TORCHWOOD 2.5 – "Adam"

Writer: Catherine Tregenna
Director: Andy Goddard

Cast: John Barrowman (Captain Jack Harkness), Eve Myles (Gwen Cooper), Burn Gorman (Owen Harper), Naoko Mori (Toshiko Sato), Gareth David-Lloyd (Ianto Jones), Bryan Dick (Adam), Kai Owen (Rhys Williams), Jack Montgomery (Young Jack), Demetri Goritsas (Jack's Father), Lauren Ward (Jack's Mother), Rhys Myers (Young Adam), Ethan Brooke (Gray), Paul Kasey (Weevil) ), Lloyd Everitt (Youth) & Jo McLaren (Dead Woman)

A mysterious young man called Adam has infiltrated Torchwood and manipulated the team's memories to suit his own needs...

Catherine Tregenna, writer of last week's fairly dismal Meat, returns this week with Adam – an episode at the opposite end of the quality spectrum; as it's easily one of Torchwood's best...

There are two things that really make this episode fly: the pace and the characterisations. We're immediately thrown into the situation at the Hub, with the presence of a stranger called Adam (Bryan Dick), who's treated as an accepted part of the team. After Gwen (Eve Myles) arrives at work, and questions Adam's company, she's thrown some puzzled looks by her colleagues, before Adam lightly touches her shoulder and floods her mind with false memories to explain his being there.

It's obvious what's going on from that scene (which is arguably the episode's one failing), but it doesn't really matter in the greater scheme of things. Adam is primarily used as an intriguing sci-fi way to shed light on the characters, as we soon realize Adam's implanted memories have had a curious side-effect on everyone...

Shy Tosh (Naoko Mori) now believes she's been having a long-term love affair with Adam, a relationship that has turned her into an extrovert, while Owen (Burn Gorman) has been wiped of his swaggering cynicism, turning him into a bespectacled, withdrawn geek.

Jack (John Barrowman) and Ianto (Gareth David-Lloyd) are initially less altered, just unquestioning of Adam's place on the team. However, it's Gwen who experiences the side-effects of Adam's memory-manipulation first, when she returns home and fails to recognize her fiancé Rhys (Kai Owen) – holding him off at knife-point and calling for help! Jack and Ianto promptly arrive, and are baffled to find that Gwen can't remember her fiancé – but promise Rhys they'll restore her memories...

The really enjoyable thing about Adam is watching how the team go about trying to solve a problem the audience is one-step ahead of. It could have been quite frustrating, but it's actually great fun watching the characters (some imbued with different personalities) slowly come to realize they can't trust their own memories...

All the characters get something quite juicy to deal with: Gwen and Rhys effectively star in a love story tinged with Alzheimer's, and both actors do a brilliant job – particularly given the relatively short time allotted to the storyline. It's handled with careful skill by Myles and Owen, who make a plausible couple.

An enjoyable Owen/Tosh/Adam love triangle also forms, as weedier Owen actually finds himself able to relate his true feelings to Tosh, unsaddled by his protective sarcastic nature. Burn Gorman hasn't had much to do in season 2, but he's really good here; playing Owen as a timid nice-guy. The moment when Owen reveals his feelings to Tosh in a heartfelt speech, only to be knocked back by loved-up Tosh in favour of Adam, is one of Torchwood's best character moments.

For Jack, his cocksure personality remains intact (I don't think Barrowman has subtler levels), but the effects of Adam on his own mind is more enlightening. It appears that Adam has unlocked memories Jack's been blocking out all his life, as ghosts from his past fleetingly appear – eventually leading to flashbacks of a Young Jack (Jack Montgomery) in the 51st-Century.

These sequences show Jack's distant future as a strip of beach, where people dress in yellow-white style garb, and the one building we see resembles a portakabin sandcastle. The identity of the mysterious Grey (who Captain John said he's found in the premiere) is soon revealed as Jack's little brother, who he lost during an attack by (frustratingly) unseen aliens. Jack has always blamed himself for letting go of his kid brother's hand during an escape, and isn't happy that these memories are bubbling to the surface now...

It's actually Ianto who begins to realize what's going on first, after he reads his diary and notices there's absolutely no mention of Adam. I'm glad Torchwood has started to give Ianto more to do, even if he still tends to resemble an estate agent loitering around watching everyone work -- while occasionally being called on to zap a baddie with a stun-gun!

In the episode's best sequence (and a highlight for the series, too), Adam confronts Ianto over his discovery, and proceeds to fill Ianto's head with fake memories of a murderous past. It's actually very unsettling to watch Ianto crumble to the floor, his mind flooded by memories of a serial-killing past (brilliantly mixed with flashbacks by director Andy Goddard). It's a haunting idea from writer Tregenna, and it's done full justice in the episode.

Of course, once Jack arrives back at the Hub to find a fragile Ianto confessing to multiple murder, even a positive scan with a very accurate lie-detector doesn't convince him of Ianto's guilt. Sensing something's wrong, he checks the security camera footage and sees Adam "attacking" Ianto, and realizes the team have been infiltrated by an alien.

Later, Jack takes Adam prisoner at gunpoint – much to everyone's dismay – and throws him into a cell. After explaining to everyone that Adam has actually only been around for 48 hours, but has tricked everyone into imagining years-long connections with him, he concocts a way to revert everyone back to their normal states: by having them focus on a memory that signifies their inner selves, before taking a two-day amnesia pill... and, ahem, playing a spinning "sound-visualizer" from Windows Media Player on a presentation screen?

With the team unconscious, having had their memories purged of Adam's existence, Jack talks with Adam in the cells – with the alien pleading to be allowed to live, as he'll be snuffed out of existence if Jack stops remembering him. Jack is adamant that wiping his memory of Adam is the only course of action, but is persuaded into having his buried memories of Grey reawakened one last time...

Unfortunately, Adam uses this opportunity as a way to implant himself into Jack's memory, becoming a part of events forever, and securing his survival. If Jack rids himself of Adam now, his memories of his father will be wiped forever... but he still swallows the pill, and Adam disappears.

The denouement finds the team confused about losing two days of memories, and with Owen cynically dismissing some flowers he had bought Tosh...

Adam was a real breath of fresh air for Torchwood, almost totally devoid of the usual silliness and plot-conveniences that sink episodes. It really benefited from a lack of technobabble (never the show's strong suit) and instead used an effective sci-fi idea to enrich and deepen the characters. All the actors seemed to embrace the script – with Myles, Gorman and Lloyd-David particularly impressive.

Guest star Bryan Dick was great fun as Adam, looking at home in the cast from the opening scene, and given an interesting character who didn't really want to be malicious -- he just wanted to survive, even if that meant lying and implanting memories designed to neutralize threats. It was also interesting how his presence actually benefited Tosh in some ways, and even Owen found it easier to profess his love for Tosh by overcoming shyness, instead of hiding behind his usual defensive sarcasm.

It was disappointing that Jack's flashbacks weren't better -- as the budget didn't stretch to doing the 51st-Century justice, or even giving us a look at a supposed massacre by aliens. Still, we at least know Grey is Jack's brother now, which nudged along a recurring plot-strand of the season -- even if Jack's guilt over losing his sibling didn't strike me as particularly compelling. I have more sympathy for Jack's willingness to erase all memory of his father, just to eliminate Adam forever, than accidentally letting go of a kid's hand during an escape...

Overall, this is easily my favourite episode of season 2 so far; purely because the story, threat and characters worked together perfectly, and it contained some important mythology (Jack's history), unforgettable sequences (Ianto's frightening memories of being a killer) and some genuinely emotional moments (Gwen's amnesia, Owen's heartfelt speech to Tosh.)

It single-handedly proved Torchwood can be an involving and emotive series if it wants to be -- by jettisoning stupid moments and awkward sex-related dialogue, focusing on the characters' relationships, and crafting a fast-paced narrative that rarely pauses for breath and succinctly propels itself forward.

Catherine Tregenna may have fumbled last week's Meat, but this episode more than compensated...and I'm ready to start believing Torchwood has hit on a winning formula for its second year.

Please don't let me down!


13 February 2008
BBC2, 9.00 pm