Theory:Torchwood television discontinuity and plot holes/Adam

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This page is for discussing the ways in which Adam doesn't fit well with other DWU narratives. You can also talk about the plot holes that render its own, internal narrative confusing.

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• On the vials containing blood samples from all Torchwood members, some of the names are wrong. When Jack grabs them (after Ianto confesses to being a serial killer), four labels are visible and two have the first and last names reversed. From left to right, they read: "Cooper, Gwen"; "Toshiko, Sato"; "Harper, Owen"; and "Ianto, Jones".

It's possible that whoever labeled them wasn't being very attentive as they did so. The team members are fallible, and given the small size of Torchwood 3 the labelling consistency isn't particularly important.

• Rhys Williams shows no sign of injury following the previous story.

The episode's early dialogue shows that Gwen and Rhys have been to Paris (with Adam having infiltrated Torchwood while she was away), indicating that a significant amount of time has passed.

• Although all the members of Torchwood takes Retcon to forget Adam, Rhys Williams does not despite having briefly met Adam.

Adam goes to some effort to integrate himself into Torchwood's past memories by touching them, indicating that this is necessary to sustain him. Rhys, whom Adam did not touch and who was traumatized and concentrating on Gwen, would have had only a fleeting memory of their meeting. This might cause some confusion if Rhys mentions him to Gwen, but they've seen weirder. Jack could also have contacted Rhys offscreen before having his final conversation with Adam.

• How can Adam be seen on the videos if he needs to make himself part of their mermories to be real? Shouldn't the videos just show no-one?

No, as Rhys is able to see Adam without being manipulated, meaning he has corporeal form and therefore can be seen by CCTV cameras. The videos only show Adam touching his victims, not their memories. He needed to be in someone's memories to become real, but once doing so he did have physical form.

• The episode suggests that Jack's memories of his father and younger brother are repressed, yet in Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang he reacts when John Hart mentions his brother, Gray.

Perhaps the actual knowledge of the individuals are still present -- i.e. Jack knows he has a father and a presumably deceased brother named Gray -- but the actual memories of the individuals have been repressed. Jack knows he lost his brother, but the Time Agency stole two years of his memory (which could be simply a quantity rather than a span), and that could have included the last happy memory of him and his father, which is the memory that Adam dug up.

• Theoretically, Adam would alter people's minds by implanting memories which would occupy the slots of the human brain which are, precisely, reserved for either old or very old memories. As the Retcon would affect the memories which are only of the last 24 hs, the pill wouldn't be able to modify 3 years of memory. Furthermore, into Jack's childhood memories, which would have been of about two hundred years leastwise, Adam had already sneaked as well.

Most likely, something that disrupt memories causes Adam's influence to vanish. Or possibly the retcon wiping out the past 48 hours meant hours of implanted memories too, meaning that the memories Adam implanted will be gone too. The mechanism by which retcon physically works has not been explained.

• When Tosh points the gun at Jack, wouldn't she know that he's immortal?

Even if it wouldn't kill him for very long, it would certainly put him out of action long enough for Tosh to keep Adam safe.