Torchwood: Sleeper...

[fajrdrako]

Loved it. Edge of seat. Didn't bite my fingernails, which shows massive self-control. Would have liked more personal focus on Jack, but it was fun to see him in professional mode here.

1. The Torchwood version of a Skrull invasion. I like it. I like it that Beth was sympathetic and heroic.



2. Jack was mostly in soldier mode, and maybe a little under-characterized. Which I didn't mind in the least. He looked good. I couldn't take my eyes of his forearms. Oooh.


3. How long has Jack been back? How long since Captain John Hart left? Jack seems to be reestablished as being in charge, with Gwen as a scond in command - or was I reading that into the show?



4. Nice too to see the team being efficient, honest, and working well together. How I wanted that last series! Now I have it, and it makes a world of difference.



5. Ianto! James Moran gave him such delightful dialogue. Keep it up, Ianto baby, I begin to see what Jack sees in you. ("And I thought the end of the world couldn't get any worse.") All that mischievous playfulness, courage and clever comments.
   
   So I find myself wondering where Ianto's head is now. Is he over the anger and fear we saw last week, or hiding it? Is he giddy because Jack is back? Is he showing off, to get Jack's attention? Is he having sex with Jack again, or hoping to? How long till they tell us? Meanwhile... seems to me the field is open for lots of interpretations.



6. Again, Toshiko was sharp with the technology. Right on top of it. I begin to be convinced she's as good as her advance billing.



7. Gwen. Adorable. My Gwen-love continues.



8. No PC Andy. No Rhys. I missed them. And there was a murder: shouldn't Kathy Swanson have been on the scene? (Sulk.)



9. Scariest moment: when Beth killed her husband. I didn't see that coming.



10. No snogging. Pity. No Captain John: pity about that, too.



11. Loved the scene where we got a good look at Jack's cleaned-up desk. I was afraid at first that the TARDIS-embryo was gone, but no, it's still there - I guess Gwen kept it because she didn't know what it was and it reminded her of Jack. And she knew he'd want it there if and when he did come back. I didn't notice the binoculars or the 3-D glasses, are they still there? I did notice the televisions from "The Idiot's Lantern".



12. I continue to quite like Owen this season. It's somewhat scary.



13. They put Beth in morgue-drawer 007 too, just like Suzie and Jack. Seems the people they put there never stay put. Maybe they should check it out, or rename it "the resurrection chamber". And wasn't Beth frozen in the same freezer/cupboard that Gwen and Owen were in in "Cyberwoman"?



14. I assume there will be a sequel to this story - more alien sleeper agents will turn up? We didn't learn the aliens' name, did we?



15. Have Ianto and Jack had their date yet? I want to see it!



16. Gwen's mother is alive. I'd wondered.

Comments

[puritybrown.livejournal.com]

I've always liked Owen in the way that one can like a fictional character whom in real life one would rather avoid. I mean, he's a dick, but he's interesting.

I especially like the way his relationship with Jack has shifted since "End of Days". That episode seems to have purged him of all the resentment and anger and overall twitchiness he'd been carrying around, and now he seems much more comfortable around him. Around all the others, actually. He's mellowed, perhaps because Jack's "death" in "End of Days" made him understand what he had had and how terrible it would be to lose it for real. But! He's still an asshole. :) (Fobbing Gwen off with the graveyard shift... then getting her a coffee... then making her pay for it... heheh.)

Ianto was so giddy. Some people were commenting on torch_wood that he seemed out of character; I didn't think so, I thought he was just happy for once. He's always had a sarcastic streak, and for most of the first series he was cloaking deep misery with a facade of pseudo-cheerful professionalism. Now, Jack's back, and they're dating, and things are going well for him for the first time in ages... it's natural that he'd be a bit bouncier and livelier than before.

He seemed to be going out of his way to needle Owen, which is interesting. Don't know what's going on there. Will have to see if leads anywhere.

I was surprised how much of last week's trailer came from this episode. I wish they'd put less of the episodes into the trailers -- they cram them full of spoilers. The "let's all have sex" line would have been a lot funnier if I hadn't known it was coming.

[fruitbat813.livejournal.com]

As to number 3, Jack was firmly back in charge at the end of episode one - right after Gwen´s attempt at playing Mata Hari with Captain John went so spectacularly pearshaped. I didn´t really catch onto this until the second viewing but when Jack lets her go with John to look for the cannister, he does it in the full knowledge that Gwen is absolutely no match for John and after the fiasco that is sure to follow, he will be able to regain the leadership position without any power struggle (naked wrestling not included) at all. Poor Gwen, had the wool pulled over her eyes by both Captains.

[txvoodoo.livejournal.com]

I too have always liked Owen. I like the ones everyone else picks on. It's my nature :D Also, he's complex.

I wonder if all of Ianto's current cockiness will come back to haunt him? Because going around saying things like "I know everything", on Torchwood, usually mean it will bite you in the ass later.

[omnivorously.livejournal.com]

1) Re: Beth: word.

2) I was a little surprised at his manner, actually, and was trying to remember if he's actually this much of a hardass most of the time. But I guess I'm thinking back to times when he's being nice to ppl he cares about, like when he opens up to Toshiko in 1941.

3) I agree, same old dynamics. Gwen can do the job, but she can't stand up to Jack's charisma. Also, it's probably a lot easier on her.

4) Word.

5) NOT ENOUGH IANTO!!! And part of my frustration is that he was clever and playful, but I didn't see any courage.

6) By this point, Tosh 1,000,000, government and military computers 0 And she was definitely sexy when she was doing that, too. Or maybe I just have a competency kink ; )

7) Um, opposite for me. Don't hate her, though I was irritated when she was basically lying to Beth, telling her it would be all right, when it *wouldn't*. So far as characterization goes, I think that Gwen and Jack were playing good cop, bad cop during the whole show, which was weird. If you follow my meaning.

9) I know!

10) HOOOOOOWWWL!!! esp bc of the lack of Jack/Ianto snogging : (

12) Yeah, he seems to be acting pretty decently. Prickly, rather than nasty. And you gotta forgive him the 'sex?' comment. I mean, in those circumstances, *someone* is going to make that joke, and it's not Tosh's thing. Though I'd like to see Ianto's version ... this being Torchwood, we may very well get that opportunity.

13) Maybe the set designers only made one that actually worked? They seem to have put a fair amount of work into designing the set, though ...

15) Given how chipper and light-hearted Ianto is, I'm assuming that whether or not they made time for a date, Ianto and Jack are screwing regularly. And no one else is commenting on it, so I imagine they've gotten used to it. Actually, that bit at the end? When Ianto had that circle with an antenna? wtf? Ianto seemed to be a little angry at something, and Jack was kinda like, oh great, gotta deal with *you* now, and I don't mean sex. Thoughts?

[janne-d.livejournal.com]

8. I actually thought a short clip of Beth in a previous trailer was Det. Swanson. Now I am disappointed because I don't think she'll appear at all and I'd been all excited she was back!

12. Right there with you. He's being all not-a-twat lately.

I did like the looks Jack kept giving Gwen whenever she was promising Beth that she would be okay, and no, of course they wouldn't kill her. Jack was definitely very in soldier mode. I also liked that Beth picked up on it and when Gwen was refusing to promise to kill her if necessary, she asked Jack to do it instead.

And wasn't the other main sleeper guy creepy?

[tigress35.livejournal.com]

I sort of feel like Ianto is getting more confident now that more time has passed since the Lisa fiasco... and that others have made more serious mistakes, like Owen opening the rift. So he's not the only one anymore that's put Torchwood/the world at risk. And I also think that now that everybody knows he's doing Jack, I think he feels a bit more secure in his position. And I suppose that he had to take on a bigger role when they were down a man when Jack was gone. He possibly got to know the others a bit more and opened up. This is what I fanwank for myself.

[magika83.livejournal.com]

I think this is the best episode of the show so far. I absolutely loved it!

2. Jack scared me a little during Beth's interview. But he was also incredibly sexy.

4. I agree. The team is working so well together now, I really hope it lasts.

5. Ianto was hilarious! I've never been much of an Ianto fan (sorry!), but this episode might just turn me around. I think he might be using humour and sarcasm as a bit of a defense mechanism, because he's still uncertain of where he stands with Jack and he's trying hard not to show it. I don't mind if nothing happens between him and Jack as long as we get sarcastic Ianto!

6. I adore Tosh, and I love the fact that she's competent and smart. And it looks like we might be seeing more of her next week. Looking forward to that (I still want more scenes of Tosh and Jack!).

7. As you know, I'm not too keen on Gwen, but she was great in this episode. Loved the scene with her and Jack at the end.

8. I was wondering about that; on the surface there was nothing to suggest there was any alien involvement, so why wasn't Homicide (or whatever it's called in Britian) there? Or did I miss something?

12. Me too. He seems less angry and more compassionate now, and I like him so much better for it. Which is, as you say, scary.

[raissad.livejournal.com]

Alien sleeper cell plots aren't my favorite, but this one was handled about as well as it can be. Beth killing her husband was a shock. I thought he male agent was over the top, but not not a disaster. Other than that I loved all the good points previously mentioned. I'm really looking forward to next week, though.

[elebridith]

Oh yes, very good one!
Beth - very brave. I mean, how can someone handle the fact that there's a murderous alien inside of you? But I guess after she stabbed accidentally her husband, she was all the more determined to help somehow. Poor woman!
Jack was rather cruel in this, I thought - ok, he was 100% sure that there was something inside Beth, but that mind-probe thing was just scary. So he *knew* there was a threat and is willing to sacrifice someone to eliminate it - i understood that Beth was in danger of "exploding", right? I wonder what Jack would have done if it had been a team member? The way he was drawn in this episode, probably the same.
Liked Owen/Gwen coffee exchange. Oh, and the "end of the world" comment from Ianto. *lol*
So Beth felt the alien take over and kinda committed suicide... as I said, brave. Poor woman. And Torchwood has to live with another killing. That's quite a burden to carry, even if you know it was necessary...
Yup, and I missed Captain John too.