TORCHWOOD Episode 2.8 "A Day In The Death"

Burn Gorman as Dr. Owen Harper

TORCHWOOD
Episode 2.8
"A Day In The Death"

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This review contains plot spoilers for this episode and somewhat the two previous episodes.

This episode was rather enjoyable, although seeing the two previous episodes help keep you up with what has been going on. I suppose this is why some fans are thinking Torchwood is turning into a soap opera. Anyway if you don't like spoilers, there is no avoiding some of them with this episode. If you haven't seen the two previous episodes, then you may want to skip this mini-review.

OK so to bring you up to speed, Owen was shot two episodes ago and died. He was brought back last episode by Jack using a second resurrection glove, similar to the one used in the pilot episode. As Ianto plainly said "They often come in pairs". I am not a big fan of the style of story telling in this episode, you come in with a character (Owen in this case) telling another character (a young lady who is about to jump off a rooftop for the aniversary of her husband's death, who died in a car accident on their wedding day) recent events that have led them to this particular moment in time. In small ways this episode was similar to the Bill Murray movie Ground Hog Day. Since Owen is dead, he can do somethings he normally wouldn't since the fear of death originally would keep him from doing them. The rest of the Torchwood team adjusts their roles slightly and since Martha Jones is around she takes his duties as the team's doctor/medical staff, at least until the end of this episode, when she goes back to U.N.I.T. In the long run I think the whole kill a main character, bring them back and keep them undead can get very tiring. They are kind of stuck now, unless they find a way to bring Owen back to life, for good, or kill him off for good. I don't think Burn Gorman (the actor who plays Owen Harper) would like the latter. So that will leave the series more or less with two characters that can't be killed, one (Jack) will just get resurrected, and the other (Owen) will just keep coming at you since he's already dead. I fear that after a while the producers and writers will conveniently forget about Owen being Undead, I hope I am wrong about that though.