S01.E07: Greeks Bearing Gifts

[indeed]

Tosh meets an unusual woman, Mary, at a bar, who gives her a strange pendant. She is upset, yet amazed by what she now has - the ability to read people's minds. However, Tosh finds this terrible curse, that contains her friends darkest secrets, must be broken. So she asks for help from Mary, the only person who knows, but first, Tosh has to get her into Torchwood.

Tosh: So. I'm shagging a woman and an alien.

Mary: Which is worse?

Tosh: Well, I know which one my parents would say.

[itsmeyousee]

I don't think i mentioned it but i'm loving your quotes from the eps Indeed.

 

This is an odd ep for me, while i like it and having a Tosh ep , didn't even mind Mary. But odd things stand out like Jack and Mary ship why don't we see anything more like that ? Also Owen and Gwen are they two years old or something, fine happy screwing each other but they are at work in which Tosh's stuff saves their stupid lives, why is it ok to destroy her work and why doesn't Jack yell at them for it ? Also not only can't Tosh read Jack but he can project to her , what happened to that ? And why was Jack so cruel about where he sent Mary ?

 

And then there is the case of Ianto and his shirts. When Tosh comes in and he is in Tourist office it's dull blue or grey looking but downstairs it's white. It's like the disappearing Owen in SW case remains unsolved LOL But i did love my little parts of Ianto in this, especially when they are all together with Mary holding Tosh hostage and Ianto's thoughts are "not again" . Also that it's Ianto taking down Tosh's statement, that was an interesting choice by Jack and made Jack more appealing as a Boss for me.

 

Plus the ulimate irony for me anyway one Gwen have you looked at what you wear, knocking Tosh fashion sense, plus what she knocks is Gwen uniform for TW ever onwards LOL

[Swansong]

 

Also Owen and Gwen are they two years old or something, fine happy screwing each other but they are at work in which Tosh's stuff saves their stupid lives, why is it ok to destroy her work and why doesn't Jack yell at them for it ?

I already really dislike Owen at this point and Gwen kind of irritates me, but this is one of the few episodes where I actively dislike her. Owen and Gwen seem to bring out the worst in each other and I can't say I particularly enjoy watching them together. The only time I find Owen bearable in this episode is when he's acting like a doctor.

 

The way Tosh hears people's thoughts is kind of cheesy, but since I can't really how you don't make that seem cheesy I let it go. Making Ianto not sound like he writes bad, emo poetry in his spare time would probably help though.

 

Outside of Mary being a murderous alien I like their relationship.

 

I guess they're still trying to work out where they're going with Jack at this point. Either that or the showrunners and writers don't really confer with each other.But for being immortal Jack is supposedly human, but Tosh can't hear his thoughts and he can't say why? So it's not a trick he learnt in his past life? Are we supposed to think he's really dead inside? I guess it doesn't matter since this is yet another character moment that goes no where.

[itsmeyousee]

Yes it seems harder when they were doing the individuals voices rather than when Tosh was listening to everyone. I thought that was well done particularly when she picked the guy out who was going off to kill his ex and child. And why i didn't bring up Ianto "stomach full of rats" but still i was " my poor baby" and why is your shirt different LOL. But i did like downstairs with Mary because of what just happened to Ianto in Countrycide

 

As for Jack, so many things that went nowhere, like how could he block Tosh yet project his own thoughts ? But also keep in mind i didn't watch Jack eps of DW when watching at first, so Jack being so good at engineering with reprogramming Mary ship was a bit of a shock and since that seemed to be Suzies area why didn't we have Jack take up that part in the Team ?

 

As for Owen and Gwen, yes an active real hatred for those two both as gross as each other to be honest. And Owen being the Doctor, who got very bit of info wrong including the sex of the skeleton plus he had another montage LOL Owen got no points in this ep at all for me. And Gwen's bit to Tosh at the end, sorry more lame excuses for us to "feel Gwens pain" oh please she was a bitch because she could be, no excuses for that.

[Swansong]

 

And Owen being the Doctor, who got very bit of info wrong including the sex of the skeleton plus he had another montage

The show does veer between making him seem kind of incompetent and unprofessional as a doctor and suggesting he's so brilliant he's a qualified Doctor by the age of 23 and that seems to be happening in this episode too. But, doctorwise, I didn't have a problem with him making an educated guess based on the information he had at the grave site and then having to revise his findings when he did the actual autopsy because gunshot trauma seems a more obvious assumption than someone stuck their fist in his chest and pulled his heart out. I can't remember if it was a full skeleton or not, but if he was just going by the head that's not always accurate in determining sex I don't think. If anything Gwen overplaying the point was more eye-rolling. 

 

 

As for Jack, so many things that went nowhere, like how could he block Tosh yet project his own thoughts ? But also keep in mind i didn't watch Jack eps of DW when watching at first, so Jack being so good at engineering with reprogramming Mary ship was a bit of a shock and since that seemed to be Suzies area why didn't we have Jack take up that part in the Team ?

On Doctor Who they have him fixing the TARDIS so he's definitely supposed to be talented in that area. I think Torchwood's problem is, I guess, they're trying to avoid him becoming an easy crutch for the show to solve things and so go back and forth on his skills although I think he becomes more of an easy crutch for the show as it goes on especially in COE and MD. Plus if he can do all that why does he need the team. But I think he'd likely need a team anyway. Although maybe that's why by season 3 they decide they don't need a team dynamic after all because Gwen and Jack between them can apparently cover every skill set possible.

Edited June 21, 2014 by Swansong

[indeed]

Although maybe that's why by season 3 they decide they don't need a team dynamic after all because Gwen and Jack between them can apparently cover every skill set possible.

So, you mean Jack definitely does everything then, right? ;) oh wait, I forgot--except steal successfully; for that he needed Gwen's sage advice.

[itsmeyousee]

I thought it was a whole skeleton but i could be wrong, still no points for Owen in this ep LOL

 

As for Jack, yes he was impressive in DW but i think he would have limits purely because of his personality. Jack is not a planner, he is a walk straight in type of dude. Which is partly why i think if they had showed his engineering side., we would have seen a brilliant partnership with Tosh cause she is much more methodical. Plus he would have to be careful about it Season 1 since they didn't know he came from the future then.

 

And while not wanting to go off track , i think Ianto worked out much more in COE than Gwen and Jack only knew what the deal was because of his past. Also the plan to tackle the 456 sucked LOL so no geniuses there. And didn't Esther and Rex actually work out the whole "blood Plan" in MD or am I remembering that wrong ?

 

Personally overall I think ianto and Tosh were the brains of TW, mainly because they thought beyond the immediate problem. Jack and Owen can but normally because someone else has made them stop to think it through and Gwen , well she has Rhys and that's her planner to be honest.

[Swansong]

I guess since they're writing this show for teenagers and young adults it makes sense they'd have the characters behave like teenagers. Owen and Gwen seem to embody that in this episode and are kind of obnoxious.

It's kind of interesting to see the contrast in how they conduct their affair at the office v. Jack and Ianto, who still manage to remain pretty professional on the job.

The rape for laughs didn't exactly do Owen any favours with me, but this episode pretty much doomed him. There's just so little I find appealing about him. And the fact that both Gwen and Tosh are fighting over him just makes me headdesk. And lol at the show for trying to make us sympathize with Gwen when Tosh has the nerve to get shirty when Owen and Gwen ruin her work and find that fact amusing. Not going to happen. Also ugh to the episode pitting Tosh against Gwen when Owen has to chose who to save. Because of course he's going to chose Gwen. No-one can be more important than Gwen. It's the law of Torchwood. That moment really did make me cringe.

 

I do like the idea that while Tosh can be socially awkward and lonely and shy she can also be awesome and brave. I just wish that hadn't pretty much consigned her to stories based around her sucky love life. When she was talking about how the rest of the team didn't see the alien stuff the way she did I was thinking I wish we'd seen more of that aspect of her. I actually think that's something her and Jack might have in common. Or even her and Ianto since 

in Adam we learn he likes to document the artifacts in his diary

and he is supposed to be an archivist whatever that means at Torchwood. 

 

The best part of this episode is Tosh and Mary. The actresses have really good chemistry so it's kind of a pity Mary is a murderous alien who is just manipulating her. Well I guess there are possibly some genuine feelings there, but who knows. Her comment about having something to eat before she goes towards the end of the episode does seem to suggest she planned to murder Tosh and have her heart for a snack. But maybe she meant they could get pizza or something.

 

Love the Jack and Tosh scenes. Their friendship, the little we get to see of it, is honestly one of my favourite things about the show. The actors have an easy chemistry. But is there a reason why they have him just walk away at the end when Tosh is upset instead of sitting with her or is that something he's only allowed to do with Gwen at this point. It's such an abrupt transition. She's clearly still upset and he just gets up, pauses a bit and walks away. lol. Was there a roof he just had to be on?

 

I never noticed before how little Jack is in this episode.

 

So Mary points out that Tosh has been at Torchwood for three years, but by Fragments she's supposed to have been there five years.

 

The transition from Tosh using the pendant to it apparently messing with her head and perspective and her lamenting about it does feel a bit abrupt. Mary's expression during Tosh's meltdown over the pendant and how it's changed her does make me laugh. The episode almost makes it seem like she decides to brave Torchwood just to get away from that.

Edited August 1, 2014 by Swansong

[itsmeyousee]

I never got why Jack walks away either. Clearly Tosh is still upset unless it's was supposed to be a Tosh thing, she doesn't like losing control in front of people. I don't know it's very strange, just like why Jack was so cruel about where he sent Mary. I never understood why he was so nasty about. yet i do love their scenes together.

[indeed]

Was there a roof he just had to be on?

That's my guess. Or it was Ianto's usual time to take a shower after making the Weevil and Myfanwy rounds and Jack had to get back to watch the CCTV.