Diary of a Torchwood Virgin – I finally get my way

Torchwood returned from its first break with a bang. I would be lying if I didn’t say that this was the first guest star I really recognized. Thankfully, they’ve finally taken the Rhys storyline where it should have gone a long time before. Now, if we can just keep everyone else’s love life straight for more than two episodes in a row, I’ll be a happy camper.

“Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang” Series 2, Episode 1

“And look at you, trying so hard to be all grown up. The doctor, with his hands full of blood. The carer, with her oh-so-beating heart. The technician with her cold devices. Which leaves me with the office boy, promoted beyond his measure. All of you lost without your master.” — Blowfish

There was just something about the scene with the old lady, Torchwood, and the blowfish driving the sports car that just screamed Angel to me (which is a favorable comparison, my friends) … even when the blowfish had a British accent, or maybe especially so (believe it or not, I made that note before I saw the special guest star step through the rift). Considering James Marsters, and the cool Star Wars reference (he even got looking over his shoulder as the transmission ended correct) you had to know this episode was going to rock. Then, they played a scene that satisfied Spike/Angel slash fanfic writers everywhere.

“Sleeper” Episode 2

The terror that the human mind of the sleeper agent had to go through when she was realizing who she was had to be horrible. But, other than the potential for this threat to eventually return to Earth, “Sleeper” was a fairly standard filler episode.

“To the Last Man” Episode 3

“Going home wouldn’t fix that. Being here, I’ve seen things I never dreamt I’d see, loved people I never would have know if I’d stayed where I was. And I wouldn’t change that for the world.” – Jack

This was also a filler episode, but much more engaging. Maybe it was seeing Tosh with a mate that wasn’t going to try to kill everyone on the team, or perhaps the reminder that Torchwood’s backstory might be more interesting than any of the team members.

Here we are, 16 episodes in, and I’m still not sure what to think of Tosh. And if I can’t make up my mind about her, then I am truly all kinds of backward about Jack. Who does he love? Maybe it is a by-product of watching all of the episodes so closely together, but it seems that I’ve seen Jack in love with Jack, anger-love with John, and this building thing with Ianto now. The same Ianto, who, by all measure, should yet be over the Lisa (the whole risking one’s life and career isn’t an idle choice).

I don’t think I’ve mentioned it before, but Cardiff Bay is gorgeous. I can’t speak for the rest of the town, but I love the establishing shots of the water.

“Meat” Episode 4

“You’d know that I got out by telling them I wanted a job as a delivery boy! So rather than ‘cock things up,’ I found you a way to get in! But if you can’t handle that, big boy, then you can stuff it!” — Rhys
“This is quote homoerotic.” – Jack

Just in case I had thought that Tosh had gotten over Owen as she seemingly fell for Tommy in the last episode, the writers were kind enough to provide this episode to set the record straight. This (and other similar) bits of discontinuity are one of the few things I dislike about Torchwood.

I spent most of the run of this episode hoping against hope that Rhys wouldn’t be given amnesia pills. I was quite proud of Gwen’s decision to stand up to Jack. At first, I thought actually pocket the pill and not own up to it, but this the much better plan … Of course I’m going to say that “this is a much better plan,” since I’ve been advocating this to happen for weeks … Now just to see if I was right about it being the correct way to go.

You can check out previous entries in my Torchwood Virgin Diary here.

Clacked by Ivey West
on Jun 23, 2011 @ 13:00 EST5EDT