Friday 10 July 2009

Torchwood: Children of Earth - Part Five - SPOILERS

OK.

WOW.

I don't know what to say.

That episode broke all the rules regarding Russell T Davies' writing and shows us how he can get away with doing so much more in an adult context.

OK, so the first half of the episode was quite talky, and concerned itself a lot with getting people into the places they needed to be in. But then you got the Frobisher sequence.

I was on the edge of my seat. The performance, editing, directing... the choice of underscoring it all and then just hearing the bullets, seeing nothing...

And then, everything that followed on from that. Getting Jack out of Prison, Gwen and Rhys and PC Andy and Ianto's sister and her husband.... All the kids...The politicians... the Military...

And then, the sacrifice. Jack chose to use his own grandson. Because he was nearby. It's the same sort of sacrifice we saw from Jack in the fairy episode back in Season 1, but this time... his own grandson. How could you do that??

And that ending...

It goes against the grain for me to say this, but I want that to be the end of Torchwood. And Captain Jack.

That ending was downbeat, depressing, and real. Which, for a show that in its past has been attacked by a Cyberman in stilettos, kept a pteradactyl under Cardiff and has had more stupid moments than you could shake a particularly large stick at.. is impressive.

It showed us that Jack is not "indestructable" as various people have described him. He's immortal. That doesn't stop the pain. He's going to run as far as he can for as long as he can. To escape what he's done. And every night, when he sleeps, he'll remember.

Yes there were plot holes - Dekker has been around for all 5 days, but for no apparent reason other than to rubbish peoples ideas and be randomly shot in the foot, how come the soldiers knew AS SOON as the 456 were destroyed and stopped trying to take the children from Gwen, if Bridget Spears was wearing the contact lenses, who was recording them? And more to the point, who's going to continue to employ Gwen? Does she become de-facto head of Torchwood now? Since there's no-one left?

But still - for pure drama - 9.5/10

Near perfection.

Do I want to see more Torchwood? I'm torn. Because the end was SO good.

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