I hate this episode. I really do. In fact I may have rated it too highly in all honesty. But I felt that Eve Myles is doing a fantastic job in this episode, and so she single handedly bumps the rating up at least half a star.

My biggest problem with this episode is that all of the Torchwood team are complete idiots here. This series has had to rely on our heroes doing something obviously stupid many times over the course of this series. But usually it's just one character messing up, and with some sort of motivation. In this episode all 5 Torchwood members are inconceivable dumb for much of the episode, and the reasons why are so rushed and lazily drawn that it feels completely forced and unnatural. Honestly this whole series has made a strong case that the team at Torchwood 3 are actually terrible at their jobs. This has never been more evident than in this episode, where they essentially cause the end of the world, twice. It's utterly infuriating and frankly just bad storytelling.

So the basic plot for this episode is that when Owen opened the rift last episode to save Jack & Tosh, it caused the rift to expand and now all of history is pouring out through it. This is causing problems all over the world, with many seeing this as the 'End of Days'. Firstly having a global event of this scale feels way to big for 5 idiots in Cardiff to have to deal with. Secondly the episode does a bad job of demonstrating how big and global this threat is. They say it a bunch, but outside of Britain all we see is some UFOs over the Taj Mahal. So the threat level is too big in that it's a global calamity, but it never actually feels like the global calamity that we're told it is.

Anyway that's not the major problem. The major problem is that this was all clearly caused by Torchwood opening the rift. So everyone apart from Jack decides that in order to save the day they must... open the rift, but more. That's their genius plan, to do the bad thing that caused all the problems again. It's so obviously a terrible idea, and it turns out to be a really terrible idea because when they do so they release Abaddon, devourer of worlds.

Literally all of our team apart from Jack decide to do the stupidest thing, just for the sake of having a big monster to defeat at the end of the episode. They're all idiots for doing this (apart from Jack, but I'll get to why he's an idiot later). The justification that we're giving is some vague suggestions from Bilis Manger. That's right the suspicious and sinister Bilis who last episode the team realised was up to no good and do not trust, well now the team just listen to what he says without really questioning it. I hope he's not up to no good. I hope he doesn't want to unleash an apocalyptic monster to destroy the world. Why would he want to do that? Actually why does he want to do that? Why does he want to destroy the world? Doesn't matter, this episode isn't interested in giving anyody good character motivations.

For example the other thing that happens to convince everyone that they should open the rift is the team (minus Jack) all get visions. Owen sees Diane, Ianto sees Lisa and Tosh sees her Mum. Firstly it's a sad indictment of how little this show has defined Tosh's life outside of Torchwood, that there isn't actually a character from the show to appear to her. So they have to just fall back on her Mum appearing, a character we've never seen or really know anything about. But that's a different issue. My big issue here is that 3 supposedly smart people are convinced to do something that'll damage reality, for a second time btw, they've already done it once and now reality is threatened, because if they do, people they love will come back because... reasons. The world is ending, but I'll cause it to end faster because if I do I might get to see my dead girlfriend (or mum or Tosh's case) is a terrible justification. It makes these 3 characters look incredibly stupid and incredibly selfish.

Gwen is the only person who's motivations I can kinda buy. She's still a complete idiot, but Eve Myles sells the crap out of her characters grief & desperation. Gwen isn't shown visions of lost loves. She's shown a vision of Rhys dying (from the now incredibly trustworthy Bilis), so she knocks Rhys out and takes him to Torchwood where she can keep him safe. Then Bilis appears and stabs Rhys to death. I don't even understand why Bilis needs to trick Gwen into taking Rhys to Torchwood in the first place. Why couldn't he just appear at Rhys' house and kill him there? Doesn't ultimately matter, this episode has much bigger problems, but it feels needlessly convoluted. Anyway Gwen then decides that opening the rift will bring back Rhys. Again I don't really understand why she (or anyone else) thinks that the rift which is causing all of the problems, is actually a magical solution all of a sudden. But at least Gwen is believably out of her mind, so she's the character I dislike least in this episode.

Jack keeps saying that they can't open the rift, it'll make things worse. The other 4 Torchwood members stage a mutiny, Owen even shoots Jack in the head. Yes Jack comes back as always, but Owen didn't know that. As far as Owen was concerned he just murdered his boss. The team then use everyone's retinal scans to open the rift again. I don't think it's ever really explained why everyone's retinal scans are needed to open the rift now, when last episode they weren't, but whatever, who cares at this point. Turns out Jack was right, because of course he was. They open the rift Abaddon appears and the big monster showdown that the episode has been building to is complete crap.

Firstly just having Ianto mention the word Abaddon once, in an incredibly sweaty bit of dialogue where Ianto is reading end of the world prophecies from the bible (because sure, why not) does not equate to sufficiently setting up the big bad of your whole season of television. But even if they did setup Abaddon well, he'd still be s**t. He stomps around Cardiff for a bit, the effects budget can't really stretch to showing any real carnage, so we're just told that anything Abaddon's shadow touches has died. So Jack lures Abaddon to a field, because if Abaddon feeds off life, and Jack can't die, so what happens if Abaddon tries to feed off Jack. This means that the big climactic battle for the whole series, is John Barrowman screaming in shadow for a couple of minutes. Then his immortal life force defeats Abaddon, which also seals the rift and resets the timeline to before any of this happened. Again the episode doesn't even begin to explain why defeating Abaddon seals the rift and alters time, but it's gives us a happy ending. Except Jack has died... except no he hasn't, they just pretended he had for 5 minutes. Yay there were no consequences to any of it.

This is why Jack is an idiot btw, because there are no consequences. Well firstly he spends a lot of the episode being an asshole to his team. But mostly he's an idiot because when he wakes back up he's just like, well done team, we saved the day. Now onto season 2. Did he forget that his team, staged a mutiny and murdered him so that they could open the rift against his wishes. In doing so they released a giant demon who killed a bunch of people, proving him right and meaning they were wrong to go against him in the first place. Jack has to apparently die, and experience agonising pain fighting a freaking demon in order to rectify all the ways his dumbass team f*cked up. There's no consequences to any of that, Jack just wakes up and we all pretend non of that ever happened.

So yes Jack is also an idiot. Meaning we're 5 for 5 on the main cast of this show being idiots who are terrible at their jobs. What a terrible way for a series of television to end.

Torchwood's big first series finale, I definitely appreciate it a little more in idea than execution. I love the ties to the Beast from the Satan Pit and Impossible Planet. It feels much closer to what I sort of expected going into Torchwood as a spin-off of Doctor Who, and it is something I feel the television series very rarely achieved.

So I have a bit of a soft spot for End of Days, even if it is a little uneven and filled with over-the-top drama and acting. It's *enough* fun - just enough to be an easy watch, easy to get through, and put at least a decent bow on the very inconsistent first season of Torchwood. I also like how this is a direct consequence of the previous episode. It feels good to have our heroes not able to resolve the last problem without their being consequences of a larger villainous plan going on, that stuff and the appearance of Bilis is pretty interesting. On the other hand, Owen's troubles and the stuff with Rhys feels way overplayed and drags this story down a bit. Still, it is at least worth watching and has some cool ideas.

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.

Well, I absolutely loved this one. It's basically a disaster movie in the mould of a Torchwood episode, only unlike most disaster movies it's a compelling piece of entertainment from start to finish. It's also The Wedding of River Song done right - the people from different times merging (or in this case, falling through rifts in time) actually works much better tonally here than it did in that Doctor Who episode. It explores more of the consequence of this, such as the black death returning to 21st century Cardiff and Roman soldiers slaughtering people, as they are not following the lawful ways of modern life.

Eve Myles is superb in this episode too, and it's great to see the team being tested in Jack's desperation to stop them reopening the rift.

Love the Doctor Who S3 tie-in.

I am not much of a Finale Person, while I get they exist and there is certainly Appeal, especially when it’s a great one, they often fall a bit flat with their Ambition and do more than they really can chew on. This Episode is kinda a good Example of that, and yet I still quite like it. It is messy. Yes, that CGI Monster hasn’t aged too well, and I don’t think it would have looked all that great even back then, and yet I do think it’s kinda a perfect Finale for Series 1 of Torchwood. This Series certainly needed to find its footing and can be at times quite messy with a great Idea but a poor Execution of said Idea.
Of course there is a bit too much happening, and ideally I would have taken a ‘Less is more’-Approach, but there are some genuinely great Bits to it in particular with our Characters such as Gwen for example. A bit of a mess, but one that I enjoyed watching quite a bit.