Meat

"It just keeps growing, no matter how much we cut it."

Writer: Catherine Treganna 

Format: TV

Broadcast: 6 February 2008

Series: Torchwood 2.04

Featuring: Captain Jack, Gwen, Owen, Tosh, Ianto

Synopsis

Rhys discovers the truth about Torchwood and becomes part of the team as they investigate a mysterious alien meet supply. Meanwhile, Gwen feels guilty that Rhys has been put into so much danger.

Verdict

Meat was a decent episode of Torchwood to continue our way through the second series! It really is an explosive story and it starts in a grim way with a fatal road traffic accident involving Rhys's haulage firm, but from there it quickly sparks into action and intrigue with Rhys finding out that Gwen's special ops involvement with the police is a lot more than she has been letting on. I loved that he finally got knowledge of Torchwood and he had to pay for it in a nearly fatal way. The confrontation between Rhys and Gwen at home was excellent and I thought their story was by the far the highlight of the episode. Rhys taking his own initiative was good to see and I really enjoyed his sneaking around to get the truth about Gwen, and it was his turn to lie. Jack seemed a little weird in his relationship with Gwen during this episode and it's clear that he has considerable feelings for her which seems slightly strange, but he made a lot of concessions for her and unnecessarily got up close and personal when it came to discussing Rhys and her involvement in the situation at the warehouse. The idea of alien meat being harvested was very cruel and I found it very humorous that this was all taking place in Merthyr. It's not the town with the best reputation in South Wales and was a perfect place as the basis of operations for a dodgy supply. The special effects of the alien creature itself really haven't aged well which was a shame but the emotion displayed by Jack when seeing it, and the section that was being cut to shreds, was fantastic and really did evoke sympathy. I thought the subtle hints at a relationship between Tosh and Owen was done well whilst Ianto didn't have a lot to do before going around with the taser. I thought Rhys getting to go inside the Hub was great and the initial face up with Jack was full of tension, but he was quick to offer Torchwood a way in to the warehouse and stop the alien meet frenzy. That was really good and his way to try and pick up where Leighton left off with the deliveries was good stuff. I thought the meat element of the episode wasn't overly exciting and I thought we could have had a bit more to do with the criminal organisation and it didn't seem too logical for a team with Torchwood's resources and experience to have to sneak in. I think that if the Merthyr bandits were threatened by the police then they'd soon be abandoning their warehouse and destroying the evidence. I thought it was a sad end for Owen to have to quickly improvise and change plans and enact a mercy killing on the creature after it was getting out of control. Rhys getting shot in the melee was good but I did think Gwen would be a little more shocked after the threats and backing she had given him throughout. The conflict regarding retconning him was very good and I loved that Rhys talking about aliens and planets and wanting to know all Gwen had experienced led her to refuse to give her fiancé the drug. The reactions of Ianto and Tosh showed just how big it was for Jack to let her go against the rules, but he clearly cared about her a great deal, seemingly too much perhaps. Overall, a very decent episode!

Rating: 7/10