N.B. there might (or might not) be spoilers in this article!

Combat is essentially Torchwood does Fight Club, with the return of the Weevils from the series opener thrown in.

It also marked the beginning of a series of five Doctor Who-related episodes in eight days. A Doctor Who Christmas special, The Sarah Jane Adventures pilot and the last two instalments of Torchwood‘s first series were to follow, taking us from Christmas Eve 2006 into 2007.

“You can always count on Owen to make you feel better.”

Gwen, Combat

Owen is still moping over the loss of Diane, so he’s the one having the existential crisis this week. He also ends the affair with Gwen (which frankly has been a bit non-existent of late); she then, shockingly, drugs Rhys with the Torchwood amnesia pill, confesses all to him, then begs for forgiveness.

Rhys passes out before Gwen gets it, so she takes consolatory pizza to the Torchwood hub — only to find no-one is there.
I tempted to say it’s not entirely clear whether she’s upset about this, the ructions with Rhys, or the pineapple on the pizza, but something makes her blub. (My money’s on the pizza.)

When she sees the text message clue on dead Dan’s phone, I do like how she has to scramble around to find an earpiece. She doesn’t just happen to have one in her ear, so can’t immediately contact Jack — it’s a small thing, but still a nice touch.

I was also impressed earlier in the episode by the speed with which Tosh was able to knock up a website (including introductory video – the woman knew her search engine marketing!) — for Owen’s fictional jellied eel business.

It gets a lot less interesting once you realise it’s a Fight Club knock-off (something I’d only vaguely remembered myself), but Combat continues a run of solid, if unspectacular, episodes. Given how up-and-down the series started, such consistency isn’t necessarily a bad thing.