sapote | Torchwood 2x11

I am completely enchanted with this episode, partially because Torchwood: most viddable show ever, y/y? I should have been paying attention to the plot but instead I kept going "And that shot! And that shot! YAY!".

I've got the Pink Logo Download, though, which is seriously ill-suited to a show that's filmed right in people's faces. There's just not a lot of excess screen space on Torchwood, and the logo is always blocking someone's face or right up their nostril or something.

I kept catching hints of Villain Jack throughout the episode, which was interesting: especially the "always room for one more" comment. Jack has been very sympathetic throughout this season, but I like my reading of him from last season, where his morality is not Earth morality and the conflict between his worldview and the world his team lives in creates little rifts in their lives. Of course, he turned out to be secretly in the business of saving puppies, but until the reveal he was pleasantly ambiguous again.

I continue to be enchanted by how well this show is treating Rhys, post-matrimony: consider the difference between Countrycide and this episode. Gwen ended that episode having, from the look of things, somewhat heartless sex with Owen because she felt like she couldn't tell anyone about these traumatic things that kept happening; she ended this episode on the couch with Rhys telling him about one of the horrible things that happened to her in the course of trying to save the world, and being comforted by him.

I think the tension between Jack's surprise nudity and Rhys's "dammit, woman, I want babies" speech was interesting. I could paint it in very broad strokes as "wow, the men in her life keep trying to control her via sexuality," but I feel like, at least as far as Rhys/Gwen, the situation was actually pretty deftly presented in a way that didn't make Rhys (too much of a) villain. I was disappointed that Andy turned out to fancy Gwen, because I liked them as cop buddies a lot, but it was almost worth it because Rhys just wasn't threatened. I think Gwen wanted him to be threatened, or jealous: I also wonder if chubby 21st-century Gwen in unflattering cop pants wouldn't have thought that way but Torchwood Gwen is more used to people using sexuality to jerk other people around.

*cough*

I am disappointed that my like for Rhys/Gwen means it's harder to actively ship Gwen/Tosh unless I put a runaround in my head where Gwen and Rhys Had a Conversation about that sort of thing before they got married. Which they could have, I think. Because damn, Rhys is secure. He just doesn't want to lose Gwen, he doesn't seem to mind if she has parts of her life that aren't to do with him. Therefore if maybe she's dating a woman from work, he might be upset because it cuts even more into their together time, but I could also see him being all "So how was your date? Oh, your dentist called."

I was actually a little distressed by the Surprise Buttsex, I think because kinky workplace shenanigans work well in the watercolor world of fic but in canon are fraught with unaddressed power issues etc. But whatev! It builds my case for "Jack: kind of awesome, kind of messed up!". And I intend to prosecute, one of these days.

To be honest, I was so happy about the soap opera plotlines (if Torchwood is in any way a show for grownups, I think it's in the way Rhys/Gwen is being handled right now) to really care about the actual alien-disappearance-mystery-thing, but I still was really upset by it. Also, seriously, Torchwood, you use Retcon to get out of parking tickets, you don't have it listed for therapeutic use? You can't offer that woman a dose, under some sort of informed consent procedure? It would open up the way to rip off Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind later, and Torchwood, I know how you love stealing from other plotlines.

Also, Torchwood, ILU.

Torchwood 2x11

no subject