Rewatch 1-06 Countrycide
Jan. 22nd, 2007 06:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabethYes, this is the one I swore I'd never ever ever watch again.
I have found it occupies quite disproportionate amounts of my brainspace. I think about it almost as much as I think about Cyberwoman. It won't go away.
So I'm going to watch it through to the end and hope that makes it finish properly.
Already I have learned that the amounts of ick have been successfully edited in my memory, so it's even more gross than I expected. Oh dear.
But there's stuff going on with Ianto which is actually interesting.
A lot of stuff I've said before. Even before the first corpse turns up, this one creeps me the hell out.
The bit with the girl at the start is good craft. When the blonde is being sensible and carrying a big stick and yet still gets to the screaming? Much scarier.
But the first part that makes me vastly uncomfortable to watch is Gwen/Owen. In the trees, shoving each other around and making it about sex. and I can't read it as sexy. Wouldn't want to. To my eyes, that bit right there is sexual assault. Creepy as all hell, because she works with the man, and here he is pushing way the fuck past any reasonable lines. He said in Cyberwoman she didn't struggle. Well here she does, and he just pushes back. In his head I'm sure it's not assault, because in his head he is some kind of sex god and everyone wants him. In my head it's just sick. And nothing after this makes me read it differently, *including* that she deliberately does sex with him later. Because it doesn't change my read on him that he happens, this once, to be right about her wanting it. He's just too much of a bastard.
That said, he's already been protective of her at risk of his own life. He's not an *empty* bastard, if that makes sense. As a character I can both see why he is there and how they get all kinds of interesting out of him.
He just creeps me the hell out.
The who did you snog conversation... is actually hugely useful for character dynamics. We've got Gwen being all giggly and 'Rhys' and convenient forgettery, and we've got snarky offended Tosh, and that pays off next episode. We've got Jack showing off without answering anything, and Gwen thinking he's joking (and many fans thinking probably not, in the general, though in the specific? Last we saw was Ianto.) And we've got quiet Ianto waiting his turn to make a point.
It really is a bit bitchy to forget in, what, two weeks? That you shot a man's girlfriend.
I mean, forget to send a card, fair enough, forget her very existence and your part in her death, juuuuust a bit dodgy.
So from this we also get that Gwen, little miss don't forget to be human, is waaaaay the fuck too good at shrugging off the uncomfortable.
What I don't know is what is up between Jack and Ianto. Which could be my bad reading skills. But it could also be that they don't know - not in a 'actors don't know' sense but in a 'there's Issues and they don't know what they're doing with them yet' sense.
Further it brings up Lisa into canon in this episode. It makes it clear that Ianto has recently lost someone he cares about, and has anger issues, in his quiet way.
For all this to be more good craft, it has to be relevant to the plot.
And it is - it's the twisty little engine that gets them split up already, it reveals emotional splits that I think not coincidentally go along lines that the team splits into later.
But on other levels?
So, I paused it just when they've lost the car and Ianto found it on the little tracker thingy.
Running to catch car Ianto stumbles. I didn't notice that before.
Owen is a twat. That we knew.
Leaving the keys in the car???
Owen gets focused only on the things that he can give a toss about, and ignores what he considers petty details. He doesn't follow procedure. He gets wound up about things and this endangers security. All in small ways, but the knock on effects are going to be big.
Way to build a consistent character.
Annoying, but consistent.
On the other hand... wasn't Jack sitting in the car with the door open a minute ago?
Couldn't have noticed?
Not that I'm at all hesitant to blame Owen completely. For he is a twat.
"No other race in the universe goes camping. Celebrate your own uniqueness."
Jack just isn't good at sounding local.
I think the box Gwen is unpacking has 'Bateman's' written on it. Like, Bait and Bates? Huh.
http://www.batemanbrothers.co.uk/ "Established in 1953 Bateman Brothers is one of the oldest catering equipment hire companies in Wales"
making it entirely logical for a box from them to turn up
and yet it made me LOL
... details interest me.
Gwen's jacket looks a bit useless. And isn't flattering. It's the way it makes it look like her breasts are a long way down. And then the band rides up, and it's just, low flying boobs and no weather proofing.
... or, I need to stop looking at that area so much.
Yup, Jack in the car checking I think a map folder.
It's right after the monstervision through the plants view of the car.
Around 5 minutes in.
Talking of landscape - I still like that it's all "quarry! which planet?" but for once it's this planet. and also, possibly not a quarry, just rock.
It's making the place alien even though they didn't have to travel very long to get there.
Ianto sat in the middle fills the car up. If they hire one other person they need a second car.
/random
I know I say I hate Owen, but I have to say again I love the acting. Is a very good actor.
I love the little moment in the 'who did you snog' conversation where Owen is sitting there grinning and looks at Gwen and she just ungrins.
I also love Jack's *wah?* face of surprise. There was kissage and Jack didn't know? Surprise!
And Jack comes over to join them when Tosh isn't dropping the subject, and then does his "are we including non-human life forms" line, because then he's being distracting on purpose and not just randomly.
Jack ungrinning and looking away when Ianto says it was Lisa he last kissed... which, incidentally, not a lie - being kissed while unconscious is not kissing.
There's Story in there. We just don't know which story yet.
Ianto has this grin on. It's not quite the grin of you-don't-know-you're-in-trouble, but then again it's not quite not.
"non-human life forms" gets a reaction from Gwen (disbelief) and Owen (disgust) but a sort of noted non-reaction from Tosh.
And may, actually, be part of why Ianto mentions Lisa. Because they made such a point of her not being human at the end. So... must feel like the reaction is as much at him?
Ianto, no grin, looking down and kind of sad face, "It was Lisa"
Jack ungrins and looks away.
Owen has this expression I could call "erk?" but have no proper word for, and he looks... the camera isn't sure, but I think it goes Ianto - Gwen, and then the camera looks at Gwen and she's oops.
Apology
"Sorry she's dead or sorry you mentioned it" is still serious face
"didn't think"
*then* grin of... not quite going to headbutt but you have to wonder. "You forgot" Because it's funny? Oh, black humour indeed, for funny there.
It's a very interesting grin.
and then Jack looking out the corner of his eye again. Serious face.
loooon awkward pause
"We should get some firewood" is, actually, *Owen* defusing a social situation.
I have clearly underestimated him.
Depths of dumbth he doesn't care to join in?
Providing relatively elegant out / running away.
I'm probably going to loop back to this scene a lot, because *Ianto*, and because interesting character stuff.
I hate the plot stuff (and it makes me muchly scared), but the character stuff is in fact rather interesting.
After G & O leave
Ianto looks at Jack
who looks at Ianto
for a long moment
and then Ianto looks away
... and that could be about so many things at once.
I really don't think it's as simple as "lied about kissing! pout!" because... well, it isn't like Jack couldn't mention it. And it just seems way more Issues filled than that.
... onwards to bits of the episode I haven't now rewound about a dozen times
No, actually, next line is "couldn't you have kept that to yourself" / "embarrassed" / "arrogant shit sometimes"
so in a well crafted ep
the look connects to the next lines
so Jack and Ianto *did* keep it to themselves, therefore lack of arrogant, but embarrassed?
but also linking to the non-human comment and the angst and woe
so.
If Jack and Ianto had a conversation like Gwen and Owen have right here... maybe there's things Jack could tell from that kiss, but he isn't pressing his interpretation of them, and he sure as hell isn't pushing people against trees. Sometimes absence of conversation is also way important.
Owen is equating familiarity with bad sex.
Owen makes me feel kind of sick in so many ways.
... I piss off Owen fans. Anyone who can find stuff to have fun with there, more power to them, but me, I have fun not liking him.
And they go from this... sex/violence bit to the 'monster' in the woods and the victim lying there... Gwen/Owen is many things, but I think romantic is not on the list. Disturbing is.
It also puts insulation between Ianto mentioning Lisa and the body in the woods.
Think about it - without this conversation in between it would be cyberwoman=>dead body, and the connection would be sort of large print. But instead there's this somewhat violent sex talk in between... does that connect the two things? Because disturbing much.
Also it's a dead *man*, so it isn't dead girlfriend.
(I also have fun reading a lot into a little)
(it's like building with lego. small pieces, large structure, hugely variable)
When I say I can't see the G/O as sexy, I am not saying the two of them aren't acting like it is sexy. Looks like they're both turned on. Just... there's pushing and teeth and... ick.
... working stereo speakers make that bit in the woods much more lively.
note to self: get around to buying the surround sound.
Ending up with guns pointing at each other is a Torchwood theme.
Oh, and while I remember - also mention of suicide in this ep. Owen reckons all the disappeared probably just decided to kill themselves out there. And that he would if he was stuck out there.
Which is kind of interesting, but a can of worms I don't want to poke right now.
Dead body, really really gross.
(and squirmy)
Ianto putting the police tape up.
I just noticed that Gwen and Owen have the same colors except for their coat - brown and turquoise coats, but jeans and same color shirt underneath.
Jack is all darker blues this week.
Tosh is black and blue.
Ianto doesn't color match, at least on this image of this TV. Kind of greener.
"I'm sorry, I'm human, I ballsed up"
human = mistakes
is only interesting to note in a SF show with other options
Jack asks Tosh about the tracking signal, but Ianto is all "Already done. I... took the liberty" waving the little computer around.
Ianto the super efficient!
... it isn't just that I think he's cool, it's that he keeps doing cool things.
... yes, some of my fan crushes don't have quite so much of an evidence base...
... they seem to be a bit squinty against the light and wind in that scene. Which is making me amused, because they work in a big hole in the ground, so it's like, oh noes, natural light!
"Anyone fancy a walk"
Jack just doesn't make any invitation neutral, does he?
4 minutes => an hour by the time they get there.
Ianto timing things ;-)
Gwen: gun=pocket= *facepalm*
was it an icon or a caption, it's all fun and games until someone loses an arse cheek?
Blue tractor in the background - is that the one turns up later?
Jack splits them up Tosh+Ianto and Owen+Gwen, keeps Owen and Gwen with him. Newbie with boss makes sense.
Is Ianto not a newbie?
Because I've read fics where he's in the field for the first time, and yet not all signs suggest. Like, competence.
Monster vision, heavy breathing, and ghosty string music of tension. They're really using all the tricks here.
Owen thinks he's funny.
Sadly Jack also grins.
Flies, aaaaand.... eeeeew.
Gwen pukes? Or just makes pukey noises.
Yeah, I don't really want to see parts either.
Owen going from snark to scared brings the scary too.
Jack is the only one paying attention to his environment as well as the corpse - the noise gets only his attention.
... I'm having unfun comparisons to the gun lesson. He don't get distracted, just adds functions.
What I'm wondering is, given what we find out later is going on, why is there a fly covered body in the pub kitchen?
... because there's a logical reason for presence of specialist meats, but if it's sat around catching flies, less with the logical.
Sticky foot is a good moment.
And just saying there's another body is both thrifty and useful for the horror.
You know, watching it with the pause button is definitely helping. I can concentrate on how it is done. Distance.
I still feel really rather sick, but, that happens.
Again I'm wondering - have I not understood the eventual reveal? Wasn't it the locals killing people? So why the distribution of corpses?
"Stay focused"
"Don't you ever get scared Jack"
There is a time and a place. Honestly, she don't impress me at all. I'm not saying finding corpses creepy is a personal failing, just... well, first episode, there was a corpse. Not as creepy. But she was just drinking tea.
Here? Freaked out and... wanting to spread it around?
Here she has no uniform, no vest, no crowds of police, no backup on call.
So I can see how this situation is much much worse than that one.
But.
... does she actually want him to be freaked out?
Not the time.
Owen doing his corpse reader thing, but saying "Whatever they were"... paradigm blinds them.
He's standing in front of two large fridge/freezer thingies. You have to wonder what he'd find in there.
Oh *dear*... you know how I complained about gun in the back pocket? I'm not 100% certain, but around 16 minutes? Ianto? Waistband.
Yes, one false move and he's singing in a whole new key.
*facepalm*
There's these cunning devices for putting guns in. Jack wears one on his belt at all times. Many other sorts are available.
Shoving it down your trousers is not in fact adviseable.
Tosh grabbing the little palm computer and complaining the rest of her stuff is in the vehicle: Out of her element, smoothly shown.
Ah, different view, Tosh and Ianto both showing the same light blue color that Gwen and Owen had. Which vaguely matches the computer screens back home. Team as a layer. And Ianto's jeans are light, too, so. Matching colors here, just different jackets all round.
Sometimes you get power walk shots where the whole team is in dark coats, so yes it is on purpose.
"Just a fox or something"
... they hear a scream and split up. *sigh*
... call it overconfidence or lack of training, but you can't call it smarts.
Especially since they lack the comms.
Writers don't like people keeping in comms contact.
I refer them to Ultraviolet, the scene with one in helicopter and one in warehouse.
There's ways to use it.
Tosh gets her gun out but keeps her finger off the trigger.
And guns pointing at team again... which would be a why.
... Ianto's gun now sticking out the side, in back of his trousers? But he isn't carrying it when he steps around the corner. Even though there were thumping noises.
I had an early theory that Ianto=military. I miss that theory. That would be a fun theory.
Dead meat hanging, always creepy.
And different views of Ianto, squinty in the daylight and with his mouth hanging open.
cute.
(/sacasm)
... nice jeans. bit long. but nice.
I think Ianto's t-shirt layer is dark blue, like Jack is wearing for a shirt and Tosh is wearing as a top and Gwen and Owen as jeans.
So they're all same colors in different layers.
His jacket kind of matches the stone houses for a moment there. Huh.
And the gun is back in front again, I think. Always hard to tell. Never sure.
Maybe it was just his torch sticking out before.
You see him pull it out front right anyways.
Yeah I'm also paying attention to the Very Tense Plot.
It's doing that jumpy thing... jump cuts? Cuts with small angle of change and to much the same moment. Makes it all jumbledy without showing us much except scared!Ianto with his gun out.
I like scared yet resolute Ianto, breathing hard and doing the big eyes thing.
... but I keep getting distracted by the general impression his jeans are about to fall down.
So far there's much less ick and scary than the version in my head remembered, and much more lickable pretty Ianto.
... I possibly shouldn't say lickable in this context.
I know why Jack is the one who knows to take cover behind stone. I just don't know why the immortal one isn't the one pulling doors open.
And why *don't* they wear armour? Really? Would it suck that much?
It doesn't even have to be clunky looking. Just say alien armour fits better, or the coats are kevlar lined, or something.
drama! and medecine!
reminds me - kudos for appropriate use of character skills in this ep. Team and character in effect. Plus the tight focus on our team.
Yes, I'm contrasting it with 1-05. 1-05 does not come out well.
"Bet you thought you'd never be glad to see me"
see, self aware Owen.
eeew... eeew... eeew...
hang on, is that a piercing?
... and we're back to eeew...
holes where there shouldn't be!
next to a piercing would make it not a nice comparison.
... yet that looks to me like a shiny.
making piercings eeew = unfair.
"feeling a small prick" "thanks for offering" = LOL
I am at this point watching through my hands.
Yes, I can look at squirmy corpses easier than medecine.
Because even squirmy corpses aren't making out noise and trying to get away.
... you know, in general.
And we get a Gwen/Owen moment. Snuggly hands and significant glances and double meanings.
... they're love is so painful, blood spattered and disturbing
... and come to think of it, by this point, drugged.
*eeew*
"It's not human."
... and one wonders how the parts fit together here.
"They're not children, they know what to do."
... yeeeeeah, Jack, er, possibly?
Tosh waking up.
Ianto has a meat hook.
Generally I don't find that hot in a guy. and yet...
"You know, I never liked camping."
a) :-)
b) so he's done it before
They've had their coats removed. One vaguely wonders why. Pockets? Bags gone too.
"You all right"
"A little"
... *loves him extra*
My ear isn't the best, but has his accent gone a bit extra?
Ianto being the voice of sane and sensible?
And setting himself apart - you instead of we.
How long before you go mad or lose a loved one, he asks. Hmmm.
"Who protects us" - and yet he's the one protecting her, in a bit.
I actually kind of love the contrast between freaked out talking and fuck off grin action.
shoes shoes shoes
"I'm drowning in footwear!" => soles => let's not detour in the middle of an episode
Their fear faces make me LOL.
It's possible I'm sekritly a bad person.
... those are definite freaked out fear faces though.
... and Ianto makes me LOL again slamming the fridge.
... yup, mine is an evil laugh indeed.
"So we didn't check the cellar"
heh, oops.
Acting scared to extract information... you know, this is a compare/contrast on Jack et al gathering info. A bit of fear and this woman gets cooperation and "We don't need any help. There's three more of us in the village.", which is... possibly not the best answer. She's given away that they're out of contact and what their exact numbers are; which is probably known since they were watched putting tents up.
But the fear works because it creates sympathy.
Jack? Uses threat instead. And pain. And usually that gets resisted.
The bad guys are therefore better at this questioning lark.
Ianto is really not winning at this subdue the fat woman with the gun bit.
He's got an ouch head, maybe that's a problem.
... or maybe he's just not specially good at this.
Jack being scary is *really* disquieting. Not a nice side to anyone.
Torchwood - possibly not the good guys.
It isn't unbelievable that he used to do torture. It's just really annoying.
And now the local policeman. He's got a great big car too, with flashy lights.
Ianto gives great fear face.
"Do they look like us"
"How else are we going to look"
There's actually a lack there, lack of racial thing. I mean, since it was Tosh asking, there's room for racial insult of the not-us variety. But that would back down from the real horror, which is that monster=we=us.
And they're laughing.
And now there's kissing.
Ianto looks to Tosh. Then decides to try some attacking.
... he's... really not doing so well with the attacking thing.
*ouch* thud noises.
ouch face and handcuffs.
The two bad peoples are just effeciently managing the others. Pushing them around, simple direct movements, no faffing around. This is practiced.
"Who is he"
"He's meat. I'm afraid we're all just meat."
And again... these aren't people with an us and them mentality. They aren't defining others as monsters so they can kill them, or even inferiors. They're saying they're *all* just meat, bad guys included.
And that makes it even more creepy.
"Get ready to run."
Ianto is pretty much taking charge here. He was looking to Tosh for suggestions, but also trying to do fighting. Now he's telling her what to do, and trying fighting, despite the repeated not working.
Well giving up would certainly not work, so.
eeew eeew eeew cannibal hands on her looking at her like... urgh. I mean, I watch vampire fiction, but this is way more direct.
Tenderised. opposite of tender. eeew.
eeew, tongue.
Now Tosh looks to Ianto, and he's being all reassuring nod.
Bad guy goes over, thinks he can do the same grope and intimidate routine...
and *there's* the grin.
That is a very good grin.
Completely *nuts*, but very very good.
*Nuts* *thunk* ... ow ...
but yaaays
"Go get the others"
and ouch ouch ouch
just because he does hurt face so well do they *have* to make him do it so much?
... obviously yes.
So, does Ianto believe in team, or does he think this is a whole suicidal heroics thing?
... I think he believes. I mean, they pulled through last time.
So he's doing here what Jack did, buying time with pain, only Ianto is just a tad bit more breakable.
Ianto's injury count: one head ouch leading to unconscious, two or three fights leading to getting knocked down, one headbutting the bad guy, one getting punched by the bad guy, one rifle butt to the head leading to black screen and probably unconscious.
And repeated head injuries are multiply more dangerous than single ones.
... you know all those extra weeks happen somewhere between 1-01 and 1-08, to make the months count right? I think they happened right after this episode, so everyone could recover from the life threatening injuries and stuff.
And also, ouch.
There's quite a lot of running around in the dark right there.
I think they distribute the damsel in distress chores quite well. As in, Ianto means it isn't all girl damsels. And they all get to fight back.
I apparently don't find running in the woods tension inducing.
Strangling her is deeply fucked up and disturbing.
So we get the torch and the gun at once. hmmm.
"Get off her or I'll shoot."
see here is where I start to worry about me, because personally it feels they've passed the shoot point long since. I mean, how close did Owen have to get there? Couldn't he have pulled the trigger from several feet away, thus making Tosh *not choke*? Why do they end up so close up? I guess it could be geography, dark and trees, but... he's right next to the man. It's never sensible with a gun to be right next to the man. Because turn and grab might be stupid but that close it's possible.
When the scary Torchwood people are more hesitant to shoot people than I think I would be, I worry about me.
And then he doesn't shoot, he boots.
Owen was in the line up shooting the Cyberwoman, but here hesitates to shoot a human way the hell past the point one of his team are in danger.
hmmm.
"They murdered all the villagers"
Because then the bodies in the other houses make sense. Kill their neighbours.
Well who hasn't been tempted...?
... right, too dark a black humour there ...
So the guy on the ground says pull the trigger, but the police uniformed one does not.
Gwen threatens to shoot but when Owen shakes his head does not.
And again I don't understand *why*. They've got so many bodies on the ground, how the hell can they expect to not join them if they're disarmed? Surely they're way past the shoot them moment!
Yet they don't get shot.
Because he's standing around looking smug instead.
... narrative causality, yeah.
I think everyone gives good fear face.
And it's much less amusing when there's guns pointed at them.
But then they get back to the village meeting and all the village are there.
So again, why were there two random corpses lying around for Team Torchwood to find?
Was it all a trap for them? Were they all there as distractions? Was it a game?
I don't know, makes it creepier that there were more of the bad ones, but I'm not quite sure how it tracks.
Big knife! Ianto! Nooooooo!
... yes, threatening the woobie definitely works.
Gwen catches him when bad guy drops. Because that's one of the moments he needs a hug *really a lot*.
... and untying. that would be nice too.
And now, and only now, there's the shaking and Jack to the rescue.
Guess the torture for information bit took longer?
Or did a lot of what we saw happen all at once?
That's definitely the tractor. Little tractor. He's charged to the rescue in the world's slowest vehicle.
Heroic!
... and then he shoots them all in the legs?
... apparently the moral for the day is not 'shoot them earlier = get less hurt', it is 'good guys shoot to wound', which is fucking stupid.
He gets his magic action hero thing though.
And shoots the police uniform guy in the *hand*? Eesh.
12 shotgun and 4+ delayed 1 from his handgun.
... yes, I'm the kind of person who rewinds and counts.
er, "These people don't deserve warnings" yet are alive by that point? Bit of a mixed message there, mate.
Bad cop: bark worse than bite.
?
Gwen and her bit with having to understand why... does she not watch serial killer movies? I mean, this is why I have her pegged for soaps and comedies, because she doesn't seem to know SF or horror or anything.
... that and the thing where surely as a police constable she knows humans can be right shits?
The power flow here... Owen isn't treating anyone, Tosh says they need to get to hospital but isn't treating anyone (I know her medical skills are dubious, but still), and Gwen gets to order Owen around? Er... also, if they have only one doctor? He isn't the one that phones for help.
And Jack is letting Gwen stop him... only if he were serious, they'd all be corpses from the first. It would certainly be easier. Though the armour thing might make a difference - is that police guy vaguely bullet proof? Not in the bits that got shot.
... So they take him to the pub to question him? Why?
"What sort of people are you that you wake up in the morning and think this is what I'm going to do"
pronoun - "I'm"
again the language dissolves the us/them boundary
and this is a question Torchwood can usefully ask themselves
"Why do you care"
Gwen is the one that cares in general
"I have seen things you would never believe and this is the only thing I can't understand"
Jack looking at her.
He doesn't have the same question. He looks to her. He needs to know how *she* will react.
... and the cannibal looks at Jack like he's sharing the joke.
"made me happy" is a bit creepy
and he doesn't try and bite - which feels like a cop out, but means the only thing she has to react to is the words.
Look on her face -
the reason she can cope with Torchwood is the same reason I only watch F&SF
... which doesn't explain how she was police so long.
Police in uniform taking police away. Messed up her world, messed up her boundaries, nowhere safe.
I can see why this story does what it does. I just felt seriously backstabbed that it did it.
Jack and Owen watching her walk away. Huh. Same stance?
And it doesn't leave it there, out in the country. It could. The shot is quite reminiscent of other images, two people together at the end. But no. We go back and connect it all with Cardiff, with the everyday, usual.
"All these things, they're changing me, changing how I see the world"
would be what Torchwood is very much about.
"And I can't share them with anyone"
"You can"
which is a rather different basis than the one Owen suggested in the woods. a hell of a lot more about people than bodies.
And then we get two in a window again.
The corner of Owen's flat looking reminiscent of that corner window at the end of 1-04. But where they were seperated visually then, the two couldn't be closer now.
I think the window glass distorts a bit though.
Don't know, he always looks a bit fishmonkey to me anyways.
mirror effects, Gwen and Gwen and Gwen out in the dark.
Putting this relationship in this episode? Makes it dark as all hell.
And... well, a usual reason to have an affair would be for to make happy.
But... not so very a positive phrase, right here.
It's an interesting story. And because it ties in to plots I think I rather like it. Deeply fucked up.
But.
EEeeeew.
If you think on just the tag endings - first three are Gwen+Jack, hints of Gwen/Jack if you want. But then 4 has them visually seperated, and her doubting him. Has he ever loved anyone? Would he shoot her? And then 5 he lets them all down and they all ignore him on the way to the car. Then here, with him not being freaked out enough, and being too angry by her standards (so she has to stop him). It's all gone pear shaped, expected trajectory smashed, no Jack/Gwen here. So when she needs someone to turn to? Not Jack.
a doctor, to make her feel better?
or just the one that offered?
He's such a tosser though, it makes me *facepalm* to see her go there, and yet it do make sense.
I like the season more now it's all done and I can make shapes with it.
Now Jack/Ianto, that makes a different pattern. Because Jack saved him again. Easy to get a good opinion of a guy who keeps doing that.
I started watching at around 1800 and here it is 2133. That's a very different way to watch. Seen all through, the tension builds in the way the writers intend, under their control. Now I have a pause button. And I'm watching shields up, fully in the know of where they're going, and with my brain on. Watching to see how it is done. I'm slightly nauseated, true, but I'm not half as freaked out. Not much freaked out at all. More fascinated by the technique, and by the character arc stuff I can pull out and isolate from the plot.
Ianto is all kinds of fun in this one.
Actually they all are.
I think I must admit, this is rather a good episode. In character, team work, roles assigned and distinct, and a whole lot of scary.
I just still feel cheated by the genre it turned out to be.
According to the online word count thingy I just used, that comes out at 5505 words.
... why is it I can't manage that many for homework?
Mind you, it would be about five-ten times too much, but.
*sigh*
I have found it occupies quite disproportionate amounts of my brainspace. I think about it almost as much as I think about Cyberwoman. It won't go away.
So I'm going to watch it through to the end and hope that makes it finish properly.
Already I have learned that the amounts of ick have been successfully edited in my memory, so it's even more gross than I expected. Oh dear.
But there's stuff going on with Ianto which is actually interesting.
A lot of stuff I've said before. Even before the first corpse turns up, this one creeps me the hell out.
The bit with the girl at the start is good craft. When the blonde is being sensible and carrying a big stick and yet still gets to the screaming? Much scarier.
But the first part that makes me vastly uncomfortable to watch is Gwen/Owen. In the trees, shoving each other around and making it about sex. and I can't read it as sexy. Wouldn't want to. To my eyes, that bit right there is sexual assault. Creepy as all hell, because she works with the man, and here he is pushing way the fuck past any reasonable lines. He said in Cyberwoman she didn't struggle. Well here she does, and he just pushes back. In his head I'm sure it's not assault, because in his head he is some kind of sex god and everyone wants him. In my head it's just sick. And nothing after this makes me read it differently, *including* that she deliberately does sex with him later. Because it doesn't change my read on him that he happens, this once, to be right about her wanting it. He's just too much of a bastard.
That said, he's already been protective of her at risk of his own life. He's not an *empty* bastard, if that makes sense. As a character I can both see why he is there and how they get all kinds of interesting out of him.
He just creeps me the hell out.
The who did you snog conversation... is actually hugely useful for character dynamics. We've got Gwen being all giggly and 'Rhys' and convenient forgettery, and we've got snarky offended Tosh, and that pays off next episode. We've got Jack showing off without answering anything, and Gwen thinking he's joking (and many fans thinking probably not, in the general, though in the specific? Last we saw was Ianto.) And we've got quiet Ianto waiting his turn to make a point.
It really is a bit bitchy to forget in, what, two weeks? That you shot a man's girlfriend.
I mean, forget to send a card, fair enough, forget her very existence and your part in her death, juuuuust a bit dodgy.
So from this we also get that Gwen, little miss don't forget to be human, is waaaaay the fuck too good at shrugging off the uncomfortable.
What I don't know is what is up between Jack and Ianto. Which could be my bad reading skills. But it could also be that they don't know - not in a 'actors don't know' sense but in a 'there's Issues and they don't know what they're doing with them yet' sense.
Further it brings up Lisa into canon in this episode. It makes it clear that Ianto has recently lost someone he cares about, and has anger issues, in his quiet way.
For all this to be more good craft, it has to be relevant to the plot.
And it is - it's the twisty little engine that gets them split up already, it reveals emotional splits that I think not coincidentally go along lines that the team splits into later.
But on other levels?
So, I paused it just when they've lost the car and Ianto found it on the little tracker thingy.
Running to catch car Ianto stumbles. I didn't notice that before.
Owen is a twat. That we knew.
Leaving the keys in the car???
Owen gets focused only on the things that he can give a toss about, and ignores what he considers petty details. He doesn't follow procedure. He gets wound up about things and this endangers security. All in small ways, but the knock on effects are going to be big.
Way to build a consistent character.
Annoying, but consistent.
On the other hand... wasn't Jack sitting in the car with the door open a minute ago?
Couldn't have noticed?
Not that I'm at all hesitant to blame Owen completely. For he is a twat.
"No other race in the universe goes camping. Celebrate your own uniqueness."
Jack just isn't good at sounding local.
I think the box Gwen is unpacking has 'Bateman's' written on it. Like, Bait and Bates? Huh.
http://www.batemanbrothers.co.uk/ "Established in 1953 Bateman Brothers is one of the oldest catering equipment hire companies in Wales"
making it entirely logical for a box from them to turn up
and yet it made me LOL
... details interest me.
Gwen's jacket looks a bit useless. And isn't flattering. It's the way it makes it look like her breasts are a long way down. And then the band rides up, and it's just, low flying boobs and no weather proofing.
... or, I need to stop looking at that area so much.
Yup, Jack in the car checking I think a map folder.
It's right after the monstervision through the plants view of the car.
Around 5 minutes in.
Talking of landscape - I still like that it's all "quarry! which planet?" but for once it's this planet. and also, possibly not a quarry, just rock.
It's making the place alien even though they didn't have to travel very long to get there.
Ianto sat in the middle fills the car up. If they hire one other person they need a second car.
/random
I know I say I hate Owen, but I have to say again I love the acting. Is a very good actor.
I love the little moment in the 'who did you snog' conversation where Owen is sitting there grinning and looks at Gwen and she just ungrins.
I also love Jack's *wah?* face of surprise. There was kissage and Jack didn't know? Surprise!
And Jack comes over to join them when Tosh isn't dropping the subject, and then does his "are we including non-human life forms" line, because then he's being distracting on purpose and not just randomly.
Jack ungrinning and looking away when Ianto says it was Lisa he last kissed... which, incidentally, not a lie - being kissed while unconscious is not kissing.
There's Story in there. We just don't know which story yet.
Ianto has this grin on. It's not quite the grin of you-don't-know-you're-in-trouble, but then again it's not quite not.
"non-human life forms" gets a reaction from Gwen (disbelief) and Owen (disgust) but a sort of noted non-reaction from Tosh.
And may, actually, be part of why Ianto mentions Lisa. Because they made such a point of her not being human at the end. So... must feel like the reaction is as much at him?
Ianto, no grin, looking down and kind of sad face, "It was Lisa"
Jack ungrins and looks away.
Owen has this expression I could call "erk?" but have no proper word for, and he looks... the camera isn't sure, but I think it goes Ianto - Gwen, and then the camera looks at Gwen and she's oops.
Apology
"Sorry she's dead or sorry you mentioned it" is still serious face
"didn't think"
*then* grin of... not quite going to headbutt but you have to wonder. "You forgot" Because it's funny? Oh, black humour indeed, for funny there.
It's a very interesting grin.
and then Jack looking out the corner of his eye again. Serious face.
loooon awkward pause
"We should get some firewood" is, actually, *Owen* defusing a social situation.
I have clearly underestimated him.
Depths of dumbth he doesn't care to join in?
Providing relatively elegant out / running away.
I'm probably going to loop back to this scene a lot, because *Ianto*, and because interesting character stuff.
I hate the plot stuff (and it makes me muchly scared), but the character stuff is in fact rather interesting.
After G & O leave
Ianto looks at Jack
who looks at Ianto
for a long moment
and then Ianto looks away
... and that could be about so many things at once.
I really don't think it's as simple as "lied about kissing! pout!" because... well, it isn't like Jack couldn't mention it. And it just seems way more Issues filled than that.
... onwards to bits of the episode I haven't now rewound about a dozen times
No, actually, next line is "couldn't you have kept that to yourself" / "embarrassed" / "arrogant shit sometimes"
so in a well crafted ep
the look connects to the next lines
so Jack and Ianto *did* keep it to themselves, therefore lack of arrogant, but embarrassed?
but also linking to the non-human comment and the angst and woe
so.
If Jack and Ianto had a conversation like Gwen and Owen have right here... maybe there's things Jack could tell from that kiss, but he isn't pressing his interpretation of them, and he sure as hell isn't pushing people against trees. Sometimes absence of conversation is also way important.
Owen is equating familiarity with bad sex.
Owen makes me feel kind of sick in so many ways.
... I piss off Owen fans. Anyone who can find stuff to have fun with there, more power to them, but me, I have fun not liking him.
And they go from this... sex/violence bit to the 'monster' in the woods and the victim lying there... Gwen/Owen is many things, but I think romantic is not on the list. Disturbing is.
It also puts insulation between Ianto mentioning Lisa and the body in the woods.
Think about it - without this conversation in between it would be cyberwoman=>dead body, and the connection would be sort of large print. But instead there's this somewhat violent sex talk in between... does that connect the two things? Because disturbing much.
Also it's a dead *man*, so it isn't dead girlfriend.
(I also have fun reading a lot into a little)
(it's like building with lego. small pieces, large structure, hugely variable)
When I say I can't see the G/O as sexy, I am not saying the two of them aren't acting like it is sexy. Looks like they're both turned on. Just... there's pushing and teeth and... ick.
... working stereo speakers make that bit in the woods much more lively.
note to self: get around to buying the surround sound.
Ending up with guns pointing at each other is a Torchwood theme.
Oh, and while I remember - also mention of suicide in this ep. Owen reckons all the disappeared probably just decided to kill themselves out there. And that he would if he was stuck out there.
Which is kind of interesting, but a can of worms I don't want to poke right now.
Dead body, really really gross.
(and squirmy)
Ianto putting the police tape up.
I just noticed that Gwen and Owen have the same colors except for their coat - brown and turquoise coats, but jeans and same color shirt underneath.
Jack is all darker blues this week.
Tosh is black and blue.
Ianto doesn't color match, at least on this image of this TV. Kind of greener.
"I'm sorry, I'm human, I ballsed up"
human = mistakes
is only interesting to note in a SF show with other options
Jack asks Tosh about the tracking signal, but Ianto is all "Already done. I... took the liberty" waving the little computer around.
Ianto the super efficient!
... it isn't just that I think he's cool, it's that he keeps doing cool things.
... yes, some of my fan crushes don't have quite so much of an evidence base...
... they seem to be a bit squinty against the light and wind in that scene. Which is making me amused, because they work in a big hole in the ground, so it's like, oh noes, natural light!
"Anyone fancy a walk"
Jack just doesn't make any invitation neutral, does he?
4 minutes => an hour by the time they get there.
Ianto timing things ;-)
Gwen: gun=pocket= *facepalm*
was it an icon or a caption, it's all fun and games until someone loses an arse cheek?
Blue tractor in the background - is that the one turns up later?
Jack splits them up Tosh+Ianto and Owen+Gwen, keeps Owen and Gwen with him. Newbie with boss makes sense.
Is Ianto not a newbie?
Because I've read fics where he's in the field for the first time, and yet not all signs suggest. Like, competence.
Monster vision, heavy breathing, and ghosty string music of tension. They're really using all the tricks here.
Owen thinks he's funny.
Sadly Jack also grins.
Flies, aaaaand.... eeeeew.
Gwen pukes? Or just makes pukey noises.
Yeah, I don't really want to see parts either.
Owen going from snark to scared brings the scary too.
Jack is the only one paying attention to his environment as well as the corpse - the noise gets only his attention.
... I'm having unfun comparisons to the gun lesson. He don't get distracted, just adds functions.
What I'm wondering is, given what we find out later is going on, why is there a fly covered body in the pub kitchen?
... because there's a logical reason for presence of specialist meats, but if it's sat around catching flies, less with the logical.
Sticky foot is a good moment.
And just saying there's another body is both thrifty and useful for the horror.
You know, watching it with the pause button is definitely helping. I can concentrate on how it is done. Distance.
I still feel really rather sick, but, that happens.
Again I'm wondering - have I not understood the eventual reveal? Wasn't it the locals killing people? So why the distribution of corpses?
"Stay focused"
"Don't you ever get scared Jack"
There is a time and a place. Honestly, she don't impress me at all. I'm not saying finding corpses creepy is a personal failing, just... well, first episode, there was a corpse. Not as creepy. But she was just drinking tea.
Here? Freaked out and... wanting to spread it around?
Here she has no uniform, no vest, no crowds of police, no backup on call.
So I can see how this situation is much much worse than that one.
But.
... does she actually want him to be freaked out?
Not the time.
Owen doing his corpse reader thing, but saying "Whatever they were"... paradigm blinds them.
He's standing in front of two large fridge/freezer thingies. You have to wonder what he'd find in there.
Oh *dear*... you know how I complained about gun in the back pocket? I'm not 100% certain, but around 16 minutes? Ianto? Waistband.
Yes, one false move and he's singing in a whole new key.
*facepalm*
There's these cunning devices for putting guns in. Jack wears one on his belt at all times. Many other sorts are available.
Shoving it down your trousers is not in fact adviseable.
Tosh grabbing the little palm computer and complaining the rest of her stuff is in the vehicle: Out of her element, smoothly shown.
Ah, different view, Tosh and Ianto both showing the same light blue color that Gwen and Owen had. Which vaguely matches the computer screens back home. Team as a layer. And Ianto's jeans are light, too, so. Matching colors here, just different jackets all round.
Sometimes you get power walk shots where the whole team is in dark coats, so yes it is on purpose.
"Just a fox or something"
... they hear a scream and split up. *sigh*
... call it overconfidence or lack of training, but you can't call it smarts.
Especially since they lack the comms.
Writers don't like people keeping in comms contact.
I refer them to Ultraviolet, the scene with one in helicopter and one in warehouse.
There's ways to use it.
Tosh gets her gun out but keeps her finger off the trigger.
And guns pointing at team again... which would be a why.
... Ianto's gun now sticking out the side, in back of his trousers? But he isn't carrying it when he steps around the corner. Even though there were thumping noises.
I had an early theory that Ianto=military. I miss that theory. That would be a fun theory.
Dead meat hanging, always creepy.
And different views of Ianto, squinty in the daylight and with his mouth hanging open.
cute.
(/sacasm)
... nice jeans. bit long. but nice.
I think Ianto's t-shirt layer is dark blue, like Jack is wearing for a shirt and Tosh is wearing as a top and Gwen and Owen as jeans.
So they're all same colors in different layers.
His jacket kind of matches the stone houses for a moment there. Huh.
And the gun is back in front again, I think. Always hard to tell. Never sure.
Maybe it was just his torch sticking out before.
You see him pull it out front right anyways.
Yeah I'm also paying attention to the Very Tense Plot.
It's doing that jumpy thing... jump cuts? Cuts with small angle of change and to much the same moment. Makes it all jumbledy without showing us much except scared!Ianto with his gun out.
I like scared yet resolute Ianto, breathing hard and doing the big eyes thing.
... but I keep getting distracted by the general impression his jeans are about to fall down.
So far there's much less ick and scary than the version in my head remembered, and much more lickable pretty Ianto.
... I possibly shouldn't say lickable in this context.
I know why Jack is the one who knows to take cover behind stone. I just don't know why the immortal one isn't the one pulling doors open.
And why *don't* they wear armour? Really? Would it suck that much?
It doesn't even have to be clunky looking. Just say alien armour fits better, or the coats are kevlar lined, or something.
drama! and medecine!
reminds me - kudos for appropriate use of character skills in this ep. Team and character in effect. Plus the tight focus on our team.
Yes, I'm contrasting it with 1-05. 1-05 does not come out well.
"Bet you thought you'd never be glad to see me"
see, self aware Owen.
eeew... eeew... eeew...
hang on, is that a piercing?
... and we're back to eeew...
holes where there shouldn't be!
next to a piercing would make it not a nice comparison.
... yet that looks to me like a shiny.
making piercings eeew = unfair.
"feeling a small prick" "thanks for offering" = LOL
I am at this point watching through my hands.
Yes, I can look at squirmy corpses easier than medecine.
Because even squirmy corpses aren't making out noise and trying to get away.
... you know, in general.
And we get a Gwen/Owen moment. Snuggly hands and significant glances and double meanings.
... they're love is so painful, blood spattered and disturbing
... and come to think of it, by this point, drugged.
*eeew*
"It's not human."
... and one wonders how the parts fit together here.
"They're not children, they know what to do."
... yeeeeeah, Jack, er, possibly?
Tosh waking up.
Ianto has a meat hook.
Generally I don't find that hot in a guy. and yet...
"You know, I never liked camping."
a) :-)
b) so he's done it before
They've had their coats removed. One vaguely wonders why. Pockets? Bags gone too.
"You all right"
"A little"
... *loves him extra*
My ear isn't the best, but has his accent gone a bit extra?
Ianto being the voice of sane and sensible?
And setting himself apart - you instead of we.
How long before you go mad or lose a loved one, he asks. Hmmm.
"Who protects us" - and yet he's the one protecting her, in a bit.
I actually kind of love the contrast between freaked out talking and fuck off grin action.
shoes shoes shoes
"I'm drowning in footwear!" => soles => let's not detour in the middle of an episode
Their fear faces make me LOL.
It's possible I'm sekritly a bad person.
... those are definite freaked out fear faces though.
... and Ianto makes me LOL again slamming the fridge.
... yup, mine is an evil laugh indeed.
"So we didn't check the cellar"
heh, oops.
Acting scared to extract information... you know, this is a compare/contrast on Jack et al gathering info. A bit of fear and this woman gets cooperation and "We don't need any help. There's three more of us in the village.", which is... possibly not the best answer. She's given away that they're out of contact and what their exact numbers are; which is probably known since they were watched putting tents up.
But the fear works because it creates sympathy.
Jack? Uses threat instead. And pain. And usually that gets resisted.
The bad guys are therefore better at this questioning lark.
Ianto is really not winning at this subdue the fat woman with the gun bit.
He's got an ouch head, maybe that's a problem.
... or maybe he's just not specially good at this.
Jack being scary is *really* disquieting. Not a nice side to anyone.
Torchwood - possibly not the good guys.
It isn't unbelievable that he used to do torture. It's just really annoying.
And now the local policeman. He's got a great big car too, with flashy lights.
Ianto gives great fear face.
"Do they look like us"
"How else are we going to look"
There's actually a lack there, lack of racial thing. I mean, since it was Tosh asking, there's room for racial insult of the not-us variety. But that would back down from the real horror, which is that monster=we=us.
And they're laughing.
And now there's kissing.
Ianto looks to Tosh. Then decides to try some attacking.
... he's... really not doing so well with the attacking thing.
*ouch* thud noises.
ouch face and handcuffs.
The two bad peoples are just effeciently managing the others. Pushing them around, simple direct movements, no faffing around. This is practiced.
"Who is he"
"He's meat. I'm afraid we're all just meat."
And again... these aren't people with an us and them mentality. They aren't defining others as monsters so they can kill them, or even inferiors. They're saying they're *all* just meat, bad guys included.
And that makes it even more creepy.
"Get ready to run."
Ianto is pretty much taking charge here. He was looking to Tosh for suggestions, but also trying to do fighting. Now he's telling her what to do, and trying fighting, despite the repeated not working.
Well giving up would certainly not work, so.
eeew eeew eeew cannibal hands on her looking at her like... urgh. I mean, I watch vampire fiction, but this is way more direct.
Tenderised. opposite of tender. eeew.
eeew, tongue.
Now Tosh looks to Ianto, and he's being all reassuring nod.
Bad guy goes over, thinks he can do the same grope and intimidate routine...
and *there's* the grin.
That is a very good grin.
Completely *nuts*, but very very good.
*Nuts* *thunk* ... ow ...
but yaaays
"Go get the others"
and ouch ouch ouch
just because he does hurt face so well do they *have* to make him do it so much?
... obviously yes.
So, does Ianto believe in team, or does he think this is a whole suicidal heroics thing?
... I think he believes. I mean, they pulled through last time.
So he's doing here what Jack did, buying time with pain, only Ianto is just a tad bit more breakable.
Ianto's injury count: one head ouch leading to unconscious, two or three fights leading to getting knocked down, one headbutting the bad guy, one getting punched by the bad guy, one rifle butt to the head leading to black screen and probably unconscious.
And repeated head injuries are multiply more dangerous than single ones.
... you know all those extra weeks happen somewhere between 1-01 and 1-08, to make the months count right? I think they happened right after this episode, so everyone could recover from the life threatening injuries and stuff.
And also, ouch.
There's quite a lot of running around in the dark right there.
I think they distribute the damsel in distress chores quite well. As in, Ianto means it isn't all girl damsels. And they all get to fight back.
I apparently don't find running in the woods tension inducing.
Strangling her is deeply fucked up and disturbing.
So we get the torch and the gun at once. hmmm.
"Get off her or I'll shoot."
see here is where I start to worry about me, because personally it feels they've passed the shoot point long since. I mean, how close did Owen have to get there? Couldn't he have pulled the trigger from several feet away, thus making Tosh *not choke*? Why do they end up so close up? I guess it could be geography, dark and trees, but... he's right next to the man. It's never sensible with a gun to be right next to the man. Because turn and grab might be stupid but that close it's possible.
When the scary Torchwood people are more hesitant to shoot people than I think I would be, I worry about me.
And then he doesn't shoot, he boots.
Owen was in the line up shooting the Cyberwoman, but here hesitates to shoot a human way the hell past the point one of his team are in danger.
hmmm.
"They murdered all the villagers"
Because then the bodies in the other houses make sense. Kill their neighbours.
Well who hasn't been tempted...?
... right, too dark a black humour there ...
So the guy on the ground says pull the trigger, but the police uniformed one does not.
Gwen threatens to shoot but when Owen shakes his head does not.
And again I don't understand *why*. They've got so many bodies on the ground, how the hell can they expect to not join them if they're disarmed? Surely they're way past the shoot them moment!
Yet they don't get shot.
Because he's standing around looking smug instead.
... narrative causality, yeah.
I think everyone gives good fear face.
And it's much less amusing when there's guns pointed at them.
But then they get back to the village meeting and all the village are there.
So again, why were there two random corpses lying around for Team Torchwood to find?
Was it all a trap for them? Were they all there as distractions? Was it a game?
I don't know, makes it creepier that there were more of the bad ones, but I'm not quite sure how it tracks.
Big knife! Ianto! Nooooooo!
... yes, threatening the woobie definitely works.
Gwen catches him when bad guy drops. Because that's one of the moments he needs a hug *really a lot*.
... and untying. that would be nice too.
And now, and only now, there's the shaking and Jack to the rescue.
Guess the torture for information bit took longer?
Or did a lot of what we saw happen all at once?
That's definitely the tractor. Little tractor. He's charged to the rescue in the world's slowest vehicle.
Heroic!
... and then he shoots them all in the legs?
... apparently the moral for the day is not 'shoot them earlier = get less hurt', it is 'good guys shoot to wound', which is fucking stupid.
He gets his magic action hero thing though.
And shoots the police uniform guy in the *hand*? Eesh.
12 shotgun and 4+ delayed 1 from his handgun.
... yes, I'm the kind of person who rewinds and counts.
er, "These people don't deserve warnings" yet are alive by that point? Bit of a mixed message there, mate.
Bad cop: bark worse than bite.
?
Gwen and her bit with having to understand why... does she not watch serial killer movies? I mean, this is why I have her pegged for soaps and comedies, because she doesn't seem to know SF or horror or anything.
... that and the thing where surely as a police constable she knows humans can be right shits?
The power flow here... Owen isn't treating anyone, Tosh says they need to get to hospital but isn't treating anyone (I know her medical skills are dubious, but still), and Gwen gets to order Owen around? Er... also, if they have only one doctor? He isn't the one that phones for help.
And Jack is letting Gwen stop him... only if he were serious, they'd all be corpses from the first. It would certainly be easier. Though the armour thing might make a difference - is that police guy vaguely bullet proof? Not in the bits that got shot.
... So they take him to the pub to question him? Why?
"What sort of people are you that you wake up in the morning and think this is what I'm going to do"
pronoun - "I'm"
again the language dissolves the us/them boundary
and this is a question Torchwood can usefully ask themselves
"Why do you care"
Gwen is the one that cares in general
"I have seen things you would never believe and this is the only thing I can't understand"
Jack looking at her.
He doesn't have the same question. He looks to her. He needs to know how *she* will react.
... and the cannibal looks at Jack like he's sharing the joke.
"made me happy" is a bit creepy
and he doesn't try and bite - which feels like a cop out, but means the only thing she has to react to is the words.
Look on her face -
the reason she can cope with Torchwood is the same reason I only watch F&SF
... which doesn't explain how she was police so long.
Police in uniform taking police away. Messed up her world, messed up her boundaries, nowhere safe.
I can see why this story does what it does. I just felt seriously backstabbed that it did it.
Jack and Owen watching her walk away. Huh. Same stance?
And it doesn't leave it there, out in the country. It could. The shot is quite reminiscent of other images, two people together at the end. But no. We go back and connect it all with Cardiff, with the everyday, usual.
"All these things, they're changing me, changing how I see the world"
would be what Torchwood is very much about.
"And I can't share them with anyone"
"You can"
which is a rather different basis than the one Owen suggested in the woods. a hell of a lot more about people than bodies.
And then we get two in a window again.
The corner of Owen's flat looking reminiscent of that corner window at the end of 1-04. But where they were seperated visually then, the two couldn't be closer now.
I think the window glass distorts a bit though.
Don't know, he always looks a bit fishmonkey to me anyways.
mirror effects, Gwen and Gwen and Gwen out in the dark.
Putting this relationship in this episode? Makes it dark as all hell.
And... well, a usual reason to have an affair would be for to make happy.
But... not so very a positive phrase, right here.
It's an interesting story. And because it ties in to plots I think I rather like it. Deeply fucked up.
But.
EEeeeew.
If you think on just the tag endings - first three are Gwen+Jack, hints of Gwen/Jack if you want. But then 4 has them visually seperated, and her doubting him. Has he ever loved anyone? Would he shoot her? And then 5 he lets them all down and they all ignore him on the way to the car. Then here, with him not being freaked out enough, and being too angry by her standards (so she has to stop him). It's all gone pear shaped, expected trajectory smashed, no Jack/Gwen here. So when she needs someone to turn to? Not Jack.
a doctor, to make her feel better?
or just the one that offered?
He's such a tosser though, it makes me *facepalm* to see her go there, and yet it do make sense.
I like the season more now it's all done and I can make shapes with it.
Now Jack/Ianto, that makes a different pattern. Because Jack saved him again. Easy to get a good opinion of a guy who keeps doing that.
I started watching at around 1800 and here it is 2133. That's a very different way to watch. Seen all through, the tension builds in the way the writers intend, under their control. Now I have a pause button. And I'm watching shields up, fully in the know of where they're going, and with my brain on. Watching to see how it is done. I'm slightly nauseated, true, but I'm not half as freaked out. Not much freaked out at all. More fascinated by the technique, and by the character arc stuff I can pull out and isolate from the plot.
Ianto is all kinds of fun in this one.
Actually they all are.
I think I must admit, this is rather a good episode. In character, team work, roles assigned and distinct, and a whole lot of scary.
I just still feel cheated by the genre it turned out to be.
According to the online word count thingy I just used, that comes out at 5505 words.
... why is it I can't manage that many for homework?
Mind you, it would be about five-ten times too much, but.
*sigh*
previous comments of mine
Date: 2007-01-22 10:26 pm (UTC)first rant
trying not to rant
Re: previous comments of mine
Date: 2007-01-22 11:45 pm (UTC)Re: previous comments of mine
Date: 2007-01-22 11:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-23 12:44 am (UTC)Oh, I loved that little Lisa reference. I'm not entirely sure whether or not the writers intentionally made Ianto's moving on so nicely gradual, but if you read between the lines that's what you get. In Cyberwoman, there were flashes early on the ep that Ianto was actually aware that things were wrong and that (maybe) the cyberwoman wasn't actually his Lisa. I thought it a bittersweet nod that he was making himself let go of his old dreams. Firstly the one of there being a cure for what happened to her. And then, by Countrycide, making himself acknowledge that - even if he loved her - life with Lisa was not 100% idyllic and he shouldn't remember it that way.
And then Countrycide also forced him to accept that he truly preferred to live, even without Lisa, than to give up and die. Which then left him in a nicely depressive state of knowing he will make himself move on and keep living, but not yet sure exactly what he's living for. (Cue emo!tummy!rats, as overheard by Tosh in the next ep.)
Ah Ianto. He does suffer so prettily *nods*
no subject
Date: 2007-01-24 02:05 am (UTC)... though there may be a hint of skepticism there ...
There's definitely emotion arc with Ianto, but I feel like the reader does most of the work for it.
because I don't do short comments
Date: 2007-01-23 11:34 pm (UTC)I dont like his character at all. Mainly because he used this alien sex spray to get random pretty people to sleep with him. Which, in my book, equals rape. It's as if you slip someone a dose of roofies and the next morning tell them that they wanted it. Maybe the alien spray is even worse for making people believe they want to sleep with Owen.
Needless to say that Owen's character never recovered from this in my eyes.
Re: Gwen's Boobs
I noticed that, too. I noticed because I was watching
her boobssome of the other episodes and thought she had nice breasts. But that turquoise jacket was really an unfortunate choice.Re: Corpses in the village
I was wondering why there were corpses at all. The villagers were all participating in this little cannibalism ritual, right? Now, if my neighbour runs a fully functioning human meat processing unit from the room off his kitchen, why would I leave skinned corpses in my inn?
Mostly, I think it was just to add some shock value for the audience and to introduce the thought that this was something really evil and inhumane and - oh, surprise! - totally utterly human after all.
... they hear a scream and split up. *sigh*
... call it overconfidence or lack of training, but you can't call it smarts.
I call it 'obviously they don't have time to watch horror films.'
I refer them to Ultraviolet, the scene with one in helicopter and one in warehouse.
That reminds me... I did want to see the rest of that series. It vaguely embarrassing that I watched the first episode and then completely forgot about it.
I had an early theory that Ianto=military. I miss that theory. That would be a fun theory.
But it could be an AU fanfic theory. ...damn. Now, will someone please write that?
I am at this point watching through my hands.
Yes, I can look at squirmy corpses easier than medecine.
Hmm. The only thing I cannot look at is needles + eyes. I have no problems with needles or eyes, but both of them together, as in, needle in eye - scary emotional trauma. I remember this House episode where someone gets a damn huge needle up their eye - it took me hours to get back to the episode without getting the feeling of urgh!gag!barf.
It isn't unbelievable that he used to do torture.
Actually, he'd be perfect for it, seeing as he seems to have little emotional attachments and his own personal moral code.
I'm thinking Ianto had a major freak-out moment when he woke up in that dark cellar. By the time he head-butts creepy!cannibal, he's back to being in charge of himself and in control of his feelings. Of course, by the time they tenderised him and prepared him for slaughter, his control is probably shot to hell again.
Gwen catches him when bad guy drops. Because that's one of the moments he needs a hug *really a lot*.
... and untying. that would be nice too.
That's quite possibly my favourite scene in the whole episode. I couldn't see Gwen and Ianto in any sort of relationship besides "she's the new girl - he's the guy who picks up shit and brings coffee" but the way Gwen just catches him says that maybe they do, on occasion, talk to each other.
~ sera
Re: because I don't do short comments
Date: 2007-01-25 12:53 pm (UTC)*nods*
*nods*
*nods*
You *really* do want to watch. Is awesome.
Writing AUs always goes to the end of my to-do list. So much more fun to write things that aren't AU for a whole bunch of months yet. ;-)
needles are quite difficult to watch in general, for me.
Actually, he'd be perfect for it, seeing as he seems to have little emotional attachments and his own personal moral code.
But are we seeing cause or effect? Chosen for those qualities or developed them to survive what he did?
... plus I don't actually see little emotional attachment.
... and his moral code could be common to his century; we lack data.
Reckon Ianto was freaked out right up until the grin. I'd suspect he was freaked out while grinning, but past a certain point it's quite difficult to get *more* freaked out without passing out so you kind of get the hang of it.
I'm now trying to remember any time Gwen and Ianto exchange words outsides of a group meeting or that first time with the pizza boxes.
... still trying ...
... *has vague thoughts maybe they speak welsh when the others aren't around... unlikely, but cannot contradict from canon knowledge right now*
Re: because I don't do short comments
Date: 2007-01-27 11:59 pm (UTC)We don't really know what Jack's job in the Time Agency was. Maybe he was an interrogator; interrogation (and torture) could be what he was trained for. He says in 'Captain Jack Harness' that he and his friend joined the military (without expecting the reality of war to be so ...deadly) - it might be something he did during his time in the military. Or the Time Agency could actually be a branch of the military. We just don't know. (Secretly, though, I think the whole torture thing was a decision on part of the writer(s) to make Jack's character a little darker. Just because. Or maybe because they wanted to counter the (bad ebil) darkness of the cannibals with another kind of darkness, a sort of 'good' darkness which is ultimately the reason why the rest of the team is rescued - because without the intel from his interrogation, Jack might have been too late to save them.)
Anyway, I wanted to talk about Jack's emotional attachments. In my opinion, Jack has been watching people he cares about die. A lot. I don't think that he built up many emotional attachments before meeting Rose and the Doctor. Of course there were exceptions (no person can live without some sort of connection to others) - like Estelle (although I could argue this point saying that we don't know when (when in his personal timeline I mean) Jack met Estelle - as a time traveller (assuming that was part of his job) he certainly "jumped" in time, meaning he could be in the sixteenth century for one job and then turn up in 3492 before going back to 1258 or something. Time is relative.)
But maybe you're right. I thought about this a lot, and Jack does have attachments. It's obvious in the way he and the team interact. He wouldn't act the way he does if he didn't care for them. However, he's the sort of person who does what has to be done, no matter what he himself feels. He is someone who would sacrifice himself for The Cause or to save someone else's life (he'd probably do that if he wasn't immortal, too). But he's also prepared to sacrifce someone else's life in order to save everyone else. He does it in Small Worlds - I know the girl isn't technically dead, but the team certainly thinks he sacrificed her, gave her up without a fight (something I don't agree with, personally - IMO there was nothing else he could have done and he did the only thing he could.) He's the sort of guy that thinks individuals are important, but expendable if the collective life of a whole people is at stake.
I'm now trying to remember any time Gwen and Ianto exchange words outsides of a group meeting or that first time with the pizza boxes.
... still trying ...
... *has vague thoughts maybe they speak welsh when the others aren't around... unlikely, but cannot contradict from canon knowledge right now*
They don't have any real screen time together at all. That's why I like that little glimpse of possibility so much. Granted, it could just be an instinctive reaction to the trauma of being hunted and almost killed by a bunch of insane villagers, but I like to think that Gwen does care about Ianto
even though she's a total Mary Sue.~ sera
Re: because I don't do short comments
Date: 2007-01-29 08:33 pm (UTC)I suspect the writers went to the ends justify the means place, yeah.
But what really, really annoys me about it is, torture doesn't work. Not as a method of intelligence gathering. I've ranted on this before, and found links, and it remains true and important. Torture does not work.
Except in television, which promotes a truly poisonous idea, where it never works on the good guys and always works on the bad guys if the good guys do it and it's just... fucked up. Because all torture does is get someone to say stuff, it doesn't get them saying *true* stuff. It's like witch trials, they say stuff to fit what the torturer expects to be true. So if Jack was expecting aliens? He'd waste his time torturing a guy until he admitted to aliens.
That Jack can quickly believe cannibals instead is character moment.
But torture is *dumb* because it does not, in fact, work.
So whenever it turns up on TV working I hate it very much indeed.
Jack & emotion stuff = *nods*
Re: because I don't do short comments
Date: 2007-01-30 07:27 am (UTC)That Jack can quickly believe cannibals instead is character moment.
Oh, so true. Imagine it was Gwen doing the torture (well, just pretend she'd do it, okay) and the guy starts talking about cannibals. She can't fit it into her world view,so she assumes he's lying. She applies more pressure, until the guy finally starts talking aliens. Meanwhile, Ianto and Tosh get chopped up by a merry bunch of cannibals. ...Heh.
~ sera