*Episode premise spoilers.*
Although it’s definitely tropey, this is an entertaining episode. At times, it flirts with a Torchwood-sitcom vibe, while maintaining the show’s penchant for whacked alien shit. For a Gwen-centric episode, it’s pretty good.
Out chasing an alien on the night before her wedding, Gwen gets bitten by the creature she’s pursuing. There’s no serious harm done and she thinks little of it—until she wakes up the next morning heavily pregnant. With an alien baby incubating inside her and a host of friends and family about to descend, Gwen makes the utterly Gwen choice to not postpone the wedding. Let the hijinks and violence ensue!
“Insta-pregnancy with an alien/demon baby” is a well-worn trope, and it’s plopped into the middle of a bunch of other wedding tropes swirled into the episode. We’ve got an obnoxious groomsman hitting on Tosh, a nightmare soon-to-be mother-in-law, a bride packing heat, and Ianto finding a wedding dress to fit a ready-to-pop pregnant woman on short notice. Oh, and did I mention that the mama alien (who is of course lurking around the wedding, to keep an eye on baby) is a shapeshifter, meaning some of the cast play the disguised Nostrovite at different points? There’s a lot going on.
It’s not a favorite of mine, but it is entertaining. There’s some good laughs and some nice action, and we get some strong moments from Rhys as he tries to hold everything together in this intense situation. Most everyone gets a chance to shine at some point or another, and it’s just fun to see the Torchwood crew doing double duty at Gwen’s wedding, pretending they’re just there for the ceremony but continually running interference and searching for a murderous Nostrovite.
(I will say, though: how does Gwen not realize in the morning that she’s enormously pregnant until she looks down and sees her stomach? That would be so much extra weight in a flash—do you expect me to believe she wouldn’t feel that as she’s sitting up in bed? Tell me a man wrote this episode without telling me a man wrote this episode.)
Anyway, after the heavier Owen arc in the middle of series 2, “Something Borrowed” is a madcap palate cleanser before we get into the drama of the final episodes. This can make it feel flimsy, and I remember I wasn’t really that impressed the first time I saw it. But on reflection, I’d say it does what it sets out to do, so I can hardly fault it for that. Plus, the ending coda is a delight.
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