Heh. They need a "Best Sentence EVER!" category.

"It was a dark and stormy night"

Oh wait...

Torchwood: I don't ususally get annoyed with things pretend people do but DUDE... lie a little to the families and prepare them a bit. Give them pictures and warn them better. TELL THEM that he has good times and bad times and will never be able to live at home again. Tell them they can only stay for twenty minutes. Meet in some sunny homey room and let them have the reunion that clearly meant so much to both of them but then get them the hell out of there before the shrieking (or whatever happens with each of them) starts.

But Trudy, Nicky would never have settled for that. It'd have taken what she got or a corpse to stop her looking. I don't think there's a preparation that could brace a mother for that sort of thing.

However, as far as Gwen goes, I don't see why Jack couldn't have headed her off with the truth. When she goes charging in bullheaded how is that going to make things better? Because she will get to what she's looking for. That's why she's there.

I don't think that's necessarily true about Nicky. People get horribly injured and have to live in care facilities. She clearly did not know from the start that he could never come home. If she insists she MUST know, give her a very edited tape of his "bad times" so she has a picture of what goes wrong but not the full mind-blowing experience. Prepare Nicky for the parts she could deal with and continue to hide the rest.

Its worth finding a controlled way for family members to see each other if only so the vicitms know that they made it home and their families still love them. If it was just the families, tell them "dead in a fire" so they can move on with their lives.

As far as Gwen, Jack didn't head her off with the truth because he's more than a little self righteous. He wanted to be absoluetly correct and assert his authority. The whole thing put Gwen in her place.

Its not that I think Jack is evil and manipulaitve, I think he lacks people skills to the point where he'll opt to be supreme boss in situations where it's emotionally charged rather than strictly necessary for safety or something.

The Hollywood Reporter says that's it for Jericho.

I think that some loved ones could have been headed off with ample preparation, etc, just not Nicky. She's been scanning crowd videos for months. She was willing to pretend he was her father. I think she would have pressed it until somehow she knew.

But, of course, Gwen couldn't have even tried, because she didn't know, because Jack let her charge in, instead of preparing her.

As for cruelty--someone mentioned in Dana's LJ that Jack's "wanna join in?" invitation was pretty cruel, and it was, even if you don't count the strange attraction they've been portraying between Jack and Gwen. It was just strangely dismissive of everything about her--she has something she thinks is important, and of any feelings they may have acknowledged last episode to any degree.

The Hollywood Reporter says that's it for Jericho.

Aw. Sorry, Jericho fans. At least it sounds like it's going out at the top of its game.

As for cruelty --someone mentioned in Dana's LJ that Jack's "wanna join in?" invitation was pretty cruel, and it was, even if you don't count the strange attraction they've been portraying between Jack and Gwen.

Oh ABSOLUTELY.

Did you catch that Jack went back in the room, Ianto spoke to Gwen for two or three seconds, and by the time Ianto walked back into the room Jack was already undressed? I found this fairly cold.

Very cold indeed.