Torchwood finds it’s Way at ‘The End of the Road’ (Review)

I’ve found the past two episodes of Torchwood “Immortal Sins” and “End of the Road” have been the most compelling of this season. We’ve found our way back to what Torchwood is about at it’s core. It’s about Captain Jack Harkness and the mixed blessing/curse of his immortality and how that affects his relationships with those around him. It’s about love, relationship and all of those plus aliens, villains and the occasional world-wide conspiracy.

I’m disappointed that it took until the 7^th and 8^th episodes of a 10 hour series to hit this stride. Aside from my curiosity about Jilly Kitzinger and Oswald Danes in the earlier episodes, and Eve Myles selling the shit out of Gwen’s Wales storyline, the relationship between Jack and Angelo has been the most compelling of the season. 8 episodes in and I’m finally invested in the story.

It’s not that “Miracle Day” isn’t full of good ideas. The concept of no one dying (except for Jack), the crises attached to that, the emergency protocols with the categories and the secret burning are all brilliant, however with a combination of bad acting (I’m looking at you Mekhi Phifer), poorly fleshed out characters the execution just wasn’t there.

Miracle Day had all the ingredients for a brilliant series and frustratingly couldn’t make it as wonderful as it should be. With only 2 episodes left to prove that it can do something great with the fantastic concepts introduced.

Only in “End of the Road” did the story start to come together. The introduction of category zero finally brought Oswald Danes closer to the story in a way that makes sense (because the whole relationship with PhiCorp makes zero sense at all). It also explains why our lovely Jilly Kitzinger has been putting him with him for so long. She is the one new character I’m still dying to learn more about.

I wanted to be more engaged with Ester, he’s likable but quite neutral for the most part. If this season had a longer run I think she would have had some room to grow. She’s sort of peripheral yet essential part of the team; we know a sketch of who she is without really getting too close to her. I wish Ester’s sister storyline had been more central earlier on instead of dragging on with less interesting details (and less Rex), it’s got a lot of juice given what was introduced in “End of the Road”, it might have been interesting to go down that road earlier.

The poignant scene she had when she turned her sister into the authorities finally had payoff that folded into the main plot in the most recent episode. Her unstable sister scarred from the world has volunteered herself and her children as category one.

A horribly unsettling idea that government sanctioned suicide and being allowed to take your children with you is now part of this new world. It’s brilliant and terrifying and I wish this was introduced earlier because this is the stuff that Torchwood does so well.

It took until now for and voluntary category ones, this is the compelling stuff.

“Immortal Sins” brought us back to where we needed to be. It set up Jack’s relationship with Angelo, introduced the family, it made us understand who Jack is, get closer to understanding him and his immortality and the mess he makes of everyone elses life by being they way he is. We finally get to where Jack is central and important, that is where we needed to be. This episode set up everything we needed for “End of the Road” allowing us to jump right onto who is causing the miracle, closer to the why and how as well. Finally some clear direction for both the Miracle plot and for Captain Jack.

I adored Jack and Angelo’s love story, it’s tragic as all of Jack’s relationships tend to end. The curse of his immortality and never ending capability to keep falling in love. One Jack’s wonderful traits is his capacity for love and understanding beauty. This is something that if you are new to the series this season you wouldn’t understand until now. Jack’s scene next to Angelo on his death bed was beautiful. A very old man who never stopped loving him and despite what his granddaughter thought, Jack was not disgusted by age, he still saw the man he loved, who stayed in his heart.

When Jack talked about Ianto we could see in his voice and his face that the hurt of the loss was still fresh. For Jack these losses just keep mounting as he grows older yet stays the same while the people he loves grow old, and die. He, like the Doctor, lives a long and lonely life. Understanding this life, not just by telling but by showing is essential to Torchwood’s core.

But why didn’t we jump into the fun stuff, the mucky stuff the relationships, the alien tech and real stuff about morphic fields (not simply saying the word a bunch of times) sooner?

Torchwood is about Jack, relationships, sex, aliens and adventure. It took long enough but now we’ve got it. Although I do have my reservations about Torchwood joining the CIA and concern about focusing on new characters, I’m finally excited to see the next two episodes.

Have you been enjoying Torchwood this season or do you think it’s been lacking since the move to America? Do you think it will manage a turnaround in the next couple episodes? Let me know in the comments.