I now believe that the second season of Torchwood is forming into something good. They tell all sorts of types of stories, which at first seems inconsistent, but I see some elements that the writers have focused on improving. A big part of that is making the main characters likable (Rhys and Owen are both improved 100%), and really defining who they are. Sure, you could say that it’s taken them a while to do that because we’re most of the way through the second season. But then again, we’re only up to 24 total episodes – right around what ONE season of tv is in the U.S. and plenty of the shows we like took time to find their legs.

This episode focuses mostly on Gwen and continues to emphasize why she is so important to the show. Gwen is our viewpoint into the show, and is very important to the Torchwood team because, like Jack has said, she has a life outside of her job. It keeps her grounded.

“Adrift” is the story of Gwen becoming objective about the work she does and being reminded by her old partner, PC Andy, that helping an individual matters. The episode begins with a young man, Jonah Bevan, returning home to his mother, when a bright light appears above him and he disappears. The case is in PC Andy’s jurisdiction and he calls in Gwen, since she deals with odd occurances regularly. At first, Gwen balks at what she’s supposed to do, but Andy chides her for thinking her work at Torchwood is so exotic and that just one person somehow isn’t worth her time. He reminds her how passionate she was about helping people when she was his partner, and Gwen relents.

After some help from Tosh, the girls eventually realize the activity with The Rift shows a minor drop every once in a while that they’ve always ignored. They correlate it to missing persons cases in Cardiff and end up realizing the Rift doesn’t just drop things out of it from other times, but it also has been taking people. Hundreds of people over the years.

Gwen brings it up to Jack, but Jack counters by saying there is nothing they could realistically do since they can’t predict Rift activity, and orders her to drop it. Gwen can’t bring herself to give up on finding the boy, especially after meeting with his mother. Strongly suspecting Jack knows more about this, she confronts him, only to interrupt a Jack/Ianto makeout session. Ianto ends up giving Gwen a GPS, which she uses to find a colony on a small island off the coast. While looking around, she sees Jack, and tails him to a large warehouse. She calls in at the door and claims she’s with Jack and is let in.

There, Gwen discovers a dozen or so disabled persons being cared for. A caretaker takes her to Jonah, who has aged 40 years and is severely deformed. Jonah claims he ended up on a burning planet and was eventually rescued by a spaceship in time to see the world die, then woke up back in Wales. Gwen also finds Jack, who tells Gwen that he’s known about the disappearances since he took over Torchwood, and established the facility to care for the victims, who used to be locked up in their vaults.

Gwen decides to tell Jonah’s mother and brings her to see him. At first, she refuses to believe it’s her son and that this is a cruel, horrible joke. But Jonah tells his mother things only they know and she hugs her son, happy to have him back. The caregiver then steps in and tells them to back away. The mother insists she can help take care of him, but Jonah begins to scream an unearthly scream that drives them away. Gwen speaks in a voiceover that Jonah screams for 20 hours a day, because he was driven mad when he looked into the Dark Star.

Gwen visits Jonah’s mother a week later, to say she can still visit him. Instead, Jonah’s mother sadly asks Gwen not to tell other family members about the facility. While it’s awful to wonder what happened to someone, the horrible truth is far worse and removes any hope the family might have had. Gwen takes down all the missing persons posters at her office, effectively resigning herself to the fact that there is nothing she can do. She returns home, but Rhys has made them a candlelit dinner, and holds her and lets her cry.

I liked this episode because it had a really cool mystery that I couldn’t guess where it would go. I also found Gwen’s compassion and commitment very admirable. Likewise, Jack was doing the right thing, but was caught in a tough-spot because he didn’t want others to share the burden of guilt, knowing there was little they could do for these particular victims. Plus, it’s always cool to see Andy and a bit of the real-world to help show how fantastic Torchwood’s adventures are.

This was a sad, dramatic mystery but one to which I will gladly give 3 out of 5 Cardiff flags.

photo credit: Ward