The Wonderful Future

Since it's safely been almost a week since I've seen it, and since I have continued in a condition generally termed 'squee' since I did, I thought it was about time to sort through my reactions to the episode.

SPOILERS!

As a whole, I thought the episode lived up to my excessive anticipation. The creators promised to fix the problems of the first season, and they delivered. From a purely narrative perspective, the new series flowed much better. Leaving that, I'd like to get my one issue with the new series off my chest before I embark on the praising. This would be, unsurprisingly, the character of Gwen.

My main problem with the character of Gwen is the incongruency between what we (the audience) are supposed to think of her and what her character actually comes across as. From the beginning of the first episode, Gwen is supposedly established as the 'heart' of the team. This is only reinforced by the Exposition-Fish's assessment of the team in KKBB. The problem is that Gwen doesn't read to me as an overly empathetic character; instead, she has a lot of big vague watery feelings for strangers (Carys) and cannibals (Countrycide) but is remarkably insensitive to the feelings of the people closest to her.

Unlike most of fandom, it seems, I liked Gwen at the start. I even liked her quite a bit during her affair with Owen; I really enjoyed the way the show portrayed the sometimes-messy nature of real-life relationships. But, please, do not try to sell her to me as the height of Torchwood's morality. First, because of her treatment of Tosh during her fling with Owen. It's obvious that Tosh has feelings for him, and while that wouldn't necessarily stop Gwen from pursuing a relationship with him, it should have warranted a bit of discretion and sensitivity on Gwen's part. Second, during the same time period, her treatment of the loyal boyfriend Rhys. The way Gwen deals with her relationship is, to me, absolutely appalling and motivated by selfishness rather than love. She *drugs* him while at the same time begging for forgiveness. Her treatment of Rhys is also reflective of the general way she treats the people from her old life (PC Andy); with a thin layer of condescension. She's become too *good* for them.

In 2x01 we get more of the same from Gwen. Once again, I took a deep breath and said, 'Gwen, I COULD like you, if you'd only give me the chance. Everyone's got problems and Owne's a wanker too but I like him all the same'. I loved her little hissed "drives me crazy" line in the opening scene. Unfortunatey, the writers have again insisted on making her unpalatable to me in several ways. Gwen has no subtlety, and her ego seems to have outstriped her skill level. In a bizarre move, she decides that she knows better how to deal with Captain John than Jack himself doesn't take Jack seriously when he warns her about him, and gets burned for it. What concrete skills does Gwen have, anyway? 'Carer'? Really?

The Jack/Gwen scene in that episode hit me like a punch in the face or an anvil dropped from the sky. The expression 'dead horse' comes to mind. This scene bothered me for several reasons. The first is the awkward placement; it interrupts the otherwise engaging narrative flow and pacing of the show, resulting in an unpleasant jolt for the viewer. The second is the actual content and portrayal of the characters during the scene. I believe they were shooting for ambiguity, and in a sense that's what they achieved - though it was less ambiguity and more confusion. Is Jack jealous? What is he feeling? Why is he touching her so intimately? Why are her eyes so freaking wide? Jack spent most of the first season pushing Gwen back into her regular life with Rhys. I've personally never seen any evidence that he has feelings for her; he was amused when she was with Owen, a bit pissed off at her treatment of Rhys, but I never got the sense of personal emotional involvement beyond her role as his friend and confidante.

I've read that there's been Jack/Gwen subtext building since the first series, although I never picked up on it apart from the gun-training scene, which was amusing and attractive but typical Jack behavior - nothing out of the ordinary for an extremely physically demonstrative man who enjoys flirtation of all kinds. Their body language doesn't typically indicate attraction or chemistry. The strangeness of this scene in the context of the rest of the show forced me to consider the creators' motivations for including it and after considering, I think it probably serves a similar function to Exposition-Fish. Because the show's on a new channel this series, it's pulling in an entirely new audience, one that perhaps isn't completely familiar with the characters yet. This scene just screams to me, 'Look! Jack's not gay! Really!' - bit cynical, but he has his scenes with both Captain John and Ianto in the rest of the episode, so I get the vibe they're just evening the score.

I will be upset if they pull an Anne Rice and have Jack ride off into the sunset with his woman, because Gay Never Works Out in the End.