I am totally committed to reading too much into things
Surprise, more about Torchwood. It's follow-up to my last post concerning Captain Jack. I do talk about Ianto this time, plus it has spoilers for Children of Earth (like anything doesn't.)
Last time I talked about how I interpreted Jack's story in Children of Earth. I said that learning that he handed over the kids in 1965 was learning that Jack hasn't actually succeeded at being a hero. Instead, I guess, he's been an arrogant screw-up who got other people killed more often than not. The fact was he was redeemed at the end, when he sacrificed his grandson to save the children of Earth, which is kind of nice for him, but what did this revelation about his character say about the other characters who were part of Jack's Torchwood?
I took some time to think back over the past series in light of this information, and this is what I came up with, for what it's worth.
If the Torchwood team believed that Captain Jack was a hero, then I guess it says they were suckers. I think all of us who have seen the first two series of Torchwood can recall a time when Torchwood caused more harm than good, but had we all realized that was just about every episode, ever?
Highlights:
- Suzie's insanity killed a total of six people.
- On her first day, Gwen causes 12 deaths by tossing a spanner. OR, perhaps only the first death was her fault. It was Jack who let the sex-alien-possessed girl go free in exchange for the safe return of his Doctor hand. The other 11 murders took place after that.
- Ianto's cyber-girlfriend Lisa killed two people.
- Torchwood failed to prevent John Ellis and Diane Holmes from comitting suicide (arguably, this is what Diane does)
- Jack stood back and let a man commit suicide-by-weevil, instead of intervening.
The near world-ending disaster averted at the end of series one was entirely caused by Torchwood. - It could even be said that all the unpleasant occurences in the last few episodes of Doctor Who's third were Jack's fault as well, since it doesn't seem the TARDIS would have taken the Doctor and Martha to the end of the universe if it wasn't for Jack.
- Torchwood activated some alien sleeper agents, causing a few deaths, including that of a baby. We could give them some credit for averting a major nuclear disaster, but I'm afraid it wouldn't mean much with the general theme we have going here!
- Remember the alien meat-whale? That thing might still have been alive in that fictional world even now, if Torchwood hadn't made a mess of things. (I just want to point out to everyone who thinks that hostage situation was Gwen's fault that it was Jack's fault. He's the one who started tazering workers before the van was loaded and Rhys could get away. JackFAIL or plotFAIL? You tell me.)
- Twelve people died because Jack brought Owen back to life.
- Jack's past returned to Cardiff and devastated the city, leaving Owen and Tosh dead trying to save it.
"...Ianto, Owen, Tosh, Suzie... all of because of me."
Everyone who was part of Jack's Torchwood is now dead, except for Gwen. Gwen is the only one of them who didn't buy into Torchwood so completely as to give up her whole life to it. Might this be more than a coincidence?
Many, many fans have been questioning Ianto's death in Children of Earth. It's been said, repeatedly, that Ianto had to die. The main reason being given is: so that Jack would be broken, so he'd do what he had to do, etc.
No-one has said that Ianto had to die for the same reason everyone else in Torchwood had to die. Like, say because he was part of Jack's Torchwood and Jack's Torchwood was misguided and wrong and ultimately doomed. Yet, I wonder if that wasn't the case.
Was Torchwood less the cheesy-but-fun sci-fi-lite soap opera it first appeared, and more of a morality tale in disguise, one whose moral was something like: When deciding to give your allegiance to a handsome charismatic leader, be discriminating?
I don't know. As a somewhat devoted fan this all makes me uncomfortable, because like Suzie, and Owen, and Tosh and Ianto, I believed in Torchwood, too. Should I have realized all along that Torchwood weren't heroes? As viewers, aren't we conditioned to ignore a bit of collateral damage in our TV? Did the show use that against its audience, so that we'd overlook what Torchwood actually did and just listen to what they were saying?
Children of Earth cheezed off a lot of long-time fans, for various reasons, and many people have decided they would not watch another series of Torchwood. Did the existing fans have to go for the same reasons the Torchwood team had to die?
Will the next series feature Gwen and the redeemed Jack making a new, better Torchwood, and saving the world like proper heroes?
Should I sell my Torchwood novels on eBay, or just burn them on a bonfire, or perhaps make them into a memorial to remind me not to be fooled by television? LOL. I have never felt vaguely complicit in the misdeeds of fictional characters before! Well done, Torchwood.