This episode is so difficult for me.

So. First off. The majority of this episode is genuinely fantastic and very good. Andy is perpetually great, and we see that while they are certainly doing better, Gwen and Rhys's issues haven't just magically disappeared after the wedding.

The entire plot of the episode revolving around a genuinely good mystery with genuinely emotional stakes... And with a genuinely chilling answer to the mystery. By all means, this should be one of the best episodes in the season.

But god. The conclusion ruins it all for me.

Gwen goes home, accepting that Jack and the mother are right and she shouldn't have told her in the first place...?

I have immense empathy for the mother. Because for all intents and purposes, I AM her, in reverse. I myself, take care of my mother, who is suffering from Alzheimer's. It's painful, it's messy. But I love her.

The idea that the families are kept from knowing about their loved ones being alive, and the reason presented at the end, that it would be too difficult for the loved ones, is meant to be seen as reasonable... is unacceptable to me. I come away from this episode seeing Torchwood as the villains. Well-meaning, but villains nonetheless.

However much empathy I have for the mother, I have even more for her son and all the other victims. They aren't going to be allowed to see their loved ones, because Torchwood has decided their loved ones would be better off? That is not, and should not, be their decision. Not every family member is going to be like his mother.

I'm all for bleak storylines and sad endings. I know Torchwood loves those. I don't expect them to turn this ending into a hopeful and happy one. But to tell the audience that Gwen was wrong and Jack is right? I despise everything about it.

Gwen was right to begin with. The one case not going well doesn't change that. And the fact that the episode has her change her mind and accept Jack's way of doing it, and paints it as a necessary evil, is horrible to me.

If it were up to Torchwood, I would never see my mother again. For all the strife and pain that would avoid, I would never choose it in a million years. So yeah. Maybe my vendetta against this episode is personal. But it genuinely makes me sick.