"You're Welsh. You wouldn't notice if the vowels were missing."
Episode 4x07: Immortal Sins
I've watched this week's episode twice, and I feel like I could watch it at least twice more with no trouble, because there is so much going on here, and so many layers to examine. This is probably my favorite episode of the season, mostly because I've been dying for more Jack backstory for ages, but also because I really like the way this ties Miracle Day into the Torchwood/Doctor Who universe as a whole, and brings the story forward to a place where it looks like we're finally going to start getting some serious answers.
Since there are three (or 2.5 I guess) clear storylines running through this episode, I'll break my comments down that way.
The Flashbacks
Like I said above, I've been waiting for more info on Jack's past since forever (one of the reasons I started watching Torchwood after mainlining Doctor Who at the beginning of this year), so I was predisposed to like this storyline. That being said, I do think they did a wonderful job with it. I would have been fairly happy with less, but I'm thrilled with what we got. Jane Espenson has such a handle on how to write all of these characters, and I could watch her episodes forever. She really gets Jack here.
I've only read a couple of reaction posts (and comments in some of the tw_gleeclub posts from the last couple of days), but I was really surprised to see that there was such a big debate going on over where this falls in Jack's timeline. I thought it was pretty clear that this happened at some point during Jack's time on the slow path while he was waiting for the Doctor. Certainly not post-CoE, as most of his actions would be OOC for someone who went through all of the shit Jack did during CoE (more on that later). I can see where a little bit of the confusion comes from, mainly the fact that Jack refers to himself as "a fixed point", but I think that can easily be explained away as a plot hole. I'm pretty certain that wording was just there as a note for the audience who don't know why Jack can't die. This kind of expositional shorthand happens all of the time on television, but mostly it tends to happen at the beginning of a season, wherein characters have conversations about things they already know, so that new viewers can be given that information (for example, John Hart telling the Torchwood team about the Rift in KKBB, so that viewers would know about it). There's been no one for Jack to tell that to in 2011, so they had to shoehorn it into a flashback so the audience would know (maybe it'll be important in a future episode?).
John Barrowman and Daniele Favilli had excellent chemistry right from the get-go, and it was really nice to see Jack involved in a relationship that didn't have so much baggage and/or angst. At least at first, lol. That instant attraction on both sides was fantastic, and I love that Jack's just like "I find you fascinating, so I'm going to forge your papers and break you out of jail". And then, things really get going. We start off with the most cliched of all scenarios that not only includes an "I'm going to talk louder and slower, so maybe you'll understand my English when you didn't before" joke, but also the "there's only one bed!" scenario. I have to say that despite how unfunny that joke always is, I absolutely loved that woman and the look of pride on her face when she told them they should feel free to come down to the shop any time because they were family now. So precious!
And then, things really heat up. My entire reaction to that scene can pretty much be summed up with: alksjdf;alskjdf;alskjdfa;slfjk. When Jack was all "what would you like to do to her" I was just like, are we seriously going there? And then we did. And it was amazing. I can't even. And then when it was all over, and Angelo was super awkward about sharing a bed with Jack? Could that have been any more adorable? :D I also like how he called Jack out on his tendency to turn serious or special moments into a joke (although you can't tell me you weren't thinking the same thing re: Angelo and his teacher). Sometimes, that's okay, but it's kind of an awkward thing to do with someone you've just met.
I don't want to be that guy who sits here and compares this relationship to Jack's past (or, well, future) relationships in crazy minute detail (or at least I don't right now, lol), so I'll just say that it was lovely to see Jack in a place where he's willing and able to be so open about himself and his past. Obviously he's not going to bust out with everything, because that would be OOC, but he's not constantly deflecting questions or avoiding giving real answers to them. Which makes everything that comes after that much more heartbreaking, because this is clearly the beginning of the end of that. Clearly the moral of this relationship for Jack is that he'd better not trust people anymore, because they will eventually betray him if he does.
I think the religious stuff was done pretty well. The Christ imagery was kind of heavy-handed (the mobster calling Angelo Jack's "acolyte", Angelo piercing Jack's side with the knife, cleaning the blood from Jack's feet), but I loved the scene in the church, and the conversation about the wedding and how Angelo feels that god doesn't hear him. The conversation about their relationship in the context of Angelo's faith was kind of hit and miss for me. I like the idea of it, but again, I feel like the execution was a bit heavy-handed. I did love Angelo's comment about how he thinks that if god is love, maybe god loves him, too. Also, the entirety of the scene in the confessional was great. The "700 years since my last confession" thing had to be a reference to some job he had as a Time Agent, which only makes me want more backstory.
The whole proceeding section with Jack and Angelo getting kidnapped from their room and the conversation with the mobsters outside of that warehouse felt straight out of a noir film. And when they broke into the refrigerated room, it suddenly became a noir film with aliens! I wonder how Torchwood knew about this alien? I think I will handwave it with my typical this-random-TW-plotpoint-doesn't-make-sense explanation of "alien tech!". Clearly 1920s Torchwood has some tech that allowed them to learn about the possible break in the timeline, or they communicated with someone who told them. Or something. Whatever, it didn't reduce my enjoyment of these scenes in the least, and the idea of the way in which this one little thing would change the timeline is super creepy. Also, yay, an alien, finally! And double yay at the mention of the Trickster's Brigade! I love all of the Whoniverse references in this episode. Also loling forever at the "it tastes like oysters" "you did not" "I had to be polite" exchange.
Another DW reference I loved was Jack telling Angelo about his friend called the Doctor, and that travelling with a companion always seemed nice. Jack is still so torn up about the Doctor and the fact that the Doctor left and Jack has to wait so long for him, but he can't help referring to him as a friend. I don't really think Jack ever stops thinking of the Doctor as a friend, but it's a far cry from the oblique way he references him in S1 and S2. Also, "here's one of the secrets...run"? Loved that. Because the first and most important thing you learn when travelling with the Doctor is to run.
I can't remember where I saw this brought up (maybe the gleeclub chat post episode?), but someone suggested that Angelo was a plant, and that everything about their encounters was him getting close to Jack for some nefarious purpose. Which I can see, but if Angelo is a plant, he didn't know about Jack's immortality. Because there's no way he could've faked that shock. Also, if he was a plant, then that just made everything about this storyline about 1000x more heartbreaking. Because it's clear that Jack's relationship with Angelo is one of the major things (along with all of that time spent waiting for the Doctor) that made Jack into the closed-off person we see at the beginning of series one. During the "Fragments" flashbacks, we have a Jack who gets drunk and tells random strangers how great the Doctor is, and how the Doctor is going to come fix him. A Jack who is also shocked and horrified by Torchwood just killing that blowfish, even though he hadn't done anything wrong. He's much more open and less cynical than 2006!Jack, and the Jack in these flashbacks is pretty clearly just Fragments!Jack 28 years later. Jack is still at a point in his life where he's willing to open up to someone he cares about (maybe even loves), to tell his secrets to without hesitation. And Angelo's betrayal fucked Jack up royally.
The scene outside the prison. I don't know that I can buy that Jack ever really felt as though his immortality was "the best secret of all", but it's not as though every word out of his mouth is 100% truth or anything. What really kills me about that scene is when he tells Angelo that he came back for him, and that he's never done that before. Ugh, just. "Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang" references aside, this broke my heart, because it seems to me as though this may be the first and last time he ever did that (came back for someone), at least until he did it at the beginning of series two. Like I said, this relationship really fucked him up, if it takes him eighty years to get close to people and reveal things about his past again.
And then once we get back to the room over the butcher's shop, that's where things start to go so very very wrong. They start off well enough, but Angelo just can't deal with the whole Jack-was-dead-now-he's-not thing, and it goes bad really fast. This scene is really horrifying. It brought to mind all of the terrible shit Jack must've gone through at the Master's hands during the Year That Never Was (and damn, he must've had some flashbacks to this during that year). Only this is worse, because you expect the Master to be a sick sadistic bastard, and these are just regular people. Regular people, many of whom who are torturing another human being because they want to see the miracle of him reviving. Ugh, how fucking disgusting. And Jack begs Angelo to stop this, but Angelo does nothing, doesn't even attempt to help. Probably he's afraid the mob will turn on him, too, but it's pretty awful, whatever the case.
Then the three mysterious men show up. I wonder who they are. Aside from obviously being the ones (or precursors to the ones) who are behind Miracle Day. And being the people who started the Triangle Logo group. There are three of them, a triangle has three sides, and also their hands form a triangle when they make their agreement to buy Jack. Way to be original, boys. What I want to know, though, is, aside from what they were going to do (or even did) with him, how did they find out about him? Was he down in that room long enough that he became a whispered rumor in the area? Or did someone else in the mob work for them? I hope this is something we actually find out.
When it's finally over, and Angelo frees Jack so they can escape, Jack is so broken down it just breaks my heart. He assumes Angelo's going to take his vortex manipulator, too, the only other thing he has left. This is one of the few times we've really seen Jack so open in his hopelessness. He's usually the first person to deflect whatever terrible things are happening to him with a joke and a fake smirk; maybe that's another result of what happened to him here.
And now Jack leaves, because that's what he does best. I've already touched on the "fixed point" thing, so my major comment here is that I can't imagine this going any other way. It would be one thing if Angelo hadn't just stood by and watched Jack get tortured for hours on end, but when he allows that to happen and thinks Jack's just going to go back to the way things were? Not a chance.
As Jack says, "It always ends the same way. You kill me. Men like you, you kill me.", like it's something he forgot he should be used to. He's not going to forget again. :(
And that's why I can't see this as happening at any time except on the slow path. This is such a huge betrayal; it's not as though no one has ever killed Jack on purpose before (c.f. Victorian Torchwood), but it's never been someone he loved and told his secrets to. He hasn't had someone he loved and trusted stand by and watch other people torture him without attempting to stop it, before. The idea that this would fuck him up enough to make him close himself off from the possibility of an open and honest relationship is not at all a ridiculous one. That it would take a lifetime for him to be honest about his past with people he loves after being betrayed like this is not at all surprising. :((((
Jack and Gwen
I've been waiting for these scenes for what feels like ages. People kept giving interviews and saying that there was an episode where Gwen and Jack would finally have it out, and talking about a conversation they'd have in a car, and when I found out they were combining this (this thing that I've wanted since the season started) with the flashbacks episode, I was super excited. All of the things I want, all at once! And it did not disappoint.
I loved everything about all of the scenes between the two of them, especially The Conversation (as it were). Gwen with her survivor's guilt, which was perfectly done; she feels horribly guilty for those thoughts, but that doesn't stop her from having them. And even after all of the terrible things that happened to her, and to people that she loved, she still loved being a part of Torchwood and doing something that was so important. It's not until she has a child to worry about that things change. I think if it was still her and Rhys, she wouldn't have ever stopped fighting, and probably would have tried her hardest to rebuild Torchwood. That's just who Gwen is.
I love the way in which this is shot, and how like a confessional the car seems, with Gwen in the front and Jack in the back, and the only way they can see each other is a little bit in the rear view mirror. And Gwen is most certainly making a confession to Jack, unburdening her soul to him as she drives him through the night to what might be his final death.
And Jack can finally say that he wants to live, that he'll let Gwen take that from him over his dead body (so to speak). Such a long time coming. The way he's always (or at least since his time with the Doctor) been willing to throw his life away to save other people has always broken my heart. As though because he can't die that means his life is somehow worth less than someone else's. Even after he became mortal again, I don't think that really changed. But something is finally different for him since the beginning of the season, and he's finally at a place where he can say, "I don't want to die". Just ♥♥♥ forever, basically.
And even with all of the shit that they've been through, all that Gwen blames Jack for, all of her guilt in relation to Torchwood, they still love each other. Ugh, I love them so much! And their brohug after the bad guys have been subdued! Just perfect. ♥
I was giving Gwen the side eye a bit for being so angry at Jack for not knowing her mom's name, though. I have plenty of friends whose parents' first names I don't know. And these would be parents I've met more than once. As far as we know, Jack interacted with Gwen's mother at her wedding, and that was it. And considering that a) it was a long time ago, and b) even if Gwen talked about her parents all of the time she wouldn't refer to them by their first names, I think Jack can be forgiven for not knowing Mary's first name. Now if he'd forgotten Rhys's name (or if Rhys had forgotten Mary's name) it would be a different thing entirely.
I loved how smart the grammar discussion was. Really great attempt to actually figure things out with the tiny bit of information they might have. "They could be from back east" was clearly written by a west coaster, though, as we totally don't say that on this coast, and I don't think anyone not from the west coast would refer to it as back east.
I really thought Jack was going to bust out with "we're related" during the conversation about how they could use his wriststrap to find Anwen. I'm kind of disappointed that they didn't go there, tbh. Jack could totally be Gwen's ancestor (or vice versa, considering he won't actually be born for ~3,000 years)! I guess since it was really just a throwaway attempt to get Gwen to let him go, it wasn't going to go anywhere, but it got me really excited for a minute.
Jack's story about the most beautiful thing he's ever seen in the universe was really fantastic. The whole thing about the afterimage the firebird leaves behind on the inside of your eyelids lasting longer than the creature itself does felt sort of like a metaphor for Jack and the people he's had in his life. Those people, the people he loves, only live for a short time (compared to him, anyway), but their memory will live on with him for a lot longer than they ever could on their own. Even if that wasn't the intention, it was a really nice parallel.
Esther and Rex
It was really nice to see that Vera's death actually meant something. While it didn't get the camps shut down, people know about it (5 million hits on pseudo-YouTube), and are honoring her with memorial services and everything. Rex is clearly upset over it, but he continues to be terrible with emotions and brushes off Esther's concern with "I didn't know her", etc. You may not have really known her, Rex, but you obviously felt something for her. It's not going to kill you to admit that, bro.
Esther's suitably awkward reaction was really great, too. She barely knew Vera either, but she has feelings for Rex and doesn't want him to be sad, so she tries to be all supportive, but it doesn't work out very well for her. Thankfully Gwen interrupts their conversation like a crazyface looking for Jack, or I fear things would have started to get too awkward for words.
Awkwardness aside, Esther and Rex were absolutely amazing this week. Coming out of nowhere to save Jack and Gwen like a boss! Then bringing in the police to save Gwen's family! That's my team! ♥ And when they show up on the scene there are hugs all around. Gwen throwing herself on Rex kissing him on the cheek was beautiful. He looked so disgruntled! First he has to deal with the rest of Torchwood behaving like amateur clowns (lolol), and now he has a crazy lady hugging him! His life is so hard.
These scenes, almost more than anything in recent episodes, really cemented my desire for Rex and Esther to survive so they can come back next season. I've loved seeing them grow over the season, and I really love both of them, and will be really sad if we have to lose either one of them. Keeping my fingers crossed for their continued survival.
Random Other Stuff
I've got another post in-progress that I'll make in the next couple of days, about what I did on Saturday, but it's way past time for me to go to sleep. Later!
I've watched this week's episode twice, and I feel like I could watch it at least twice more with no trouble, because there is so much going on here, and so many layers to examine. This is probably my favorite episode of the season, mostly because I've been dying for more Jack backstory for ages, but also because I really like the way this ties Miracle Day into the Torchwood/Doctor Who universe as a whole, and brings the story forward to a place where it looks like we're finally going to start getting some serious answers.
Since there are three (or 2.5 I guess) clear storylines running through this episode, I'll break my comments down that way.
The Flashbacks
Like I said above, I've been waiting for more info on Jack's past since forever (one of the reasons I started watching Torchwood after mainlining Doctor Who at the beginning of this year), so I was predisposed to like this storyline. That being said, I do think they did a wonderful job with it. I would have been fairly happy with less, but I'm thrilled with what we got. Jane Espenson has such a handle on how to write all of these characters, and I could watch her episodes forever. She really gets Jack here.
I've only read a couple of reaction posts (and comments in some of the tw_gleeclub posts from the last couple of days), but I was really surprised to see that there was such a big debate going on over where this falls in Jack's timeline. I thought it was pretty clear that this happened at some point during Jack's time on the slow path while he was waiting for the Doctor. Certainly not post-CoE, as most of his actions would be OOC for someone who went through all of the shit Jack did during CoE (more on that later). I can see where a little bit of the confusion comes from, mainly the fact that Jack refers to himself as "a fixed point", but I think that can easily be explained away as a plot hole. I'm pretty certain that wording was just there as a note for the audience who don't know why Jack can't die. This kind of expositional shorthand happens all of the time on television, but mostly it tends to happen at the beginning of a season, wherein characters have conversations about things they already know, so that new viewers can be given that information (for example, John Hart telling the Torchwood team about the Rift in KKBB, so that viewers would know about it). There's been no one for Jack to tell that to in 2011, so they had to shoehorn it into a flashback so the audience would know (maybe it'll be important in a future episode?).
John Barrowman and Daniele Favilli had excellent chemistry right from the get-go, and it was really nice to see Jack involved in a relationship that didn't have so much baggage and/or angst. At least at first, lol. That instant attraction on both sides was fantastic, and I love that Jack's just like "I find you fascinating, so I'm going to forge your papers and break you out of jail". And then, things really get going. We start off with the most cliched of all scenarios that not only includes an "I'm going to talk louder and slower, so maybe you'll understand my English when you didn't before" joke, but also the "there's only one bed!" scenario. I have to say that despite how unfunny that joke always is, I absolutely loved that woman and the look of pride on her face when she told them they should feel free to come down to the shop any time because they were family now. So precious!
And then, things really heat up. My entire reaction to that scene can pretty much be summed up with: alksjdf;alskjdf;alskjdfa;slfjk. When Jack was all "what would you like to do to her" I was just like, are we seriously going there? And then we did. And it was amazing. I can't even. And then when it was all over, and Angelo was super awkward about sharing a bed with Jack? Could that have been any more adorable? :D I also like how he called Jack out on his tendency to turn serious or special moments into a joke (although you can't tell me you weren't thinking the same thing re: Angelo and his teacher). Sometimes, that's okay, but it's kind of an awkward thing to do with someone you've just met.
I don't want to be that guy who sits here and compares this relationship to Jack's past (or, well, future) relationships in crazy minute detail (or at least I don't right now, lol), so I'll just say that it was lovely to see Jack in a place where he's willing and able to be so open about himself and his past. Obviously he's not going to bust out with everything, because that would be OOC, but he's not constantly deflecting questions or avoiding giving real answers to them. Which makes everything that comes after that much more heartbreaking, because this is clearly the beginning of the end of that. Clearly the moral of this relationship for Jack is that he'd better not trust people anymore, because they will eventually betray him if he does.
I think the religious stuff was done pretty well. The Christ imagery was kind of heavy-handed (the mobster calling Angelo Jack's "acolyte", Angelo piercing Jack's side with the knife, cleaning the blood from Jack's feet), but I loved the scene in the church, and the conversation about the wedding and how Angelo feels that god doesn't hear him. The conversation about their relationship in the context of Angelo's faith was kind of hit and miss for me. I like the idea of it, but again, I feel like the execution was a bit heavy-handed. I did love Angelo's comment about how he thinks that if god is love, maybe god loves him, too. Also, the entirety of the scene in the confessional was great. The "700 years since my last confession" thing had to be a reference to some job he had as a Time Agent, which only makes me want more backstory.
The whole proceeding section with Jack and Angelo getting kidnapped from their room and the conversation with the mobsters outside of that warehouse felt straight out of a noir film. And when they broke into the refrigerated room, it suddenly became a noir film with aliens! I wonder how Torchwood knew about this alien? I think I will handwave it with my typical this-random-TW-plotpoint-doesn't-make-sense explanation of "alien tech!". Clearly 1920s Torchwood has some tech that allowed them to learn about the possible break in the timeline, or they communicated with someone who told them. Or something. Whatever, it didn't reduce my enjoyment of these scenes in the least, and the idea of the way in which this one little thing would change the timeline is super creepy. Also, yay, an alien, finally! And double yay at the mention of the Trickster's Brigade! I love all of the Whoniverse references in this episode. Also loling forever at the "it tastes like oysters" "you did not" "I had to be polite" exchange.
Another DW reference I loved was Jack telling Angelo about his friend called the Doctor, and that travelling with a companion always seemed nice. Jack is still so torn up about the Doctor and the fact that the Doctor left and Jack has to wait so long for him, but he can't help referring to him as a friend. I don't really think Jack ever stops thinking of the Doctor as a friend, but it's a far cry from the oblique way he references him in S1 and S2. Also, "here's one of the secrets...run"? Loved that. Because the first and most important thing you learn when travelling with the Doctor is to run.
I can't remember where I saw this brought up (maybe the gleeclub chat post episode?), but someone suggested that Angelo was a plant, and that everything about their encounters was him getting close to Jack for some nefarious purpose. Which I can see, but if Angelo is a plant, he didn't know about Jack's immortality. Because there's no way he could've faked that shock. Also, if he was a plant, then that just made everything about this storyline about 1000x more heartbreaking. Because it's clear that Jack's relationship with Angelo is one of the major things (along with all of that time spent waiting for the Doctor) that made Jack into the closed-off person we see at the beginning of series one. During the "Fragments" flashbacks, we have a Jack who gets drunk and tells random strangers how great the Doctor is, and how the Doctor is going to come fix him. A Jack who is also shocked and horrified by Torchwood just killing that blowfish, even though he hadn't done anything wrong. He's much more open and less cynical than 2006!Jack, and the Jack in these flashbacks is pretty clearly just Fragments!Jack 28 years later. Jack is still at a point in his life where he's willing to open up to someone he cares about (maybe even loves), to tell his secrets to without hesitation. And Angelo's betrayal fucked Jack up royally.
The scene outside the prison. I don't know that I can buy that Jack ever really felt as though his immortality was "the best secret of all", but it's not as though every word out of his mouth is 100% truth or anything. What really kills me about that scene is when he tells Angelo that he came back for him, and that he's never done that before. Ugh, just. "Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang" references aside, this broke my heart, because it seems to me as though this may be the first and last time he ever did that (came back for someone), at least until he did it at the beginning of series two. Like I said, this relationship really fucked him up, if it takes him eighty years to get close to people and reveal things about his past again.
And then once we get back to the room over the butcher's shop, that's where things start to go so very very wrong. They start off well enough, but Angelo just can't deal with the whole Jack-was-dead-now-he's-not thing, and it goes bad really fast. This scene is really horrifying. It brought to mind all of the terrible shit Jack must've gone through at the Master's hands during the Year That Never Was (and damn, he must've had some flashbacks to this during that year). Only this is worse, because you expect the Master to be a sick sadistic bastard, and these are just regular people. Regular people, many of whom who are torturing another human being because they want to see the miracle of him reviving. Ugh, how fucking disgusting. And Jack begs Angelo to stop this, but Angelo does nothing, doesn't even attempt to help. Probably he's afraid the mob will turn on him, too, but it's pretty awful, whatever the case.
Then the three mysterious men show up. I wonder who they are. Aside from obviously being the ones (or precursors to the ones) who are behind Miracle Day. And being the people who started the Triangle Logo group. There are three of them, a triangle has three sides, and also their hands form a triangle when they make their agreement to buy Jack. Way to be original, boys. What I want to know, though, is, aside from what they were going to do (or even did) with him, how did they find out about him? Was he down in that room long enough that he became a whispered rumor in the area? Or did someone else in the mob work for them? I hope this is something we actually find out.
When it's finally over, and Angelo frees Jack so they can escape, Jack is so broken down it just breaks my heart. He assumes Angelo's going to take his vortex manipulator, too, the only other thing he has left. This is one of the few times we've really seen Jack so open in his hopelessness. He's usually the first person to deflect whatever terrible things are happening to him with a joke and a fake smirk; maybe that's another result of what happened to him here.
And now Jack leaves, because that's what he does best. I've already touched on the "fixed point" thing, so my major comment here is that I can't imagine this going any other way. It would be one thing if Angelo hadn't just stood by and watched Jack get tortured for hours on end, but when he allows that to happen and thinks Jack's just going to go back to the way things were? Not a chance.
As Jack says, "It always ends the same way. You kill me. Men like you, you kill me.", like it's something he forgot he should be used to. He's not going to forget again. :(
And that's why I can't see this as happening at any time except on the slow path. This is such a huge betrayal; it's not as though no one has ever killed Jack on purpose before (c.f. Victorian Torchwood), but it's never been someone he loved and told his secrets to. He hasn't had someone he loved and trusted stand by and watch other people torture him without attempting to stop it, before. The idea that this would fuck him up enough to make him close himself off from the possibility of an open and honest relationship is not at all a ridiculous one. That it would take a lifetime for him to be honest about his past with people he loves after being betrayed like this is not at all surprising. :((((
Jack and Gwen
I've been waiting for these scenes for what feels like ages. People kept giving interviews and saying that there was an episode where Gwen and Jack would finally have it out, and talking about a conversation they'd have in a car, and when I found out they were combining this (this thing that I've wanted since the season started) with the flashbacks episode, I was super excited. All of the things I want, all at once! And it did not disappoint.
I loved everything about all of the scenes between the two of them, especially The Conversation (as it were). Gwen with her survivor's guilt, which was perfectly done; she feels horribly guilty for those thoughts, but that doesn't stop her from having them. And even after all of the terrible things that happened to her, and to people that she loved, she still loved being a part of Torchwood and doing something that was so important. It's not until she has a child to worry about that things change. I think if it was still her and Rhys, she wouldn't have ever stopped fighting, and probably would have tried her hardest to rebuild Torchwood. That's just who Gwen is.
I love the way in which this is shot, and how like a confessional the car seems, with Gwen in the front and Jack in the back, and the only way they can see each other is a little bit in the rear view mirror. And Gwen is most certainly making a confession to Jack, unburdening her soul to him as she drives him through the night to what might be his final death.
And Jack can finally say that he wants to live, that he'll let Gwen take that from him over his dead body (so to speak). Such a long time coming. The way he's always (or at least since his time with the Doctor) been willing to throw his life away to save other people has always broken my heart. As though because he can't die that means his life is somehow worth less than someone else's. Even after he became mortal again, I don't think that really changed. But something is finally different for him since the beginning of the season, and he's finally at a place where he can say, "I don't want to die". Just ♥♥♥ forever, basically.
And even with all of the shit that they've been through, all that Gwen blames Jack for, all of her guilt in relation to Torchwood, they still love each other. Ugh, I love them so much! And their brohug after the bad guys have been subdued! Just perfect. ♥
I was giving Gwen the side eye a bit for being so angry at Jack for not knowing her mom's name, though. I have plenty of friends whose parents' first names I don't know. And these would be parents I've met more than once. As far as we know, Jack interacted with Gwen's mother at her wedding, and that was it. And considering that a) it was a long time ago, and b) even if Gwen talked about her parents all of the time she wouldn't refer to them by their first names, I think Jack can be forgiven for not knowing Mary's first name. Now if he'd forgotten Rhys's name (or if Rhys had forgotten Mary's name) it would be a different thing entirely.
I loved how smart the grammar discussion was. Really great attempt to actually figure things out with the tiny bit of information they might have. "They could be from back east" was clearly written by a west coaster, though, as we totally don't say that on this coast, and I don't think anyone not from the west coast would refer to it as back east.
I really thought Jack was going to bust out with "we're related" during the conversation about how they could use his wriststrap to find Anwen. I'm kind of disappointed that they didn't go there, tbh. Jack could totally be Gwen's ancestor (or vice versa, considering he won't actually be born for ~3,000 years)! I guess since it was really just a throwaway attempt to get Gwen to let him go, it wasn't going to go anywhere, but it got me really excited for a minute.
Jack's story about the most beautiful thing he's ever seen in the universe was really fantastic. The whole thing about the afterimage the firebird leaves behind on the inside of your eyelids lasting longer than the creature itself does felt sort of like a metaphor for Jack and the people he's had in his life. Those people, the people he loves, only live for a short time (compared to him, anyway), but their memory will live on with him for a lot longer than they ever could on their own. Even if that wasn't the intention, it was a really nice parallel.
Esther and Rex
It was really nice to see that Vera's death actually meant something. While it didn't get the camps shut down, people know about it (5 million hits on pseudo-YouTube), and are honoring her with memorial services and everything. Rex is clearly upset over it, but he continues to be terrible with emotions and brushes off Esther's concern with "I didn't know her", etc. You may not have really known her, Rex, but you obviously felt something for her. It's not going to kill you to admit that, bro.
Esther's suitably awkward reaction was really great, too. She barely knew Vera either, but she has feelings for Rex and doesn't want him to be sad, so she tries to be all supportive, but it doesn't work out very well for her. Thankfully Gwen interrupts their conversation like a crazyface looking for Jack, or I fear things would have started to get too awkward for words.
Awkwardness aside, Esther and Rex were absolutely amazing this week. Coming out of nowhere to save Jack and Gwen like a boss! Then bringing in the police to save Gwen's family! That's my team! ♥ And when they show up on the scene there are hugs all around. Gwen throwing herself on Rex kissing him on the cheek was beautiful. He looked so disgruntled! First he has to deal with the rest of Torchwood behaving like amateur clowns (lolol), and now he has a crazy lady hugging him! His life is so hard.
These scenes, almost more than anything in recent episodes, really cemented my desire for Rex and Esther to survive so they can come back next season. I've loved seeing them grow over the season, and I really love both of them, and will be really sad if we have to lose either one of them. Keeping my fingers crossed for their continued survival.
Random Other Stuff
- I liked the mention of Oswald Danes that Gwen overhears on the car radio right before Jack comes to. Nice way to keep the Oswald storyline around and moving forward while he's off-screen. And trying to shoehorn him into this episode in another way would have just been too much. Hopefully they'll bring that storyline back in next week, though, because it's been two weeks without any real progress there. Not that it's my favorite storyline or anything, but still.
- Loved the Andy cameo. That look on his face for a second when he says he's never shot anybody before. :( So many people this season doing things like this that they've never done before, all because of how fucked up the world has gotten. It's not just members of Torchwood who end up doing terrible things, it's people on the sidelines (Rhys transporting bodies to the modules, Andy killing this kidnapper) who've somehow gotten through all of the previous seasons unscathed. No one is safe anymore.
- That being said, I loved the little exchange between Andy and Gwen's mom. She's all "it's about time", and he goes off on one of his spiels. Too precious! There so needs to be more scenes with the Wales contingent, because they are all amazing!
- I love how many awesome genre actors have been on the show this season. And we'll be getting another great one next week with the appearance of John de Lancie (yay!).
- Angelo knows how the miracle began. But that implies he isn't the cause, which is sort of what I'd been thinking before this week's episode. So, who is? Those three men, presumably, or their descendants, or other members of the secret-organization-with-the-terrible-logo they started. But why? And how? And why is Jack mortal now if it had to do with Jack's blood (presumably). All of the questions. It really needs to be next week now, I'm just saying.
I've got another post in-progress that I'll make in the next couple of days, about what I did on Saturday, but it's way past time for me to go to sleep. Later!