Adrift (Torchwood)

Doctorwhobox
number = 24
serial_name = Adrift
caption = Gwen has compiled a list of all people that have disappeared during a negative rift spike.


show = TW
type = episode
writer = Chris Chibnall
cast =
* John Barrowman – Captain Jack Harkness
* Eve Myles – Gwen Cooper
* Burn Gorman – Owen Harper
* Naoko Mori – Toshiko Sato
* Gareth David-Lloyd – Ianto Jones
guests =
* Kai Owen – Rhys Williams
* Tom Price – PC Andy Davidson
* Ruth Jones – Nikki Bevan
* Robert Pugh – Jonah Bevan
* Oliver Ferriman – Young Jonah
* Lorna Gayle – Helen
director = Mark Everest
production_code = 2.11
producer = Richard Stokes Sophie Fante Chris Chibnall (co-producer)
executive_producer = Russell T Davies Julie Gardner
script_editor = Lindsey Alford
series = Series 2
length = 50 mins
date = 19 March 2008
preceding = "From Out of the Rain"
following = "Fragments"
imdb_id = 1190500"Adrift" is the eleventh episode of the second series of British science fiction television series "Torchwood", which was broadcast by BBC Three on 19 March 2008, and by BBC Two on 21 March 2008.

Plot

ynopsis

Jonah Bevan is walking home across the Cardiff Bay Barrage when a bright light appears over him. One second later he is gone. Seven months later, at the instigation of PC Andy Davidson, Gwen is investigating the disappearance of Jonah. Her research reveals there are more cases that resemble Jonah's disappearance. Toshiko discovers that these disappearances happen during a negative spike in the rift activity, which were previously discarded as background noise. Gwen is able to compile a list of all missing persons and informs Jack. However, Jack tells Gwen that nothing can be done and instructs her to stop the investigation, which she refuses.

The investigation slowly turns into an obsession and takes a toll on the relationship between Gwen and Rhys. Back at the hub, Gwen interrupts Jack and Ianto having sex and, after apologising, tells Jack that she wants to continue the investigation. Jack once more refuses, but Ianto secretly gives Gwen a GPS device with a stored hidden location, leading Gwen to a facility on Flat Holm. It harbours 17 of the missing people that the rift took and subsequently brought back, including Jonah, the boy she has been looking for. However, he has aged 40 years and is very deformed. Gwen also finds Jack there, and she demands access to Jonah. Jonah tells how he was stuck on a "burning planet" and how he was taken into a building that was actually a rescue craft, from which he witnessed the burning of a solar system. Afterwards, Jack reveals that he set up the facility when he first took command of Torchwood, in order to care for the victims of the rift, who had previously been locked away in the vaults.

Gwen brings Nikki, Jonah's mother, in to see him. At first she is horrified, believing it to be a cruel joke, but Jonah starts telling her things that only he would know. Nikki calms and they hug for a moment, but one of the staff tells Nikki to get away from him. She resists and says that she can take care of him. However Jonah starts screaming, a scream so horrible that everyone flees. In a voiceover, Gwen reveals that he screams like that for 20 hours a day because he looked into the heart of a Dark Star, which drove him insane.

A week later, Gwen goes to see Nikki, who implores her not to show the island to anyone else. Gwen takes down her notes over the missing and Nikki packs up Jonah's room. At home that night, Gwen prepares a romantic candle-lit dinner for Rhys, who lets her cry into his chest.

Outside references

*When Andy is showing Gwen the security camera photos from the night Jonah went missing, he refers to Jack as 'Mulder', from "The X-Files". This is the second time he has done so, the first being in "End of Days".
*During the first meeting for the missing persons support group, PC Andy quotes the line "If you build it, they will come", from the film "Field of Dreams". This is the second reference he makes in this episode to an American production.
*The prophet Jonah was swallowed and later regurgitated by a large fish; in this episode, Jonah is taken and returned by the Rift.
*When Nikki clears the shelves of video tapes, several book titles are visible including "Snap Happy" by Fiona Walker, "The Bourne Identity" by Robert Ludlum and "A Grand Affair" by Charlotte Bingham.

References

External links

*Brief|torch=y|id=2008k|title=Adrift
*Doctor Who RG|id=torchwood_24|title=Adrift|quotes=y