This episode alternates between fun and horrible in a way that only Torchwood can pull off.
The fun begins when Gwen arrives back in Wales (I’d forgotten that she goes back so soon!) and we get to spend some time with her family. She gets annoyed with her mother for dressing Anwen in pink, but her mum’s no pushover, having obtained a map of the overflow camp and the determination to get her husband back.
Jack has a little fun with Rex, telling the paramedics he’s his boyfriend, and receiving the finger in return. I still like the interplay between them, and this scene in fact goes beyond that. When Jack returns, Vera and Esther announce that they’re going off undercover too, despite his instructions, leaving him alone. The team is so close that they know how to push everyone else’s buttons.
But then everything falls apart as Vera goes on her tour of the overflow camps, led by one of the creepiest characters in the Whoniverse. Colin Moloney sports a Southern accent similar to that other creepy guy from Doctor Who: Day of the Moon, and apparently Southern values as well, surprised as he is that the female Vera could be a doctor and thinking it appropriate to flirt with her. I do have to admit that I felt the slightest bit of sympathy for him when he admitted that he was just trying to do the best he could, having been put in charge of the situation, while Vera turned hysterical. But then he seemed a little too happy about being able to get away with her murder, and he reverts to being a horrible person.
Vera’s fate is soon to be witnessed by Rex, who’s wandering around with a video camera. I couldn’t help wondering why he couldn’t wear the contact lenses (they could drop that crap about them being isomorphic for Gwen) – surely they’d be less conspicuous? Maybe it was because Rex needed to narrate what was happening. In any case, his face as he watched Vera dying was heartbreaking. She was so desperate to get out, and he so desperate to get in, and neither of them could do a thing about it. I’d forgotten that it only takes five episodes for Vera to die, given how wonderful Arlene Tur is in the role.
Of course, even if Rex had used the contacts, there wouldn’t be anyone back at base to watch, as Jack goes on a somewhat pointless mission to get Oswald to reveal Phicorp’s prior knowledge of the Miracle. The most unsettling thing about this is where Jack promises Oswald that he will help him die, because he knows that’s what he wants. Even if that’s true, it’s unlike Jack to encourage someone to die – early Jack, at least. I’m thinking Out of Time, where it took John much convincing before Jack would let him commit suicide. And while Oswald may know that he’s a monster, he doesn’t seem that bad compared to Moloney.
I end this review with a point of confusion. When Vera asks whether Torchwood are investigators, Jack replies that they’re more like freedom fighters. No... I’m pretty sure you’re investigators. You only became freedom fighters when the last thing you investigated corrupted the government into handing over the world’s children. And then you ceased to exist. And you came back when the Miracle needed investigating – you didn’t start fighting for freedom until you realised people were using the Miracle for awful reasons. So if they really wanted to keep that line in, if they wanted to draw the parallel with terrorists, they could have at least expanded it a bit.
No comments:
Post a Comment