So this is it. After twelve exciting(?) episodes, it comes down to this. One man, one team, and one fridge. (They really should have a decent check of those things. Half of them probably contain Jack going one way or the other.) It’s typical of the series that it reveals “oh, this was worked in long ago, only no-one said anything”. How fortunate. It’ll part and parcel of the last episode that is Jack… I mean Torchwood. Although it really is Jack. This whole series is Jack, to be honest, with minor diversions, so it’s not too surprising that Jack is ultimately the cause of all the troubles here. Frankly, I’m surprised events haven’t been retconned into having that Jack was the reason Torchwood was created in the first place!

But aside from that plot which wraps itself up easily without real impact, we have the other plot of one man, one woman, and one nuclear power station. While it starts as a convenient ticking clock for the plot, it soon develops into one of the harshest character moments of all. Dear, dear Tosh and Owen. Although Owen’s been running on borrowed time, what did Tosh ever do to anyone? One could argue that without Owen, her character arc didn’t really have anywhere to go, meaning she was an easy choice for dramatic impact (and the Declassified does remake the point that no-one makes it past 35 in Torchwood, so someone will have to die sooner or later), I think we all know that the real reason Tosh was chosen was because they couldn’t kill Gwen and Tosh was the only choice left for a death the audience might care about. I’m sure they got their tears with that decision. (Owen’s death was frankly housekeeping, and should have happened several episodes earlier, but he probably had a contract to fulfill…) [In the Declassified Burn says that no-one wants a twelve minute syrupy death scene... just as well everyone threw out their stop watches in series one then!]

Basically, this episode was two plot lines, with Gwen, Ianto and Captain John shoehorned in (not to mention Rhys and PC Andy). Yes, it’s nice to focus on the characters, but once again Torchwood proves that the team is too large to really have an effective story involving all of them. Perhaps this is why it was whittled down. That is, if it stays whittled. If there is a series three, there is a little bird tweetering about who could be coming in, but if so that will be a huge change in style. The leading question for this might be: what’s more important, style or ratings? And then, will it really be Torchwood? Then again, seeing what we have, so we want this Torchwood anyway?

Yes, there have been some great moments, but this episode does prove that there is still some focusing of the series that needs to be done.

JE

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