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Torchwood review: Aliens Among Us episode 11: Escape Room

By James Aggas

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It’s a date night to remember for all the wrong reasons. Gwen, Rhys, and the Colchesters are trapped in a deadly escape room, in the penultimate episode of “Torchwood: Aliens Among Us.”

With Escape Room, once again, we have another episode where the primary focus is on the regular or recurring Torchwood characters. Gwen, Rhys, Mr. Colchester and his husband Colin all go on a double date night. They check out an escape room, as suggested by new boss Yvonne Hartman. Of course, this being Torchwood, it’s not long before things start to escalate, and they have to escape a series of death traps.

While the traps all sounds pretty cool, it’s how the characters react to them that make it so interesting. It’s a great way of learning more about each of the four characters’ strengths and weaknesses. They’re put in a rather desperate situation, and need to rely on and trust each other to survive. Unfortunately, trust comes more easily to some than to others.

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Unusual pairings

The characters are also paired up in interesting ways, too. For most of the episode, Rhys is paired up with Mr. Colchester, while Gwen is paired up with Colin.

It works really well for both pairs. For Rhys and Colchester, they haven’t really spoken to each other much, apart from a very brief conversation in “The Empty Hand.” So they get a chance to hang out and learn more about each other. They also have to trust each other. But can they really do that?

Even more interesting are the few scenes when Gwen and Rhys have to work together. There are moments where things get really difficult for them, and not just because of the traps. It highlights the problems that they’ve been having all season. Of course, considering what we know about Gwen at this point, that’s not surprising.

We do get to learn a lot more about both Gwen and Colin with their pairing, too. It’s great to hear more from Colin, who’s only really been focused on in “A Kill to a View.” We get to learn how intelligent and educated he is, and how well he handles himself under pressure.

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He also clearly enjoys the challenges, no matter how dangerous they are. He doesn’t seem to get out much, which isn’t surprising. Since he’s a Muslim living in a city experiencing a high amount of hate crime, it’s not surprising that he hasn’t had much of an opportunity to leave his home.

A very different Gwen

We also get to have a very different focus on Gwen. As I’ve mentioned, she has been very different in “Aliens Among Us” compared to previous seasons. Other characters have noticed it before, but it’s highlighted more than ever in this episode. We get to hear exactly how nasty, bitter and selfish she can really be. She has an absolutely ruthless streak, one that’s becoming almost impossible for those closest to her to ignore.

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I should also point out how fantastic Terrence Hardiman is as Escape. He’s played quite a few great roles in various Big Finish productions, and his role in Escape Room is no exception. (I should also point out that, being British and exactly the right age to have enjoyed children’s TV series The Demon Headmaster, it’s always fantastic for this old fan to hear him play someone evil and sinister.)

Considering it’s the penultimate episode of the season, “Escape Room” feels surprisingly low-key in some ways. There is foreshadowing of what’s to come in “Herald of the Dawn,” but overall, the story is very small in scale. However, as a character piece that’s also rather fun, it’s a great episode to listen to.

Next time: “Herald of the Dawn”

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