Torchwood Episode 213 Recap: “Exit Wounds”

As they drag the Weevils into the vault, Spike tries explaining to Ianto that he didn’t have a choice. Ianto responds, “There’s always a choice,” an argument somebody certainly had to make this episode. I know what he means, that a stronger person than Spike would have refused to follow Gray’s orders even if it meant suicide. While Ianto’s got a point, I’d like to think Spike figured that by going along with Gray, he might be in more of a position to do something to stop him than if Gray were acting alone.

But Ianto’s not thinking so much of this more optimistic possibility, and vows that if they don’t find Jack, he’ll kill Spike himself. And, boy, do I believe him.

Anyway, they’ve just dragged each of their three Weevils into three separate cells, when the doors close and lock behind them. Gray, having trapped them inside, appears outside their cells, disappointed that Spike didn’t take him up on his offer to go anywhere else but here.

Gwen tries to reason with him, getting nowhere, so Ianto tries bellowing, “Where’s Jack? What have you done with him?!” Is it wrong that during all this, I’m hoping Gray will start making out with Spike? Or Ianto? Or both? No such luck, though, as Gray just ignores them and walks out.

Turnmill Nuclear Power Station, 9:42 p.m. Owen rushes in, and everything’s tinted all red, so either things are going really badly, or the one remaining technician Owen sees has decided this is the perfect time to finally develop those vacation photos.

The nuclear plant technician, contrary to expectations, isn’t a fat, bald guy with a thing for donuts and beer who says “D’oh” every time there’s a meltdown, but some chick. When Owen tells her that he’s there to deal with the impending meltdown, she scoffs at the idea, wondering what he could possibly know about nuclear containment. So he technobabbles a bunch to show off all he does know, and that’s enough to convince her that he’s either knowledgeable and/or insane enough to stick around while she hightails it out of there.

Owen coms Tosh at the Hub and asks her to talk him through emergency procedures. She breaks the cheery news that the plant’s already started going into meltdown, and Owen’s face totally reads as, “Eh. What else is new?” He says, “You can fix it, right?” and she says, “Of course I can, I’m brilliant!” and it’s a true testament to Naoko Mori’s acting that she comes across not as full-of-herself but as charmingly self-effacing.

Tosh starts technobabbling to Owen about what she’s going to do, then goes, “Ugh,” and looks down at her stomach with a mixture of surprise and horror to see the RED SPLOTCH WHERE SHE’S JUST BEEN SHOT! She collapses, gasping in pain, and we see Gray behind her, bearing the smoking gun. Holy Crap!

While Owen keeps trying to contact her without getting a response, Gray pulls out all kinds of wires on Tosh’s computers and kicks her scannery thing away from her reach, down into Owen’s lab/autopsy O.R. Then Gray taunts her, asking what it feels like to die.

Luckily, though, she’s spared any more of his gloating, because he’s suddenly distracted by the sound of banging from somewhere else in the Hub. And no, not “banging” as in “what Ianto and Jack do during naked hide-and-seek,” but “banging” as in this loud THUD, THUD, THUD pounding like something out of Edgar Allen Poe

Gray goes to investigate, and Tosh, in agony, crawls down the stairs into the lab, leaving a bloody trail behind her. How considerate of her, getting herself all in position for her own impending autopsy. Actually, she’s trying desperately to reach her scanner.

Meanwhile, Gray follows the THUD, THUD, THUD into the morgue, and the sound is distinctly coming from one particular drawer that he proceeds to open. Out pops Jack, and centuries of being buried alive have done nothing to dampen his Jesus complex, because his first words to Gray are, “I forgive you.”

Gray’s eyes widen in surprise and he says, “How did you survive?” indicating that, like so many pretty faces, there’s not much doing in the brains department, because he seems to have forgotten that Jack can’t die, which was the whole reason he buried him alive to begin with. A smarter question would be, “How did you get here?” and a flashback proceeds to provide the answer …