Rewatch 1-08 They Keep Killing
Jan. 27th, 2007 09:22 pmFirst new thing I notice?
"Hey, I've got those trousers!"
... yes, me and corpse-on-the-right have the same fashion sense.
*facepalm*
... although, it does suggest a really *unusual* costume choice for the next convention...
Spoilers under the cut, obviously
That "you did this, Captain Jack Harkness" at the start hooks together with the "we're both responsible", and in both cases is both dead right and dead wrong.
The plan looks a little long-shot if you assume it needs someone to resurrect her - after all, she was the only one to use the glove. But - retcon. See 1-13. They know they can't get out with their mind intact. So if she gets fired? Give them a reason to bring her *mind* back.
It clunks a bit in ways familiar to me from trying to write stuff to be read. Jack says 'Gwen' when talking to Gwen, says 'a book' when showing a book - these are things that save you having to type it out in the description somehow, but it isn't necessary on TV. So it clunks.
... if you watch closely enough the first time Suzie gets unzipped in her bag I think you can see her pulse in her neck.
... granted this isn't exactly avoidable.
Jack has a tendency to lead with the hips. When he turns, when he just stands there: hips.
Ianto is far too cute.
And far less... tight? I don't want to say uptight. I think I mean less tense. He's standing there with hands in pockets, his movements have a bit of a swing to them, he's got the banter going on, and he's throwing glances at Jack.
I like it.
Ianto is taller than he looks. He either sags a bit backwards or ducks his head or both. I'm not describing it very well. But, if he stood up as straight as he can, he'd be taller.
... I realise it's an odd way of looking at things, but I keep looking at what Tosh does and counting the parts that could be done Oracle style from a wheelchair. In this episode? Almost all of it happens with her sat at her desk. Or in the car. There's a whole lot of sitting. So I'm sort of rewriting it in my head to put a disabled character in the story.
... yeah, I know, not usual.
I shudder every time they make that little cut with the knife. Owie!
... note detail: Jack wrist thing = left wrist. So right hand can twiddle buttons?
Ianto's stopwatch hand = right.
... D'you think that's actual GDL hand? Because sometimes hands don't match.
... Detail oriented = me, yes.
Continuity error: different camera angles = different numbers of pictures on the table in the interview room.
"you frighten the shit out of me, yeah" says Owen
interesting character moment on several levels
also, compare 1-10
"One a week every week for two years" puts her at a 2+ year employee. Jack as her boss that long?
Toshiko keyword: Honour.
Owen restrained the guy quickly and efficiently. Wrong guy, yes, but you can't be perfect...
... I'm now having thoughts on this as meta commentary on the whole oops wrong suspect debacle when it meets guns. This team have a stun gun.
Owen's little smile of no-bite-here and "you're the boss"
shyeah... when you're scared, he's the boss.
Suzie is such a twisty little shit. REally. Got to love the writing, but the character?
I love the camera stuff in this one. And the way Suzie is just off center - she's not quite where you expect her to be, puts the audience a bit off, and she's saying an unexpected too, so. Nifty.
... I also need more vocabulary to talk this stuff. I have precisely two sheets of A4 from Cultural Studies class about which are medium or close or long or tracking or whatever kinds of shots. I don't actually have them all memorised yet neither. Meh.
... I keep pausing it to write such trivial stuff. I should just watch it.
I think when I'm done I'll start at the top and just watch.
"He's been dying slowly now for years."
You know, that's a quick definition of mortality.
I don't know, I know I'm biased, but I don't think Gwen has much grounds for yelling at Jack here.
But then "we're both responsible" ? Is Jack being a bitch because she zinged him where it hurts.
Mortality. Obsession. Yeah.
... yes, I can talk about it on writer level too. Which would be more sane but less fun.
"Could you though, kill her?"
Gwen keeps asking that, and seems to have a problem with his answer.
Jack's the one who actually uses his gun. I tried counting who the others shoot and aside from the firing squad in 1-04 they pretty much don't. So it's just Jack.
Ianto concentrating = Ianto with his mouth open a bit.
Not that I'm staring.
"More coffee, is that what you do?"
... nope, usually that's Ianto. Gwen doing the coffee is more police!Gwen from the first episode.
Except she's using coffee for sneaky.
You know, if they wanted to make Ianto all kinds of sneaky, this ep could have all kinds of suggestions in that direction. I just am rather glad when he isn't the backstabber he promised to be. (Which is actually a whole thing of itself - Lisa said he always keeps his promises. Not so very much. Bit of a self image redefinition after that.)
So... Suzie is in a wheelchair. And there are stairs. Many, many stairs all over the Hub.
How do they get her places?
It's the same question with any of the corpses too - stairs every bloody where! How do they get them around?
And there has to be an entrance we haven't seen - wherever the SUV lives. There's the invisible lift, which isn't suitable for Weevils. There's the reception office, which is for maintaining the cover and also not suitable for Weevils or corpses or anything. So there's an entrance we don't see.
Does it connect to the lift? Is that big round door the only big round door into the central Hub? Or is there a back way, so they don't have to take all their prisoners right past their computers etc?
... I kind of love that Jack's first reaction when it goes dark is to yell for Ianto. I realise it's purely logical, but... worried!Jack is cute.
I'd say Gwen has more heart than brain but I don't think it's heart driving neither. It's guilt that can tell itself it's compassion. It's trying to be nice and not feel bad rather than doing a right thing.
I don't much like Gwen.
Using the "immortality" quote as the cue does make it sound like Suzie's plan was resurrection related. Pre-existing obsession? Because the plan was around waaaaaay longer than the glove.
I love how Ianto just gets on with restoring communications while the other three stand around telling each other what they've all figured out. I realise the telling is also necessary, but it do make Ianto look like the practical one.
"I'm picking her for my team"
Owen as a bit amoral? Because he can admire it even with a body count?
But they're all a bit excited about the idea, so...
Jack smiling and "nice work Ianto" = cute
"but who the hell do we phone" = *facepalm*
"and it's not funny" = LOL
... so everyone calls him "Captain Jack" including the detective that doesn't like him?
... because yes, it can sound like a piss take too.
Jack saying "I could not stop for death" = vaguely amusing
with Ianto standing behind him.
Still looks like it ought to Mean Something.
"But if there's nothing, what's the point of it all?"
I'm tempted to hook that up with a deleted scene, the bit where she was all 'real life, blah' before asking what else was out there. Because she's looking for something else, and overlooking what she's already got. Only reminded when she loses it, and then she'll risk the world to get it back.
A very ordinary kind of stupid, really.
point of it all => this is
now is all we have
*nods*
"Parting is all" quote, Ianto hides behind computer, so why is he there at all?
I do wonder at the convenience of Tosh guessing the number thing - if it was me, I'd have it that Suzie programmed her too. Because twisty.
... without the subtitles on it sounds like "Captain, thankyou"
... which is why I use subtitles, obviously.
So... they use the police to clear the road, but not to stop Suzie.
Why?
Because the police would be at risk?
Or because of the whole walking corpse factor?
Is keeping the secret actually a higher priority than saving Gwen?
If "life is all" then what is it worth? She's calling it all words like animal and instinct. She's taking all the good stuff out of the equation.
If life is all then why was she risking her life with Torchwood? Doesn't figure.
Unless she was immortality questing then. But still doesn't figure, because too many risks not related.
So she's forgotten. There was a why. Now she's being freaky about it.
I still love that it's lightbright when they're all up to the final confrontation there.
New dawn new life? Not so very.
"you recruited me" as the last blame push of the episode. But it doesn't distract him, he thinks of the thing as needs doing.
That thing from Day One where they were using tossing each other stuff to show teaminess - Ianto gets in on it in this episode. Stopwatch thrown to, Gun thrown by.
"There's something moving in the dark, and it's coming"
... I must not LOL at the dramatic bit. I must not LOL... who am I kidding...
Jack looks all upset about dead Suzie. Gwen is all weird about him being able to do that. Able just means he's a soldier. Still upset means his feelings are still working.
Gwen's hair full of blood. Now that's attention to detail.
... much as I *adore* the stopwatch conversation... over the corpse of your dead co-worker is just a *slightly* strange place to initiate an affair, if we think that's what he's doing.
... sort of a carpe diem kind of place, yes, but still...
what's the thingy - "the grave's a fine and private place But none I think do there embrace"
... yes, I got that right from memory. I memorised that in *sixth form*.
Marvell, "To his coy mistress"
It's a very goth sort of getting laid poem. Not that it's ever worked for me.
But it's also what the stopwatch thing makes me think of -
"But at my back I always hear Time's winged chariot hurrying near;"
and "though we cannot make our sun Stand still, yet we will make him run."
That and the INXS album that was at one point one of three bits of music I owned. "Make time stop for the two of us" type lyrics.
I'm not so much familiar with the Dickinson stuff. So it don't make me think of that.
... There's actually *reasons* I think Ianto would like Addams Family. His associations are a tad bit morbid. Him being just that goth would not clash at all.
I'm comparing this Jack/Ianto thing to the Gwen/Owen thing, which was started over corpses too. But they were much messier muckier corpses in an episode with the theme of treating each other as meat. This one was cold and frequently resurrected corpses with the theme of holding on to life because life is all. I find that a bit more hopeful, and obviously quite Jack appropriate.
... it's still a bit corpse focused, really.
I do like that when Jack makes his "run out of space" comment he's leaning on the draw he eventually ends up in.
But it is Ianto's job to put staff in there... so there's a very deeply angsty missing scene where Ianto puts Jack away in that exact place.
Ianto needs a hug. This is basically part of his definition by now.
I like how the stopwatch thing is kind of sideways. I mean, Jack is never very sideways at all. So there's a nice contrast. And Ianto has managed to surprise Jack. And yet I really don't think there's any not-sex thing being suggested there. They're doing that blinky thing of extreme eye contact. It's a very intimate way to suggest chess.
It's interesting though, because it goes from serious songvid Jack/Gwen moment to this rather surprising Jack/Ianto. And, okay, infinitely preferred by this fangirl, but...
I'm kind of glad the Jack+Gwen we've had hasn't gone very Jack/Gwen. I mean, there's a bit of kissing and gun porn, but not snogging and actual porn. And it would be ever so much more original to keep them just friends.
Also I believe her attitude to multiple relationships - Rhys and Owen - is not compatible with Jack's. I mean, he does use it to needle her. And... I guess a lot of my theory of Jack is based on thinking he's basically polyamorous, so. Cheating is ungood.
Adding Jack/Gwen when she's already got so much going on would be... messy.
Owen's there to patch her up whenever she gets hurt, Jack's there to shoot the bad guys... who were, this season, actually human people Gwen was all empathising and identifying with. I think she finds his violence quite the opposite of reassuring.
Yet Ianto makes his suggestion over the body of a dead co-worker. Someone he actually knew, unlike Gwen. And we don't so much get his opinion of her, though we hear from Owen and Toshiko.
... sometimes Ianto feels a little bit like a last minute add on. Woe.
But without that data there's a big gap in the why of him suggesting *anything* friendly to Jack.
Theory: Ianto knows Jack would stop him. If he screwed up again. And finds that a good thing.
... I'm an Angel fan. Declarations of love were declarations of willingness to stake.
Contrary theories? Probably many.
But it can't just be ignored. It's a factor. He's reacting to something specific.
Death by Torchwood?
Stopwatch.
connection.
"They come in pairs" also a good caption.
BTW, look in the background in the hospital scene where Gwen's head starts bleeding and there's a sign about remembering gloves. Then in the morgue there's a "gloves and masks must be worn when handling bodies"
masks is another word I can work with
I love the background details.
Ianto expressions in that last scene = all kinds of good stuff.
Also, he appears to be using a fountain pen. With a lid and everything.
... my world has biros and gel pens. His takes a bit more fiddly maintenance.
Also, Ianto needs to call him 'Jack' more often.
... preferably in a corpseless context.
... I just had a thought - they've been working all night, nobody changed clothes since Suzie woke up - how exactly is sending them home going to mean sending them home early? I mean it makes a good line, but hello to the needing a less than 24 hour shift!
... 'It makes a great line' is pretty much all the explanation Jack needs, isn't it?
I do love that stopwatch scene.
... I've already watched it half a dozen times. I can stop for a while. Really.
... after just one more ...
"Hey, I've got those trousers!"
... yes, me and corpse-on-the-right have the same fashion sense.
*facepalm*
... although, it does suggest a really *unusual* costume choice for the next convention...
Spoilers under the cut, obviously
That "you did this, Captain Jack Harkness" at the start hooks together with the "we're both responsible", and in both cases is both dead right and dead wrong.
The plan looks a little long-shot if you assume it needs someone to resurrect her - after all, she was the only one to use the glove. But - retcon. See 1-13. They know they can't get out with their mind intact. So if she gets fired? Give them a reason to bring her *mind* back.
It clunks a bit in ways familiar to me from trying to write stuff to be read. Jack says 'Gwen' when talking to Gwen, says 'a book' when showing a book - these are things that save you having to type it out in the description somehow, but it isn't necessary on TV. So it clunks.
... if you watch closely enough the first time Suzie gets unzipped in her bag I think you can see her pulse in her neck.
... granted this isn't exactly avoidable.
Jack has a tendency to lead with the hips. When he turns, when he just stands there: hips.
Ianto is far too cute.
And far less... tight? I don't want to say uptight. I think I mean less tense. He's standing there with hands in pockets, his movements have a bit of a swing to them, he's got the banter going on, and he's throwing glances at Jack.
I like it.
Ianto is taller than he looks. He either sags a bit backwards or ducks his head or both. I'm not describing it very well. But, if he stood up as straight as he can, he'd be taller.
... I realise it's an odd way of looking at things, but I keep looking at what Tosh does and counting the parts that could be done Oracle style from a wheelchair. In this episode? Almost all of it happens with her sat at her desk. Or in the car. There's a whole lot of sitting. So I'm sort of rewriting it in my head to put a disabled character in the story.
... yeah, I know, not usual.
I shudder every time they make that little cut with the knife. Owie!
... note detail: Jack wrist thing = left wrist. So right hand can twiddle buttons?
Ianto's stopwatch hand = right.
... D'you think that's actual GDL hand? Because sometimes hands don't match.
... Detail oriented = me, yes.
Continuity error: different camera angles = different numbers of pictures on the table in the interview room.
"you frighten the shit out of me, yeah" says Owen
interesting character moment on several levels
also, compare 1-10
"One a week every week for two years" puts her at a 2+ year employee. Jack as her boss that long?
Toshiko keyword: Honour.
Owen restrained the guy quickly and efficiently. Wrong guy, yes, but you can't be perfect...
... I'm now having thoughts on this as meta commentary on the whole oops wrong suspect debacle when it meets guns. This team have a stun gun.
Owen's little smile of no-bite-here and "you're the boss"
shyeah... when you're scared, he's the boss.
Suzie is such a twisty little shit. REally. Got to love the writing, but the character?
I love the camera stuff in this one. And the way Suzie is just off center - she's not quite where you expect her to be, puts the audience a bit off, and she's saying an unexpected too, so. Nifty.
... I also need more vocabulary to talk this stuff. I have precisely two sheets of A4 from Cultural Studies class about which are medium or close or long or tracking or whatever kinds of shots. I don't actually have them all memorised yet neither. Meh.
... I keep pausing it to write such trivial stuff. I should just watch it.
I think when I'm done I'll start at the top and just watch.
"He's been dying slowly now for years."
You know, that's a quick definition of mortality.
I don't know, I know I'm biased, but I don't think Gwen has much grounds for yelling at Jack here.
But then "we're both responsible" ? Is Jack being a bitch because she zinged him where it hurts.
Mortality. Obsession. Yeah.
... yes, I can talk about it on writer level too. Which would be more sane but less fun.
"Could you though, kill her?"
Gwen keeps asking that, and seems to have a problem with his answer.
Jack's the one who actually uses his gun. I tried counting who the others shoot and aside from the firing squad in 1-04 they pretty much don't. So it's just Jack.
Ianto concentrating = Ianto with his mouth open a bit.
Not that I'm staring.
"More coffee, is that what you do?"
... nope, usually that's Ianto. Gwen doing the coffee is more police!Gwen from the first episode.
Except she's using coffee for sneaky.
You know, if they wanted to make Ianto all kinds of sneaky, this ep could have all kinds of suggestions in that direction. I just am rather glad when he isn't the backstabber he promised to be. (Which is actually a whole thing of itself - Lisa said he always keeps his promises. Not so very much. Bit of a self image redefinition after that.)
So... Suzie is in a wheelchair. And there are stairs. Many, many stairs all over the Hub.
How do they get her places?
It's the same question with any of the corpses too - stairs every bloody where! How do they get them around?
And there has to be an entrance we haven't seen - wherever the SUV lives. There's the invisible lift, which isn't suitable for Weevils. There's the reception office, which is for maintaining the cover and also not suitable for Weevils or corpses or anything. So there's an entrance we don't see.
Does it connect to the lift? Is that big round door the only big round door into the central Hub? Or is there a back way, so they don't have to take all their prisoners right past their computers etc?
... I kind of love that Jack's first reaction when it goes dark is to yell for Ianto. I realise it's purely logical, but... worried!Jack is cute.
I'd say Gwen has more heart than brain but I don't think it's heart driving neither. It's guilt that can tell itself it's compassion. It's trying to be nice and not feel bad rather than doing a right thing.
I don't much like Gwen.
Using the "immortality" quote as the cue does make it sound like Suzie's plan was resurrection related. Pre-existing obsession? Because the plan was around waaaaaay longer than the glove.
I love how Ianto just gets on with restoring communications while the other three stand around telling each other what they've all figured out. I realise the telling is also necessary, but it do make Ianto look like the practical one.
"I'm picking her for my team"
Owen as a bit amoral? Because he can admire it even with a body count?
But they're all a bit excited about the idea, so...
Jack smiling and "nice work Ianto" = cute
"but who the hell do we phone" = *facepalm*
"and it's not funny" = LOL
... so everyone calls him "Captain Jack" including the detective that doesn't like him?
... because yes, it can sound like a piss take too.
Jack saying "I could not stop for death" = vaguely amusing
with Ianto standing behind him.
Still looks like it ought to Mean Something.
"But if there's nothing, what's the point of it all?"
I'm tempted to hook that up with a deleted scene, the bit where she was all 'real life, blah' before asking what else was out there. Because she's looking for something else, and overlooking what she's already got. Only reminded when she loses it, and then she'll risk the world to get it back.
A very ordinary kind of stupid, really.
point of it all => this is
now is all we have
*nods*
"Parting is all" quote, Ianto hides behind computer, so why is he there at all?
I do wonder at the convenience of Tosh guessing the number thing - if it was me, I'd have it that Suzie programmed her too. Because twisty.
... without the subtitles on it sounds like "Captain, thankyou"
... which is why I use subtitles, obviously.
So... they use the police to clear the road, but not to stop Suzie.
Why?
Because the police would be at risk?
Or because of the whole walking corpse factor?
Is keeping the secret actually a higher priority than saving Gwen?
If "life is all" then what is it worth? She's calling it all words like animal and instinct. She's taking all the good stuff out of the equation.
If life is all then why was she risking her life with Torchwood? Doesn't figure.
Unless she was immortality questing then. But still doesn't figure, because too many risks not related.
So she's forgotten. There was a why. Now she's being freaky about it.
I still love that it's lightbright when they're all up to the final confrontation there.
New dawn new life? Not so very.
"you recruited me" as the last blame push of the episode. But it doesn't distract him, he thinks of the thing as needs doing.
That thing from Day One where they were using tossing each other stuff to show teaminess - Ianto gets in on it in this episode. Stopwatch thrown to, Gun thrown by.
"There's something moving in the dark, and it's coming"
... I must not LOL at the dramatic bit. I must not LOL... who am I kidding...
Jack looks all upset about dead Suzie. Gwen is all weird about him being able to do that. Able just means he's a soldier. Still upset means his feelings are still working.
Gwen's hair full of blood. Now that's attention to detail.
... much as I *adore* the stopwatch conversation... over the corpse of your dead co-worker is just a *slightly* strange place to initiate an affair, if we think that's what he's doing.
... sort of a carpe diem kind of place, yes, but still...
what's the thingy - "the grave's a fine and private place But none I think do there embrace"
... yes, I got that right from memory. I memorised that in *sixth form*.
Marvell, "To his coy mistress"
It's a very goth sort of getting laid poem. Not that it's ever worked for me.
But it's also what the stopwatch thing makes me think of -
"But at my back I always hear Time's winged chariot hurrying near;"
and "though we cannot make our sun Stand still, yet we will make him run."
That and the INXS album that was at one point one of three bits of music I owned. "Make time stop for the two of us" type lyrics.
I'm not so much familiar with the Dickinson stuff. So it don't make me think of that.
... There's actually *reasons* I think Ianto would like Addams Family. His associations are a tad bit morbid. Him being just that goth would not clash at all.
I'm comparing this Jack/Ianto thing to the Gwen/Owen thing, which was started over corpses too. But they were much messier muckier corpses in an episode with the theme of treating each other as meat. This one was cold and frequently resurrected corpses with the theme of holding on to life because life is all. I find that a bit more hopeful, and obviously quite Jack appropriate.
... it's still a bit corpse focused, really.
I do like that when Jack makes his "run out of space" comment he's leaning on the draw he eventually ends up in.
But it is Ianto's job to put staff in there... so there's a very deeply angsty missing scene where Ianto puts Jack away in that exact place.
Ianto needs a hug. This is basically part of his definition by now.
I like how the stopwatch thing is kind of sideways. I mean, Jack is never very sideways at all. So there's a nice contrast. And Ianto has managed to surprise Jack. And yet I really don't think there's any not-sex thing being suggested there. They're doing that blinky thing of extreme eye contact. It's a very intimate way to suggest chess.
It's interesting though, because it goes from serious songvid Jack/Gwen moment to this rather surprising Jack/Ianto. And, okay, infinitely preferred by this fangirl, but...
I'm kind of glad the Jack+Gwen we've had hasn't gone very Jack/Gwen. I mean, there's a bit of kissing and gun porn, but not snogging and actual porn. And it would be ever so much more original to keep them just friends.
Also I believe her attitude to multiple relationships - Rhys and Owen - is not compatible with Jack's. I mean, he does use it to needle her. And... I guess a lot of my theory of Jack is based on thinking he's basically polyamorous, so. Cheating is ungood.
Adding Jack/Gwen when she's already got so much going on would be... messy.
Owen's there to patch her up whenever she gets hurt, Jack's there to shoot the bad guys... who were, this season, actually human people Gwen was all empathising and identifying with. I think she finds his violence quite the opposite of reassuring.
Yet Ianto makes his suggestion over the body of a dead co-worker. Someone he actually knew, unlike Gwen. And we don't so much get his opinion of her, though we hear from Owen and Toshiko.
... sometimes Ianto feels a little bit like a last minute add on. Woe.
But without that data there's a big gap in the why of him suggesting *anything* friendly to Jack.
Theory: Ianto knows Jack would stop him. If he screwed up again. And finds that a good thing.
... I'm an Angel fan. Declarations of love were declarations of willingness to stake.
Contrary theories? Probably many.
But it can't just be ignored. It's a factor. He's reacting to something specific.
Death by Torchwood?
Stopwatch.
connection.
"They come in pairs" also a good caption.
BTW, look in the background in the hospital scene where Gwen's head starts bleeding and there's a sign about remembering gloves. Then in the morgue there's a "gloves and masks must be worn when handling bodies"
masks is another word I can work with
I love the background details.
Ianto expressions in that last scene = all kinds of good stuff.
Also, he appears to be using a fountain pen. With a lid and everything.
... my world has biros and gel pens. His takes a bit more fiddly maintenance.
Also, Ianto needs to call him 'Jack' more often.
... preferably in a corpseless context.
... I just had a thought - they've been working all night, nobody changed clothes since Suzie woke up - how exactly is sending them home going to mean sending them home early? I mean it makes a good line, but hello to the needing a less than 24 hour shift!
... 'It makes a great line' is pretty much all the explanation Jack needs, isn't it?
I do love that stopwatch scene.
... I've already watched it half a dozen times. I can stop for a while. Really.
... after just one more ...
no subject
Date: 2007-01-28 01:28 am (UTC)And there's nothing wrong with watching the stopwatch scene again... and again... and again...
...for... research purposes! :)
Actually it really is worth watching several times, just to take in the expressions on the actors' faces. John and Gareth are very good actors, and we get their character emotions on their faces: the slight hesitation before Ianto steels himself to say something; the joy on Jack's face when he works out what's being offered; the little grins Ianto uses when talking of Suzie (maybe rather macabre but then Torchwood is a crazy hothouse environment).
no subject
Date: 2007-01-28 02:53 am (UTC)Jack grin = pretty
... both of them = pretty actually