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Meat

6TH FEBRUARY 2008

(50-MINUTE EPISODE)

At the end of last week’s episode, when I saw the trailer for Meat, I didn’t expect to see Catherine Tregenna’s name on the by-line. The trailer hinted at a grisly episode the likes of Countrycide or Combat, but when I actually came to watch the episode I was not surprised to find that it reeked of Tregenna’s poignant panache.

That’s not to say that Meat is not a gritty little story; in fact, of all the episodes that Tregenna has penned, this one is without doubt her most disturbing. To look at the meat of the story first of all (ho, ho), Tregenna’s plot is stunning in its simplicity. A gang of local villains have somehow managed to imprison an alien life form that they are pumping full of special K, cutting up and then selling as cheap meat. No matter how much meat they slice away from their “cash cow”, more still grows back.

Now it would be bad enough to treat any living creature so abhorrently, but just in case there was any lingering moral doubt, Tregenna’s script makes it clear that this creature is sentient. This isn’t just a beached alien whale; it’s a beached alien whale that is self-aware. The grey just turned to black.

“…It just keeps growing, no matter how much we cut it.”

The creature is realised tremendously well by the production team. Director Colin Teague teases us for a while with a series of close-up shots before panning out and really letting us get a feel for the colossal scale of the creature. It’s remarkable just how much sympathy the viewer builds up for a practically inanimate, mute creature; especially when considering just how far from human it is. One of the things that I felt worked best about the whole episode was how Jack makes it unequivocally clear to his team that he wants to save the creature. His empathy for the creature instantly put me in mind of the Doctor and his often staggering reactions to the utterly alien; good people though they may be, no-one else in Torchwood would have even considered saving this creature’s life – the best option that they all could see was to “put it out of its misery”. Jack’s certainly come a long way since his con-man days.

“I just wish you’d have been uglier. Not gay by any chance, are you?”

To say that Meat is very much a ‘Gwen’ episode, Jack enjoys a very strong outing. As well as through his attitudes and behaviour towards the creature, Jack reveals yet more of his softer side in his dealings with Rhys. He’s blatantly jealous of Rhys, yet for Gwen’s sake he spends the whole episode biting his tongue and giving more and more ground to the woman that he is so obviously besotted with.

But as I’ve intimated above, the more emotional part of this story focuses on Gwen and her lover. As events unfold, Rhys finds himself stumbling into the ‘special ops’ world of his über-secretive fiancée. The opening fifteen minutes or so of the episode have this sickening air

of inevitability about them; he’s gonna find out. Find out about Torchwood. Find out about

all Gwen’s lies. All that is at question is how and when.

Gwen and Rhys’ first encounter in their flat in downright painful. He knows that she’s lying,

yet he doesn’t confront her about it. Instead he follows her, and from thereon in he’s in over his head. Their second encounter is almost as agonising, but at least there is some form of release. The director frames Eve Myles and Kai Owen’s excellent performances exquisitely; Teague’s rapid, ‘in-out’ shots truly encapsulate the release of all Rhys’ pent-up frustrations flawlessly.

However, no matter how good the first forty-odd minutes of the episode could have been, Meat would in all probability have been hailed as a first-class turkey had the ending taken

a different turn. My heart fell when I heard the word ‘retcon’ mentioned; a cop-out ending would have completely perverted the purpose of the whole episode. Thankfully though, the

events of this episode will stick – Rhys will keep his memories. He will know all about what Gwen does for a living. And, to be frank, for the sake of the series he had to. The first series pushed and pulled the Gwen’s long-suffering feller in every which way it could without ever letting him into the loop, but there are only so many ways in which you can pull just one of a particular character’s strings before they break.

Television shows have to progress. If you need proof, just look at the regulars here. Owen - barely recognisable after his ordeal towards the end of the first series. Ianto – once a sullen tea-boy, now a fully-fledged action man with a stun gun. And it must be working, because these first four episodes of Torchwood’s second series have each been utterly outstanding pieces of television. I’m hooked again.

Copyright © E.G. Wolverson 2008

E.G. Wolverson has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.

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