Torchwood #14: Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang

Torchwood Team; 

• Captain Jack

• Gwen

• Owen

• Tosh 

• Ianto

Notable Characters; 

• Captain John Hart- Time Agent

• Blowfish- Alien menace 

Detailed Plot; 

The second season of Torchwood really does kick off with a bang! Pun intended. Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang is fast paced from the get go, filled with action and the plot and story is just magnificent. It begins very uniquely with a Blowfish driving a sports car! Yes, you did read correctly. He's speeding away but stops at some traffic lights to let an elderly women cross. As soon as she had, the sports car driving Blowfish sped away. Moments later, the familiar sight of the Torchwood SUV arrived, no Jack within after his disappearance at the climax of the previous season, and Gwen asked the women if she'd seen the fish. She pointed the team in the right direction. 

The thrilling high speed car chase was ensuing and now Torchwood were closing in on the Blowfish. Owen had sight, leaned out of the window with Gwen taking the wheel and he shot the tyre of the Blowfish's car. The team quickly ended up at the deserted car in a neighbourhood, late at night. A gun shot was heard and the team quickly stormed a house. As the team entered, a man was wounded having been shot by the Blowfish whilst the mysterious alien had a women hostage at gunpoint. It was humorously revealed that the Blowfish was high on crack. What better way to start a season than Torchwood chasing after a high-on-drugs alien fish! The start credits were yet to hit. 

The Blowfish knew a lot about the Torchwood team which was interestingly good. He mocked each member individually and claimed they were lost without Jack's leadership. Ianto was holding a gun at the Blowfish, but the alien questioned his nerve and his aim. He might miss and kill the hostage, but the alien might kill her first. A shot echoed, the Blowfish collapsed after a bullet cracked through its skull. Ianto was still and confused. Captain Jack had returned in the nick of time and killed the alien dead. I liked how he referred to his team as kids, immediately demonstrating he was the leader. But once back in the hub Jack was impressed at how the team had gotten on without them and that they were very organised. Gwen more so than her teammates was angry at Jack for leaving. She questioned his whereabouts but all Jack could reply with was saying that he'd found the 'right Doctor' in a reference to Utopia and the season 29 finale of Doctor Who. Sparing him a few more questions, rift activity had occurred. 

Upon this activity, a device in the Blowfish's pocket (the dead body was in the hub) was flashing. A connection of some sort. On a rooftop car park, a man walked from out of the rift. A knife attack was going on but rather than save the victim, he seemed more interested in which artery the knifer intended on cutting! It was chilling. But after mocking the knifer for saying he wasn't bluffing, the man picked up the knifer with ease and just dropped him off of the roof. Murder. He let the victim free, but this man, just like Captain Jack, had a vortex manipulator. 

The mysterious murdering man entered a club and immediately acted as if he owned it, telling people to either 'go' or 'stay.' He had an eery swagger. The bouncer soon came to him, but the man pulled out two guns, one in each hand, and the club soon evacuated in fear. It seemed he was causing mayhem simply for fun and games. 

Torchwood were now at the scene of the dead knifer, and there were rift readings on and around him. Andy had a brief cameo and still seemed a bit jealous of his ex-PC partner Gwen. In an extremely rare occasion, Jack's vortex manipulator beeped and flashed, and the mayhem causing man appeared in a hologram message. Jack quickly left, leaving the rest of Torchwood clueless and alone once more. 

Jack entered the club to which the man was in, the pair stood opposite in a standoff. They approached each other and... snogged! That was certainly to my surprise. But as the episode title suggests, after the kisses came the bangs. Punches were soon thrown and a pub fight soon had begun, and the pair were enjoying it! They both had each other at gunpoint before they sat and had a drink. The man was finally named. Captain John Hart. He'd been to rehab it was discovered, and the pair clearly had a history together as Jack laughed at this. And it was pretty obvious anyway. John was a fellow Time Agent as we'd learned about Jack in The Empty Child, but now the agency had shut down. Torchwood though had tracked Jack down and entered the pub, armed. They were soon told it was safe and John was like Jack, but worse, according to the team at least. Their history was briefly explored and it was revealed Jack and John were partners, and were for five years, although it was the same two weeks repeated in a time loop. The intentions of John were revealed- he was searching for three canisters and they were filled with toxic radiation, he needed to find them. A dying women's wish apparently. The Earth needed to be saved, but somehow John had the look of a villain. Could he be trusted? 

Jack, reluctant to believe it, said the team would help John find the canisters on the basis that once they were found he would leave and go back through the rift. John was taken to the hub, and once in all his weapons were confiscated. He definitely didn't seen trustworthy, especially when Jack explained he was a compulsive lier. The Torchwood team didn't seem too pleased at how Jack was always hiding his past, when he knew pretty much everything about them. Gwen, alone with Jack now, wanted to know about his disappearance and where he'd really been. Jack referenced Last of the Time Lords and how at the hands of the Master he'd seen the end of the world. It was soon discovered that Gwen Cooper was engaged! Jack seemed a little disappointed, did he love Gwen? He certainly seemed to envy Rhys. 

The locations of the three canisters were soon established. With three locations, that meant two members (including John) being assigned to each location. Gwen planned to partner John and flirt her way to some truth of his real intentions. Jack reluctantly agreed but gave Gwen some rules and warnings to watch out for. 

Gwen and Captain John arrived at the docks in search of the first canister. Rhys rang Gwen, subtly gloating about his new job, but to Gwen it was just a distraction. John was momentarily lost before scaring Gwen in returning. He subtly mentioned to Gwen how 'once a conman, always a conman' but she seemed confused. She really didn't know anything about Jack's past. Though the pair had now found the canister but John's intentions soon came into fruition. He quickly kissed Gwen and she quickly collapsed in consciousness. She was awake but despondent. John revealed she had two hours before her organs shut down. He trapped her in a container and lobbed her phone away from her. He told her that Jack wouldn't stay with Torchwood. 

Owen and Tosh were in search for the second canister (from the viewer's point of view, there was no established order) and they were in a storage works. They hadn't wasted much time and the canister was found. But Captain John was with them. He entered, head butting Tosh subtracting her from the equation and threatened Owen at gunpoint who had the canister in hand. A shot was heard but the picture quickly turned to Jack and Ianto before a victim of a bullet was seen. 

The flirtatious pair were in an office and humorously, but seriously, Jack asked Ianto on a date. The answer was of course yes and the pair split up to find the canister. Ianto took the office whilst Jack took the roof. Ianto was soon worried as the lift was heard, he investigated but it was empty. From behind John had Ianto at gunpoint and walked him into the left, explaining the predicament his teammates were in and that he needed to save them. They were in a 'bloody' condition. Ianto was sickened but had no choice. 

On the roof Jack had found the third and final canister but was soon approached by John. John wanted his old partner back, to go with him and claim the stars. Jack though couldn't and wouldn't even consider the offer, and threw the canister backwards from the roof and to the ground. Angered, John pushed Jack off of the roof and he landed many stories down, almost in half, over a bench. Murder therapy hadn't worked. But his current plan seemed to be, he had the third canister and took Jack's vortex manipulator from the corpse that would soon resurrect, not that John would know. 

Tosh was working on Owen who it was now officially confirmed had been shot. Ianto arrived to the pair and Owen wasn't in such a bad state considering what had happened. He was still able to get on with his job. The trio soon found themselves at the docks and were searching for Gwen. Had they arrived in time? It seemed so as she was found, poisoned. But the anti-toxin kit was soon going to bring her back around. Gwen would be safe. 

John was alone in the hub with his canisters and the corpse of the Blowfish. The flashing device that indicated upon John's arrival seemed a vital piece in the puzzle to which John was working on. They were all pieces of a conjoined device it seemed. But would he fix them together? It seemed not as the team were all armed and had him at gunpoint. To John's astonishment and something which highly impressed him, Jack returned to the hub alive and well. He told John the secret of how he couldn't die. 

John though had lied about the canister's true meaning, that was pretty obvious anyway by now. Instead they were all parts of a valuable Arcadian diamond. But it seemed John had been conned! It was a tracker. No diamond and once the puzzle was complete a device attached itself to John. The diamond was all a fake and hologram message for John was seen, he was destined for death as the device was specific to his DNA. He had ten minutes before detonation. The women on the hologram was that of whom John had killed wanting the diamond, but she had the last laugh even after her death. 

John was quick and skilful though and quickly handcuffed himself to Gwen with a deadlock seal. If John was going, Gwen was going with him. The Torchwood team quickly needed the solution! Gwen though knew the solution. If she entered the rift with John, then the explosion, bound to be calamitous, would save Cardiff. It was clear that the courageous Welsh girl wasn't bluffing. The countdown was on. Would a solution be found to prevent Gwen's death? 

With time running out, the team minus Jack and Owen arrived with John at the car park of his arrival. Jack and Owen though had a plan, they thought they had a solution. They quickly arrived in the Blowfish's sports car, Jack took down John, and injected him with something. In the nick of time the explosive device was off and lobbed into the rift entrance where it exploded. Cardiff was safe. But immediately the Welsh capital went from day to night. Time had reverted back to the moment of John's arrival, a temporal displacement had occurred and the events of the episode technically hadn't happened. 

The injection was explained and Owen had mastered a solution containing a part of DNA of each Torchwood member and it had temporarily corrupted John's DNA. The handcuffs joining Gwen and John were undone now and the feisty, gorgeous Welsh girl punched him straight in the face! 

John seemingly wanted membership in Torchwood but of course he couldn't be trusted. Jack said no and told him to go. Just as John was leaving through the rift, he revealed something. 'Oh by the way, I found Gray.' Jack had a flashback of hands releasing and he was massively shocked. Just who was Gray exactly? 

My analysis; 

An outstanding beginning to the second season of Torchwood. All the team are still their same old brilliant selves and this episode was just sensational. Filled with action, thrills and a high alien fish, this really did have the lot! The questioning and mystery of Jack's past was great and I'm sure that based on the cliffhanger-like ending it will be further explored. The villain of Captain John was just magnificent and he's certainly to Jack what the Master is to the Doctor it seems. A lot of history but very different approaches to things now. The plot was excellent and I loved how John used the team then took each of them out of the picture, one by one. The Blowfish was a great character also and the comedy at the beginning of the episode was excellent. I loved Gwen in this, but I really like how it seems Jack's history will be further explored during this season. I very much look forward to it! 

Rating; 10/10, it really did have the lot!