Exit Wounds (TV story)

Exit Wounds
Featuring:	Gwen Cooper Jack Harkness Toshiko Sato (dies) Owen Harper (dies) Ianto Jones
Main enemy:	Gray Captain John Hart Weevils Hoix Ghosts
Main setting:	Cardiff, 2008
Key crew
Writer:	Chris Chibnall
Director:	Ashley Way
Producer:	Richard Stokes
Release details
Release number:	26
Premiere broadcast:	4th April 2008

Exit Wounds was the thirteenth and final episode in the second series of Torchwood.

Synopsis

Captain John Hart returns to have his revenge on Torchwood and take Jack as his prisoner. Jack and his long lost brother, Gray don't have a good reunion and can the rest of the team trust John?

Plot

After receiving the message from Captain John, the group head for the car that Gwen and Rhys arrived in. The SUV has been stolen and Ianto uses the tracker to establish that it’s heading back to the Torchwood Hub, presumably with John and Jack’s brother Gray inside. Tosh checks her portable sensor and says she’s getting readings of Rift activity coming from all over the city. There are major Rift flares at St Helen’s Hospital, the police headquarters and the central IT server station. Gwen gets a call on her mobile - it’s PC Andy asking her to get back to the station right now as there‘s a serious problem and they need her urgently. Gwen realises everything’s happening because of John. Jack asks Rhys to drop Owen off at the hospital and asks Tosh and Ianto to cover the IT server station while Gwen goes to the police station. Then, he plans to go alone to the Hub. Tosh warns him these are obviously traps, but Jack just says they’ll all have to be careful. Jack is confident he can reason with John as he was the only person who was ever able to control him, which is why the Time Agency partnered them. Rhys is confused and believes the Time Agency must be based in Cardiff too.

Jack arrives at the Hub and pauses for a moment outside the huge circular door before moving through into the main area. Music fills the air and Jack sees John standing proudly on the upper level, calling down to him to sing along as it‘s ‘their song‘. Jack reminds him that they don’t have a song, and even if they did, it wouldn’t be this one! John switches the music off and complains that Jack isn’t fun any more. John says he’s been waiting here quite a while but Jack spoils his good mood by revealing that they all survived his trap. John brushes it off and says the bombs were only prototypes and he was just using them to test out a theory. He asks where the team are, but Jack ignores the question and asks John what he wants. John says he wants Jack to know that he loves him, but then he suddenly turns round and points two submachine guns at him. He opens fire and hits Jack with several dozen bullets. Jack dies instantly and his body falls into the moat. John stands over his friend’s body and tells him things are going to get nasty from now on.

Cardiff City Police HQ 5.27pm

Gwen and Rhys arrive at the station and find the place is in turmoil. Dead bodies are littered throughout the main reception and the walls and floors are covered in blood. PC Andy joins them and says their attackers appeared through the building from nowhere, but they weren’t human. Everyone is in shock and the four most senior officers have been murdered. Rhys tries to follow Gwen, but Andy stops him and tells him this is a crime scene and if word gets out what’s happened here, there‘ll be a city-wide panic. Rhys promises Andy he can be trusted and he’s already keeping more secrets than he could ever know. To prove it, he reveals that there’s a Time Agency based in Cardiff - but Andy says that by telling him it prove Rhys is no good at keeping secrets. The three of them go down to the cells where the attackers have been taken and Gwen identifies them as Weevils. Rhys is horrified to learn that they live in the sewers beneath the city. Gwen pulls out a gas canister and drops it through the viewing hatch to subdue the aggressive creatures. She realises that it can be no coincidence that they killed the four most senior officers and they must have been targeted deliberately.

Central Server Building 5.36pm

Tosh and Ianto arrive at the facility but their sensors aren’t showing any signs of Rift activity yet. This building houses servers for the military, police, NHS and even the nuclear station at Turnmill. There have been reports of ghosts in the building, moving between the server stacks. As Tosh and Ianto move between the stacks in search of evidence, he asks about her broken arm, but she says Owen has given her some industrial strength pain-killers which seem to be doing the trick. Suddenly Tosh spots three ghostly figures standing silently at the end of the room. They’re dressed like monks and carry huge scythes, looking very much like the traditional representation of ’Death’. The monks accuse Tosh and Ianto of blasphemy and advise them to pray to their heathen gods as they’re about to be “cast out”. The ghostly figures advance threateningly, so Tosh and Ianto draw their guns and open fire. The three figures instantly drop the floor, dead. Problem sorted.

St Helen’s Hospital 5.39pm

Owen reports that there’s been some activity in the basement. He accompanies a young doctor, Angela Connolly, down to the lower levels and she tells him she came back from a f*g break and found something inside one of the rooms chewing through the cables, so she locked it inside. Owen peers through the thin glass window, then leaps back in shock as a creature launches itself straight at him. He identifies it immediately as a Hoix and tells Angela it’s an alien, but the only profile they have on this species is that it lives to eat. They caught one in Barry last year that had gone through most of the contents of the local kebab shop. He produces a large hypodermic which he says is filled with an all-species sedative, but he needs some food to use as a distraction. The only thing Angela has on her is a packet of cigarettes, but Owen says they’ll be perfect. He goes inside and starts calling out to the Hoix. He spots it at the far end of the room and starts laying down the cigarettes one by one, creating a trail to lure the creature out into the open. When he drops the rest of the packet, the Hoix bends down to pick it up and Owen comments on how stupid the creature is. He lunges forward and injects the creature with the sedative, causing it to pass out immediately.

Torchwood Hub 6.03pm

Captain Jack is manacled to the far wall of the Hub with his arms spread out and his feet several inches off the floor. He suddenly returns to life with a cry of shock and immediately realises his predicament. John tells him his weapons and communications have been removed, so there’s no chance of any rescue. Jack asks why he’s here and John is pleased to see that he’s finally taking an interest in him. He says it’s always the same - nobody cares until you tie them up. He says he came back for a number of reasons, first of which was that Jack was very rude to him last time and belittled him in front of people who barely knew him. Secondly, Jack has all eternity, yet he still refuses to spend any time with John, despite everything he’s done for Jack. Jack asks where Gray is and John starts mumbling about actions, repercussions and things that are beyond his control. He says it’s important Jack understands that. He starts working on the Rift Manipulator and plots some localised Rift storms to send out a few short, sharp shocks. Jack yells at him not to touch the controls, but John punishes his outburst by sending an electric shock through Jack’s body. Jack recovers and warns John that whatever he’s planning, they’re going to stop him. John tells him he really hopes they can, but Jack is obviously in no position to intervene, so John resigns himself to what’s going to happen and goes in search of a good view.

City Centre 6.28pm

John drags the still handcuffed Jack onto the battlements at the top of Cardiff Castle. Jack demands to know what they’re doing here, but when he tries to get to his feet, John electrocutes him again and he collapses to the stone floor. John activates his wrist-communicator and sends a message to the rest of the Torchwood gang scattered throughout the city telling them to stop whatever they’re doing. Gwen asks what he’s done to Jack, but John says a better question to ask would be what is he about to do to them? He knows they’re all powerless, so he orders them to go up to the top of whichever building they’re currently or else they’ll miss all the fun. Or does he mean carnage?

Gwen races to the top of the police station, Owen goes to the top of the hospital and Tosh and Ianto go to the top of the central server building. John takes out a device and starts programming it. Jack asks him what he’s doing, but all he’ll say is that he’s sorry. John tells everyone to take a good look and then presses a button. Suddenly a tremendous explosion goes off a few streets away, followed by another and then another. Before long, an entire circle of explosions has destroyed buildings all around the city. Everyone is stunned as they watch Cardiff burn around them. Jack accuses John of destroying the whole city, but all John wants to do is hold him tight. Before Jack realises what’s happening, the air around them start to glow and crackle and they both disappear.

On top of the police station, a stunned Gwen struggles to keep calm. She tells Andy to get back downstairs and arrange for every officer to be called back to work. She tries to contact Jack, but Tosh cuts in and says she’s detected a huge Rift flare over at the castle and it seems to have been generated from the Rift Manipulator back at the Torchwood Hub. Gwen checks with her colleagues to make sure they’re all fine, then asks Tosh to check on the scale of the damage done to the city. Tosh reports that there were 15 major explosions at strategic points across Cardiff. There’s already a surge in traffic trying to leave the city but the explosions have cut off all major routes in and out. Landlines, mobile phones and IT networks are all down too and even the TV and radio is off air. John has completely crippled the city. Ianto has even worse news - the systems that serve the Turnmill nuclear power station have gone off line as well. Gwen tells Tosh and Ianto they have to make this their priority, then she checks in with Owen to find out what’s happening at the hospital. He reports that they’ve lost all power and the backup generators were knocked out in the blast, which means every single machine in the hospital is down. Gwen calmly tells her friends that they’re going to fix this and put the city back together, then they’ll find Jack and punish John.

Cardiff 27AD

Jack wakes up and finds himself alone in the middle of a field. John emerges from the trees nearby and reassures Jack that he’s safe, but says he needs to speak to him before he does anything rash. Jack immediately punches John and demands to be taken back. John refuses and says they have to be this far away to escape the trigger signal. He explains that the wrist-strap containing his Time Manipulator has physically bonded to his skin and he can’t take it off. Inside the Manipulator is a detonator, which effectively makes John a walking bomb. There’s also a surveillance circuit inside which means his every word and action is being monitored. John says he had to do everything he was told and if he hadn‘t he‘d have been blown up. He’s disappointed that Jack didn’t realise he was being forced to destroy the city when he’d much rather be experiencing 17 simultaneous pleasures in the Lotus Nebula. A voice calls out to Jack and he turns to see his brother Gray walking towards him across the field. Jack gets a momentary flashback of the moment he and Gray were separated as young boys while fleeing from the invaders of their world. Gray tells him he never stopped believing that they’d find each other again. The two men hug each other warmly and Jack tells his brother that he‘s sorry - but then Gray tells him that being sorry isn’t good enough. He produces a huge sword and plunges it straight into Jack’s stomach. Jack cries out in pain and John turns away in disgust. Jack falls to the ground with the sword still embedded in his body. When he dies, Gray orders John to fetch a shovel.

Cardiff City Police HQ 7.39pm

Gwen has assembled together all the officers from the police station and tells them this was a targeted attack, designed to cause maximum panic. She says the usual emergency procedures won’t cover what’s happened here so this is when they get to find out how good they really are. From the sides of the room, Rhys and Andy both watch Gwen with admiration and pride. She tells the officers they need to cover the whole city, knock on doors and check on people, and tell everyone they’re safe and that the problems are being sorted out. As the officers disperse, Rhys tells Andy that Gwen is seriously impressive and Andy agrees, adding that Rhys is a lucky sod.

Central Server Building 8.01pm

Ianto and Tosh repair the circuits on the stacks lining the building and begin testing them, but still nothing works. Tosh realises they need to re-start the terminal servers, but just then an alarm sounds warning them of a meltdown alert at the nuclear power station. Ianto decides to go to Turnmill in person, saying that if they can’t fix the remote servers, there must be something else he can do on site to prevent a meltdown. Tosh says that would be suicide, but Ianto says he can either stand there discussing it or he can just do it. Eventually she agrees, but she insists on going with him.

Cardiff 27AD

Jack has recovered again and is placed in handcuffs and leg-irons by John on the instructions of Gray. Jack tells Gray he searched for him for years and he was his first thought every day. Gray is surprised he was expecting a loving reunion and wonders if Jack is looking for absolution, for Gray to forgive him. Gray tells him the creatures who attacked the Boeshane Peninsula lived to torture. They kept their prisoners just on the verge of life and he would lie there, hemmed in by corpses, just praying to die. And all because Jack let go of his hand. Jack says if he could swap places with him, he would. Gray says he always believed Jack would come one day, but he never did. How long was it before he gave up searching? Months? Years? Decades? Jack asks what Gray wants from him and Gray says he wants him to suffer. He reveals that the city of Cardiff will be built on this very spot over the next two thousand years and Jack’s grave will form the foundations. His blessing of life will become a curse because each time he revives he’ll have a throat full of earth and each time he’ll be choked afresh. Gray pushes Jack backwards into the freshly-dig grave and orders John to fill it in, but John has heard enough and refuses. Gray reminds John about the detonator on his arm and when John looks down sadly at Jack, he notices Jack nod gently. John removes the ring from his finger and tosses it into the grave with Jack, claiming it has sentimental value. Then slowly John begins to fill the grave in with dirt until Jack’s face is completely covered.

Torchwood Vaults 9.07pm

The air in the stone-walled cell area starts to glow and crackle, and Gray appears from nowhere. He crosses over to one of the cells and looks inside at the Weevils as they sleep on the floor.

At the police station, Rhys has gone looking for Gwen and eventually he finds her sitting on the floor, silently. She tells him there’s still no word from Jack, but Rhys assures her he’ll be fine. Gwen wonders if this is how it all ends and she says she’s not up to dealing with it. Rhys knows this is rubbish and points out that the coppers are all out there now because of her. Even if she doesn’t believe in herself, they certainly did…and so does he. He thinks she’s a hero and he says they all need her to keep going. She thinks about it and then asks Rhys if he’ll marry her again. En route to the power station, Tosh contacts Gwen and says she’s just picked up a Rift alert coming from inside the Hub and it mirrors the signal they got earlier when Jack disappeared. Gwen asks her to check it out, but she says she doesn’t have time as she needs to get to the nuclear power station. Gwen says she can’t leave the police station, but Rhys tells her they’ll be fine and she should go and help her friends. He promises to see her again when this is all over.

Gwen returns to the Hub and arms herself before passing through the huge circular door. The building appears to be empty as she slowly crosses to the other side, but then John appears behind her and tells her she took her time. She orders him to his knees and he comments that everything’s about sex with her. Reluctantly he follows her instructions and she tells him she’s going to need a really good reason not to shoot him in the next 20 seconds, so he tells her Jack has been buried alive, but he knows where he is and he’s come back to help. He tells her Gray was responsible for everything and that he has a bomb on him that’s been molecularly bonded to his skin, which meant he had to do whatever Gray wanted. He shows her his arm and tells her he was forced to bury Jack, but then he was freed and allowed to go wherever he wanted. He could have run, but he chose to come back here. He tells her he found Gray chained to the ruins of a city in the Bedlam Outlooks, surrounded by corpses. He was the only one left and although he doesn’t know how long Gray had been there, the creatures had long since gone. Gray thought John was a hero, which is why it took John too long to realise what effect Gray’s experiences had had on him. Suddenly John cries out in pain, but then he smiles when he realises it’s the molecules unbonding on his arm. He removes the wrist-strap containing the bomb - taking a layer of flesh with it - and tells Gwen that Gray kept his promise to release him. He’s now a free man and he reminds Gwen that he didn’t have to come back here. Gwen holds the gun up against John’s head and says if he helps her find Jack she’ll let him live.

Still en route to the nuclear power station, Tosh is surprised when John contacts her and asks her to run a signal trace. Tosh asks for Gwen and she reassures her that she’s got John covered. Tosh checks her sensor for Jack‘s signal, but there doesn’t seem to be anything even resembling what John described. John is confused as the transmitter he slipped Jack before he was buried is guaranteed to last for five millennia. If it’s not transmitting, then they’ll never find Jack and he’ll stay buried forever. Suddenly a loud high-pitched noise screeches out and both Gwen and John collapse to the floor in agony.

At that precise moment, Weevils begin to emerge from their hiding places all over the city. They climb out of the sewers in their hundreds and start attacking people in the street. Even the Weevils in the cells beneath the Torchwood Hub rise from their slumber and turn to face Gray as he sends the noise from his wrist-strap. The cell doors open and the Weevils race out. They surround Gray for a moment, then swarm out into the lower corridors. Gwen is watching them on the internal monitors and she can’t understand how they could have got out of the cells. John tells her it must have been Gray, which means he’s returned. He’d threatened to take Jack’s life and destroy it from the inside out, so perhaps this Weevil wake-up call is just the beginning.

Tosh and Ianto have to take cover in an alleyway as dozens of Weevils move through the streets, hunting down any prey that moves. Ianto discreetly calls the others and tells them what’s happening. Unfortunately there’s no chance now that they can reach the power station in time as they’ll be caught the moment they emerge from cover. In the hospital, Owen is distributing manual life-support equipment to the nurses in a desperate attempt to save as many patients as they can. He responds to Ianto’s call and says he’ll head for the power station himself. He knows he should be safe and reminds them that he’s the King of the Weevils! His confidence is confirmed as he emerges onto the streets. He’s immediately surrounded by Weevils, but as soon as they see him, they all bend down and crouch on their knees. A path opens up for him and he races ahead. In the police station, Rhys and Andy lead the others as they try to force the attacking Weevils back beyond the security doors. They’re successful and the doors are locked and bolted. In a brief moment of relaxation, Rhys thinks it’s just like being in the film “Fort Apache the Bronx”, only with savage aliens.

Gwen has run every scan possible, but there’s no sign of any signal from Jack. John urges her to keep trying, but just then the Weevils burst into the main Hub area and surround them. Unfortunately their weapons are out of reach and there’s nothing they can do to stop the creatures advancing - then suddenly Ianto and Tosh arrive and open fire. One by one, the Weevils collapse to the floor. Gwen tells them how pleased she is to see them, but then she has to quickly disarm Ianto as he’s about to shoot John too. John promises he’s here to put things right, so Tosh tells him he can start by taking the Weevils back down to the cells before they recover as it takes more than a bullet to stop them.

In the Vaults, John, Gwen and Ianto take one Weevil each and drag it back into separate cells. Ianto yells abuse at John for what he’s done and promises that if they don’t find Jack, he’ll kill him...very slowly! Without warning, the three cells doors automatically close, trapping each of them inside with the Weevils. Gwen tries to contact Tosh, but the communications system is dead. Gray appears in the corridor outside the cells and he confronts John, pointing out that he let him go free and he could have gone anywhere. John says he came back out of honour, but Gray scoffs at him. Gwen tells Gray there’s no need for any of this and they can help him if he’ll tell them where Jack is, but Gray says Jack’s life is his now.

Turnmill Nuclear Power Station 9.42pm

Owen races into the main control room and finds one member of staff, Nira Docherty, has remained behind to do whatever she can to salvage the situation. She orders him to get out but he tells her he knows the system is going into meltdown. He tells her he’s from Torchwood and they’re dealing with the situation so she can go now. She’s understandably sceptical and asks what he knows about nuclear containment structure, but he reels off a very long and detailed explanation that covers the problems and possible solutions. She realises he knows what he’s talking about, so she agrees to leave. He hands her a canister of mace and warns her there are dangerous creatures outside that she must try to avoid. She thinks it sounds more dangerous outside than it is in here, but he say it’s pretty much even. As soon as she‘s gone, Owen contacts Tosh back at the Hub and tells her he’s going to need her help as he hasn’t got a clue what he’s doing.

Tosh checks the monitors and tells Owen the reactor has already hit the critical point, which means it’s going into meltdown and he’s standing in the eye of the storm. He asks her if she can fix it and she says she can because she’s brilliant. She plans to divert power from an auxiliary source back to Turnmill and if that works she can talk him through restoring the coolant system - but just as she’s about to begin the process she screams out in pain. She looks down and sees blood oozing from a bullet wound in her abdomen. A few feet away, Gray lowers his gun and watches as Tosh collapses to the floor. Gray pulls out the cables connecting the Hub’s monitors to the nuclear reactor, then tells Tosh that some people think death is a waste, but he prefers to regard it as a release. He asks her what it’s like and wonders whether she’s afraid or sad. Just then, a loud banging noise echoes around the Hub, so Gray leaves Tosh in a pool of her own blood and goes to investigate. In the power station, Owen tries to re-establish contact with Tosh, but Tosh’s sensor has fallen out of reach and dropped down into the autopsy area. Slowly she starts to crawl towards it…

In the Vaults, Gwen, Ianto and John can hear the banging too. John tells the others to ignore it as he has an idea. He still has access to some of his equipment and he hurriedly starts making adjustments. Gray arms himself and goes in search of the banging noise. He descends into the morgue where the frozen bodies are kept and tracks the noise down to the locker marked 003. He opens the door, pulls out the drawer and then stares down in amazement as the panel slides back to reveal Jack, alive and well. Jack tells him simply “I forgive you”. Gray demands to know how he survived…

Torchwood Hub 1901 The Torchwood operatives Alice Guppy and Charles Gaskell are monitoring a signal that’s been transmitting as regular as clockwork for the last three days. Alice has a surprise for Charles - she has equipment that can track the signal to a physical location. They visit an area of parkland not far from Cardiff Castle and, using a strange box-like device, Alice identifies a particular section and tells Charles to start digging. Sometime later, a dishevelled and distressed Jack is taken back to the Hub for questioning. Alice wants to know why he was buried and Charles reminds Jack that he’s supposed to be outside at this very moment working for them. Jack refuses to answer their questions and tells them he‘s crossed his own timeline. He can’t be allowed to meet himself and a lot of lives depend on them protecting the future, which is what Torchwood is supposed to be here for. He tells them to place him in the morgue, freeze him and set the alarm to wake him up in 107 years time.

Back in the present day, Jack confronts Gray and tells him again that he forgives him. Fighting back the tears, Jack turns and walks away, which infuriates Gray even more. Gray screams at him to stop, but Jack ignores him. Eventually, Jack turns and shouts at Gray, telling him he’s forgiven him and he asks Gray to do the same for him. Gray tells him he used to pray for death because of the things the creatures did to him - because of what Jack did, because Jack was their father’s favourite son and because he was the one who lived. Gray says the only strength he has left is his hatred for Jack. Jack tries to hold Gray, but his brother pushes him away. Jack swears that he didn’t know anything until it was too late, but Gray isn’t listening. He says he begrudges Jack everything and he wants to rip it all from him, to leave him screaming in the dark. He says everything is Jack’s fault and he will never absolve him. Both of them start to cry and Jack holds his brother close and tells him he’s sorry. Then Jack produces a cloth covered with chloroform and uses it to knock Gray out.

In the cells, John finishes working on the device and it sends out a high-pitched signal which makes everyone wince. He apologises but says it’s a recall signal telling all the Weevils to return home. In the streets throughout the city, the Weevils turn back and head towards the sewers again. From the top of the police headquarters, Rhys and Andy notice the creatures have all gone and wonder what’s happened.

In the power station, Owen urges Tosh to respond. Back at the Hub, Tosh slowly rolls down each step, one at a time, crying out in pain and leaving a trail of blood in her path. Clutching her wound, she reaches the device on the floor and taps in a code which diverts the auxiliary power back to the station. Owen is delighted when the power is restored and all the lights come back on. He asks Tosh if she’s okay and although she’s in great pain, she tells him she’s fine. He realises something is wrong, but she assures him it was just a machine malfunction. She climbs onto the couch and Owen can sense that she’s hurt, but she claims it‘s just the pain from her broken arm. Even as she says this, she uses her good arm to reach for a hypodermic and injects herself with more pain killers.

Owen gets to work on the controls at the station while Tosh uses the equipment in the Hub to show input from the nuclear reactor on the wall of the medical area. She can tell straight away that things have gone too far and there’s no way to stop the meltdown. Owen urges her to search for an alternative solution, but the only option she can think of is to vent the flow channels into the area where Owen is currently situated so that it can be contained. She starts to give him the instructions and Owen prepares for a complete lockdown at the facility. She warns him he needs to get out of the building before it takes effect, but he’s sure he can remember that bit. They begin inputting the information and Owen thanks Tosh for everything. She smiles and says that’s what she’s here for, but she looks down at the wound in her abdomen and she knows that she‘s already dying.

Jack makes his way to the Vaults and releases Gwen, Ianto and John from the cells. Everyone rushes over to hug Jack and John notes that there seems to be a queue forming. Jack says there always will be, but then he genuinely thanks John for his clever use of the ring. John warns him that Gray is somewhere in the Hub, but Jack tells him it’s already taken care of.

Owen manages to initiate the systems protocols at the power station and then he successfully diverts the flow channels. He lets out a cheer and back in the Hub, a very weak Tosh manages to smile faintly. But as she turns to look at the display on the wall, her smile disappears as she realises there’s a power surge alert. She calls to Owen and tells him to get out of there immediately because it’ll cause an emergency lockdown. Alarms sound inside the power station and Owen looks up to see all the doors are sliding shut. He races over to the nearest door, but it’s too late. The door slams shut and seals him inside. Owen begins to shout and insists that he’s died once already and he doesn’t want to do it again. He pleads with Tosh to get him out of there, but she knows there’s nothing anyone can do and she starts to cry. She tries to get Owen to calm down, but it’s no use and he begins to scream with pure anger. He yells to Tosh to give him one good reason not to keep screaming…and she tells him it’s breaking her heart. Owen hears her crying and he calms down, then slumps to the floor, resigned to his fate. He apologises to her and when she says it’s her fault, he promises her it isn’t and says he’s sorry for making her feel bad.

He asks what’s going to happen to him, but she says she can’t tell him. He says he needs to know, so she tells him the containment chamber will be flooded with radiation and Owen realises his body will slowly decompose while he watches. Tosh becomes even more upset, but Owen tells her there’s no way she could have anticipated the power spike that caused this. In any case, she’s saved his life so many times before, right from the very moment he joined. On his second week at Torchwood she had to cover for him and pretend she was a medic because he was hungover and unreachable. They both smile when they remember the case of the space pig. Owen is sad that they never did get around to going on their date. It’s like they just missed each other and Owen says it’s his fault for not noticing her until it was too late. They’re both sorry, but then another alarm sounds inside the power station and a message displays on the screen to say the coolant venting is about to start. Owen gets to his feet and tells Tosh everything’s alright. He stands upright and prepares himself for what’s going to happen. Then everything goes white…

In the Hub, Tosh sees the display on the wall that shows her Owen is dead. She turns away with tears in her eyes. Jack arrives in the main area and is horrified to see a trail a blood leading away from Tosh’s work station. He calls her name and follows the trail down into the mortuary. As soon as he sees her, he screams to Gwen for help and then rushes over to comfort Tosh. The others arrive and Gwen immediately prepares another pain killing injection for Tosh, who tells them what‘s just happened to Owen at the Turnmill power station. She says she couldn’t save him, but her voice starts to weaken and she just manages to give Jack the faintest of smiles, before she dies too. Jack starts to cry, followed by the others…

Later, Gwen cuddles up to Rhys on the setee at home as they listen in silence to the news reports about the devastation done to Cardiff. Despite everything that’s happened to the city, their thoughts are elsewhere.

In the Hub, John watches as Jack prepares to put his unconscious brother into freezing. Jack says he’s spent his whole life looking for Gray and now he has to lose him all over again. John asks what he plans to do - if he wakes Gray up again in a hundred years, he won’t be miraculously better and perhaps killing him might offer the release he needs. Jack insists there’s been enough death already. John points out that Jack didn’t struggle when he was being buried and it almost looked like he was allowing it to happen. Jack says it was his penance, but John reminds him that what happened to Gray wasn’t his fault. Jack bends down and kisses Gray, then he programmes the cabinet to retract into the wall and begin the freezing process. Jack asks John if he’d like some help with the Rift predictions, but John says there’s still a lot of this planet he hasn’t seen yet and he thought he might take a look around. He kisses Jack very gently and says he’s sorry for the losses.

Ianto begins the process of shutting down the Torchwood protocols for their dead colleagues. He begins with Owen and updates his database record to show that he’s deceased. As Jack packs away Owen’s clothes and belongings, he can’t stop himself from crying. Gwen starts taking down some of the personal photographs from Tosh’s work station. The last thing to be packed away are her glasses. Ianto updates Tosh’s database record, but as he clicks to indicate that her post is now inactive, a pop-up message appears. Tosh has recorded a message to play back at this precise moment on the off chance that she might die. Jack, Gwen and Ianto watch as their smiling friend tells them she hopes her death was impressive and not just crossing the road or after an incident with a toaster. She just wanted to tell them that it’s okay. She tells Jack that he saved her and showed her all the wonders of the Universe, all those possibilities. She thanks him and says she wouldn’t have missed it for the world. She has a special message for Owen. She says he never knew it, but she loved him. In fact, she loves all of them and she hopes she did good. The group all cry, but Gwen allows herself a little smile too. Jack tells the others that they will carry on, but Gwen says she doesn’t think she can after this. Jack hugs her and Ianto and promises them they can. The end is where they start from.

Cast

• Captain Jack Harkness - John Barrowman
• Gwen Cooper - Eve Myles
• Toshiko Sato - Naoko Mori
• Ianto Jones - Gareth David-Lloyd
• Owen Harper - Burn Gorman
• Rhys Williams - Kai Owen
• Gray - Lachlan Nieboer
• Captain John Hart - James Marsters
• PC Andy Davidson - Tom Price
• Alice Guppy - Amy Manson
• Dr Angela Connolly - Golda Rosheuvel
• Nira Docherty - Syreeta Kumar
• Charles Gaskell - Cornelius Macarthy

Production crew

Executive Producers - Russell T Davies, Julie Gardner Co-Producer – Chris Chibnall Associate Producer – Catrin Lewis Defis Producer – Richard Stokes Casting Director - Andy Pryor Costume Designer - Ray Holman Make-Up Designer - Marrie Dorris Music – Ben Foster Visual Effects - The Mill Visual FX Coordinator – Jenna Powell 3D Supervisor - Nicolas Hernandez Production Designers - Edward Thomas, Julian Luxton Art Director – Keith Dunne Editor - Richard Cox Director of Photography – Mark Waters Gaffer - Dave Fowler Production Buyer - Clare Keyte Make-Up Artist - Andrea Dowdall Casting Associate - Andy Brierley On-Line Editor – Matt Mullins Post Production Supervisors - Chris Blatchford, Helen Vallis Sound FX Editor - Howard Eaves

References

Individuals

• John Hart takes Jack back to Cardiff in 27 AD, Gray forces John Hart to bury him.
• Jack Harkness stayed buried until 1901 when he was uncovered by the Torchwood Institute (whom Jack (past Jack that is) was already working for). He states he has "crossed my own time line", he is placed in stasis.
• Owen dies containing Turnmill Nuclear Power Station's meltdown.
• Owen Harper refers to himself as 'King of the Weevils', a name he obtained after his 'death experience'.

Locations

• John Hart mentions the Lotus Nebula, where 17 simultaneous pleasures can be experienced.

Races and species

• Torchwood have encountered a Hoix before.
• Toshiko mentions the Space Pig.

Technology

• John Hart uses the rift manipulator to affect various parts of Cardiff and to set off a series of explosions isolating it from the rest of the Earth.

Story notes

• This appears to be the final appearance of Burn Gorman as Owen Harper and Naoko Mori as Toshiko Sato.
• This is the fifth known time that Jack has been on Earth during World War II.

Ratings

• Unofficial overnight ratings indicated Exit Wounds was the most watched programme on BBC2 all day and had a 12% audience share, the 20th most watched programme of the day.

Myths

• It was well known that Owen was going to die, but it remained unclear who else was going to die. Rumours were that it would be either Tosh or Ianto.

Filming locations

to be added

Production errors

To be added

Continuity

If you'd like to talk about narrative problems with this story — like plot holes and things that seem to contradict other stories — please go to this episode's discontinuity discussion.

• This episode follows immediately on from the events of Fragments, with Tosh still nursing the broken arm suffered in the explosion.
• The first scene of the episode, in which the team piles into Rhys' car (the SUV having been stolen), marks the last time the complete team (as of Day One ) would be together.
• Captain John Hart returns in this episode. He was last in TW: Fragments.
• Gray returns in this episode. He was last seen properly in TW: Adam although he made a brief appearance in TW: Fragments
• A Hoix appears in this episode. A Hoix first appeared in DW: Love & Monsters.
• Owen refers to himself as 'King of the Weevils', a title previously coined in Dead Man Walking. Additionally, the Weevils cower before Owen as they did in both Combat and Dead Man Walking.
• Toshiko first appeared in DW: Aliens of London. This episode refers to the events of that episode and establishes that Toshiko was working for Torchwood, not UNIT at the time, and that Owen was supposed to conduct the examination of the "space pig" but was hungover, so Tosh covered for him.
• When Jack is trying to stop Gray in the Hub, he tells him he forgives him, which is very similar to how the Doctor stops the Master in DW: Last of the Time Lords.
• Sadistic Torchwood operative Alice Guppy (TW: Fragments) returns, and it is she who is responsible for having Jack dug up in 1901. It is stated that the younger version of Jack is on an assignment at this time, and the older Jack is put into cryo-freeze to avoid contaminating the timeline.
• Doctor Angela Connolly previously appeared in TW: Dead Man Walking.
• In the previous episode, it is stated that Jack had "died" and resurrected approximately 1,400 times since becoming immortal. Due to the nature of his imprisonment, it's now impossible to calculate times resurrection occurred for Jack between his burial in 27 AD and his eventual recovery in 1901; the number could now potentially be in the hundreds of thousands.

DVD releases

• This story along with the rest of has been released in Torchwood Series 2 boxset and Torchwood: Complete Boxset

See also

to be added

External links

• Exit Wounds at the Doctor Who Reference Guide
• Exit Wounds at Shannon Sullivan's A Brief History of Time (Travel)
• Exit Wounds at The Locations Guide