Theory:Torchwood television discontinuity and plot holes/Exit Wounds

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

Remember, this is a forum, so civil discussion is encouraged. However, please do not sign your posts. Also, keep all posts about the same continuity error under the same bullet point. You can add a new point by typing:

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::Further discussion and query of point two.

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• What was the episode's title supposed to mean?

When a person is shot, if the bullet goes all the way through, the exit wound is the wound made by the bullet exiting the body (the other side of the entrance wound, where the bullet first hits the skin). Poetically, since this is a continuation of the events of "Fragments", maybe it refers to the exit wounds made by fragments of shrapnel that hit the skin so hard they exit out the other side? Or something like that.

• In the episode casefiles on the Torchwood site, the morgue inventory incorrectly lists Torchwood 1901's sealed cryo-unit (with Jack inside) as 005, when in fact it was 003.

Several other tie-in websites for both Torchwood and Doctor Who have made similar mistakes and/or contradicted on-screen information. No official announcement has been made as to whether or not the sites qualify as canon - if they do not (and there is substantial evidence to suggest they may not be canon) then this discontinuity can be chalked up as a simple error on the part of the website management and left at that.

• In Last of the Time Lords Jack said he could still age - so how come he doesn't age when he is underground? Furthermore, why do his clothes not rot away while he is buried?

Jack doesn't revive instantly and aging only occurs in living bodies. He would have spent almost all of the time underground dead with occasional bouts of living lasting 3-4 minutes at a time until he suffocated. In End of Days he was shown dead for several days before revival, so if it was at roughly the same rate he would only be alive for an hour or two a month, so a day a year (especially since the deaths occurred so closely to each other). Also he has stated that his aging has slowed, but that he knows it still occurs. A few thousand years is a drop in the bucket compared to 5 billion. As for the clothes, they're never shown damaged (see Fragments for example), so presumably they're not of 20th century Earth origin. Also Jack's aging is at a rate unknown to all.

• When he finally emerges from the morgue, Jack seems to be completely psychologically fit and unperturbed by the experience of having repeatedly suffocated to death several hundreds of thousands of times while buried alive. By conservative estimates (as stated above), he would've been dying at a rate of 15 times a month, which when multiplied by 12 (months in a year) and 1874 (years he was buried) would equal 337,320 highly traumatizing deaths by suffocation. And he's just fine?

In Fragments, they mentioned that Jack had died thousands of times already, perhaps he was simply used to it. Also, he was uncovered in 1901 and we see that he talks to the contemporary Torchwood employees in which he tells them to freeze him, so presumably he had that time to recover, he is seen there looking shaken and had recovered before he was frozen (we don't know precisely how much time he spent in 1901, granted the risk of meeting himself meant it was probably short). There may have been some technology which furthered a quick recovery.

It's also possible Jack stayed dead for long periods of time, perhaps even most of the time he was underground. I always figured he was unconscious for most of the time because the thing that killed him was still there constantly keeping him dead until it was removed so he could then revive.

• Why does Gray call Jack, Jack? Jack didn't choose to use this name until he was an adult.

John could however have told Gray that Jack was now the name his brother was going by, and could have used it for convenience. Jack could also have been his given first name or possibly a childhood nickname. He could have chosen the name "Jack Harkness" for convenience in case he ever bumped into a person he knew before he renamed himself. Jack Harkness could have been Jack's real name completely but he assumed the identity (as in the life as well as the name).

• The Time line is completely messed up. In Fragments, it was 21 months since Ianto joined. That must be after Doomsday, making Fragments February 2009 at the earliest. It also had Owen joined 4 years earlier making that 2005. However this episode states that Tosh covered for Owen as a Doctor in his second week - obviously a reference to Aliens of London - but that was 2006. Jack also states that 107 years have passed since Torchwood uncovered him in 1901, suggesting 2008.

Torchwood series 2 is officially set in January to April 2008 from the team's excnahged messages on the in-universe websites, a novel or two set during this series, and dialouge. Series 3, which is one year. This is SUPPOSED to be in 2008.

Those certainly can't be reasonably trusted as much as the show itself, and in-show Fragments and Exit Wounds definitely mess up the timeline. He is correct that "21 months" makes the EARLIEST Fragments can occur February 2009, and that the "Space Pig" Tosh and Owen reference from Aliens of London must in fact take place in 2006, which is contradicted by "4 years" earlier whether this is in 2008 OR 2009. These are all set in stone within the continuity of the show.

You're absolutely right. Unfortunately this is not the only case where the writers have slipped up with the timing. However, the main issue here seems to be Owen's flashback. This can be chalked up to the "4" simply being a production error, or perhaps it actually is referring to mid-November 2005; Owen got three months off work to grieve according to the episode, so perhaps Jack came to see him at the graveyard at the end of that period, placing the start of his working there in mid-February 2006. The "Space Pig" incident from Aliens of London, then, could have occurred in the correct time as it was in Doctor Who - March 2006 - since it happened in his second week there, according to the story. As for Jack's defrosting date, I've got nothing. That probably just has to be a production error. Notice also that he doesn't give them the specific date, either, so obviously there had to be some more that went on there than what the writers have neglected.

• Jack isn't buried very deep. This raises two issues: how does Gray know he wouldn't be dug up once Cardiff builders start reforming the land in the coming centuries? And since Jack is indestructible, couldn't he have dug his way out eventually?

Since Gray is a time-traveller, he knew where to leave Jack so he wouldn't be disturbed (indeed, it's still a park in 1901). Jack later tells John that he saw the burial as his penance, so he may have chosen to not try and escape, perhaps realizing that John's signal ring would eventually attract Torchwood. Also, Jack isn't super-powered; it may have simply been physically impossible for him to move with the weight of the dirt on him.

Not to mention it is likely he was unconscious for much of the time under the dirt.

• What happened to John's signal ring?

It's probably in Torchwood's possession.

• It's odd that Jack would not be aware that an older version of himself resided in the morgue. Wouldn't he have discovered this earlier?

Several episodes have indicated that Jack isn't completely familiar with everything in the Hub (for example, Ianto was able to maintain a secret facility within the hub for Lisa Hallett in Cyberwoman without his knowledge. Also, To the Last Man indicated that Jack was accustomed to following decades-old instructions, so presumably he was told either in 1901 or when he took command in 2000 to never open a certain chamber. Dead Man Walking, meanwhile, established that Jack didn't even have the access code for the morgue, so presumably he couldn't have opened the chamber if he tried. In fact this may be the reason why Jack wasn't in possession of the access code in the first place. Why would anyone want to go looking through dead bodies.

• Toshiko broke her arm the previous episode, but seems to be able to move around without apparent hinderment.

She said she had taken medication; perhaps it was some alien drug that repaired the arm to allowed her to use it while broken. It may have been a minor fracture, too. She only thought she had broken her arm.

• After Owen stops shouting from inside the nuclear plant he is heard taking deep breaths, something he can't do since he is dead.

Old habits die hard. Or possibly it's purely psychological. From an actors perspective, it's rather difficult to talk with breathing, nevermind shouting

It's not only difficult to talk without breathing, it's absolutely impossible. You need air to exhale in order to pass through the vocal chords to make the sounds required for speech. Without air in the lungs to expel, you cannot talk at all.

Ever thought that maybe he can still inhale and exhale but his body simply doesn't absorb the oxygen? And CPR only works with carbon dioxide so he couldn't revive that man in A Day in the Death because he only exhaled oxygen.[[A Day in the Death |]]