Gwen and Rhys arrive at the scene (Rhys gave Gwen a lift there) and they first find Jack. As he sits there underneath a pile of concrete, we see how he got recruited into Torchwood.

It's the mid 1800s and Jack is waking from a drunken stupor and last night's bar fight. He has a broken bottle stuck in his gut. He rips it out and tosses it away. He is found by two women who take him into custody and examine him, even killing him. The devices they are using are far more advanced than their current day and age and it is revealed that the two women are part of Torchwood. They've had him under surveillance for quite some time now.

They offer Jack a job, sort of on a contract basis. He declines but they tell him if he doesn't take the job they have no choice but to see him as a threat to the human race, just as they see the Doctor as a threat. He reluctantly takes the job and tracks down a deadbeat Blowfish (similar to the one seen in the season premiere). He takes said Blowfish back to Torchwood where one of the women guns him down. Jack, abhorred by the act, refuses to take on any more assignments. He goes to the local pub to drink away his troubles. A young female fortune teller and sets upon reading his fortune, despite Jack's refusal. She tells him that he will meet the Doctor eventually but not for another century. (We saw the same fortune teller in present day in "Dead Man Walking.")

With nothing better to do for the next century, Jack joins Torchwood.

Fast forward to 1999 â€" Jack returns to the Hub on New Year's Eve to find most of the team murdered. The last surviving member of Torchwood holds a locket and claims to have seen the future and that he killed them out of mercy. He's sorry he can't do the same for Jack. He then shoots himself in the head, leaving Jack Torchwood and the burden of recruiting a new team.

As Gwen and Rhys help Jack out of the rubble, they go and look for the next person â€" Toshiko. She's stuck under a big block of concrete but thank god she's small, she's still alive. (Had it been me, I'd be dead!)

We flashback five years prior where Tosh is working at a Ministry of Defence research facility. She's the one who stays late and gets there early. Her boss leaves and she immediately breaks into his office to get a code and then breaks into a secured storage facility where she takes plans to for a Sonic Modulator. She takes the plans home and begins to create the device. Once she has finished it, she takes it to a woman who is holding her mother captive. Knowing that Tosh has the potential, they decide to keep her mom hostage and have her work for them. Tosh refuses and the woman sets off the modulator, bringing Tosh and her mom to their knees (the rest have ear muffs on). Before any more can be done, soldiers break in and arrest everyone.

Tosh is dumped into the crappiest looking cell you've seen and she is given no access to the outside world and has no idea what happened to her mom. She's broke down and beaten. There's not much more for her to do, but then she is visited by Jack. He tells her that she created a working sonic modulator when the plans that she had had multiple errors â€" that's why the project was scrapped. He offers her a position at Torchwood. Since she doesn't have much of a future in a cell, she agrees.

Off the Team goes to find Ianto and Owen.

We learn that Ianto first meets Jack by helping him fight off a Weevil. Ianto wants a job, but Jack refuses. Ianto comments how he really likes his coat. The next morning, Ianto is waiting by the dock where Jack exits the Hub facade. He offers him a cup of coffee. Turns out Jack did some research on Ianto since he seemed to know what a Weevil was. Ianto explains he used to work for Torchwood One and lost his job after it was destroyed. Jack tells him he has no affiliation with them and no he's not giving him a job. Ianto tells him again how he really does love that coat he's wearing.

That evening, Jack almost slams into Ianto when he steps out in front of the SUV. Again, he asks for a job. Jack has had it with him, but Ianto offers up the capture of a pterodactyl. Intrigued, Jack and Ianto capture the ptero together and tells Ianto to report to work the next morning.

We find Owen lying in some rubble, but with a precarious ragged piece of glass about to guillotine him in half. As we go into his flashback, we see he was a regular doc with a beautiful fiancée, Katie. Katie starts to show signs of early onset Alzheimer's and is taken for tests and scans. She has a tumor and must be operated on. As Owen waits outside the OR, he hears screams and finds the entire surgical team and his fiancée dead. Jack enters and tells him Katie had an alien parasite attached to her brain and when threatened, gives off a toxic gas. Jack wants to take Katie's brain back to the hub, but Owen protests. Jack knocks him out with chloroform.

Owen wakes up in a hospital bed but no one believes what he saw. All evidence of Jack ever being there has been erased from the security cams. His bosses order him to take a sabbatical. Owen visits Katie's grave and sees Jack off in the distance. He chases him down and pummels him. Jack offers him a job at Torchwood as a medic.

The team reunite outside the building. Oddly, no one is really hurt. Tosh has a broken rib and whatnot, but they are all walking. The SUV has gone missing and Jack receives a message on his "watch." It's from Captain John Hart (James Marsters). He tells them he set the bombs out for them and then shows Jack a hologram of his long lost brother, Gray. Jealous that Jack doesn't want to be with him anymore, Hart is adamant that he is going to rip his world apart.

MY THOUGHTS/COMMENTS:

I really liked this episode because we got to delve into the past and learn more about the members of Torchwood.

It's funny, I can suspend disbelief at the sight of aliens and space/time rifts, yet I can't believe all four of them survived that explosion a) standing so close to the bombs and b) with hardly a scratch on them! Hah! LOL!

I am curious to how Ianto tracked Jack down.

What did you think?

-- K. L. Wang

Photos: © BBC Worldwide

She and Andy go to a group therapy session for loved ones with missing persons put on by Jonah's mom. They expect that they will be the only ones to show, but when dozens of people show, Andy and Gwen are confounded.

With Tosh's help, they determine that the negative spikes in rift activity (previously discarded as background noise) is possible rift activity pulling things out of Cardiff instead of dumping them here. Gwen puts all the info together and matches it up with all the missing persons in Cardiff. She takes the info to Jack who tells Gwen to drop it because nothing can be done.

Ianto anonymously gives Gwen a GPS device with a hidden location stored in it. The GPS takes her to a facility on an island off Cardiff. The facility holds 17 of the missing people that the rift took but were either brought back or found their way back home. One of the 17 is Jonah. The young teenager is now aged 40 years and deformed. Saved from the burning planet that the rift dumped him on, Jonah was put on a rescue craft where he witnessed the burning of a solar system.

Jack confesses to Gwen that when he started at Torchwood, there were only two of these "refugees" and that they were locked away in vaults. He set up the facility to take care of them. The employees there think the patients there are part of experiments gone wrong.

Gwen brings Jonah's mom to see him, but she believes it to be a cruel joke until Jonah tells his mom things only they would know. She realizes that it is indeed her son and wants to take him home. Before she can say more, Jonah starts screaming â€" a scream so horrible everyone flees. We find out that they caught Jonah at a good period because he screams for 20 hours a day because he had looked into the heart of a dark star, driving him insane.

Jonah's mom later tells Gwen not to show the island to anyone else. While Gwen takes down her notes on the missing at the Hub, Jonah's mom packs up her son's things, soon she sits down on his bed and cries. Gwen returns home to prepare a candlelit dinner for Rhys â€" a rare together moment they get to share due to her job but the events have saddened her and she cries on Rhys' shoulder as she tells him what had happened.

MY THOUGHTS/COMMENTS:

I really liked this episode. On one hand, it shows how cold Jack can be, but on the other hand it also shows how caring he is. Gwen is constantly trying to balance her job and her marriage but one or the other loses out in the end. Ianto is probably more powerful than any of Team Torchwood because he's the one that buries the bodies and keeps all the secrets.

What did you think?

-- K. L. Connie Wang

Photos: © BBC Worldwide

After viewing the film several times, Ianto notices that the two are missing from the original film. He also notices Jack among the travelling circus. Jack tells them that he used to be a member of one of the companies as "the man who couldn't die." He tells Team Torchwood of the "Night Travellers," those who perform only in the dead of night and the myth surrounding them. Young children were told to hold their breath while the show passed through town.

The MC and the mermaid bring their carnie friends into reality. Jack deduces that if they were captured on film once they could be again. He films them with an old home movie camera and then exposes the reel to the sun, causing the carnies to vanish forever.

MY THOUGHTS/COMMENTS:

One of the better episodes. Definitely creepy.

What did you think?

-- K. L. Connie Wang

Photos: (c) BBC Worldwide

The body is transported to the Hub for an autopsy as Gwen goes off to her bachelorette party. She tells her girlfriends that it's "just a scratch." Her and her friends party like it's 1999, having fun and getting drunk.

The next time we see Gwen, it's 7am on the morning of her wedding. She slams off the alarm clock and throws back the covers... to see she's about 8.75 months pregnant. She looks down at her protruding belly and then into the mirror to make sure she isn't hallucinating. Rut-roh.

She calls Jack and Owen who determine that a few days at the Hub and she'll be good as new. But wait! Hold the phones! Gwen is set to get married in about five hours and there is nothing that will stop her from marrying Rhys today.

She calls Rhys back to the apartment, even though it's bad luck to see the bride before the wedding. When she insists, Rhys curses Torchwood once again. He comes home to see Gwen pregnant, but with what?!
After she insists, the couple decide to go through with their wedding anyway. They plan to explain to their parents and friends/family that she's preggers with Rhys' baby because explaining Torchwood to them would take a little too long.

Owen performs an autopsy on the dead alien that bit Gwen and they find it is a Nostrovite, a race of shapeshifting carnivores who mate for life. The female passes the eggs to the male who carries them to term. He then transfers the eggs to a host through a bite. When the eggs are ready to hatch, the female tracks down the host and tears them open to free her new babes. The team soon realize the mom is still out there and hunting Gwen.

Jack gives Ianto orders to find Gwen a bigger dress and sends Toshiko to the hotel to keep an eye on Gwen. Tosh takes the new gown (that Jack has picked out) to Gwen. She happens on Rhys' best man, whose nickname is "Banana Boat." She blows the guy off and drops the dress off to Gwen. It's beautiful and she loves it.

Tosh goes down to the hotel bar to wait for Gwen. While she is there, the female Nostrovite is picking up on one of the members of the wedding party. He tries to pin a brooch on her but pricks her skin. She wipes away the blood and suggest that instead of another drink they go for a "bite." He eagerly agrees and they head on up to his room.

Tosh goes over the space they just vacated to get a refill when she sees black blood on the napkin. The nostrovite!
She heads upstairs and bumps into Banana again who is desperately trying to make the moves on her. They both here a scream and Tosh pulls out her gun and goes toward the sound. The Nostrovite is about to leave the room when she happens on Tosh and Banana. They are soon taken prisoner by the Nostrovite and cocooned together in this black web.

Gwen confesses to her dad that the baby isn't Reese's, that it's alien, but Daddy doesn't believe her.

The team tracks the Nostrovite to the hotel. Ianto and Owen trace Tosh's transmitter to the room and release her and Banana. Jack runs into the chapel to stop the wedding. Tosh IDs the Nos. They ply bullets into her but she jumps out the window. Ianto jams the signals so no one can make a call out.

As she is a shapeshifter, she can look like anyone. Gwen and Rhys are back in her hotel room when Rhys' mom comes in and wants to know what's going on. Jack busts in and says, "Get away from her you ugly bitch!" thinking Rhys' mom is the Nos, but he is mistaken. As they can't duplicate smells, Gwen recognizes the horrid perfume she wears. Rhys lays one in on Jack for calling his mom a byatch.

They see the Nos next to Gwen's mom outside. She takes Gwen's mom hostage. Gwen walks toward her with her bouquet and a gun hidden behind it. She fires at the Nos, using most of her clip on her, but the Nos still escapes.
Back in the room, Gwen is alone when Jack shows up and they confess to each other that they have feelings for one another. They turn to kiss but Jack is the Nostrovite!

Owen and Rhys come back and Rhys takes Gwen and they flee to the stable. Jack, Ianto and Owen realize they need a bigger gun to kill the Nos.

At some point, Owen showed Rhys how to use the singularity scalpel. Rhys and Gwen are locked in the stable, the Nos trying to break in. Rhys tries to use the scalpel but blows up something behind Gwen. He uses it again and Gwen declares her love for him, no matter what. He successfully removes the eggs. The Nos breaks in. Rhys is pissed, to say the least. He grabs a nearby chainsaw and is going to lay in on the Nos for impregnating his girlfriend, pretending to be his mom, etc. etc. Just as he's about to cut the Nos open, the saw stalls. "Crap!" But Jack enters and blows the Nos away with some crazy looking gun, splattering Nos blood on Rhys.

Jack helps Gwen up and spins her in his arms, but realizes Rhys is there and returns his fiancée to him.

The wedding goes off without another hitch. As the reception continues into the night, Gwen soon realizes that Jack retconned the entire wedding party so that they'll forget the whole incident. He offers Rhys and Gwen retcon but they decline. They leave for their honeymoon while Jack and the others clean up.

Back at the Hub, Jack, still in a fanciful mood from the wedding, pulls out a tin box full of old antique pics. One of them is of Jack and his bride.

MY THOUGHTS/ COMMENTS:

I'm beginning to like Rhys more and more. He's the Everyman in this show who gets thrown into these alien situations because of Gwen and deals with it the only way he knows how. In this ep, it was with a chain saw!

Although it was a Nostrovite pretending to be Jack edging in to kiss Gwen, there is an element of chemistry between the two. Jack picking out a dress just for Gwen (which that seen seemed to be out of continuity to the rest of the ep), Jack and Gwen rejoicing over the death of the female Nostrovite then quickly realizing Rhys is standing there watching the two.

What was with the Banana guy? I didn't understand why that was his nickname. And no one noticed he was gone and not part of the wedding processional? No one questioned it?

What did you think?

-- K. L. Connie Wang

Photos: (c) BBC Worldwide

James Marsters (Buffy, Smallville) returns as the charismatic-but-psychopathic Captain John Hart in the explosive season finale of Torchwood, BBC America's top-rated series ever. Torchwood, second season finale premieres Saturday, April 19, 9:00 p.m. ET/PT.

The second season kicked off with the Torchwood team battling the rogue Time Agent from Captain Jack's past. But from the moment the two Time Agents came face-to-face, it was apparent they had a history â€" and it quickly became obvious Captain John Hart didn't have friendly intentions after giving Gwen the kiss of death and throwing Captain Jack off a building. Torchwood managed to send him back through the time rift, but now he's returned to Earth and he wants revenge.

Taking Captain Jack prisoner, Captain Hart sends him back in time for a long overdue reunion. Without their leader, Torchwood are faced with a city flooded with Weevils, on the brink of destruction. But who is Captain John really working for? Can anyone trust him? And how great a price must Torchwood pay to save the city?

Before the season finale, the Torchwood team faces horrific Night Travellers, Gwen (Eve Myles) discovers a darker side of Torchwood and it's revealed how each member was recruited to the team.

BBC America's Supernatural Saturday line-up kicks off with Doctor Who, season three, on Saturdays 7:00p.m. ET/4:00p.m. PT, followed by an encore episode of Torchwood at 8:00 p.m. ET/PT and the U.S. premiere episode at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT.

This week's episode: From Out of the Rain

When an old movie theater re-opens, past horrors emerge to stalk the streets of Cardiff. And as bodies are found, somewhere between life and death, Torchwood must act fast. Who are the Night Travellers? And how can Torchwood capture these mysterious killers?

Photo: (c) BBC Worldwide

This week's episode as well as last week's ep revolve around the aftermath of Owen being shot and killed in "Reset." In last week's episode, "Dead Man Walking," a very dead Owen is sitting on the medical table in his own autopsy lab at the Hub. Martha Jones is about to slice him open to perform an autopsy when Jack runs in and tells her to stop.

Jack then goes to an abandoned church which is now Weevil Central. He grabs one of their many treasures and returns to the Hub. He shows the team that he has a resurrection glove, not unlike the one that brought Suzie back to life in "They Keep Killing Suzie." Gwen warns him that this is dangerous but Jack wants everyone to say their goodbyes in the allotted two minutes while he gets the code from Owen for the alien morgue. He brings Owen back and after two minutes lets him slip away, but Owen hasn't gone back to the afterlife. He's still alive- so to speak.

There is no obvious energy source for Owen's life force. He's not draining energy from Jack like Suzie did from Gwen. Owen is quarantined but he escapes and tosses down more than a few at a local bar but as he is dead he is no longer able to digest drinks or get "excited" enough to have sex. Jack catches up with him, they fight and both end up in jail. Because Owen can't digest the alcohol, he forces himself to vomit the offending liquid in a rather gross visual.

Once they are out they are about to attacked by weevils but then suddenly the weevils bow down to Owen, who has gone all black-eyed and talks in some weird tongue.

Turns out Owen's cells are morphing and that something came back with him when he was resurrected. Gwen finds research that shows Death returning after he has found 13 victims whose souls will allow him to remain in our earthly plane. The story only says that "faith" stopped it.

Owen takes the high road and says that if they inject him with embalming fluids, his neural pathways will shut down and Death won't have a chance of coming back. As they are about to proceed, the resurrection glove comes to life and attacks Martha. It's destroyed, but it has drained life from Martha, aging her 50+ years.

Death has returned and has escaped Owen's body and heads to a hospital, in search of the thirteen souls. Owen takes on Death as is already dead himself and wins.

Back at the Hub, Martha tells Owen the energy keeping him alive is dissipating but it could be anywhere from 30 minutes to 30 years. Owen wants to keep his job at Torchwood.

In "A Day in the Death" we find Owen on a rooftop with a suicidal woman who is ready to jump. He shows the woman his fatal gunshot wound and we go into flashback mode. Owen is relieved of his duties until they can determine if he is safe to work or not. Martha has temporarily taken over his post and Owen thinks she's after his job. All Owen can do now is make coffee.

Tests conclude that Owen is 100% human again and will not age. As he is the living dead he has no need to eat, breathe, sleep, or go to the bathroom. He tosses about a scalpel as he chats with Martha and doesn't realize he's sliced his hand open as he can not feel the wound. Since it won't heal on it's own, Martha starts to stitch him up, but Owen soon takes over as he knows he'll have to do it on his own in the future anyway. Martha warns him that he is fragile now. As he won't heal, he needs to be careful with the actions he takes because he can't break any bones, etc. etc.

Team Torchwood, in the meanwhile, has been monitoring energy spikes from home of recluse Henry Parker. Parker collects alien artifacts and hasn't been seen since 1986.

We find out that the woman on the roof is distraught over the death of her husband.

In another flashback we see Owen in his loft and Tosh comes to see to him. They get into an argument and Owen breaks his finger on purpose to show Tosh how "broken" he is. He then tries to drown himself but since he no longer needs to breathe, he can't really drown, can he?

Team Torchwood is trying to figure out a way to infiltrate Parker Manor but security is set up with heat sensors. Since Owen emanates no body heat anymore he says he's the man for the job.

Owen gets into the manor and finds Henry Parker (Richard Briers) hooked up to more machines than you can count. Parker tells Owen that he has suffered three heart attacks and is being kept alive by an alien artifact he calls "The Pulse." Owen tells him it is hope, not machines, that is keeping him alive. Parker soon has another heart attack and as Owen doesn't have any breath in him, he is unable to perform CPR and Parker dies.

Tosh warns Owen that "The Pulse" is about to explode. Owen tells them he's going to try to absorb the power and they all say their heartfelt goodbyes. The Pulse begins to glow brighter and brighter.

The woman on the roof asks what happened next. Obviously it didn't explode as Owen is sitting next to her. Owen pulls out The Pulse from his backpack. It wasn't a bomb, after all, it was an alien reply to one of the satellites launched in the seventies to make contact with alien life.

We go into another flash and we see everyone bidding Martha farewell and Owen promising Tosh he'll open up to her in the future. We see Owen walking down a ways when something flutters down from above in front of him. He picks it up and it's a picture of our woman on the roof and her husband. He looks up to see her on the roof. That's why he came up â€" not to jump himself, but to save her.

Owen tells her that if she can see a glimmer of hope than she must stay in this world. She introduces herself as Maggie as she and Owen watch the lightshow The Pulse is creating.

MY THOUGHTS/COMMENTS:

No one else has the code to the alien morgue? They should have had a better backup plan!

So what does this mean for Owen? Is he basically invincible? Can he die again? I'm a little confused. I mean, if he's already dead, if he's shot or stabbed in the heart, does he die again?

Again, I didn't care for these last two eps. This was more of a character study than an action/alien ep.

Can't the whole of Cardiff see Owen's little light show? Come on!

I'm looking forward to next week's ep - looks a bit amusing.

What did you think?

--- K. L. Connie Wang

Photos: © BBC Worldwide

Martha tells the team there have been similar murders throughout the UK. Jack and Martha chat, dropping hints about their travels with the good Doctor. He tells Martha that she should have contacted him if she was looking for a job, but she tells him that she wasn't look. UNIT headhunted her with a recommendation from an "impeccable source." The two conclude that it must have been the Doctor.

Meanwhile, Owen is trying to use an alien artifact he has called a "singularity scalpel." Ideally, it can eliminate an object within an object without disturbing the external object (did catch all that?) Owen tries to eliminate a crumbled piece of paper he has put inside a paper cup and ends up almost blowing Ianto's head off.

As Team Torchwood investigates the murders, they find that all the victims medical records have been wiped. As they question the roommate of one victim as well as a victim who survived a murder attempt, they quickly learn that the subjects were "cured" of diabetes and HIV, diseases that are manageable but not curable. The woman with HIV tells Owen and Martha about The Pharm, a medical facility where she was a test subject and about Reset, a drug that she was given. Just as she finishes telling them this, she has a seizure and dies. Soon, a swarm of fly-like alien creatures exit the body through the mouth and try to enter Owen and Martha, but they soon die before they get the chance.

Owen and Jack go to the Pharm to talk to the Director, Professor Aaron Copley but they are turned away.
As the team looks for a way to infiltrate the Pharm, they soon find a site where the Pharm recruits human subjects for test trials. Martha volunteers to go in undercover. She enters the Pharm with contact-lens that double as cameras so the Team can monitor her progress. She is soon accepted as a clinical trial subject.

As Tosh and Owen keep watch over Martha, Tosh hints about Owen's infatuation with Martha and that it seems to be a perfect match, as they are both doctors. Owen brushes it off only saying that even if he tried any moves, "Jack would have his kneecaps." Owen and Tosh talk about a pool tournament that Tosh had originally used as a way to ask Owen out on a date (which he was oblivious to). Owen is surprised and they agree to one date to see where it goes.

Back at the Pharm, Martha is able to get into the administrative offices and find out more info on Reset. She finds that Reset is not a drug, but an alien aprasite called a Mayfly. Released into the human bloodstream, the larvae "reset" the human body, eliminating even the most minute medical issue. The subjects become so normal they're abnormal. One deathly side effect is that the larvae eventually hatch and kill the person from the inside.
Martha is soon caught and Dr. Copley finds that her blood cells have mutated due time/space travel. Intrigued, he questions her about her travels and Torchwood. Because of her mutated state, he finds her a most interesting test subject and inject her with Reset.

Gwen and Ianto catch the Pharm assassin who has been carrying out the murders. They show him the weevil to scare the bejesus out of him. Turns out the assassin has a mayfly in him and is about to kill him. Jack needs him alive so Owen uses his handy singularity scalpel. He screws up and the mayfly explodes out of the assassin's body like an Alien, killing him.

They needed the assassin alive to get them into the Pharm, but Tosh concocts a Weekend at Bernie's idea of using the corpse as the driver and remote-control drive the car into the Pharm. This impresses and scares Ianto at the same time. :o)

Once insider, the team find that the Pharm has been using all kinds of alien life forms as medical research. They are all being tortured for their blood, antigens, etc. Jack and Owen find Martha, but she's already been injected with Reset. Jack is shutting down the Pharm. Owen figures third time's a charm and uses his singularity scalpel on Martha, killing the mayfly in her safely. They exit the building and meet up with the others as Jack motions for Tosh to complete the shutdown procedures. Tosh taps into her laptop and the facility goes into shutdown mode.

Before the Team can get into their vehicle, Professor Copley points a gun at Martha. Owen soons gets in front of Martha to protect her. Jack holds a gun to Copley's head. Owen tries to talk sense to Copley, but Copley shoots Owen in the chest. Jack, in turn, shoots Copley in the head, killing him.

The Team run over to a fallen Owen, but Owen is dead.

MY THOUGHTS/COMMENTS:

A much better episode from the last two! I gotta figure Owen might be dead but is he really dead?

I liked seeing Martha Jones (Freema Agyeman). While I know she'll be on a few eps of Torchwood, I would like to see more of her in future seasons.

What show hasn't Alan Dale been on? Ugly Betty. Lost, Navy NCIS... The guy's even in the new Indy Jones movie.

What did you think?

We soon find out Adam came through the rift and has manipulated the memories of Team Torchwood for his own use. He has implanted false memories in the team, but his interference in their natural memories has its consequences.

Gwen arrives home from work with no memory of Rhys. Upon seeing him she thinks he has broken into her home and is stalking her. She calls Jack and Adam brings her back to the Hub while Jack records Rhys on video of how he met Gwen so that Gwen can recall her memories.

Because of the memory manipulation, Jack's long-buried childhood memories begin to surface. We then find out who Captain John Hart in the ep "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang" referred to as Gray. Turns out Gray is Jack's little brother. A brother he lost in an attack on his home planet.

Tosh, on the other hand, has found her self-esteem as a result of the memory manipulation and she believes that she and Adam have been dating for the past year. Owen, normally snarky and a womaniser, is now this nerdy geek pining after Toshiko.

Owen and Tosh study a box that was among a bunch of artifacts that they have been given to catalog. Ianto offers to look in his diary to see if there is any info about the box. He leaves and soon Owen is proclaiming his love for Tosh. Tosh reprimands him for being inappropriate, that he's not her type anyway and she's with Adam.
As she spends more time with Rhys, Gwen starts to remember bits and pieces of their life.

Ianto reads his diary and realizes there is no mention of Adam in it. Adam confronts him and Ianto soon learns that Adam isn't who he claims he is. While he can manipulate memories, he can't manipulate memories written down or recorded. He then forces false memories on Ianto â€" memories that Ianto is a serial killer and that he has killed three girls.

Jack comes back to the Hub to a disturbed Ianto. He confesses to the killings and Jack doesn't believe him. He hooks him up to a lie detector but it shows that Ianto is telling the truth. Still, Jack doesn't believe him. He scans the CCTV video and finds Adam manipulating Ianto. As he goes back through more video, he realizes that Adam has physically touched everyone at some point, causing them to change the way they react to him.

Jack runs to the lab and scans the blood samples of the members of Team Torchwood. There is no blood sample from Adam. Ianto goes through the personnel files on the computer and everything looks okay, but Adam's personnel file was updated a mere 24 hours ago.

Soon, everyone is at work and Jack arrests Adam. Tosh, upset at her lover being arrested, holds a gun to Jack. Ianto wrestles it away from her and Jack puts Adam in the cell next to the weevil.

Jack gathers the team and brings them to a calm hypnotic state. He gives each one a short-term amnesia pill (Redcon Lite?) to erase the past 48 hours. In her trance, Gwen tells Jack that she loves Rhys but not in the way she loves him (Jack). Tosh talks about her lonliness, Owen describes the stormy relationship with his mom, Ianto talks about Lisa ("Cyberwoman").

Jack goes down to see Adam, who is disappearing/dying from the amnesia pills. Adam teases Jack with a memory from his childhood but then manipulates himself into it. Jack's pissed that the one memory he had of his brother and dad is now tainted by Adam. Adam tells him the box they were working on contains his last memories and if he dies, so would they. Jack hesitates but then takes the amnesia pill. He soon crumples to the ground in slumber as Adam dies.

Once the team has awoken from their sleep, they all wonder why they are missing two days, but Jack doesn't know either.

Jack finds the box and inserts the stray piece. The box soon opens and in it is a handful of sand.

MY THOUGHTS/COMMENTS:

Written by the same writer who wrote the previous week's episode "Meat," this story was a little bit better but not by much.

The opening to me was a little confusing. I would have like to have seen a scene where Adam begins to manipulate the team. As it was, I thought he was a yearly auditor or something from another sector of Torchwood. While most of the characters stayed pretty much the same, Owen's significant change also threw me for a loop. I kept wondering if I had missed an episode of not.

It was interesting to have confess her love to Jack, but with that, they both won't remember it due to the Redcon Lite pill.

What did you think?

Team Torchwood confiscates the meat that was in the back of the truck. It's alien meat that has been used in all kinds of food in Cardiff. This makes all of Team Torchwood thinking of going vegetarian.

Rhys asks Gwen about the crash but she is evasive. So he follows her and sees her meeting up with Jack. They walk arm in arm. Gwen asks Jack if he has ever had alien meat. When he says, "Yes," she then asks if he liked it and Jack slyly replies, "He seemed to." They both laugh. Rhys follows them to the factory where the meat came from. Gwen sees Rhys and Jack thinks he's in on the whole thing. Rhys gets pulled in by the bad guys who mistake him for a day laborer (or something like that). They show him the space whale or "cash (seas) cow" they found. This is the source of meat which continues to grow and is still alive even after they have taken chunks of flesh from it. To stay alive, Rhys agrees to replace his dead employee.

Back home, Rhys and Gwen get into it and she finally spills about Torchwood. Rhys doesn't believe it, thinks she's still lying to him. She takes him to the Hub and with Rhys' help they infiltrate the factory to free the alien. Jack wants to save the creature and rehabilitate it so it can go back where it came from. They confirm that the creature is a sentient being but before they can do anything, the bad guys come in and shots ensue. Rhys takes one for the team and Owen has no choice but to euthanise the creature it.

They give the bad guys the Redcon amnesia pills so they won't remember any of it. Jack wants Gwen to give Rhys the Redcon. She takes it but finds that she cannot do it. She faces off with Jack over it. She'd rather be fired and leave Torchwood and take the Redcon herself than continue lying to Rhys. Jack is about to get into it, but he finally relents (much to the shock of the rest of the team) and tells her to give Rhys his love and that he'll see her in the morning.

Ep closes with Jack watching the security monitor as he see Gwen meet up with Rhys and kiss him. Gwen and Rhys walk off happily and Jack looks solemn and a little upset.

MY THOUGHTS/ COMMENTS:

Sorry for the late posting.!

I thought this was one of the weakest episodes to date.

While Jack will pretty much do anything that moves, there's that weird dynamic and energy flowing between him and Gwen. Does he like her, but respect her too much to do anything about it, knowing it can only end in misery?

What did you think?

Back to present day where we see Toshiko glamming it up as she gets ready for work. She's even put on a dress! She gets to work as they are about to defrost Tommy, who has been in cryogenic stasis since that day back in 1918. They defrost him once a year or so and take his vitals. He's given a day out in prep for when he is needed. Apparently a time rift is set to occur where 1918 and the present bleed together and it's up to Tommy to fix the fabric of time.

Toshiko has taken a shine to Tommy and Gwen wonders if there are any more frozen hotties in the freezer. Tommy has also taken a liking to Tosh and the two eventually get it on. Meanwhile, Jack shows Gwen a sealed box from the Torchwood group back in the 1918. It's time-sealed and will automatically open when the time rift occurs.
In present day, the old hospital is set to be demolished and it is this event that spurs the time rift between 1918 and today. As Gwen and Jack investigate at the hospital, both see "ghosts" from 1918 as the rift gets bigger.
Eventually, the box pops open and Jack reads the orders from 1918 Torchwood. He also notes that Tosh is part of the whole plan. Inside the papers is a drawing of Toshiko.

Once Tommy is told what he must do, Tommy refuses because his actions will close the rift and he will never see Toshiko again. Tosh tells him that what he does saves the world and he eventually agrees. Only after does Tosh find out that Tommy dies a few weeks after he returns to 1918. Jack gives Tommy a rift manipulator which he takes back in time with him but he's so scared he doesn't use it. The rift is getting bigger and Owen has an idea to psychically connect one of them back to 1918 to talk Tommy through it. Jack is about to go but Toshiko volunteers. Her image is projected back in time and she convinces Tommy that he was use the rift manipulator to save the world.

He does and time is restored again.

MY THOUGHTS/COMMENTS:

Interesting episode. Not well plotted, I thought. The concept is great though. I find that they don't give much explanation (like how Tosh could psychically connect with Tommy through time with a portion of his blood sample?) Though, since it is sci-fi, I guess you're supposed to take them at their word.

What did you think?

Beth can't remember the events of the evening. Torchwood takes Beth into custody as they suspect she is alien. They put her in the cell next to the weevil, who cowers in her presence. Owen tries to get a blood sample but he is unable to penetrate her skin. Jack decides to put her in a mind probe.

First, nothing happens. Eventually, they find alien technology in her forearm. Turns out she's a sleeper agent and has no clue she is an alien. Turns out they are probably here to survey our planet before taking it over.

Around Cardiff, other sleepers "awaken" and their one arm with the alien tech transform into weapons. The sleepers carry out suicide bombngs at key locations.

Beth escapes and Torchwood finds her with her hubby, who is in hospital. She wants to remain human. That's all she knows. She is having a hard time with the knowledge that she is alien. She accidentally stabs her husband. Jack and Gwen convince her to help them find the other sleepers. Jack find the lead sleeper but is stabbed in the process. The sleeper warns him that others of his kind all over the Earth before he proceeds to blow himself up.
Back at Torchwood, Beth tells Gwen she can't live knowing that she won't be herself on day. She uses her arm weapon to threaten Gwen, forcing Team Torchwood to kill her.

MY THOUGHTS/COMMENTS:

I prefer the episodes with a single story line versus those with a multi-ep arc, but this episode was kind of boring to me. Seems like it has been done before?

What did you think?

Back at Torchwood HQ, the team continue on as if Jack wasn't there (as he hadn't been in months). Gwen lays in on him, "You left us, Jack!" He tells her and the rest of his team that he found his "doctor" but he came back for the team.

Obviously, there is a crossover ep(s) with Captain Jack and Doctor Who, but I'm not sure when the eps aired in the UK and what season of Doctor Who coincides with the current season of Torchwood so I'm as lost as you are...

Before any more can be said, Tosh notices that there is rift activity. Over at a rooftop parking lot, Captain John Hart (Buffy and the Vampire Slayer's James Marsters) walks through the rift right into a mugging. He calls the muggers bluff and grabs him and drops him over the edge of the parking lot down to his death below. He then goes to a nightclub and picks who should stay and who should go. When the club's bouncers come out to confront him, Hart pulls out two huge guns and everyone takes off.

The team finds the dead mugger when the wrist "watch" Jack wears dings. Ianto notes that it never dings. Jack activates it and a hologram of Hart appears. He tells him to come to the nightclub and to come alone. He ends the holographic message with a mock tribute to Princess Leia's message to Obi-Wan from Star Wars. Jack takes the Torchwood car, leaving the rest behind.

Jack arrives at the bar and see Hart. The two start toward each other. You're not sure if they're going to hit each other or kiss each other. It's the latter. They lip lock in a hot kiss before Hart throws a punch at Jack and the fight's as passionate as the kiss.

Once they finish giving each other a smackdown, they have a drink as old friends... and lovers. Hart tells Jack that the Time Agency is gone now and he's been through the gamut of rehabs – including murder rehab.

Before anymore can be said, Hart shoots the glass out of the door at one end and the other. The team has arrived to back up Jack. "You have a team!" Hart exclaims. "Do you have a team name? I so love team names." Jack intros the Torchwood team and then asks Hart what he's doing in town. Hart explains that he came to fulfill a dying woman's wish. Three radiation cluster bombs came through the rift and are scattered around Cardiff. The bombs are dangerous to everyone on Earth.

Back at the hub, after Hart has been stripped of all his hardware (weapons, that is), Jack takes Gwen to tell her he's seen the end of the world but that he came back for her, for them. He goes to take her hand as his fingers brush across her ring finger. He pulls up her hand and asks what it is. "That's an engagement ring, that is." She tells him that Rhys proposed while Jack was gone. He leans in for a hug and a kiss on the cheek and both silently sigh at the unrequited love between them.

Ianto turns away from the corpse of the blowfish just as the audience sees something flashing in Herr Blowfish's pocket.

Tosh finds the radiation signature for the three bombs and the six of them split up into teams of twoto search for them. Gwen puts herself with Hart, much to Jack's dismay. He pulls her aside to warn her about him. He tells her to keep him in front of her at all times, to not trust him and to not let him kiss her, under any circumstances.

So of course, when they are at the docks looking through shipping containers, Gwen turns her back on Hart as she takes a phone call from Rhys, putting too much trust in Hart. They find the canister and as Gwen picks it up, Hart grabs it from her and pushes her against the shipping container wall and kisses her. She stumbles and falls. "Paralyzing lip gloss," he tells her. He chucks her phone and tells her if no one finds her within a few hours, her organs will start to shut down.

Owen and Tosh are in an abandoned warehouse full of junk. Just as Owen finds the canister, Hart arrives, smacks Tosh down and shoots Owen.

Jack and Ianto are in an office building. Jack asks Ianto out. Ianto wants to know the story behind Jack and Hart. Jack tells him he is part of his past and he wants him out of his life for good, that's why they are helping him. Ianto says yes tot he date and the two split up to search for the canister. Hart appears, gun aimed at Ianto. He tells Ianto that the others are in trouble and that he needs to go help them. When Ianto tries to use his com device, Hart laughs. He disabled them as soon as they split up to search for the canisters.

Hart finds Jack on the roof where he has just found the last cluster bomb. Hart tries to seduce Jack to come back to the dark side. Jack doesn't want that life anymore. He's happy where he is. He chucks the bomb over the edge of the building. Hart retaliates by chucking Jack over the building, killing him (so to speak). Hart is unaware that Jack can't die.

Ianto find Owen and Tosh. Once they are fixed up they go to the docks to find Gwen. Ianto rings her phone but they find it on the ground, thinking she dropped it. Tosh uses her handy Blueberry Raspberry device to triangulate the signal of Gwen's last call. They find her and save her just before her organs fail.

Hart returns to Torchwood to retrieve the flashing item in Blowfish's pocket. He removes a small pyramid shaped object. Before he can escape, Hart finds himself looking down the barrel of guns held by Team Torchwood. Gwen makes a comment about how resilient they are. Hart scoffs and is about to make a comment on their dead leader when dead leader enters the room, much to Hart's shock. "You could make a mint in the Vegas galaxies with that act," Hart tells Jack after Jack says he can't die. Hart has no choice but to tell them the truth. The cannisters were not bombs, but devices that would lead him to a jewel that belonged to his former lover, the one he killed.

Once he put together the pieces of from the cannisters, a hologram of Hart's lover appears and tells him he's been had. There is no diamond. Instead, the pieces would lock onto the DNA of the person that murdered her and would detonate in ten minutes. "Goodbye, Lover," she finishes as a circular device attaches itself to Hart.

The bomb has enough explosive to wipe out all of Cardiff. They want to send Hart back through the rift, but before a decision can be made, Hart cuffs himself to Gwen with impermeable handcuffs. He swallows the key. Gwen drags Hart to the rift opening that he came in from while Jack and Owen race to work on a solution.

Gwen, thinking she is going to die, tells the other to "Tell Jack that I..." Nothing about Rhys, mind you. Before she can finish, Jack and Owen arrive and they inject Hart with an amalgamation of DNA from all the Torchwood members. They wait for a few seconds but nothing happens. Suddenly the bomb releases itself from Hart and they chuck it into the rift before it explodes. The explosion causes time to shift back to the moment Hart arrived (does this mean the mugger lives?)

Hart lets Gwen go (he didn't really swallow the key). He hints at staying and becoming part of Torchwood but Jack won't have it. As he backs up into the rift, he tells Jack, "By the way, I found Grey." We see a flash of one child's (?) being pulled away from an adult's hand. Hart disappears.

Gwen asks who Grey is but Jack doesn't answer and only says, "Let's get back to work."

MY THOUGHTS/COMMENTS:

A lot of sexual innuendo in this episode. James Marsters adds a great dynamic to the Torchwood fold. I hope he'll be a recurring character. They definitely left it open so that he would. I sure do miss him as Spike. The bleached blonde hair actually works better for him than the natural mousy brown hair color he sports here.

BBC America's Sci-Fi Saturday premieres this January 26 with the second season opener of Torchwood (Episode "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang") featuring James Marsters ("Spike" from Buffy the Vampire Slayer) as time agent "Captain John Hart" - an old friend of Jack's.

There doesn't seem to be any connection in the vics. In analyzing a sample of the killer's hair, Tosh finds compound B67 in it. Owen IDs it as Retcon, the ingredient used in the amnesia pill Jack gave Gwen in the pilot episode. "A dash of retcon," he told her. Since retcon isn't in wide use (really only by Torchwood), the murderer must be someone they gave the amnesia pill to. Gwen suggests they use the Resurrection Gauntlet to ask the vics themselves. Owen's a little leary because of the glove's effects on Susie, but Jack relents as the murders are happening because of Torchwood.

(c) BBC

Jack tries the glove on the very first vic but with no avail. Gwen tries it on and it instantly responds to her. They get no info from the first vic, but they get info from one of the couple in the house we saw in the opening of the ep. Vic tells them their attacker was named "Max" and that the attended something called "Pilgrim." The other common factor? Max knew Suzie, the woman Gwen replaced.

Tosh researchs Pilgrim and finds they are a religious support group run by one of the murdered. Torchwood looks into Suzie's stuff and finds a book of Emily Dicksinson poems and a flyer for Pilgrim. Jack thinks they need to use the Glove on Suzie.

They get Suzie's body from cryo-storage and try to revive her. Not much luck. Tosh suggest they use the alien knife that Suzie had used to kill people. Jack cuts her with the knife, but nothing. Then he stabs her and she is resurrected. Suzie's furious they brought her back and even more furious that it is Gwen using the glove. They ask her about the amnesia pill and Max before their standard two minutes is up. Time is running out and Suzie appears to die again. Gwen collapses. Ianto notes that even though she has this ugly knife in her chest, Suzie is just unconscious but very much alive.

Jack interrogates Suzie who now has an entry wound at her chin and a big ol' exit wound at the big of her head. Suzie's a little bitter but Jack brings her back to the case. He has pictures of all the Pilgrim members, but Suzie notices one is missing. One Lucy McKenzie and she works at the Wolf Bar.

Jack, Owen and Gwen go to the bar while Suzie and Tosh watch from a feed. They keep an eye out for Lucy as well as Max. Owen sees someone who looks like Max, but it's not him. Suzie eyes Max and warns Gwen just as he's about to knife Gwen, but Jack comes to the rescue and stuns the guy down to the ground.

Jailed at Torchwood near the Weevil, Max chants "Torchwood" as he goes into a flight of rage now and again. Jack asks Suzie about Max and finds out that Suzie had given him the amnesia pill every time she talked to him – once a week for two years. She had no one to turn to, no one to talk to about their secret job so she talked to Max and made him forget about as soon as she told him. The amount she had given him over the years pretty much caused Max to OD on retcon.

Later, Suzie and Gwen are talking and Suzie finds that Gwen has replaced her in every aspect, even sleeping with Owen. She tells Gwen of her dying father who has cancer and Gwen decides to help her leave Torchwood so she can visit him.

Owen shows Jack an analysis of images he captured when Gwen used the glove. Looks like the connection between Gwen and Suzie remained open and energy is draining from Gwen into Suzie still. Jack goes to get Gwen but finds the two gone. As they about to go to search for them the Hub is put into lockdown.

Back down at teh cell, Max is reciting a line from Dickinson's poem "Because I could not stop for death." Jack thinks Suzie masterminded this long before she died. Once killed, Suzie would no longer see Max and without her giving him a trigger word would cause Max to go all postal, forcing Torchwood to track him down. Max was a setup, the big master plan was for Suzie to be resurrected and for her to escape.

As Gwen drives Suzie to see her dad, Gwen is looking more tired and droopy while Suzie is starting to look more alive.

The team manages to get an outside line and calls for help. Tosh thinks that if words caused the lockdown, maybe numbers will reverse it. They punch in the ISBN for the book into the computer and power is restored to Torchwood.

At the hospital, Gwen finds she is bleeding at the back of her head. Suzie tells her she's dying from HER gunshot wound and soon Suzie will be fix and good as new. She goes over to her father, grabbing his oxygen mask and killing him. She pushes Gwen into a wheelchair and they leave.

The team track Gwen's car and finds they at a ferry landing. Gwen's pretty close to death and Suzie is running toward the docks. Jack shoots her but she won't die. At this point, Gwen looks to be dead. Suzie, with multiple GSWs to the back, still won't kick it. Jack tells Tosh to destroy the glove back at the Hub. Once they do, Suzie dies and Gwen gasps for a breath.

Back at Torchwood, Jack is glad that the glove was destroyed, but Ianto reminds him, "Funny thing – gloves. They always come in pairs..."

MY THOUGHTS/COMMENTS:

Good ep! The whole Suzie storyline was so convoluted, I'm not sure if I followed it all, but it was cool.

What did you think?
G

It's prsent day Cardiff, the Torchwood team are at a building site which has turned into a bit of an archeological dig. Inside a tent that has been erected, the team look over a rusty alien artifcat next to a skeleton. Owen says the bones are that of a woman. Looking at the shattered ribs, he surmises that she was shot. Tosh believes that the body and artifact have been there almost two centuries. Gwen flirts with Owen, Tosh feels like an outcast seeing this.

They take the artifact and body back to the lab. Gwen and Owen are again flirting with each other, horsing around. They inadvertenly knock the power to Tosh's computer, who goes into a fit because she was running an intricate program. Pissed at the two, Tosh goes to the local pub for a drink. Mary (the same Mary from the 1800s and not a day older than she once was) sidles up to Tosh and chats with her. She tells Tosh she knows all about her and Torchwood. When Tosh asks how she knows all this info, Mary tells her she's a scavenger, one who collects alien objects.

Mary hands Tosh a pendant and tells her to put it on. She does and is suddenly bombarded by the thoughts of all the people in the pub. It's almost unbearable. Mary tells Tosh to focus on her voice. Soon, the other voices subside. Tosh tells Mary she has to show it to the others at Torchwood. Mary's pretty sure she won't.

Tosh wears the pendant back to work. She about to tell Owen and Gwen about it, but she starts to hear their thoughts – thoughts about their affair and what they really think of Tosh.

Upset, Tosh goes home to find Mary waiting for her. She hears Mary's thoughts of her attraction to Tosh. She hesitates, but then Tosh gives in and grabs Mary to kiss her.

You don't look like my date... © BBC

We later find Tosh in bed, feeling a little awkward at her new (?) lesbian status. Tosh asks Mary who she really is and Mary tells her she goes by another name – Philoctetes.
Tosh wears the pendant out in public, at Mary's urging. Among the inane thoughts she hears a man thinking about killing his ex-wife and son. Tosh follows him and is able to save the day by knocking the guy out with a golf club. She's now a local hero.

Back at work, Tosh returns to find the rest making fun of Owen. Turns out his calculated guess that the skeleton was a woman was wrong. It belonged to a man and the supposed gunshot wound is actually some sort of trauma.

Tosh finds Jack in his office and asks him about Philoctetes. All he knows is that it is a character from Greek mythology who was exiled to the Isle of Lemnos. When he asks Tosh why she asks about such an odd thing, Tosh claims it came up in a pub quiz.

Tosh meets up with Mary, who is curious about the artifact the team found earlier. She says Jack is working on it and Mary accuses her of keeping info from her. Back at the Hub, Tosh tries to read Jack's mind and comes up against a blank wall. Jack senses something but he says nothing.

At home, Mary reveals her true self – which is that of an alien. Mary tells Tosh that she was exiled from her world and the artifact they found is her transporter. Tosh wants to tell Torchwood and have them help her, but Mary refuses. Instead she tells Tosh to get her into Torchwood.

Owen does some internet research and finds similar murders with smashed rib cages and hearts removed dating backs years and years. Jack has the artifact and Tosh tries to explain Mary's presence. Jack tells her the artifact is a two-man transporter – for a prisoner and his guard. We see in flashback that the real Mary came across the alien in her attempt to escape from the English officer. the alien enters her body and has been killing to feed and preserve her human body ever since.

Trapped, Mary grabs a knife and puts it to Tosh's throat. Mary offers Tosh in exchange for her ship and Jack agrees. She lets Tosh go and Jack puts the artifact down, activating it, absorbing Mary into it. He tells the team that he reprogrammed it so it would send the inhabitant to the center of the Sun, effectively killing them.

Jack sits with Tosh and asks her what she wants to do with the pendant. She crushes it under her heel and asks Jack why she was unable to hear his thoughts. Jack doesn't know but he was able to feel her trying to find his thoughts. Tosh says it was like trying to read a dead man and Jack says nothing.

MY THOUGHTS/COMMENTS:

Do you think the writers read David Eddings? Ce'Nedra, the character in The Belgariad Series is given an amulet which allows her to hear the voices of people near and far.

I know Jack is a multi-universe character, but how did he know how to reprogram the artifact?

What did you think?