Torchwood Rewatch: 1x01 Everything Changes

[lefaym]

Episode: 1x01 Everything Changes
Writer: Russell T. Davies
Director: Brian Kelly

This review contains spoilers for everything aired, up to and including Children of Earth.OMG, I ENJOYED THAT SO FUCKING MUCH. SERIOUSLY. GWEN LOOKED SO CUTE AND INNOCENT IN HER POLICE OUTFIT. JACK’S COAT WAS SWISHY. RHYS WAS LOVELY. JACK HAS A SHINY SMILE. AND

Comments

[used_songs]

That “Hold on, sorry” really got to me, too. I rewatched the eps with Suzie in them for that Suzie fic I wrote a while back and I think that little moment and others in this ep gave me a lot of sympathy for her. The interaction between Gwen and Suzie in this ep and in TKKS is really interesting and goes way beyond bitterness over being "replaced" (though that's there as well).

I never gave much thought to Ianto literally being the gatekeeper who brought Gwen in before. That's a very interesting point. Not to bring up bad fic, but I can't help but think of her sitting next to Ianto in COE after the bad thing that happened.

[lefaym]

Yeah, I'm looking forward to watching TKKS again while keeping all of this in mind.

I never gave much thought to Ianto literally being the gatekeeper who brought Gwen in before.

Me neither -- as I said to fmanalyst above, the symbolism of it really struck me this time because, since CoE, I've been thinking about the way that so many of us have used him as our access point.

Not to bring up bad fic, but I can't help but think of her sitting next to Ianto in COE after the bad thing that happened.

Heee! Did you just refer to CoE as bad!fic? :P This pleases me greatly. And yeah... he was the first person she met, aside from Jack... the one who let her in.

[smirnoffmule]

Given later events, it is really interesting how unremarked on Ianto is; Gwen doesn't mention him when she's trying to make her list of things she remembers, either. And yet, straight away he's got this something there with Jack, this kind of quiet wingman thing going on

[lefaym]

It really is a shame that Gwen and Suzie didn't get to bounce off each other a bit more -- that they couldn't have killed Suzie a few episodes in.

My favourite favourite fucked up thing about this episode too is that it just hasn't occurred to Jack, or anyone, that they could be using their glove to solve murders; they're just dicking around with it in this really dark, self-involved way. It just hooked me right into this team as this really damaged collection of human beings who have this amazing, amazing thing in their lives and just utterly fail at the real world.This is so true. I think that feeds into Suzie's "Why do we get all the shit?" speech -- it's not that the good things don't turn up there, it's just that they're too broken to see them. And I do love that the more we find out about the team, the more we learn that Gwen really is the only one who comes to them unbroken-- which is why I think Jack finds her so fascinating, and why he puts her on a pedestal. It's not that she's really more brilliant or moral or sensitive

[phaetonschariot]

And Jack, who styles himself as heroic, but is actually only half there at this point.

I know after watching Fragments I thought back on Jack in season one. He'd been told by Faith (or whoever she is) that the century would "turn twice" before he saw the Doctor again, and he takes that as it being soon after the turn of the century/millenium, rather than more like 2090, so he knows that he's going to up and run out on them at some point in the (reasonably, to him) near future. He's just... waiting. But he still does what he does. Actually, I suspect him building up a team again was to make sure there'd still be someone there when he left. Pity they're all kind of incompetent. ;)

[ceindreadh]

My favourite favourite fucked up thing about this episode too is that it just hasn't occurred to Jack, or anyone, that they could be using their glove to solve murders; they're just dicking around with it in this really dark, self-involved way. It just hooked me right into this team as this really damaged collection of human beings who have this amazing, amazing thing in their lives and just utterly fail at the real world

See that never bothered me, because dealing with the 'real world' was never Torchwoods raison d'etre. It's like in Random Shoes, solving a hit and run is not their responsibility. Neither is solving murders (that don't have Torchwood written in big letters at the crime scene). That's the police's job.

[kel_reiley]

“Don’t keep him waitin,’” and opening that door ... for me, that was it; he had me completely hooked.

for me, it was the "With my eyes" comment in Day One the 1st, but same principle - ianto was MY character (even though i'd come (hee!) for jack) but i watched those 2 eps together

and yes, CoE just lacked that overall sense of wonder and awe

(Though I do think that the risen-mittens have had their day.) - i really bloody hope so, i'm quite bored with them (and the 2 we've seen were SO not a matching set, they didn't even look the same)

she says, “Forgive me, go on forgive me, say you forgive me.” She uses almost the exact same words in Combat, after she confesses her affair with Owen; - ooh! never noticed that before, kinda puts things in a new light for me, i may have to do a rewatch of s1 & 2 - agree that the gwen/rhys relationship got the most detail in development, and i liked it

Gwen says to Jack, “Owen and Toshiko-you didn’t tell them that you were shot in the head, and survived.” She doesn’t mention Ianto. Does this mean

[lefaym]

for me, it was the "With my eyes" comment in Day One the 1st, but same principle - ianto was MY character (even though i'd come (hee!) for jack) but i watched those 2 eps together

Oh, I watched them together too, the first time! Actually, I watched the first three in one evening, and then everything up to TTLM in the few days after that. And I squee'd practically every time that Ianto opened his mouth. :) (Except in Cyberwoman-- then I just wanted to cuddle him.) And the "with my eyes" line is great -- I am looking forward to watching it when I get around to Day One.

[phaetonschariot]

I also noticed that, at the end, Gwen says to Jack, “Owen and Toshiko-you didn’t tell them that you were shot in the head, and survived.” She doesn’t mention Ianto. Does this mean that she’s simply forgotten about Ianto? It’s certainly plausible, given that the “nobody notices Ianto” thing is due to become very prominent in Cyberwoman, but it leaves it just open enough to suggest that perhaps he DID tell Ianto, and that Gwen knew that he did. And I love that. That is the sort of thing that inspires fic, after all.I remember noting when I last rewatched this that when she's writing on her computer she also neglects to mention Ianto

[lefaym]

I haven't actually read the three S1 tie-in novels. But I'm thinking I should just for the sake of complete-ness (though at the moment I don't feel like giving money to the BBC, especially for TW-related things -- they might take it as approval of CoE).

And I do think that you're right that it's probably supposed to be a case of Gwen not noticing Ianto, but there's enough of a gap in there to play around a bit. :)

[phaetonschariot]

Yeah I have all the books except for Another Life, and I'd heard the audio version of that, and I was really not sure whether to buy Slow Decay to finish the set after CoE. I'm totally a season three denialist though so I'm just not going to buy anything that acknowledges it. (Or the archives or yearbook or anything because they're disgustingly expensive.) I kind of wish I'd had the DVDs preordered solely so I could cancel the order.

I do like playing with gaps. :P And in End of Days it DOES seem that Ianto doesn't know he comes back to life, but logistically I think it makes more sense if he's noticed something, because he's the one that cleans up the messes. And the whole gap with Jack dying in his car in Out of Time is a fun one too. Mostly I just find it hilarious that just going by the introductions you'd think Ianto was the most important person on the team, but everyone always forgets him.

[lefaym]

I think End of Days is ambiguous with regard to what Ianto knows. One thing I find interesting is that Ianto immediately goes to crouch at Jack's head -- and the only time we see him do something like that again is after Clem shoots him in Day Four.

I kind of wish I'd had the DVDs preordered solely so I could cancel the order.

YES.

[kaylamds]

I watched the whole series before CoE, and I'm kind of glad I did. But I love this, you just...this is beautiful and I feel entirely where you're coming from. I never drew the comparison, which is surprising, being a fan of all of those things. Okay, so I haven't finished reading Alice, but...

It makes me sob for most of CoE still, but it makes me appreciate Gwen's writing a bit more. It also makes me want to kick the writers for not doing more with Jack and Ianto's relationship. Not as in your face as Gwen and Rhys's, but it could still be something, you know?

*CLINGS WITH YOU* Yeah, I have a friend who said, after day three, that Torchwood was omg amazing, and that he was through with it the very next day, or something like (it's dead to me/etc).

I think I'll reimmerse myself too and rediscover what I liked about Torchwood. Before it went so horribly wrong.

[lefaym]

It also makes me want to kick the writers for not doing more with Jack and Ianto's relationship. Not as in your face as Gwen and Rhys's, but it could still be something, you know?

Yeah-- I don't begrudge the Gwen/Rhys development AT ALL, I absolutely love it, I just wish that the same care had been taken with the J/I development -- and to be clear (even though I've probably already said this), this does not mean that I want J/I to be the SAME as G/R (as RTD seems to think of people who feel that J/I was neglected), just that I wanted it to be explored in the same amount of depth.