Review: Torchwood S2 09 Something Borrowed
Now that was a Proper Superhero Wedding. How come Torchwood feels so much more like a well-done superhero comic book than Heroes?
(Probably because Torchwood doesn't take itself too seriously and keeps the angst to a manageable level.)
Bride in Peril - check. Major Bad Guys Crash the Wedding - check. Good Guys Counter-Crash the Wedding - check. Secret Identities Revealed to Unsuspecting Family Member(s) - check. "Stop the Wedding!" - check. Family Member(s) Held Hostage - check. Cataclysmic Brawl in the Aisle - close enough. Least Powerful Guy Saves the Bride - check.
Bonus Points for Life-Threatening Pregnancy. Double Bonus Points for Life-Threatening Alien Pregnancy. Sitcom Bonus Points for Feuding Mothers-in-Law and Obnoxious Best Man. Classical Bonus Points for Unwed Mother Going Into Labor in the Stables.
True Loves Conquers All - Check and Mate.
For the first time my husband and I have to award Torchwood Xenobiology points. The Nostrovore's reproductive cycle was actually very realistic. It beat their usual "Alien Hoodoo" by miles.
The only plot hole was the ballistics. A shell that could blow her up like that should have done some damage to Rhys as well, but shock waves are so not a Whoniverse strong point.
But nit-picking aside, what did I think of the story? I thought it was the funniest, fluffiest, sweetest Torchwood episode ever.
On the morning of her wedding, Gwen finds that the nasty alien who bit her the night before has given her a surprise -- an instant, nearly full term pregnancy. Her discovery has to be the funniest pregnancy reveal of all time. Kudos to Eve Myles for pulling it off.
Gwen consults with Jack and Owen. She decides not to follow Torchwood procedure and report to the Hub for a few days of intense medical care. No, she's going to get married first, untreated. Jack, Owen, and later Rhys think this is a very bad idea, but Gwen throws screaming fits to get her way. I would put that down to nerves and pregnancy hormones, but this is Gwen we're talking about. I love that Torchwood has an official procedure in place for unintended alien pregnancies. That is just so - them.
One of the reasons weddings take place in special places on "sacred ground" (even secular weddings) is because they serve as a neutral territory on which diverse peoples can come together in reasonable peace. Usually those peoples are only different families, but in this case it includes Torchwood and the "normal" world. It takes sacred ground and ritual ceremonies to survive the shock from those two cultures colliding.
And that is the real reason Gwen is throwing hissy fits to have her wedding today instead of sensibly getting her medical condition seen to and staying safe from the fetus' deadly mother. Gwen wants to live in both Torchwood's world and the "normal' world, and her wedding to Rhys represents her attempt to hang on to her "normal" life with both hands. She simply can't let Torchwood take that bit of the "normal" world away from her, no matter how sensible it is or how many people the fetus' mother kills in the process. Although she eventually vacillates from this hardline position, in the matter of some brides, many pregnant women, and everyone who's ever had a second thought about a bad idea.
In the meantime, Rhys provides an excellent example of the best that normalcy can offer, with his courage, steadfastness, and good sense.
Meanwhile Gwen's colleagues are having enough trouble dealing with their own personal lives. Owen tries to disguise his discomfort with weddings (and probably other family events) with his work and his undead status, but eventually goes along to help save Gwen and gets caught up enough in the ceremony to ask Tosh for a dance. Tosh is proud of Gwen for standing up for her life, but wonders if her tentative relationship with Owen will ever reach the same point -- "til death does us part" sounds like a bad joke to her when one partner is already a walking corpse. (Although not having a traditional Christian service eliminates that problem.) Ianto is slowly coming out of the closet and inching his and Jack's relationship out into the public. Meanwhile Gwen's wedding is pushing all sorts of buttons for Jack involving his immortality and 160 years worth of baggage.
If S1 Jack was too distant from his team, S2 Jack is too clingy. It's a logical pendulum-swing reaction considering what Jack went through on the Valiant, but it will be nice to see him get past this issue. It must be said that his team is handling his clinginess very well. No one has thrown a major bitch-fit about it, even though both Gwen and Owen have cause. Not to say that both Gwen and Owen haven't yelled at him when his clinginess has caused them problems, but they've kept the yelling within reasonable levels. And Ianto shows no sign of considering Jack's clinginess to Gwen or Owen as a threat to his own relationship with Jack. I agree with him. As I've said before, I don't think Jack is jealous of Rhys for having Gwen. I think Jack is jealous of Gwen for having Rhys and the "normal" life he represents, a life that immortality denied Jack long before he joined Torchwood. This is corroborated at the end of the episode, when he comes home to gaze pensively at a century-old picture of his own wedding.
There are many wonders that Torchwood can show a person, but there's one thing it can't give anyone, and that's normalcy. Gwen values normalcy and is willing to fight for it. She's not the only one. Jack values normalcy as well, even though he can never have it; and he has shown over and over again that he is willing to fight for Gwen's right to have it, even against his own better judgment. That's why he allows her to go through with the wedding instead of putting his foot down, even though it means a public gun battle with an alien and retconning the reception.
That is also why Jack offers the couple the only gift he and Torchwood can give them, the Illusion of Normalcy, in the form of drugged champagne so that they will only remember happiness about their wedding day. It isn’t real normalcy, since that is totally outside of Jack’s power to give. It’s only the illusion, and they wisely choose the truth instead.
But what about Jack and Ianto? There was some significant Jack and Ianto in this episode, with them stepping out in public for the first time. The way it was done reinforced an impression I've had since the latter part of S1, that Ianto was entering a relationship with Jack not as a single person coming together with another single person, but as a stepmother joining a dysfunctional family. That's a very different dynamic, and it seems more in tune with what we're seeing on the screen. I'm putting that analysis in a separate post which should be up in a day or so.
Coming soon: Part 2 - Torchwood as a Dysfunctional Stepfamily: Jack and Ianto's Relationship Through S2 09
Already here: Part 3 - My Take on Jack and Ianto's Realtionship as of S2 09
(Probably because Torchwood doesn't take itself too seriously and keeps the angst to a manageable level.)
Bride in Peril - check. Major Bad Guys Crash the Wedding - check. Good Guys Counter-Crash the Wedding - check. Secret Identities Revealed to Unsuspecting Family Member(s) - check. "Stop the Wedding!" - check. Family Member(s) Held Hostage - check. Cataclysmic Brawl in the Aisle - close enough. Least Powerful Guy Saves the Bride - check.
Bonus Points for Life-Threatening Pregnancy. Double Bonus Points for Life-Threatening Alien Pregnancy. Sitcom Bonus Points for Feuding Mothers-in-Law and Obnoxious Best Man. Classical Bonus Points for Unwed Mother Going Into Labor in the Stables.
True Loves Conquers All - Check and Mate.
For the first time my husband and I have to award Torchwood Xenobiology points. The Nostrovore's reproductive cycle was actually very realistic. It beat their usual "Alien Hoodoo" by miles.
The only plot hole was the ballistics. A shell that could blow her up like that should have done some damage to Rhys as well, but shock waves are so not a Whoniverse strong point.
But nit-picking aside, what did I think of the story? I thought it was the funniest, fluffiest, sweetest Torchwood episode ever.
On the morning of her wedding, Gwen finds that the nasty alien who bit her the night before has given her a surprise -- an instant, nearly full term pregnancy. Her discovery has to be the funniest pregnancy reveal of all time. Kudos to Eve Myles for pulling it off.
Gwen consults with Jack and Owen. She decides not to follow Torchwood procedure and report to the Hub for a few days of intense medical care. No, she's going to get married first, untreated. Jack, Owen, and later Rhys think this is a very bad idea, but Gwen throws screaming fits to get her way. I would put that down to nerves and pregnancy hormones, but this is Gwen we're talking about. I love that Torchwood has an official procedure in place for unintended alien pregnancies. That is just so - them.
One of the reasons weddings take place in special places on "sacred ground" (even secular weddings) is because they serve as a neutral territory on which diverse peoples can come together in reasonable peace. Usually those peoples are only different families, but in this case it includes Torchwood and the "normal" world. It takes sacred ground and ritual ceremonies to survive the shock from those two cultures colliding.
And that is the real reason Gwen is throwing hissy fits to have her wedding today instead of sensibly getting her medical condition seen to and staying safe from the fetus' deadly mother. Gwen wants to live in both Torchwood's world and the "normal' world, and her wedding to Rhys represents her attempt to hang on to her "normal" life with both hands. She simply can't let Torchwood take that bit of the "normal" world away from her, no matter how sensible it is or how many people the fetus' mother kills in the process. Although she eventually vacillates from this hardline position, in the matter of some brides, many pregnant women, and everyone who's ever had a second thought about a bad idea.
In the meantime, Rhys provides an excellent example of the best that normalcy can offer, with his courage, steadfastness, and good sense.
Meanwhile Gwen's colleagues are having enough trouble dealing with their own personal lives. Owen tries to disguise his discomfort with weddings (and probably other family events) with his work and his undead status, but eventually goes along to help save Gwen and gets caught up enough in the ceremony to ask Tosh for a dance. Tosh is proud of Gwen for standing up for her life, but wonders if her tentative relationship with Owen will ever reach the same point -- "til death does us part" sounds like a bad joke to her when one partner is already a walking corpse. (Although not having a traditional Christian service eliminates that problem.) Ianto is slowly coming out of the closet and inching his and Jack's relationship out into the public. Meanwhile Gwen's wedding is pushing all sorts of buttons for Jack involving his immortality and 160 years worth of baggage.
If S1 Jack was too distant from his team, S2 Jack is too clingy. It's a logical pendulum-swing reaction considering what Jack went through on the Valiant, but it will be nice to see him get past this issue. It must be said that his team is handling his clinginess very well. No one has thrown a major bitch-fit about it, even though both Gwen and Owen have cause. Not to say that both Gwen and Owen haven't yelled at him when his clinginess has caused them problems, but they've kept the yelling within reasonable levels. And Ianto shows no sign of considering Jack's clinginess to Gwen or Owen as a threat to his own relationship with Jack. I agree with him. As I've said before, I don't think Jack is jealous of Rhys for having Gwen. I think Jack is jealous of Gwen for having Rhys and the "normal" life he represents, a life that immortality denied Jack long before he joined Torchwood. This is corroborated at the end of the episode, when he comes home to gaze pensively at a century-old picture of his own wedding.
There are many wonders that Torchwood can show a person, but there's one thing it can't give anyone, and that's normalcy. Gwen values normalcy and is willing to fight for it. She's not the only one. Jack values normalcy as well, even though he can never have it; and he has shown over and over again that he is willing to fight for Gwen's right to have it, even against his own better judgment. That's why he allows her to go through with the wedding instead of putting his foot down, even though it means a public gun battle with an alien and retconning the reception.
That is also why Jack offers the couple the only gift he and Torchwood can give them, the Illusion of Normalcy, in the form of drugged champagne so that they will only remember happiness about their wedding day. It isn’t real normalcy, since that is totally outside of Jack’s power to give. It’s only the illusion, and they wisely choose the truth instead.
But what about Jack and Ianto? There was some significant Jack and Ianto in this episode, with them stepping out in public for the first time. The way it was done reinforced an impression I've had since the latter part of S1, that Ianto was entering a relationship with Jack not as a single person coming together with another single person, but as a stepmother joining a dysfunctional family. That's a very different dynamic, and it seems more in tune with what we're seeing on the screen. I'm putting that analysis in a separate post which should be up in a day or so.
Coming soon: Part 2 - Torchwood as a Dysfunctional Stepfamily: Jack and Ianto's Relationship Through S2 09
Already here: Part 3 - My Take on Jack and Ianto's Realtionship as of S2 09