The Rift is violently fracturing further, and Jack realises that Torchwood is destined to be drawn into one vast battle that will leave nothing and no one at Torchwood unchanged…
Originally Titled End of Days was changed to Apocalypse, and then back to End of Days a short time before airing.
Length 46’33”
First Transmitted
10:20pm, 1st January 2007, BBC Three and BBC HD; 9:50pm, 3rd December 2007, BBC Two, both in double-bills with Captain Jack Harkness (combined end credits, no Next Time sequence or saga sell in the middle).
Guest Cast
Kai Owen (Rhys); Murray Melvin (Bilis Manger); Tom Price (PC Andy); Caroline Chikezie (Lisa); Louise Delamere (Diane); Matthew Gravelle (Doctor); Noriko Aida (Toshiko’s Mother); Jamie Belton (Roman Soldier); Carrie Gracie (Newsreader); Paul Kasey (Weevil); Rhian Wyn Jones (Religious Woman)
Writer Chris Chibnall
Director Andy Goddard
Setting
Cardiff, across 1 day immediately following the events of Captain Jack Harkness.
Did You Spot?
In the news montage, we can see the steps up to the Mayor’s office used in Boom Town (2005), the front of Howells in Cardiff, which usually stands in for Henrick’s in Doctor Who and the Jathaa Sun Glider seen in Doomsday (2006) hovering over the Taj Mahal. Bilis’ shop is located in the same arcade that Gwen, Jack and Owen ran through in the opening of Ghost Machine. The idea of travelling through time to procure and sell antiques, as Bilis is doing here, was first explored in the Doctor Who story The Evil of the Daleks (1967). The Doctor’s hand starts to glow in its liquid-filled capsule just before we hear the TARDIS materialisation noise in the show’s final moments
Twisted Reality
Jack mentions UNIT, the organization that was introduced during the late 1960s in Doctor Who and featured prominently during the Jon Pertwee era. The BBC News 24 report scroll gives a glimpse of some of the time slips happening over the planet: “Beatles on the roof of Abbey Road studios; Fears of guillotine appearance in Paris; Samurai warrior on the rampage in Tokyo subway system” – so the disturbances seem to be only displacements in time, and not location. Although Ianto reads from the Biblical Daniel (12:10), the translation does not match any of the standards, which generally refer to the wise being purified. Ianto mentions Abaddon as he reads about various stories of the “End of Days”. In reality, Abaddon is a Hebrew word meaning “destruction”and the demon Abaddon is mention in ‘Revelation’ 9:11 as the “Angle of the Abyss”. Abaddon is also one of the “Infernal Names” mentioned by Anton LaVey in ‘The Satanic Bible’, plus countless other references. PC Andy refers to Jack and Gwen as “Mulder and Scully”, referring to the extremely popular TV show The X-Files that ran from 1993 to 2002. In the hospital scene, Owen says “Well done, House” to the doctor when he diagnosed the plague, a reference to the main character on the popular TV show House, who is a gifted diagnostician. The episode features parallels with the Buffy: The Vampire Slayer season one finale Prophecy Girl, in which The Master opened the Hellmouth in order to release a great beast and escape himself, along with a final speech from Jack about the future of the rift that mirrors Giles’ speech at the end of Buffy episode The Harvest. Another reference to Rhea Silva is made, the Vestal Virgin who gave birth to Romulus and Remus.
Love is in the Air
Gwen and Rhys share a few affectionate moments on screen. Ianto sees a vision of Lisa who says that she loves him, and Owen sees one of Diane who says the same. Although all eyes are on Gwen after Rhys’ death, the smile on Toshiko’s face when Owen reappears in that scene speaks volumes. Gwen kisses Jack, which brings him back to life. Affection for Jack runs high when the team see him alive once again; Ianto in particular gets a kiss from Jack.
If it’s Alien, it’s Ours
The rift manipulator might be using alien technology. The stun gun could possibly be alien.
Captain Jack’s Large Weapon
Jack pulls out his Smith & Wesson in an attempt to take Bilis back to the hub. Owen shoots Jack with the same gun.
Torchwood Shop: Now Open for Business
Gwen has a Torchwood branded stun-gun.
Cymru am Byth
Not Welsh, but the Roman soldier is shouting in Latin and Toshiko and the vision of her mother have a conversation in Japanese (only the latter is translated for the audience). We’re not sure, but the Roman soldier says something about “I be to behold always intensely true…” something or other.
To Live and Die in Cardiff
An outbreak of the bubonic plague claims the lives of an undisclosed number of people in Cardiff (who come back to life at the end). Rhys is stabbed by Bilis and dies from his injuries (but comes back to life at the end). Jack is shot dead by Owen (but comes back to life shortly after). Abbadon devours the lives of many residents of Cardiff (who come back to life at the end). Jack dies (again) after Abaddon sucks the life out of him (but comes back to life at the end). Abaddon is destroyed out of his gluttony for consuming life after focusing his attention on Jack. Abbadon doesn’t come back to life, and therefore probably feels a bit left out.
Quotables
“Nice arse.” – Gwen
“Slap, slap a-slap, slap… slap, slap” – Rhys (well, his buttcheeks anyway)
“You people love any story that denies the randomness of existence” – Jack
“Did you have to pick on him in public like that?” – Gwen
“All of our actions have consequences.” – Jack
“And all your staff have feelings Jack. Even Owen!” – Gwen
“Well you would know.” – Jack
“So he was on his way there, time splintered, and he ended up here.” – Jack
“’Scuse me. Hi. Any time you feel like talking sense?” – Andy
“That soldier came through a crack in time.” – Jack
“He’s not serious is he?” – Andy
“This sort of thing just doesn’t happen. Not in Cardiff.” – Andy
“We waited for you. You’ve got to stop this. You’ve got to do something” – Doctor
“No, you’ve got to do something. People are dropping through time and they are gonna bring every disease in history through your doors so you better be ready!” – Owen
“Owen!” – Tosh
“Scared enough yet? ’Cause fuck knows I am!!” – Owen
“Who the fuck are you anyway? Jack Harkness?! You don’t even exist. We’ve looked! So if you’re not even a real person then why the hell should I follow your orders?” – Owen
“This is what happens here. We all end up alone. Not me. No way. You bring him back.” – Gwen
“No.” – Jack
“The resurrection gauntlet…” – Gwen
“…was destroyed.” – Ianto
“We gotta have somethin’ else” – Gwen
“I said no.” – Jack
“No, there’s somethin’ wrong with time, so we can go back and, go back to the moment, to the very moment” – Gwen”
“Gwen!” – Jack
“Well, there’s gotta be, there’s gotta be somethin’ you can do. Otherwise, what’s the fucking point… of you!!” – Gwen
“I…” – Owen
“I forgive you.” – Jack
“Jack, what would have tempted you? What visions would have convinced you to open the rift?” – Gwen
“The right kind of Doctor.” – Jack
Weren’t You In?
Matthew ravelle appears in Caerdydd (2006) as Gareth Pritchard. Noriko Aida played Miss Hara in Body and Soul (1993). Jamie Belton was Boomer in Hooligans (2004). Carrie Gracie is currently a newsreader on BBC News 24.
Unanswered Questions
How does Tosh track temporal cracks back to the rift, especially as the shifts only seem to be in time and not space. Why/how does Bilis project to Gwen in the jail? He doesn’t behave the same way the “visions” to the other staff do as his lips are not moving. Since when did Torchwood have nine levels of holding cells? Although this does roughly match up with the sign in ‘Ghost Machine’ that stated the entrance to the Hub contains 105 steps (or roughly eight to nine floors). Ianto talks about opening the lower levels, too. So, how many levels are below those nine? How many Weevils are there now? How does Ret-Con work, exactly? Most of the times we’ve seen it used, it’s been for an evening, but Owen says he’ll get Ret-Con’d after leaving, presumably so he forgets what Torchwood is, or at least the information he knows. How is it gauged for a longer period of time? Wouldn’t Jack be a little more sensitive about it considering he’s lost two years of his own memories? Is this Jack’s decision or a global Torchwood rule? What first enabled Bilis to step across time (and space) as he does? He says “At first it was the most incredible gift…”, so what did he acquire in order to do this? How is Bilis able to force that vision on Gwen? Are his powers that allow him to step through time linked with his gift of mental manipulation? How does he know to target Gwen with Rhys to get her to open the rift? At what point does the team assume that opening the rift will reset time and “get back what they’ve lost”? Is Abaddon related to the very similar looking creature seen in The Satan Pit? What does Bilis have to gain in releasing Abaddon? Is he actually human? What happens to Bilis after Abaddon is defeated? How exactly does a kiss bring Jack back to life days later? Is this the reverse of his own patented “kiss of life”?
Fuck Ups
The Roman Soldier has his Latin pronunciation all wrong. The teeth of the plague victim are not consistent with people from that age. Although the Bubonic Plague is still considered deadly and can be quite virulent, with modern medicine the survival rate is 85-96%. Also, plague generally takes 2-7 days to incubate (however, a strain known as “pneumonic” plague has been known to show in as little as a few hours). Owen does get the treatment exactly right though! The audio is very varied when the doctor is speaking with Tosh and Owen in the hospital. At times it sounds like they’re talking through a microphone/speaker, and others it sounds like they’re talking from behind a mask. When Owen comes back in to the hub, he looks at Rhys and says “Oh shit,” and THEN looks at Gwen. Gwen pointed out that no one had ever met him, so he shouldn’t have known who it was on the table. Rhys, having been stabbed twice, has no rips in his shirt when lying on the autopsy table. Jack’s blood stains seemed to have mysteriously become a lot smaller by the time he faces Abaddon.
Torchwood: Declassifed Episode 13 (Length: 10’31”)
Broadcast BBC Three, Tuesday 2nd January, 2:50am.
John Barrowman, Burn Gorman and Naoko Mori tell us a little about the episode.
Barrowman, Mori, Murray Melvin (mis-captioned as Bilis Manager), Richard Stokes and Russell T Davies enthuse about the character of Bilis and his motivation.
Eve Myles, Julie Gardner and Barrowman on the characters’ loneliness causing them to be selfish and losing faith in Jack.
Myles, Mori, Davies and Ashley Way on tipping Gwen over the edge.
Gorman and Gardner on Owen rising against Jack, and Myles on the destruction of the Hub.
Davies and Stokes on the grand style of the finale and the semi 2-part nature of the last two episodes.
Barrowman describes the episode as being about everything “falling apart”.
Barney Curnow, Andy Guest and Neil Roche on creating Abbadon.
Barrowman theorises on how Jack comes back from the dead and final thoughts from Gareth David-Lloyd and Burn Gorman.
Site Review by Rob Tizzard
The intro to the final episode of what we now know is just season one of more, presents clips of many moments we thought were only important to the episode in which they feature. There has been an ongoing arc, though not as obvious as some would probably like.
The team which seemed so friendly and fun in episode one are now battle hardened and untrusting of each other. The consequences of the previous episode are felt strongly from the beginning and do a lot of the set-up work, leaving more time for action. But this is not the apocalyptic explosion of a story I was expecting, although I was expecting something along the lines of the characters witnessing future versions of themselves after reading a false rumour.
Owen is redeemed in my eyes just by his reaction to the black death, but this episode really belongs to Gwen. She has come such a long way now and when the thing she feared the most happens, she can not deal. Her reaction is spot on and makes the story flow in a brilliant way, I was stunned by Eva’s performance. It is her the team follow by the middle of the episode, showing just how powerful she can be among the group.
And it is her Jack turns to, to help him solve the unsolvable. And after such an explosive series, the final act feels very subtle and nicely unexpected. And then Jack is gone and we are left wondering if he’ll be back in time for series two and if he’ll be different in any way. But we’ll have to tune in to another show for those answers.
But for now, Torchwood is by no means perfect, but it is a brilliant series and I’m thrilled it is there to be enjoyed. I hope next series we get a lot more screen time for Tosh and Ianto, who are both potentially fascinating characters. Hopefully a more light-hearted Owen or some revelations from his past that might explain his behaviour. More Bilis hopefully, a thrillingly chilling villain, although I was annoyed how he was left in the Sapphire & Steel camp for now. Maybe a new team member, to help Gwen progress even more if nothing else and a less showbiz Jack (lose the blue lights please) with at least a little revealed about who he is and where he comes from before we stop caring. So, till then…
Reader Reviews
Just feel it… Rhys lies dead in the darkened cellar. Jack and Gwen rush in to discover him. Gwen cries, cradling him in her arms… a beautifully tragic moment.
And then… that wail. You know the one I mean. Myles lets out a sound that says it all. The completely numb cry of someone who has lost everything and has no idea how, why or if she can get it back. The raw energy behind her then comes flying out into her right arm, which tenses, flails, and pathetically hits Jack.
As with a similar scene in the end of Everything Changes (Suzie holding a gun to Gwen’s head), I felt simultaneously that I had intruded on a very private and uncomfortable situation and that Eve Myles was truly one of the most exciting and challenging young actresses in the UK today.
If I can be permitted to end this review here, just looking at these 30 seconds, I won’t have anything negative to say. Sadly, the other 49 and a half minutes just didn’t stand up to this one moment.
Bland. Just bland. After 12 episodes of increasing tension, excitement and surprise, I found the finale excruciatingly predictable (oh look, those visions were just tricks), twee (thank God everyone came back to life at the end, eh, just like real life – and don’t even get me started on Gwen’s kiss of life), embarrassing (Barrowman screaming at the shadow) and, worst of all, reliant on the parent series for a good cliffhanger ending. Torchwood has come into its own so well these last three months, dragging Jack back into the world of TARDISes, Daleks and Cybermen for the last few seconds seemed like… well, like a cheat. Much better for them to have left him dead over the season break (although that would be one more Buffy ripoff), or at least have him disappear without the TARDIS sound effect (where’s Jack gone? Did he run away? Has he been abducted?). As it is, we’re just left feeling that we’ve spent the last 12 weeks watching Mission to the Unknown, and now we’re going to find out how Jack’s experiences will affect the far more important world of the Doctor.
Well, I’m sorry, but that attitude isn’t for me. I’ve fallen for Torchwood in a big way, and I couldn’t care less how New Jack and New New Doctor are going to get along – I just want to see Jack back where he belongs, with Gwen, Owen, Ianto and Sato. If he turns up for a guest spot in Who 2007, fantastic, but that’s not what’s going to be sticking in my mind during this long wait for my next Barrowman fix.
Such a fantastic season. Such a bland finale. Thank God for promises of more in the Autumn. But such a long wait…
Arthur Penn
I have to admit I found End of Days something of an anti-climax after a notable improvement in the quality of Torchwood’s scripts from the halfway mark onwards in Series 1. While, as in the similarly below par Combat, there are some superb scenes of conflict for the Torchwood team, the episode as a whole disappoints somewhat. There are several reasons for this.
Firstly, the resolution of the story, which implies that everyone killed is returned to good health (with nothing more serious than a case of amnesia), completely negates the drama of Rhys’ apparent death, and of the level of threat of the Abbadon. Sorry to suggest the delivery of a redundancy notice to actor Kai Owen, but Rhys needed to stay dead in the name of dramatic realism and for Gwen’s story to further develop. A massive, massive own goal, in my opinion.
Secondly, the Abbadon itself. Big monsters are for Doctor Who. Torchwood, when at its best, has dealt with the psychological, the disturbing. We didn’t need a 100-foot tall, generic CGI monster just because the last episode has to be “the big finale”.
Thirdly, after being built up so well in Captain Jack Harkness, Bilis is ultimately disappointing as it transpires he is merely the acolyte of a big, bad ogre. It would have been so much more effective had Bilis been allowed to be the big villain, rather than just a servant to a rather unimpressive monster. What a horrendous waste of a terrific character. Poor Murray Melvin deserved so much better than this, even though he enjoys some great scenes before the character descends into predictable pantomime villain territory. Writer Chris Chibnall’s take on Bilis also appears to draw rather heavily from the 1967 Doctor Who serial, The Evil of the Daleks, which features Edward Waterfield, a character who travels between time periods and makes a trade from antiques lifted from the past. Not particularly original.
The good scenes are undoubtedly those between Gwen and Bilis and also the latter’s merciless killing of Rhys. The scenes in the Hub between the Torchwood staffers are also very well written, dramatic and involving.
But it’s all spoilt by a daft monster that wasn’t even needed and what appears to be a “get out of jail free” card for anyone who has died as a consequence of the events of the episodes. A little like Russell T. Davies on Doctor Who, we’re once more in the sad position where the chief writer, Chris Chibnall, could learn a thing or two from the writers working underneath him. A poor end to the first series of Torchwood.
Alan Hayes
