After basically no mention of Gwen and Rhys’ issues since the end of last season, it’s good to have an episode focus on them. I enjoyed the rawness of their argument and Rhys’ anger, especially since I couldn’t really back Gwen’s side at all. Thinking about it though, I’m confused – Gwen told Rhys she was now working in special ops within the police. Those who are familiar with the name of Torchwood think it’s special ops. So why couldn’t Gwen just tell Rhys in the first place that she was working for Torchwood? He wouldn’t have been surprised when she showed up to the crash site then.
It was really great watching Rhys in unfamiliar situations, out of his depth while bluffing to the crooks and trying so hard to be tough. And he’s so happy at the end! I do wonder what happened after the credits; how he would have explained to people at work about his injury (that's Torchwood's second gunshot wound for the season), or how Gwen would have explained it to him if he’d been retconned!
So for an episode all about Gwen and Rhys’ relationship, it’s pretty annoying to have a couple of doses of Gwack (Jack pushing Gwen up against a wall and staring at her). (And when Jack told Rhys that Gwen could take care of herself, I had to laugh a bit, given her tendency to be taken hostage.) And then it was just inappropriate when Jack flat out said his encounter with Rhys was “homoerotic”, in front of everyone. People say that Torchwood’s Jack isn’t as flirtatious as the old one, but maybe that’s because he’s the boss. When he’s just a loveable sidekick he can do whatever he wants, but a boss needs to have a certain level of respect from his employees.
Let’s turn to those employees for a moment. Owen is inexplicably nice (if ignorant of Tosh’s advances), and feels a lot of pity for the creature. As I recall, he didn’t even seem to care that much about Beth a couple of episodes ago. His relationship with Tosh also appears to have gone backwards, as back in Ghost Machine they were quite happily out a bar together.
Ianto’s stun-gunning is possibly his best non-Janto moment. That is all.
A final question: Jack wants to send the creature back through the Rift, but it was well established last season that the team don’t know how the Rift works and objects could end up anywhere. Have they discovered more of its secrets during the break? Or was this just desperation on Jack’s part; a bluff to himself and the team that he could perhaps save the creature?
No comments:
Post a Comment