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selenakThe women of Torchwood: Children of Earth, that is. Because this miniseries has given us such a rich variety of female characters, of all ages, of such different dispositions, all with their firm place in the narrative, interacting with each other, and best of all, , not a single one of them dying, that now that I have the dvds in my greedy hands and did some rewatching I want to write an entry celebrating them all.
Alice Carter: you know what struck me immediately upon rewatching? How horribly wrong the Unexpected!Child of Jack thing could have one. If Alice's only function in the story had been to provide someone for Jack to sacrifice in the last reel, for example. For starters, then there'd have been no need for Alice to be an adult woman with her own child; RTD could have just skipped a generation and let her be a child, the child which leter gets sacrificed to save the world. Which would have given the Alice-Johnson scenes a very different flavour; instead of Alice honing in on Johnson's "I'm doing this all for the state" self justification and turning it on her, thus convincing Johnson to stop following orders and get to do some world saving instead, we'd have gotten Johnson the cold agent moved to pity by an adorable moppet. See what I mean? Similarly, while making Alice an adult, RTD still could have done wrong by letting her exist only to be kidnapped by the bad guys and then rescued by Jack. Hands up as to how many expected this to happen after Alice's capture. What happened instead was just the reverse. After Jack had already given up, it was Alice who got him freed. (And relentless tragedy ensues, but world-saving gets done.)
(You can say there is an overall theme of "women get things done" in this miniseries, both in the positive and in the negative sense (more on that when I talk about Johnson and Denise Riley) - but also in the powers of female cooperation; Gwen and Lois, Lois and Bridget Spears, Alice and Johnson, and even Bridget Spears and Denise Riley.)
My favorite Alice scenes:
- her initial one with Jack which demonstrates both the issues between them and the affection, but most of all that she's no one's fool and knows him extremely well, immediately deducing that his "let me spend some grandfather time with Steven" translates into "I need a kid to experiment on". (In retrospect, it's great and ouchy foreshadowing, but I also like the scene for its own sake.)
- her big action sequence, from the moment she realizes the street is too quiet. This is also a good example of show not tell on RTD's part. Just before when Johnson finally had access to Alice's file, Johnson and the audience found out Alice's mother was a Torchwood agent. Alice telling Steven they'd now do the game Granny used to play, then taking the kitchen knife and the board she just used to chop vegetables on with her, then disarming one of the SWAT team after her with that board, taking his gun? Immediately tells us a lot about both Alice's childhood, her abilities, and the kind of woman her mother must have been. (The woman died in 2006 of heart disease, one of the few Torchwood agents a) to leave and b) to live into old age; given that she still was able to train her grandson as she trained her daughter, she must have been mentally alert and all there till the end. Kudos, Lucia Moretti.) At the same time, the entire scene isn't beyond realism and doesn't try to make Alice into superwoman. She's up against an entire team of soldiers, with a child at her side and not much of a headstart, so of course she eventually gets cornered. And as Johnson points out, neither Alice nor her son share Jack's immortality. (BTW, I also love that Johnson has noticed that kitchen knife and not just the gun. Which is a show-not-tell way to demonstrate Johnson is good at her job. "And the knife" indeed.)
- the conversation between Johnson and Alice after the goverment has already started to round up children. I love all of their scenes together, but this is the most crucial, and I love, love, love that Alice doesn't waste any time on Johnson's "don't worry, your child is safe" reassurance, immediately goes for the bigger picture and as her argument doesn't use "have pity with the children" but in reply to Johnson's "I've always believed in protecting the state above all else" says "well, you're not doing much of a job right now, do you?" and elaborates on that.
- the last silent scene between her and Jack. Alice's reaction throughout the heartrendering climax of the story before that kills me, and so does this short aftermath, in which the restraint really makes the scene. Any dialogue would have ruined it and would have fallen short of the magnitude that did just happen. But that last exchange of looks and Alice then turning away and disappearing was perfect.
Rhiannon Davies:
If Alice is the mother who loses her child in the worst way possible, Rhiannon is the mother who manages to save both her children and a great many others. She and her husband Johnny are also the counterpoint to the politicians in Whitehall. I've heard complaints that the CoE paints too dark a picture of humanity and what humans are capable of, but there are a great deal of admirable humans around, too, and none more so than Rhiannon whose response to Ianto's "don't let anyone take David and Mica away from you in the next few days" is to gather as many neighborhood kids in her house as she can. As opposed to Ianto, Rhiannon is not a professional world-saver; she's a housewife living on an estate, with little to no idea of what the hell is going on as the world falls into pieces; this does not stop her from being arguably the most heroic person in this particular story. (Jack and Gwen both reach their breaking points by early Day 5 and compromise; Rhiannon never does.) Given this, here the danger in the writing could have been to make Rhiannon into a saint, but she's not that, either. She's not perfect; for example, she evidently shared the gossip of her friend Susan about Ianto being seen with his boss with her husband despite having to know Johnny wouldn't keep quiet about this and would manage to mortify Ianto with his reaction, and later after Gwen told her about Ianto's death she lashes out at Gwen, whose fault this is not. (Very, very realistic depiction of someone in grief. We want someone to blame. Gwen is there.) All of this makes Rhiannon into another rounded, three-dimensional character, all of whose scenes I adored. Here are some favourites:
- the "making Ianto come out" scene, if course. The sibling relationship depiction came across as very realistic to me. It's not an idealized realationship; Ianto evidently doesn't visit often, has no idea how to talk to the kids (hence the handing over money) and after Rhiannon declines his request totake one of them for experimentation spend some uncle time with one of them, is about to go again... but when Rhiannon says "sit down, you daft sod" and grills him about his private life, he caves. I also love that it's Ianto who tries the "not in front of the children!" thing and Rhiannon who just waves it away with "she (Mica) doesn't care, her best friend has two mothers". All the same, and this really makes this scene, Rhiannon's reaction isn't some superwise unrealistic saint's; after having made her "it wouldn't be a big deal" declaration, she exclaims excitedly "no way!" just as Ianto must have feared. But the first thing she says after this is "he's nice, though, isn't he?", which is just so the epitome of big sisterness that at this point I knew I loved her.
- her response to Ianto's warning, as mentioned; telling her son to get all his friends, and telling Johnny this time they wouldn't be taking money for it. It's the direct opposite reaction to the one we've seen in Whitehall. This, too, is humanity.
- the playground scene, with its tense uneasiness (the disagreement about their father, Ianto not telling her what's going on yet) and Rhiannon saying frustratedly a "thank you" would be nice - but coming through all the way. Again, the emotional sibling dynamics, and Rhiannon's courage and frustration made her feel so very, very real to me.
Bridget Spears: So, just how many Day One reviews declared Ms. Spears to be another example of RTD having it in for middle-aged women, specifically those who weren't mothers? Yes, thought so. Bridget Spears, like her boss, John Frobisher, is introduced as an archetypical civil servant; part of the system since decades, not questioning orders, hard worker. None too thrilled when young Lois Habiba bluffs about having "private" conversations with Frobisher, and making a cutting remark to Lois because of it, but believing her. But if you pay attention, then what Bridget ultimately does is carefully prepared. Firstly, while she accepts and transfers Frobisher's order to take out the Torchwood team without argument, she's also shown to be utterly without delusion about the worth she and Frobisher have to their bosses; in the elevator scene, when Frobisher tries to make himself feel better about what he has to do by saying "I suppose it's an honor" (i.e. being chosen to represent Earth in the negotiation), Bridget immediately points out that what it is is the PM making him his patsy so it's Frobisher, not the PM, who will be held responsible afterwards. (It's telling about their relationship that she says this to him when they're alone in the elevator but in public supports him.) Frobisher, when the inevitable moment comes and his own children are asked as a sacrifice, breaks and sees no way to save them except for death. (And no way for himself than death, either.) Not so Bridget, who in several ways parallels him - she's a woman of the system as he's a man of the system, she's as morally culpable, and from what we know, the most important relationship personal in her life was with him, which she loses when he dies. Her response to this is neither to go crazy, nor to die herself, nor to give up. It's a carefully carried out way to take out the man responsible for both the orders she and Frobisher followed; she destroys the PM as methological and without flash or bravado, with quiet effectiveness, as she has always fulfilled her job. See, what I was afraid of was that she'd kill the guy because that would have allowed the spin-doctors to present her as gone crazy with grief and him as a martyr. Instead, Bridget Spears was infinitely smarter. This did not result in a "happy" ending (more about this when I get to Denise Riley); but it resulted in justice served for one of the most guilty and remorseless people in this story. It was another case of a woman getting things done.
Favourite Bridget Spears scenes:
- "he always was an arrogant sod"; why do I get the impression Ms. Spears was none too taken by Captain Jack Harkness? *g* (Given that Jack seems to know Frobisher quite well, including his house, and Gwen not only thinks Frobisher is trustworthy but knows Bridget Spears by name - she asks about her when Lois is on the hpone - it looks like Team Torchwood had a lot of interaction with both Frobisher and his P.A., and I wonder whether anyone will ever pick that up for fanfic, hint, hint.)
- the lift conversation between her and Frobisher mentioned above
- Frobisher asks her for requisition 31; you can see she knows, if not everything, then definitely she won't see him again, and her reaction is so understated and yet so telling, as is the kiss on the cheek when he says goodbye to her
- Bridget Spears versus Brian Green, PM. Again, the understated way in which she delivers her relentless eviscaration is so much more effective than any big emoting would be. The contempt when she says - "that you were, in your own words, 'lucky'" - in that quiet, low-key voice. This scene also makes her the Zoe-Washburn-Award winner for "best delivery of the word 'sir' to mean the opposite". It's just awesome.
Johnson: In my review of Day 4 when I noticed some similarity to Serenity the movie, not the episode, I idly wondered whether this would make Johnson the Operative. Which turned out to be the case in that she's the goverment-paid asassin after Our Heroes who puts them through hell through much of the story, but who ultimately comes down on the side of good and contributes to saving the day (and Our Heroes) in a crucial way. Because she actually does believe, and needs to believe in "what I do is for the greater good", and gets shown that this justification just doesn't hold anymore if she continues to carry out orders. This is not the same as a redemption arc, note; Johnson doesn't go through a sudden moral epiphany that leads her to conclude Killing People Is Wrong, and the very argument that leads her to listen to Alice is the same one that leads her to tell Jack later he needs to go through with the sacrifice of Steven. What it is, though, is great storytelling and yet another demonstration of a female character getting things done. (Instead, of, you know, using Johnson as the character to defeat in a final duel with either Gwen or Jack, which is what at the start of the story most people expected to happen.) So, here are some favourite Johnson scenes:
- her first appearance, specifically her reaction to Rupesh's "how could you?", calmly asking him who killed the Chinese man (who was used to lure Jack to the hospital) and upon Rupesh's admittance that it was him saying then he shouldn't get self-righteous on her
- putting Jack into concrete instead of getting into evil monologuing about what's going on. See, Johnson has read the Evil Overlord Rules! Also, Rusty reveals he really likes LotR, because you can't tell me Jack's "come and face me like a man", replied by Johnson's "I'm not a man" isn't stolen from Eowyn.
- Andy: what kind of terrorist shoots tires? Johnson: A smart one. (Btw, the fact that Johnson doesn't gratuitiously kill or otherwise brutalize Andy is an early sign that while she's incredibly ruthless, she's not a sadist who kills and tortures for the fun of it.)
- I already mentioned her scenes with Alice, which I love on Johnson's behalf as much as on Alice's, so: her reaction to Gwen showing her the footage Torchwood gained via Lois, which visibly disturbs her; this is where Johnson's doubts begin, they in turn make her show that same footage to Alice, and then listen to what Alice has to say. In a genre where evil thugs who on the one hand are supposed to be smart enough to be a danger to Our Heroes but on the other never seem to think about what their bosses are doing are the rule, this is such a refreshing exception.
Lois Habiba: You know, early on when all of this was in the planning stage I heard the rumours that Martha was supposed to be in CoE and had to be replaced by a new character because Freema joined Law and Order: UK and thus wasn't available. Looking at the final result, much as I love Martha, I have to say this was a good thing. For starters, I can't imagine her in Lois' position (or would she have taken the job undercover, a la Reset?), so presumably she'd have been the UNIT liason instead, or an assistant to him, and this in turn would have left us without a third civil servant, and I think Lois and her youthful idealism are an important contrast to John Frobisher and Bridget Spears, who must have started out like her. Lois' initial fear and courage not instead but despite of the fear was something you can do only with a character new to all of this, not with one like Martha who has seen it all before. Not to mention that Lois, like Donna, is another demonstration that RTD thinks office workers are heroines and terribly effective.
Favourite Lois scenes:
- her dinner with Gwen and Rhys, telling them the truth (in as much as she knows it) about what's been going on at the Home Office, presenting a plan for them to break out their boss and handing over money so Rhys can have his long delayed meal to boot. I adore every detail, down to Lois ordering latte.
- Lois Habiba versus the Cabinet: from the slow hand-raising to the ultimatum delivery, Lois is made of pure win here. You can see how scary this is for her at the start and then she gathers more and more momentum as she becomes increasingly pissed off, especially after Yates the spin-meister makes his "revolution" comment
Denise Riley: don't worry, I had to look up the name in the credits, too. (The PM calls her "Denise" at one point, as I noticed upon rewatching, but otherwise the name isn't spoken out loud.) She's the female cabinet member who presents the "rational" argument for the criteria to select and who by the end of the story takes over from Green. Definitely in the villains category, and yet another three-dimensional one. In a story where family ties and what they bring out in you (or not) are an ongoing theme, Denise Riley, who like Rhiannon and Alice is a mother (and thus proof motherhood doesn't automatically make you into one of the heroines of the story), is the first cabinet member who says "out loud what everyone else is thinking: if this lottery takes place, my children won't be in it". After having secured a guarantee from the PM to that effect, she tries for nieces and nephews, and the audience can understand that, if not condone, the PM refuses... and then we get what in a series of dark scenes is arguably the most chilling: the selection debate. There are four main voices here: the PM, who wants someone else to say it out loud first so he can put the blame elsewhere, his spin-meister Rick Yates, who mainly is concern of "how do we sell this to the public afterwards" angle, the black male cabinet member who argues for random selection, which Denise Riley shoots down as rubbish (pointing out that exempting their own children already makes a lie of any "it's just random" pretense), and Ms. Riley herself. Who goes on to present a "who is expendable, who is not" rationale, the most horrible thing about which is that there is no madness, no evil overlord ranting about it; this a viewer can believe is what a politician would actually voice, and do. Details like the fact that earlier, we've just heard her argue for her own children and her brother's, and later, we'll see her be kind to Bridget (the only time anyone is showing any signs of consideration without self-advancement in that room) contributes to making Denise Riley a person instead of a caricature. (As does the fact she's the only one in the COBRA meetings who never falls into using the euphemism "unit" for "child" but consistently keeps calling them children.) Don't get me wrong, the woman still is as morally culpable as the PM himself and most definitely a villain, not a heroine of the story; but she's interesting, and I would love to see her again. Preferably, if it can be managed within the format of a children's show, in Sarah Jane Adventures, because I want to see SJS sparring with her.
Favourite scenes for Denise Riley:
- as I said, the COBRA meeting, arguably the most chilling scene of the entire story. I also deeply admire the way the actress plays it, because as I said, it would be easy to make the woman into an Evil Politician Caricature here; instead, the horror of the scene comes not a little from the fact that the person verbalizing the "selection criteria" is so... human. If Rhiannon embodies the light side of determination, motherhood and humanity, Denise Riley here is the dark side.
- telling Bridget after Frobisher's death she should go home, she doesn't have to be here, and, when Bridget replies with her "he'd want me to be here" lie (because she's secretely recording everything), saying "I can't imagine anyone wanting to be in this hell". As I said, Riley is as culpable as Green when it comes to the children, and spectacularly ruthless and cynical in her classism, but as opposed to the PM (whose last words to Frobisher were "I'm really sorry and I'm really busy"), she's still capable of showing consideration to other human beings without this being of benefit to her.
- taking advantage of Bridget's strike against the PM, which is pragmatic Machiavellism and survivalism in top form; no, it's not admirable, but it's clever. And might be the one thing that allows her to survive instead of falling with Green; if she'd done nothing and let Green arrest Bridget in a desperate attempt to save himself, and the whole thing had then gone public, she'd have been the first to fall even before Green because she had been the one to make the selection criteria suggestion. Telling Bridget she'll have Lois released is another smart act, because it adds to securing Bridget's silence, if not loyalty, for now; after all, she can keep Bridget out of jail and have Lois released only if she herself is still in power. So do I want her to get away with all of this? Ultimately no, but I want her to be around for a while longer until someone does bring her down. And I want her to show up in fanfic.
Gwen: and last but most definitely not least, our regular, Gwen Cooper. I was neutral on Gwen in s1 as the writing for her was quite uneven. (But then, so was the writing in general, and you can't tell me the characterisation for Ianto - in as much as he had one -, Tosh and Jack was more consistent than the characterisation for Gwen was that first season. The only one who had logical character development where you could see the connections going from where he was in the pilot to where he was in the s1 finale was Owen.) In s2, I grew to love her. (And everyone else. But of the three s2 survivors, Gwen was my new favourite.) So the fact Gwen was such a heavyweight in Children of Earth is something that made me rather happy. What had made the s1 writing of her problematic - too much tell over show when it came to her good sides, whereas her flaws got demonstrated - was gone; what had endeared her to me in s2 was there and important to the storyline, but not in an exaggarated way. Gwen was not superwoman anymore than anyone else was. As mentioned before, she reached her breaking point by Day 5. When Frobisher responded to her "the threat still stands" with "go ahead, broadcast, we're all going to hell anyway", she could have ignored Jack's order to tell Rhys to desist and could have told Rhys to go ahead with the broadcast anyway, but she didn't. (This probably would have meant Gwen as well as Jack would have remained under arrest in London instead of being released and free to go to Wales, but still.) I think at this point she temporarily lost her faith in humanity, that it would make a difference, and focused on something she believed she could do, i.e. save Ianto's nephew and niece; a version of Donna's pleading near the end of Fires of Pompeii, after the Doctor and Donna herself have caused the death of 22.000 to save the earth, to save, out of those 22.000 they have just condemned to die for the greater good, someone. (Read: the Caecillii, whom she knows.) "Just someone. Please." I also think Gwen will recover from this; CoE demonstrated in abundance the resources she does have: compassion, strength, courage, the ability to think on her feet and improvise in desperate situations, her ability to connect to people.
Some favourite Gwen scenes (out of many, many more):
- her first encounter with Clem; this is what I mean about the miniseries being show, not tell about Gwen's empathy instead of s1 being on the tell, not show side. Also that Gwen while feeling sorry for Clem does not lose focus of what she's here to do, what she needs to find out. It's a great mixture of intelligence and compassion she demonstrates here.
- her big action sequence which opens Day Two, from biting the soldier who tries to subdue her to escaping to after collecting Rhys shooting the tires of Johnson's vehicle. I like action scenes when they demonstrate something about the character instead of just showing of pyrotechnics, and just as Alice's aborted escape sequence tells us a lot about Alice, Gwen's escape sequence sums up Gwen: she improvises with what she has (the biting); she's by now experienced enough not to fall for the soldier's "I'm still groggy" routine and Torchwood has made her ruthless enough so she does shoot him in the foot when he tries to overhwelm her again, but she still avoids killing if she can; her relationship with Rhys (she immediately goes home to collect him instead of trying to remain near the rubble to check what's going on with Jack and Ianto - that was an instinctive call, and she made it) in its messy ordinariness (Gwen yelling at Rhys that if he put the damn car keyes at the same place each time they wouldn't have a problem right now) and emotional strength; and the ability to think ahead now (grabbing the Torchwood contact lenses, shooting the tires) while she's also not perfect under stress (that brief phone call of Ianto's, when she's not able to come up with a meeting place only the two of them will understand on very short notice).
- telling Rhys she's pregnant (after telling him he's not to eat uncooked potatos); they were just adorable together in that lorry
- her expression at the sight of concrete-free Jack in the nude; Eve Myles just does terrific comedy faces
- demonstrating the contact lenses to Lois and convincing Lois to wear them; what struck me upon rewatching both here and with Gwen's earlier scene with Lois is that this is very much a budding mentor/protegé thing; Gwen used to be Lois, and is not anymore. As with Clem, her ability to connect now comes with a quiet dose of focus on what is necessary all the time, and here she needs Lois not to panic on her. The tone of her voice when she says "hello, Lois".
- "bloody London!" Both Gwen's joke about having to go to England in Day One and her outburst about London traffic in Day Three makes me suspect a certain Welsh scriptwriter is venting, but you know, it so fits the character.
- showing Johnson the secret surveillance footage gathered via Lois; as I said, this miniseries in tandem with its darkness does put faith in the ability of persuasion, of cooperation; here Gwen instead of just gloating that she has the momentary advantage uses the situation to show her enemy the truth of what's been happening, which in turn lays the groundwork for what happens later between Johnson and Alice
- the very final scene of Day Four; Gwen walking among the corpses, sitting down, first seeing Jack, that tiny smile because Jack always comes back, and she needs that right now, some hope, then the turn to Ianto who is irrevocably dead, her trying to fix his tie and her devastated tears. All in silence, and imo bringing home the reality of this death like nothing else
- the car scene in Day Five when Rhys asks her "you don't think of getting rid of it?" and Gwen asks back "oh no?" At that point, faced with a world where 10 % of the children are indeed expendable to its elected leaders and can be sacrificed to a hideous, horrible fate, it would be a miracle if she didn't think of it, and it's a raw, emotional and honest scene. (Note that Rhys doesn't deny her argument or says something like "you can't"; he leaves the decision to her.)
- the very last scene. I've seen complaints about it, that we should have gotten montages of what the world was doing instead, but honestly, if that had happened, I can tell you exactly what the criticism would have been: "too many endings", "too much of a drawn out ending, like RotK or BSG". I don't think you could have conveyed adequatly in five, ten or even fifteen minutes what the UK, let alone the world was like post-CoE. But you can say something about Gwen, Rhys and Jack, the only people left from the characters we met in the TW pilot. Not in an "covers it all" fashion; for example, we have no idea whether Gwen went back to policing, is busy rebuilding the Hub, or waiting till the baby is born to do either (though the fact she found Jack's bracelet while going through the Hub ruins allows for an educated guess). But we do know that six months later, she is still alive, she and Rhys are drawing strength from each other, she had enough hope in the world to keep the baby, and while the goodbye from Jack leaves her in tears, it doesn't leave her broken. If this is the last time I'll ever see Gwen Cooper, I'm reasonably confident she will continue to fight the good fight, no matter in which fashion and with which organization, that she'll continue trying to reach people and build connections, and that she, Rhys and the baby will be a family that occasionally yells at each other, loves each other intensely, and will have a chance in that dangerous world they live in. Not least because Gwen Cooper believes in saving people. A lot.
Alice Carter: you know what struck me immediately upon rewatching? How horribly wrong the Unexpected!Child of Jack thing could have one. If Alice's only function in the story had been to provide someone for Jack to sacrifice in the last reel, for example. For starters, then there'd have been no need for Alice to be an adult woman with her own child; RTD could have just skipped a generation and let her be a child, the child which leter gets sacrificed to save the world. Which would have given the Alice-Johnson scenes a very different flavour; instead of Alice honing in on Johnson's "I'm doing this all for the state" self justification and turning it on her, thus convincing Johnson to stop following orders and get to do some world saving instead, we'd have gotten Johnson the cold agent moved to pity by an adorable moppet. See what I mean? Similarly, while making Alice an adult, RTD still could have done wrong by letting her exist only to be kidnapped by the bad guys and then rescued by Jack. Hands up as to how many expected this to happen after Alice's capture. What happened instead was just the reverse. After Jack had already given up, it was Alice who got him freed. (And relentless tragedy ensues, but world-saving gets done.)
(You can say there is an overall theme of "women get things done" in this miniseries, both in the positive and in the negative sense (more on that when I talk about Johnson and Denise Riley) - but also in the powers of female cooperation; Gwen and Lois, Lois and Bridget Spears, Alice and Johnson, and even Bridget Spears and Denise Riley.)
My favorite Alice scenes:
- her initial one with Jack which demonstrates both the issues between them and the affection, but most of all that she's no one's fool and knows him extremely well, immediately deducing that his "let me spend some grandfather time with Steven" translates into "I need a kid to experiment on". (In retrospect, it's great and ouchy foreshadowing, but I also like the scene for its own sake.)
- her big action sequence, from the moment she realizes the street is too quiet. This is also a good example of show not tell on RTD's part. Just before when Johnson finally had access to Alice's file, Johnson and the audience found out Alice's mother was a Torchwood agent. Alice telling Steven they'd now do the game Granny used to play, then taking the kitchen knife and the board she just used to chop vegetables on with her, then disarming one of the SWAT team after her with that board, taking his gun? Immediately tells us a lot about both Alice's childhood, her abilities, and the kind of woman her mother must have been. (The woman died in 2006 of heart disease, one of the few Torchwood agents a) to leave and b) to live into old age; given that she still was able to train her grandson as she trained her daughter, she must have been mentally alert and all there till the end. Kudos, Lucia Moretti.) At the same time, the entire scene isn't beyond realism and doesn't try to make Alice into superwoman. She's up against an entire team of soldiers, with a child at her side and not much of a headstart, so of course she eventually gets cornered. And as Johnson points out, neither Alice nor her son share Jack's immortality. (BTW, I also love that Johnson has noticed that kitchen knife and not just the gun. Which is a show-not-tell way to demonstrate Johnson is good at her job. "And the knife" indeed.)
- the conversation between Johnson and Alice after the goverment has already started to round up children. I love all of their scenes together, but this is the most crucial, and I love, love, love that Alice doesn't waste any time on Johnson's "don't worry, your child is safe" reassurance, immediately goes for the bigger picture and as her argument doesn't use "have pity with the children" but in reply to Johnson's "I've always believed in protecting the state above all else" says "well, you're not doing much of a job right now, do you?" and elaborates on that.
- the last silent scene between her and Jack. Alice's reaction throughout the heartrendering climax of the story before that kills me, and so does this short aftermath, in which the restraint really makes the scene. Any dialogue would have ruined it and would have fallen short of the magnitude that did just happen. But that last exchange of looks and Alice then turning away and disappearing was perfect.
Rhiannon Davies:
If Alice is the mother who loses her child in the worst way possible, Rhiannon is the mother who manages to save both her children and a great many others. She and her husband Johnny are also the counterpoint to the politicians in Whitehall. I've heard complaints that the CoE paints too dark a picture of humanity and what humans are capable of, but there are a great deal of admirable humans around, too, and none more so than Rhiannon whose response to Ianto's "don't let anyone take David and Mica away from you in the next few days" is to gather as many neighborhood kids in her house as she can. As opposed to Ianto, Rhiannon is not a professional world-saver; she's a housewife living on an estate, with little to no idea of what the hell is going on as the world falls into pieces; this does not stop her from being arguably the most heroic person in this particular story. (Jack and Gwen both reach their breaking points by early Day 5 and compromise; Rhiannon never does.) Given this, here the danger in the writing could have been to make Rhiannon into a saint, but she's not that, either. She's not perfect; for example, she evidently shared the gossip of her friend Susan about Ianto being seen with his boss with her husband despite having to know Johnny wouldn't keep quiet about this and would manage to mortify Ianto with his reaction, and later after Gwen told her about Ianto's death she lashes out at Gwen, whose fault this is not. (Very, very realistic depiction of someone in grief. We want someone to blame. Gwen is there.) All of this makes Rhiannon into another rounded, three-dimensional character, all of whose scenes I adored. Here are some favourites:
- the "making Ianto come out" scene, if course. The sibling relationship depiction came across as very realistic to me. It's not an idealized realationship; Ianto evidently doesn't visit often, has no idea how to talk to the kids (hence the handing over money) and after Rhiannon declines his request to
- her response to Ianto's warning, as mentioned; telling her son to get all his friends, and telling Johnny this time they wouldn't be taking money for it. It's the direct opposite reaction to the one we've seen in Whitehall. This, too, is humanity.
- the playground scene, with its tense uneasiness (the disagreement about their father, Ianto not telling her what's going on yet) and Rhiannon saying frustratedly a "thank you" would be nice - but coming through all the way. Again, the emotional sibling dynamics, and Rhiannon's courage and frustration made her feel so very, very real to me.
Bridget Spears: So, just how many Day One reviews declared Ms. Spears to be another example of RTD having it in for middle-aged women, specifically those who weren't mothers? Yes, thought so. Bridget Spears, like her boss, John Frobisher, is introduced as an archetypical civil servant; part of the system since decades, not questioning orders, hard worker. None too thrilled when young Lois Habiba bluffs about having "private" conversations with Frobisher, and making a cutting remark to Lois because of it, but believing her. But if you pay attention, then what Bridget ultimately does is carefully prepared. Firstly, while she accepts and transfers Frobisher's order to take out the Torchwood team without argument, she's also shown to be utterly without delusion about the worth she and Frobisher have to their bosses; in the elevator scene, when Frobisher tries to make himself feel better about what he has to do by saying "I suppose it's an honor" (i.e. being chosen to represent Earth in the negotiation), Bridget immediately points out that what it is is the PM making him his patsy so it's Frobisher, not the PM, who will be held responsible afterwards. (It's telling about their relationship that she says this to him when they're alone in the elevator but in public supports him.) Frobisher, when the inevitable moment comes and his own children are asked as a sacrifice, breaks and sees no way to save them except for death. (And no way for himself than death, either.) Not so Bridget, who in several ways parallels him - she's a woman of the system as he's a man of the system, she's as morally culpable, and from what we know, the most important relationship personal in her life was with him, which she loses when he dies. Her response to this is neither to go crazy, nor to die herself, nor to give up. It's a carefully carried out way to take out the man responsible for both the orders she and Frobisher followed; she destroys the PM as methological and without flash or bravado, with quiet effectiveness, as she has always fulfilled her job. See, what I was afraid of was that she'd kill the guy because that would have allowed the spin-doctors to present her as gone crazy with grief and him as a martyr. Instead, Bridget Spears was infinitely smarter. This did not result in a "happy" ending (more about this when I get to Denise Riley); but it resulted in justice served for one of the most guilty and remorseless people in this story. It was another case of a woman getting things done.
Favourite Bridget Spears scenes:
- "he always was an arrogant sod"; why do I get the impression Ms. Spears was none too taken by Captain Jack Harkness? *g* (Given that Jack seems to know Frobisher quite well, including his house, and Gwen not only thinks Frobisher is trustworthy but knows Bridget Spears by name - she asks about her when Lois is on the hpone - it looks like Team Torchwood had a lot of interaction with both Frobisher and his P.A., and I wonder whether anyone will ever pick that up for fanfic, hint, hint.)
- the lift conversation between her and Frobisher mentioned above
- Frobisher asks her for requisition 31; you can see she knows, if not everything, then definitely she won't see him again, and her reaction is so understated and yet so telling, as is the kiss on the cheek when he says goodbye to her
- Bridget Spears versus Brian Green, PM. Again, the understated way in which she delivers her relentless eviscaration is so much more effective than any big emoting would be. The contempt when she says - "that you were, in your own words, 'lucky'" - in that quiet, low-key voice. This scene also makes her the Zoe-Washburn-Award winner for "best delivery of the word 'sir' to mean the opposite". It's just awesome.
Johnson: In my review of Day 4 when I noticed some similarity to Serenity the movie, not the episode, I idly wondered whether this would make Johnson the Operative. Which turned out to be the case in that she's the goverment-paid asassin after Our Heroes who puts them through hell through much of the story, but who ultimately comes down on the side of good and contributes to saving the day (and Our Heroes) in a crucial way. Because she actually does believe, and needs to believe in "what I do is for the greater good", and gets shown that this justification just doesn't hold anymore if she continues to carry out orders. This is not the same as a redemption arc, note; Johnson doesn't go through a sudden moral epiphany that leads her to conclude Killing People Is Wrong, and the very argument that leads her to listen to Alice is the same one that leads her to tell Jack later he needs to go through with the sacrifice of Steven. What it is, though, is great storytelling and yet another demonstration of a female character getting things done. (Instead, of, you know, using Johnson as the character to defeat in a final duel with either Gwen or Jack, which is what at the start of the story most people expected to happen.) So, here are some favourite Johnson scenes:
- her first appearance, specifically her reaction to Rupesh's "how could you?", calmly asking him who killed the Chinese man (who was used to lure Jack to the hospital) and upon Rupesh's admittance that it was him saying then he shouldn't get self-righteous on her
- putting Jack into concrete instead of getting into evil monologuing about what's going on. See, Johnson has read the Evil Overlord Rules! Also, Rusty reveals he really likes LotR, because you can't tell me Jack's "come and face me like a man", replied by Johnson's "I'm not a man" isn't stolen from Eowyn.
- Andy: what kind of terrorist shoots tires? Johnson: A smart one. (Btw, the fact that Johnson doesn't gratuitiously kill or otherwise brutalize Andy is an early sign that while she's incredibly ruthless, she's not a sadist who kills and tortures for the fun of it.)
- I already mentioned her scenes with Alice, which I love on Johnson's behalf as much as on Alice's, so: her reaction to Gwen showing her the footage Torchwood gained via Lois, which visibly disturbs her; this is where Johnson's doubts begin, they in turn make her show that same footage to Alice, and then listen to what Alice has to say. In a genre where evil thugs who on the one hand are supposed to be smart enough to be a danger to Our Heroes but on the other never seem to think about what their bosses are doing are the rule, this is such a refreshing exception.
Lois Habiba: You know, early on when all of this was in the planning stage I heard the rumours that Martha was supposed to be in CoE and had to be replaced by a new character because Freema joined Law and Order: UK and thus wasn't available. Looking at the final result, much as I love Martha, I have to say this was a good thing. For starters, I can't imagine her in Lois' position (or would she have taken the job undercover, a la Reset?), so presumably she'd have been the UNIT liason instead, or an assistant to him, and this in turn would have left us without a third civil servant, and I think Lois and her youthful idealism are an important contrast to John Frobisher and Bridget Spears, who must have started out like her. Lois' initial fear and courage not instead but despite of the fear was something you can do only with a character new to all of this, not with one like Martha who has seen it all before. Not to mention that Lois, like Donna, is another demonstration that RTD thinks office workers are heroines and terribly effective.
Favourite Lois scenes:
- her dinner with Gwen and Rhys, telling them the truth (in as much as she knows it) about what's been going on at the Home Office, presenting a plan for them to break out their boss and handing over money so Rhys can have his long delayed meal to boot. I adore every detail, down to Lois ordering latte.
- Lois Habiba versus the Cabinet: from the slow hand-raising to the ultimatum delivery, Lois is made of pure win here. You can see how scary this is for her at the start and then she gathers more and more momentum as she becomes increasingly pissed off, especially after Yates the spin-meister makes his "revolution" comment
Denise Riley: don't worry, I had to look up the name in the credits, too. (The PM calls her "Denise" at one point, as I noticed upon rewatching, but otherwise the name isn't spoken out loud.) She's the female cabinet member who presents the "rational" argument for the criteria to select and who by the end of the story takes over from Green. Definitely in the villains category, and yet another three-dimensional one. In a story where family ties and what they bring out in you (or not) are an ongoing theme, Denise Riley, who like Rhiannon and Alice is a mother (and thus proof motherhood doesn't automatically make you into one of the heroines of the story), is the first cabinet member who says "out loud what everyone else is thinking: if this lottery takes place, my children won't be in it". After having secured a guarantee from the PM to that effect, she tries for nieces and nephews, and the audience can understand that, if not condone, the PM refuses... and then we get what in a series of dark scenes is arguably the most chilling: the selection debate. There are four main voices here: the PM, who wants someone else to say it out loud first so he can put the blame elsewhere, his spin-meister Rick Yates, who mainly is concern of "how do we sell this to the public afterwards" angle, the black male cabinet member who argues for random selection, which Denise Riley shoots down as rubbish (pointing out that exempting their own children already makes a lie of any "it's just random" pretense), and Ms. Riley herself. Who goes on to present a "who is expendable, who is not" rationale, the most horrible thing about which is that there is no madness, no evil overlord ranting about it; this a viewer can believe is what a politician would actually voice, and do. Details like the fact that earlier, we've just heard her argue for her own children and her brother's, and later, we'll see her be kind to Bridget (the only time anyone is showing any signs of consideration without self-advancement in that room) contributes to making Denise Riley a person instead of a caricature. (As does the fact she's the only one in the COBRA meetings who never falls into using the euphemism "unit" for "child" but consistently keeps calling them children.) Don't get me wrong, the woman still is as morally culpable as the PM himself and most definitely a villain, not a heroine of the story; but she's interesting, and I would love to see her again. Preferably, if it can be managed within the format of a children's show, in Sarah Jane Adventures, because I want to see SJS sparring with her.
Favourite scenes for Denise Riley:
- as I said, the COBRA meeting, arguably the most chilling scene of the entire story. I also deeply admire the way the actress plays it, because as I said, it would be easy to make the woman into an Evil Politician Caricature here; instead, the horror of the scene comes not a little from the fact that the person verbalizing the "selection criteria" is so... human. If Rhiannon embodies the light side of determination, motherhood and humanity, Denise Riley here is the dark side.
- telling Bridget after Frobisher's death she should go home, she doesn't have to be here, and, when Bridget replies with her "he'd want me to be here" lie (because she's secretely recording everything), saying "I can't imagine anyone wanting to be in this hell". As I said, Riley is as culpable as Green when it comes to the children, and spectacularly ruthless and cynical in her classism, but as opposed to the PM (whose last words to Frobisher were "I'm really sorry and I'm really busy"), she's still capable of showing consideration to other human beings without this being of benefit to her.
- taking advantage of Bridget's strike against the PM, which is pragmatic Machiavellism and survivalism in top form; no, it's not admirable, but it's clever. And might be the one thing that allows her to survive instead of falling with Green; if she'd done nothing and let Green arrest Bridget in a desperate attempt to save himself, and the whole thing had then gone public, she'd have been the first to fall even before Green because she had been the one to make the selection criteria suggestion. Telling Bridget she'll have Lois released is another smart act, because it adds to securing Bridget's silence, if not loyalty, for now; after all, she can keep Bridget out of jail and have Lois released only if she herself is still in power. So do I want her to get away with all of this? Ultimately no, but I want her to be around for a while longer until someone does bring her down. And I want her to show up in fanfic.
Gwen: and last but most definitely not least, our regular, Gwen Cooper. I was neutral on Gwen in s1 as the writing for her was quite uneven. (But then, so was the writing in general, and you can't tell me the characterisation for Ianto - in as much as he had one -, Tosh and Jack was more consistent than the characterisation for Gwen was that first season. The only one who had logical character development where you could see the connections going from where he was in the pilot to where he was in the s1 finale was Owen.) In s2, I grew to love her. (And everyone else. But of the three s2 survivors, Gwen was my new favourite.) So the fact Gwen was such a heavyweight in Children of Earth is something that made me rather happy. What had made the s1 writing of her problematic - too much tell over show when it came to her good sides, whereas her flaws got demonstrated - was gone; what had endeared her to me in s2 was there and important to the storyline, but not in an exaggarated way. Gwen was not superwoman anymore than anyone else was. As mentioned before, she reached her breaking point by Day 5. When Frobisher responded to her "the threat still stands" with "go ahead, broadcast, we're all going to hell anyway", she could have ignored Jack's order to tell Rhys to desist and could have told Rhys to go ahead with the broadcast anyway, but she didn't. (This probably would have meant Gwen as well as Jack would have remained under arrest in London instead of being released and free to go to Wales, but still.) I think at this point she temporarily lost her faith in humanity, that it would make a difference, and focused on something she believed she could do, i.e. save Ianto's nephew and niece; a version of Donna's pleading near the end of Fires of Pompeii, after the Doctor and Donna herself have caused the death of 22.000 to save the earth, to save, out of those 22.000 they have just condemned to die for the greater good, someone. (Read: the Caecillii, whom she knows.) "Just someone. Please." I also think Gwen will recover from this; CoE demonstrated in abundance the resources she does have: compassion, strength, courage, the ability to think on her feet and improvise in desperate situations, her ability to connect to people.
Some favourite Gwen scenes (out of many, many more):
- her first encounter with Clem; this is what I mean about the miniseries being show, not tell about Gwen's empathy instead of s1 being on the tell, not show side. Also that Gwen while feeling sorry for Clem does not lose focus of what she's here to do, what she needs to find out. It's a great mixture of intelligence and compassion she demonstrates here.
- her big action sequence which opens Day Two, from biting the soldier who tries to subdue her to escaping to after collecting Rhys shooting the tires of Johnson's vehicle. I like action scenes when they demonstrate something about the character instead of just showing of pyrotechnics, and just as Alice's aborted escape sequence tells us a lot about Alice, Gwen's escape sequence sums up Gwen: she improvises with what she has (the biting); she's by now experienced enough not to fall for the soldier's "I'm still groggy" routine and Torchwood has made her ruthless enough so she does shoot him in the foot when he tries to overhwelm her again, but she still avoids killing if she can; her relationship with Rhys (she immediately goes home to collect him instead of trying to remain near the rubble to check what's going on with Jack and Ianto - that was an instinctive call, and she made it) in its messy ordinariness (Gwen yelling at Rhys that if he put the damn car keyes at the same place each time they wouldn't have a problem right now) and emotional strength; and the ability to think ahead now (grabbing the Torchwood contact lenses, shooting the tires) while she's also not perfect under stress (that brief phone call of Ianto's, when she's not able to come up with a meeting place only the two of them will understand on very short notice).
- telling Rhys she's pregnant (after telling him he's not to eat uncooked potatos); they were just adorable together in that lorry
- her expression at the sight of concrete-free Jack in the nude; Eve Myles just does terrific comedy faces
- demonstrating the contact lenses to Lois and convincing Lois to wear them; what struck me upon rewatching both here and with Gwen's earlier scene with Lois is that this is very much a budding mentor/protegé thing; Gwen used to be Lois, and is not anymore. As with Clem, her ability to connect now comes with a quiet dose of focus on what is necessary all the time, and here she needs Lois not to panic on her. The tone of her voice when she says "hello, Lois".
- "bloody London!" Both Gwen's joke about having to go to England in Day One and her outburst about London traffic in Day Three makes me suspect a certain Welsh scriptwriter is venting, but you know, it so fits the character.
- showing Johnson the secret surveillance footage gathered via Lois; as I said, this miniseries in tandem with its darkness does put faith in the ability of persuasion, of cooperation; here Gwen instead of just gloating that she has the momentary advantage uses the situation to show her enemy the truth of what's been happening, which in turn lays the groundwork for what happens later between Johnson and Alice
- the very final scene of Day Four; Gwen walking among the corpses, sitting down, first seeing Jack, that tiny smile because Jack always comes back, and she needs that right now, some hope, then the turn to Ianto who is irrevocably dead, her trying to fix his tie and her devastated tears. All in silence, and imo bringing home the reality of this death like nothing else
- the car scene in Day Five when Rhys asks her "you don't think of getting rid of it?" and Gwen asks back "oh no?" At that point, faced with a world where 10 % of the children are indeed expendable to its elected leaders and can be sacrificed to a hideous, horrible fate, it would be a miracle if she didn't think of it, and it's a raw, emotional and honest scene. (Note that Rhys doesn't deny her argument or says something like "you can't"; he leaves the decision to her.)
- the very last scene. I've seen complaints about it, that we should have gotten montages of what the world was doing instead, but honestly, if that had happened, I can tell you exactly what the criticism would have been: "too many endings", "too much of a drawn out ending, like RotK or BSG". I don't think you could have conveyed adequatly in five, ten or even fifteen minutes what the UK, let alone the world was like post-CoE. But you can say something about Gwen, Rhys and Jack, the only people left from the characters we met in the TW pilot. Not in an "covers it all" fashion; for example, we have no idea whether Gwen went back to policing, is busy rebuilding the Hub, or waiting till the baby is born to do either (though the fact she found Jack's bracelet while going through the Hub ruins allows for an educated guess). But we do know that six months later, she is still alive, she and Rhys are drawing strength from each other, she had enough hope in the world to keep the baby, and while the goodbye from Jack leaves her in tears, it doesn't leave her broken. If this is the last time I'll ever see Gwen Cooper, I'm reasonably confident she will continue to fight the good fight, no matter in which fashion and with which organization, that she'll continue trying to reach people and build connections, and that she, Rhys and the baby will be a family that occasionally yells at each other, loves each other intensely, and will have a chance in that dangerous world they live in. Not least because Gwen Cooper believes in saving people. A lot.
