Illustrated toughts on Torchwood 2x11

[kaliha]

Strong language from the outset
A strong language warning - on Torchwood, say it ain't so!

Cardiff is full of classy locations

Like this barrage for example.

Phone all alone

I know it's there for dramatic effect, but surely the Rift could have picked up a phone even easier than picking up a much heavier person.

ANDY!

Out of all the semi-regular TW characters, I do love Andy the most. He's just so sweet.

Oh Andy, do you have a crush on Gwen? And is that the green-eyed monster I see there when you mention Rhys? I'd have never expected it of you. It's nice to see that you do have a darker side.

Although calling Rhys fat is just not on.

Suspicious Jack is suspicious

Oh Jack, what brings you to a barrage in the middle of the night? it's not even high enough for you to climb and look all brooding from. I'm with Andy here - there is something amiss.

I'm off Weevil Hunting with Ianto

Oh, is that what we're calling it this week? I wonder if they do have a special code for discussing matters of the more carnal nature in the hopes the rest of the team don't notice.

Like:
Jack: Can I have a coffee, please
Ianto: okay, how'd you want it?
Jack: hot, black and with a hockey stick...
Everyone else: *pretends not to notice*

Someone should mention that those light coloured trousers really aren't a god look.

Spooky do's!

I shall now call everything that is unexplained and weird a 'spooky do'. The orange juice carton is mysteriously empty: a spooky do, another sighting of the mysterious black cat: a spooky do and so on and so forth.

Recording crowd footage

*won't make a Myfanwy comment here* why is Ruth Jones so awesome? She's brilliant in everything she appears in. This is a fact.

I do feel terribly sorry for Nicky, her life is on hold, spending so much time trawling through Match of the Day and the Beeb's festival coverage looking for her son. I can't imagine what it would be like.

This is the fourth 'another time'

The honeymoon period seems to be over. And I think there's only so far you can push Rhys. And we're getting close to the tipping point.

Gwen tells Rhys about Andy's crush

Rhys thinks it's lolarious. Poor Andy.

Toast

Number of rule of making toast for someone else: always make an extra slice so you can nick it without feeling guilty.

Tosh uses her skills for good

You'd think, given how clever Tosh obviously she, that she'd have notice something strange with the Rift activity before now.

Andy makes an effort to be nice: "How's Rhys - other than hungry"

He's not very good at being nice though. But he does try, bless him.

Lookit all the people

A lot of people have gone missing in Cardiff lately. Why has no one really noticed before now? Don't the Heddlu employ people to look for these sorts of patterns?

Cross referencing

There's nothing like a good bit of cross referencing. And you gotta have a montage. Fact.

Dabbers!

I wonder if Team Torchwood have a bingo team to go with their pool team and their bowling team. *Tries to imagine them actually playing bingo* *fails*

Telling Jack was never going to be easy

But it's suspicious how he just brushes it off, even though it is completely obvious that there's nothing they can do, they can't get to the spots of rift activity in time if they're only open for a few seconds, and they're not trained to counsel the people left behind. I suppose in some ways Jack's completely right. And Gwen can't handle the truth of that.

For a lovely girl you've got a dirty mouth.

Cameo appearance from Owen. He's still suffering from his terrible case of dead. Poor lad.


I really like Gwen's top. This fact has nothing to do it this review in any way shape or form.

My mouth's moving - I'm talking

I told you there was only so far that Rhys could be pushed. Jack told Gwen repeatedly during the first series not to let her real life slip away and that's just what she's doing. Thing is though, it feels that she really doesn't care that it is.

Gwen learns that she should knock


I had to cover my eyes, forshame!

What can I possible say? Naked hide and seek? OMG! And why is Jack pretending to be Elvis? Someone please explain that one too me.

Jack can take control, even when semi-clad


Ianto helping secretly

So Ianto is purposely going against Jack's wishes? Is this a case of doing what is right, or is it part of a bigger, meaner game plan, one that involves fracturing the team?

Andy wants a job at TW

But Andy, you're TOO GOOD for Torchwood, you certainly don't want to be working there. No way. You actually try and solve crimes instead of covering them up for a start.

Gwen abandons Andy and probably ruins their friendship too

If that doesn't knock Andy out of his crush then nothing will. At all. Gwen is a bit of a cow doing that too. I can understand the whole "I don't want you getting hurt/retconned" thing, but she could have done it in a nicer way. Really.

It's an island!

Ooh, I wonder if it has polar bears and black smoke and stuff?

It does have a Lighthouse and mysterious people though.

*hums Portland Bill tune* I have much love for lighthouses, there's just so cool, I think it's the isolation and the massive lenses on the lights and the fact the rooms are round.


And look! There's Jack. I wonder what he's doing here, being all suspicious with his walking. Hmmm.

Jack is a law to himself

Ain't that the truth.

All the lost people

This is where they've ended up, when they've made it home. Torchwood's dirty little secret.

(Not so) Unexpected Jack

He's got some explaining to do.

Jonah's story

Poor Jonah, sucked through the Rift and dumped on a planet that is consumed in fire, looked into the heart of a dying star and what it contained (which I thought would generally just be some black) and it drove him mad. And the only way he can vocalise the horror of what he's been through is a twenty hour scream of pain and loss. That's no life to lead.

Up on a cliff, ba ba baba

So this is Jack's way of making amends? His heart's in the right place, that can't be denied, but why not put them in a secure facility on the mainland with, y'know, windows and stuff rather than in a horrible little bunker that all mouldering and leaky. At least make it comfortable for them (yes I realise that it's supposed to be 'atmospheric' and all, but still...)

Did you spot the veiled Grey/Gray comment when Gwen asked Jack if he'd "want to know what had happened to a missing loved one".

Gwen would never recommend Andy for TW

Because Gwen knows that Andy is too good for such a messed up organisation.

Reunion

It was obvious that this wasn't going to end well, Nicky expects to see her Simon Amstell-lookilikey of a son and all the warning Gwen could have given would have been ignored.

Now what has Nicky got? The knowledge that her little boy is in his fifties, in a bunker on an island, screaming mad. It was actually better for him to have been missing without a trace. I know then Gwen was trying to do her best for Nicky, and Nicky did really want to know what had happened to her son, but the best thing Nicky can have done to her is be retconned, at least that way she'll still have those happy memories of her son, even if he will be forever missing to her.

Filing cabinet full of sadness

All those people, just forgotten, left in a filing cabinet. But what else can they do?

I wonder if Gwen will be able to fully trust Jack again?

Oh ill this betrayal be all forgotten about by the next episode?

Gwen Cooking

It's a rare happening, but it does happen occasionally.

Rhys made get angry with Gwen and her job but he is always there for her.

No matter what. And this is a good thing.

In conclusion
I thought it was quite a powerful episode, and a definite improvement on last week. Thought all the supporting cast were excellent, especially Ruth Jones, it was all so completely believable. As was Gwen and Rhys' arguments, they are the most well rounded couple I've seen in 'new Who', with all their flaws on display and their arguments that make you feel terribly uncomfortable watching.

8/10

Comments

[marcella-riddle.livejournal.com]

I thought it was silly how obvious this story was crying out for retcon. Possibly one of the most ethical instances for it, and yet she's left with the new knowledge of her son.

[coffeegirl18.livejournal.com]

Dabbers

I swear this is proof they play Death Bingo with Jack's deaths...how is he going to die this week.

I was kind of iffy on this ep and I liked ep 12 better but I think the basic story was great Gwen just annoyed me with her stubborness a little too much.

I love Gwen/Rhys dynamic...they have great chemistry.