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Nov. 27th, 2006 11:56 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
trinityvixenYou gotta love a title like "Greeks Bearing Gifts," even if the second attempt to connect last night's Torchwood to Greek myth was a tad flat and pointless. Never mind that. I liked it. I need to rewatch probably because I actually really liked the whole episode, and the closest I came to doing that was probably the premiere or "Cyberwoman." But both of those episodes had their long stretches of "what the shit is this and why are they selling it harder than a whore with mortgage?" This one? Not as such (okay the ending, maybe, a little, but Jack was being cute and Cardiff is actually really pretty when viewed at night from a helicopter).
For one thing, I liked Tosh a lot better, even for all that she has a stupid crush on Owen when Ianto and Jack are a) much cuter (together and on their own), b) much more wounded-puppy adorable, and c) not raving egomaniacs (okay, well, uh, Jack is, but he's not obnoxious about it like Owen). I think the thought-speech was handled fairly well, especially with Owen and Gwen. They were being silly and awkward and adorable but still fairly real. Gwen's thoughts about her smelling Owen on her or not liking Tosh's boots were spot-on real for things you think off the fly; Owen's rapid-fire oh--hi-hey-i-wonder-what-it-would-be-like-to-fuck-you-are-you-about-to-say-something-boring-wonder-what's-for-lunch was nearly perfect. There are times it dragged or got a bit melodramatic (hello, insides of Ianto's brain), but it's far and away better than my most recent reference for telepathy, which would be Heroes, and that show has ridiculously bad thought-speech (as in you couldn't hear people saying that ever, let alone subconsciously).
And Tosh's reactions were fantastic. She looked weirded yet interested and repulsed at the same time to hear people's thoughts, and she was surprisingly restrained while using it on her friends. Only with Jack did she try to push him to think about what he was doing. I liked the resolution, her explanation of what it felt like not to be able to read him, but I have to believe it's both simpler and more complicated than just simply that he's died or is in some kind of unlife. I'm sure he's had a measure of psychic training (all Torchwood people should have--or did, rather, as was explained in last season of Doctor Who) somewhere along the path. He said he could feel her, he was able to thought-speak at her, so it's clear that he's not just dead inside his brain. Interesting.
I am not going to be one of those reductionists fannish types, but I really loved the parting shot in the hub of Tosh and Ianto sitting together. I am totally Tosh/Ianto but not really as a romantic or even meaningless-sexual pairing. I just loved the scene for being what it was--two people fooled by people they loved into doing terrible things. After all the fuss Gwen kicked up last week (and that angst has gone where? suddenly she's miss happy-go-lucky-and-Owen-fucky) about not being able to talk to anyone about what they do, I wanted the show to remember the other people who don't have anyone to talk to: Jack, Ianto, and Tosh. Jack is never going to voluntarily give himself or his secrets up--he's had plenty of opportunity and he keeps trying to lie or just stonewall any time any one presses him (even when Gwen already has proof of yay-much about his strangeness and the others keep witnessing oddity around him). But Ianto is still hurting from losing/sacrificing Lisa (which he, rightfully, is bitter about the rest of them trying to 'do him a favor' by forgetting) and Tosh is lonely and has just lost someone who, okay, liar and bitch, really did open her eyes and respect her in a lot of ways.
So, I loved Ianto and Tosh sitting together, even if it was just sitting in silence and commiserating, because they can talk, now, and they both need to, desperately, and the fuck-twins are being twits and their boss is SIlent Man, so they are each other's only hope. I really want Tosh to bounce back--Ianto was able to only because he was marginal to Torchwood's operations. Tosh is made to feel an outsider and is assumed to be bookish and quiet and content, but they don't even assume Ianto has a life. Period. He's the coffee maker in a suit. He opens the door. Replace him with a robot, and I don't think they'd notice. Now, Tosh has made herself a pariah and there will be weirdness that's more likely to slap the others in the face because she's omnipresent, she has a personality that they at least pay attention to. It makes me hurt for Ianto that no one gave a shit that he just went right back to being a service drone after "Cyberwoman" but Gwen and Owen and Jack all got in her face after the whole Mary/pendant debacle.
Speaking of...Mary was actually pretty awesome up until she started monologing at the end. I mean, really, what the F? You just start admitting to crimes without remorse? Why not try to lie a little? Say you're sorry you killed those people, it's just how you roll (or, hey, how you live?). Don't start going "Yeah, I ripped out people's hearts and I fucking loved it." Play them for sympathy! Wrongfully imprisoned or some shit like that! Sheesh. Seems like someone missed the matinee of The Incredibles.
For one thing, I liked Tosh a lot better, even for all that she has a stupid crush on Owen when Ianto and Jack are a) much cuter (together and on their own), b) much more wounded-puppy adorable, and c) not raving egomaniacs (okay, well, uh, Jack is, but he's not obnoxious about it like Owen). I think the thought-speech was handled fairly well, especially with Owen and Gwen. They were being silly and awkward and adorable but still fairly real. Gwen's thoughts about her smelling Owen on her or not liking Tosh's boots were spot-on real for things you think off the fly; Owen's rapid-fire oh--hi-hey-i-wonder-what-it-would-be-like-to-fuck-you-are-you-about-to-say-something-boring-wonder-what's-for-lunch was nearly perfect. There are times it dragged or got a bit melodramatic (hello, insides of Ianto's brain), but it's far and away better than my most recent reference for telepathy, which would be Heroes, and that show has ridiculously bad thought-speech (as in you couldn't hear people saying that ever, let alone subconsciously).
And Tosh's reactions were fantastic. She looked weirded yet interested and repulsed at the same time to hear people's thoughts, and she was surprisingly restrained while using it on her friends. Only with Jack did she try to push him to think about what he was doing. I liked the resolution, her explanation of what it felt like not to be able to read him, but I have to believe it's both simpler and more complicated than just simply that he's died or is in some kind of unlife. I'm sure he's had a measure of psychic training (all Torchwood people should have--or did, rather, as was explained in last season of Doctor Who) somewhere along the path. He said he could feel her, he was able to thought-speak at her, so it's clear that he's not just dead inside his brain. Interesting.
I am not going to be one of those reductionists fannish types, but I really loved the parting shot in the hub of Tosh and Ianto sitting together. I am totally Tosh/Ianto but not really as a romantic or even meaningless-sexual pairing. I just loved the scene for being what it was--two people fooled by people they loved into doing terrible things. After all the fuss Gwen kicked up last week (and that angst has gone where? suddenly she's miss happy-go-lucky-and-Owen-fucky) about not being able to talk to anyone about what they do, I wanted the show to remember the other people who don't have anyone to talk to: Jack, Ianto, and Tosh. Jack is never going to voluntarily give himself or his secrets up--he's had plenty of opportunity and he keeps trying to lie or just stonewall any time any one presses him (even when Gwen already has proof of yay-much about his strangeness and the others keep witnessing oddity around him). But Ianto is still hurting from losing/sacrificing Lisa (which he, rightfully, is bitter about the rest of them trying to 'do him a favor' by forgetting) and Tosh is lonely and has just lost someone who, okay, liar and bitch, really did open her eyes and respect her in a lot of ways.
So, I loved Ianto and Tosh sitting together, even if it was just sitting in silence and commiserating, because they can talk, now, and they both need to, desperately, and the fuck-twins are being twits and their boss is SIlent Man, so they are each other's only hope. I really want Tosh to bounce back--Ianto was able to only because he was marginal to Torchwood's operations. Tosh is made to feel an outsider and is assumed to be bookish and quiet and content, but they don't even assume Ianto has a life. Period. He's the coffee maker in a suit. He opens the door. Replace him with a robot, and I don't think they'd notice. Now, Tosh has made herself a pariah and there will be weirdness that's more likely to slap the others in the face because she's omnipresent, she has a personality that they at least pay attention to. It makes me hurt for Ianto that no one gave a shit that he just went right back to being a service drone after "Cyberwoman" but Gwen and Owen and Jack all got in her face after the whole Mary/pendant debacle.
Speaking of...Mary was actually pretty awesome up until she started monologing at the end. I mean, really, what the F? You just start admitting to crimes without remorse? Why not try to lie a little? Say you're sorry you killed those people, it's just how you roll (or, hey, how you live?). Don't start going "Yeah, I ripped out people's hearts and I fucking loved it." Play them for sympathy! Wrongfully imprisoned or some shit like that! Sheesh. Seems like someone missed the matinee of The Incredibles.
