As I was watching today's episode of Torchwood I was trying to remember whether I thought it was a Cloverfield ripoff when it first aired. Turns out that movie didn't come out until a year later, so I guess Cloverfield is actually a Torchwood ripoff? Go figure.

End of Days

(TARDIS Data Core recap)

Before I get to today's story -- this morning I had my best 55-minute workout on the treadmill since The Curse of Fenric back in March. So that's pretty cool. I also did 52 pushups, which was a bit of a struggle. I am long way from a few months ago when I was doing 100 pushups a day, but then again I also completely wrecked my shoulder and right arm doing that... so I am trying to be a little more sensible about it.

Anyway, getting back to Torchwood, today was the first season finale. It paid off on most of the plot threads laid out throughout the season, and did a generally decent job of it. The fallout from Owen's messing with the Rift in the previous episode leads to widening cracks in time, and the fractures within the relationships of the Torchwood Three team reach a complete breaking point. I mean, we've pretty much all had days where we fantasize about shooting our boss in the head, but Owen actually does it. Oops. Frankly, Jack kinda deserves it after being a complete dick to everyone on the team.

It turns out that Billis Manger, from the previous episode, can somehow just hop around in time with no apparent technology. He has also manipulated events in order to get the Torchwood Three team to completely open up the Rift, and to thus release Cloverfield Abaddon upon the world. This giant demon has apparently been trapped beneath the Rift for over a hundred years, and is the child of the Beast from The Impossible Planet / The Satan Pit (which had aired the year before). Once Abaddon is released, Billis Manger gives a little "my work here is done" speech and disappears, never to be seen again. It's weird. He is introduced as a mysterious and powerful villain, barely sketched out but clearly set up to be a recurring Big Bad, and then he just.... goes away.

Once Jack wakes up from being dead (like you do), and figures out that Abaddon feeds off of life energy, he correctly guesses that he can over-feed the monster by letting it try to devour his unlimited life force. The monster is destroyed, time is reset so that none of the things that happened while the Rift fractured actually happened anymore, and everyone on the Torchwood Three team kisses and makes up. Oh, and the TARDIS finally shows up so Jack goes running off to have a new adventure with the Doctor and Martha Jones. Good for him.

There was also a bunch of drama in there about Gwen's relationship with Rhys, and him being killed (but then resurrected when time resets). It was actually really well done. I like Rhys a lot, he deserves much better, but at least Gwen is maybe behaving a little better. Which is nice. After thirteen episodes the show is slowly finding its footing, so hopefully the next season will be better. I mean, I've seen it before when it first aired but I remember virtually nothing about it. I guess tomorrow I will find out.

STATS:

Featuring: Captain Jack Harkness, Gwen Cooper, Toshiko Sato, Owen Harper, Ianto Jones
Episode(s): End of Days
Steps Walked: 7,715 today, 3,804,985 total
Distance Walked: 4.21 miles today, 1,990.10 miles total
Push-ups Completed: 52 today, 7,219 total
Sit-ups Completed: 0 today, 1,029 total
Weight: 257.52 lbs (five day moving average), net change -49.78 lbs