End of Days..

[fajrdrako]

I had brunch with the slash crowd at the Hart and Crown this morning. Except they don't have brunch any more. They let us in early, for coffee, and then served us lunch. I had fish and chips. Not bad, but not as great as the menu implied. It was fun to be able to talk to everyone again.

Felt unwell most of the afternoon. Napped.

Over dinner, I watched the Torchwood episode "End of Days" with maaseru, maaboroshi and Catherine. When I first saw it, I couldn't stand Abaddon, and cringed quite a bit. Now I'm mostly fannishly sentimental about the whole thing and my cringing in the Abaddon scenes is mostly for form's sake. I have become entirely shameless.

Ten Things I Love About "End of Days"

1. Captain Jack hears the TARDIS noise, and smiles.


2. Gwen asks Jack what vision of a loved one would have made him change his mind about the Rift. He says, "The right kind of Doctor."


3. The hand.


4. The scene in which Jack tenderly washes Gwen's hands.


5. The scene in which Ianto holds dead Jack's greatcoat, and weeps.


6. The scene where Gwen hysterically attacks Jack - "Then what the fuck are you good for?"


7. The scene were Jack forgives Owen, and hugs him.


8. The scene where we get a close-up of Owen's face when he is fired, and he's weeping. This is the only second of the whole series where I actually almost like Owen, and don't find him unattractive.


9. Jack: "Under any other circumstances, an exuberant Roman soldier would be my idea of a perfect morning."


10. Gwen hitting Jack when she's cradling the recently-dead Rhys in her arms, and the way he crosses his arms and turns away. I might go so far as to say I love all the interaction between Gwen and Jack in this one: her hysteria, his kindness, her support at the end with the Biblical vigil and the kiss.


11. The scene where Jack gets angry and points out their shortcoming to them all. Especially with gwen - "If you loved Rhys so much, why did you spend half your time in Owen's bed?" Good question, though I didn't think Jack would be the one to ask it.

Ten Things I Hate About "End of Days"

1. Ianto betrays Jack. I find that hard to understand or justify. I can rationalize it - but it's still difficult to understand or justify.


2. Abaddon. A let-down in every way.


3. Bilis. He's my favourite Torchwood baddie; I wanted more about him, and more explanation about him.


4. It's painful to see Rhys die, and to see how badly Gwen treats him in the name of love.


5. The dead in the streets, but that's all just part of the Abaddon thing.


6. The visions. Lame.

After that, we watched a show on Bravo about one of my favourite artists, Moebius. It was very interesting, and brought back good memories of an occasion on which I had dinner with him. I particularly liked a scene in which Stan Lee and Moebius talked about their collaboration on Silver Surfer. They interviewed several other French comic book artists without identifying them - I was frustrated because I wanted to know who they were. One of them was Enki Bilal, but which? I don't know him to see him, I just know his art.