Review: Torchwood S2 07 Dead Man Walking
Why do so many wonderful character moments have to be trapped inside such a wretched plot?
About halfway through my husband said, "I hope they're going somewhere with to this. It's nice and creepy." When it was all over I asked him what he thought about it. "It was different."
"Yeah, but was it creepy-with-a-point or creepy-but-pointless?"
He thought a moment. "It was different!"
And that is the $64,000 question about Dead Man Walking (old American game show reference which is probably about what the BBC spent to make it). It's the most spookily atmospheric Torchwood ever, but did it have a point?
This is the second story Matt Jones has done for the Whoniverse. The first was The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit for Doctor Who Series 2. I detest them both. They have some of the lamest plots around. I don't mind when the Whoniverse steals plots, in fact I'm proud of it. Stealing plots has been an honored tradition since at least the Bronze Age. But with the whole world of literature to steal from, why settle for third-rate horror stories?
The really detestable thing is that Matt Jones writes these absolutely wonderful character moments while the characters are reacting to the lame plots. The security officer's death, the Devil's taunting, and the Doctor's soliloquy are some of the finest moments in New Who. But to see them, you have to endure a plot that boils down to Cthullu-in-Space. It's Cthullu. It's in space. There's nothing more to say about it.
Dead Man Walking is no better. A minor demon with little power and big dreams has staked out a rabbit hole, sitting patiently holding a carrot waiting for a foolish rabbit to poke it's nose outside. He gets Jack Harkness for the rabbit after the Carrot of Resurrection for Owen Harper. Jack steals his prize and whisks it away, without noticing the black thread that runs from the carrot to the demon's finger. As soon as Owen has consumed the Carrot of Resurrection, the demon begins to slowly and patiently reel him in.
Gwen googles that the demon is some sort of creature that will roam the Earth if it can kill 13 people and mistakes it for Death. It can't be Death, because Death roams the Earth all the time anyway. This is, at best, an opportunistic minor demon who for lack of a better name I'll call Smokey.
Fortunately Smokey is not a very powerful demon, as it's forced to cross half a city full of victims just to take out a dozen patients in an ICU ward. Nor is it a very smart demon, as the last time it tried this trick it was defeated by a little girl, and it's doing the exact same thing over again. (I fear Smokey would lose an IQ contest with Adam.) All Torchwood has to do is figure out the countermeasure. Story over.
I know it's a popular joke to say one doesn't watch Torchwood for the plot, but just once it would be nice if it had a plot worth watching.
But let's dispense with the plot and move on to the character moments. Since it's polite to see to guests first, we'll start with Martha. I've heard some complaints from die-hard Who fans that Martha was wasted in this episode, but they missed the very important role that Martha played. She was the audience identification figure for new watchers who didn't understand why everyone else had a conniption fit when Jack pulled out the glove. Her actions and reactions kept those viewers who haven't seen Everything Changes or They Keep Killing Suzie yet from feeling lost. It was essentially a Companion's role and she did it well.
Now on to Jack. The first things that's obvious is the change in Jack between this series and the last. Last series he was distant and disconnected from everyone. This series he is literally more connected to and concerned about his team this year. Last series he didn't want to use a glove at all. This series he goes on a quest and fights off a nest of Weevils ot obtain one. Last series he couldn't get a glove to work for him. This series he manages to get it to work with only a moderate amount of trouble. He quite literally cares more about them all this year, and this is the most obvious example of how widespread that caring is for him.
In the resurrection scene he clearly states he brought Owen back to see if he could save him and, if not, to let the others have the chance to say goodbye. Then he tries to downplay his concern by saying he was only after a door code. Baloney. Is there anyone who seriously believes there's a code in that Jack's lair that Jack doesn't know? Or that the alien book reading/lock picking device couldn't figure out in less than two minutes? Neither do I and neither does Owen, who confronts Jack about his lie in the cell scene and gets the truth out of Jack -- he's not ready to say goodbye to Owen himself.
This clingines is something we've seen abundantly since Jack's return from the Valiant, but previously it's been directed at Ianto or Gwen, one of whom he's sleeping with and the other of whom he's apparently thought about sleeping with under different circumstances. But he has never shown the least romantic interest in Owen. In the cell scene his feelings for Owen come across as paternal or fraternal. While extreme, there's something reassuring about knowing Jack would go this far for Owen. It gives some perspective to his strong feelings for Gwen and provides more evidence that his strong reactions to her now are not motivated by lust or romantic feeling so much as a deep desire to both protect his makeshift family and exercise some control over his own life.
There's also the possiblity that Jack identifies with Owen to a certain extent. Owen in the first series was very much like Jack before he met the Doctor. Now it appears that Owen may have been reared by a distant single mother, and Jack might have as well. There's every possibility that Jack's mother rallied from the shock of the death of her husband and the disappearance of Grey and did a wonderful job of rearing Jack. But she might not have. We don't know enough to say for sure right now, but the possibility is out there.
And then there's our main character for this episode, Owen. Let me state my bias up front. I really don't like "return from the dead" stories. I'm a Classicist at heart, I take my view of the dead from old myths. You can, if you are very brave and very foolhardy, go to the Underworld to question the dead (the Resurrection Glove is a good substitute for that) but you can't bring anyone back from the dead. Attempts to do so will always end in tears even if they appear successful at the start. Occasionally the Gods will value a mortal so much that they take away his or her ability to die, but this is extremely rare. This view is pretty much in line with the Whoniverse. Our 900 Time Lord would not be so utterly convinced in the permanence of Death if the gates of the Underworld had a revolving door.
Owen gets zombified and used as a conduit for Smokey the Demon. He takes what's happened to him rather calmly, although he's probably still in shock. But death has certainly brought out the vinegar in Owen. We haven't heard this much snark from him since the first series. Dying gives him a new appreciation for life, and more determination to help people. Lovely, but y'know most stories manage that trick without actually bumping the intended off the mortal coil. Unfortunately it doesn't give him any more self-esteem, as his brush-off of Tosh proves. He still sees himself as the boy not good enough for Mommy (or anyone else) to love. I would have said the moment where he swears to Jack that they are going to make up for the deaths they caused was over the top, but this is Owen. TMI is his middle name.
Although it does present some interesting possibilities. Given that Owen is both a Doctor and a self-destructive jackass, I foresee some destruct tests coming up in the near future. We also don't know if his calmness is caused by a zombified lack of emotions or if the shock is going to wear off eventually. That will be interesting to see.
The continuity glitches got to me after a bit. First of all, Torchwood's pet Weevil is a female named Janet. Definitely not a "he". Of course, maybe they showed Owen another Weevil, but what would be the point in that? Janet's the Weevil who Owen's been working with the longest and who knows Owen the best. Maybe Janet's having a period and is in a bad mood.
The bigger continuity glitch was the 13th Century town that built a wall around itself to keep out the Black Death. Hel-lo! 13th Century European towns all had walls around them. It was a standard feature for thousands of years.
However, it must be said that the atmosphere was wonderfully spooky. Maybe next week we could have a decent plot to go with them, yes?
ETA: My husband thinks that Tarot girls is the now centuries-old "Faith". There's a symmetry and narrative economy to that thought.
ETA: I got the hockey stick joke. It was the only time in the episode I laughed at something that was supposed to be funny.