Review: Torchwood S2 04 Meat
Or Torchwood's Debt to Irving Berlin
I'm beginning to see some patterns here. In the grand old Doctor Who tradition, this is the fourth episode out of four where we've had a classic plot from the Giant Book of Classic TV and Film Plots. The first was "conning the con man", the second was "undercover sleeper agent", the third was "fix the time paradox", and the fourth starts out as a standard detective story that morphs into a standard "sneak into the enemy fortress and take it from the inside" story. (I'm not dissing classic plots. They're classic for a reason. They work.)
It's the fourth episode out of four where the plot has only served as an prop to hang the character interactions on, which have been of a very high caliber thanks to the dialouge and the acting.
And it's the third episode out of four where Owen pulls out the solution (in most cases literally) that saves everybody at the last minute.
The recurring theme of "humans are the worst monsters of all" was picked up again. It was introduced into the New Whoniverse in The Christmas Invasion and appeared in Torchwood before in Countrycide and Combat. In some ways this story was the more disturbing than Countrycide. You could distance yourself from the horror of Countrycide by saying that cannibalism was unlikely to occur on that scale, with that many people involved. But no such distance was possible in Meat, where it was entirely believable that a handful of humans with more greed than compassion would butcher an alien for profit. It's no different butchering a space whale than butchering a real whale, another potentially sentient creature. In addition, you actually got to see the butchering go down, which most people find unappetizing.
The "Home" theme showed up again in the form of "You can't go home again." This turned out to be true not just for the space whale but also for Jack. He came back wanting everything to be the way it was before he left, with only himself having changed. But real life isn't like that. First Ianto informed him that they weren't going back to what they had before, and here Gwen does the same in no uncertain terms. But more on that later.
First, let's talk about Rhys. This was the third episde in a row where a guest star/supporting character has owned the story. While Rhys has to share the spotlight with Gwen, most of the attention stays on him.
Rhys is one of those characters Russell T. Davies loves, and one of the main reasons so many people love Russell T. Davies. He's a common man, a "nobody", but like many real common people he's endowed with courage, compassion, intelligence, and sensitivity just waiting for the right opportunity to blossum. Davies' favorite characters are taken straight out of 1940s World War II movies with their "common soldier heroes" and given a modern makeover. His writing vibrates to Aaron Copeland's Fanfare for the Common Man and to Irving Berlin musicals. For all his coarse, 21st Century vocabulary Rhys could have stepped straight out of a British revision of Yankee Doodle Dandy.
It's not just the costumes and the sets that are "retro" in Torchwood. It's the people as well.
And this is why Jack Harkness works so well in Davies productions and wouldn't work in other places. He's a 1920s - 1940s larger-than-life hero, but he's not totally out of context in RTD's 21st Century. He's got Ianto as the 1940s secretary, Owen as the soldier-medic who's spent far too much time on the front lines, and he's surrounded by 1940s-style common-man heroes. At the end of the day he's not out of place, he's completely at home.
So it's not just that humans are the worst monsters of all. It's humans who are the greatest heroes of all. The human spirit is capable of being both. Once again, this comes straight out of World War II movies, which need no monsters worse than the human commanders on the other side.
It can't be coincidence that Cathy Treganna also wrote Out of Time and Captain Jack Harkness, with 1950s and 1940s characters respectively.
(What's funny is that even the fighting style Torchwood uses pays homage to World War II. Jack, John, and Ianto all use what appears to be an updated form of Close Quarter Combat, the hybrid hand-to-hand combat technique taught to British and American soldiers in the 1940s. What's funnier is that I had Jack teach it to Ianto in a fic I posted 15 months ago.)
Speaking of old fashioned-type characters, there's Ianto and his growing awesomeness. I have this urge to find all the people who insisted he should have been executed or retconned at the end of Cyberwoman and dance on their heads, crying, "See, see, see! This is why Jack let him stay! This is the potential he saw then starting to awaken!" But since I posted a fic about that over a year ago, I think I'll just smirk instead.
Ianto has been gearing up for the "Protector" role since Cyberwoman, where he showed the same loyalty, protectiveness, coolness and intelligence in nascent form. You don't find potential like that every day, and you don't waste it when you do find it. You cultivate it. Now that he's got more experience, more training, more confidence, and better focus, he's really starting to fill out into the "Protector" role.
And that's good, because "Protector of the Team" is the one role Jack can't play in Torchwood. He can play it in the Tardis, but here he has to be the Leader who sends people into danger. He can't turn around and protect them from that danger at the same time.
One of the more interesting Jack/Ianto moments in the story is what doesn't happen in the boardroom scene. When Jack questions whether Gwen and Rhys can work with their beloved in a dangerous and potentially combative situation without getting distracted, the two exchange looks which make it very clear that they wonder the same thing. At the same time Jack and Ianto never look at each other, even though the kiss last episode and the frequently exchanged glances and smiles in this episode hint very strongly that they are back together again. (I would say "make it clear" but someone would call me on their not having a bedroom scene yet.) And during the combat scene there isn't a moment of doubt or hesitation on the part of either of them. Either they don't have the same level of concern for each other that Gwen and Rhys share (which I doubt) or they are very confident in each other's abilities.
And that brings us to the relationships.
The first one is Torchwood Cardiff/the rest of the world. This episode is one where you acutely feel how tiny Torchwood has become. They really needed a Security unit or two for backup. Pity Yvonne Hartman got all of them butchered at Canary Wharf. It's time to put some serious work into replacing them.
It's also tme to start planning for what is going to happen when, not if, when Torchwood's cover is blown. If "the 21st Century is when everything changes'' then that is one of the inevitable changes that is going to happen sooner or later. They won't always be able to rely on retcon and a good cleanup. Is Torchwood ready for it?
Next comes Tosh/Owen. Some people have complained that they felt their characterizations had "slipped" in this episode, but I thought Tosh and Owen were very much in character. It's true that Tosh has more relationships under her belt now, but it's also true that both Mary and Tommy initiated those relationships. Tosh was the passive one. Now that she has to initiate a relationship with Owen, she's all tongue-tied and doesn't know how.
It's also true that Owen is more sensitive these days. But for all his talk of "wanting to settle down" he's still a scared rabbit when it comes to having an emotional relationship with someone else. His early relationships were all strictly carnal. The only reason he fell in love with Dian was because she snuck in under his radar. Now that he has the opportunity to have another emotional relationship, he's gotten scared again. I imagine he's hiding under the noble-sounding sentiment of "not wanting to hurt Tosh." Last episode he saw that she was willing to endure great pain to be with someone she loved even if she could only be with him for one day, and I think he is terrified of the potential hurt that loving him could cause her.
Then there's Gwen and her various relationships.
This episode goes to great lengths to show that Gwen and Rhys love each other, and that Gwen believes in Rhys as deeply as she has already been shown to believe in Jack. That comes through in Gwen and Rhys' arguments as well as it does their tender moments, all of which are brilliantly played. But what about Jack/Gwen?
My husband, who doesn't ship anybody, noticed that Jack was not jealous of Rhys because Rhys had Gwen. Jack was jealous of Gwen because Gwen had Rhys and all that Rhys represents. Not in a carnal way (Minds out of gutter, folks. Please, please, please don't write Jack/Rhys!) but in an emotional way.
Gwen and Jack remind me of teenage siblings who were inseparable when they were younger but who have just discovered dating. All of a sudden one of them doesn't want to hang around the other all the time anymore, and the other's feelings get hurt. And because they used to be inseparable, have incredibly strong feelings for each other, and are always going to remain best friends, they now find having to deal with the fact that the other has romantic feelings for someone else very hard, and they overreact to that change. The look of hurt on Jack's face as he watched Gwen leave with Rhys did not seem to be as much "thwarted lover" to me as it did "hurt and sulky teenager".
Irving Berlin nailed it with:
God help the mister
Who comes between me and my sister.
And God help the sister
Who comes between me and my man!
And that brings us to the Jack/Rhys relationship. It's interesting that even though he admits he's jealous of Jack's good looks and the amount of time Jack spends with Gwen, Rhys is unfailingly nice to Jack. The one exception to this is when Jack lashed out at Rhys for following them. Rhys stands his ground and calls Jack on it, then when Jack backs down he goes smoothly back to being nice. One of my favorite scenes is Rhys charming Jack in the truck. We always get Jack charming someone else, so it was nice to see the roles reversed for once.
At that's good, because at the end of the day it's not just Gwen who needs Rhys. Jack needs Rhys as well. Gwen can never again be the wide-eyed innocent dazzled by the wonder that is their job, but Rhys can. Gwen can never again demonstrate the resilience, intelligence, courage, and perspective of the common man; but Rhys can. Most importantly, when Jack clings to Gwen to keep him grounded, to keep him from going off the deep end, he's in danger of pulling her over the edge with him. It's Rhys who holds on to Gwen and keeps her from falling, which ultimately makes Rhys one of the key anchors keeping Jack human. And Jack is smart enough to know that even if he hates to admit it.
It's not something that Ianto can do as well for Jack right now as Gwen can. Ianto's fortes are loyalty and effectiveness, not perspective. Jack needs both. Maybe someday Ianto will provide both, but that relationship is still developing. And speaking as someone who's been happily married for 19 1/2 years, even if your partner is your One True Love and Best Friend Forever, you need other good friends around you, even if it's only to gripe about your respective True Loves when they drive you crazy.
When Ianto watches Jack and Gwen argue in front of the Team, he doesn't look the least bit as if he feels his relationship with Jack is threatened in any way. He looks like a boyfriend watching siblings quarrel heatedly and deciding it would be best if he didn't step onto that mine field.
But while Jack and Ianto display a new-found comfort with each other in this episode that was missing both earlier in this season and missing in all but the very end of End of Days (Remember the Significant Glances in Combat? No? That's because there weren't any.), they are not yet comfortable enough to let the others in on the change in their relationship. This is the same pattern they showed in the first season, but here they are supposed to be working on a deeper and more meaningful relationship. Not to say that private relationships can't be deep and meaningful, but they are in danger of falling into the same trap they were in at the end of the first season. And any meaningful relationship eventually has to go public.
Still, it's noteworthy that Jack not only accepts Ianto's right to slap him down in public, he turns to Ianto to ask if he deserves slapping down in public. He doesn't do this with Gwen, but with Ianto. I watched that scene thinking, "That is such a 'spouse' thing to do!"
I don't usually mention production values because they're not that important to me. I don't care if the special effects are lousy as long as the story is good, hence my love for Blake's 7. But the Mill did a far better job with Rhys and Gwen's "descent into the Hub" than they did with Jack and John's "descent into the Hub". As for the space whale -- um, can I just say I'd rather watch a science fiction thriller with good kissing and lousy special effects than one with lousy kissing and good special effects?
ETA: The excellent
tanarian makes the excellent point that a living creature constantly tortured but unable to die must have reminded Jack of his experience at the hands of the Master.