Themes in Torchwood - Redemption

Redemption

By contrast to the first season, the second season focused significantly on the theme of redemption, as characters grew beyond past mistakes to become better than they were. The most obvious example of this is Gwen's relationship with Rhys, as she now willingly admits to him what she does for a living and subsequently refuses to slip him an amnesia pill, thus increasing his involvement in her life. Owen also shows himself to be capable of rising above his cynicism in the first season, realising after his death and resurrection that life can be a wonderful thing after he discovers a message from another civilisation who detected Earth's old attempts to contact extraterrestrial life and sent a response. Ianto is redeemed within season one's story arc, his deception with Lisa slowly fading away as he proves himself dedicated and loyal to the rest of the team. Jack in particular finally learns how to forgive himself for a past sin- when he accidentally lost his younger brother Gray during an alien attack- when he is reunited with his brother. Driven mad by his long imprisonment, Gray buries Jack alive for over eighteen hundred years before Jack is rescued by Torchwood and put into cryopreservation in order to ensure that the timeline proceeds unchanged. Despite having spent hundreds of years buried alive, Jack's first actions upon awakening in the present and seeing Gray are to forgive Gray for what he has done to him. Even when Gray states that he will never forgive Jack for losing him, Jack, refusing to give up hope on his brother, simply chloroforms him rather than killing him, leaving him in cryopreservation in the hope of someday being able to help him.

Even characters outside the main cast demonstrate the ability to redeem themselves; the earliest example is Tommy Brockless, a WW1 soldier suffering from shell shock and destined to be executed for cowardice, who sacrifices his life in his present to willingly spend nearly a century in cryosleep to await the day when he will save the world in the future, overcoming his fear at the last minute, thanks to his love for Toshiko. Beth Halloran, a young woman whose fiance is apparently killed in an alien attack, is revealed to be a member of Cell 114, a group of alien sleeper agents who program themselves with the identities of the races they invade to learn their secrets, but Beth nevertheless overcomes her programming in order to help the team defeat her 'comrades' in the invasion, subsequently forcing the team to shoot her to prevent her possibly endangering them in the future.

However, the most prominent character to redeem himself is Jack's former colleague in the Time Agency, Captain John Hart, who originally appears as a merciless killer in "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang", throwing Jack off a building and forcing the team to help him by threatening to blow up Gwen. However, in his return in "Fragments" and "Exit Wounds", his new attack on the team is revealed to be because he is being blackmailed by Gray to set off bombs throughout Cardiff and capture Jack due to Gray having molecularly bonded a bomb to his skin. With the bomb having been removed, John risks his life to help the team rescue Jack and defeat Gray, subsequently deciding to remain on Earth in the present and learn what Jack finds so fascinating about this time period.

Children of Earth forces Jack to confront an old sin from his past, when he was involved in a trade effort that gave twelve orphaned children to a race known only as the '456', with the 456 having returned to Earth and now seeking larger numbers of children. Although Jack is able to save the world, he is forced to sacrifice his lover Ianto and his grandson Steven to do so, prompting him to leave Earth as he is unable to cope with his grief.

The Doctor Who episode "The Sound of Drums" revealed that the Torchwood institute itself has been 'redeemed' by Jack, with Jack having rebuilt the organisation in the Doctor's honour after the Battle of Canary Wharf and the Dalek/Cybermen war to be a more benevolent organisation that actively seeks to help humans and aliens in peril rather than regarding all aliens as enemies regardless of their motives for being on Earth.

In the spin-off novel "The Twilight Streets", the character of Bilis Manger also goes on to redeem himself, revealing that his intention in awakening the demon Abaddon was to provide Abaddon with the strength to defeat the beings known as 'The Dark', subsequently enlisting the aid of the Torchwood team to stop the Dark in Abaddon's absence. As with all spin-off media, the canonicity of these events is unclear.