Dead Man Walking

This is quite an unsettling episode that really dives into themes of what happens after death, and why you should never bring the dead back to the land of the living. It's essentially a sequel to the Series 1 episode They Keep Killing Suzie, as well as directly following on from the previous episode 'Reset'.

There's some very chilling stuff concerning the legend of the Grim Reaper, which kind of reminded me a bit of what the Doctor Who two parter The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit did with the devil. I really like how it leaves so much ambiguous about what this Whoniverse version of death is, again a bit like the devil in The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit, and showing us the second resurrection gauntlet of the pair after seeing the first in the previous series is and establishing that it operates somewhat differently to the one we saw before is such a great idea.

In fact, the whole thing with the second resurrection gauntlet is brilliant, from that creepy scene with the hand scurrying on the floor to what it does in ageing Martha.

It's alright, really. Given the big nature of Reset's ending, I very much remember expecting something like this where they kind of walk it back on my original viewing of the episode. They do a pretty good job of conveying a shift in status quo though, and Freema Agyeman is always nice to see.

I just don't care about Owen's character that much and don't mesh well with what he's been presented as. I just was never able to shake how much of a creep he was initially presented as and I feel the show never properly reconciled that fact, so this whole arc falls pretty flat for me. The use of the glove is pretty interesting as a concept but then conveying some of that significance through Weevils is just... lame. The Weevils are so lame. So the episode is certainly interesting and we're far from the worst of Torchwood but not really aligned with the best, either.