Quick Take: Torchwood, "The Categories of Life"
Vera, what has become of you?
Review: Torchwood, "The Categories of Life"
(S0405) This week's episode opened on Dr. Juarez discovering that the medical panel she became de facto leader of inadvertently created a system of organizing the post-death population into a system called "the three categories of life." These categories — overnighted into legislation — give the government control over whether a person is Type 3 (normally functioning), Type 2 (sick, but recovering), or Type 1 (held together by Miracle magic). At the same time, it gives the government the ability to force Type 1 and Type 2 into overflow camps... for processing.
As a result, Vera joins Torchwood. To get to the heart of what's going on in the camps, Rex, Esther, and Vera infiltrate the San Jose camp, while Gwen and Rhys infiltrate a camp in Wales to free Gwen's father. Perhaps at once inescapably pleasing and yet at the same time unreasonably tragic is how this episode pays off so many plot threads we did and didn't know to be looking for.
On the one hand, we knew that Gwen's dad was just a pawn in the writer's plans for the season, so realizing that his sole purpose was to get Gwen into the camp was acceptable, if a little uninspired. Now that Gwen and Rhys are inside, what are they going to find? More importantly, why must the characters be divided between the two camps? My gut tells me the global nature of this nightmarish Miracle is going to be revealed to us very, very soon.
On the other hand, poor, noble Vera's character was a little boring, but we liked her! I thought she'd become one of the team. I thought she'd be the new medical authority, the new Owen... But alas! Vera was just another wrench lodged deeply in our guts. To see her shot for her morality was hurtful; to see her still-living body dragged into the mysterious module with all the Type 1's was agonizing; but to see her immolated, every one of her miracle-infused cells burned to ash, Vera frozen in consciousness for the entire atrocity, and possibly even now, as ash in the air... that was agonizing.
And before she goes — just to remind us of the magically-living doctor we lost in Season 2, and just to remind us how Owen, trapped in a room and ready to be irradiated, had that final farewell with a woman who loved him more than she loved herself over a cellphone — Esther calls Vera, concerned. Esther! Esther, who's nothing to Vera except jealous of the attention Rex gives her, tries to get in touch, but Vera can't pick up. Rex, right outside the stone prison Vera's locked in, doesn't think to call her to give her a final farewell. No, Rex, the closest thing Vera has to love in her life, doesn't say goodbye. Instead, he picks up his video camera and tapes the whole thing.
Vera dies so that we might discover what all her good intentions lead to, and she dies without the love that Owen had, even though Owen didn't deserve it. And the most amazing part about the discovery that people are being burned alive in the camps is that it's what we all assumed! We're all aware of the holocaust and aware of the parallels these overflow camps make. The episode even makes the link for us, with a headline about how "the sick go in, but no one comes out."
Vera died for her conviction, she died unacknowledged... and she died for no damn reason whatsoever. And at the same time that Vera, the new face of unsung heroes, is being incinerated, Oswald Danes and Jilly are scoring another home run for team PhiCorp. It's more than just a company; it's a religion. Now that's tragedy!
Man, sounds like there's some heavy stuff going on down at the Torchwood !
Yeah, Torchwood is where characters go to die. lol!