Torchwood Episode 210 Recap: “From Out of the Rain”

Jack says that with two people randomly having their “life force” taken from them, they need to find out who’s behind this fast, given the whole city and possibly the world is at risk. So what do they do? They go back to the Hub for a home movie festival, sitting around and watching the clips from The Electro.

Look, I know weird stuff happened at the theater, but so far there’s been absolutely nothing to indicate it relates at all to the sucked-dry victims. Given Cardiff is on a space-time rift, isn’t it possible that all sorts of strange things might be going on simultaneously? And wouldn’t it make sense for the team to maybe split up and have at least a few of them actually patrolling the streets looking for the life-force-suckers instead of sitting around watching old movies? But since these events all took place in the same episode, everybody assumes they have to be connected, including the characters in the episode.

Anyway, at the Hub, they watch The Electro movie, and we again see old-timey Jack doing his Deer Hunter shtick with the gun. Gwen jokes that he was doing stand up, and Owen says, “He was part of the freak show,” leading Jack to snark, “Some things never change.” Then Jack sees a group of performers on screen he recognizes …

Jack: The night travelers … They only performed in the dead of night. It was just a tale that was around at the time. A ghost story. They came out of the rain. That’s how people described them. … They left a trail of damage and sorrow wherever they performed.

It’s an eerie speech that’s ominously delivered, but it would be a whole lot scarier if the clip of the night travelers wasn’t of everybody waving their hands like they’re being filmed by a gadget-happy father with a new camera on the family vacation.

Gwen and Jack wander off for a chat, with Jack elaborating on how this was 80 odd years ago, “and then the traveling shows faded away… without an audience they died out forgotten.” And blah blah blah video killed the radio star, boo hoo, we get it, let’s move on already.

Ianto calls them back in, because he’s noticed that the film clips are not the same as what they saw at The Electro. Gwen immediately and confidently snorts, “Of course, it’s the same,” without even bothering to hear his argument. Then, the second that Ianto points out that some things are missing from the film — specifically, Pirelli and Drusilla — she practically gives herself whiplash by turning her earlier claim around and rushing to be the first to announce he’s right, like she was instrumental in helping Ianto to this epiphany all along.

Then Tosh gets the best line of the episode …

Tosh: So what are we saying? That two people from a piece of film have decided to go AWOL?

Jack, bless him, does his best to make sense of all this for them — and for us at home —mby saying that the night travelers, after dying out, were trapped in film, but when The Electro opened and Logan ran the clip, it gave them a chance to become physical once again. During this speech, he’s standing in front of the screen with the movie playing on his body, and it’s actually a pretty striking image. I obviously had my issues with this episode, but I will say it was gorgeously shot and overall looked good.

Jack says they need to find out about the havoc the travelers caused in the past, going through old records and searching for possible witnesses.

Jack: Ianto, you’re with me. I need your local knowledge.
Gwen: Oh, is that what you’re calling it these days?

She might snark, but the most redeeming thing about this episode is how Ianto and Jack spend it joined at the hip, investigating this little murder mystery together like a gayer version of Hart to Hart.

The Bored Room. Jack and Ianto go in to debrief. Alas, not in their briefs, as they typically appear in my fantasies. Jack fills Ianto in on his past as a carnival act, and as he starts reminiscing, Ianto gazes at him with his head resting on his arm, with this look on his face that’s totally, “Do, sir, tell me more about your glamorous life before the war. I do so want to hear more of your heroic adventures!”

Jack explains that at the time, he was sent — by who, he doesn’t get into, just saying it’s a long story — to investigate rumors of the night travelers. So he joined a traveling show as his cover and was billed as “the man who couldn’t die.” Which, while I’m sure was a pretty impressive act, probably didn’t do much good with the whole keeping undercover aspect of the plan.