Torchwood 2.05 ‘Adam’

Written by Catherine Tragenna

Directed by Andy Goddard

Starring John Barrowman, Eve Myles, Burn Gorman, Gareth David-Lloyd, Naoko Mori, Bryan Dick, Paul Kasey, Demetri Goritsas, Lauren Ward, Jack Montgomery and Ethan Brooke

Everyone loves Adam. Since arriving at Torchwood Three three years ago he’s become a vital part of the team, a close friend of everyone and the doting boyfriend of Toshiko. But when Gwen comes into work one morning to find a man she’s never seen before being treated like an old friend and then finds someone called Rhys living in her flat, claiming to be her boyfriend, it soon becomes clear all is not well…

After the space whale shenanigans of last week this is a clear step up and a continuation of the show’s long, proud tradition of having impressive guest stars aboard. Bryan Dick is a perfect fit, in many ways an unsettlingly perfect fit, and his Adam is a calm, assured, funny young man whose a real asset. Apart from the small point that he’s an alien whose body consists entirely of their memories, of course. Dick does a great job of transitioning from plausible team mate to flamboyant maniac to desperate bargaining and his scenes with Jack, in particular the contamination of Jack’s memories of his family, are electric. Barrowman has been on good form for a while now and here he’s clearly relishing playing off someone who is a match for him in every conceivable way. The final confrontation between them, despite being little more than two men, one of them in a cell, talking has more tension and drama to it than any of the scenes with the ‘Beast’ at the end of the previous season.

And this is a very Barrowman heavy episode. As well as the scenes with Adam we get further development not only on his past (Which is our future…carry the one…) but also in how he relates to the other team members. The closing scene, which has divided fandom already, sees Jack inform the team, in tatters following the revelation of Adam’s true nature, that the only way to get rid of him is to take short term amnesia drugs that will wipe out the two days he’s actually been with them.

What follows, simply put, is a look inside the minds of Torchwood Three and the clear realisation that these are desperately broken people. As Jack brings them first to their most cherished memory and then to their coldest, we see the true essence of the characters laid bare. Toshiko, who Adam made so confident and assured, is revealed as a desperately lonely, shy woman who had no one to invite to her flat warming. Ianto, and David-Lloyd is just constantly improving this season, reveals that his memories are of meeting Lisa and losing her whilst Owen is revealed to be a desperately insecure, retiring man hiding behind a wall of bravado. In one of the most open, poignant moments the series has ever produced he talks about the people he’s saved and asks who’ll save him. Jack puts a hand on his shoulder, says ‘I will’, and gives him the pill. It’s a scene that’s been criticised for it’s religious overtones but it’s incredibly powerful.

And what of the good Captain himself? Well we get a look at the Boeshane Peninsula, the revelation of the identity of Gray and the discovery that Jack is in fact, suffering from the longest case of survivor’s guilt in human history. It’s a neat piece of writing that, as we see him confess to Adam (Just to hammer the Catholic metaphor into the ground) the other team members confess to him and that, stripped down, they’re all the same people; brilliant, passionate and broken. It’s all still a bit season one Babylon 5 with the ‘most terrible creatures in the universe’ invisible apart from their screams and their aftermath but it’s interesting stuff and looks set to be explored further later.

The individual team members, unusually given the fact that the ‘team’ is one heavy, are also given a lot to do. Gwen loses all memory of Rhys and in a surprisingly tense sequence of scenes, gradually learns to remember who he is, leading to another break out scene from Owen. Rhys is rapidly becoming one of the most entertaining characters on the show, and his uncorked, righteous fury rant in the Co Op is a welcome comic relief.

Toshiko and Owen, who have effectively changed personalities thanks to Adam, have the least successful sub plot, with Mori and Gorman both excelling at playing confident and diffident respectively but the whole thing smacking of architecture instead of story. There’s clearly developments on the horizon for that plot line and this episode gives a hefty clue as to how they’ll begin if not end. As a result, it’s not entirely successful and drags the other plots down.

However, again, the stand out is David-Lloyd. Ianto’s reaction to Adam is electric and the scenes where Adam forces false memories of murder into him are well shot, well acted and deeply disturbing. They also lead to further developments in the Jack/Ianto relationship and Jack’s refusal to believe that Ianto is capable of such things is both touching and another step up for both characters. The moment where they bust Adam is also particularly good, David-Lloyd portraying all the hatred and anger and betrayal he feels with nothing more than the way he walks.

There are, inevitably, problems but all in this is a return to form for both the series and Tregenna. Next episode, the return of a Doctor. And not the obvious one either…