I'm saddened to hear Tosh was killed off. She was the only member of the Torchwood cast that I actually liked. Bummer.

I want to know where Jack buys his clothes.
Anyone that can make a wool coat that survives being buried for 2000 years that comes up looking only slightly smudged has got my money.

I also agree with stuff that other people have posted, that Jack's burial there is somehow related to the presence of the rift.

with the death of those two characters, it does give the production team a chance to introduce new characters properly, which is what they never did properly with the current cast. The character building of the Torchwood team was so haphazard and lurching, and so much of it occured so late in this season, that the show has tried to overcompensate with extremely artificial emotion.

Everyone seems to be making this huge deal over Jack's coat and it confuses me. We know that he explicitly was up and about between being freed and frozen. So he got a new coat. Big deal. Did anyone seriously think he had been wearing the same one for the better part of a century?

I was bummed out. I loved the Tosh character and was sorry to see her go. That said, hopefully this will allow for a more dynamic season 3 with the new stripped down crew.

To put it succinctly, Jack's been through worse. He was tortured, though at an older age than Grey, and he's probably seen countless things as harrowing as the Adrift people, but he was born in the 51st century, so he was 'ready' for it.

The recall of the weevils was rather crappily wrapped up, but more upsetting than that was that it happened five minutes before Tosh and Owen died. They coulda saved Tosh it happened so early. But that's an editing problem, not a story problem.

Torchwood has a lot of problems, not the least of which is that it varies from episode to episode how much the residents of Cardiff know about Torchwood and aliens and generally 'odd' things.

Davies and his cronies [Chibnall] are far too tied to this messianic idea of the doctor and jack, that they always win in the end and it so often incorporates the reset button.

I love both shows. But it's slowly driving me insane when it goes from 'The Girl In The Fireplace' to 'Partners In Crime'. I hate to say it, but it's like they're having too much fun. Even at it's campiest, Buffy was not as campy as this looney toons season 4 DW episode.

I don't know, really. I just hope it gets better or stays good/decent.

And yes, I agree, Gwen in charge is so much better than doe-eyed anyone.

Gwen? Leadership skills?
Her leadership amounted to telling her ex-colleagues to go around the neighbourhood telling people to "keep calm" and that "there's nothing to see here".
On the other hand, Tosh and Owen's exits were handled pretty well and, while I agree that Gray couldn't have acted his way out of a paper bag, Spike actually worked in this episode - and that was a hell of a chinese burn he was left with...

Since Gray was mentioned by John in "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang", I am starting to assume the first episode was either John trying to warn Jack or John trying to do recon/set things up for later.

@aspiringexpatriate:
"I hate to say it, but it's like they're having too much fun"

I normally fall on the side of the fence that finds the Doctor his most entertaining as a broken man. Still, I wish all the shows I watch could complain about the above problem.

Yep, finding Torchwood much more satisfying than Dr. Who.

@Ryan H: I'm referring more to when he's being questioned by the steampunk Torchwood than when they pull him out of cold storage.
He was also freshly shaven and his hair hadn't grown, but his face was dirty implying he'd just been dug up.

We know his hair can grow since they give him sideburns in flashbacks for that old-timey feel. I'm sure they'll just explain it away with some 51st century balonium. I'm actually just fine with that. It's just fun to point things out.

I'm really starting to feel sorry for the people of Cardiff. They just got done filling in those holes from the giant demon stomping about town, and now everything gets blown up again.

Pretty soon they'll realize that Cardiff isn't the place to be during a certain time of the year. Sort of like Londoners and Christmas time. I remember watching the season one episode when the people from the past fly in. At the end the girl goes to live in London saying that she always wanted to see the city at Christmas. I just thought to myself, "Oh, no you don't."

"The main problem with the episode, though, was that it opened up too many boxes and didn't have a chance to explore them properly."

I liked it but it could have been so much better had it been stretched out into a two- or even three-parter. Mind you, I could say that about half the episodes this series- things just get interesting then about 40 minutes in they suddenly throw in a deus ex machina, divert your attention with some entirely irrelevant homosexuality and swearing, and roll credits.

i totally agree that I enjoyed this episode for purely fannish reasons (SPACE PIG!), but in response to a couple of points...

sound for the weevils: the team didn't know about that sound. John was the one who used it as a recall.

John was definitely working for Grey the whole time, right from episode 1 and that is why the team forgave him. Also he got right on helping them find Jack, though he did a crap job of it.

I agree though. Grey as a character and an actor was weak. The story just wasn't explored. He did a bang up job of blowing things up, but had the story been spread out over the whole season as an arc I think it would have had a bigger impact. The city blew up, Grey was dealt with and it was over. Even the deaths felt a bit empty because of it.

I will like you though miss this Torchwood, though I look forward to whatever they have up their sleeve for next year.

(btw i was just bustin' your chops looking for the torchwood recap. you don't need to apologize to us)

I'm sorry, but I'm a Torchwood fan. A huge fan, really, so it pained me a lot to watch this episode. Everything was rushed, especially the Grey plotline. If Jack came to Earth from another planet, meets the Doctor, gets stuck on Earth since WWII, and rebuilds Torchwood from the ground up, then how did Grey even get to Cardiff in the first place? That's one gigantic, gaping, goatse of a hole to just gloss over. And even if we forget all that, and accept Grey as bad guy for an episode, what about Owen? Are we to infer that the dead man walking who could somehow survive being buried in rubble at the beginning of the episode (wouldn't he be a smashed bag of bones?) managed to die of radiation? Or was the bright flash supposed to mean he was instantly vaporized? There's a lot to be said for leaving things up to the imagination but that was just too much for me. Oh well, I guess there's always next season.

These recaps make me hate Torchwood all the more. I see previews for the show before I watch a film at the Egyptian here in Seattle and I can't help but feel embarrassed on behalf of sci-fi for this atrocity that has been let loose upon the world.

The science fiction fans are only marginalizing themselves from the rest of society by praising this trash. It's shows like Torchwood that turn off people from sci-fi altogether, even when there are a few good shows out there, such as Battlestar Galactica (at least seasons 1 and 2), that should be watched.

Maybe if we're lucky, season three will be so abysmal as to be unwatchable even by its devoted fans (doubtful) and will be cancelled. That would be a mercy.

Maybe it's too soon after all the emotionalism this episode evoked to bring this up, but here goes anyway.

"Exit Wounds" was not only terrible, but suspiciously so.

Torchwood is too good a show to end a season with such a bad episode. Horrible storyline, (unashamedly ripped off from "Angel"), gratuitously killing off two beloved characters that hadn't been nearly developed enough (especially Toshiko), amateurish acting from whoever played Gray (name unimportant) - all of these things raise my doubts about RTD's seriousness with this storyline, hence my suspicions.

People, our legs are being pulled.

Hopefully, RTD has some great master plan to reconcile not only the inarguable weaknesses of "Exit Wounds" but the deteriorating quality of the second series in general. Owen is killed and brought back by the glove, which up to now Jack totally forbade to be used? Jack goes derelict in his duty to round up alient tech by allowing the second glove to remain in a Weevil-infested church until one of his team gets snuffed? Little girls reading Tarot cards? Jack blowing away Owen's murderer in a split second, but only shoots to wound the cannibals in "Countrycide"? No mention (unforgivably) of Bilis Manger anywhere in the second series? All of these things are far too weak for Torchwood's otherwise excellent writers.

In short, RTD is too good a writer/producer to be this incompetent.

Maybe the idiotic twist this show has taken is attributable to Adam NOT being dead, but continuing to mess the Team's minds (thus ripping off the "it was all a dream" cop-out from "Dallas"; perhaps this is one of Bilis' machinations (which would be an excellent story). All I know is that if RTD seriously expects fans to blindly accept this storyline as canon to the series, he'd better get ready for a scathing review of the third series and a quick cancellation of the show.

Hey Russell! Enough mucking about! Get back to writing GOOD shows while you still have fans to watch them!

I suppose I enjoyed this episode, but it had a lot of flaws.

So John -- who could have been a really cool baddie -- was actually good and just doing the bidding of Grey? Who wanted to use him to -- what, get a really big diamond? And then go after Jack for revenge? Huh? What about all that stuff about killing the girl? Did that really happen, and did John also do that under Grey's control? And why keep up the charade of being a baddie when he had yet another bomb attached to him, one that was sure to go off? At that point he didn't have anything to lose by saying "help me, I'm not in control of my actions"...

It stinks of retcon. Bah.

Where do people keep getting this stuff about Torchwood being way different next year? I hear it over and over but haven't read anything concrete, so what's the deal? Please, please tell me it's not true. If it's not so slutty, I don't know if I'll enjoy it as much.. I'll still watch it but it won't be the same :(

@tollwaytroll: There's going to be a new showrunner - Chibnal is going to Law and Order: London

It was an ok episode, too much shit going on to really keep things going strait. It would hae been greatly better if the episode was more focused on Gray than Jack's cronies running around to save the day.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: I want to love this show, but it just... well, kinda sucks.

Why? They said they want it to be Britain's "X-Files" and it is just some goofy version of... something.

The team gets blown up, a building drops on them and they're all ok? Really??

And jack is buried for close to 2,000 years and he is just a little dirty? Sorry, his clothes would be less than rags and would have more hair than cousin it.

I will say that I did love Victorian Torchwood Cardiff.

Why does this show suck so bad??? Bad stories, not likable characters, bad characterization, bad acting (notice they dubbed Jack's voice over Grey's from time to time?)

UGH. At least Doctor Who knows it is, after everything else, a kids show.

I like this season aside from the owen centred episodes
it was a vast improvment on the cyberwoman embarassment of season one

Every episode the reaction is the same: "I know it was weak and campy with huge plot holes and unlikable characters, but I love the show and wish it wouldn't change"

I hope they retool it as an outright comedy.

We don't see them pull Jack out of the ground. I don't find it hard to imagine that if they found a buried, naked man, they might manage to find him some clothing.

I also think Jack being buried under the city for close to 2000 years, dying countless times, is the cause of the rift.

Was very sad about Tosh. I don't think they ever utilised her properly, and they seemed to only just be getting ahold of how to write for an introverted geek girl.

Owen, I dunno. He was ok, but I won't miss him.

Series 1 - We're told that "Jack" stole the name from someone else and that it wasn't his real name.

Series 2 - Grey calls him Jack when he meets him. Why not use his real name?

Answer: Torchwood doesn't believe in continually

@Mrrix32:

I think that since Grey controlled Jack's "friend" I'm sure he told him his name (Jack's). Plus I'm sure his brother has been following him so he would know the name he is using.

@Dillenger69: Regarding how Jack keeps his coat in such great condition: It's sonic, of course :p

I'm so sad Owen and Tosh died. Ok, Owen was already dead, but you know what I mean. Their last scenes together were brilliant, though.

Personally I hope Captain John shows up again, mainly just to piss Jack & Co off--stealing their coffee supply, that sort of thing. :p

@Charlie: I agree there were a lot of bizarre continuity issues in the finale (especially John being buds with the crew, and yeah, that Weevil-recall sound? WTF!)...yet I loved it.

Not sure why a self-professed TW fan like yourself wouldn't enjoy ep 12, with all the great backstory showing how Tosh, Owen and Ianto joined the team? I loved that stuff. Especially Tosh. *sob*

"How was Jack able to stay sane after 2,000 years buried alive, when comparable ordeals drove Gray and the missing people of Cardiff insane?"

I think there's a big difference (even in a series like TW where they don't even really try for any sort of "realism") between being tortured for centuries, or being catapulted to other dangerous worlds, and Jack's experience of "merely" being suffocated over and over underground, when he is expecting it. Just sayin'.

And I'm also with you about the Victorian Steampunk Torchwood Ladies - seriously can they have their own spinoff show?