Changing everything, one mission at a time! 

“END OF DAYS – WHEN THE RIFT HITS THE FAN”

End of Days is Torchwood’s attempt at an explosive series finale, following on from the rift-ripping chaos of Captain Jack Harkness by throwing everything it can into the Cardiff pot: time fractures, returning dead loved ones, team implosion, emotional trauma, and an enormous CGI death demon. What could possibly go wrong?

Quite a bit, as it turns out.

The episode picks up with the aftermath of Owen’s decision to open the rift, which has caused history to start bleeding into modern-day Cardiff. Romans in jail cells, plague carriers in hospitals—it’s all very The Pandorica Opens, albeit on a BBC Three budget and without the same mythic grandeur. The world is in chaos, and Torchwood is in no shape to handle it. What should feel like a cataclysm instead plays more like a team therapy session with added ghosts.

TEAM FALLOUT AND FRACTURED LEADERSHIP

The character drama does hit some impressive notes. The breakdown between Jack and Owen is especially brutal, culminating in Jack furiously ejecting Owen from the Hub in a moment of uncharacteristic rage. It’s not just Owen questioning Jack’s authority—it’s the whole team teetering on the edge of mutiny, brought to boiling point by grief, confusion, and manipulation.

This gives the story its emotional heft, even if it doesn’t quite build the apocalyptic scale we might expect from a season finale. The threat here is almost entirely psychological, with each character being visited by apparitions of the people they’ve lost. Gwen sees Rhys die—horrifyingly stabbed by Bilis Manger. Tosh sees her mother. Ianto sees Lisa. It’s all deeply personal, but the world-ending danger feels like an afterthought.

BILIS MANGER: LESS IS MORE

Into the middle of this psychological mess steps Bilis Manger, Torchwood’s most intriguing antagonist to date. Murray Melvin’s performance is quietly terrifying—he doesn’t need to do anything overtly villainous to exude menace. With his archaic manners and eerie omniscience, he feels more Sapphire and Steel than Doctor Who, and that’s a compliment.

But Bilis is more an agent of chaos than a mastermind. His manipulations are clever—especially orchestrating Rhys’ death to drive Gwen over the edge—but the plot never quite gives him enough time to shine. He nudges the team into re-opening the rift and then… vanishes, having done his job. It’s a long game that pays off far too quickly.

THE MONSTER AT THE END

When the rift is finally torn open again, out stomps Abaddon, the so-called "son of the Beast." It should be the grand climax. Instead, it’s a five-minute detour into budget CG hell. The monster’s design is generically apocalyptic—grey, horned, growling—and clearly a less impressive cousin to Doctor Who’s Satan from The Impossible Planet. It stomps. People drop dead. Jack says “I’ve got this,” walks into its shadow, and dies to defeat it. Cue reset.

And yes, End of Days hits the reset button hard. Everything—the deaths, the chaos, the time leaks—is undone in a puff of rift energy. It’s the oldest New Who trick in the book, and while it works thematically (Jack sacrificing himself to save his team and the world), it also cheapens the stakes that had been built up across the episode.

SIDE CHARACTERS SIDE-LINED

Amidst all this chaos, it’s disappointing how sidelined Tosh and Ianto are. They contribute nothing to the plot beyond looking worried, a frustrating continuation of the series’ uneven focus on the team. Andy Davidson returns from Everything Changes only to vanish again after a brief scene. Even Gwen and Rhys’s relationship—so tested across the series—is wrapped up in a happy bow without addressing the moral murkiness that’s built up between them.

AND THEN... THE TARDIS

The episode closes with the Doctor’s severed hand glowing and the unmistakable sound of the TARDIS materialising offscreen. It’s a neat tease, tying directly into Utopia and the return of Jack to Doctor Who for the Series 3 finale. It’s probably the most exciting moment in the episode—one that promises much more than End of Days actually delivers.

📝VERDICT: 6/10

End of Days aims for epic, emotional, and explosive, but ends up rushed, muddled, and strangely small. While it gives us some fine character beats—especially for Gwen, Owen, and Jack—and boasts a chilling performance from Murray Melvin as Bilis Manger, it fails to build up or sustain real finale-level stakes. Abaddon is a damp squib of a monster, the reset button is hit far too casually, and the pacing doesn’t do justice to either the personal stories or the larger narrative.

A finale that wants to be the end of the world, but feels more like a therapy session hijacked by a half-rendered demon.