Torchwood: Children of Earth: Day Two
Jul. 8th, 2009 10:13 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakYou know, if you had told me after the first season I'd be all aglow in TW love one day, I'd have been, at the least, very sceptical. I mean, I thought Owen was interesting, but I didn't really like any of them. Then came a fanfic assignment during the hiatus, which got me to empathize, then came s2, which made me like the whole damn team, and now the surest sign I do love the show is that when I read reviews which take a sneering and patronizing tone, I feel annoyed and defensive. Clearly, "ever so superior sneering at TW" is becoming a red button along with "declaring only the Methos episodes are worth watching on Highlander", "blaming Buffy for Faith's decisions in s3", "assuming one can't love the Seventh and Third Doctor simultanously but is obliged to hate one if one is fond of the other", "telling people to watch Babylon 5 starting with s2 instead of s1, and/or to stop with s4" and "dismissing all Star Trek shows after TOS". You know, the kind of thing that might be argued with sensibly and reasonably but instead awakens irrational ire instead.
Back to Team Cardiff, whose current outing actually has nothing to get defensive about, as it happens to be suspenseful, well-written and well-acted. Also, it occurs to me that in the tradition of TW being incredibly fanfiction-ish, this is basically a Torchwood/Spooks crossover without having to pay the Spooks lot royalties.
Day Two might as well be subtitled "Why Gwen is awesome, and so are Rhys and Rhiannon". Seriously, the way Ianto's sister Rhiannon and her family immediately get that they're probably bugged, and come up with ways for Rhiannon to help Ianto anyway is fantastic (as is the estate having a go at the surveillance people's car). There was one point I rolled my eyes and thought "oh no, you're not doing that cliché" - when Ianto's note read "the place where Dad broke my leg" - but then we thankfully found out he was being a drama king and what actually happened was that he fell from a swing his father was pushing. My favourite parts, though, were Gwen and Rhys together on the run. Gwen shooting the wheels was exactly the kind of thing I always wonder in action films about - i.e. why the heroes don't do that more often to pursuing cars - and Rhys carrying the bag so she could do her shooting was love. As was Rhys' lorry driver experience put to great use. I feel ridiculously like drawing hearts around them.
As I expected, Lois Habiba made contact with the Torchwoodians to warn them; the secret dinner meeting with Gwen and Rhys was great (complete with Rhys getting an actual dinner out of this), and given Lois' demonstration of quiet competence and Personal Assistantness here, I revise my prediction - she won't get Tosh's job, she'll get Ianto's original job (since Ianto is now a field agent anyway). Kudos, too, for the script reminding us of Rupesh Pajanjali's dead body before Lois presented her sneaky plan to get Gwen & Rhys into Thames House. (I must say, I hadn't expected Rupesh and his death to have a plot point beyond "surprise mole and surprise twist" in the last episode once it had happened, so that, too, was a pleasant surprise.) The escape sequence was just the kind of crack only the DW/TW'verse can pull off.
Which brings me to: TW really indulges in a "how can we kill off Jack in ever more inventive gruesome ways?", don't they? Taking him out via concrete is actually not a bad villain plan at all, and hey, points for not monologuing the plan in front of him anyway. (Mind you, I don't think the assassin - Johnson? - actually knows what's going on beyond having had the orders to eliminate Jack.)
Considering the emphasis on Rhiannon & family this time, I expect we'll see more of Alice in the next episode, now that Jack is among the living again and Team Torchwood is as much in need of a hideout as ever. (Presumably the family connection isn't on file.) BTW, I figured out one of the reasons why the Alice-Jack scene struck such a cord with me in the last episode; in s1 and 2, the most interesting relationship between regulars to me was the one between Owen and Jack, and this looks as if it could be similarly complex and tense.
I do hope the whole thing with the children has another, additional reason than just to scare the Earthlings. But I must say Frobisher's children going "we want a pony" on him was hilarious and just the kind of thing children would do.
I appreciate that the guards (the one with the money debt and the one hitting on Gwen later) and Ms. Spears (pointing out the sensible thing, i.e. if this is the atmosphere the aliens breathe, they should analyze it and come up with conclusions as to what kind of creatures they could be - mind you, I don't think it's what they breathe at all but meant as a weapon, but still, valid point for her to make) got some non-evil lines this episode; just small touches, but they keep them real instead of just faceless goons.
Back to Team Cardiff, whose current outing actually has nothing to get defensive about, as it happens to be suspenseful, well-written and well-acted. Also, it occurs to me that in the tradition of TW being incredibly fanfiction-ish, this is basically a Torchwood/Spooks crossover without having to pay the Spooks lot royalties.
Day Two might as well be subtitled "Why Gwen is awesome, and so are Rhys and Rhiannon". Seriously, the way Ianto's sister Rhiannon and her family immediately get that they're probably bugged, and come up with ways for Rhiannon to help Ianto anyway is fantastic (as is the estate having a go at the surveillance people's car). There was one point I rolled my eyes and thought "oh no, you're not doing that cliché" - when Ianto's note read "the place where Dad broke my leg" - but then we thankfully found out he was being a drama king and what actually happened was that he fell from a swing his father was pushing. My favourite parts, though, were Gwen and Rhys together on the run. Gwen shooting the wheels was exactly the kind of thing I always wonder in action films about - i.e. why the heroes don't do that more often to pursuing cars - and Rhys carrying the bag so she could do her shooting was love. As was Rhys' lorry driver experience put to great use. I feel ridiculously like drawing hearts around them.
As I expected, Lois Habiba made contact with the Torchwoodians to warn them; the secret dinner meeting with Gwen and Rhys was great (complete with Rhys getting an actual dinner out of this), and given Lois' demonstration of quiet competence and Personal Assistantness here, I revise my prediction - she won't get Tosh's job, she'll get Ianto's original job (since Ianto is now a field agent anyway). Kudos, too, for the script reminding us of Rupesh Pajanjali's dead body before Lois presented her sneaky plan to get Gwen & Rhys into Thames House. (I must say, I hadn't expected Rupesh and his death to have a plot point beyond "surprise mole and surprise twist" in the last episode once it had happened, so that, too, was a pleasant surprise.) The escape sequence was just the kind of crack only the DW/TW'verse can pull off.
Which brings me to: TW really indulges in a "how can we kill off Jack in ever more inventive gruesome ways?", don't they? Taking him out via concrete is actually not a bad villain plan at all, and hey, points for not monologuing the plan in front of him anyway. (Mind you, I don't think the assassin - Johnson? - actually knows what's going on beyond having had the orders to eliminate Jack.)
Considering the emphasis on Rhiannon & family this time, I expect we'll see more of Alice in the next episode, now that Jack is among the living again and Team Torchwood is as much in need of a hideout as ever. (Presumably the family connection isn't on file.) BTW, I figured out one of the reasons why the Alice-Jack scene struck such a cord with me in the last episode; in s1 and 2, the most interesting relationship between regulars to me was the one between Owen and Jack, and this looks as if it could be similarly complex and tense.
I do hope the whole thing with the children has another, additional reason than just to scare the Earthlings. But I must say Frobisher's children going "we want a pony" on him was hilarious and just the kind of thing children would do.
I appreciate that the guards (the one with the money debt and the one hitting on Gwen later) and Ms. Spears (pointing out the sensible thing, i.e. if this is the atmosphere the aliens breathe, they should analyze it and come up with conclusions as to what kind of creatures they could be - mind you, I don't think it's what they breathe at all but meant as a weapon, but still, valid point for her to make) got some non-evil lines this episode; just small touches, but they keep them real instead of just faceless goons.
