Torchwood 2x09: Something Borrowed

[such_heights]

Some preliminary thoughts before I get down to the Srs Business that was the shipping in this episode:

Gwen! Gwen for the win, so hard! :D :D Eeee she owned this episode completely and I loved it. She was hilarious and kick-ass beyond belief and I have whole new levels of love. A gun in her wedding bouquet! It does not get better than that. ♥ And she looked beautiful in her wedding dress, too.

Tosh, also for the win! With backbone and getting Owen to go to the wedding and being all sleuthy around the place. Plus, that scene with her and Gwen and the dress was a thousand kinds of lovely - yeah, if you ask me, this episode totally belonged to the girls.

Shapeshifter!Jack - unintentionally hilarious, y/y? Oh, John Barrowman. Never change.

Rhyyyys! Saving his bride-to-be in a barn! With a chainsaw! ♥

Ok, right. As far as fandom's concerned, this is all about the shipping. Allow me to summarise my view on these Very Important Issues:

This entire episode was all about how much Gwen and Rhys love each other; completely, totally, having resolved all of their various issues and the crises that have cropped up over the past two seasons. This means that the Jack/Gwen subplot has been, effectively, completely sunk.

From Gwen's perspective, I think we see here that yeah, in a way, she does sort of have a thing for Jack - certainly in the way that he's not like anyone she's ever known, has completely changed her life, means to world to her, and let's be honest, you might be the same in her shoes! That doesn't mean, despite my fears to the contrary that cropped up earlier in the season, that she wishes she were with Jack instead, or that Rhys is any way second best. She has completely committed to her decision and knows that it's the right one. For her, it's my guess that Jack will always be Jack, however. This does not make an adulterous h0r, crazies of fandom, it makes her human.

Also, I don't Jack was particularly terrible in this episode, either. Yeah, he's quite possessive of Gwen - and actually, I think it's plausible to read that in an entirely non-sexual way though I suspect most people would disagree with me - but he was in no way trying to steal her away or screw up her wedding. Obviously the event was quite emotionally significant to him on a couple of levels, for one it's a member of his team (who, lest we forget, he loves very much), and even more so it's Gwen, who out of all of them is the one who's meant to get married and have that normal life the others are already too screwed up for, possibly. So watching that actually happen is going to be a bit of a moment for Jack. And plus, it clearly was bringing back memories of a marriage of his own from some byegone day. All in all, my point is that yeah, he seemed a little distant with Ianto at the end there - that's ok! It happens!

Related to that but more generally, I really don't think that Ianto is being mistreated by Jack in this whole saga. Firstly, because Ianto will know exactly what it is he's got himself into and is clearly ok with that, secondly because Jack really is not the type of person to be involved with someone just because they're bored or whatever, the very fact this has been going on for about a season now makes it pretty blatant the interest is mutual. Both of them actively downplay it in public, but as an audience we've had plenty of chances to see how much they care about each other, even if neither of them want to define themselves as being in a relationship. Jack taking a moment to look at Gwen at her own wedding reception does not suddenly take all of that away.

I know plenty of you have been reading this differently to me, and I get why, but you know what? I don't feel like I'm making any massive leaps here (and also, this is Torchwood writing, where characterisation is something of a fluid game and we have to make our own connections some of the time anyway), and all of the above leaves me in a happy place, so I'm going with that. But in conclusion, I loved this episode once again - oh, series two for the win! :D

Comments

[lorannah.livejournal.com]

I'm still undecided by the episode. I think I'll have to watch it again once I've seen where they're going with the rest of the series.

If it hadn't been for the shippy bits, I'd have absolutely loved it - funny, cool and entertaining. Rhys is love and Gwen was fab.

But the shippy bits have left me floundering a little. I don't think it's the end of Janto, despite fandoms implosion, but I don't quite understand what's going on between them. I don't know what's going on in Jack's head - I'm happy for him to love both, but right now everything has been focused on Gwen and I don't feel like we're seeing his feelings for Ianto in the same way. Plus there have been a fair few times when I've really felt like we needed a Ianto reaction shot recently (not just because I love GDL's expressiveness) - I really was longing to see his face during the dance.

It didn't ruin the episode for me, but it left me confused - I don't have a problem with not thinking what the programme-makers want me to think, I'm less used to not having any idea what the programme-makers are trying to show.

I must admit though, I'm much happier if I read the Jack/Gwen relationship as more siblings or father/daughter - they just work better for me that way. Plus I think they look weirdly similar - but that's probably just me. :p

[such_heights]

Yeah, I do agree with you there, Jack's been a bit hard to get a handle on recently - his interaction with Owen the past couple of episodes, too, what is going on? But I think you're right, now we need to know where they're going with the last part of the series and where they're going to take the characters, then things like this might have a bit more context. Oh, is it Wednesday yet? :P

And ah, Torchwood so is a big crazy adorable family, when you get down to it. ♥