fajrdrako | Torchwood flotsam and jetsam... (Reply)

A few ideas about Torchwood that I haven't had time to post yet.

Is Gwen bisexual? I'd always thought the answer to this was "probably", but I've upgraded that to "certainly" on the following evidence:

We all notice her enthusiasm with the sex alien in "Day One". Okay, we argue to ourselves, that could just be because of the alien pheromones, it may not indicate anything about orientation.

But it does. The sex alien's pheromones only work on people who would be normally attracted to women - note how it doesn't work with the 100% gay male at the sperm clinic.

So: Gwen is bi, and I'm happy to have sorted that detail conclusively (and happily) in my mind.

What is Jack thinking at the end of 'Meat'? I ask this because I've heard fans say they think he was mooning over Gwen and her kiss with Rhys. I don't think that's it at all. I think he's worried because there's a civilian out there now, who has seen the interior of the Hub, and who knows more about Torchwood than Jack is comfortable with - dnagerous for them, and for Rhys.

"Is the Time Agency keeping tabs on Jack? Or is it just Captain John?" Two things perplexed me in "Kiss, Kiss, Bang, Bang": What was the connection between Blowfish and Captain John? And how did Blowfish know so much about the people in Torchwood?

No, "plot hole" is not an answer.

Obviously Captain John new Blowfish, and expected to meet up with him - that was why Blowfish had the pyramid, and it way why Captain John had to get access to his body in the Hub, to use th pyramid thing.

Captain John knew exactly where and when to find Jack, and even says so: he thought he was "lucky to have ended up here". I would guess he was not just looking for the diamond that didn't exist, he was looking for Jack, with the hope of persuading Jack to hook up with him - that he may have somehow manipulated the Time Vortex/Rift/time travel mechanism so that the woman who was his lover/victim would send her gadget to Jack's time. How would he trace Jack's time? Presumably through Jack's wristband - it's Vortex Manipulator may be disabled, but parts of it work. It's active. I always assume that Jack uses it to scan for alien tech still, as he did in "The Empty Child".

So: Captain John researched Jack and his companions. He sent Blowfish through for groundwork. He followed to set up his meeting with Jack.

Crafty, that Captain John.

Jack's love for Ianto. I've been seeing various instances of parallel structure or plotting in several episodes - examples where Jack's love for Ianto echoes a more overt situation between other characters. An example would be in "Meat", where Ianto and Rhys are being held hostage, while Gwen and Jack are being threatened by the villains' holding guns to their lovers' heads.

An example I was pondering before is in "Cyberwoman". The juxtaposition of the kiss Jack gives the unconscious Ianto, and the kiss between Gwen and Owen, is obvious. But there is a much greater parallel: while Jack is demanding that Ianto kill the woman he loves to end the Cyberwoman threat, he is also threatening to kill Ianto - the man he loves. Jack isn't asking an employee to do anything he isn't prepared to do himself. And yet he is as reluctant to kill Ianto as Ianto is to kill Lisa, even knowning what's at stake. Ianto has put Jack into an almost-impossible position.

As it happens, the whole Torchwood team kills Lisa, Ianto lives and is forgiven, and life goes on until "They Keep Killing Suzie", at which point they become lovers.