Torchwood: Small Worlds (Episode 105)

In what I’m sure is a fairy tale never conceived by the Grimm Brothers or Hans Christian Anderson, and elderly woman, Estelle, is out hunting for fairy rings in a forest in the middle of the night. Except, Tinkerbell stayed home and her creepy cousin whom I shall call, well, I need an onomatopoeic word and a bell-like instrument, Crashchime, showed up instead.  For all the Harry Potter style of music, these aren’t your childhood fairies.

After the techno-credits, we get a great view of the one of the highlights of Cardiff.

The Hub:  I’m not entirely sure why Captain Jack is sleeping as it was confirmed that he doesn’t sleep but I’m guessing it’s to allow us some access to his memories and an excuse to show John Barrowman shirtless. Someone needs to tell them we’d buy any excuse, no matter how flimsy.  He has flashes of men in uniform with rose petals coming out of their mouths, but as artistically porn-like as it sounds, it’s actually a nightmare.  Unable to go back to sleep, he puts on some clothes and wanders around his office, only to find a lone rose petal on his desk.

Ianto walks by and he and Jack share an awkward look.  No, I don’t see the obvious foreshadowing but I am suddenly leaning closer to the screen.  I have no idea why.

Even though both men clearly establish the other one shouldn’t be there, it’s good that they are as there are some odd weather patterns.  Okay, so let me get this straight, when Torchwood isn’t hunting alien flotsam and jetsam, they’re meteorologists?

Primary School:  At a very generic looking primary school, a little girl, Jasmine, forgotten by her mother and stepfather-to-be and bullied by her peers, who I recognize from “The Idiot’s Lantern” is making her way home from school, alone.  She’s followed by something infinitely more creepy than Crashchime, a many who pervs on little girls.

He tries to abduct her when she crosses under a bridge, by claiming he’d been sent by her mother.  In what I really appreciate, the kid isn’t the tradition pretty little victim.  She’s knows something is off, but can’t get away.

An unseen force causes gale-force winds and the perv to let Jasmine go.  A disembodied voice says quotes William Butler Yeats, “The Stolen Child” with “Come away, O human child!”    Now, I’ve studied this poem and it was at this point I realized I didn’t need to watch any more in order to understand how this was going to end.  Of course, being the dedicated recapper I am, I’ll watch the whole thing to stare at my boyfriend, Ianto.

Jasmine is eerie as she smiles while watching the perv’s panic.  It’s clear she’s seen this before.  As soon as she’s safe, the winds die down and she goes merrily skipping on her way.

Lecture:  Jack’s taken Gwen on their first date to Estelle’s lecture on fairies.  Scoffing at the topic, Gwen is shushed by Jack, as he claims Estelle is an old friend.  Just like the poem, I don’t need to see any more of this scene to know what that means but being the dedicated recapper I am, I’ll watch Captain Jack flirt with the little old lady.  It’s really adorable.

Gwen’s stepped into a long running argument between Estelle and Jack.  Jack thinks all fairies are bad, Estelle the opposite.  But what is far more interesting to Gwen is not the fairy debate, but that Estelle claims to have known Jack’s father.  Again, we all know where this is going, but Gwen’s a little petulant at spending the whole day stuck with an old lady talking about fairies.  It’s totally out of character for her and I’m not sure if she accidentally put on her bitchy panties this morning, but really, she’s not chasing monsters or accidentally stabbing people.   It’s a good day for her.

Back with the perv, he’s having a nervous breakdown.  I’d feel badly for him, but he’s a perv, so he could get hit with a falling piano and I’d be meh.  Actually, if he did get hit with a falling piano, I’d probably laugh.

He’s being followed by Crashchime and associates, which so sound like the next law firm in a Whedonverse show.  He starts chocking and coughs up some rose petals.  It certainly makes the rose petals on Jack’s desk earlier take on a sinister tone, even if 230948929834 fanfics thinks it’s actually a token from my boyfriend Ianto.  Okay, for future reference, I could so do without the vomiting rose petals.  In fact, I’d really like to stop all simulated vomit ever on television.  Blowing someone away with 100 bullets is fine by me.  Dropping a piano on someone is totally cool.  Vomit on the other hand, is always unnecessary.

The only way he can save himself is to be arrested.  Suddenly, I’m taking Estelle’s versions of fairy-life.  Crashchime isn’t so bad.

Jasmine’s:  She’s arrived home safe and sound and her mother is furious she took such a risk.  Jasmine, on the other hand, is quite confident in her otherworldly protectors.

Estelle’s:  Gwen may have on her bitchy panties, but she’s not unobservant, seeing an old photo of Jack on Estelle’s mantle.  Jack tries to pass off that Estelle was his father’s old flame.  Neither Gwen, nor the fandom, buys it for a minute.

In an attempt to prove her theory right, Gwen asks Estelle about Jack’s father, getting the answers she was expecting.  Estelle, Jack and Jack’s father never met, in fact, everything about Jack is the same as his father, same walk and the same smile.

Interrupting, Jack asks Estelle to contact him if she ever sees Crashchime and company again.  He’s so sweet saying goodbye that I melt into a big puddle of fangirly goo on my couch.  My snarky side wonders if he’s not being a little too obvious in front of Gwen.

After leaving Estelle’s Jack confesses that whatever Crashchime and company are, they’ve been around since the dawn of time.  They’re made up of myth and memory, that we pretend is all goodness and light but can only be seen out of the corner of your eye.  In other words, they’re like the Doctor.  He’s mythic and part of our collective memory.  We like to pretend he’s the most wonderful person ever, but he’s capable of such horrible things and just like the fairies, sometimes he needs someone to stop him.   For the fairies, Jack’s hoping he can be to the fairies what he never was to the Doctor.

Of course, Jack only tells Gwen about the fairies.  He can’t even confess his deep and lasting love for Estelle so imagine if he tried to explain his relationship with the Doctor.

At Jasmine’s home, she’s escaping off to the woods while her stepfather-to-be is thinking she’s a friendless weirdo.  Yeah, well, if I had a stepfather-to-be who thought of me that way, I’d be escaping into the woods as often as possible.  Besides, with friends like Crashchime, who’d want to sit and watch television anyway?  Real life magical creatures versus sitting on your ass?  It’s so not a contest.

Back at the Hub, Gwen is doing her best impression of Agent Scully, scoffing at the idea of fairies because the Cottingley photos were fakes.  She knows this because she wrote and essay about it in school.  That’s a logistical fallacy along the lines of “I read it on Wikipedia.”  Although, we all know when Gwen says something, Owen has to disagree but this time at least he does it nicely.  He says the woods where Estelle took the pictures has always been wild and that it’s been perceived as bad luck.

Jack’s certain it’s the fairies but none of the really cool technology Torchwood has can pick them up.  The only indication that fairies are present is strange weather patterns.  Al Gore is going to be so disappointed at this explanation of rapidly changing weather.  It’s not exactly a topic upon which one can make a documentary.

I know Jack is totally convinced the fairies are evil, but anything that makes a perv go into a police station and confess, just so they’ll be put away, are definitely all right in my book.  I laugh as he begs to be locked up.  Somehow, once it gets out what he’s in there for, he won’t be particularly safe their either.

The Torchwood agents take a trip to the woods to investigate.  After being shot down trying to catch Jack in a lie about the whole father/Estelle thing, she keeps scoffing at fairies.  She can easily accept that Jack was the man with whom Estelle fell in love, even though he’s barely changed in over 60 years, but fairies are too much for her?  Gwen, honey, show some consistency.

I do find it humourous that she’s the only one to get a glimpse of them out of the corner of her eye.  Ha!  Take that you doubter!

We get a quick flash of the fairies gong after the perv, and then we’re back at Jasmine’s home.  Her mother hears her talking to Crashchime and company but doesn’t see the fairies.  As pleased as she was to hear Jasmine laughing, it’s clear that the mother is feeling rather disconnected from her.  The child barely even makes eye contact with her mother, staring off at something we can’t see.  I just need to add that whoever cast this kid deserves some serious round of applause, as she’s so good at being ethereal that she doesn’t seem quite human, which I think was the point.

In the jail, the guards are puzzling over how a man in a locked cell, alone, can suddenly die.  Pulling rose petals out of the perv’s mouth, Gwen is amazed and so is Tosh.  For Jack, it’s something he’s seen before.

All right, the fairies totally had me until they started scaring Estelle.  Here is this darling elderly old woman, who has had two great loves in her life.  The first is Jack and the second is portraying fairies as docile sweet creatures.  You think they’d be happy with the positive press.

To be perfectly honest, I’m starting to feel this episode is dragging a little as we have a perfectly unnecessary scene back at the Hub where Jack explains that the fairies torture for sport, and have a connection with children.  The fairies have “chosen ones.”  Somehow, I think we are clever enough to figure that out for ourselves without the gratuitous Buffy the Vampire Slayer reference.  Since it is a long bit of fairly boring exposition where the death of the perv is used as a jumping off point for a neat jumping off point to give us the etymology of the word nightmare.   Apparently the “mare” part comes from a creature that used to suffocate people.  I could easily argue that nightmares as caused by pervs as opposed to some mythical creature but I guess that isn’t proper etymology.

A panicked call from Estelle gets the Torchwood team into action, but not before it is too late.  As the TT-SUV races to Estelle’s, a sudden rainstorm hits, and it’s centered over her home.  What’s really creepy is that her cat, who is within hearing distance of his owner, can hear her agonizing cries.  The cat is perfectly dry despite the torrent just a few feet from him.

When the TT-SUV pulls up, we know it’s all over but the discovery.  After Owen confirms she died from drowning, a devastated Jack holds the body and weeps.  I totally start to tear up until Gwen picks the worst time ever to confirm about Jack being the one in love with Estelle.  Sweetheart, now is so not the right time to prove you're right!

Since there was absolutely nothing funny about that last scene, we move onto an equally unfunny scene at the Hub where Jack gets to make one of his long heartfelt confessions to Gwen.  Although, it’s not really a confession, it’s more of just answering Gwen’s questions.  I know it’s supposed to come off as exposition, but really, it comes off as tacky with Gwen asking about the rose petals so quickly after he’s lost Estelle.

Flashback to Lahore, 1909:  If it wasn’t for the nice title overlay telling me this was the past, I would’ve guessed from the sepia filters.  Jack was in charge of a squad of 15 soldiers.  One night, while out while carousing drunkenly, (out of curiousity can one carouse while sober?) some of the soldiers ran over one of the fairies’ chosen ones.  When will the fairies learn that when one chosen one dies, another takes her place.  Please, it’s Whedonverse law!.  In vengeance, all of the men, save Jack, were suffocated with rose petals.

Speaking of chosen ones, we’re back for a quick scene at Jasmine’s.  While the little girl is more than pleased by her supernatural visitors, the quick glimpses of the corner of her eye are terrifying her mother.

Rhys has had a fairly tough day at work as some woman there was angry with him for stealing her “special stapler.”  (I don’t even want to think about what that could possibly mean!)  Considering the day’s Gwen had, she’s thinking about far more than office supplies because her work has followed her home, literally.  Their flat is torn to shreds and sprinkled with rose petals.

The next morning, Jasmine’s stepfather-to-be is planning on taking away her access to the woods.  I’m not entirely sure why other than the fact he’s an asshole.  Considering he says to the little girl “No wonder your father left when you were a baby” I wouldn’t totally object to Crashchime and company paying a visit on him.  She’s momentarily crushed until she sees a fairy in the trees and waves at it.  The stepfather-to-be still thinks she’s crazy.

I’m getting the sense that karma is about to fall down like an anvil upon his head.

While Jasmine is at school, she’s picked on by two of her classmates but she refuses to say who did it.  Yeah, well, if I had Crashchime looking out for me, I wouldn’t worry about telling the teacher either.  There are some things in this world far worse than detention.

Gwen’s having a shit-fit about her flat being destroyed while Jack wanders around looking at her stuff.  Explaining that all fairies were once children, the only thing Crashchime wants is the next chosen one.  Again, it’s something we’ve already figured out, so this scene should be superfluous but for character development reasons, it’s memorable.

Back to the school, Jasmine is staring off at her supernatural friends (not Supernatural friends.  Jasmine would have to be much older to appreciate them) the two bullies come back to give her a proper beating.  As they throw her to the ground and start kicking, the wind rises, as does the hymn “Lord of the Dance.”   Oh my god, is Torchwood saying that the fairies are really Michael Flatley?!

In a quick scene-let (too short to be a full scene), Tosh has picked up the windstorm, despite the weather forecast being good and the team rush to Jasmine’s school.

It took me several times to figure out what was wrong with the scene at the primary school.  I’d watch it and it would suitably creep me out as I often had to sing that hymn as a child in Sunday School but now I’m always going to associate it with homicidal fairies.  As the children and playground equipment are blown about, Jasmine laughs but it isn’t the laughter that’s wrong.  It’s the fact while the children, teachers and objects are blown about by the strong winds, Jasmine doesn’t more.  There’s isn’t a ripple in her dress, and even her hair doesn’t move, beyond the little flyaway pieces that can be explained by her own laughter.  In the middle of this dangerous gust, Jasmine’s standing right in the eye of it.

We get a quick shot of the stepfather-to-be putting a fence up separating Jasmine from the woods.  You know, if he were doing this to keep her out of danger, then I would support him but instead he’s behaving as if this is a malicious act to torture her.  With a mother who is oblivious, a stepfather-to-be who hates her and a complete lack of human friends the idea of being taken by fairies probably sounds like a dream to this poor kid.

The TT-SUV pulls up to witness the aftermath of the storm.  We get our first proper Torchwood strut in the past two episodes, with Gwen, again, falling out of line by being distracted by the teachers cleaning up.  The fairies scare her back to her duties just in time to hear Jasmine’s teacher give the team her name.  

There’s a party at Jasmine’s.  Her mother is concerned about the friends the stepfather-to-be told her about and accuses Jasmine of making it all up.  This kid isn’t the chosen one, if anything; she’s that girl in the Buffyverse that turned invisible because people never noticed her.  Even when Jasmine is actually sharing all she knows about her friends, that they’ll keep her safe “even through time” and that her friends are everywhere and anywhere, I start to feel sorry for her mother.  All the mom wants is for her daughter to talk to her and be honest, and even though Jasmine is doing just that, what she’s saying is too fantastic to believe.  It makes me wonder that, if for a second, her mother believed her, if the ending of this episode would’ve turned out differently.

After listening to the stepfather-to-be demand she serve the food, Jasmine heads off to escape into the woods, only to find her way blocked.  The stepfather-to-be tries to, literally, drag her back to the party and when she resists, he slaps him.  Yes, she kicked him and bit him, but that was only after he grabbed her.  Most kids would do the same.  All right, I’m done with him now too, so Crashchime can come and deal with him now.

On the way back to the party, he hides his bitten hand, so clearly I’m not the only one who realizes he’s made a serious error in judgment.  The skies have gone from sunny to cloudy and thunder is heard in the background.  The wind rises as he tries to pretend nothing’s wrong, and not knowing the whereabouts of Jasmine.  As he makes an announcement that they’re planning to have their own children, I wonder how Jasmine could possibly ever want to stay with the human world.

Party crashers come in the form of Crashchime and company and I do, feel even worse for Jasmine’s mother; she has no idea what’s been done to earn the visit.  As the Torchwood team tries arrives and tries to usher everyone to safety, the stepfather-to-be is murdered in front of her.

Another one of the fairies tries to kill Jack, but what I find interesting is not that Gwen knocks him out of the way; it’s that the fairy doesn’t try a second time to kill its prey.  I’m guessing that creatures as old as the fairies recognize another immortal when they try to kill it.

As Jasmine escapes out the hole in the fence that was made for her by one of her “friends,” her mother weeps at the body of her boyfriend.  Rose petals spill from his mouth and I wonder why the only ones thinking of Jasmine are the Torchwood team.  I know the mother’s had a shock, but she saw her daughter witness the same thing.  I think I’m supposed to feel bad for Roy, which was his name if anyone cared, but I can't.  

In the forest, Jasmine insists she wants to stay and I can’t see a reason for her to stay either.  As the fairies flit about around them, Jack insists that Jasmine isn’t sure she wants to go with them, but that’s more Jack’s wishful thinking than anything.  Just because he doesn’t want to live forever, doesn’t mean that Jasmine, as small child with no concept of forever, or even time much beyond the present, doesn’t.  

Finally remembering her daughter, Jasmine’s mother is held back by Owen and Tosh, but all my sympathy for her is gone.  Usually, I’d feel this was the wrong choice, considering what they did to Estelle, but, despite that, the little kid in me, and in anyone who ever once was bullied by peers, or parents when they were little, has got to see that there is no other choice for Jasmine.  She sees the fairies’ power of life over nature and death not as an evil thing, but as something bigger and stronger that can finally stop others from hurting her.

She insists the world will end if she doesn’t go with them but she’s not a martyr.  Jasmine is done with human pettiness and wishes to move on.  I wish I could find something funny here, but there isn’t a thing.  

I’m not the only one who sees it, I think, as Jack makes a deal with the fairies; he will let Jasmine go, if they promise she won’t be harmed.  Listening to Jasmine, her voice changing to the unearthly voice of the fairies, he releases Jasmine to their care.    He sees it as sacrificing one little girl to save the rest of the world.  Gwen sees it as the worst possible outcome.

Just like in the rest of Jasmine’s life, the people around her aren’t thinking of what she wants.  It’s strange, that despite what they did to Estelle, and as awful as it was, I can’t see her leaving with them other than the only possible outcome that would be best for Jasmine.

As she skips off into the woods with her friends, the mother arrives, calling for her.  You know, I’ve seen Torchwood take down angry weevils, but it doesn’t surprise me they can’t hold a desperate mother.  My sympathy for her returns, because now she knows her daughter really was sharing the truth with her.  If she’d believed her daughter, maybe the outcome would’ve changed.

Unable to do anything else, the mother throws herself at Jack (not like that) weeping but she’s not the only one in tears, so are Jack and Gwen.

“I’m so sorry,” Jack tells the hysterical mother.

The rest of the team is equally as furious and while I can understand Tosh and Owen being angry, I’m annoyed that Gwen is as well.  She was <i>there.  What other choice did he have?  The team drives off in silence.

Later that night, I’m assuming it is night because the lights are dimmed even though there aren’t any windows in the Hub, Gwen is cleaning up the photos from the case.  Suddenly, one of the Cottingley photos appears on the screen behind her.  Examining it up close, Gwen gets a shock and I get a laugh, which is good as they’ve been few and far between in this episode.

One of the fairies in the photo is clearly Jasmine.  As we finish with some lines from Keats’ poem, all I can think is take that essay and stuff it, Gwen.

Not only is the photo not a fake, but also Crashchime kept its word, no harm came to Jasmine.

It makes me wonder why a mythical creature, which can live forever, would need to prove that it kept its promise to Torchwood.  Perhaps it’s just a professional courtesy from one immortal to another.