9 days left and we're continuing on my countdown to Miracle Day, Torchwood re-watch! I'll be watching an episode a day and blogging bits and thoughts. With any luck this is going to read like an episode guide and commentary. Let's dive right in!
Episode: Adrift (Series 2 Episode 11)
Written By: Chris Chibnall
Original Air Date: 19 March 2008
Sentence Sum-Up: Gwen becomes obsessed with trying to return victims of the Rift and helping the families they left behind.
Notable New Characters:
Jonah Bevan (Robert Pugh) - Victim of the Rift. Looked into the heart of a Dark Star which messed him up. Now he screams a lot.
Nikki Bevan (Ruth Jones) - Jonah's Mum. Becomes obsessed with finding him after he disappears.
Favorite Quote:
Gwen: "Ianto, hi. I'm sorry. I didn't realize—"
Ianto: "Doesn't matter."
Gwen: "I wouldn't have come in if I'd known—"
Jack: "Always room for one more. We could have used you an hour ago for naked hide-and-seek."
Ianto: "He cheats. He always cheats"
Never Noticed:
Gwen gets the team together in the boardroom to tell her theory about the negative rift spikes. When she announces this there's a look from Ianto to Jack, a knowing look. I never saw it but it turned me to a believer! There's a lot that I just didn't pay attention to in the "Ianto's-in-on-it-and-tipped-off-Gwen" conspiracy! I get it. It happened. He knew and he told her. If you doubt, watch this episode again. Clever, clever Chris Chibnall. I just wish we saw the fallout of that between Ianto and Jack. Oh well, plenty of fanfic about it.
WTF Moments:
Where is Owen? It's the weirdest thing, it's like Owen doesn't exist for an episode. He's not in any of the scenes and they never mention him. He's not in the boardroom when Gwen gets the team together. When Gwen asks Jack to let her investigate on her own she says "Tosh has her projects, so does Ianto, why can't I?" So Owen doesn't have projects? Or he just doesn't exist. Seriously, where did Owen go? Did they mention it and I missed it? Did Burn have some other commitment during filming? What?
Old Jonah looks nothing like young Jonah. It bothers me. I get that looks aren't the first consideration with casting but young Jonah had 1 10 seconds scene with little or no lines. Young Jonah could have been anyone, they look nothing alike, look at their face shapes. It's probably just me, but I'm bothered.
Nikki. I just hate her honestly. She's ridiculous. First of all she goes completely batty when her son disappears, which is understandable, but the tapes thing is completely crazy. And then when she finds answers she's horrible to him, she cannot accept the truth and so she's horrible to Jonah. She's ungrateful and she gets upset at Gwen for killing her hope. I want to slap her, suck it up. This is not about you it's about your son, be there for him. Sure this is extreme but a lot of parents deal with their children being damages, scarred, gone crazy, killed and they step up and support them. I hate her, really I do.
I may be missing the obvious explanation but what's the story with the Rift returning victims? I don't get it. They always say the Rift is random and it takes randomly. So how is it that it randomly takes the same people? And it randomly delivers them back to their time? Even only part of the time it makes no sense. What about Out of Time? The 3 fall through the Rift to our time but Owen says that Diane can't go back, it doesn't work that way even if she could go back through the RIft she wouldn't end up where she started. It makes more sense to me that it's random, I don't buy the convenience this episode suggests.
Random Rants:
Gwen is going off about how they have to help the families of the Rift victim and Jack comes back at her with "Seriously Gwen. practically, tell me what we should do". Finally! Someone calling her out about it! It's all well and good to want to help people but there's only so much they can do and she needs to know her place. She's all problems, no solutions, quit bringing me down Gwen! I actually think Chris Chibnall did a clever thing with Gwen in this episode, she is her usual naive self and she has to learn the hard way that good intentions don't solve problems and somethings cannot be fixed. Here's a slice of reality. Eat up.
I'm not going to lie, other than the one scene, you know the one, this has never really been my favorite episode. When we started watching I was sort of dreading the deed and then I saw it in big letters : "Adrift: by Chris Chibnall". The second I said that I wasn't a fan of the episode it wound up being by my very favorite Torchwood writer (MD not included). So I went into this episode expecting to dislike it and hoping against hope to have my mind changed. I wanted to love it like I love all of Chris' episodes! I'll let you know what I thought in the episode grade.
MVC (Most Valuable Character):
You'd think I would say Gwen. It was a very Gween-centric episode and it was all about indulging her little girl fits. But no. I am saying MVC is Ianto. Gwen caused trouble and made no progress on her own, Ianto moved the story forward and made the decision that finally shut her up. He's the hero of the story, even if he ends up in the doghouse with Jack. Gareth as always played it phenomenally. I'm getting sick of saying how brilliant Gareth is.
MVA (Most Valuable Actor):
Tom Price! Don't look at me like that! Tom is the king of making a small part a big star. He's a scene stealer. He's adorable and charming and you just want to see more of him. I am hoping for tons of Andy in Miracle Day. I just can't get enough, a truly standout performance.
Episode Grade:
B
I'm giving it a B because it's got as many positive points as it does negative for me and it sort of evens out. Gwen frustrates me as usual but I love how clever the subplot with Ianto is. I don't understand Owen's disappearance and I hate Nicky. Plot points aside it was a well written episode. I have no grievance with the dialogue and I certainly cannot fault Chris for giving us a moment of Jack and Ianto action. I think upon reflection there is a lot that is good and bad that I hadn't previously considered. B sounds about right.
Tomorrow's Episode:Fragments (Series 2, Episode 12). Remember, I'll be live tweeting my re-watch on the @BarrowmanDay twitter at 12:00am PST (US - West coast) and 8:00am GMT (UK). Hope you all can watch with me and chat.
That's it for today! Hope you enjoyed my run down. What did you all think of this episode? Did you notice anything new? What grade would you give it? xx
<3Dana
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Episode: Adrift (Series 2 Episode 11)
Written By: Chris Chibnall
Original Air Date: 19 March 2008
Sentence Sum-Up: Gwen becomes obsessed with trying to return victims of the Rift and helping the families they left behind.
Notable New Characters:
Jonah Bevan (Robert Pugh) - Victim of the Rift. Looked into the heart of a Dark Star which messed him up. Now he screams a lot.
Nikki Bevan (Ruth Jones) - Jonah's Mum. Becomes obsessed with finding him after he disappears.
Favorite Quote:
Gwen: "Ianto, hi. I'm sorry. I didn't realize—"
Ianto: "Doesn't matter."
Gwen: "I wouldn't have come in if I'd known—"
Jack: "Always room for one more. We could have used you an hour ago for naked hide-and-seek."
Ianto: "He cheats. He always cheats"
Never Noticed:
Gwen gets the team together in the boardroom to tell her theory about the negative rift spikes. When she announces this there's a look from Ianto to Jack, a knowing look. I never saw it but it turned me to a believer! There's a lot that I just didn't pay attention to in the "Ianto's-in-on-it-and-tipped-off-Gwen" conspiracy! I get it. It happened. He knew and he told her. If you doubt, watch this episode again. Clever, clever Chris Chibnall. I just wish we saw the fallout of that between Ianto and Jack. Oh well, plenty of fanfic about it.
WTF Moments:
Where is Owen? It's the weirdest thing, it's like Owen doesn't exist for an episode. He's not in any of the scenes and they never mention him. He's not in the boardroom when Gwen gets the team together. When Gwen asks Jack to let her investigate on her own she says "Tosh has her projects, so does Ianto, why can't I?" So Owen doesn't have projects? Or he just doesn't exist. Seriously, where did Owen go? Did they mention it and I missed it? Did Burn have some other commitment during filming? What?
Old Jonah looks nothing like young Jonah. It bothers me. I get that looks aren't the first consideration with casting but young Jonah had 1 10 seconds scene with little or no lines. Young Jonah could have been anyone, they look nothing alike, look at their face shapes. It's probably just me, but I'm bothered.
Nikki. I just hate her honestly. She's ridiculous. First of all she goes completely batty when her son disappears, which is understandable, but the tapes thing is completely crazy. And then when she finds answers she's horrible to him, she cannot accept the truth and so she's horrible to Jonah. She's ungrateful and she gets upset at Gwen for killing her hope. I want to slap her, suck it up. This is not about you it's about your son, be there for him. Sure this is extreme but a lot of parents deal with their children being damages, scarred, gone crazy, killed and they step up and support them. I hate her, really I do.
I may be missing the obvious explanation but what's the story with the Rift returning victims? I don't get it. They always say the Rift is random and it takes randomly. So how is it that it randomly takes the same people? And it randomly delivers them back to their time? Even only part of the time it makes no sense. What about Out of Time? The 3 fall through the Rift to our time but Owen says that Diane can't go back, it doesn't work that way even if she could go back through the RIft she wouldn't end up where she started. It makes more sense to me that it's random, I don't buy the convenience this episode suggests.
Random Rants:
Gwen is going off about how they have to help the families of the Rift victim and Jack comes back at her with "Seriously Gwen. practically, tell me what we should do". Finally! Someone calling her out about it! It's all well and good to want to help people but there's only so much they can do and she needs to know her place. She's all problems, no solutions, quit bringing me down Gwen! I actually think Chris Chibnall did a clever thing with Gwen in this episode, she is her usual naive self and she has to learn the hard way that good intentions don't solve problems and somethings cannot be fixed. Here's a slice of reality. Eat up.
I'm not going to lie, other than the one scene, you know the one, this has never really been my favorite episode. When we started watching I was sort of dreading the deed and then I saw it in big letters : "Adrift: by Chris Chibnall". The second I said that I wasn't a fan of the episode it wound up being by my very favorite Torchwood writer (MD not included). So I went into this episode expecting to dislike it and hoping against hope to have my mind changed. I wanted to love it like I love all of Chris' episodes! I'll let you know what I thought in the episode grade.
MVC (Most Valuable Character):
You'd think I would say Gwen. It was a very Gween-centric episode and it was all about indulging her little girl fits. But no. I am saying MVC is Ianto. Gwen caused trouble and made no progress on her own, Ianto moved the story forward and made the decision that finally shut her up. He's the hero of the story, even if he ends up in the doghouse with Jack. Gareth as always played it phenomenally. I'm getting sick of saying how brilliant Gareth is.
MVA (Most Valuable Actor):
Tom Price! Don't look at me like that! Tom is the king of making a small part a big star. He's a scene stealer. He's adorable and charming and you just want to see more of him. I am hoping for tons of Andy in Miracle Day. I just can't get enough, a truly standout performance.
Episode Grade:
B
I'm giving it a B because it's got as many positive points as it does negative for me and it sort of evens out. Gwen frustrates me as usual but I love how clever the subplot with Ianto is. I don't understand Owen's disappearance and I hate Nicky. Plot points aside it was a well written episode. I have no grievance with the dialogue and I certainly cannot fault Chris for giving us a moment of Jack and Ianto action. I think upon reflection there is a lot that is good and bad that I hadn't previously considered. B sounds about right.
Tomorrow's Episode:Fragments (Series 2, Episode 12). Remember, I'll be live tweeting my re-watch on the @BarrowmanDay twitter at 12:00am PST (US - West coast) and 8:00am GMT (UK). Hope you all can watch with me and chat.
That's it for today! Hope you enjoyed my run down. What did you all think of this episode? Did you notice anything new? What grade would you give it? xx
<3Dana
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