Re: Torchwood and the new new new Who

[wildcard_47]

Oh. My. God!

First, let’s talk Torchwood. I was genuinely surprised by how good an episode this was. Compared with last year’s finale, it was better by leaps and bounds. There was better writing, better character flow…..everything just worked.

 

Some things were less stellar than others. For example, the Grey storyline….I liked it, but I never quite understood what was going on. The whole 'my brother is alive and hates me' was fine, but questions such as ‘how did he turn into the ultimate evil?’ were still present in the back of my mind. I also wondered how Grey had gotten the master plan together to absolutely destroy Jack. Was he a Time Agent also? Was he just mooching off of Captain John’s resources via the blackmail deal? Also -- what the heck's going on with Captain John? Is he just going to stay and work at Torchwood now? All, 'sorry I helped Grey blackmail you?' Strange.

 

Additionally, I was a little annoyed by how much Jack seemed to need his brother’s absolution. I know why he wanted it, and why it was such a desparate issue for him, but honestly, after the whole ‘Grey hates you so much he stabbed you to death and then buried you alive for an entire millenia’ event…..you’d think Jack would have realized that logically, forgiveness was not in the cards. I did feel renewed pity for Jack, though, considering that he had to lose his brother all over again….knowing that his brother hated him….knowing that he, Jack, was the one to kill him. Again. Sigh.

 

One of my other pet peeves with this ep was that there wasn’t really much resolution as far as the ‘Cardiff got all blown up’ plot. Suddenly half the city was destroyed….and suddenly, nobody in Torchwood really cares anymore? Magically, everything got handled? It all ended just like that, and we as the audience got zero closure.

 

However, besides that, the rest of the episode was fantastic. This was one of the few TW episodes where the character arcs really shone. I wanted to cry my eyes out when Tosh (who got shot by Grey) and Owen (who was trapped inside of a nuclear power plant....while it was going into meltdown) were exchanging their final words over the comms (and no – disappointingly -- those did not include ‘I love yous’ of any shape or form.) Their exchange was so poignant, and so real. Very right for those characters. Plus, I love that Rhys was finally involved in the events, to an extent that he finally understands what Gwen goes through, every day she goes into work.

 

I'm sad that Tosh died. Just when I was beginning to like her, too….because she’d acquired a personality and wasn’t Robot!Tosh anymore. Honestly, I’d expected Owen to die for most of this season, especially after the ‘he’s dead-but-alive’ phenomena. It was just so sad, though, that he had to be trapped arbitrarily inside of a nuclear power plant. He didn’t get to die on his own terms, which was the worst part of it all.

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Now – on to the Who! 

The episode arc in itself was meh, really. ‘Evil alien Supernanny creates diet pills. Diet pills are consumed by humans who act as surrogates for aliens, which are made out of the person’s extra stored fat. If aliens get too agitated, they absorb human entirely, not just fat, and person dies.’ Whatever. Yawn. They’re not even scary aliens, just little blobs. Kind of like ‘Ditto’, from Pokemon (oh yes, that reference just happened), only not pink.

 

However, I continue to love Donna. She just makes me giggle; I love her snark. There was a scene entirely done through pantomiming and lip-reading, which was probably my favorite of the episode. Also a favorite scene was seeing her load of luggage….about ten suitcases and a hatbox…being carried into the Tardis. Ha! Donna’s family has promise, too; they’re not as irritating or flatly characterized as the Joneses. Though, her mother (Sylvia) is quite a nag. I would like to see a little more of them in the future episodes.

 

Now – on to the part that absolutely confuses and delights me. During the ep, Donna has swiped her mum’s car in order to get to ‘Adipose Industries’. So, before leaving with the Doctor, she has to leave her mum’s car keys somewhere relatively easy to find. She puts them in a bin (trash can) near to where the car is parked. Sylvia knows that they are in a nearby bin, but Donna still wants to make sure that they are found easily. Quickly, she runs up to a nearby stranger -- a woman – and asks her to keep a lookout for Sylvia and to point her to the correct bin once she arrives. After Donna runs off, the strange woman turns around, and it’s ROSE! I didn’t even recognize her at first ….it was so surreal.

 

However, it’s important to note that Rose didn’t seem to respond to any of the conversation. Also, about four seconds after she turns around, she starts to walk away and just disappears into thin air. This makes me wonder all kinds of things. Are the parallel universes merging together because of some weird Rift energy? Has the Doctor crossed a timeline which triggered a shift between the worlds? Is Rose dead, or a ghost?

 

Like I said, I have absolutely no idea what’s going on with that. But either way, it looks like Rose will be back very soon! And I cannot wait!!!!!

 

Next week: “You forgot to set your alarm clock. It’s Volcano Day!” 

Awesome.