Torchwood review 1.08
I've been mulling over this episode overnight, and I'm coming out on the positive side!
Great teaser - the team are called to a murder scene where the name Torchwood has been written on the wall in the blood of the victims. Gwen insists on the team using the glove to resurrect the victims to try and find out who is the murderer, in her impassioned way. Jack tries, but the glove only works for Gwen, in the same way that it only worked for Suzie. One of the victims reveals another link to Suzie so they decide that they need to resurrect her. Once resurrected, instead of dying after two minutes like a good girl, Suzie stays alive (cue the Bee Gees). Her and Gwen have a nice chat over coffee and biscuits, Gwen takes Suzie to see her father and complains of a headache. Meanwhile the rest of the team are locked in the hub and resort to poetry and the help of the police to let them out. Turns out that Suzie is sucking the life out of Gwen including transferring her injuries, and that destroying the glove is the only way to fix it. Jack shoots Suzie several times, Gwen dies, Tosh shoots the glove, Gwen lives and Ianto propositions Jack to give us a nice happy ending.
Much better episode in my opinion - more evenly paced and there was even a plot! I've found that many of the earlier episodes spent a long time setting up the story and the last ten minutes trying to wrap it up as quickly as possible. I realise that there was an inherent advantage in using established characters, but it was still well done. Still slightly worried about Torchwood's record - they can't seem to save themselves from themselves, let alone the rest of us from something more sinister!
I do have some minor niggles (it's Torchwood, what do you expect?). There was a certain amount of out of character stuff - last week Ianto is angsty with a belly full of rats, this week he is delivering deadpan quips and up for fun with Jack. Gwen's confrontation scene with Jack was just weird and didn't really fit the story although I loved Jack's opening lines about his acrobat twins. I also expected some outcome to the revelation from Suzie that she was sleeping with Owen. I'm sure some fanfic will cover Gwen's reaction to that soon. I'm also a bit suspicious because Suzie couldn't know for sure that Gwen would be the one to resurrect her - the fact that she got to have her revenge on her replacement was really accidental. But overall, much much better. Probably best episode so far - more of the same (but without the cheesy music montage) please!
Great teaser - the team are called to a murder scene where the name Torchwood has been written on the wall in the blood of the victims. Gwen insists on the team using the glove to resurrect the victims to try and find out who is the murderer, in her impassioned way. Jack tries, but the glove only works for Gwen, in the same way that it only worked for Suzie. One of the victims reveals another link to Suzie so they decide that they need to resurrect her. Once resurrected, instead of dying after two minutes like a good girl, Suzie stays alive (cue the Bee Gees). Her and Gwen have a nice chat over coffee and biscuits, Gwen takes Suzie to see her father and complains of a headache. Meanwhile the rest of the team are locked in the hub and resort to poetry and the help of the police to let them out. Turns out that Suzie is sucking the life out of Gwen including transferring her injuries, and that destroying the glove is the only way to fix it. Jack shoots Suzie several times, Gwen dies, Tosh shoots the glove, Gwen lives and Ianto propositions Jack to give us a nice happy ending.
Much better episode in my opinion - more evenly paced and there was even a plot! I've found that many of the earlier episodes spent a long time setting up the story and the last ten minutes trying to wrap it up as quickly as possible. I realise that there was an inherent advantage in using established characters, but it was still well done. Still slightly worried about Torchwood's record - they can't seem to save themselves from themselves, let alone the rest of us from something more sinister!
I do have some minor niggles (it's Torchwood, what do you expect?). There was a certain amount of out of character stuff - last week Ianto is angsty with a belly full of rats, this week he is delivering deadpan quips and up for fun with Jack. Gwen's confrontation scene with Jack was just weird and didn't really fit the story although I loved Jack's opening lines about his acrobat twins. I also expected some outcome to the revelation from Suzie that she was sleeping with Owen. I'm sure some fanfic will cover Gwen's reaction to that soon. I'm also a bit suspicious because Suzie couldn't know for sure that Gwen would be the one to resurrect her - the fact that she got to have her revenge on her replacement was really accidental. But overall, much much better. Probably best episode so far - more of the same (but without the cheesy music montage) please!