From my point of view, your reading - where the Institute is rotten ab initio - sort of makes her involvement rather pointless, and indeed the series pretty empty too: when Bad People Do Bad Things to Outsiders.
Gwen's involvement in this series is absolutely crucial under my reading, I think, because she enters from a position outside that ab initio evil, so that it's not just when Bad People Do Bad Things to Outsiders, but when Being Above the Rules Makes Good People Do Bad Things. We see the process of her being corrupted, of her turning away from Rhys and towards Owen. That's what makes the show About Something, IMO.
(Although in the current political situation, a show about Why Effective Oversight is Important certainly seems to be called for in and of itself, IMO.)
Which isn't to say that I think that Owen and Ianto and Jack and Tosh are the bad guys. They're more innocent than anything else, I think--they don't understand the true weight of what we're doing. Owen thinks he would never rape someone, but didn't think out the ramnifications of what he was doing in 1x01. To Tosh, breaking into CCTV records is business as usual, not a horrible infringement of civil liberties. And so on. Ultimately, their position will have to lead to tragedy or enlightenment. And in some small ways, already has lead to tragedy and/or enlightenment, as in "Cyberwoman."
Personally, I don't think Gwen will be the agent of that change, but I do think it will have to be someone from outside Torchwood.
Even Suzie is simply someone who cracked under the stress, rather than being intrinsically evil. But that makes it worse: Suzie was a good person, and look what Torchwood did to her. That's what it'll do Gwen if she isn't careful, the show seems to be saying to me.
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Gwen's involvement in this series is absolutely crucial under my reading, I think, because she enters from a position outside that ab initio evil, so that it's not just when Bad People Do Bad Things to Outsiders, but when Being Above the Rules Makes Good People Do Bad Things. We see the process of her being corrupted, of her turning away from Rhys and towards Owen. That's what makes the show About Something, IMO.
(Although in the current political situation, a show about Why Effective Oversight is Important certainly seems to be called for in and of itself, IMO.)
Which isn't to say that I think that Owen and Ianto and Jack and Tosh are the bad guys. They're more innocent than anything else, I think--they don't understand the true weight of what we're doing. Owen thinks he would never rape someone, but didn't think out the ramnifications of what he was doing in 1x01. To Tosh, breaking into CCTV records is business as usual, not a horrible infringement of civil liberties. And so on. Ultimately, their position will have to lead to tragedy or enlightenment. And in some small ways, already has lead to tragedy and/or enlightenment, as in "Cyberwoman."
Personally, I don't think Gwen will be the agent of that change, but I do think it will have to be someone from outside Torchwood.
Even Suzie is simply someone who cracked under the stress, rather than being intrinsically evil. But that makes it worse: Suzie was a good person, and look what Torchwood did to her. That's what it'll do Gwen if she isn't careful, the show seems to be saying to me.