Since I'm re-watching Children of Earth on BBC America--because there's something to be said for watching TV the old fashioned way, on the TV--I figured I'd post my original thoughts along with a few new ones.
Here's the original post.
And my new thoughts come under the cut after I check all my weapons with security.
Addendum for Torchwood: Children of Earth episode 4:
Totally rehashing what I said last night, but the whole 1965 sequence is so disturbing, and not just for the way Jack acts. You can tell he's not all eager to do this but has rationalized to himself the value of it and how that allows him to do what he sees needs to be done. Major props to everyone involved with that sequence--the filming of it, the acting, the music. All perfect and perfectly creepy. And then to top it off, Jack's obvious deep remorse in the present for what he did back then about kills me. He knows "for the greater good" won't placate his people, but it's all he has. And Clem...god, Clem. And Ianto's reaction--*wibble*. I always felt the show worked best when it operated at the individual human level and addressed questions that had no easy answers and didn't pander to the audience by giving one, with episodes like "Adrift" and "Out of Time", and this sequence revealing what Jack did is another example of that.
God, that poor cameraman sent into the chamber. You know he's going to be effed up for life after that, if he survived the gassing/stampede--I don't know if he did or not.
The 4-5-6 are like a more disgusting version of the Slitheen family from DW, if getting more disgusting than that is possible.
The whole cabinet room sequence turns my stomach. Calling children "units". RTD making this such an integral part of the plot is great because it shows the state and it's actions and complicity are just as horrific as the 4-5-6. I think that it's grounded in a reality that's all too possible, the way they treat it matter-of-fact-ly and clinical as a way of distancing themselves from the barbarity of it, is what makes it especially upsetting to watch. Not having any "good" choice but merely bad and slightly less bad choices. Humanity is it's own worst enemy.
Knowing what I know is about to happen to Ianto and Jack makes me appreciate all the more the greatcoat glamour shots waistcoat/sartorial porny goodness.
Haven't said it for awhile: Gwen is AWESOME.
Guh. Ianto's and Jack's last wrods to each other. Ianto's "I love you" and Jack's answering "Don't" choke me up every time. And the ways you could interpret that "Don't"--don't say that, don't love me, don't give up--I can't not love a show that can make you examine the nuances of a contraction.
I didn't actually cry the first I watched this episode--too shocked I guess--but seeing Eve Myles cry like that broke me this time.
I've had time to digest what happened, hear what RTD and the actors had to say about Ianto dying, work through my feelings about it, read countless opinions through the fandom, and I've come to accept what happened for what it is. The very nature of Torchwood, the world in which they operate, means no one is safe for long. Ianto had been living on borrowed time for years and his death at the hands of the 4-5-6 was the bullet with his name finally catching up to him. Of course I hate that he died, and in my fantasies he and Jack get to be together forever and have lots of wonderful adventures. In reality, Ianto was always going to die; we just didn't know when or how. I don't hate RTD or James Moran or any of TPTB for deciding to kill Ianto, unlike some of the more hysterical people in the fandom, I'm just sad that Ianto died. I loved that character. I'll always feel like we never got enough of his story--just because I could never not know enough of his backstory/inner workings, so whether he died at this point or it had been later I'd still feel the same.
Also at LJ
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