day three

[kaydeefalls]

First, on a purely shallow level, Ianto was absurdly hot all throughout this episode. I really don't know why. Not that I found him unattractive in the days one or two, but something about either the clothing or the makeup or the acting or what-the-fuck-ever made him SMOKING for day three. I may have drooled a little.

Also, mystery of how Jack replaces his coat solved! IANTO FTW.

Now, onto a less shallow level: this is possibly the best hour of television I have ever watched. Not objectively speaking -- there were minor issues, and I've seen some damn good television that probably trumps this -- but for me, as a writer, as an avid reader and viewer of various media, as a lover of storytelling pure and simple, this pretty much hit every point of my personal laundry list of What Makes A Story Great.

Seriously. It's like it was written for me. Could this episode have catered more to my particular bulletproof narrative kinks if it tried?

No, no it really couldn't have.

Let's count them:

1. Jack's dark past. No, seriously, Gwen, Jack was not a good man. Not always. Not even close. Remember how he was a Time Agent? A criminal? A soldier? A torturer? Because I do. And that man is still very much a part of who Jack is. Yes, he gave the aliens those children. Did he do it for what he believed to be the greater good? Probably, sure. Does that make the act any less reprehensible? No. And Jack knows it.

2. Alien threat that we never see clearly. Reiterating a point I made earlier this week about this particular miniseries being reminiscent of all the best X-Files episodes. It's always scarier when you can't really see what you're fighting.

3. CONTINUITY. The contact lenses they gave to Martha! The fact that Ianto used to work for Torchwood One and knows their secret bases! Hell, even Jack's pissiness about his borrowed clothing at the beginning was a nice touch, and the sort of thing previous seasons of this show probably would've just handwaved. Thank you, writers, for remembering useful plot elements.

4. CRIMINALS. HEISTS. ASJKLHFAKJGALKDHKAF PURE GLEEFUL WIN. Although, um, Gwen, I realize you were a copper and know all the clever tricks and all, and that's lovely, but -- Jack made his living as a con man. C'mon, writers, don't be lazy. Set up a good old fashioned heist! (I realize the long con isn't particularly practical in terms of Torchwood's immediate goals here, but a girl can dream.) Still, though, HOW BRILLIANT WAS THAT?

5. Understated but very much present romance. Oddly enough, I tend to get a bit squirmy when ROMANCE is the central point of a story or episode. I'm not a fan of domestics or schmoop or endlessly repeated "I love yous". I vastly prefer it when characters say "I love you" without ever using those three words -- I'm fairly certain I have only used that phrase a grand total of once or twice, if that, in ALL the fic I've written since emerging from puberty. This episode gave us Gwen and Rhys saying I love you in a hundred different ways, and Jack and Ianto, well, that leads me to...

6. The Jack/Ianto conversation. Well, duh. Not to mention it matches up 100% EXACTLY with my perception of how Ianto views their relationship -- yes, Jack's going to watch him grow old and die, and that's very tragic, but for god's sake let's have lots and lots of sex and enjoy the fuck out of this thing while it lasts. This is how I write Ianto and how I prefer to read Ianto, and it's all SORTS of gratifying to now see it play out exactly like that in canon.

7. It absolutely kills me to admit this, but if I were to write a fic in which Ianto dies, this is exactly the way I'd go about it. Hell, I've thought about writing it. I even have a half-abandoned draft of it. I never, ever wanted to see it in canon, though. But -- yeah, my theories are swinging back in that direction. Hard. That Jack/Ianto conversation cemented it. Ianto actually used the phrase "grow old and die", which pretty much guarantees he won't have that chance. Doubly so because he vocalized wanting to enjoy what time they had. I pretty much started crying at that point, because every narrative device EVER has officially been utilized, the foreshadowing is textbook at this point, there is no way in hell Ianto is surviving this miniseries. And they're writing it perfectly, and it's everything I've ever wanted out of a character death, and it's going to break me so badly.

The only way out, at this point, would be to utilize my very last bulletproof kink: the last-second twist that catches you completely off guard and makes everything else fall into place. Bonus points if Jack thinks Ianto is dead, but turns out to be wrong (that breaks and thrills me every time in any form of canon or fanfic, I am so easy, you have no idea). Come on, Torchwood. Make it a perfect score. Pull a Tolkien and eucatastrophe the fuck out of the very end.

Please.

Comments

[kalliopeia.livejournal.com]

My feeling is that we're going to think Ianto's dead, and he really won't be.

But if that is the case? These fuckers BETTER LET US KNOW HE'S NOT BEFORE THE SEASON ENDS.

I don't know. I kind of agree with you on all this but seriously, I don't want to watch Ianto die. It will ruin the whole season for me, which to this point has been ridiculously good. I'm actually considering just reading episode reactions tomorrow and Friday before I get the episode and deciding then if I even want to watch it. I hate to do that, but I honestly don't think I can stand watching him die.

Gwen really has an idealized view of Jack sometimes, which seems strange considering what she's seen him do. What I keep thinking of concerning 1965 is that in some of Clem's flashbacks, you see a lot of military guys with guns. And the government is awfully concerned with Jack not telling what he knows. I'm thinking it wasn't his decision. Which doesn't make him going along with it any better, but still. My heart broke for him a little. "It was easier not knowing their names."

You've nearly written a fic that kills Ianto....I've come very close to writing one in which Jack actually does lose his immortality. I think it would be so interesting to think about how that would change how he deals with...well, everything. It still kicks around in the back of my mind all the time. But it would involve bringing in the Doctor, in the plot that's in my head, and I often hate when that happens in fics...it seems like such a deus ex machina. Except he's not really saving the day.

[kaydeefalls.livejournal.com]

My feeling is that we're going to think Ianto's dead, and he really won't be.
I want this so badly, I really don't even sort of have the words to express it.

I'm actually considering just reading episode reactions tomorrow and Friday before I get the episode and deciding then if I even want to watch it.
You should be safe watching tomorrow's episode, if I know anything about narrative structure. If Ianto "dies" in Day Four, we'll know for certain it's a fake-out. You need to save your major death for the final act -- you can kill a secondary character off earlier on, to up the stakes, but Torchwood doesn't have enough primary characters running around right now to waste such a hugely dramatic moment at any point significantly before the climax. That would be like killing Tosh during "Fragments" instead of "Exit Wounds" -- it just doesn't give you the dramatic payoff you're aiming for.

Of course, that can be a great trope to subvert, but I think the show is more likely to do that in the form of a fake-out rather than a very early death. Besides, Rupesh was the big surprise early death for this series.

And if it sounds like I'm being VERY clinical and analytic about this, it's because in my head I'm going LA LA LA IANTO'S GOING TO BE JUST FINE LA LA LA. I'm going to lose my mind on Friday evening -- how the fuck can I stage manage a show while knowing the last episode is OUT THERE, waiting to break my heart? *whimpers*

[kalliopeia.livejournal.com]

I wonder if there is anyone I can contact before I watch and just say "ALL I WANT TO KNOW IS IF IANTO DIES!"

Oh God, I don't know how you're going to do it. I'm going to be completely worthless all day.

I'm ruined by Lost, the show that seems to delight in killing off characters at the drop of a hat.

The thing that worries me is that since they aren't guaranteed a fourth season, they might make it look like Ianto is dead, on Friday. You know, the Hub destroyed, Gwen pregnant, Ianto 'dead'....it could be either the end of Torchwood or the launching point for a hell of a fourth season.

Someone I know said she thinks the producers are just fucking with us.

[kaydeefalls.livejournal.com]

The thing that worries me is that since they aren't guaranteed a fourth season, they might make it look like Ianto is dead, on Friday.
See, to me, that's only the sort of cliffhanger you invest in if you know the show IS coming back, because there's just no point to it otherwise.

I never watched Lost. I got enough of THAT from Battlestar Galactica, thanks.

I came to the fandom relatively late -- did the spoilers about Tosh and Owen leak out before "Exit Wounds" aired? Because that's the one thing that gives me hope for Ianto -- how the HELL has this been kept so well under wraps for so long, if he does die? A couple of very vague remarks in actor interviews -- which you can read just about anything into, including Rhys rather than Ianto -- don't really count.

[kalliopeia.livejournal.com]

I don't know, actually. The very first episode I ever saw was Adrift, when it aired here in the US for the first time, so that was a while after it aired in the UK. And it was a bit after that before I really got into the fandom aspect at all because I spent a lot of time trying to find out from anyone I could if I needed to watch Doctor Who to really get Torchwood. So if anything leaked out about them, I didn't hear any of it.

The thing about that conversation tonight, though, is that I agree it could be total foreshadowing....but I also think that given the unusual circumstances, it doesn't necessarily have to be. Both John Barrowman and Gareth David-Lloyd talk about how Jack and Ianto are going through awkward relationship stuff, and Ianto is trying to cope with the notion that Jack is immortal, etc. So it actually really could just be 'relationship conversations,' because he actually has a reason to think along those lines with Jack. Even the bit about 'of old age' fits because he'd be thinking "I could liveto be 90 and Jack will just go on forever without me."

So...I really don't know what to think. And it's sort of annoying me that I'm this worried about a fictional character.

[kaydeefalls.livejournal.com]

The thing about that conversation tonight, though, is that I agree it could be total foreshadowing....but I also think that given the unusual circumstances, it doesn't necessarily have to be.

This is very true. It's entirely possible I'm reading waaaaay too much into this, because, yeah, I'm absurdly worried about Ianto. Here's hoping.

[kalliopeia.livejournal.com]

Oh and I didn't mean it as a cliffhanger. I mean, they could very well make it look very final, with team mourning and all, and if they decided to have another season, find a way to bring him back. If they don't have a body, it could be done.

And if they do that I will MURDER SOMEONE.

[lanarien.livejournal.com]

First of all, hiya! I just came across your journal thanks to janto_recs

Second, thank you for making me not feel alone and crazy anymore. I've been theorizing and freaking out that Ianto is going to die (or something very severe happen to him) by the end of this series. You are absolutely correct, every single tactic has been employed to suggest his time is limited. I kinda explained this away by saying it's just the writers dealing with the whole "i'm immortal/you're not" thing of the relationship. But... "grow old and die" .... ... yeah. That little knot of tension reserved especially for Ianto's well being started to tighten even more. Not to mention, Ianto's character is almost 'complete' and what I mean by this is his journey is almost over. He's become more sure of himself, lost so much, but has grown even more.

With that said ... he was damn sexy in his new suit! *fans self*

Oh! Did you also notice that Hub 2 is the same warehouse as was in Fragments? The very same one that Ianto and Jack captured Myfanwy! Not sure if this was intentional or just an easy location to shoot, but still! It brought a smile to my face :D

[acchikocchi.livejournal.com]

Oh god, on one hand I have you setting out the reasoning for why Ianto is doomed (AUGH) and on the other rm setting out the reasoning for why it'll be Rhys instead (NOT THAT EITHER). You're both so convincing. *twitches* I, I, no, I don't want anyone to die! but especially not Ianto. Can't we have "Everyone lives!" ala "The Doctor Dances" again? No?

"Presumed dead" is one of my bulletproof-to-put-it-mildly kinks, too. I will be crossing my fingers and toes and my legs at the ankles and - yeah. Please do that. And not - the other thing.

[hope]

I know, every time they drop an anvil like "once I'm dead of old age..." I can't help but gurgle a bit in DNW.

THAT SAID, there is also that anvil of Alice's mother - they made a point on commenting that she worked for Torchwood, had a relationship with Jack *and* died of old age (yeah, they also commented that that's uncommon for TW operatives, but I'm hoping that all this contradiction leads to FAKE OUT rather than anything... permanent).

GOD I HATE RTD.