Yay! I'm so glad that someone else saw the same things that I did. The whole thing utterly floored me, making my husband ask "why do you watch these things" and me waving my hands and going "because it's good", then going in search of more tissues.
As heroic figures go, Jack's is not so much the obvious contemporary superhero or action hero - he's a medieval martyr. I utterly love this. One of the most common complaints about this episode has been 'how does Jack come out of it sane?' which I have to admit I hadn't even thought of. Because he chose what happened to him, he went into it willingly. People will do truly extraordinary things for what they believe, and I don't see this as any different. Not that it didn't hurt like hell, in every sense, but that was the point. And it's not as though he was exactly unscathed beforehand - just on your list, that's an extraordinary set of circumstances to live through, and who knows what happened to him before that. This was bad. There's a niggling feeling in the back of my brain that it might not actually be the worst.
Of course, I still have no idea how his greatcoat survived the centuries, but I'm going with 'it's Jack!' which has always worked as an explanation up til now...
I'm absolutely with you on wanting to see more of Captain John, and I kind of like the idea that he was working for Gray, right from the beginning. The mercy-killing would definitely make sense, because he does seem to have genuine love for Jack. On the other hand, although 11 episodes pass in time for us, the whole 'working vortex manipulator' thing means that who knows how much time has passed for John, in his terms. Could be that he'd found Gray already, but that Gray only started using him after Jack rejected him. Or something like that.
I think I might need one of your pain pills to make better sense of this! Torchwood is definitely scoring high points for character, not so much for plot.
no subject
Date: 2008-04-06 08:47 pm (UTC)As heroic figures go, Jack's is not so much the obvious contemporary superhero or action hero - he's a medieval martyr.
I utterly love this. One of the most common complaints about this episode has been 'how does Jack come out of it sane?' which I have to admit I hadn't even thought of. Because he chose what happened to him, he went into it willingly. People will do truly extraordinary things for what they believe, and I don't see this as any different. Not that it didn't hurt like hell, in every sense, but that was the point. And it's not as though he was exactly unscathed beforehand - just on your list, that's an extraordinary set of circumstances to live through, and who knows what happened to him before that. This was bad. There's a niggling feeling in the back of my brain that it might not actually be the worst.
Of course, I still have no idea how his greatcoat survived the centuries, but I'm going with 'it's Jack!' which has always worked as an explanation up til now...
I'm absolutely with you on wanting to see more of Captain John, and I kind of like the idea that he was working for Gray, right from the beginning. The mercy-killing would definitely make sense, because he does seem to have genuine love for Jack. On the other hand, although 11 episodes pass in time for us, the whole 'working vortex manipulator' thing means that who knows how much time has passed for John, in his terms. Could be that he'd found Gray already, but that Gray only started using him after Jack rejected him. Or something like that.
I think I might need one of your pain pills to make better sense of this! Torchwood is definitely scoring high points for character, not so much for plot.