Torchwood finale
Jan. 1st, 2007 11:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabeth*VERY BIG GRIN*
Yes!
That was so cool!
Also, I totallybeccaelizabeth.livejournal.com/863575.html#cutid1
https://beccaelizabeth.dreamwidth.org/859677.html
called it. Score!
And the stuff I was afraid of didn't happen.
I mean, it wasn't quite everything my shippy little heart desires, but damn it was closer than TV usually gets. And considering the dance it has to do? Very, very close.
I'm almost sad the two episodes ran back to back like that, because the moods were so different, even if the one did link in to the other.
Captain Jack Harkness, dancing with the man of his dreams on his last night on earth... Did I mention I was already tearful today?
I was gulping like crazy and trying not to get the screen blurred.
Because it matters. That was all I could think. Mum asks me sometimes why I get wound up about what stories are on TV, and what aren't, and this would be why. Because it *matters*.
I don't know as I can explain it any more coherently than that tonight.
In other news... they took away Jack's name *but* at the same time gave us his history. He's talking to a man who'll be dead by the end of the day, he isn't going to lie. The look on his face by the end of that dance? He *isn't* going to lie. So that story he told about him and his best mate, signing up together? That is Jack Harkness. He served in the war, and which war is a much longer story, but he has served.
That part gives us back a Jack that the whole con man thing made rather dodgy. It isn't just after the Doctor that Jack did this stuff. He isn't faking all of it.
That last image, going into the light and watching him salute... damn that was good television. That was just... and I'm back to incoherent 'it matters'.
So. Owen opened the rift without knowing what he was doing. And all hell broke loose.
I like the specific kinds of hell - that it was disease. For one because it always bothers me there's all this time travel and no epidemics, but for another because Owen's a doctor, so that has to be his personal hell right there.
As a Buffy fan I can't help but feel like I've seen parts of this story before. Hello the First, we have not missed you.
Only this time was totally different because it was a random timewalker old guy who worshipped the son of the Beast. Presumably the one the Doctor destroyed out around the black hole. Which makes all that 'something in the darkness' bit the local equivalent of 'from beneath you it devours'.
I was so scared they'd fuck up Jack and Ianto. Now they haven't I can applaud them for creating dramatic tension. And watch again properly without the metaphorical (well, mostly metaphorical) peeping between my fingers. There were so many great Ianto moments but I was just so worried about the ending I couldn't trust them, you know?
But I loved the balance they ended up with. He'd still do anything to bring Lisa back, but not the kind of anything Owen pulled. He's the one to go to Jack's side and look horrified.
And yet he doesn't change his mind about the rift plan. I think I like that. Bit of a waste elsewise. Yet, such a dumb plan in the first place.
Hints for those that don't read enough fiction: Prophecy? Never so straightforward.
And here again we have lovely echoes across the whole series, because that's twice Gwen's attempts to avoid a vision of the future brought it on.
Ianto with Jack's coat... that Ianto would pick up Jack's coat while they're running for their lives, god bless... And then later, when they say it has been days (three, I wonder?), and Ianto is tidying up and just... snuggle coat! Crying!
And the handshake that turned into a hug that turned into a kiss!
Bloody Owen might say "In your wet dreams where you're his part time shag" but there's plenty of room for Ianto to be right.
Ianto reckons "Jack needs me".
I was looking all day for why Ianto would fall for Jack, and yet I overlooked the obvious.
Right there, that makes perfect sense.
I am so not with the coherent tonight.
The thread that vaguely bothered me yet might possibly let the Doctor off the hook...
Okay, so Jack feels like he was brought back and left behind the way he is for a reason. He mentions that to Tosh, so we the audience know it too. And then conveniently the next episode gives us a pretty damn good reason. Something no one else could do.
Use the Quickening to blow up a demon - score! Got to love that.
... yes, this 'verse don't call it that. Don't mean that's not what it is. I mean, blue light! Is obvious!
And then, right at the end, when we get to hear the one thing that would make Jack risk blowing up the universe? "The right kind of Doctor."
Glowing hand! TARDIS noise! Wind goes whooosh and Jack vanishes!
Gee, I wonder what happened right there.
*happy dance, happy dance, happy dance*
And what I mean about it letting the Doctor off the hook is that if this was planned, known, something that needed to happen? Then maybe the man doesn't need dropping in ice water for leaving.
But then again, for leaving like that?
I still vote for the ice, myself.
But it gives him some wiggle room for what is otherwise pretty damn near unforgiveable.
I mean it's not like getting the wrong end of the country.
The one part of the ep that didn't work for me was the effect once the rift was cranked open. So, okay, everyone that fell through the rift goes back to where they were before. Fair enough. BUT.
For one, how much of an everyone? How about those three who came through a few weeks back? Would they all have ended up back home? Did the living one?
Did she have a plane with her at the time?
Little details, but you wonder.
Why wasn't Jack included? That would be a 'clue' I guess. He didn't use the rift to get there. Which makes him not wanting to crank it open entirely unselfish. Which is a bit of a relief.
But, Rhys. What did Rhys have to do with the rift? It should be a Tara, not a Buffy. Stabbed is not a magical death. Magically unhappening makes no sense.
And it makes me facepalm. You want to have a big speech about consequences, some of them have to be personal.
Which would be why Owen got shot. And yaay Ianto, doing his job. And double yaay aiming for the shoulder, which is stupid in that he has a heart way.
Owen getting fired, also logical. That whole scene, with the knowing he's going to get mindwiped and that "I'd say thanks for the memories, but."
Love that. Owen's reactions once he was out of sight, love that too. I may rather intensely dislike the character, but the actor? Bloody good. Severely good. Seriously.
Owen killing Jack? I theorised at the beginning of the season based purely on the names and that bit in the first episode. Owen killed the knight of the fountain. I realise it's almost pure luck to be able to pull data out of a name, but it's really rather fun.
I can't help but noticing that the end of the season leaves all the 'ships as just as possible as they were in the middle. A bit more canon all round, but the Rhys/Gwen/Owen triangle can continue, and the Jack/Ianto not only exists, it's acknowledged that the others know. Which is nifty.
I predict serious Ianto angst kicking off next season.
Unless they get a lot more soap opera we're unlikely to get serious happy reunions though.
Okay, a lot more soap or a lot more porn.
... *distracted by porn bunny in shower again* ...
I'm slightly disatisfied with the relative amount we get to see of Gwen's relationships compared to, just for instance, Jack/Ianto. I mean, we got two kisses, an implied relationship, and some innuendo. Which is lovely, but compare it to Gwen/Owen and I get annoyed.
But Jack/Jack was lovely. Wonderful romantic stuff. Depressing, but wonderful.
This is what I mean about the relationship dance. Jack has the possibility of romance with everyone, and that leaves room for great storytelling. But he also has someone waiting for him back at the hub, who thinks he needs him (and in my shippy little heart is quite right). And *then* he also also has to have this eternal forever love thing with the Doctor, because that's basically the point of the 'verse and much as I adore Ianto I'm still sooooo frustrated that we have to wait and wait and wait to see things work out with the Doctor.
On the other hand the tiny amounts we've seen of Jack/Ianto put him precisely one kiss ahead of Jack/Doctor. The relationships are otherwise pretty much level in how much we've been shown. In fact it's possible the Doctor was more flirty.
So, obviously there needs to be one more kiss with the Doctor to get them level again.
And then maybe some more to be going on with.
;-)
But yeah, if Jack goes monogamous with any one person - any at all - he loses both possibilities and some of what I like him for, so I don't actually want to see that. But poly relationships on TV?
Was the other part of why I liked Jack/Doctor/Rose (despite not liking Rose).
And would be good.
Really, I understand love to be of the good, but monogamy seems to make the most messes.
Yaay for love!
Jack/Ianto and Jack/Doctor and Jack/whoever needs it this week. All good.
... as long as it is emotionally real every time. We've got Owen for being the meaningless playboy, Jack gives his heart away often and often.
I'm back to almost (almost!) wanting the two eps to be a bit further apart, because I feel like I can't concentrate on any particular bit of shiny because it's all shiny all everywhere. All of it.
Like the random anti-racism at the 1941 dance - without people like Toshiko they couldn't win the war. Class.
Or just how... subtle and real and... One night but *not* a one night stand in the dismissive sense... They made that dance mean something, and that kiss, and on a show that can show 100% of everything if they feel like it to put the craft in and get so much into one movie perfect moment... I think I might possibly love that episode more than any piece of TV ever. I mean, I'm sure I'll think of other things later, but just at the moment I'm full of it.
And yet at the same time I'm full of the kind of bouncy yaay excitement you get from the next episode, where they get to kick Abaddon's arse. Which is classy.
And life beats death.
And willing sacrifice doesn't go into the dark to stay.
Aslan rule was always my favourite ;-)
All you can eat buffet. And you know for once he didn't make it sound dirty. But that was very much fun.
And linked together with the previous ep it kind of makes me think of why I was so highly amused on a meta level by Jack's new ability. You've got the bad old cliché that kills queer characters, and now you've got a queer character with the superpower of dying a lot. And connect that to live every night as if it were your last. Because Jack really, really, knows that lesson. And then he's so alive he's just too much for the end of the world dude to handle.
... He died to save the world. And then got to come back. Rather liking that.
The one and only thing I didn't quite like was it being Gwen who did the sleeping beauty thing. I mean, totally obvious they would go with that, but... y'all know who I was hoping for. Still, all part of the dance. I might not like Gwen enough to like that moment, but I'm sure a lot of fans do. Plus I can console myself with the role reversal thing there. Jack as sleeping beauty, Gwen the prince.
Only other detail I noticed... I did vaguely inappropriate LOL when I saw which draw he was in. Because I'd noted before, Suzie was in 006, which is funny because 006 dies a lot. But Jack was right next to her.
Yes, Jack was 007.
:eyeroll: and LOL
(also, those draws have cards on the insides with a whole list of names and dates and stuff. looks kind of like a library card. checking in, checking out...)
I really, really, really liked these eps. They're the kind of ending that means I can like earlier stuff better. I can go back over stuff and make patterns. Love that.
And also, there was kissing.
*very very very happy grin*
bonus: being currently nocturnal, staying up to watch the small hours repeats will be no hardship at all. Excellent. :-)
Yes!
That was so cool!
Also, I totally
https://beccaelizabeth.dreamwidth.org/859677.html
called it. Score!
And the stuff I was afraid of didn't happen.
I mean, it wasn't quite everything my shippy little heart desires, but damn it was closer than TV usually gets. And considering the dance it has to do? Very, very close.
I'm almost sad the two episodes ran back to back like that, because the moods were so different, even if the one did link in to the other.
Captain Jack Harkness, dancing with the man of his dreams on his last night on earth... Did I mention I was already tearful today?
I was gulping like crazy and trying not to get the screen blurred.
Because it matters. That was all I could think. Mum asks me sometimes why I get wound up about what stories are on TV, and what aren't, and this would be why. Because it *matters*.
I don't know as I can explain it any more coherently than that tonight.
In other news... they took away Jack's name *but* at the same time gave us his history. He's talking to a man who'll be dead by the end of the day, he isn't going to lie. The look on his face by the end of that dance? He *isn't* going to lie. So that story he told about him and his best mate, signing up together? That is Jack Harkness. He served in the war, and which war is a much longer story, but he has served.
That part gives us back a Jack that the whole con man thing made rather dodgy. It isn't just after the Doctor that Jack did this stuff. He isn't faking all of it.
That last image, going into the light and watching him salute... damn that was good television. That was just... and I'm back to incoherent 'it matters'.
So. Owen opened the rift without knowing what he was doing. And all hell broke loose.
I like the specific kinds of hell - that it was disease. For one because it always bothers me there's all this time travel and no epidemics, but for another because Owen's a doctor, so that has to be his personal hell right there.
As a Buffy fan I can't help but feel like I've seen parts of this story before. Hello the First, we have not missed you.
Only this time was totally different because it was a random timewalker old guy who worshipped the son of the Beast. Presumably the one the Doctor destroyed out around the black hole. Which makes all that 'something in the darkness' bit the local equivalent of 'from beneath you it devours'.
I was so scared they'd fuck up Jack and Ianto. Now they haven't I can applaud them for creating dramatic tension. And watch again properly without the metaphorical (well, mostly metaphorical) peeping between my fingers. There were so many great Ianto moments but I was just so worried about the ending I couldn't trust them, you know?
But I loved the balance they ended up with. He'd still do anything to bring Lisa back, but not the kind of anything Owen pulled. He's the one to go to Jack's side and look horrified.
And yet he doesn't change his mind about the rift plan. I think I like that. Bit of a waste elsewise. Yet, such a dumb plan in the first place.
Hints for those that don't read enough fiction: Prophecy? Never so straightforward.
And here again we have lovely echoes across the whole series, because that's twice Gwen's attempts to avoid a vision of the future brought it on.
Ianto with Jack's coat... that Ianto would pick up Jack's coat while they're running for their lives, god bless... And then later, when they say it has been days (three, I wonder?), and Ianto is tidying up and just... snuggle coat! Crying!
And the handshake that turned into a hug that turned into a kiss!
Bloody Owen might say "In your wet dreams where you're his part time shag" but there's plenty of room for Ianto to be right.
Ianto reckons "Jack needs me".
I was looking all day for why Ianto would fall for Jack, and yet I overlooked the obvious.
Right there, that makes perfect sense.
I am so not with the coherent tonight.
The thread that vaguely bothered me yet might possibly let the Doctor off the hook...
Okay, so Jack feels like he was brought back and left behind the way he is for a reason. He mentions that to Tosh, so we the audience know it too. And then conveniently the next episode gives us a pretty damn good reason. Something no one else could do.
Use the Quickening to blow up a demon - score! Got to love that.
... yes, this 'verse don't call it that. Don't mean that's not what it is. I mean, blue light! Is obvious!
And then, right at the end, when we get to hear the one thing that would make Jack risk blowing up the universe? "The right kind of Doctor."
Glowing hand! TARDIS noise! Wind goes whooosh and Jack vanishes!
Gee, I wonder what happened right there.
*happy dance, happy dance, happy dance*
And what I mean about it letting the Doctor off the hook is that if this was planned, known, something that needed to happen? Then maybe the man doesn't need dropping in ice water for leaving.
But then again, for leaving like that?
I still vote for the ice, myself.
But it gives him some wiggle room for what is otherwise pretty damn near unforgiveable.
I mean it's not like getting the wrong end of the country.
The one part of the ep that didn't work for me was the effect once the rift was cranked open. So, okay, everyone that fell through the rift goes back to where they were before. Fair enough. BUT.
For one, how much of an everyone? How about those three who came through a few weeks back? Would they all have ended up back home? Did the living one?
Did she have a plane with her at the time?
Little details, but you wonder.
Why wasn't Jack included? That would be a 'clue' I guess. He didn't use the rift to get there. Which makes him not wanting to crank it open entirely unselfish. Which is a bit of a relief.
But, Rhys. What did Rhys have to do with the rift? It should be a Tara, not a Buffy. Stabbed is not a magical death. Magically unhappening makes no sense.
And it makes me facepalm. You want to have a big speech about consequences, some of them have to be personal.
Which would be why Owen got shot. And yaay Ianto, doing his job. And double yaay aiming for the shoulder, which is stupid in that he has a heart way.
Owen getting fired, also logical. That whole scene, with the knowing he's going to get mindwiped and that "I'd say thanks for the memories, but."
Love that. Owen's reactions once he was out of sight, love that too. I may rather intensely dislike the character, but the actor? Bloody good. Severely good. Seriously.
Owen killing Jack? I theorised at the beginning of the season based purely on the names and that bit in the first episode. Owen killed the knight of the fountain. I realise it's almost pure luck to be able to pull data out of a name, but it's really rather fun.
I can't help but noticing that the end of the season leaves all the 'ships as just as possible as they were in the middle. A bit more canon all round, but the Rhys/Gwen/Owen triangle can continue, and the Jack/Ianto not only exists, it's acknowledged that the others know. Which is nifty.
I predict serious Ianto angst kicking off next season.
Unless they get a lot more soap opera we're unlikely to get serious happy reunions though.
Okay, a lot more soap or a lot more porn.
... *distracted by porn bunny in shower again* ...
I'm slightly disatisfied with the relative amount we get to see of Gwen's relationships compared to, just for instance, Jack/Ianto. I mean, we got two kisses, an implied relationship, and some innuendo. Which is lovely, but compare it to Gwen/Owen and I get annoyed.
But Jack/Jack was lovely. Wonderful romantic stuff. Depressing, but wonderful.
This is what I mean about the relationship dance. Jack has the possibility of romance with everyone, and that leaves room for great storytelling. But he also has someone waiting for him back at the hub, who thinks he needs him (and in my shippy little heart is quite right). And *then* he also also has to have this eternal forever love thing with the Doctor, because that's basically the point of the 'verse and much as I adore Ianto I'm still sooooo frustrated that we have to wait and wait and wait to see things work out with the Doctor.
On the other hand the tiny amounts we've seen of Jack/Ianto put him precisely one kiss ahead of Jack/Doctor. The relationships are otherwise pretty much level in how much we've been shown. In fact it's possible the Doctor was more flirty.
So, obviously there needs to be one more kiss with the Doctor to get them level again.
And then maybe some more to be going on with.
;-)
But yeah, if Jack goes monogamous with any one person - any at all - he loses both possibilities and some of what I like him for, so I don't actually want to see that. But poly relationships on TV?
Was the other part of why I liked Jack/Doctor/Rose (despite not liking Rose).
And would be good.
Really, I understand love to be of the good, but monogamy seems to make the most messes.
Yaay for love!
Jack/Ianto and Jack/Doctor and Jack/whoever needs it this week. All good.
... as long as it is emotionally real every time. We've got Owen for being the meaningless playboy, Jack gives his heart away often and often.
I'm back to almost (almost!) wanting the two eps to be a bit further apart, because I feel like I can't concentrate on any particular bit of shiny because it's all shiny all everywhere. All of it.
Like the random anti-racism at the 1941 dance - without people like Toshiko they couldn't win the war. Class.
Or just how... subtle and real and... One night but *not* a one night stand in the dismissive sense... They made that dance mean something, and that kiss, and on a show that can show 100% of everything if they feel like it to put the craft in and get so much into one movie perfect moment... I think I might possibly love that episode more than any piece of TV ever. I mean, I'm sure I'll think of other things later, but just at the moment I'm full of it.
And yet at the same time I'm full of the kind of bouncy yaay excitement you get from the next episode, where they get to kick Abaddon's arse. Which is classy.
And life beats death.
And willing sacrifice doesn't go into the dark to stay.
Aslan rule was always my favourite ;-)
All you can eat buffet. And you know for once he didn't make it sound dirty. But that was very much fun.
And linked together with the previous ep it kind of makes me think of why I was so highly amused on a meta level by Jack's new ability. You've got the bad old cliché that kills queer characters, and now you've got a queer character with the superpower of dying a lot. And connect that to live every night as if it were your last. Because Jack really, really, knows that lesson. And then he's so alive he's just too much for the end of the world dude to handle.
... He died to save the world. And then got to come back. Rather liking that.
The one and only thing I didn't quite like was it being Gwen who did the sleeping beauty thing. I mean, totally obvious they would go with that, but... y'all know who I was hoping for. Still, all part of the dance. I might not like Gwen enough to like that moment, but I'm sure a lot of fans do. Plus I can console myself with the role reversal thing there. Jack as sleeping beauty, Gwen the prince.
Only other detail I noticed... I did vaguely inappropriate LOL when I saw which draw he was in. Because I'd noted before, Suzie was in 006, which is funny because 006 dies a lot. But Jack was right next to her.
Yes, Jack was 007.
:eyeroll: and LOL
(also, those draws have cards on the insides with a whole list of names and dates and stuff. looks kind of like a library card. checking in, checking out...)
I really, really, really liked these eps. They're the kind of ending that means I can like earlier stuff better. I can go back over stuff and make patterns. Love that.
And also, there was kissing.
*very very very happy grin*
bonus: being currently nocturnal, staying up to watch the small hours repeats will be no hardship at all. Excellent. :-)
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2007-01-02 12:26 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-02 12:29 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-02 07:58 am (UTC)*makes mental note to, like, spellcheck and stuff it people actually read it*
;-)
no subject
Date: 2007-01-02 07:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-05 11:10 am (UTC)And when you think of Suzie and Jack, that's about right too. ;)
Thank you, I've never read before and I really enjoyed your review.
They're the kind of ending that means I can like earlier stuff better. I can go back over stuff and make patterns. Love that.
And also, there was kissing.
Summed it up perfectly for me. :D