“At ease, Ensign, before you sprain something” - Janeway

By Rhea Dee

Torchwood, you made me very sad. I am very upset with you. You are a sad show and you made me cry. I hate you (not really, I actually love too much, which is why I feel so effing betrayed).

We begin right where we left off last episode, John Hart being all possessive lover man, the team battered and bruised from the bombs he set off, and a special appearance by Gray, Jack’s brother who is held captive by John.

As the team heads to Rhys’s tiny car (the SUV got stolen) Tosh notes that there are several peaks of rift activity across Cardiff; at the Center Server, the police station and the hospital. The team splits up to deal with the respective problems at each location while Jack heads back to the Hub to try and find John.

Jack arrives at the Hub, only to be machined gunned by John (right after John said he loved him too, it’s so weird and Spike-ish but I love it) while the rest of the team handles the alien threats in their buildings. Jack comes back to life, tied up and wet (nice) while John fiddles around with Torchwood equipment. Finally, John drags Jack across town to the City Centre. He calls the rest of the team and tells them to head up to the roofs of their respective buildings. Once they do, half of Cardiff blows up. The team is left to look out at the damage, helpless, while John drags Jack away into a rift opening.

John and Jack arrive in Cardiff at about 27 AD, before the city was built. John then explains to a dubious Jack that he was under control of someone else, that someone else forced him to set those explosions. If John opposed, he would explode. John proves this to Jack by showing him that his wrist cuff is molecularly bonded to his skin, allowing John to be controlled so that he didn’t step out of line. Before Jack can really process this information, Gray steps out into the clearing. Jack rushes up to him, hugging him, apologizing for letting him go all those years ago.

Gray hugs him back…and then stabs Jack in the chest. Jack discovers that Gray is the one who’s been controlling John, and that Gray who is behind the explosions in Cardiff.

Gray tells Jack that the aliens that captured him all those years ago tortured him mercilessly and that he blames his fate on Jack. He then forces John to dig a grave, telling Jack that he’s going to bury him alive, and that Jack will be locked in a permanent state of dying, coming back to life, and then suffocating on dirt, over and over. Before John piles the dirt onto Jack, he throws in a ring which he tells Gray is of sentimental value.

Back in the future, Tosh, Owen, Ianto and Gwen try to navigate through the destruction of the city. Tosh discovers that the nuclear power plant is going to have a meltdown that will destroy the city. Gwen rounds up all the police officers to go out into the city to help calm the panic. She then heads back to the Hub to try and find Jack.

Instead she finds John. She draws her gun but John explains to her that he wasn’t under his own control. He tells her that Gray let him go, but he decided to come back here to help the rest of the team. John shows her the molecularly bonded bracelet, which falls off him wrist, revealing that he’s no longer under Gray’s control. Gwen reluctantly accepts his story, but then a piercing wail echoes throughout the city. Gray is in the Hub, and he’s released the captured Weevils. The piercing wail has also brought the sewer Weevils up to the surface. Gwen and John tackle the Hub Weevils and then Gwen calls the rest of the team to discuss their next move.

Tosh tells everyone that they have to stop the nuclear meltdown from happening. Owen says he’ll go, since he’s the only one who can get past the Weevils (since they fear him) and tells Tosh to guide him through the process. He heads down to the Nuclear Power Plant, and awaits Tosh’s instructions.

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Back at the Hub, Ianto, John and Gwen have got the Weevils under control. As they’re locking them into their cages, the doors close behind them trapping each member inside with a Weevil. They try to call Tosh, but their earphones are down. Gray pops out of the shadows, looking menacing. Great.

Back upstairs, Tosh is guiding Owen through the shutdown process. She stops suddenly, and Owen asks her if she’s alright. Tosh looks down at the blood pouring out of her stomach, and looks up to see that Gray has shot her. She falls and he unplugs her computer and kicks her communication device down to Owen’s autopsy pit.

Suddenly, there is a loud banging noise echoing through the Hub. Gray goes to investigate, leaving Tosh. Tosh sees her communication device, and then slowly begins to drag herself down towards Owen’s autopsy area.

Tosh finally reaches her device. She realizes that it’s too late to stop the reactors; instead the meltdown will have to be converted inward. Tosh tells Owen that the flow will be diverted into the room he’s in, but that she’ll program a time delay for the doors so he can escape. Unfortunately, it’s too late for that, and the emergency doors have been activated. Owen runs for the door but he is trapped. He starts screaming in fury, yelling that he doesn’t want to die again, that he can’t go back. Tosh begs him to stop, telling him that he’s breaking her heart. Owen calms down and apologizes to Tosh. He tells he regrets that they missed each other by a few inches, and that they’ll never know what could’ve been between them.

The reactor starts to beep, indicating that the flow is about to be released into Owen’s room.

“It’s alright, Tosh. It’s really alright,” he tells her, just before the room floods.

Meanwhile, Gray is still trying to locate the banging. He follows the noise to the alien morgue. He opens one of the containers and there’s Jack, very much not buried underground.

Jack looks at Gray and tells him that he forgives him.

We quickly flashback to Torchwood 1901. Team 1901 has stumbled upon Jack via a radiation spike (from John’s ring) and Jack begs them to freeze him, setting the timer for 107 years, so that he won’t cross his past self and will be able to return to his own time.

Back to the present. After Jack forgives Gray he begs for the same in return. Gray says he can never forgive Jack for what he did. Jack hugs Gray and then chloroforms him.

Jack goes the Weevil holding cells and releases Gwen, Ianto and John. They rush back upstairs and find Tosh, bleeding to death. Jack holds her in his arms and she smiles at him, before she dies.

Back in the morgue, Jack freezes Gray. John suggests that death may be the release Gray needs, but Jack tells him there will be no more death. John reveals that he’s going to stay on Earth for a while. He kisses Jack goodbye (on the cheek. Damn).

Upstairs, Jack and Gwen pack up Owen and Tosh’s personal belongings. Ianto closes Owen and Tosh’s profiles, permanently. After he closes out Tosh’s profile, a prerecorded video pops up, thanking Jack for rescuing her, and telling Owen that she loved him.

“I hope I did good,” she says.

The three watch Tosh’s goodbye tearfully.

“Now we carry on,” Jack says.

“I don’t think I can, after this.” Gwen admits.

He wraps his arms around Gwen and Ianto.

“You can. We all can. The end is where we start from,” Jack replies.

Why? Why did this episode have to be so effing SAD?!? As if there weren’t enough sad episodes in this entire season.

That said, this season of Torchwood was amazing. They really knew how to pack in the emotion so that you really felt it. Exit Wounds executed heartbreak perfectly. I couldn’t believe it, but I was truly bawling. No dramatic tear rolling down one cheek, but full on tears. I couldn’t see the TV for a second, that’s how much the waterworks were flowing. It’s difficult to find a show that has that kind of emotional resonance, for me.

But what does this mean for the future? Who will take Owen and Tosh’s place? Martha? Rhys? Andy? Someone new? Torchwood may have ended on a sad note, but there is still a lot ahead for its future.

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Rhea Dee loves being a geek. She also loves female revenge flicks, campy horror, trashy novels and rock ‘n’ roll records. Rhea’s love for rock ‘n’ roll led her to be a regular contributor for the now defunct Now Wave webzine. She’s all about Edgar Wright. Important to know.