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Torchwood Exit Wounds |
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| Story No. | 26 | 
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| Production Code | Series Two Episode Thirteen | |
| Dates | April 4, 2008 |
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With John Barrowman, Eve Myles, Burn Gorman, Naoko Mori and Gareth
David-Lloyd.
Written by Chris Chibnall Directed by Ashley Way Executive Producers: Russell T Davies, Julie Gardner. |
| Synopsis: Captain Hart returns to wreak his revenge on Torchwood. |
Goodbyes by Noe Geric 6/11/24
The first two Series of Torchwood have been a real rollercoaster: going from the absolute worst (Day One) to the best (Random Shoes). It's with Exit Wounds that Chris Chibnall ends his run on the show. The man himself was responsible for the writing of some of the worst we've seen from the show. It's only in his last three episodes that he decided to improve. Adrift and Fragments were two excellent stories, mostly character driven. But Exit Wounds needs to be the epic conclusion to the John Hart/Gray arc. Can Chibnall manage it without making another mess like End of Days?
We began with a recap of the previous episode and immediately follow the team as they're going back to Cardiff. My first question is: Why is the title card included in this sequence? Couldn't it have been after the opening titles? Like in every other episode of the show?... No?... So, Torchwood gets back to Cardiff where there's a lot of stuff going on (oh no, not again... I hear you saying) with lots of threats that, this time, gets resolved in record time! The evil Monks are shots, the Hoix is paralysed, there's still John Hart but he's going back in time with Jack, while the city explodes. Then, they meet Gray a long time ago in the past, before Cardiff was even built, and the young brother wants his revenge on Jack!
It seems Chibnall is trying to do things right for his last episode, and it doesn't really disappoint this time. It couldn't have been as good as Adrift, but Exit Wounds is the sort of finale the show needed. The main problem is that, even with all this happening, I can't help but think it's really small. All the explosions can't hide the fact that only our regulars and the recurring enemies seems to be caught in the conflict. Of course, there's some policemen killed and a man been eaten by a Weevil... But all this doesn't feel like the big invasions from the Russell T Davies Doctor Who finale!
Gray is also defeated too simply! If it wasn't for John, Torchwood would've lost, and Jack would still be under the ground! And as much as he tries, Lachlan Nieboer just plays Gray as a spoiled little boy in a grown-up body. There are also a lot of things that don't makes sense about his ''genesis story'', but I'll pass on that. Andy is another cardboard recurring character in the middle of others, and nothing can change the fact that only Adrift used him intelligently in the show. He has just been one of these characters wandering around without any purpose for the last two series.
But if everyone remembers Exit Wounds, that's because it doesn't kill one but two of the Torchwood crew! (Three if you count Jack) Owen's last scene is perhaps one of my favorite of the show, but I still think the character was a bit wasted since he came back from the dead and accepted his fate. He only has one scene in Adrift, and his physical condition is barely mentioned in From Out of the Rain and Fragments. But I really admire the way they made him go on the best remix of the character's theme. As for Tosh... Her death would've been forgettable if it wasn't for her last words with Owen. We also finally get a small explanation as for her presence in Aliens of London. But the show wants you to cry your lungs out and... actually fails to do it. Adrift managed to be tearful because it showed how horrible Nikki's situation was; here you just see Tosh in a pool of blood crying, and you already know she's going to die. The effect isn't what Chibnall probably wanted. And all hail Gray, frozen in the hub, waiting for Jack to finally find a way of saving him from madness... before the hub explodes at the start of the next series.
Exit Wounds isn't a bad episode. It's here to show that nobody lives long while working at Torchwood. And, having seen Fragments, everybody knows what led Tosh and Owen to work for the institute. Their lives have been broken, they needed something to hang on... And that's where I don't understand what Gwen is doing here?! She had a job, a husband and a happy-life, and she lands in the hub, throwing bad looks at everyone and secretly criticizing their way of living without even having seen Fragments! I'll talk about Gwen in another review, but this episode makes me wonder why is she sticking with the crew when she's not the sort of person that should've joined the team!
As a season finale, it's less disappointing than End of Days. But it's still not the best way of wrapping-up everything. Children of Earth is on it's way, and it's going to be the highlight of the show. Chibnall manages to makes everything work without terribly crashing at the end (for once). A good farewell to Dr Owen Harper and Toshiko Sato. We all know who's next... 8/10