Torchwood: S04E03 - Dead of Night

I love Torchwood! Yes, it’s taken me three episodes into the new series to officially rediscover my passion for the programme, the depth of the writing and the cleverness of the plot, and what a plot! But enough about the Miracle Day; have discussed that enough over the past two weeks, so let’s get down on the episode itself. An episode full of character developments, dangerous discoveries, a million speculations in my mind and, oh yes: sex.

PhiCorp! Now that is a clever plotline: A drug company that’s been holding back on, and mass-producing, pain killing drugs over the past year for, it seemed, the Miracle Day and even going as far as marketing them free! One has to wonder, and I’m calling it now if I’m true on this, whether there HAS been an alien intervention between PhiCorp and said as-yet-unknown alien race, for the pure purpose of gaining millions without realising the full effect the Miracle would have on the human race. Just a thought… nonetheless they seem quite happy to hire on Danes, the convicted murdering pedophile, as their spokesperson and again one has to wonder whether his being the first know survivor from the Miracle has to do more with it than Danes himself or his murder of the girl has something to do with it…

There’s also the government to consider, and that the fact of that they are remaining silent on the matter. Okay yes they’re in the dark about it as much as everyone bar PhiCorp BUT it seems to be standard procedure for, say, the President to address his country upon matters of major change. Indeed it seems odd, as if they have been silenced for an as-yet-unknown reason. A lot of that going about – unknown reasons – and with seven episodes left, there’s plenty of times to get a reason involved in some way or another, and since this IS Torchwood, the reason has to be Other World-ly, or else it just wouldn’t be right, would it?


Speaking of Torchwood itself, a rather tender moment within the episode must have gotten fans of the first three series, and especially the Children of Earth saga, a little bit emotional – at the mention of Ianto and ‘dead friends’, of how if the Miracle had come just slightly earlier Ianto, Owen and Tosh might have still been with them. But it’s thoughts like these that can get anyone into deep psychological trouble, which is also a reason why Vera became so stressed; the thought of her mother, only recently deceased… she could have saved her if she knew. For that, I can only quote a good friend of many on matters similar: “It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live.” (Points go to those who can tell me who said this and where it’s from.)

One also must skip back to the mentioned charactorial (it’s a word, damnit!) development of the two newer Torchwood member and our main antagonists of this series, that is to say Esther, Rex, Jilly and Oswald. All so very different characters but all so perfectly evolving, if only slowly. We have Esther, whom we find out has an older sibling who cannot cope with the world, a true occurrence within family units and people in general, and Esther is just a wonderful ‘human’ character amid the hard men Rex and Jack and strong-willed Gwen; someone most would be able to connect with and one just hopes, again linking her to Gwen in personality, that Esther doesn’t lose her ignorance too much, that she doesn’t get leadership forced upon her at any times like Gwen did.

Then there’s Rex; we now discover that he and Vera have a more intimate relationship than one could have speculated. He’s a very confused character, knowing the terrible situation he’s been thrown in, hoping there is an escape route but knowing – even after walking out on the team – he’s in it too deep now to even want to throw it all in. Of course he doesn’t seem as, shall we say ‘weak minded’, as set upon in the first episode – it’s now known he doesn’t think ahead, but he’s working on it, he’s working on it…


Finally there’s Jilly and Oswald. Jilly Kitzinger is still very much a mystery character, someone who you KNOW has a questionable backstory but have to accept that, as it’s more than likely deeply tied into the main plot, her past cannot be revealed with ease. But I do love Lauren Ambrose’s performance as the character; played with a kind of naïve innocence that sell well to the characters around her that Jilly’s trying to manipulate. Now, Oswald on the other hand… well, I’ve said a bit above already, and again I have to show my love for Bill Pullman and have to wonder what happened to Danes’ strained voice of the previous one and a half episodes, but the main thing I want to point out here is his immortal connection to the loveable Jack…

What do I mean? Simple: they’ve both murdered an innocent child. Okay, different circumstances entirely: Jack was forced to sacrifice his own grandchild to save the world and Oswald just got greedy, but the bare bones of it is both men are living in guilt as to what they’ve done and it has to be wondered whether Jack realised the true personal meaning behind his new-found mortality after the confrontation with the man, because now Jack can die, giving him peace so as to move on from the moral world, but Oswald now had to live with the pain he caused forevermore – Jack can understand that, but can he now get close enough to find a way to help, now that Oswald has the might of PhiCorp behind him.

Oh! Another note I must discuss before moving on: the Soulless – the new mass movement of people in masks inspired, no doubt, by V for Vendetta. It’s a questionable concept to say the least, that by living forever they have condemned the soul, yet surely this is poorly thought up? Isn’t it widely known that the soul lives forever, thusly being kept within the same body throughout the time, although not entirely healthy, isn’t a major difference in lifestyle? The Soulless should just be glad that the souls of previously deceased relatives aren’t trapped within the remains of the physical body…


Right, so that’s the main pointers for this week over. Of course there are plenty of things I’ve missed out like the reuse of the Contact Lens Camera last seen (and better executed in my opinion) in Children of Earth, also Gwen getting back into contact with Rhys and Anwen, and the Lost in Translation moments of British-to-American English (mobile = cell, petrol = gas, crisps = chips and trousers = pants to name a few!) and funny corny sex jokes regarding impaling. Anything I’ve forgotten, just comment it below and I’ll get back to you. ;) Now…

• Jack = 10/10 – A mortal man with mortal needs and a thousand lifetimes of regret – John Barrowman presents this amazingly within the episode, in fact it’s the first time in a long while one can look into Jack’s eyes and SEE the age played out.
• Gwen = 9/10 – The funny and sexy one once more. Smartly dressed for infiltration into PhiCorp, and demanding of Esther to be by her side as official translator. She also shows a real sensitive side in this episode, which was lovely.
• Rex = 8/10 – A hard man in a delicate body. That’s all that needs to be said for the moment.
• Esther = 9/10 – May I say now that I verily approve of her old job – if you come across this blog in future Esther: We love you! ;)
• Vera = 9/10 – Officially the unofficial member of Torchwood!

Episodic Rating: 9 out of 10; a LOT of development within the episode, but with new discoveries come greater threats and next episode, ‘Escape to L.A.’, may prove to delve into darker corners of the plot, and hopefully a view of the REAL thing behind the Miracle, including why a red phone keeps receiving one of the three Deathly Hallows on screen.


Now on a completely unrelated topic I have to mention that a while back I held a competition which had all but three entrances, if you remember Jack Painter won. Well I’m reminding readers all that the second competition which follows the same rules but started when Who ended in June and ends in exactly one month’s time (3rd September) is still on-going, with entrances in the non-existence range currently, so PLEASE do something. Details can be found, once again: here, so good luck!