Exit Wounds

26 – "Exit Wounds"
Torchwood episode
Jack and Gwen tend to Tosh.
Cast
John Barrowman – Captain Jack Harkness Eve Myles – Gwen Cooper Burn Gorman – Owen Harper Naoko Mori – Toshiko Sato Gareth David-Lloyd – Ianto Jones
Guest stars
Kai Owen – Rhys Williams James Marsters – Captain John Hart Lachlan Nieboer – Gray Paul Kasey – Weevil / Hoix Tom Price – PC Andy Davidson Paul Marc Davis – Cowled Leader Golda Rosheuvel – Dr Angela Connolly Syreeta Kumar – Nira Docherty Cornelius Macarthy – Charles Gaskell Amy Manson – Alice Guppy
Production
Writer	Chris Chibnall
Director	Ashley Way
Script editor	Brian Minchin
Producer	Richard Stokes Chris Chibnall (co-producer)
Executive producer(s)	Russell T Davies Julie Gardner
Production code	2.13
Series	Series 2
Length	50 mins
Originally broadcast	4 April 2008
Chronology
← Preceded by Followed by → "Fragments" "Lost Souls" (radio play) Children of Earth (serial)
IMDb profile

"Exit Wounds" is the thirteenth and final episode of the second series of British science fiction television series Torchwood, and was broadcast on BBC Two on 4 April 2008.^[1]

Plot

Synopsis

After regrouping from Captain John Hart's bombing attempt in the previous episode, the Torchwood team splits up to investigate four instances of Rift activity. Captain Jack Harkness returns to the Torchwood hub to find John waiting for him, who then shoots him; though Jack's immortality eventually revives him, John strips him of his weapons and chains him up. When Jack revives, John takes him to the top of Cardiff Castle and instructs the rest of Torchwood to watch as he systematically detonates several bombs across the city. John then transports himself and Jack to Cardiff in 27 A.D., where John explains that he was forced to do what he did by Jack's brother, Gray, and has been forced to wear a bomb and surveillance equipment on a wristband molecularly bonded to his skin. Gray arrives and drives a blade through Jack, and while Jack is recovering, forces John to dig a grave for Jack. When Jack recovers, Gray explains his hatred for Jack for leaving him behind, and tells Jack that he will be buried alive for eternity due to his immortality. As they begin to fill in the grave, John drops a ring into the grave, claiming sentimental value.

In the present, Gwen Cooper, Rhys Williams and PC Andy Davidson help to organize the police to maintain order in the city while the rest of Torchwood attempts to repair the damage. Detecting Rift activity at the Hub, Gwen heads there to find John waiting for her. John convinces Gwen he was blackmailed, and shows that his deal with Gray is complete as the wristband comes loose, a large amount of his flesh sloughing off with it. John tells Tosh to search for a signal from the ring that he placed in Jack's grave, but they are unable to find it. The team learns that the Turnmill Nuclear Power Plant will soon go into meltdown, but that Gray, having returned to the present, has released Weevils to block access to the plant. Owen, with his familiarity with the creatures, is able to enter the plant untouched while Tosh helps him with the plant's control system via radio. Gwen, Ianto and John are able to disable some Weevils and bring them back to the Hub. When they arrive, they are trapped in the holding cells by Gray. Gray then mortally shoots Tosh, while Owen is trapped in the plant's control room as it is locked down.

As Tosh crawls along the floor to recover her communicator, a rhythmic banging is heard throughout the Hub. Gray investigates it and finds its source is the Hub's morgue, and that inside one compartment is Jack, alive. Jack reveals that he was discovered by the 1901 Torchwood team and urged them to keep him in cryogenic storage until this specific time. Jack then apologizes to Gray and asks for his forgiveness but Gray refuses, forcing Jack to sedate him. Jack is able to free the other trapped Torchwood personnel. Meanwhile, Tosh has been able to regain the communicator despite losing much blood, and tells Owen how to vent the system into the control room to avoid the meltdown despite the fact he will be caught in the release. Tosh and Owen express a tearful farewell to each other. By the time Jack and the others find her, Tosh is too far gone to be saved, while Owen has been consumed by the radioactive waste.

Jack places Gray's body in cryogenic storage, hoping that he may be able to gain his forgiveness in the future. John promises to stay on earth and leaves, passing along his condolences. As Ianto completes the close-out procedures for Owen and Tosh, he discovers a final message from Tosh which confesses her love for Owen as well as thanks Jack for all her wonderful experiences. Gwen, after seeing the message, believes she cannot go on, but Jack consoles her, telling her this is only a beginning.

Continuity

• For the dating of this episode, see the Chronology.
• A Hoix creature, from the parent series Doctor Who in its 2006 episode "Love and Monsters" appears in this episode. This is the first time it is named onscreen.
• Owen refers to his status as "King of the Weevils", first mentioned in "Dead Man Walking" and foreshadowed in "Combat".
• When Owen Harper and Toshiko Sato are discussing their early days together, Tosh describes pretending to be a medic in Owen's second week, to cover for him having a hangover. Owen asks if this was "the space pig", referring to Naoko Mori's appearance as Doctor Sato, a presumed pathologist in the Doctor Who story "Aliens of London".
• Jack tells Gray "I forgive you," infuriating Gray. The Doctor said this to the Master in similar circumstances in the Doctor Who episode "Last of the Time Lords", and Jack himself spoke the phrase to Owen Harper following his resurrection in "End of Days".
• In the video played after her death, Toshiko tells Captain Jack "I wouldn't have missed it for the world." Rose Tyler said this to the Doctor as she faced her own death in the Doctor Who episode "Dalek". Sarah Jane Smith also said this at the end of School Reunion.
• Paul Marc Davis, who plays the Cowled Leader, previously played the Futurekind Chieftain in the Doctor Who episode "Utopia" and the Trickster in The Sarah Jane Adventures story Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane?. He is the second actor to appear in all three series, the first being Paul Kasey.
• Jack's clothing survives being buried in the soil for 1,854 years.
• Despite having the then-futuristic technology to cryogenically suspend life, accurately schedule defrosting on a date more than a century later, and track the emanations from the ring, Torchwood 3 uses contemporary gas lighting in the Edwardian era.
• It is unclear whether Torchwood 3's rift-monitoring base - complete with its morgue and a frozen Jack - was relocated in the late 20th Century, or if it was already located under the then-active West Bute Dock.

Production

Cast notes

This episode marks the last episode starring Naoko Mori as Toshiko Sato and Burn Gorman as Owen Harper. In the Torchwood: De-Classified television special that covers this episode, Burn Gorman jokingly remarks that Owen either is truly dead or will transform into the "king of the Weevils".

References

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Torchwood

• Exit Wounds on TARDIS Index File, an external wiki
• "Exit Wounds" at Doctor Who: A Brief History Of Time (Travel)
• "Exit Wounds" at the Doctor Who Reference Guide