Theory:Torchwood television discontinuity and plot holes/Rendition

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This page is for discussing the ways in which Rendition doesn't fit well with other DWU narratives. You can also talk about the plot holes that render its own, internal narrative confusing.

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• Colorado state flag et al. While DC is ultimately under the control of Congress, it does have a limited municipal government (yes housed in the John A. Wilson Building). It may ave to be chalked up to lazy writing that the characters refer to it as "city hall". May, I've got little clue as to what term is commonly used in DC for the building in reference to governance, the mayor, or council. It would also be usefull to actually know how the building is decorated as it is not beyond reason that it may have representations, including flags, of the 50 states.

It's somewhat inaccurate, but not at all uncommon, to refer to the Wilson Building as "City Hall". Both locals (look up some of Marion Barry's old campaign speeches) and the national media do it all the time. Or, less inaccurately, some people refer to the function, rather than the building, as City Hall. For example, in 2001, Mayor Anthony Williams talked a lot about moving City Hall back to the Wilson Building (when the government was temporarily convening at One Judiciary Square during remodeling). I haven't seen it since the remodel, but in the late 90s (when DC government only took up about a third of the building, and various federal subagencies took up most of the rest), the lobby had a large Seal of the District in front of the flags of the 50 states.

That does bring into question two of the "Production errors" listed in the article.

Just because there is (or used to be?) a semicircle of state flags in the lobby of the building doesn't mean that there are also state flags randomly scattered around the building where you'd expect to see the District (or maybe US) flag instead, so that one really is a production error.

In fairness, I think it's reasonable to call it a production error unless the production staff made a conscious choice (given the real-world precedence) to imply that various state flags were indeed present in this building.

• Why isn't there a greater attempt to question or follow agent Peterfield given that she seems to be aware of either: a) Jack is mortal? or b) Arsenic still kills post-miracle? Given that Oswald Danes doesn't die from Lethal Injection, are there catagories of poisions that still work? Perhaps Jack still is slightly immortal - and this explains why he wasn't killed after being injected with boiled degreaser.
  

No, if there were categories of poisons that still worked, then we wouldn't be hearing that everyone who's attempted suicide has failed. Either (a) she knows Jack is mortal, or (c) she doesn't know that arsenic no longer works, but your option (b) is impossible. And either way, she definitely knows Jack is mortal now, because he and Gwen openly talked about it while she was there.

So you're saying that either a) She is their first lead that actually knows exceptions to the Miracle (highly desirable for questioning, even on the plane). or c) Peterfield received orders (forwarded from the triangle people) without any instruction on how they may be accomplished - although she didn't seem to be guessing since she didn't give Jack cyanide (instead of, or in addition to arsenic).

I think (a) is more likely. And yes, that does leave the mystery of why they didn't feel the need to question her further. But really, even if it's (c), there's no way for Jack and Gwen to _know_ that it's (c) rather than (a), so it leaves the exact same question.

Reflecting on Peterfield, her reluctance to take the "Poison", even when it means blowing her cover, suggests that "c" she expected arsenic to work (on herself)(she thought "b" was true)... Unless she felt that the discomfort of metabolizing arsenic wouldn't be worth keeping her double-agent secret (which suggests that she'd be easy to interrogate)... and "c" (still) that her bosses (the triangle people) knew that they were giving her an order ("Remove" "JH") that she wouldn't have a clue about - unless "a" were true and "b" is false (and she's a wimp)... What was her motivation again, and why doesn't Torchwood care?

Well, massive acute arsenic poisoning would be pretty unpleasant even if it didn't actually kill you—and, more important, incapacitating. You saw what it did to Jack. (In real life, there would be a lot more vomiting and other unpleasantness, but the same basic idea.) Her goal was either (a) to kill Jack or (c) to incapacitate him in a very unpleasant way so it would be easier to take in Torchwood and Rex when the plane landed. Her cover story is just a means to that goal, not important in itself. The "why doesn't Torchwood care?" question is, however, still a good one.

Weighing "pretty unpleasant" against exposing yourself as a double-agent, Peterfield is very very very lucky Torchwood didn't seem to care much (and that Jack is incapacitated). What is the punishment for being a double-agent again? That might be something you'd take cyanide to avoid (if not for the Miracle). Granted she may feel that she won't be on the plane much longer anyway, and then will escape further punishment.

It's not just pretty unpleasant; it's pretty unpleasant and completely pointless. The only people who will find out are Rex, Gwen, and Jack—who have already been set up to take a fall by her boss, who's also clearly in on it. So the penalty would be nothing at all.

If we assume that she wasn't a Triangle insider, and learned that Jack was mortal on the plane, and she happens to carry poison routinely... She must have been surprised that the Triangles seemed to know that Jack could be killed already (since they wanted him "removed")... She must also have felt that enduring the temporary pain (?) of swallowing poison wouldn't be worth keeping her cover and method of assassination secret - even though revealing herself would mean that Rex and Torchwood may be upset at her (different pain) and that she'd have identified the thing that's killing Jack (she probably didn't expect them to make an antidote).

True, if she didn't already know Jack was mortal, then when she discovered that on the plane, she presumably figured out that her bosses must have already known that. So what; why is that a narrative problem?

Narrative problem? Well, I guess it's a problem because Torchwood and the audience doesn't get anything from this encounter except a few one-liners, a couple punches, and a head-backwards shot - especially since we're expected to believe that Rex and Torchwood have lost all of their investigative skills (no questions for Peterfield)(assuming there are no other agents). What is the Torchwood story arc here (on the plane)? Gwen follows instructions to make EDTA, and Jack's health dips and then returns, Rex trusts Torchwood a little more but he still keeps them in handcuffs. Pardon, there's probably a reason why the story turned out this way and I just don't know what it is... It seems like Peterfield was the "Monster of the week", unless the story comes back to her later (what did she learn in this episode).

Clearly the narrative arc throughout this episode is about Rex and Torchwood coming together. The fact that he still has them in handcuffs just means that arc hasn't resolved yet. That happens when he lands, discovers he's been set up, escapes arrest, and goes on the run together with Jack and Gwen. You could just as well ask the point of the Rosencrantz and Guildenstern scene in Hamlet; the plot arc of Hamlet distrusting everyone around him was already begun before that scene, and wasn't completed until the Ophelia scene, so what did it add? It added further development to that arc—together with some great one-liners.

And Peterfield isn't a main character; she's essentially just a plot device—like Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, or IG-88. It doesn't matter what she learned or how she grew as a character, any more than it matters for those characters.

And yes, she probably didn't expect them to make an antidote. Remember, they were only able to do so because they had a contact she didn't know about, and it still required a series of unlikely (but not impossible) coincidences. (And it also required being on a TV show so that their MacGyver-chemistry would be precise enough to make an appropriate dose of EDTA without lethal contaminants.)

As for why they didn't try to question or follow her, well, they were being chased by the CIA.

The team had practically escaped already, to the point where they came to a stop in front of Peterfield (and looked awkwardly at each other) before driving around her. Perhaps they felt their car was already overcrowded (it wasn't an SUV), and they could always find her again for questioning (since they know she's CIA).

If they got out of the car right in front of the airport, got into a fight with a woman with her head on backward, and muscled her into the car with them, they probably wouldn't have gotten away. The CIA were a few feet from the car when they took off, so another minute of wasted time might have been enough. More importantly, instead of just having one group of CIA agents trying to catch them surreptitiously, they'd have carloads of airport security and local police after them. Maybe they would have gotten away, but it would be a silly risk to take—and one that Esther in her deer-in-the-headlights panic certainly wouldn't have taken.

Finally, Jack wasn't injected with boiled degreaser; he was injected with EDTA, which people are routinely injected to cure heavy metal poisonings and don't die from. (Of course the way it was made wasn't entirely realistic, but that's just dramatic license; the actual ingredients mentioned were correct.)

Also, it's made pretty clear, both on-camera and off, that Jack is supposed to be just a normal mortal now.