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Others who saw this episode before me squeed all over the Internet so much it got on my computer and started leaking out my USB port. I have a little puddle of squee on my desk even now.
The bigger puddle of squee that is me now joins it.
OMG! I totally love this episode! Yes, now the squee is all over my keyboard, too.
I'll start with my big complaint: I'm always a little bothered by whumping and improbable recoveries or behaviors while injured. I decided early on that I just had to let this one go for Torchwood. Jack spends completely random amounts of time dead after each death: when Suzie shoots him, it's mere moments; when Owen shoots him, it's about the same; when he gets shot in the head in the flashback to Steampunk Torchwood (love it!), he revives instantly, and he doesn't even die temporarily from the shocks.
When Gwen gets shot in "Countrycide," well, buckshot isn't generally fatal, but it's freaking painful. Sometimes she's limping, sometimes she's moving just fine, and I can't believe the sun has come up and she's interrogating the one homicidal maniac at the end instead of in an ambulance or actually in a hospital. That bothered me.
Rhys getting shot in "Meat" really bothers me, because they take him back to the Hub, instead of to a hospital, where he could have a whole surgical team in a surgical suite. No, he gets Owen, with no visible means of anesthesia, and the autopsy table. Then he goes and has an ice cream cone.
Owen getting shot through the shoulder and bandaging himself (?!) and going his merry way without a word of complaint in "Captain Jack Harkness/End of Days" probably still bothers me the most.
But what is WITH only having the team plus Rhys rescue the rest? Owen can't heal; we'll just send Gwen and hope she's enough for whatever ails him! Not a great plan.
Rescuing Tosh? I mean, these people are literally rocket scientists! Or at least Tosh is, or could be. Maybe that's the problem. It's the non-rocket scientists who decide the team should rescue her. This consists of:
not Gwen, despite the fact that she is uninjured and not even recently dead. No, she's a woman, so I guess she can't do heavy lifting (though her arms look like she can do some lifting!).
Jack: recently dead. But hey--not a problem.
Rhys: the Rhys of this exchange (courtesy of Kilohoku transcripts)
JACK: Wow! Gwen Cooper getting married. (She nods.) Down on one knee?
GWEN: He tried to, and then he had a twinge in his back and had to lie on the settee, and that’s when he popped the question.
Ianto--who has just had his dislocated shoulder put back into place by Jack. And, seriously, couldn't Jack let the poor man sit down before he popped the shoulder back in? And aren't you supposed to strap that arm for a while? Just sayin'.
So Tosh is dug out by a crew consisting of a recently dead guy, a man with a bad back, and a man with one useless arm, because if Ianto puts any weight on it, that shoulder is just going to come out again.
Would someone please just call the fire department? They have equipment for this sort of thing!
On to the most painful stuff:
Owen. Oh, Owen! I never thought I'd feel so bad for you! I felt bad when you died, and I didn't think I could feel any worse for you than when you became undead and realized that you couldn't do your three favorite things! But to know that you were actually once quite a decent human being, in spite of your mother not liking you and kicking you out! My heart aches for you. (And to know you were once a sharp dresser, too!)
I am tremendously impressed with Burn Gorman. I said, "He's gotta be the best actor on the show." Brilliant Husband said, "I decided that weeks ago!" Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's why BH is called BH. Burn Gorman can make me believe all these different iterations of Owen are the same person and make sense!
I've been afraid since we saw Owen die in "Reset" that we're going to lose him permanently, since he can't heal, and I was practically on the edge of the couch last night, afraid that hanging glass was going to cut him in half. I'm so glad it didn't! I've still got a bad feeling about his long-term survival (if you're ahead of me, no spoilers! LA LA LA I can't hear you!), if you can call it that, but at least he made it through this week (though he's still dead). And to think that for most of first season, I would have been happy to see him go! It's only when he gets together with Diane that I can feel something for him, and he has really grown on me (though not as much as Ianto).
Tosh! I thought we had in Tosh one TW member besides Gwen whose life wasn't a wreck. Yes, she's shy and keeps to herself most of the time (though I love how she shoved Banana Boat out of her way and just turned down flat those other guys in "Something Borrowed"!). I was wrong. Tosh has her own tragedies, and not just losing Tommy.
I know UNIT can be irresponsible and very "shoot first, ask questions later," but they were freaking idiots about her! Even from a purely pragmatic standpoint, get this woman to work on your side! Jack has the right idea.
Tosh saw her mother in "End of Days," right, when Owen saw Diane and Ianto saw Lisa? Does that mean her mother is dead? Or is Tosh just still on limited contact? In "Captain Jack Harkness," she's going to go to her father's birthday party! Jack offered her a five-year deal--five years ago. I'm sure (I hope!) Tosh loves her work too much to leave. She genuinely seems to enjoy it in a way the others don't always. I do hope they can clear her record and let her see her mom again!
Tosh is totally awesome! The blueprints were wrong, but she built a working model! Tosh rocks!
Jack: I maybe should put him sooner, because his flashbacks are pretty painful too, but golly, he looks so great in his current clothes and haircut, I couldn't imagine him looking any better! Wrong again! I can has Victorian Jack, plz? The sideburns! The hair looked different, too. (BH says it wasn't frosted. It catches the light oddly in many scenes, many episodes; he must be coloring it in some way, we think.) That coat was even better than his WWII coat! I want more Victorian flashbacks!
The Victorian Torchwood women are seriously creepy, though. I honestly thought they were aliens when they first caught Jack and then killed him repeatedly; their affect wasn't right at all. And cold-blooded! I was horrified when they shot young Blowfish, and Jack was too!
I did like the Steampunk Hub. And we got a little teeny bit of backstory on that eerie girl who told Jack where to find the other resurrection glove, but we didn't learn anything more about her than that she was the same age she is now! I'm guessing she's not human (duh--but then, Jack is). That seemed clearly to be their first meeting.
Poor Jack, being told he has to wait the turn of two centuries to see the Doctor again!
The carnage at the Hub at the end of 1999 was horrifying. I guess I can see a little of why Jack wouldn't tell Gwen about Flat Holm. I still don't agree, but I can see the reasoning; Alan had been overcome by what he knew. So he leaves Jack the Hub. Happy New Year's, Jack.
Ianto. Okay, I turned on TW for Jack, I stayed for Gwen (even when she let me down horribly with the stupid affair with Owen and the incredibly stupid attempt to get forgiveness while retconning Rhys, and I wish she'd treat Rhys better). But Ianto is now My Boy. I love him best of all.
He gets almost the only humor in his story, but it's a painful mix, because we know what's really going on, but Jack doesn't, and Ianto can't let on, so things are only so funny.
Aside: Brilliant Husband is sick. He didn't quite get last night. We weren't really into TW when we saw "Cyberwoman," which I deemed "awful," and we forgot many of the details. So we got to the end of the episode, and BH said, "What I don't get is how Ianto found out Torchwood 3 had Lisa, and how--" Augh! I had to explain to him what had happened, and as soon as I said, "He knows she's alive, he says 'deceased' too quickly to Jack because he knows it's not true; he's hiding her and needs the job to get her to Torchwood to use their equipment to save her!" he got it and felt foolish. (Yes! That's why Ianto is so horrified that the "specialized equipment" they have to take out a dinosaur is a huge honking syringe! "What do you want? Dinosaur nets in the back of the SUV?" "Torchwood 1 would have them.")
Sorry, dear BH; I know you'll read this. I'm not mocking you. My point is: how many other people weren't serious fans at the time of "Cyberwoman" or weren't even watching and have no idea what happened?![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
aurora_novarum, if you're reading this, I know that you missed most of s1--probably including "Cyberwoman," right? If you want, I can give you a quick rundown of the important bits. It's a really painful episode, and I honestly still don't think it's very good. It turns out to be really important.
The details were just so perfect. Ianto has done his research on Jack, and he's devoted to Lisa, but he's going to do whatever it takes to get the job, and that includes getting any kind of attention he can from Jack. The clothes! The first outfit was what, leather? But Jack doesn't notice that, so he moves on to something casual, open at the neck. No reaction. So then we get Suit!Ianto, and Jack says, "Nice suit!", so it's Suit!Ianto forever!
He's already flirting with Jack from the start (admiring his coat), but I think he starts falling for Jack with the pterodactyl scene. "What's your aftershave?" "Not wearing any." "You smell like that naturally?" Poor boy never had a chance! And then Jack gets dropped right on top of him! Full dose of pheromones!
I should point out right now that Brilliant Husband has been saying for weeks that the hypersexualized atmosphere at the Hub is partly driven by the risk and intensity of the work, and partly driven by pheromones Jack gives off ("someone with my charisma..."). I don't recall ever hearing a previous reference to Jack's pheromones (was there one in DW?), but whether it's recall or brilliant intuition, BH is right.
Ianto as stalker! And he's very good at it, of course, because he knows everything! The coffee! "Same time tomorrow?" Stepping in front of the SUV! Jack threatens to run him down; "So does that mean you're not going to help me catch the pterodactyl?" He says the pterodactyl knows him; how long has he spent with it, waiting for Jack to show up? "I've got a secret weapon: chocolate, preferably dark"! (Yes,nialla42, I finally got there!)
Oh, but the look on his face when he's leaving and his back is to Jack! He's got what he wanted, the job he needs to save Lisa, and he's definitely got Jack's attention in the ways he thought he wanted, but now he's falling for Jack, but he still loves Lisa, and he's using Jack--yes, we have serious competition for Owen and Jack in the "most screwed up psyche" category. Sorry, girls, but Tosh and Gwen just can't compete with the likes of them.
Yeah, I've probably squeeed way too long here, but there's so much to love! So many great moments! If anyone is still paying attention, please join the squee!
(Next week: I'm avoiding spoilers I'm not watching previews I can't hear you!)
The bigger puddle of squee that is me now joins it.
OMG! I totally love this episode! Yes, now the squee is all over my keyboard, too.
I'll start with my big complaint: I'm always a little bothered by whumping and improbable recoveries or behaviors while injured. I decided early on that I just had to let this one go for Torchwood. Jack spends completely random amounts of time dead after each death: when Suzie shoots him, it's mere moments; when Owen shoots him, it's about the same; when he gets shot in the head in the flashback to Steampunk Torchwood (love it!), he revives instantly, and he doesn't even die temporarily from the shocks.
When Gwen gets shot in "Countrycide," well, buckshot isn't generally fatal, but it's freaking painful. Sometimes she's limping, sometimes she's moving just fine, and I can't believe the sun has come up and she's interrogating the one homicidal maniac at the end instead of in an ambulance or actually in a hospital. That bothered me.
Rhys getting shot in "Meat" really bothers me, because they take him back to the Hub, instead of to a hospital, where he could have a whole surgical team in a surgical suite. No, he gets Owen, with no visible means of anesthesia, and the autopsy table. Then he goes and has an ice cream cone.
Owen getting shot through the shoulder and bandaging himself (?!) and going his merry way without a word of complaint in "Captain Jack Harkness/End of Days" probably still bothers me the most.
But what is WITH only having the team plus Rhys rescue the rest? Owen can't heal; we'll just send Gwen and hope she's enough for whatever ails him! Not a great plan.
Rescuing Tosh? I mean, these people are literally rocket scientists! Or at least Tosh is, or could be. Maybe that's the problem. It's the non-rocket scientists who decide the team should rescue her. This consists of:
not Gwen, despite the fact that she is uninjured and not even recently dead. No, she's a woman, so I guess she can't do heavy lifting (though her arms look like she can do some lifting!).
Jack: recently dead. But hey--not a problem.
Rhys: the Rhys of this exchange (courtesy of Kilohoku transcripts)
JACK: Wow! Gwen Cooper getting married. (She nods.) Down on one knee?
GWEN: He tried to, and then he had a twinge in his back and had to lie on the settee, and that’s when he popped the question.
Ianto--who has just had his dislocated shoulder put back into place by Jack. And, seriously, couldn't Jack let the poor man sit down before he popped the shoulder back in? And aren't you supposed to strap that arm for a while? Just sayin'.
So Tosh is dug out by a crew consisting of a recently dead guy, a man with a bad back, and a man with one useless arm, because if Ianto puts any weight on it, that shoulder is just going to come out again.
Would someone please just call the fire department? They have equipment for this sort of thing!
On to the most painful stuff:
Owen. Oh, Owen! I never thought I'd feel so bad for you! I felt bad when you died, and I didn't think I could feel any worse for you than when you became undead and realized that you couldn't do your three favorite things! But to know that you were actually once quite a decent human being, in spite of your mother not liking you and kicking you out! My heart aches for you. (And to know you were once a sharp dresser, too!)
I am tremendously impressed with Burn Gorman. I said, "He's gotta be the best actor on the show." Brilliant Husband said, "I decided that weeks ago!" Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's why BH is called BH. Burn Gorman can make me believe all these different iterations of Owen are the same person and make sense!
I've been afraid since we saw Owen die in "Reset" that we're going to lose him permanently, since he can't heal, and I was practically on the edge of the couch last night, afraid that hanging glass was going to cut him in half. I'm so glad it didn't! I've still got a bad feeling about his long-term survival (if you're ahead of me, no spoilers! LA LA LA I can't hear you!), if you can call it that, but at least he made it through this week (though he's still dead). And to think that for most of first season, I would have been happy to see him go! It's only when he gets together with Diane that I can feel something for him, and he has really grown on me (though not as much as Ianto).
Tosh! I thought we had in Tosh one TW member besides Gwen whose life wasn't a wreck. Yes, she's shy and keeps to herself most of the time (though I love how she shoved Banana Boat out of her way and just turned down flat those other guys in "Something Borrowed"!). I was wrong. Tosh has her own tragedies, and not just losing Tommy.
I know UNIT can be irresponsible and very "shoot first, ask questions later," but they were freaking idiots about her! Even from a purely pragmatic standpoint, get this woman to work on your side! Jack has the right idea.
Tosh saw her mother in "End of Days," right, when Owen saw Diane and Ianto saw Lisa? Does that mean her mother is dead? Or is Tosh just still on limited contact? In "Captain Jack Harkness," she's going to go to her father's birthday party! Jack offered her a five-year deal--five years ago. I'm sure (I hope!) Tosh loves her work too much to leave. She genuinely seems to enjoy it in a way the others don't always. I do hope they can clear her record and let her see her mom again!
Tosh is totally awesome! The blueprints were wrong, but she built a working model! Tosh rocks!
Jack: I maybe should put him sooner, because his flashbacks are pretty painful too, but golly, he looks so great in his current clothes and haircut, I couldn't imagine him looking any better! Wrong again! I can has Victorian Jack, plz? The sideburns! The hair looked different, too. (BH says it wasn't frosted. It catches the light oddly in many scenes, many episodes; he must be coloring it in some way, we think.) That coat was even better than his WWII coat! I want more Victorian flashbacks!
The Victorian Torchwood women are seriously creepy, though. I honestly thought they were aliens when they first caught Jack and then killed him repeatedly; their affect wasn't right at all. And cold-blooded! I was horrified when they shot young Blowfish, and Jack was too!
I did like the Steampunk Hub. And we got a little teeny bit of backstory on that eerie girl who told Jack where to find the other resurrection glove, but we didn't learn anything more about her than that she was the same age she is now! I'm guessing she's not human (duh--but then, Jack is). That seemed clearly to be their first meeting.
Poor Jack, being told he has to wait the turn of two centuries to see the Doctor again!
The carnage at the Hub at the end of 1999 was horrifying. I guess I can see a little of why Jack wouldn't tell Gwen about Flat Holm. I still don't agree, but I can see the reasoning; Alan had been overcome by what he knew. So he leaves Jack the Hub. Happy New Year's, Jack.
Ianto. Okay, I turned on TW for Jack, I stayed for Gwen (even when she let me down horribly with the stupid affair with Owen and the incredibly stupid attempt to get forgiveness while retconning Rhys, and I wish she'd treat Rhys better). But Ianto is now My Boy. I love him best of all.
He gets almost the only humor in his story, but it's a painful mix, because we know what's really going on, but Jack doesn't, and Ianto can't let on, so things are only so funny.
Aside: Brilliant Husband is sick. He didn't quite get last night. We weren't really into TW when we saw "Cyberwoman," which I deemed "awful," and we forgot many of the details. So we got to the end of the episode, and BH said, "What I don't get is how Ianto found out Torchwood 3 had Lisa, and how--" Augh! I had to explain to him what had happened, and as soon as I said, "He knows she's alive, he says 'deceased' too quickly to Jack because he knows it's not true; he's hiding her and needs the job to get her to Torchwood to use their equipment to save her!" he got it and felt foolish. (Yes! That's why Ianto is so horrified that the "specialized equipment" they have to take out a dinosaur is a huge honking syringe! "What do you want? Dinosaur nets in the back of the SUV?" "Torchwood 1 would have them.")
Sorry, dear BH; I know you'll read this. I'm not mocking you. My point is: how many other people weren't serious fans at the time of "Cyberwoman" or weren't even watching and have no idea what happened?
aurora_novarum, if you're reading this, I know that you missed most of s1--probably including "Cyberwoman," right? If you want, I can give you a quick rundown of the important bits. It's a really painful episode, and I honestly still don't think it's very good. It turns out to be really important.The details were just so perfect. Ianto has done his research on Jack, and he's devoted to Lisa, but he's going to do whatever it takes to get the job, and that includes getting any kind of attention he can from Jack. The clothes! The first outfit was what, leather? But Jack doesn't notice that, so he moves on to something casual, open at the neck. No reaction. So then we get Suit!Ianto, and Jack says, "Nice suit!", so it's Suit!Ianto forever!
He's already flirting with Jack from the start (admiring his coat), but I think he starts falling for Jack with the pterodactyl scene. "What's your aftershave?" "Not wearing any." "You smell like that naturally?" Poor boy never had a chance! And then Jack gets dropped right on top of him! Full dose of pheromones!
I should point out right now that Brilliant Husband has been saying for weeks that the hypersexualized atmosphere at the Hub is partly driven by the risk and intensity of the work, and partly driven by pheromones Jack gives off ("someone with my charisma..."). I don't recall ever hearing a previous reference to Jack's pheromones (was there one in DW?), but whether it's recall or brilliant intuition, BH is right.
Ianto as stalker! And he's very good at it, of course, because he knows everything! The coffee! "Same time tomorrow?" Stepping in front of the SUV! Jack threatens to run him down; "So does that mean you're not going to help me catch the pterodactyl?" He says the pterodactyl knows him; how long has he spent with it, waiting for Jack to show up? "I've got a secret weapon: chocolate, preferably dark"! (Yes,
nialla42, I finally got there!)Oh, but the look on his face when he's leaving and his back is to Jack! He's got what he wanted, the job he needs to save Lisa, and he's definitely got Jack's attention in the ways he thought he wanted, but now he's falling for Jack, but he still loves Lisa, and he's using Jack--yes, we have serious competition for Owen and Jack in the "most screwed up psyche" category. Sorry, girls, but Tosh and Gwen just can't compete with the likes of them.
Yeah, I've probably squeeed way too long here, but there's so much to love! So many great moments! If anyone is still paying attention, please join the squee!
(Next week: I'm avoiding spoilers I'm not watching previews I can't hear you!)
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