jack about what they actually are doing right then. "Gets kind of boring". But she has this "lost what it means to be human" bit, which seems to be laying it on a bit thick. As if doctors and police everywhere don't have thick skin jokes.
"Tell me what it means to be human in the 21st century"
and yet the co-workers don't read the time code, just the sex code!
I do like her bit of competence with the profile.
... Jack is bloody gorgeous. Imean seriously. I'm looking and trying to concentrate on anything else and yet, Jack is pretty, and paying attention I am not.
"You are brilliant"
yeah, wonderful, we get it. she can do the job she trained to do. yaay.
sorry, I like it, but it seems a little bit much.
"Sex pheromones" and Gwen and Jack look at each other. Heh.
"Still want to put her father in the cell?"
eeew
Owen naked with handcuffs.. Does he always carry cuffs?
Chain around his neck. Previously have read chains as meaning chain related things mroe than fashion related things.
ooooh, wooden sword. I got one just like it. Jack looks much better using it. Also keeps it pointed properly, like he means it.
"That's worthless to anyone but me" makes soooo much sense as a thing to yell... one of those "not in front of the prisoner" things he was mentioning?
Jack's gun is vintage. What is he doing with a vintage gun? If I saw it right that's the kind with a round bit you put bullets into one at a time. Bloody impractical all things considered.
The hand thing is creepy. Possibly sweet, but creepy. Nice music clue though.
Toshiko bouncy runs well. I like her shirt.
... yes, I'm equal opportunity shallow.
What*is* that around Gwen's neck? It looks like teeth or shells or something...
I like the way Jack stands with one foot on the railing. I'm just looking at how his character is put together through signs, body language signs in this case, and its just... I'm comparing to other characters in my head and find that a distinctive gesture. It also reads to me as casual/relaxed and protective both at once - knee barrier, yet leaning casually.
What is this music with the possessed in the street bit?
Hang on, Carys is wearing blue over brown. Darker, but blue over brown. Which we saw a minute ago on Jack. Now I'm thinking even more this goes in the All About Jack as... There's something inside him?
"Carys or the alien inside. Last I saw was a fight for control."
Jack in similar fight?
Owen looks fucking creepy right before "I'd come round and shag you." He's *looking* at her. She's talking about sex=death and he's looking at her a bit like sex and a bit like death. At least so it seems to me.
There's a sword hanging on teh wall in teh background over the baby things. I think. Only the pointy bit showed just then.
Isn't any good on display, isn't any good in this situation.
Again I can read the clutter better than on a US show. That just looks familiar so many ways. Not my place, but known things.
"Work your way through my back catalog we'll be here til the sun explodes"
:-)
"The water company got really pissed off last time"
they're not dismissing it as a daft suggestion because it actually is in their power. got to love how much that tells us how fast.
Jack is driving. Its all about the car. Big armoured black four wheel drive car with flashy strobe blue lights, and Jack driving.
And a dish in the roof and all kinds of computer tech.
Owen also handles guns better than Gwen. He's loading and handing out? Huh.
Looks like there's only 4 seats in there.
I love that shot where they're pointing the guns in all directions. Team!
... Or possibly Charlie's Angels, was it?
"make me feel alive. make me feel human."
sex=human? *raised eyebrow*
dear god that kiss is hot.
I mean the glowy thing doesn't add to the hotness, but Jack really *pays attention*, you know?
You wonder what game Jack is playing here. I mean, he's a con man, he knows people, he is playing the alien, that's a given. But is he also accepting the possibility it will get into Gwen? He's risking it, so he has to be accepting it.
I love the gesture to drop the cell. So casual. No big deal, just, right place right time.
His face while it is in there... that isn't the caring face.
And yet... the caring is hiding in there. Once it is down to dust, sad face.
"still end up dying alone"
and such surprise at the kiss!
... I wonder how many times they filmed that, and there's still surprise.
And I can't name everything that goes over his face between kiss and scene change, which is why I want to watch it over and over.
Gwen wrist kind of beads and... discs of something? Stringing things together, anyways.
"Don't let the job consume you"
ep about consuming energy?
Jack turns questions back at her "You think knowing the answers would make you feel better?" Making it about her emotional needs, which incidentally is a good way to get the rational to back off, because if all they want it for is to make themselves feel better that isn't a highly prioritised reason. But if she's heart led, feeling better would be top of the heap.
So he tells her go home kiss boyfriend, giving her a heart reason that is elsewhere and more important.
Turns the question from "urgent security matter" to "personal" to "and you have better personal to do". Elegant.
Yes, I keep on saying 'Jack' when I know very well I mean 'writers'. Its the two layer analysis thing. Fans talk about characters as characters because knowing what the characters do allows us to extrapolate for fic or speculative purposes, or just to know them better, which is fun in itself.
Knowing what the writers want to do and analysing the structures and techniques they use to do it isn't so much fun.
I'll probably do that later when I'm doing lit reading though. Narratology is for narratives has to be for TV too, yesno?
If this looks like too much detailed reading in, you should see my Buffy+Angel reviews. Really.
Okay, so there's still bits I didn't do the detail on, due to an early desire to watch from the sofa. But I think this will do for now.
ETA: I only just thought because someone put them on icons, but "I'm a twat" and "feeling a bit of a cock" are fairly straightforward statements about Owen. Right now I can't think of equivalent insults aimed at any other character. So right now I suspect we're meant to think he is, in fact, a twat. If there's any laughter it is at, not with.
Also there's some discussion about comments apparently being made about how alternate sexualities are being pushed and promoted by this show. Without any mention of all the het stuff that is *everywhere*. I think that was part of the point of episode 2, with Carys. Over sexualised society, but all het? Her insistence it had to be a man? But then there was girl kissing, so... *shrugs*. I don't know. But it seems to fit in with the Jack decoding thing somehow. They're being deliberately meta as well as exploiting the timeslot. imho.
I really need to go sleep. Sleep is highly adviseable for humans.
The scene with Owen in the bar - background music "I broke into your house last night" (although I freely admit I watch with subtitles on for a *reason*, and without the writing am not 100% sure on this),
specific wording after the spray "Bloody Hellfire". Violent wording.
I mean it could be played as a love at first sight he sweeps her off her feet thing, there could be romance cliches, but the writers instead choose rude words about the bad place.
I keep watching for the jack the lad amusing rogue reading everyone else is getting out of this Owen bit but I just cannot see it. It looks to me like the classic Angel double layered creepy thing. Superficially okay but with these nasty backgrounds.
Maybe I'm reading it with the wrong brain on or something.
and OMG have I mentioned how bloody amazing Jack looks, specially stood up on that building like that?
ANYways
Gwen has a little stuffed police doll behind her that looks so cute. It reminds me of the little cute dolls Oracle has next to her computer.
Also, I have a weird liking for Gwen in that police vest. I don't know why. Except for it maybe overlapping my crossdressing thing.
Owen clothes - military camo pattern in the bar. He's teh one that says later about period military being not the dress of a straight man. So.
Also it was cheap shirt quality camo. Reminds me of people I'd see going in to shops with those pretty leaf patterns on tins.
Trying to pin down subculture for him... I never bother with US shows because I've no clue what the clues are, but for the UK he looks familiar.
I'm watching on the big TV as I type. My typo rate is way down from all the practice at college.
OOh, back to the sofa for the big scene in front of the waterfall thingy.
her with the gun has this empty circle necklace that I quite like the symbolism of.
That big shiny waterfall that is sometimes a mirror has symbolism layers. I don't know if they're using them but it has reflection and feelings and cascade
Jack emerging, gun in hand, half way between the burned out murderer and the newbie with a heart. Jack face all angsty.
I jump *every single time*. *EVERY* time. It makes my insides do that bad flip exactly as if it was an ordenary character death.
And then he gets up behind her and looks all sad as he heals.
And her face... Shock and then emptiness and then bang.
That sequence right there... Brilliant.
And we see the hole with the blood trickling pretty much just like with Jack. Realism or deliberate reference?
Gwen falling to her knees...
That glove being put in the box fingers up, just like the Doctor hand that we saw earlier... interesting visual echo.
Jack has stuff on both wrists. Wristwatch on one side and whateveritis on the other.
Also braces.
Belt? If he's a belt and braces guy that would be a Thing ;)
I love his coat on so many levels. Why is he so attached to it? Old coat now, no longer good camouflage. But he keeps it, and the title.
Did he earn it? In his own mind?
Colours, blue with some light brown.
Similar to new Doctor colours?
Wrist things on Buffy I figure map to restraint, like Oz wearing stuff on his wrists all the time after the wolf thing.
... Jack is post-Wolf himself ...
Anyway, what I got from the visuals is Jack being positioned between burnout and compassion, with the burnout an apparently deadly danger but actually him getting back up again makes it more of a problem for knock on effects, people around him.
He's wearing layers, which apart from being extremely necessary for the weather can mean a layered character, whcih we knew.
He has a weird kind of non-uniform uniform, where he's wearing the symbols to actually become unique.
Also, given that he told off the Doctor for not blending, it has to be a deliberate attitude statement of some kind, not just time traveller confusion.
That thing in his ear is not the same shape as the ones they were wearing in the Cyberman episodes. It doesn't get in the way the way those ones did, isn't an obvious block between him and the world. Instead it is an extra connection. But like the wrist wrap it puts him very close to tech.
Blue, true blue, loyal.
US bloke in UK uniform, foreign but a citizen, joining in.
Every show has a slightly different visual language so the clothes might be meaningful or might be less so. I don't know where they're writing meaning and where they're being fashionable or convenient. I mean if you try and read the clothes on a low budget thing like Highlander it drives you nuts, from all the clothes sharing.
Incidentally, the chisel in the rock being a problem... It doesn't quite make sense. The rock is a way of getting to Earth, right? A deliberate travel pod? One assumes that, once here, it would want to get out.
That would make it not precisely her fault, because she might have made a hole but it wanted to do exactly what it did and probably had the means to do so.
"I wish I was dead... No, I wish you were dead" she says
careful what you wish for
I think the visuals do a great job of being creepy and sexy both at once.
Also, cloud effect, impressive in detail.
People in clubs also look more familiar in this than they ever do on US shows. Don't know why. All the little details add up to meaning here, and now, and a particular social/economic thing.
Jack must have a belt, he's got a gun on it, yesno? Can't see under the beige layer.
Owen leather is quite different than Toshiko leather, but both dark colors.
Ianto's look is entirely distinct from everyone else. Business suit instead of all that fashion.
Owen leather looks to me like biker in the same style as the army surplus camo.
Gwen is wearing clothes I don't quite recognise, therefore they're fashionable. I can tell, you see, for they'd have to be from where I don't go.
Gwen is also in black. As a group they're black and blue?
But under this lighting Toshiko looks more brown coat.
Think it is just th elighting, the others have a tint too.
Toshiko and Owen noticeably same ear things as Jack now. Again it has a little ear bit but it mostly curls around in an interesting jawline kind of way. Not teh big block between them and the world.
I love the coat and the swooshing from going quick.
I also like the line the gun makes.
He is kind of grey blue. I don't know, it depends if the TV is set to Movie or Custom. Still, different than the rest of the group right when Gwen is matching.
By third watch I'm watching the regulars, the plot concerns me less, however well it works.
But I am interested in the regular characters, so yaay. There's so many shows that haven't managed that.
In Owen's case I'm interested in his immediate comeuppance, but...
Jack with the laser pointer, yup, belt and braces. Proverbial. Also the short sleeve button up over a white t-shirt, still layered.
But so is Owen? Red over grey? Or is that the pattern of the thing?
Gwen is down to short sleeve black and Toshiko is in grey, both button up.
"how do you switch off" got a look between Owen and Toshiko. Uninterpretable by me.
Owen, definitely still layers, can see the inner collar from here.
I think Ianto is actually in pinstripes. Very much a suit, that.
We go from all that steampunk/cyberpunk in Torchwood, blue and rust, to a very, very, very pink fluffy bedroom. Contrast!
And the bad things are in both places. Not just a rainy streets thing then.
Toshiko points a gun with conviction. Having noticed that I'm suddenly more interested.
... I'm predictable...
Owen used illegal tech rather than, for instance, guns or jumping on her.
Useful to the plot, but presumably a character thing.
Toshiko looks dressed for the office, or at least some varieties of office. Owen still looks like I'd find him shopping on the market where it smells interesting.
The 'Silence of the lambs' cells are class.
That 'danger' sign that you can see just inside the door seems to be saying you need protective clothing to leave, though, which don't look quite right.
Gwen has stuff around her neck I can't ever quite get a clear view of. Looks dangly and interesting.
Enslaving, like Xmas Special, yesno?
Alien lives off the energy of orgasms. But apparently not girl ones. Doesn't know how?
Gwen wrists, both metal, right bangle left watch, I think.
Owen is such a git. I mean seriously.
Left wrist brown leather?
Right wrist something dark, I think it was a watch at a different angle.
He was before wearing that white lab coat. Like a uniform but not?
I'm doing that compare/contrast thing again.
If my focus on the clothes seems weird, I've done this to Buffy & Angel eps before and got good data. Also I got a distinction on an essay I did for Cultural Studies on a dress from Buffy. Signs, syntagms, connotations, loads of keywords.
Heh, the cuddly boyfriend has a 'wild west' t-shirt.
Gwen isn't watching her back, leaning up against the cell... I don't know, that don't seem right for a police.
yaay, choking the git!
"She's not some lab rat"
... rat jam ...
"Strictly speaking throttling the staff is my job"
doesn't tell them stop, not giving orders, making a funny that establishes hierarchy. Interesting style.
See earlier post about orientation code being the only one they're paying attention to even though there's big clues in the clothes to completely different codes.
This bit here, when she's all "we should be doing something" (as if feeding themselves isn't something, as if police weren't having coffee over the corpse earlier) - she gets a big list from Jack about what they actually are doing right then. "Gets kind of boring". But she has this "lost what it means to be human" bit, which seems to be laying it on a bit thick. As if doctors and police everywhere don't have thick skin jokes.
"Tell me what it means to be human in the 21st century"
and yet the co-workers don't read the time code, just the sex code!
I do like her bit of competence with the profile.
... Jack is bloody gorgeous. Imean seriously. I'm looking and trying to concentrate on anything else and yet, Jack is pretty, and paying attention I am not.
"You are brilliant"
yeah, wonderful, we get it. she can do the job she trained to do. yaay.
sorry, I like it, but it seems a little bit much.
"Sex pheromones" and Gwen and Jack look at each other. Heh.
"Still want to put her father in the cell?"
eeew
Owen naked with handcuffs.. Does he always carry cuffs?
Chain around his neck. Previously have read chains as meaning chain related things mroe than fashion related things.
ooooh, wooden sword. I got one just like it. Jack looks much better using it. Also keeps it pointed properly, like he means it.
"That's worthless to anyone but me" makes soooo much sense as a thing to yell... one of those "not in front of the prisoner" things he was mentioning?
Jack's gun is vintage. What is he doing with a vintage gun? If I saw it right that's the kind with a round bit you put bullets into one at a time. Bloody impractical all things considered.
The hand thing is creepy. Possibly sweet, but creepy. Nice music clue though.
Toshiko bouncy runs well. I like her shirt.
... yes, I'm equal opportunity shallow.
What*is* that around Gwen's neck? It looks like teeth or shells or something...
I like the way Jack stands with one foot on the railing. I'm just looking at how his character is put together through signs, body language signs in this case, and its just... I'm comparing to other characters in my head and find that a distinctive gesture. It also reads to me as casual/relaxed and protective both at once - knee barrier, yet leaning casually.
What is this music with the possessed in the street bit?
Hang on, Carys is wearing blue over brown. Darker, but blue over brown. Which we saw a minute ago on Jack. Now I'm thinking even more this goes in the All About Jack as... There's something inside him?
"Carys or the alien inside. Last I saw was a fight for control."
Jack in similar fight?
Owen looks fucking creepy right before "I'd come round and shag you." He's *looking* at her. She's talking about sex=death and he's looking at her a bit like sex and a bit like death. At least so it seems to me.
There's a sword hanging on teh wall in teh background over the baby things. I think. Only the pointy bit showed just then.
Isn't any good on display, isn't any good in this situation.
Again I can read the clutter better than on a US show. That just looks familiar so many ways. Not my place, but known things.
"Work your way through my back catalog we'll be here til the sun explodes"
:-)
"The water company got really pissed off last time"
they're not dismissing it as a daft suggestion because it actually is in their power. got to love how much that tells us how fast.
Jack is driving. Its all about the car. Big armoured black four wheel drive car with flashy strobe blue lights, and Jack driving.
And a dish in the roof and all kinds of computer tech.
Owen also handles guns better than Gwen. He's loading and handing out? Huh.
Looks like there's only 4 seats in there.
I love that shot where they're pointing the guns in all directions. Team!
... Or possibly Charlie's Angels, was it?
"make me feel alive. make me feel human."
sex=human? *raised eyebrow*
dear god that kiss is hot.
I mean the glowy thing doesn't add to the hotness, but Jack really *pays attention*, you know?
You wonder what game Jack is playing here. I mean, he's a con man, he knows people, he is playing the alien, that's a given. But is he also accepting the possibility it will get into Gwen? He's risking it, so he has to be accepting it.
I love the gesture to drop the cell. So casual. No big deal, just, right place right time.
His face while it is in there... that isn't the caring face.
And yet... the caring is hiding in there. Once it is down to dust, sad face.
"still end up dying alone"
and such surprise at the kiss!
... I wonder how many times they filmed that, and there's still surprise.
And I can't name everything that goes over his face between kiss and scene change, which is why I want to watch it over and over.
Gwen wrist kind of beads and... discs of something? Stringing things together, anyways.
"Don't let the job consume you"
ep about consuming energy?
Jack turns questions back at her "You think knowing the answers would make you feel better?" Making it about her emotional needs, which incidentally is a good way to get the rational to back off, because if all they want it for is to make themselves feel better that isn't a highly prioritised reason. But if she's heart led, feeling better would be top of the heap.
So he tells her go home kiss boyfriend, giving her a heart reason that is elsewhere and more important.
Turns the question from "urgent security matter" to "personal" to "and you have better personal to do". Elegant.
Yes, I keep on saying 'Jack' when I know very well I mean 'writers'. Its the two layer analysis thing. Fans talk about characters as characters because knowing what the characters do allows us to extrapolate for fic or speculative purposes, or just to know them better, which is fun in itself.
Knowing what the writers want to do and analysing the structures and techniques they use to do it isn't so much fun.
I'll probably do that later when I'm doing lit reading though. Narratology is for narratives has to be for TV too, yesno?
If this looks like too much detailed reading in, you should see my Buffy+Angel reviews. Really.
Okay, so there's still bits I didn't do the detail on, due to an early desire to watch from the sofa. But I think this will do for now.
ETA: I only just thought because someone put them on icons, but "I'm a twat" and "feeling a bit of a cock" are fairly straightforward statements about Owen. Right now I can't think of equivalent insults aimed at any other character. So right now I suspect we're meant to think he is, in fact, a twat. If there's any laughter it is at, not with.
Also there's some discussion about comments apparently being made about how alternate sexualities are being pushed and promoted by this show. Without any mention of all the het stuff that is *everywhere*. I think that was part of the point of episode 2, with Carys. Over sexualised society, but all het? Her insistence it had to be a man? But then there was girl kissing, so... *shrugs*. I don't know. But it seems to fit in with the Jack decoding thing somehow. They're being deliberately meta as well as exploiting the timeslot. imho.
I really need to go sleep. Sleep is highly adviseable for humans.
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Date: 2006-10-24 11:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-25 12:06 am (UTC)