TORCHWOOD Episode 2.9 "Something Borrowed"

Eve Myles and John Barrowman

TORCHWOOD
Episode 2.9
"Something Borrowed"

WARNING! This review contains SPOILERS!

Wow! What an exciting episode. When I saw the "next Week" teaser previews for this episode I thought [sarcasm] OH! Great a vampire/shape-shifter episode that will really suck[/sarcasm] (pardon the pun), but I was pleasantly surprised (No Vampires). Even with the heavy concentration on the reoccurring plot element of Gwen and Rhys' relationship, which I'm not too thrilled about. Strange since Gwen is a hottie she would obviously have a relationship with someone, or not. At times their relationship bores me. It must be that I don't like the Rhys character, he's too normal.

The story concentrates on the wedding day of the happy couple of Gwen Cooper (Eve Myles) and Rhys Williams (Kai Owen). The day is anything but ordinary as they find out that Gwen is now pregnant with an alien egg, having been bitten by a shape-shifting alien on the night just before their wedding. This alien species hunts in pairs and mates for life. After fertilization the female passes the egg to the male who then bites a humanoid surrogate mother/victim transfers the egg to the victim and then the female hunts down the victim and when the egg is ready to hatch tears the host apart to free the egg. What fun. The Male is killed by Jack (John Barrowman) just after Gwen has been bitten. During the autopsy of the male the team discovers what type of alien they are dealing with and realize that the female "mom" would start tracking down Gwen. Gwen insists that no matter what, alien pregnancy or not she is going to marry Rhys and become Mrs. Williams, no more postponements, the job won't interfere with her wedding day. She made up her mind don't mess with her shape-shifting scumbags of the universe.

The X-Files like story keeps flowing and is fast paced action and drama. This is one of those episodes that I wouldn't have minded if they made it a two-parter, but would be slightly annoyed at having to wait the the conclusion. Good thing it was contained in one action packed episode. In the end the crisis is aborted, as is the alien pregnancy, and the love birds get on with their I Do's.

This episode as I said concentrated on the action and the X-Files-ness of the series. The homo-erotic tones were quiet with the exception of one moment, which actually gave me a good laugh.

Viewed on 22Mar2008 at 21:00 BBC America ****