Written by Chris Chibnall
Directed by Ashley Way
“GIVE ME ONE GOOD BLOODY REASON WHY I SHOULD…ONE GOOD REASON WHY I SHOULDN’T KEEP SCREAMING!”
“Because you’re breaking my heart.”
WARNING - This is one, big MASSIVE spoiler!
I hate Torchwood. In all its utter magnificence, its epic emotional scope, its breathtaking vision…I hate it.!
Why? BECAUSE…for the third time this season, Torchwood has reduced me to tears. For the last ten minutes of the episode, I was a tear-clogged, distressed puddle of goo…and I don’t think I can take much more.
Exit Wounds is not for the faint of heart: it’s depressing, it’s terrifying, it’s almost completely nihilistic in its vision of a world on the brink of complete and total collapse…and only a few heroic individuals have the power to pull it back from the brink. Chris Chibnall seems to have a specialty in this type of story - he seems eager to push the endurance of his protagonists — putting them through hell, only to come out into an unearthly, harsh and cleansing light. So we get to see Gwen take charage of a police department that’s just been massacred, Jack tortured & buried in the earth for 2000 years…as revenge AND penance, and the rest of the team dealing with a devastated Cardiff (complete with possible nuclear meltdown)…
…oh, and Jack’s brother - Gray - is back! He’s the evil one, out to punish Jack, as he blames his older brother for the torment and torture he has suffered for almost two decades!
Is that enough misery and heartache? OF COURSE NOT, because (1) we have to VAPOURIZE OWEN IN A NUCLEAR MELTDOWN, while (2) saying goodbye to a DYING TOSHIKO, shot by Gray, and trying to hide her injury from Owen. Luckily, she lives long enough to die in the arms of Jack and Gwen!
AARRGGHH!!!! I CAN’T TAKE IT ANYMORE!
Oh, and it turns out (big surprise) that there is far more to the returning Captain John than we saw in Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang…particularly his compassion. Suffice to say it’s a wonderful, subdued performance by the returning James Marsters.
So…Torchwood ends a magnificent season with a physical and emotional bloodbath that left me in pieces on my living room floor…an experience that was - no doubt - shared by many other viewers. If it wasn’t for the surprisingly terrible acting of Lachlan Nieboer as Gray, and the rather arbitrary use of the Weevils, I would have given this perfect marks. As it stands, there’s more than enough to conclude the season with a rating of…
8
Now, I’m off to watch the Doctor Who series 4 opener again…because I am in desperate need another cleansing dose of fun and happiness in my life!
