Torchwood 4.08 End of the Road
In which Kira meets Q, Oswald finds out he's not Richard Gere, and we learn more about jelly fish.
Okay, first of all, evidently I was wrong both about Jack's expositionary monologue about the madness inducing brain parasite being there to prepare us for Angelo being infected (he wasn't), and about Angelo as one of the Big Bads (involved with the project, but from a distance). I still say the alien parasite scene last week was clumsy and John Barrowman should never do exposition.
John de Lancie, otoh, is great at it. You can tell the character must have been written for him by fangirls and -boys writers familiar with his previous most famous role, because he gets to do what he does best, delivering sarcastic put-downs in all directions while playing a charismatic bastard. Shapiro was great fun; Nina Visitor, otoh, felt a bit wasted as Angelo's granddaughter Olivia, and I wonder whether originally Angelo himself was meant to deliver the information she provided before dying, and her character was invented in the last minute by Jane E. who after wrote for DS9 before she wrote for Buffy and thus has history with Nana Visitor, wanting to give her a job. It would explain the randomness of the appearance.
Going back to Angelo: before JB fans jump on me, here he monologues just fine, talking to an old former lover on his, as it turns out, death bed (and the Ianto fans must be in heaven because of the name check), and I found that scene quite touching, especially coming mixed with Jack making sure it really is Angelo first via checking the eye which is a neat and far less annoying use of the audience's attention being drawn to it in the previous episode than I had feared. Given that all the way back in early season 1 of Torchwood, I thought Jack's kiss-of-life was one of the most over the top ideas the show had and was glad they dropped it, it surprised me how much I appreciated that we get an exact mirrorlike twist to it now, a kiss-of-death. It fits with the whole reverse of Jack's status. And also makes me speculate that what's needed to reverse the entire Miracle on a global scale would be Jack dying as a mortal man with this being transmitted via the newly introduced macguffin, because that would mirror what happened with Stephen and RTD loves his parallels.
The Gwen-Rhys-Mary phonecall was my personal favourite scene of the episode in the "awww" sense; I'll get to my favourite scene in terms of acting in a moment. I'm ruthless that way: as long as Gwen, Rhys and the baby survive, RTD can kill whoever else he wants though of course I'd rather Esther and Rex make it through the end of Miracle Day intact, since I've grown rather fond of them, and I get such a kick out of Jilly that once the season is over I know I'll write a crossovers in which she'll meet... someone.
Speaking of Jilly: aaand we get the long expected clash with Oswald. To put it cynically, figures that the US would come up with some way to get their death penalties enforced after all, Miracle or no Miracle. Jilly is right, Oswald should have seen this coming. (And Jilly should have known he wouldn't react well.) The scene between Oswald and the prostitute was my favourite scene in terms of acting and writing. It was just visceral, and the way the prostitute refused to give Oswald any Pretty-Woman illusions (or buys into his redemption) counterpoised by Oswald losing his poise more and more even before getting the Category 0 news because he may be despicable, but he's not moustache-twirling, he needs his illusions of self - brilliantly done.
Poor Shawnee. I liked her. Otoh making Esther's pal Charlotte at the CIA not just a mole but a higher-upper member of the Bad Guys was a great twist.
Lastly: Esther's phonecall with her sister, like the previous scenes involving Esther and her sister, just made me want to hug her.
This entry was originally posted at http://selenak.dreamwidth.org/709748.html. Comment there or here, as you wish.
Okay, first of all, evidently I was wrong both about Jack's expositionary monologue about the madness inducing brain parasite being there to prepare us for Angelo being infected (he wasn't), and about Angelo as one of the Big Bads (involved with the project, but from a distance). I still say the alien parasite scene last week was clumsy and John Barrowman should never do exposition.
John de Lancie, otoh, is great at it. You can tell the character must have been written for him by fangirls and -boys writers familiar with his previous most famous role, because he gets to do what he does best, delivering sarcastic put-downs in all directions while playing a charismatic bastard. Shapiro was great fun; Nina Visitor, otoh, felt a bit wasted as Angelo's granddaughter Olivia, and I wonder whether originally Angelo himself was meant to deliver the information she provided before dying, and her character was invented in the last minute by Jane E. who after wrote for DS9 before she wrote for Buffy and thus has history with Nana Visitor, wanting to give her a job. It would explain the randomness of the appearance.
Going back to Angelo: before JB fans jump on me, here he monologues just fine, talking to an old former lover on his, as it turns out, death bed (and the Ianto fans must be in heaven because of the name check), and I found that scene quite touching, especially coming mixed with Jack making sure it really is Angelo first via checking the eye which is a neat and far less annoying use of the audience's attention being drawn to it in the previous episode than I had feared. Given that all the way back in early season 1 of Torchwood, I thought Jack's kiss-of-life was one of the most over the top ideas the show had and was glad they dropped it, it surprised me how much I appreciated that we get an exact mirrorlike twist to it now, a kiss-of-death. It fits with the whole reverse of Jack's status. And also makes me speculate that what's needed to reverse the entire Miracle on a global scale would be Jack dying as a mortal man with this being transmitted via the newly introduced macguffin, because that would mirror what happened with Stephen and RTD loves his parallels.
The Gwen-Rhys-Mary phonecall was my personal favourite scene of the episode in the "awww" sense; I'll get to my favourite scene in terms of acting in a moment. I'm ruthless that way: as long as Gwen, Rhys and the baby survive, RTD can kill whoever else he wants though of course I'd rather Esther and Rex make it through the end of Miracle Day intact, since I've grown rather fond of them, and I get such a kick out of Jilly that once the season is over I know I'll write a crossovers in which she'll meet... someone.
Speaking of Jilly: aaand we get the long expected clash with Oswald. To put it cynically, figures that the US would come up with some way to get their death penalties enforced after all, Miracle or no Miracle. Jilly is right, Oswald should have seen this coming. (And Jilly should have known he wouldn't react well.) The scene between Oswald and the prostitute was my favourite scene in terms of acting and writing. It was just visceral, and the way the prostitute refused to give Oswald any Pretty-Woman illusions (or buys into his redemption) counterpoised by Oswald losing his poise more and more even before getting the Category 0 news because he may be despicable, but he's not moustache-twirling, he needs his illusions of self - brilliantly done.
Poor Shawnee. I liked her. Otoh making Esther's pal Charlotte at the CIA not just a mole but a higher-upper member of the Bad Guys was a great twist.
Lastly: Esther's phonecall with her sister, like the previous scenes involving Esther and her sister, just made me want to hug her.
This entry was originally posted at http://selenak.dreamwidth.org/709748.html. Comment there or here, as you wish.