Yeah so that was a really rough finale. The first 3 hours were so great! then 4 was so sad :( and 5 was just really rough emotionally. All the soldiers coming for the children with the screaming mothers, that was hard to see. Also Jack sacrificing his grandson, predictable and rational but still difficult. (Also how did everyone know that the children screaming was a *good* thing?) I'm not sure how I feel about it never being made public.
How are they going to come back from this? Can Gwen and Rys really work for Torchwood with a baby? (I can see Rys as a stay at home dad, and Gwen working, but the stakes for risking her/their lives are so much higher.
Massive points for acting, I thought the Frobischer character was amazingly well done, also Bridget (go her at the end!), and Alice. Oh Alice. D. thinks govt-assassin-without-a-name would be a good Torchwood leader, he'd like to see her in some power struggles with Jack.
It did feel a lot like children as possessions. Even the Frobischer character, we understand how he is backed into a corner and can see no escape from duty but death, but what about *telling your wife* and trying to come up with some alternate solution. Are you so wedded to the secrecy act (or whatever it's called) that you can't entertain any notion outside of your own head? Accept assistance from anyone? What about some creative thinking? That's what made Ianto's sister and BIL so fantastic, working as a team in a desperate attempt to save the neighborhood children.
Even Jack sacrificing Steven. We see this as Jack's penance for giving up the 12 children in 1965, and as Alice's punishment for her immortal father (as if she hadn't been punished enough). But Steven is a person in his own right, one Jack didn't really have the right to sacrifice. It's one thing if you're the doctor and people kill themselves for you/the world, but another to send someone else to die, especially when they don't know what's happening. (Not that there was a better solution, and Jack taking on that responsibility was the point, I get it, but it could have been underscored that Steven's an individual and not just a lamb that everyone loves and is being sent for slaughter.)
I also thought the solutions were interesting. When Jack and Ianto confronted the 456 Jack gave a very Doctor-Who type speech. And I think in Doctor Who that might have worked, but here (as in Midnight) the Doctor's words are impotent. Here it's not about internal conventions, or great personal power wielded by the Time Lord, but technology, creativity, and personal sacrifice. Those three things are Torchwood's main weapons (usually in that order) and their use is what distinguishes Torchwood, an human institution, from the Dr. Who and the TARDIS.
Now the Doctor and Jack are basically in the same place emotionally (RTD are you repeating yourself?). Both alone, guilty and broken for what they have done, who they have sacrificed. Jack's off to find a new life, and I read somewhere that this year the Doctor won't have a constant companion, but a new one each episode. He, and now Jack, are unmoored.
Which is sad because Dr. Who and Torchwood are for me places to go to for happiness, for triumph, for silly. I have lots of other sources of angst (SPN, BSG even though its over, etc.) I'm okay with some sad, but I need a little levity. As![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
ellen_fremedon said, Moffat, bring on the sparkly kittens!
How are they going to come back from this? Can Gwen and Rys really work for Torchwood with a baby? (I can see Rys as a stay at home dad, and Gwen working, but the stakes for risking her/their lives are so much higher.
Massive points for acting, I thought the Frobischer character was amazingly well done, also Bridget (go her at the end!), and Alice. Oh Alice. D. thinks govt-assassin-without-a-name would be a good Torchwood leader, he'd like to see her in some power struggles with Jack.
It did feel a lot like children as possessions. Even the Frobischer character, we understand how he is backed into a corner and can see no escape from duty but death, but what about *telling your wife* and trying to come up with some alternate solution. Are you so wedded to the secrecy act (or whatever it's called) that you can't entertain any notion outside of your own head? Accept assistance from anyone? What about some creative thinking? That's what made Ianto's sister and BIL so fantastic, working as a team in a desperate attempt to save the neighborhood children.
Even Jack sacrificing Steven. We see this as Jack's penance for giving up the 12 children in 1965, and as Alice's punishment for her immortal father (as if she hadn't been punished enough). But Steven is a person in his own right, one Jack didn't really have the right to sacrifice. It's one thing if you're the doctor and people kill themselves for you/the world, but another to send someone else to die, especially when they don't know what's happening. (Not that there was a better solution, and Jack taking on that responsibility was the point, I get it, but it could have been underscored that Steven's an individual and not just a lamb that everyone loves and is being sent for slaughter.)
I also thought the solutions were interesting. When Jack and Ianto confronted the 456 Jack gave a very Doctor-Who type speech. And I think in Doctor Who that might have worked, but here (as in Midnight) the Doctor's words are impotent. Here it's not about internal conventions, or great personal power wielded by the Time Lord, but technology, creativity, and personal sacrifice. Those three things are Torchwood's main weapons (usually in that order) and their use is what distinguishes Torchwood, an human institution, from the Dr. Who and the TARDIS.
Now the Doctor and Jack are basically in the same place emotionally (RTD are you repeating yourself?). Both alone, guilty and broken for what they have done, who they have sacrificed. Jack's off to find a new life, and I read somewhere that this year the Doctor won't have a constant companion, but a new one each episode. He, and now Jack, are unmoored.
Which is sad because Dr. Who and Torchwood are for me places to go to for happiness, for triumph, for silly. I have lots of other sources of angst (SPN, BSG even though its over, etc.) I'm okay with some sad, but I need a little levity. As
ellen_fremedon said, Moffat, bring on the sparkly kittens!