Torchwood Episode 211 Recap: “Adrift”

Gwen says she wants to bring Nikki to see her son. Jack argues that it’s going to be tough explaining what happened to Jonah, but Gwen insists she has to try, adding, “Jack, if you lost someone, wouldn’t you want to know?” Jack gazes thoughtfully out on the horizon, no doubt remembering lost little brother Gray who’s no doubt going to show up in the remaining two episodes.

At Nikki’s flat, Nikki and another freakish necklace clearly sucking her life force from out of her neck answer the door. She can tell from Gwen’s expression that something serious has happened. Gwen tells her that the good news is she found Jonah, he isn’t dead, and he’s being looked after. The bad news is that there’s more to the story she still has to tell her and Nikki will have to trust her.

Gwen calls Andy and says he needs to tell Nikki that she’s not “mad or dangerous or a liar.” At this particular moment, I think Andy thinks she’s all of those and a whole lot worse. He pretty much wants to hang up on her, and then gets annoyed how she strings him along just as long as he’s useful but has no intention of filling him in on what’s going on or recommending him for a Torchwood job. But ultimately, his concern for Nikki wins out and he agrees to speak to her.

Back at Jack’s own private Gitmo, Nikki and Gwen stand outside Jonah’s room. Gwen reminds Nikki of what they’ve discussed about Jonah’s condition and advanced age. She really tries to prepare Nikki for what she’s about to see, warning her again that she won’t recognize him as the son she knew. Nikki insists it doesn’t matter and that she’s ready to see him. Gwen says OK and they enter the room.

Inside, Nikki takes one look at Toxic Avenger Jonah and starts screaming that it’s not her son and that she wants to leave. But before Jack can show up and start going “Ha! Told ya so! Told ya so!” and doing the “in your face” dance around Gwen, Jonah starts sharing family memories only he would know, starting with when his Mom fixed a broken wardrobe door for him.

Then he moves on to remembering how she’d let him drink from her beer, and how she used to say if he never got married he wouldn’t be alone because he’d always have her, and the more he talks like this, the more convinced I am he threw himself into the rift on purpose rather than spend another minute with this smothering gorgon of a mother. And a good thing too, because I think otherwise it would have been only a matter of time before he opened a motel and started stabbing Janet Leigh in the shower.

His memories finally get through to Nikki and she accepts him as Jonah, and there’s a really tender scene as the two embrace. Then Helen shows up and says it’s time for Nikki to leave. Nikki refuses to go, saying she’s going to take Jonah home with her. But Helen says it’s for her own benefit, because Jonah’s about to enter a “downswing.”

Both Gwen and Nikki wonder what that means, and the answer is that Jonah starts screaming. And screaming and screaming and screaming. And it’s loud and painful enough that everybody else has to flee the room holding their hands over their ears.

We see Gwen and Nikki back on the boat and hear a voice-over speech from Gwen ...

Gwen: I’d never heard a sound like it. This primal howl. The scream lasts 20 hours every day. Before the rift had returned him, Jonah had looked into the heart of a dark star. What he’d seen had driven him mad.

The biggest mystery of this episode for me is who she’s supposed to be talking to.

It’s one thing when a character narrates entire episodes like on every single ABC show at the moment. But it’s just too weird to throw in this random voice-over in the last five minutes without any explanation for what it’s doing there. It’s like somebody watched a late cut of the episode and realized they needed to add more exposition or nothing would make sense but they didn’t want to bother filming another scene so they had Eve Myles phone in an extra line of dialogue and plopped it over some extra boat-ride footage.

One week later. Gwen goes to check on Nikki and her terrifying necklace collection. She tells her that she can visit Jonah whenever he’s “in a good phase.” But Nikki isn’t exactly grateful for her help …

Nikki: Promise me you won’t do this to anyone else …
Gwen: I thought you wanted to know what happened to him.
Nikki: I did. I was wrong. It was better when I didn’t know. Before you, I had hope.