Adrift (Torchwood)

24 – "Adrift"
Torchwood episode
File:Torchwood Adrift.jpg Gwen has compiled a list of all people that have disappeared during a negative rift spike.
Production
Directed by	Mark Everest
Written by	Chris Chibnall
Script editor	Lindsey Alford
Produced by	Richard Stokes Sophie Fante Chris Chibnall (co-producer)
Executive producer(s)	Russell T. Davies Julie Gardner
Production code	2.11
Series	Series 2
Running time	50 mins
First broadcast	19 March 2008
Chronology
← Preceded by "From Out of the Rain" Followed by → "Fragments"

"Adrift" is the eleventh episode of the second series of British science fiction television series Torchwood, which was broadcast by BBC Three on 19 March 2008, and by BBC Two on 21 March 2008.

Synopsis

Jonah Bevan is walking home when a bright light appears over him. One second later he is gone. Seven months later, at the instigation of PC Andy Davidson, Gwen is investigating the disappearance of Jonah. Her research reveals there are more cases that resemble Jonah's disappearance. Toshiko discovers that these disappearances happen during a negative spike in the rift activity, which were previously discarded as background noise. Gwen is able to compile a list of all missing persons and informs Jack. However, Jack tells Gwen that nothing can be done and instructs her to stop the investigation, which she refuses.

The investigation slowly turns into an obsession and takes a toll on the relationship between Gwen and Rhys. When Ianto secretly gives Gwen a GPS device with a stored hidden location, Gwen finds a facility on Flat Holm. It harbours 17 of the missing people that the rift took and subsequently brought back, including Jonah, the boy she has been looking for. However, he has aged 40 years and is very deformed. Gwen also finds Jack there, and she demands access to Jonah. Jonah tells how he was stuck on a "burning planet" and how he was taken into a building that was actually a rescue craft, from which he witnessed the burning of a solar system. Afterwards, Jack reveals that he set up the facility when he first took command of Torchwood, in order to care for the victims of the rift, who had previously been locked away in the vaults.

Gwen brings Nikki, Jonah's mother, in to see him. At first she is horrified, believing it to be a cruel joke, but Jonah starts telling her things that only he would know. Nikki calms and they hug for a moment, but one of the staff tells Nikki to get away from him. She resists and says that she can take care of him. However Jonah starts screaming, a scream so horrible that everyone flees. In a voiceover, Gwen reveals that he screams like that for 20 hours a day because he looked into the heart of a Dark Star, which drove him insane.

A week later, Gwen goes to see Nikki, who implores her not to show the island to anyone else. Gwen takes down her notes over the missing and Nikki packs up Jonah's room. At home that night, Gwen prepares a romantic candle-lit dinner for Rhys, who lets her cry into his chest.

Cast

• Captain Jack Harkness — John Barrowman
• Gwen Cooper — Eve Myles
• Owen Harper — Burn Gorman
• Toshiko Sato — Naoko Mori
• Ianto Jones — Gareth David-Lloyd
• Rhys Williams — Kai Owen
• PC Andy Davidson — Tom Price
• Nikki Bevan — Ruth Jones
• Jonah Bevan — Robert Pugh
• Young Jonah — Oliver Ferriman
• Helen — Lorna Gayle

Outside references

• When Andy is showing Gwen the security camera photos from the night Jonah went missing, he refers to Jack as 'Mulder', from The X-Files.
• During the first meeting for the missing persons support group, PC Andy quotes the line "If you build it, they will come", from the film Field of Dreams. This is the second reference he makes in this episode to an American production.
• The prophet Jonah was swallowed and later regurgitated by a large fish; this episode's Jonah is taken and returned by the Rift.
• When Nikki clears the shelves of video tapes, several book titles are visible including Snap Happy by Fiona Walker, The Bourne Identity by Robert Ludlum and A Grand Affair by Charlotte Bingham.

External links

• Torchwood at BBC Online
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• Template:Doctor Who RG