End of Days (Torchwood)
| 13 - End of Days | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Production | |||
| Executive producer(s) | Russell T. Davies Julie Gardner | ||
| Production code | Series 1, Episode 13 | ||
| Series | Series 1 | ||
| Running time | 50 mins | ||
| First broadcast | 1 January, 2007 | ||
| Chronology | |||
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End of Days is an episode in the British science fiction television series Torchwood, which was broadcast on 1 January, 2007.
Synopsis
The Rift fractures violently, setting the stage for an epic battle with Torchwood in the middle as they see echoes of the past and visions of the future.
Plot
Gwen has been watching Rhys sleep and after some banter, she asks him to make tea. He kisses her and makes off, Gwen noting his "nice arse." Gwen answers her phone—Jack asks if she’s seen the news. In the living room, Gwen and Rhys are watching chaos unfold on the television. UFOs have been sighted over the Taj Mahal and police have clashed with English civil war era soldiers. The two speculate, Gwen concluding it can’t be an act of terrorism—terrorists uses bombs.
At the Hub, Ianto recites the biblical verses Daniel 12:8-9, KJV, (though he says it is 12:10). Jack cuts in as he moves onto an apocalyptic text on Abaddon, remarking how mankind are obsessed with anything that "denies the randomness of existence." Jack is quick to put the blame on Owen who justifies opening the rift because if it wasn't for him Toshiko and Jack would still be in the past. Owen and Toshiko go to the hospital where the bubonic plague has broken out. Owen warns the doctors that "people are falling through time bringing every disease in history with them through your doors". Gwen gets a phone call from PC Andy and so she and Jack go to the cells. He has arrested a Roman soldier who stabbed two people. Back at the hospital, Toshiko sees her mother who tells her in Japanese that the darkness is coming and that Toshiko must open the rift to stop it all.
At the prison, Gwen sees Bilis Manger in a cell who apologises before disappearing. Back at the Hub, Ianto sees Lisa who tries to convince him to open the rift. Ianto does not believe that it is Lisa but being told to open the rift still makes him think. Owen and Jack fall out and so Jack fires Owen who goes to a bar to drown his sorrows. Diane appears and tempts him to open the rift. He is tempted enough to do it...
Jack and Gwen go to Bilis' clock shop "A Stitch In Time". There they question him and Bilis reveals that he can step eras in time "like walking into another room." He promptly demonstrates this when he disappears. Jack leaves, but Bilis returns and shows Gwen the future - Rhys has been killed in the flat with blood splattered everywhere. She runs to the flat to find Rhys alive. He won't come quietly to The Hub, so she shocks him and gets Jack to help her get him to Torchwood's base. Once there he wakes up and is very angry at Gwen. She says that she only wants to protect him. The team, minus Owen, are all in the central area of the Hub when the power goes off. Gwen runs to the cells, shouting Rhys' name.
The power goes off and Rhys' cell doors open. He tries to open the door, but Bilis appears and stabs him twice - once when he twists the dagger in Rhys' organs.
Gwen arrives and sees Rhys dead and no sign of Bilis. In the autopsy room, she cries and shouts at Jack, who consoles her. Owen then bursts in and tries to console her, but she shuns him. Owen then announces that he's opening the rift. Ianto follows him and Jack orders him to stop him, but Ianto says no. Toshiko and Gwen follow as well and begin to open the rift. Jack threatens Gwen with a gun, but she just walks up to him. He insults the gang by saying "Toshiko, the poor little girl who shags any alien that gives her a pendant, strong Owen who gets in a cage so that a weevil can maul him to death and Ianto Jones hiding a Cyberwoman in the basement." He then makes the mistake of doubting Gwen's love for Rhys because she slept with Owen. Gwen subsequently punches Jack, knocking the gun out of his hand. Owen has the gun now. Jack says that Owen "needs bigger balls" to pull it off. Owen, sick of people doubting him, shoots Jack in the head then in the body. Ianto goes to Jack and asks Owen "What has he done". Gwen calms him down and the team activate the machine with all of their retinal scans, including Jack's. As the Rift opens, Jack revives himself. He asks what they've done and the team all evacuate the Hub as an earthquake splits across Cardiff. Outside, the team find Bilis. He quotes the same paragraph as Ianto said earlier about Abaddon. Suddenly, a huge creature, similar to the Beast from Doctor Who, rises above Cardiff. Anyone in its shadow immediately dies and this gives Jack an idea. He can't die, so Abaddon can feed off of his life. He and Gwen get to an open space and Jack stands before Abaddon. The shadow begins to kill Jack, but a blue light flows out and begins to destroy Abaddon. The creature is dead, the rift is sealed and Torchwood - 3 is without a leader...
The timeline has been restored with the opening of the rift. Rhys is alive. But at a cost—Jack has not resuscitated. Owen, Ianto and Tosh appear resigned to the reality of his death but Gwen refuses to move from his side. Days pass, the team increasingly concerned for Gwen but she remains dogged. Ianto is seen crying into Kacks jacket. Finally, Gwen seems to have given up when, taking Jack’s hand, she kisses him and walks off. Weakly, he calls, "thank you." Gwen sprints back to find him alive, smiling.
Jack has regained some strength and Gwen accompanies him into the main Hub area. Toshiko runs into his arms and Jack embraces her. Next, Ianto staggers forward, extending an unsteady hand to Jack but Jack takes him into his arms. Owen appears to see Jack kissing Ianto deeply. Owen, clearly shaken, then steps up to Jack. He begins to stutter his apology but Jack cuts him off. "I forgive you." Breaking down, Owen sobs into Jack’s shoulder as Jack holds him comfortingly.
The scene shifts to Jack's office, where Gwen and Jack are in conversation. She asks him what vision would have tempted him to open the rift. He says simply, "the right kind of Doctor." Jack walks out of his office to find the severed hand of the Doctor glowing and its tank sounding some sort of alert. His excitement is obvious as a breeze sweeps through the area and the sound of the TARDIS materialising is heard.
Gwen follows shortly but Jack is nowhere to be seen. The rest of the Torchwood team enter with coffee and Gwen asks them if they’ve seen Jack. Owen remarks that the Hub has been dishevelled—and they have just cleared up. Something was here, Gwen reasons, and something has taken Jack.
Cast
- Captain Jack Harkness — John Barrowman
- Gwen Cooper — Eve Myles
- Owen Harper — Burn Gorman
- Toshiko Sato — Naoko Mori
- Ianto Jones — Gareth David-Lloyd
- Bilis Manger — Murray Melvin
- Rhys Williams — Kai Owen
- Lisa Hallett — Caroline Chikezie
- Diane Holmes — Louise Delamere
- PC Andy — Tom Price
- Doctor - Matthew Gravelle
- Toshiko's Mother - Noriko Aida
- Roman Soldier - Jamie Belton
- Newsreader - Carrie Gracie
- Weevil — Paul Kasey
- Religious Woman - Rhian Wyn Jones
Continuity
- Jack refers to UNIT.
- Tom Price returns as PC Andy for the first time since Day One.
- In Tosh's vision, her mother refers to something "coming from the darkness" - a running theme throughout the series.
- Bilis Manger from Captain Jack Harkness returns as the episode's villain.
- Ianto sees Lisa from the episode Cyberwoman, (fully human), convincing him to open the Rift. A brief clip of Ianto cradling the dead Lisa from Cyberwoman is featured during this scene.
- Owen sees Diane from the episode Out of Time, convincing him to open the Rift. A brief clip of Diane's plane from Out of Time is featured during this scene.
- Jack refers to Gwen and Owen's relationship seen in Countrycide, Toshiko and Mary's relationship seen in Greeks Bearing Gifts, Owen's fight with a Weevil in Combat and Ianto hiding Lisa seen in Cyberwoman.
- Gwen refers to her joining Torchwood and Jack's revelation that he cannot die seen in Everything Changes.
- Jack and Ianto kiss when Jack returns from the dead, confirming their relationship which was first implied in They Keep Killing Suzie.
- The UFOs above the Taj Mahal look similar to the Jatha Sunglider from Army of Ghosts.
- The Phrase "I'm sorry, so sorry" is used several times.
- Jack refers to "the right kind of Doctor", alluding to The Doctor.
- The Tenth Doctor's hand from the Doctor Who episode The Christmas Invasion glows as the TARDIS is heard approaching, as Jack is delighted and subsequently disappears, placing this episode before the Doctor Who episode Utopia.
- A monster was sealed beneath the Rift, Abaddon. The Torchwood website questions if they are more like him across the universe, [1] asking "Were there other beings like Abaddon? Are they also entombed underneath planets across the universe?" - referring to the Beast as seen in the Doctor Who episode The Satan Pit. Like the Beast, Abaddon was described as having been sealed away "before time". Bilis Manger describes Abaddon as "son of the Beast", and Abaddon is also one of the names the Beast says he has been referred to as in some cultures.
- As the camera pans away from the Millenium Centre in the last scene, a tiny blue speck can be just visible in front of the Centre-alluding to the TARDIS.
- The Roman soldier uses modern pronunciation of Latin, in particular pronouncing V as /v/ instead of the /w/ sound which would have been contemporary with his time period.
Outside References
- According to the news reports, The Beatles appeared on the roof of Abbey Road studios.
- Owen calls a doctor in A & E "House".
- Using the amnesia pill to remove former Torchwood Institute members' memories of their jobs is similar to the removal of the memories of Men in Black Agents who "muster out" in the films Men in Black, Men in Black II and the Men in Black: The Series.
- Bilis Manger operates an antique shop where he sells items he has picked up in other time periods and brought back to the modern day, this is similar to "Blitz and Pieces" an antique shop owned by two of the main characters of the BBC sitcom Goodnight Sweetheart, and the antique shop operated by Edward Waterfield in the Doctor Who story Evil of the Daleks.
- When Ianto believes Jack is dead, and is mourning, he breathes in the scent of his jacket whilst crying. This is reminiscent of one of the final scenes of Brokeback Mountain, in which Ennis Del Mar mourns his dead love, Jack Twist, breathing in the scent of his clothes.
- The episode bears a similarity to Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode "Conversations with Dead People" (and other episodes featuring The First Evil) in that the visions and apparitions of beloved dead people are used to manipulate the show's main characters into a villain's desires. In Buffy, the First had done this to many characters by posing as victims, lovers, parents, parental figures and friends all with the intent of driving characters to murder, suicide or in some other way further its goals.
- The story is similar to that of online game Guild Wars Nightfall, in which players must fight an outcast god also named Abaddon, who is turning the entire game world into shadow from his prison in the Realm of Torment (much like the prison in the rift for Torchwood's Abaddon). After he is killed, a character called Kormir absorbs all of his power, killing her but creating a god.
- Jack comes back to life after Gwen kisses him, similar to Sleeping Beauty.
Broadcast
- This episode was first shown as a double-bill with Captain Jack Harkness. The two episode's end credits were merged and shown at the end of this episode.
- This episode was first shown on the same day as the first broadcast of Invasion of the Bane, the first episode of the Doctor Who spin-off The Sarah Jane Adventures.