DAY TWO Original Transmission
Cast Captain Jack John Barrowman
Written by Russell T Davies (episodes 1, 3,
5)
Plot Outline from Wikipedia Gwen is quickly captured by government agents posing as paramedics trying to assassinate her, but she escapes and flees from Cardiff Bay and the remains of the Torchwood Hub. She surmises that soon they will be after her husband Rhys (Kai Owen); therefore, she returns home to him and takes him on the run with her. Ianto escapes as well (narrowly avoiding a sniper overlooking the Bay) and manages to communicate with his sister and to retrieve his laptop. Agent Johnson takes what is left of Jack's body (portions of his arms, skull and upper torso) to a secret governmental prison in the London area, where he slowly begins to regenerate from the recovered remains. First, his skeleton builds up, followed by his flesh and muscles. Finally his skin builds up and he regains consciousness. In response, Johnson fills Jack's cell with quick-drying cement in order to prevent his escape or release. Gwen and Rhys make it to London where they try to contact Frobisher; Lois meets with them and tells them Frobisher is the one who ordered their assasination, and gives them useful information about Jack's location: an impressed Gwen offers her a job with Torchwood if they survive what is coming. Gwen and Rhys try a desperate rescue mission, posing as undertakers recovering Rupesh's body from the same facility where Jack is held, but they are discovered and cornered by Johnson and her soldiers outside Jack's cell. However, before they can be killed, Ianto, (having managed to trace the van carrying Jack's remains), breaks out the concrete block containing Jack using a forklift truck, rescuing Gwen and Rhys in the process. The group then make their escape with Jack on the forklift truck, stopping only to halt Johnson's pursuit. To free Jack, Ianto drops the cement block into a quarry, shattering it and releasing Jack. At the London headquarters, civil servant Mr Dekker (Ian Gelder) has constructed and filled a tank with a specific mix of poisonous gases at the request of the 456, who have announced via the children they are coming tomorrow.
Analysis by Cuisle The continuity announcer was pushing his luck last night. First he asked if Jack could ‘stomach’ what was happening at the hub. Then he came back and said that Jack was in pieces. As if any Torchwood fan needed to be told that. What we were all wondering was how he was going to come back. Surely, his body would be soup after a bomb exploding in his stomach. Surely even Jack couldn’t come back from that. But we had all forgotten one fundamental thing about Jack’s immortality. It is caused by Artron energy infusing his body. And we all saw last year on Doctor Who how The Doctor’s hand was regenerated into a new body. So an arm, shoulder and a piece of head that was pulled from the wreckage and taken away by the sinister government agents was more than enough to be going on with.
Some of the goriest effects outside of a Holywood gore
movie went with Jack’s regeneration. The sight of him as a skeleton
with bloody flesh forming on it was straight from Hellraiser, my least
favourite film and the only one ever to give me nightmares.
Inbetween Jack’s woes, Gwen and Ianto are fugitives evading the authorities by their own wits, and after a couple of years at Torchwood they’ve got plenty of those. Gwen’s handling of weapons takes us back to when Jack taught her in Season One, in that Dirty Dancing with Guns scene. Ianto is scared but brave as always. Best of all, though, is the way ordinary people come through, those without training under Jack Harkness. Rhys really comes through. But surprisingly, so do Ianto’s chav family. The council estate mob attacking the government agents in their car made a fantastic diversion while Rhiannon escaped to the park to meet her brother. When the government is double crossing everyone, the little people taking the law into their own hands is a good thing.
I’m still not sure about Frobisher and Bridget Spears. I think either or both of them might actually crack and join the Torchwood gang in fighting back. Strange Mr Decker who seems a card or two short of a full deck, might go rogue, too. Lois is already on board. What happens next, we do not know. But at least we have Jack back. So all isn’t lost.
I did think that the ending of the episode wasn’t
as climactic as it might be. It doesn’t really need to be, of
course. But the bit where Rhys and Gwen were surrounded looked like
a real traditional cliffhanger but that was still only fifteen minutes
from the end. Still, we couldn’t have gone to bed without knowing
Jack was ok, could we? And that was one spectacular if unlikely rescue!
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