fajrdrako | Torchwood: Exit Wounds (2x13) (Reply)

I can't write much but I at least want to say something about Torchwood now rather than later.

I watched Torchwood at 7 a.m. yesterday, staying awake through the whole thing despite the painkillers I'm taking for my broken foot. They make it hard to stay awake for a whole hour at a time. The interesting story helped.

About which I can think of many things to say, the first being: aieeeaii. "Aieeeaii" in a good way.

Two significant aspects are things I thought I'd never see on TV. They totally floored me they were so unexpected and brilliant. But First, the part I thought was odd, and this was maybe because of the pain pills and my less-than-normal powers of concentration or following a story, but it felt as if it started out as one story and then became another completely different story.

The story it looked as if it would be: confrontation between Captain Jack Harkness and his old lover/enemy, Captain John Hart, holding Cardiff hostage in their battle. (A straight parallel with the Doctor/Master situation in "The Last of the Time Lords".)

The story it became: Grey's vendetta against Captain Jack, with the Torchwood Team heroically saving Cardiff and paying the necessary prices.

Captain John really didn't have anything much to do with it at all. Which in a way was a pity, because he's such a good character, but in a way... it's good because it leaves him free for later stories. Oh, I hope!

What I most loved? Penance. I was floored. Because in any other story we'd be thinking and saying, "what happened to Grey wasn't Jack's fault", and I was thinking that, weren't you? But Jack saw right through all that as a smokescreen: it didn't matter whether it was his fault or not, that wasn't the point, the point was taking responsibility, and he took it without hesitation. Two thousand years of penance. An act of expiation all the more remarkable in its spiritual extremity.

And yes, we've seen Jack paying for his various sins over and over. The sin of almost killing mankind in "The Empty Child". The sin of being a con man. The sin of his friend's torture and death, the sin of letting go of Grey's hand, and so on. The redemption theme. And Jack has paid the price over and over: dying for the Doctor in "The Parting of the Ways", dying for mankind in "End of Days", and so on. Just as the Doctor in Doctor Who series one had his own redemption story: he killed his own race (and symbolically his past) in order to destroy the Daleks, and then offered his race, himself, Jack, mankind and the future as sacrifice in "The Parting of the Ways".

I love redemption themes.

This totally took me by surprise: that Jack's triumph came not by fighting Grey, but capitulating to him, forgiving him, loving him, and essentially putting another 'mercy killing' to Torchwood's credit.

As heroic figures go, Jack's is not so much the obvious contemporary superhero or action hero - he's a medieval martyr. It has nothing to do with justice or even atonement, because the wrongdoing was not his own - but in a mystical sense, there was a spiritual price to pay.

So: who'd've thought Jack could outdo his messiah resurrection act from last season? But he did. Wow.

I am so impressed. It's just a whole different level of emotional perception and thought than I've ever seen on any TV show - even Doctor Who. And all part of a plot that was a bit of a mess, or at least confusing, or maybe that was just because of my pain pills....

The other thing I loved: that it ends with Jack holding, loving, both Gwen and Ianto. Appeals so much to the romantic in me.

...So maybe PC Andy and Rhys will actually join Torchwood now there are places vacant? Though what they seem to need are a technical genius and a superlative doctor. I could choose Martha for the second role.

Dare I hope that Captain John will return to Torchwood, since he seems to be in no hurry to leave the present time? and he still loves Jack? I am now completely confused by his story: was what we saw in "Kiss, Kiss, Bang, Bang" all an act set up by Grey? Is John really crazy and homicidal? The events in "Kiss, Kiss, Bang, Bang" make perfect sense if you assume Grey was forcing John to do everything he did and John was trying to sabotage Grey - even to the point of John trying to kill Jack as another mercy killing to keep him out of Grey's vengeful hands, and in saving the Torchwood Team when he could have killed them.

I am not convinced. It could be that John was crazy and on drugs, and was cured somewhere along the way. It could be that I missed some story point. I'd like to know. As it was, his departure was somewhat ... anticlimatic. And enigmatic. I couldn't read Jack's attitude to him at the end: anger? forgiveness? mistrust? indifference? Whatever it is or was, it's clear John is not, like Gwen and Ianto, in the charmed circle of those Jack loves.

I thought there was no structure to this story, and not much coherence, but it was powerful - and so much better put together than "End of Days". How many times has Jack lived through 1941 now?

Whose exit wounds does the title refer to?

Oh, dear, I should say something about Toshiko and Owen. I'm not sure what to say. I liked their deaths. Toshiko brave (physically, emotionally and spiritually), Owen redeeming himself with both kindness and courage. I'm glad Owen is gone, frankly, because I don't know where I'd want them to go with the character. In series 1, I didn't like him, but he had fascinating character development and was always interesting. In series 2, though I sometimes liked him and sometimes hated him, his character was all over the place - from mild-mannered dweeb to smart-ass to dead guy to heartbroken fiancé and respectable doctor - never settling on one thing.

Gwen: superb. At her best, or at least, the way I like her best. Glimpses of what she could be. Loved it when she asked Rhys to marry her again. And loved Rhys... He used to be the perfect boyfriend. Now he's the perfect husband.

I love it that they're not doing the obvious.