Torchwood 2.09:

I adore Rhys. There is very little in my television that I adore as much as Rhys, unless it is spelled "Ianto".

This. So very much this.

Just because he knows he's being used doesn't make it feel any more palatable.

Ooh, would this be a good time to mention that I wrote an Ianto-POV lyric about this? Hee. Yes, I am a geek. I have rhyming skills and I'm not afraid to use them.

I'm still not getting what they are pushing with the Jack/Gwen stuff - it's like I missed a season.

I think I pinged on this a little bit better during this ep, with the little photographic journey through his immortality with Jack. Evidently he was married at one point, and I think maybe he was feeling more nostalgia for the institution of marriage than the actual Gwen herself thing. Like him waxing poetic about offices. It's all the trappings of a normal life that are now never going to be an option for Jack, so much moreso than any of the others.

All of your relationships are transient, if you're immortal. And like how he had to skip out on the fairies in the garden lady, it's hard for him to establish any new relationship because he knows they'll grow old without him. And he'll go on.

Which brings me to the complaint I never got to earlier. Why would Jack, who has so much trouble with an extended lifespan himself, bring back Owen, knowing full well there was a good chance he'd come back wrong?

A new Series 4 trailer is up at the Doctor Who website.

Martha ! Rose ! Bernard Cribbens !!

Who's that last one?

It's nice to see the trailer in proper quality! I saw the bootleg of that a few weeks ago.

I think Jack loves each one of his Torchwood team, and had it been Tosh, Gwen or Ianto on the slab, he'd have tried the same thing. That Owen had so newly reached an epiphany about his personality problems and was making a change just made his sudden death much more horrible.

The last one is a very famous actor in Blighty, who will be forever associated with certain 70s kids' TV shows. Also, he cropped up in the Christmas special.

I love him. He provided the background noise to much of my childhood, and now B. listens to his recordings of the two Winnie-the-Pooh books incessantly. But I don't mind, because they are genius, and I do not use the word lightly.

So I'm glad to see him popping up on DW - and looking so well. He'll be 80 this year.

Finally watched Torchwood 2.09.

When they retcon, do they create false memories?

I thought that's what Ianto was referring to when he said he was the "wedding fairy", that he was going to start dispensing false memories to all the sleeping guests.

When they retcon, do they create false memories?

I thought that's what Ianto was referring to when he said he was the "wedding fairy", that he was going to start dispensing false memories to all the sleeping guests.

Yeah, I got that impression too. Do a little "Men in Black" action.

"And get a decorator up in here, 'cause...damn!"

all questions of how much gay we show aside, Rhys is now my fucking hero.

I still don't think he's temperamentally set up to be married to someone in law enforcement. On the other hand, deferring to Gwen's wish to go on with the wedding even when she showed up pregnant gives him a lot of credit.

And really, any civilian who picks up a chainsaw to defend you against an alien when he barely understands what's going on -- instead of, say, running away or blubbering in fear -- he's a keeper.

And really, any civilian who picks up a chainsaw to defend you against an alien when he barely understands what's going on -- instead of, say, running away or blubbering in fear -- he's a keeper.

This. Exactly this.

I still don't think he's temperamentally set up to be married to someone in law enforcement.

I have a sneaking suspicion that RTD holds to Joss' philosophy of happy relationships (that they are fleeting and end tragically, that is). Which is why I worry like hell about Rhys during episodes like this.