Watching Doctor Who

This is the reaction post for Torchwood series 2, episode 11: Adrift. Bit of a tear-jerker, this one. Not bad as far as Chris Chibnall scripts go, though. What did you think about this episode? If you are interested in my usual brand of random reaction post, click past the spoiler barrier.

You know you want to…

As per usual, I have only seen this episode once, so these are my impressions based on that one viewing. To begin with, this episode was a bit depressing. I mean, all of these people gone missing. So few of them manage to make it home, and the ones that do are broken somehow. (Hey. Does this remind anyone of what happened to Ace? And also those kids from Survival? Hmmm…)

PC Andy is back again, and this time he’s trying to guilt/annoy/ask for Gwen’s help. She tries so hard to help without dragging him into Torchwood’s area of expertise. Then Rhys wants to talk about having children and tells her to deal with work at work. Everyone is pushing her, so she goes and compiles data.

Really, if Jack had just told her what was going on, or maybe remembered how she found Torchwood in the first place, much of this might have been averted. Not that she wouldn’t have necessarily brought Jonah’s mother there anyway, but still…perhaps she would have understood better. Has anyone else noticed that when Gwen really wants to connect with someone she takes both of their hands? Interesting character trait.

Gwen walking in on Jack and Ianto was bound to happen eventually. They’ll have to remember to lock the door in future. Not that she was all that unwelcome. I wonder if she’d cheat at naked hide and seek like Jack does. Anyway, I found it interesting that Ianto kept trying to get Jack to help her, and even went so far as to leak her information. After the meeting when all of the others told Gwen to leave it, Ianto actually went to try and talk Jack ’round. Interesting dynamic that those three have going on.

We didn’t see very much of Owen this week, but it was good to see that his wound continuity remains intact. Tosh was just as shocked as Gwen was at the room full of missing people, and was completely willing to help her with data compilation without Jack’s knowledge. In the end, though, she agreed that they’d done all that they could.

A few things really stuck with me. Jack tucked to the side of the doorway, watching Gwen as she put the missing person files away. I really get the feeling that, however badly done, he really was trying to protect her from this whole situation. Jonah’s scream, and the reason behind it. He looked into the heart of a dark star, I think they said. Interesting. That’s the old term for Black Hole. I wonder how that happened. Jack saying that it was like the Rift was trying to correct its mistakes. As though that Rift had some sort of consciousness.

Well, that’s about it. I’m glad that Rhys was finally there for Gwen in the end. I wonder if they retconned Jonah’s mother later. And I’m really curious about next week’s episode.

What did you all think about this episode?

Torchwood, Adrift