Torchwood by numbers (1x08)
"They Keep Killing..."
Times the Improbability Drive was engaged for this plot (a.k.a. WTF): 12 (real count, list available upon request)
This full episode runs 51:30, so quite a bit of cutting was necessary for BBCA. melina123 has it all here - there's some entertaining, but not essential, banter between Detective Swanson and Jack, but the one cut I think is important is this exchange in the Hub while the rest of the gang searches Wolf Bar:SUZIE: Can't even look at me, can you? It's not like you to be so judgmental.
TOSHIKO: Not like you to go on a murder spree. All right, so it drives us mad, this job. God knows, I've done some stupid stuff. But now, I've got to keep on working, every day, in a job that's got a bit less honor, because of you.
I think this is the second time we've seen Toshiko refering to her job as having a special importance for the world.
Also, check out "Other staff issues" at the end of this episode's BBCA Captain's Blog. Heh.
On that note, "Give Ianto a stopwatch and he's happy."
"It's the button on the top."
and
"Lots of things you can do with a stopwatch."
It all sounds like innuendo but I just do not get it. What can you do with a stopwatch? scarlettgirl said "time each other" but I seriously lack imagination in this area. And is this a thing everybody knows about, the use of stopwatches in kinky ways? Or did they make it up for this show?
[ETA - In case anybody else is curious, I looked it up and found stopwatch references in some medical and psychological articles. While I still don't know if stopwatch-assisted sexplay is a well-known thing outside of Torchwood, apparently the stopwatch can have something to do with the desire to delay ejaculation. Which is the basic idea of the fic taffimai recommended. Interesting! And really much more creative and engaging than what I was thinking.]
The only other thing I have to say is -- ohhh. The staff (Owen in particular) blamed Suzie's killing spree on the glove, not her simply being a sad crazy-ass mofo. That explains a lot. But her (implausible, ahem) plan with Max and the lockdown proved them wrong. And was she always a psychopath and Jack just didn't pick up on it when he hired her (I have a hard time believing that, he seems very perceptive when he wants to be) or did Torchwood do this to her? It seems to be the latter that's implied. All the horrible things, and no one on the inside looking out for each other.
*
Gwen: But if there’s nothing, what’s the point of it all?
Suzie: This is. Driving through the dark. All this stupid, tiny stuff. We’re just animals howling in the night, ‘cause it’s better than silence. I used to think about Torchwood. All those aliens coming to Earth? What the hell for? But it’s just instinct. They come here ‘cause there’s life, that’s all. Moths around a flame, creatures clinging together in the cold.
- Times Team Torchwood acts like superior beings over the flies that ordinary humans obviously are: 3 (10 for the series so far)
- Times Detective Swanson calls them on it: 4 (I ♥ Kathy Swanson)
- Best line: "God help me, the stories are true."
- Amount of time it took me to realize Detective Swanson is the same person as Jabe the tree lady from "End of the World": 6 months
- Times the name of our secret organization is seen or mentioned prominently to others: 3 (oh how I wish I'd been keeping track all along)
- Team Torchwood powershot! 2 (3)
- Times Jack flirts inappropriately: 1 (7)
- Spikiness of Jack's hair: 7 out of a possible 11 ()
- Times Tosh is a tech goddess: 5 (16)
- Times Gwen actually carries equipment at a crime scene: 1 (2)
- Times Jack jokes inappropriately but he might not be kidding: 3
- Jack above the waist: sea green shirt, red braces, white undershirt (I love the green and red combo)
- Number of people to whom TW has administered Retcon: 2,008
- How scary/impressive it is that Ianto knows that: Hello, Teaboy Savant!
- Times Ianto saves the day: 1- cell phone/water tower relay! (3)
- Times Owen is a twat has a dark sense of humor: 2 (I feel him on this one, I do that grim joke thing too)
- Times Owen teases Tosh but it's not very nice: 1 - What's wrong with "Resurrection Gauntlet"? (and 24 for the Twat Count so far)
- Times Ianto names stuff: 2 (and gets a Stun Gun tribute from Jack)
- Tosh cleavage: 3
- Glovegasms: 3
- Implications that Gwen has more compassion than the others: 4
- Gwen is the Merciful and Soothing Vagina of Love: 6 (19)
- Times Ianto is stopwatch-happy: 7
- Times I don't understand the innuendo: 2
- Anvil: TW employees don't take care of each other as people: 3
- Times Tosh is jealous of Suzie: 2
- Really gross shots of the back of Suzie's head: 1 (cut on BBCA)
- Gwen/Suzie creepy bonding: 4
- Times TW staff are uncomfortable with Suzie (duh): 5
- Times Jack touches Gwen and he's not flirting: 2
- Times Ianto looks askance: 1
- Times Gwen encourages Jack to stab a former employee through the heart: 1
- Times Owen notices a comment about Suzie killing Jack: 1 out of a possible 2
- Jack forearms OMG: 2 (8)
- Times Gwen screws up: 1, unless you count trusting Suzie in the first place (5)
- Times Suzie has self-loathing/inferiority complex: 4
- Times Owen defers to Jack: 1 (3)
- Owen was doing Suzie! 1
- Times Jack implies he likes sex but doesn't show us: Twin acrobats, is that a 2 or a 1? (4)
- Discussions of the afterlife: 2
- Times Suzie is an emo goth poet*: 2 (3) OH CAPTAIN MY CAPTAIN
- From Beneath You It Devours: 3
- Times Gwen has blood on her hands, literally: 1 (3)
- Patricide: 1
- Suzie is a really sick f* and yet I kind of feel sorry for her and that creeps me out: OMG
- Times Suzie thinks having a piece of Gwen inside her will save her: 3
- Running running! 2 (8)
- Degree to which Gwen's plight has me on pins & needles: embarrassing
- Times Jack shoots Suzie, as promised: 6 (they can count the number of shells a revolver holds!)
- Times Tosh is an action hero: 1 (5)
- Times Jack stands over Suzie's body angsting: 2 (4)
- Long walks to Cold Storage: 2
- Implied GAY SEKS: (?) I really don't know what's going on with the stopwatch, but I bet it's fun and my parents wouldn't approve
- Whiplash from the Jack/Ianto relationship: 1 (4)
- Times Ianto smiles: 1 (7)
- Innocent bystanders dead: 4 (32)
- Death by Torchwood: 1 (I should probably add the whole Innocent Bystanders category to this)
- Total dead: Six Five Four 5 (42)
This full episode runs 51:30, so quite a bit of cutting was necessary for BBCA. melina123 has it all here - there's some entertaining, but not essential, banter between Detective Swanson and Jack, but the one cut I think is important is this exchange in the Hub while the rest of the gang searches Wolf Bar:SUZIE: Can't even look at me, can you? It's not like you to be so judgmental.
TOSHIKO: Not like you to go on a murder spree. All right, so it drives us mad, this job. God knows, I've done some stupid stuff. But now, I've got to keep on working, every day, in a job that's got a bit less honor, because of you.
I think this is the second time we've seen Toshiko refering to her job as having a special importance for the world.
Also, check out "Other staff issues" at the end of this episode's BBCA Captain's Blog. Heh.
On that note, "Give Ianto a stopwatch and he's happy."
"It's the button on the top."
and
"Lots of things you can do with a stopwatch."
It all sounds like innuendo but I just do not get it. What can you do with a stopwatch? scarlettgirl said "time each other" but I seriously lack imagination in this area. And is this a thing everybody knows about, the use of stopwatches in kinky ways? Or did they make it up for this show?
[ETA - In case anybody else is curious, I looked it up and found stopwatch references in some medical and psychological articles. While I still don't know if stopwatch-assisted sexplay is a well-known thing outside of Torchwood, apparently the stopwatch can have something to do with the desire to delay ejaculation. Which is the basic idea of the fic taffimai recommended. Interesting! And really much more creative and engaging than what I was thinking.]
The only other thing I have to say is -- ohhh. The staff (Owen in particular) blamed Suzie's killing spree on the glove, not her simply being a sad crazy-ass mofo. That explains a lot. But her (implausible, ahem) plan with Max and the lockdown proved them wrong. And was she always a psychopath and Jack just didn't pick up on it when he hired her (I have a hard time believing that, he seems very perceptive when he wants to be) or did Torchwood do this to her? It seems to be the latter that's implied. All the horrible things, and no one on the inside looking out for each other.
*
Gwen: But if there’s nothing, what’s the point of it all?
Suzie: This is. Driving through the dark. All this stupid, tiny stuff. We’re just animals howling in the night, ‘cause it’s better than silence. I used to think about Torchwood. All those aliens coming to Earth? What the hell for? But it’s just instinct. They come here ‘cause there’s life, that’s all. Moths around a flame, creatures clinging together in the cold.