Torchwood
So I’ve been posting a Torchwood fanfic over on soera. It’s long, involved, and Ianto-centric with appearances from the rest of the team. On Part 12, which I posted last week, a couple of people commented on how Gwen Cooper rather annoyed them on the show. One person responded to say that she agrees with what those people said about the fic, but she still likes Gwen.
Cue my ears perking up, because thus far I haven’t met many fans of Gwen. Mind you, I don’t really know people in the fandom anyway (largely because I tend to be a lurker and am rather shy about entering discussions). I asked her what exactly it was about Gwen that she liked, because I’m curious. I’m generally ambivalent-leaning-towards-dislike when it comes to Gwen, so it’s always fun seeing the other side. And watching Torchwood would be a much more pleasurable experience for me if I could like the POV-character, after all, so if you can come up with something that’ll make me see her in a new light, I’m up for it.
I pointed this person to a previous comment in which I mentioned how I see Gwen:
Gwen will never be a favourite character for me. I'm more ambivalent than anything else towards her - what sours her for me is the producers etc's insistence that she's the heart/soul/conscience of the team. Um, no. The others cope differently. Gwen's a bleeding heart; that doesn't make her somehow better than the others. I get the impression from the producers that she's got more moral fibre than the others - she's near-perfect, and keeps the team on track etc... except, if you look at how she acts, she's just as flawed as any of the rest of them, maybe more so (Retconning Rhys is something I'll never be able to explain away). If the producers weren't so insistent that she's a wonderful person - to the extent of putting really awkward lines in the mouths of other characters - I'd probably like her more. When you strip her of her main character status and take away the verbal validation of some of her actions, the fact that those actions are sometimes problematic does come through, doesn't it?
and asked her to feel free to refute it. She replied with this:
uh, this is difficult to explain ...
I think I like her kind of stubborn determination (like in "Random Shoes" or Flat Holm Island), like a "pit bull"-like inspector of Scotland Yard who doesn't care what his superiors think, and I think that that is why Jack invited her to join his team (and not the "heart of the team reason" rubbish RTD likes to tell, 'cause how could Jack have know that in this short amount of time?). I, too, could have slapped her for the reasons you've mentioned, not to forget the silly flirting with Jack. But I kind of explained this for me as "hero-worshipping" ;-)
I think that in series 1 up until Adam in series 2 she was the "most multiple personalities person" of the team - thanks to the scriptwriters (poor Eve Myles) ... But if you see over it what remains through all the scripts is her determination paired with curiosity to get to the root of things, to find the truth and to believe in the good. I don't love her, but I like her ;-)
I began writing a response to her which quickly got… out of hand. It’s long and so I thought I’d post it here instead and turn it into a kind of free-for-all. I know most of my f-list doesn’t follow Torchwood but I hope that those who do will point others in this direction, because I’m really curious to find out how the fandom in general views Gwen.
So, on with my thoughts on Gwen, as they have evolved from my initial response to that commenter:
I do see that kind of dogged determination as one of Gwen's defining traits, so I understand where you're coming from. The thing is, I have that listed as one of her positive and negative traits.
I guess my problem is that she doesn't know when to stop. I love watching/reading law enforcement shows/books; the character type that's always pushing the boundaries is fairly common in them, so I’ve seen numerous variations on the theme.
Let’s briefly talk about The Sentinel, for instance (the TV series, not the movie). Jim and Blair both fit the pushing-boundaries type to some extent, but I’ll just mention Blair here. For those who don’t know, the show’s about a cop (Jim Ellison) who unbeknownst to him has heightened senses. They’re the cause of the migraines etc he’s been having. He meets an anthropologist called Blair Sandburg who’s writing a doctoral thesis on the subject of “sentinels,” people who supposedly have all five senses heightened. Until Jim, Blair’s never found evidence that these people exist, so finding Jim is like finding the “Holy Grail,” as he puts it. Cue detective-ing shenanigans as Jim reluctantly lets Blair tag along to teach him how to keep his senses from overwhelming him.
At the beginning of the show, Jim’s obviously uncomfortable with his abilities, and Blair has to fight him just about every step of the way to get him to use them. Blair does so not just for his paper, but because he realises how difficult it is for Jim to deal with his heightened senses all the time. I really do see at least part of Blair’s motivation as “helping the guy” rather than just “getting data.” So Blair pushes and shoves Jim out of his comfort zone (and this extends into the detective work; Blair’s the one who comes up with new ways of looking at things). But Blair treads a very careful path. He pulls back when it looks like Jim can’t take too much more. When he accidentally steps over that invisible line, he apologises and lets Jim take control. In one episode (The Killers), Blair realises that Jim’s not going to let go of his vendetta against criminal Tommy Juno. He can see from the way Jim’s acting that he’s not going to listen to anything Blair has to say, at least not unless something else stops Jim in his tracks. So he lets Jim do what he wants and Jim gets hauled up for tapping Juno’s phone. Afterwards, Jim says to Blair, “Don’t say it.” Blair responds, “Say what? That you're an arrogant, self-destructive schmuck? I say it to you, I gotta say it to me too. I mean, I went along with you.”
Blair gets it. He knows when to push and when not to. He gets that sometimes whatever he does Jim won’t listen, and he has to let Jim make his own mistakes. And he doesn’t abandon Jim; even knowing that what they’re doing is wrong (he tells Jim to stop but Jim doesn’t listen) he goes along with him, and he stays there as a supportive presence - even though he’s just an observer and can’t actually be held liable, he refuses to let Jim take the heat alone. Jim repays that by being a fairly steadfast friend (the less said about Alex Barnes and TSbyBS the better).
And now, back to Torchwood. Is Gwen like Blair? Um, no. Gwen does fit the pushing-boundaries type (both on a personal and professional level), but unlike Blair, she doesn’t recognise those invisible lines she shouldn’t cross. She doesn’t know how to handle “Keep Out” signs, doesn’t realise that her opinions are not the only valid ones and that she should respect what other people think even if she disagrees. When it comes down to it, she's working in a hierarchy that she needs to have some respect for, and I just don't get the impression that she does. Torchwood's not as regimented as UNIT, of course. They're more "ad-hoc," as Jack puts it, but Jack's still the leader and Gwen still needs to learn how far is too far.
It's all the more significant because Jack's fairly relaxed about being questioned by his team. I think he’s had his own rights and requests ignored one time too many by Torchwood (back in the day) to do the same to his own team. If you have a concern, I think he makes it a point to listen. In Random Shoes, for instance, I get the impression that Jack thinks Gwen’s wasting her time but is willing to humour her because there’s nothing important going on then and they can spare her. So if he puts his foot down on something, it's obvious he has a good reason for it, and that you shouldn't push... but Gwen does so in Adrift and causes a lot more harm than good. It’s not just the team and Jack she hurts by doing so. Even Nikki Bevan says that she wishes Gwen had never brought her to Jonah on Flat Holm. Despite Nikki’s optimism about someday finding Jonah, Jack realised that it would hurt her to see him as he became, and therefore refused to let out the secret. During that team meeting where Tosh and Gwen presented what they’d found, Gwen’s asked straight out what she suggests doing, and she can’t come up with anything useful. Even so, and even though Jack makes it a direct order multiple times, she refuses to let it go. I guess it’s a question of how much you trust your leader - and if you don’t, why are you working for him?
As for the uneven portrayal being a result of varying scriptwriters, I think that that’s there to some degree with all the characters. But with the others, they’re not hugely detracting. With Gwen, though? There are certain things Gwen does that I just can’t explain away. It’s not just a matter of characterisation. Some of her actions are very problematic for me.
I do see her as hero-worshipping Jack too, but I also think she doesn’t see it that way. I see her as believing she really is in love with Jack - “I love Rhys, but not the way I love you,” remember? It’s unfair not only to Rhys but also to Jack (and Ianto). Then there’s the affair with Owen, the rationale for which I never believed. It was obvious that they were attracted to each other before they nearly got eaten by cannibals. Then, at the end of the episode, Gwen talks about how she can’t talk to Rhys about these things and that’s why she’s turned to Owen. Okay, 1) talking =/= sex. You can talk to someone, get things off your chest, without sleeping with them. 2) You’re obviously using it as an excuse to make yourself feel better about acting on your attraction. 3) The cannibals had nothing to do with Torchwood. The police were brought in. It’ll be all over the news - no, really, it’s a village of cannibals, it will be all over the news. Rhys will have heard about it. You can, in fact, talk to him about it.
But I've read and watched unfaithful characters who don't push my buttons the way Gwen does. Her unfaithfulness isn’t the real problem. It’s not even the hypocrisy of her rationalisation, because at least she realises it’s wrong (she admits as such to Tosh, in Greeks Bearing Gifts) and she’s struggling with herself. It’s a kind of moral struggle and I don’t have a problem with depicting Gwen’s struggle with the harshness of the job and paralleling that with her difficulties talking to Rhys.
I do, however, have a problem with how the affair is “resolved.” First, she confesses to her affair. I’m of two minds about that. Some people say that confessing to an affair that’s already ended only hurts the person’s partner. Others say that full honesty is important in a relationship. I can understand both sides, and I’m not sure that either’s better than the other - it all depends on the relationship.
But then she Retcons Rhys.
What exactly is the point of confessing? Oh, wait, she tells us - she wants to be forgiven. Everything about this whole sordid matter is selfish. She has a fling with Owen because she 1) wants to and 2) purportedly can’t talk to Rhys about the job. She breaks off the affair because 1) Owen falls for Diane, 2) is a complete arse when he loses her and 3) basically hurts Gwen’s feelings and makes her realise that he’s not someone who’ll want/love her unconditionally (coughRhyscough). She confesses to Rhys to get his forgiveness but doesn’t want him to be angry/leave her, so she Retcons him. Nothing about this makes sense to me unless I accept selfishness as one of Gwen’s traits. And damn, I don’t really want to, but she does unfortunately make sense that way.
And then Rhys dies at the end of Season One - please don’t get me started on how absolutely ridiculous Gwen was acting (on information from someone she knows is suspicious!) - and Gwen’s reactions I once again find problematic. When Rhys dies, she turns on the team. I’m sorry, what? Okay, I get that you’re sad, angry, upset. I get that you might lash out at whoever’s closest. But… you’re at fault too, Gwen. It’s very Laios and Oedipus, you know, trying to stop something from happening and inadvertently fulfilling the prophecy. But okay, she’s obviously not thinking clearly. I can forgive her that, especially given all the drama in her relationship lately. It’s even worse when it ends on a sour note, right?
Episode goes on (with me twitching most of the way), Abaddon’s defeated, Jack dies, Rhys is alive. And Gwen chooses to sit with Jack instead of Rhys. What happened to all that sadness over Rhys’ death, Gwen? Why aren’t you worried about him anymore? He’s back to being alive, that’s it, who cares now? What gives you, as the new girl, the right to sit with him all the time? Why’s Ianto crying into Jack’s coat instead of sitting there with him too? So many things I have problems with, I don’t even know where to begin.
The thing about Gwen, I think, is that she sees what’s right there in front of her. She doesn’t tend to look forward, to predict the outcome of her words/actions. Rhys is alive, good - let me now sit with Jack and wait till he wakes up. Rhys can wait because he’s obviously okay, and I need to stay with Jack because I feel guilty about turning on him and about letting him go off to get killed. I think she honestly doesn’t realise that the others might like to spend time with Jack, or that Rhys might be feeling neglected (again) or even what really drives her reactions (I do think she fancies herself in love with Jack). It’s a kind of blindness that I think a lot of people are guilty of. It’s not until someone calls us on it that we realise we’re doing it. Gwen’s problem is that even when she’s called on it, she refuses to see it. When Rhys says she’s not taking their relationship seriously, she brushes it off as an overreaction; when Jack reminds her not to let it drift, she… confesses to, then Retcons Rhys. Oh boy.
She clearly hasn’t changed even in Season Two, either. In Meat, she blatantly plays on Jack’s affection for her to avoid having to Retcon Rhys. In Adam, she confesses that she’s in love with Jack. In Something Borrowed, just hours after tearfully telling Rhys that all she wants to do that day is get married to him, she’s trying to kiss Jack (or the Nostrovite, but, y’know). And I’ve already talked about Adrift.
So what does all this mean? It’s a whole bunch of negativity about Gwen. It’s why my ambivalence leans towards dislike. But… I am ambivalent. Because questioning decisions you have a problem with is important. I wish Gwen knew when to stop pushing, and I wish she had a little more faith in Jack. But the fact that she pushes in the first place is important to Jack, I think. It reminds him that despite Torchwood’s authority and despite his very long life, he doesn’t hold all the answers. It reminds him to keep looking for a better solution - Gwen just fails in realising that sometimes there isn’t one. But the fact that she believes there is, is - naïve, but somehow a little endearing. Gwen sees the wonder of some of the things they get to experience, as Torchwood, and maybe she brings a little awe back into an admittedly jaded team.
Writing all this out has made me come to a conclusion about Gwen I hadn’t previously thought about. Gwen reminds me, in many ways, of a child. She’s self-centred the way a child can be, having failed to realise that there is a wider world out there. She’s stubborn like a toddler who doesn’t understand why she needs to go to bed at a certain time, or take a bath, or eat her vegetables. Even if these are things that are good for her, she doesn’t understand that, and so doesn’t like doing them. But Gwen also displays the flip-side of children; she generally looks for the good in others, and has a positive attitude towards life and humanity. Those are good things, and they give me hope that she can mature eventually.
This has turned into a fairly epic essay, so I think I'll stop here. If you follow Torchwood, I'd be interested in hearing what you think of Gwen. Whether you're a fan or can't stand her, I'd like to hear your own reasons; I'm sure you've got a bunch of different reasons from me. And if you like Gwen, I'll just repeat that I'd like to be given reasons to like her, so if you want to refute any of what I said up there, feel free. Just make it convincing!
Cue my ears perking up, because thus far I haven’t met many fans of Gwen. Mind you, I don’t really know people in the fandom anyway (largely because I tend to be a lurker and am rather shy about entering discussions). I asked her what exactly it was about Gwen that she liked, because I’m curious. I’m generally ambivalent-leaning-towards-dislike when it comes to Gwen, so it’s always fun seeing the other side. And watching Torchwood would be a much more pleasurable experience for me if I could like the POV-character, after all, so if you can come up with something that’ll make me see her in a new light, I’m up for it.
I pointed this person to a previous comment in which I mentioned how I see Gwen:
Gwen will never be a favourite character for me. I'm more ambivalent than anything else towards her - what sours her for me is the producers etc's insistence that she's the heart/soul/conscience of the team. Um, no. The others cope differently. Gwen's a bleeding heart; that doesn't make her somehow better than the others. I get the impression from the producers that she's got more moral fibre than the others - she's near-perfect, and keeps the team on track etc... except, if you look at how she acts, she's just as flawed as any of the rest of them, maybe more so (Retconning Rhys is something I'll never be able to explain away). If the producers weren't so insistent that she's a wonderful person - to the extent of putting really awkward lines in the mouths of other characters - I'd probably like her more. When you strip her of her main character status and take away the verbal validation of some of her actions, the fact that those actions are sometimes problematic does come through, doesn't it?
and asked her to feel free to refute it. She replied with this:
uh, this is difficult to explain ...
I think I like her kind of stubborn determination (like in "Random Shoes" or Flat Holm Island), like a "pit bull"-like inspector of Scotland Yard who doesn't care what his superiors think, and I think that that is why Jack invited her to join his team (and not the "heart of the team reason" rubbish RTD likes to tell, 'cause how could Jack have know that in this short amount of time?). I, too, could have slapped her for the reasons you've mentioned, not to forget the silly flirting with Jack. But I kind of explained this for me as "hero-worshipping" ;-)
I think that in series 1 up until Adam in series 2 she was the "most multiple personalities person" of the team - thanks to the scriptwriters (poor Eve Myles) ... But if you see over it what remains through all the scripts is her determination paired with curiosity to get to the root of things, to find the truth and to believe in the good. I don't love her, but I like her ;-)
I began writing a response to her which quickly got… out of hand. It’s long and so I thought I’d post it here instead and turn it into a kind of free-for-all. I know most of my f-list doesn’t follow Torchwood but I hope that those who do will point others in this direction, because I’m really curious to find out how the fandom in general views Gwen.
So, on with my thoughts on Gwen, as they have evolved from my initial response to that commenter:
I do see that kind of dogged determination as one of Gwen's defining traits, so I understand where you're coming from. The thing is, I have that listed as one of her positive and negative traits.
I guess my problem is that she doesn't know when to stop. I love watching/reading law enforcement shows/books; the character type that's always pushing the boundaries is fairly common in them, so I’ve seen numerous variations on the theme.
Let’s briefly talk about The Sentinel, for instance (the TV series, not the movie). Jim and Blair both fit the pushing-boundaries type to some extent, but I’ll just mention Blair here. For those who don’t know, the show’s about a cop (Jim Ellison) who unbeknownst to him has heightened senses. They’re the cause of the migraines etc he’s been having. He meets an anthropologist called Blair Sandburg who’s writing a doctoral thesis on the subject of “sentinels,” people who supposedly have all five senses heightened. Until Jim, Blair’s never found evidence that these people exist, so finding Jim is like finding the “Holy Grail,” as he puts it. Cue detective-ing shenanigans as Jim reluctantly lets Blair tag along to teach him how to keep his senses from overwhelming him.
At the beginning of the show, Jim’s obviously uncomfortable with his abilities, and Blair has to fight him just about every step of the way to get him to use them. Blair does so not just for his paper, but because he realises how difficult it is for Jim to deal with his heightened senses all the time. I really do see at least part of Blair’s motivation as “helping the guy” rather than just “getting data.” So Blair pushes and shoves Jim out of his comfort zone (and this extends into the detective work; Blair’s the one who comes up with new ways of looking at things). But Blair treads a very careful path. He pulls back when it looks like Jim can’t take too much more. When he accidentally steps over that invisible line, he apologises and lets Jim take control. In one episode (The Killers), Blair realises that Jim’s not going to let go of his vendetta against criminal Tommy Juno. He can see from the way Jim’s acting that he’s not going to listen to anything Blair has to say, at least not unless something else stops Jim in his tracks. So he lets Jim do what he wants and Jim gets hauled up for tapping Juno’s phone. Afterwards, Jim says to Blair, “Don’t say it.” Blair responds, “Say what? That you're an arrogant, self-destructive schmuck? I say it to you, I gotta say it to me too. I mean, I went along with you.”
Blair gets it. He knows when to push and when not to. He gets that sometimes whatever he does Jim won’t listen, and he has to let Jim make his own mistakes. And he doesn’t abandon Jim; even knowing that what they’re doing is wrong (he tells Jim to stop but Jim doesn’t listen) he goes along with him, and he stays there as a supportive presence - even though he’s just an observer and can’t actually be held liable, he refuses to let Jim take the heat alone. Jim repays that by being a fairly steadfast friend (the less said about Alex Barnes and TSbyBS the better).
And now, back to Torchwood. Is Gwen like Blair? Um, no. Gwen does fit the pushing-boundaries type (both on a personal and professional level), but unlike Blair, she doesn’t recognise those invisible lines she shouldn’t cross. She doesn’t know how to handle “Keep Out” signs, doesn’t realise that her opinions are not the only valid ones and that she should respect what other people think even if she disagrees. When it comes down to it, she's working in a hierarchy that she needs to have some respect for, and I just don't get the impression that she does. Torchwood's not as regimented as UNIT, of course. They're more "ad-hoc," as Jack puts it, but Jack's still the leader and Gwen still needs to learn how far is too far.
It's all the more significant because Jack's fairly relaxed about being questioned by his team. I think he’s had his own rights and requests ignored one time too many by Torchwood (back in the day) to do the same to his own team. If you have a concern, I think he makes it a point to listen. In Random Shoes, for instance, I get the impression that Jack thinks Gwen’s wasting her time but is willing to humour her because there’s nothing important going on then and they can spare her. So if he puts his foot down on something, it's obvious he has a good reason for it, and that you shouldn't push... but Gwen does so in Adrift and causes a lot more harm than good. It’s not just the team and Jack she hurts by doing so. Even Nikki Bevan says that she wishes Gwen had never brought her to Jonah on Flat Holm. Despite Nikki’s optimism about someday finding Jonah, Jack realised that it would hurt her to see him as he became, and therefore refused to let out the secret. During that team meeting where Tosh and Gwen presented what they’d found, Gwen’s asked straight out what she suggests doing, and she can’t come up with anything useful. Even so, and even though Jack makes it a direct order multiple times, she refuses to let it go. I guess it’s a question of how much you trust your leader - and if you don’t, why are you working for him?
As for the uneven portrayal being a result of varying scriptwriters, I think that that’s there to some degree with all the characters. But with the others, they’re not hugely detracting. With Gwen, though? There are certain things Gwen does that I just can’t explain away. It’s not just a matter of characterisation. Some of her actions are very problematic for me.
I do see her as hero-worshipping Jack too, but I also think she doesn’t see it that way. I see her as believing she really is in love with Jack - “I love Rhys, but not the way I love you,” remember? It’s unfair not only to Rhys but also to Jack (and Ianto). Then there’s the affair with Owen, the rationale for which I never believed. It was obvious that they were attracted to each other before they nearly got eaten by cannibals. Then, at the end of the episode, Gwen talks about how she can’t talk to Rhys about these things and that’s why she’s turned to Owen. Okay, 1) talking =/= sex. You can talk to someone, get things off your chest, without sleeping with them. 2) You’re obviously using it as an excuse to make yourself feel better about acting on your attraction. 3) The cannibals had nothing to do with Torchwood. The police were brought in. It’ll be all over the news - no, really, it’s a village of cannibals, it will be all over the news. Rhys will have heard about it. You can, in fact, talk to him about it.
But I've read and watched unfaithful characters who don't push my buttons the way Gwen does. Her unfaithfulness isn’t the real problem. It’s not even the hypocrisy of her rationalisation, because at least she realises it’s wrong (she admits as such to Tosh, in Greeks Bearing Gifts) and she’s struggling with herself. It’s a kind of moral struggle and I don’t have a problem with depicting Gwen’s struggle with the harshness of the job and paralleling that with her difficulties talking to Rhys.
I do, however, have a problem with how the affair is “resolved.” First, she confesses to her affair. I’m of two minds about that. Some people say that confessing to an affair that’s already ended only hurts the person’s partner. Others say that full honesty is important in a relationship. I can understand both sides, and I’m not sure that either’s better than the other - it all depends on the relationship.
But then she Retcons Rhys.
What exactly is the point of confessing? Oh, wait, she tells us - she wants to be forgiven. Everything about this whole sordid matter is selfish. She has a fling with Owen because she 1) wants to and 2) purportedly can’t talk to Rhys about the job. She breaks off the affair because 1) Owen falls for Diane, 2) is a complete arse when he loses her and 3) basically hurts Gwen’s feelings and makes her realise that he’s not someone who’ll want/love her unconditionally (coughRhyscough). She confesses to Rhys to get his forgiveness but doesn’t want him to be angry/leave her, so she Retcons him. Nothing about this makes sense to me unless I accept selfishness as one of Gwen’s traits. And damn, I don’t really want to, but she does unfortunately make sense that way.
And then Rhys dies at the end of Season One - please don’t get me started on how absolutely ridiculous Gwen was acting (on information from someone she knows is suspicious!) - and Gwen’s reactions I once again find problematic. When Rhys dies, she turns on the team. I’m sorry, what? Okay, I get that you’re sad, angry, upset. I get that you might lash out at whoever’s closest. But… you’re at fault too, Gwen. It’s very Laios and Oedipus, you know, trying to stop something from happening and inadvertently fulfilling the prophecy. But okay, she’s obviously not thinking clearly. I can forgive her that, especially given all the drama in her relationship lately. It’s even worse when it ends on a sour note, right?
Episode goes on (with me twitching most of the way), Abaddon’s defeated, Jack dies, Rhys is alive. And Gwen chooses to sit with Jack instead of Rhys. What happened to all that sadness over Rhys’ death, Gwen? Why aren’t you worried about him anymore? He’s back to being alive, that’s it, who cares now? What gives you, as the new girl, the right to sit with him all the time? Why’s Ianto crying into Jack’s coat instead of sitting there with him too? So many things I have problems with, I don’t even know where to begin.
The thing about Gwen, I think, is that she sees what’s right there in front of her. She doesn’t tend to look forward, to predict the outcome of her words/actions. Rhys is alive, good - let me now sit with Jack and wait till he wakes up. Rhys can wait because he’s obviously okay, and I need to stay with Jack because I feel guilty about turning on him and about letting him go off to get killed. I think she honestly doesn’t realise that the others might like to spend time with Jack, or that Rhys might be feeling neglected (again) or even what really drives her reactions (I do think she fancies herself in love with Jack). It’s a kind of blindness that I think a lot of people are guilty of. It’s not until someone calls us on it that we realise we’re doing it. Gwen’s problem is that even when she’s called on it, she refuses to see it. When Rhys says she’s not taking their relationship seriously, she brushes it off as an overreaction; when Jack reminds her not to let it drift, she… confesses to, then Retcons Rhys. Oh boy.
She clearly hasn’t changed even in Season Two, either. In Meat, she blatantly plays on Jack’s affection for her to avoid having to Retcon Rhys. In Adam, she confesses that she’s in love with Jack. In Something Borrowed, just hours after tearfully telling Rhys that all she wants to do that day is get married to him, she’s trying to kiss Jack (or the Nostrovite, but, y’know). And I’ve already talked about Adrift.
So what does all this mean? It’s a whole bunch of negativity about Gwen. It’s why my ambivalence leans towards dislike. But… I am ambivalent. Because questioning decisions you have a problem with is important. I wish Gwen knew when to stop pushing, and I wish she had a little more faith in Jack. But the fact that she pushes in the first place is important to Jack, I think. It reminds him that despite Torchwood’s authority and despite his very long life, he doesn’t hold all the answers. It reminds him to keep looking for a better solution - Gwen just fails in realising that sometimes there isn’t one. But the fact that she believes there is, is - naïve, but somehow a little endearing. Gwen sees the wonder of some of the things they get to experience, as Torchwood, and maybe she brings a little awe back into an admittedly jaded team.
Writing all this out has made me come to a conclusion about Gwen I hadn’t previously thought about. Gwen reminds me, in many ways, of a child. She’s self-centred the way a child can be, having failed to realise that there is a wider world out there. She’s stubborn like a toddler who doesn’t understand why she needs to go to bed at a certain time, or take a bath, or eat her vegetables. Even if these are things that are good for her, she doesn’t understand that, and so doesn’t like doing them. But Gwen also displays the flip-side of children; she generally looks for the good in others, and has a positive attitude towards life and humanity. Those are good things, and they give me hope that she can mature eventually.
This has turned into a fairly epic essay, so I think I'll stop here. If you follow Torchwood, I'd be interested in hearing what you think of Gwen. Whether you're a fan or can't stand her, I'd like to hear your own reasons; I'm sure you've got a bunch of different reasons from me. And if you like Gwen, I'll just repeat that I'd like to be given reasons to like her, so if you want to refute any of what I said up there, feel free. Just make it convincing!