quinn222

I still feel as though I'm not 100% coherent on this one. I may have to visit it again in a few weeks. In the meantime here's my immediate reaction with lots of screen caps.




The usual formation this week includes Rhys. I love that. Possibly the smartest thing they did this series was bringing him into the know.

Andy!

I wish they’d shown an interior shot of all of them in that car.




Loved the snark about the song.

“How are they all?” “I love you, you have to understand that” [I am trying really hard to tell you something here, listen and get it!]– Wow, watching it after you’ve seen the whole thing you can see there’s a lot more going on underneath this than you get on first viewing.


“’cause this is gonna get nasty” – I love how serious and sad he looked when he said that. He wasn’t gloating, he wasn’t happy.

Andy/Rhys – Partners!


“I’m keeping more secrets than you’d ever believe” but I’ll tell them to you if you just ask! Made for each other they are.






Tosh/Ianto and the ‘ghosts’ – I love how matter of fact they both ere, especially Ianto. It was like a scene out of Indiana Jones or something. The only thing that could have improved that was one of Ianto’s patented eye rolls. You could tell he was thinking it though.
Ianto: “There we are then”
Tosh: “sorted”
I hope there is no one left watching this show who seriously thinks Ianto is some frail little boy who panics and cries at the drop of a hat. He’s not. Get over it.



Owen got a good alien too and the look that doctor gave him while he was explaining was priceless. She looked like she couldn’t decide between believing him and locking him up for his own good. The scene where he catches this thing (hoxie??) made me sad that we didn’t get to see his transformation from suited up physician to highly competent field agent who happens to be a physician.

Oh geez, hanging from chains. Again. Getting to be kind of repetitive isn’t it Jack? [See Doctor Who: Last of the Time Lords if you don’t know what I mean.]


Did John just grab him by the balls or did I misinterpret that?


I think John really was hoping someone would stop him. He was so well played, teetering between desperate for Jack to understand but giving just enough doubt that you weren’t sure what he was doing.


Ianto: “Put Jack on right now!”
John: “Eye Candy! That was so masterful, so bossy, so basically powerless”
Ianto: *eye roll*

I love that John has consistently called him Eye Candy though both episodes. Normally nicknames aren’t my thing but I like this one. Maybe because Ianto is the most unlikely person to inspire nicknames as he’s so straight-laced (in public anyway) and yet he ends up with them.


OK so this scene here, with all the explosions? This is the one that has given me the most hope for some sort of Tardis rewind happening in Doctor Who. Because really, destroying Cardiff? Not to mention the police having seen the weevils and whatnot. How can they go forward like that? Maybe I’m just desperate. Probably I am. But I’m hanging all my hopes on Ten now and given that Ten is a bit of an asshole truth to tell that may not be a good thing but there you go.


Tosh and Ianto working together on the server stacks (not to mention flashlight in the mouth) takes me to my happy place.


Does it make me a bad person that I found most of the stuff with Grey a little boring? I think because the guy playing Grey wasn’t all that good. I didn’t feel for him at all. Or maybe it was just he was in a scene with John Barrowman and James Marsters and (since he’s not Gareth David-Lloyd who would have stolen that scene) he couldn’t keep up. And James didn’t even have any lines to speak of. Not to mention, why is he wearing an outfit made of the stuff they wrap fridges in to move them?

Aside: OK, lets think on this for a second. Imagine (horrors) that someone else was cast as Ianto and GDL had been cast as Grey. OMG. He’d have been amazing.

Back to the episode. Only four cops were killed, why is Gwen suddenly in charge of them? Oh, I get it. She isn’t. The smart ones have to keep her out of their hair so she’s been given some beat cops to give a pep talk to. Works for me. I’m sorry. That was nasty. But really. Probably true.


Oh yeah, there it is, brilliant sexy man with a flashlight in his mouth. To quote Ianto, “oh yeah”

I hate pointing out plot holes because I love my show and just want to enjoy it. But really. There is no one on site at the nuclear plant who can take care of this? That’s their jobs and they know how to do it and run drills on it all the time.


The one thing I so wanted to hear through this whole episode every single time Grey harped on Jack letting go of his hand or Jack martyring himself over it was Jack saying “I was only ten years old!” honest to God. It wasn’t grown up Jack who lost Grey. And why the hell isn’t dear old Dad who abandoned them both taking any blame for this?


Don’t buck her up too much Rhys, if she ends up in charge you really are all in trouble. Rhys is such a great guy though and I love how in love with him she is. I believe she loves Jack but I’ve never bought it as a romantic love any more than I think Jack loves her in that way.

It really scared me when Rhys sent her away, I was terrified it meant they were going to kill him off.




Nice little scene between Gwen and John and Ianto (and Tosh) to the rescue! It’s great the fury that Ianto has towards John. He wants his man back and he wants him now.


Scrum at the police station! That was hilarious. I love Andy. I’m going to make myself an Andy/Rhys icon.








Ianto: “If we don’t find him, I’ll kill you. Very slowly.” God I love him. Have I mentioned that before? Yeah well. It bears repeating.

I feel badly because I just don’t have much to say about Owen in this. He was great of course but his part, while of course emotional as hell and perfectly performed isn’t giving me a lot to say.


OMG. Tosh shot.

And, getting back to my previous thought. The whole mutual death thing was little dragged out for me. I did really like Owen stalking around and around and then, accepting. He didn’t go quietly into that good night but he went with dignity.


Early Torchwood people! They were both awfully pretty.


Again, poor Jack. But I’m not emotionally invested in this the way I was in the Tosh/Owen scenes. Because while I feel for Jack I don’t for Grey.

Shot in the gut and she gasps in pain sticking her thigh? Not. Sorry. I stick my thigh all the time and I can tell you you don’t feel much if anything.




My first reaction to the bit where Jack lets them out of their cells was a wish he’d been standing in front of Ianto’s cell. But then, on second viewing this was right. Gwen is over the top and it’s like her to throw herself at him where Ianto is much more reserved but his feeling was just as clear.

Ianto: I thought we’d lost you
Jack: Never

Works for me. Especially when it involves grabbing Ianto close.




“you’re breaking my heart” OMG, mine too! Took me to the third time to be able to see this without tears streaming down my face. OK. I’m wrong. Here come the tears again.


Tosh’s death in Jack’s arms was as it should have been. He saved her, was her father figure. The only jarring note for me was Gwen demanding Tosh speak to her. Oh get over it Gwen, can you not see she is totally focused on Jack? You do not have to be in the middle of it. However once she had died I thought Eve played that really well. The turning away and then back as though she just didn’t know what to do. Ianto off to the side, holding on by a thread. I loved the way GDL played this so much, from here to the credits as though Ianto was doing everything in his power to remain in control. As though if he let himself break even just a tiny bit he would shatter. I missed seeing a face shot of him in that moment right after her death though.






I’m with John, kill him don’t freeze him. Get rid of him so he can never come back. I know that’s wrong and I need to have pity.

John: “It’s not your fault.” Finally! The voice of reason! I can totally understand Jack and the guilt thing but he really needed to hear that. He needs someone to point out and keep pointing out that it was not his fault.

“I’m sorry, for your losses.” John really is a good guy under all that psycho stuff. And you can see here in this scene how alike he and Jack probably were at one time.


















This part where they are cleaning up their desks and closing out their computer profiles kills me. Every time it kills me. To have to be the one to type ‘deceased’. God. Each of them was just right. Jack looks as though he hasn’t stopped crying for days, hugging the jacket as though Owen was still wearing it. Ianto, still holding on, barely, but lingering over his task, seeing their faces, Gwen, touching Tosh’s things so lovingly (I am crying like you would not believe again) and finally breaking over the glasses, Tosh’s last message.
And the closing credits.

Whew. I don’t care if it had plot holes or that the Grey story wasn’t as fleshed out as it might have been. This wasn’t about Grey, it wasn’t about aliens, it wasn’t about bombs. It was about loss and love and friendship and family and I loved it.

That isn’t to say I am not really hoping this is going to get fixed somehow. I am. I’m listening for the Tardis.

Performances were outstanding.

Kai Owen and Tom Price as Rhys and Andy were both magnificent and lightened things up, which was sorely needed for an emotional break now and then.

James Marsters is so skilled and subtle, he’s brought more to this character than anyone else could have I think.

Eve Myles is saddled with a character that I don’t like but she plays her very well and she was excellent when it called for the emotions to be turned on.

Gareth David-Lloyd is always outstanding, even when not given a lot to work with. As someone pointed out last week, its one thing to steal a scene but it’s something else entirely to hijack an entire series. I love how he conveys so much with small movements , expressions, his body etc. He doesn’t even have to speak to get whole pages of stuff across. But when he does speak his voice just kills me.

John Barrowman – he gets a lot of criticism for chewing scenery but you know, it doesn’t bother me. Jack is that way. I don’t think Jack should be a subtle character. He’s the Big Gay Superhero after all. I like that his feelings are out there for the world to see.

Burn Gorman – Owen is character I always felt I ought to hate but I didn’t, because of Burn Gorman. He brought such humanity to a character with an awful lot of flaws. His speech to Tosh at the end about his regrets was (as she said) heartbreaking.

Naoko Mori – She’s a great actress, it’s too bad no one ever seemed to know what to do with Tosh. Her death scene was so true to Tosh, dedication and love to the end and the worship and love on her face was beautiful. Thank God she got to die in Jack’s arms and not alone. She didn’t deserve any of it but especially she wouldn’t have deserved that.