quinn222

After last weeks ep I gave up on not watching ahead.

joesther asked me to post my impressions of this one. I haven't written en episode review/recap whatever in years but here goes. If you don't watch Torchwood, feel free to read it, maybe I'll convert you. Just in case you do decide to read even though you've never watched it, here's who's who:


Left to right: Ianto, Gwen, Jack, Tosh, Owen

Lots of pictures behind the cut.



Something Borrowed

Overall – I really like this episode, it was funny and kind of light and all the Hubbies were involved. And while Gwen had her moments I actually liked her more in this episode (normally she drives me crazy.)

Here are my scene by scene comments while watching –

The opening was great with the cuts between Gwen at the bar with her friends and what she’d done earlier that night. “Careful Gwen, this thing eats people” hee. Also Gwen seemed oddly competent in this chase.



At least up when she went into the park without back up (though Jack was clearly nearby) and got herself bitten. But of course that had to happen for everything else to happen so I’ll give her that one. Her expression when she woke up hugely pregnant was great, very well done and Owen and Jack were both really good in this scene.



Owen trying to be reassuring was wonderful and a tiny bit funny since you get the impression it’s sort of a new thing for him and Jack’s “Ya think?” and eye roll after she stormed out of the room cracked me up. Also fun in these scenes was Gwen going off on the boys, “Oh get off” and shoving Owen and then screaming down Jack. Every hormonal woman salutes her.



“Have you any idea what a wedding costs!?” Ha. Throughout I loved Gwen’s unswerving insistence on marrying Rhys. Today. And that she seems to appreciate both him and the shit she’s put him through. Though she seems to be too willing to place a lot of that blame at Jack’s feet. Jack may be having a workplace affair but it’s not with you Gwen and you’re the one who went to Owen. Also if you didn’t want the job and didn’t love to do it I’m quite sure they’d have been more than happy to retcon you and cut you loose.

See this is why I rarely do episode posts. I am incapable of making them brief.

Poor Ianto, this is what happens when you’re an expeditor extraordinaire. You get sent to find the bigger wedding dress. Though given his extreme competence I’m surprised he wasn’t able to go to a wardrobe closet and choose from among the ‘female pregnant with alien baby about to get married’ dresses he had on standby.



Rhys is just a wonderful guy. That’s it. (Though more thoughts on him later)

Owen: “Drop dead gorgeous Tosh, and I think I speak with some authority.” Bwahahaha

Gwenmom: Gwen knows how to control her man
Gwendad (smirking in Gwenmom’s ear): Studied under the mistress.
Quinn: …

Okay Rhys darling, I love you, but really, tell them the truth? They’ll be taking lessons from Jamie Spears faster than you can say ‘mentally incompetent’ But good for you for telling off Jack. I was going to say no one ever does but then again, everyone has at least once. Often accompanied by great bodily harm.

Tosh: “Come out in spots and go soft quickly?” Everyone really is in fine form this one.

Tosh tells Gwen that Jack sent her over with the dress. Could anyone read the label? She clearly knew it came from Ianto because she thanked him for it later.

Bit insensitive of Gwen to suggest Owen and Tosh might one day marry. Given that he’s dead and all.

Jack and Ianto going over the wedding dresses in the catalogue and confirming Ianto’s correct choice was adorable.

Ianto: As you know my dad was a master tailor. He could size the length of a man’s inside leg measurement by his stride across the shop threshold.

Jack: Ahh, the family eye. Remind me to test it sometime.

Ianto: Well, if later on…



Interrupted by Owen. Damn.

Okay, I’m not even going to discuss what happened to that poor man at the hands…er…mouth…of the human eating shape shifter.

Ianto checking Jack’s gun and putting the coat on him was lovely. They’re like a well oiled machine those two.

[excuse me for a moment while my mind wanders off into Janto territory and the image of well oiled…]

The only problem with this section is that because Gwen (our normally slow agent) is missing they have to use Ianto to receive all the exposition, which you have to suspend disbelief for, since it’s been established previously that Ianto knows everything.

Owen: “I don’t need my liver.”

And then re: The scalpel

Ianto: He’s got a point

Jack (jealous a bit Jack?): What is it with you? Ever since Owen died all you do is agree with him.



Ianto: I was brought up never to speak ill of the dead. Even if they still do most of the talking for themselves.

Quinn: Bwahahahaha!!! I love Ianto so much.


Bridesmaid 1: Camouflage dressing?
Bridesmaid 2: I’m having her dressmaker’s number. No way she looked pregnant last night
Bridesmaid 1: We must have had way too much to drink.

Honestly, the funny in this one was constant and from all directions.

Could have done without the Tosh/Banana thing but I suppose they had to have her both able to identify and out of the way.

See guys? I told you they’d be looking for commitment papers if you told the truth.

Jack: What I don’t understand is if people are going to make such a big deal out of getting married, why come out into the middle of nowhere where no one can find you to do it? That to me suggests inner conflict.

Ianto: It’s because the happy couple want everything to be perfect.

Owen: An alien egg in your belly and its mother coming to rip you open. Yeah, perfect.

I could have done without Gwen’s not too well hidden thought that Jack was really trying to stop the wedding. He’s shagging Ianto Gwen, get over it. It’s canon even.

I have no idea what this says about me but when Owen and Ianto were trying to get Tosh and Banana out of the web thing and Ianto found the body, he sent Owen over to the other side to see it and then quietly ordered him to “get it out of here”. That just sent a shiver down my spine. I think it’s his (Gareth’s) lovely deep voice.

Ianto: Jack, I’m afraid the situation is uncontained.

To quote Jack, Ya think?

Tosh jumps though a window onto gravel, never misses a step and takes off running after the shape shifter in high heels. That girl rocks.

Jack: Get back you ugly bitch!



Rhys: What the hell do you think you’re doing? That’s my mother!
Jack: No, it’s the alien
Brenda: No, I’m not an alien!
Jack: Oh you’re good, I’ll give you that
Brenda: But I’m not!
Jack: Yeah, and the lone ranger didn’t have a thing with Tonto
Gwen: Jack, does the shape shifter copy smells too?
Owen: No, just physical
Gwen: Right, well I’d recognize that bloody awful perfume anywhere. That’s Brenda Jack, It’s Brenda.
And Rhys belts Jack across the face: That’s for calling my mother an ugly bitch!

Really, may be one of the best scenes ever.

Scene in the garden:

That alien is some kind of crazy: Come to mama!!

Gwen empties a clip into her from a gun hidden inside her bouquet. And as an aside you have to admire that fact that she’s actually kept hold of it through all this. Though more likely Ianto whipped one up for her from flowers he stole from the garden while he was leading the charge gun in hand.



Owen: That’s the kind of daughter every mother must dream of. Cool as ice and packing an automatic.




Jack’s talking about Ianto Gwen, not you. Or he would be if he wasn’t the shape shifter.

That Shape shifter wont eat Owen because he’s already dead. Poor Owen, he just can’t catch a break lately.

Rhys: Are you all right?
Gwen: I’m running around in a wedding dress with what feels like a keg of lager stuck up my skirt, what do you think Rhys?

I have never liked her more and probably never will again.

Jack “We’re gonna need a bigger gun” love the Jaws reference and Jack and Ianto assembling that canon together was oddly hot. And of course Ianto has what looks like a canon handy just in case. You never know what you’re going to need at a wedding.

Stable reference, oh please. But good for Rhys for saving her with the alien scalpel. The saw running out of gas was hysterical. Jack: That whole evil dead thing looks pretty good on you Rhys.



Awww, the hero always gets the girl.







Ianto was spinning tunes at the DJ table! Owen danced with Tosh!

Jack dancing with Gwen:

Gwen: What will you do while I’m gone?
Jack: The usual, Pizza…Ianto.

And then Ianto and Jack dancing together.







I don’t think Jack’s look at Gwen and Rhys had anything to do with jealousy but more longing, not for Gwen but for what she has. And what Jack may have had in the past but is too afraid to go after for himself. And who can blame him? When you’re immortal it has to be heartbreaking.



And the above is how Jack gets away with so damn much.


Now my thoughts about Rhys. What they did with him in the episode Meat was nothing short of brilliant. It gave us the character that I think Gwen was meant to be only better: someone who knows about Torchwood but is outside it. Who can participate but then go back to his day job. I really love getting that perspective. Also Rhys himself is so wonderful (and played so beautifully) that he brings a lot to the table so to speak. He has an air of “OMG if these people are the only thing standing between us and the end of the world then we are surely doomed. However I will press on anyway.”

So that's it. What I've been doing with myself for the last long while.