Torchwood is a science fiction drama television program, created by Russell T Davies and starring John Barrowman and Eve Myles. It deals with the machinations and activities of the Cardiff branch of the fictional Torchwood Institute, who deal with supernatural occurrences. An initial 13-part series was commissioned by the BBC as a spin-off from the long-running science fiction program Doctor Who with which it is closely interlinked.
From the Torchwood Wikipedia entry.
After last week’s great show, this show is a bit of a disappointment. I was expecting more, but I got the same kind of rehashed stuff. This show kind of reminds me of a filler episode, always found between important storylines. There is nothing much to say about it, except that a few people die. Rift activity spikes as the team investigates the bizarre bodies of victims having lost their last breath.
Owen is still dead and adapting to his new found deadness. In this episode, the team deals with a strange band of night travelers from the past, who extract breaths from the living. Jack has a special knowledge of these traveling fairs, he used to be in one.
Warning: Spoilers ahead.
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In the twenties, there is a scary night time traveling fair that steals kids. In the present, the same host appears on an old film while a young man cuts it together. His name is Jonathan. Strange things happen. Jack hears something strange at Torchwood.
Ianto, Owen and Gwen check out a movie at the Electro. Jonathan is the one who saw the fair host in the old movie. He brings the movie to the Electro and tries to tell his dad that something funny was going on, but his dad won’t listen. Jonathan is late.
The movie starts and it’s not the right one. It’s got the people from the traveling fair in it. Ianto sees Jack in the movie. The movie stops. Ianto sees strange shadows on the walls. Something happens to the computers at Torchwood. Jack arrives. Ianto describes what he saw. He tells Jack that he saw him in the film.
The people from the fair are out. A girl is stuck in the rain. She wants a lift from her parents. The host comes up and offers her a ticket. This is what he did to the girl before. He touches her and takes some silvery from her mouth. Must have been her soul or something like that.
Toshiko phones Jack to say that there was some rift activity at the Electro. The system is still acting strange. She heard the fairgrounds sounds. She directs them to the locus of the rift activity.
They find the girl. She’s got a heartbeat, but isn’t breathing. The fair host goes after another woman. The girl with him wants to drink this woman’s tears.
Owen says that it’s like the liquid was drained out of her. They bring in the other case. They have stolen the life force, or soul. I like the word soul better, it describes the situation aptly. However, people should be able to live without souls.
They watch the movie at Torchwood. Jack is in the movie. Jack calls them the night travelers.
Jack says that he didn’t work with them. They only performed in the dead of night. It was a tale from that time, it’s a ghost story. They came out of the rain. Ianto sees something in the film. He thinks that something is missing. Jack says that this happened 80 years ago. Ianto says that the film isn’t the same one as the one that they saw at the cinema. He shows them the missing woman. The man with the top hat is missing as well. The kid let the people from the film loose.
Jack tells Ianto that he infiltrated a traveling show. He was billed as the man who couldn’t die.
The scene shifts to the traveling show. Joshua Joy is the host and says that the woman Pearl is the only living mermaid and that she can steal your breath away.
Toshiko is registering the sea in the city. The Electro is the only theatre of that time left. Jack surmises that it’s part of their revenge. Pearl and Joshua are together. Joshua hears the sounds of the people he captured in his flask. It has something to do with the breaths that they captured. Pearl wants the others back out as well. Joshua says that they need the rest of that film.
A family of four was taken by Pearl and Joshua. The nurse talks to Jack and Ianto about a witness. The woman is in a psychiatric hospital. Her name is Christina. She talks about the people who came out of the rain. She was about five at the time. Right now, she’s an old lady, about 70 or 80 years old. She recounts how Joshua said that he was the ghost maker. He was going to steal her breath. She turned and ran away. People went missing from the village that night, her parents and others.
Pearl is busy drinking water. She looks in at their ghosts.
Jonathan finds his place open. Pearl and Joshua are looking for the film. All of his films have been unspooled. He finds Pearl in the bathtub. Joshua says that he has the film. Jonathan phones Jack.
Jonathan’s parents find Pearl waiting for them in their theatre. Ianto thinks that they are bringing more of them through. Jack thinks that they can be trapped in film again. Then they would blank the film out and they would be rid of them.
Something is happening at the Electro. They all go there. Jonathan’s parents have already had their breath stolen. The traveling show artists start coming through. Jack films them.
Ianto takes the flask from Joshua. Joshua catches up to him and takes his flask once again. Jack films him. Joshua throws the flash through the air. The flask is open. Their breaths are escaping. Ianto catches it and is able to save one person’s breath. They are able to save one little kid.
In the end, Jack is worried about old film spools that might still contain the night travelers somewhere. They could still be alive. Jack hears them again when a father and a son buy an old film from a garage sale.
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Relevant Wiki Link
memoirs on a rainy day 
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