Torchwood
Meat
Logo
 
 

Executive Producers
Julie Gardner
Russell T. Davies

Producer
Richard Stokes

Script Editor
Brian Minchin

Written by Catherine Tregenna
Directed by Colin Teague
Incidental Music by Ben Foster

John Barrowman (Captain Jack Harkness), Eve Myles (Gwen Cooper), Burn Gorman (Owen Harper), Naoko Mori (Toshiko Sato), Gareth David-Lloyd (Ianto Jones), Kai Owen (Rhys Williams), Colin Baxter (Policeman), Patti Clare (Ruth), Garry Lake (Vic), Gerard Carey (Greg), Matt Ryan (Dale).


Gwen's fiancé Rhys finally discovers what her special ops work really involves - and he wants in. As the newly bolstered Torchwood team investigate a mysterious alien meat supply, Gwen finds herself under pressure as never before. Rhys is in increasing danger. Has Jack asked too much of him? And can they save an alien being from ending up as someone's dinner?

Original Broadcast (UK)
Meat			 6th February, 2008			9h00pm - 9h50pm
Notes:
  • None.
 
  
 
 
Meat
(drn:49'30")

As Rhys drives to work, he turns up the radio and sings along to the advert playing the jingle for his company, Harwoods Haulage. His mobile rings, so he pulls over and takes the call from his secretary Ruth. He can’t wait to ask her if she heard the advert, but she has bad news for him - there’s been a road accident involving one of his lorries. It’s not far away, so he heads off to see if he can help. When he arrives, he finds the motorway has been closed off by the police and the lorry is on its side in the middle of the road next to a smashed car. Rhys tells the police he’s the manager and he refuses to be fobbed off when they won’t let him get any closer. He tells an officer that he knows the driver, but unfortunately it’s too late and he sees his dead colleague, Leighton Reynolds, being taken away in an ambulance. Rhys is devastated as Leighton’s wife has only just had a baby. He provides further details then prepares to arrange for the lorry to be moved, but the police officer tells him he can’t as they found something suspicious in the back. Rhys assures him it was just a supply of meat being taken to the abattoir, but the officer tells him Torchwood want to look at it first. To Rhys’s surprise, the Torchwood SUV arrives and the group disembark - including Gwen!

Jack leads the others into the back of the upturned lorry and they’re immediately overcome by the stench coming from the meat. Huge bloody chunks are strewn across the lorry and Jack spots straight away that they don’t contain any bones, just dense flesh unlike anything they‘ve ever seen before. Jack suggests they take a sample back to the Hub so Gwen tells the police they’re going to confiscate the contents of the lorry while they investigate. Not far away, Rhys is watching in amazement, unnoticed by Gwen or the others. Ianto identifies the company transporting the meat and Gwen realises this is Rhys’s firm. They return to their SUV and Rhys quickly gets in his car, intending to follow them, but the police prevent him from entering the cordoned off area and he watches in frustration as the SUV disappears the way it came.

In the medical area, Owen tells the others that the genetic makeup of the meat isn’t compatible with any known animal and whoever is responsible for farming the meat knows it’s dodgy because it carries a faked vets’ stamp showing it’s fit for human consumption. Jack asks Tosh to contact the haulage firm and find out where the meat was from and where it was heading. Gwen is worried that Rhys’s involvement makes this too close to home, but she’s determined to find out what’s going on and has no intention of standing down from the case. Tosh accesses the Harwoods Haulage website and the group all smile when they hear the jingle that Rhys wrote. Tosh wonders whether the firm might be involved, but Gwen insists the company just provides the transportation and would have no idea what the contents were. Ianto points out that the driver must have seen the lorry being loaded, but that doesn’t necessarily implicate Rhys and Gwen says he’s the most honest man she knows. Tosh suggests giving him a call and asks Gwen for his direct line.

At Rhys’s office, his secretary Ruth answers the call and tells Rhys it’s the police. He takes the call and explains that the firm they were contracted to is called Harris and Harris and they came to Harwoods about two months ago to arrange a weekly contract. He assures Tosh the company is licensed, but when she asks for their address, Rhys is furious to discover their files have no record of an address or a telephone number, only a pickup point at a service station about 15 miles from Cardiff. Tosh asks for details of the delivery point but Rhys can only tell her the meat was being taken to a nearby abattoir that processes the meat for general suppliers. Rhys asks Tosh why they’re asking so many questions, but she says she can’t release that information. When she hangs up, Rhys turns angrily on his secretary. She tells him Leighton made all the arrangements himself. Rhys realises that the evidence, although circumstantial, makes it look like he’s also involved in whatever’s going on…

In the Hub, Ianto checks the Cardiff CCTV system and tracks down footage of the lorry on the motorway as it came back from the pickup point. By working out how long the loading would have taken, he estimates that the location must be somewhere within a 10-mile radius. Owen calls the others back and confirms that his scans show the meat is definitely alien. Jack wonders where they could be getting it, but Tosh has realised that if the meat has been going into the processing plant it’ll have ended up in pies, burgers, pasties etc, and people will have been eating it for months. Owen assures them the DNA trace is stable, and although there are signs of animal sedative, there’s no evidence of disease or residues, so it’s probably good to eat. Ianto joins them to say their regular delivery of pizza has just arrived - and it’s a meat feast!

As the group carefully pick off the meat from their pizzas, Ianto tells them he’s narrowed the search down to three possible areas and only one of them has a warehouse that’s currently unoccupied. Jack tells them they have to shut the operation down, neutralise whoever is responsible and identify the origin of the alien meat. Gwen receives a text message from Rhys and tells the others she wants to pop home and check on him first. Jack assumes she’s going to find out how much he knows, but she tells him that’s not what she meant.

When Gwen gets home, Rhys is waiting impatiently for her. She casually asks how his day went and he tells her there was an accident at work and one of his drivers died. Gwen pretends she doesn’t know anything about it and tries to be sympathetic. Rhys reminds her that she met Leighton once - he was only 24 and he used to play five-a-side with Rhys. He tells her the police have taken the meat out of the lorry and he asks if she has any idea why they’d do that, but she claims not to know anything and says she doesn’t deal with traffic accidents. Rhys knows she’s lying, but he tells her all he does is hire out the lorries so he wasn’t able to help the police when they called. She assures him that even if there was something dodgy going on, he wasn’t to know. She tells him she has to go back to work already, but says it was worth coming home just to see him. She leaves, then Rhys waits a few seconds before following her out…

Rhys follows Gwen all the way to the Millennium Centre and watches from his car as she approaches the Tower. He’s amazed when Jack appears from nowhere and greets her. She confirms to Jack that Rhys has no idea what’s going on and then Jack politely invites her to accompany him to the slaughterhouse. As they leave, Rhys prepares to follow them again.

Rhys follows the SUV as it heads towards Merthyr where the meat processing plant is located inside what appears to be an abandoned warehouse. Jack contacts Ianto and Owen who are already in position outside the building. There seems to be no one around and they found a deserted side road where it’s possible to approach the warehouse without being noticed. They give directions and before long Jack and Gwen arrive at the location, totally unaware that Rhys is following close behind them. Ianto tells Jack there’s a main entrance at the front which is the only one that’s not padlocked. Rhys pulls to a stop and from his vantage point he can see Ianto and Owen move round the back of the building while Jack and Gwen remain outside in the SUV. Owen says they have no idea how many people they might be dealing with as there are no windows, but Tosh contacts them from the Hub and says she’s managed to track down some blueprints of the warehouse. Frustrated, Rhys decides to call Gwen’s mobile and he gets angry when she deliberately switches her phone off. Jack decides they should enter the building from two fronts and warns everyone to use stun guns as they don’t want any casualties. At the side of the building, Owen shoots out one of the padlocks so he and Ianto can enter.

Eventually Rhys decides to get out of his car and see for himself what’s happening. Unfortunately, he’s spotted by Jack and Gwen as he approaches the building, which makes him look even more guilty. By sheer coincidence, a car then arrives outside the warehouse and pulls up alongside Rhys. The two men inside the car challenge Rhys, but from Jack and Gwen’s position it looks as if the men are greeting him. One of the men uses a walkie-talkie to call for back-up, so with Jack now convinced Rhys is involved, he calls Owen and Ianto and tells them to stand down. Gwen is certain Rhys wouldn’t lie to her, but Jack reminds her that he said he didn’t know where the gang were based when he clearly did. Gwen wants to go to Rhys and ’rescue’ him, but Jack holds her back and tells her to wait.

The two men escort Rhys into the warehouse where they’re joined by a third man. Rhys assures them he doesn’t mean any harm, but they lead him deeper into the building. Behind a curtained-off area, a group of workers are preparing huge slabs of alien meat on a conveyor belt. A deep alien roar can be heard in the background, as if something is in terrible pain. As Rhys and the other men pass through, yet another member of the gang, a man named Vic, arrives and challenges the men for not waiting for the ketamine injection before starting work. The two men with Rhys are unsympathetic and tell Vic to go and work for the RSPCA if he cares so much. The men ask one of the workers to pick up a machete and join them in the office.

With the worker standing guard by the door, the two men order Rhys to reveal who sent him. Nervously, Rhys says he came of his own accord and says he came looking for the boss. He explains that he works for Harwood Haulage and claims that Leighton told him everything that was going on. The two men, who are revealed to be brothers called Greg and Dale, are furious because they’ve been paying Leighton to keep quiet, but then Rhys tells them he’s just died in a lorry crash. The men demand to know what happened to the meat he was carrying and whether anybody saw it, but Rhys claims he arranged for it to be incinerated. He casually suggests that he’s interested in picking up where Leighton left off, but the men are suspicious and can’t be sure that he won’t just report them. They ask him exactly what it was that Leighton told him, and Rhys makes vague comments about cleaning up old meat. The men tell him it’s a lot bigger than that and they decide to show him what’s really going on.

They take Rhys to the central area of the warehouse and as he gets closer, he’s hit by the terrible stench that fills the air. The room is dark and Rhys can’t see much, but he can hear a terrible roaring sound that echoes around him. Then slowly his eyes become adjusted and he’s shocked to see a gigantic alien creature, the size of a whale and with similar textured skin. It seems to have no discernible form, apart from a huge eye that opens momentarily, but the animal is so large it nearly fills the entire room and is strapped down by strong cables. Rhys asks what it is and the brothers admit they have no idea. All they know is that it just keeps growing, no matter how much flesh they cut from it. Rhys watches as Vic steps forward and injects the creature with an enormous metal syringe. On the floor is a pile of bloody flesh which has recently been cut from the side of the animal. Unable to hold back any longer, Rhys is physically sick. The men laugh and tell him he’ll get used to it.

Outside the warehouse, Jack and Gwen watch as Rhys returns to the front of the building and then shakes the hands of the men as if concluding a business deal. Gwen is shocked and doesn’t understand how she could have been so wrong about him. Rhys waves goodbye to the men, then drives away. Seconds later, Jack and Gwen leave too.

Later, Rhys is nervously pacing the floor of his front room, swigging beer and waiting for Gwen to return. Gwen bursts in and instantly demands to know what he was doing at the warehouse. He retaliates by accusing her of lying to him about the crash and treating him like an idiot. She asks him whether he’s being paid by the gang, but he refuses to answer her questions and insists that she answer first. He admits to having followed her and asks whether she’s been f**k**g the tall man in the coat. Gwen doesn’t reply and simply asks Rhys to trust her, but he says trust is a two-way street. He asks why she’s bothering to marry him if they can’t be honest with each other and wonders whether there’s anything in her life that’s based on the truth? He says their relationship is crumbling and eventually she agrees to tell him everything. She reveals that her job in Special Ops is a cover story and she’s been lying to protect him because he has a tendency to blunder in without thinking. She finally tells him that she catches aliens. Rhys is momentarily stunned, then he screams at her to piss off. She knew he wouldn’t take it seriously and this is why she couldn’t tell him the truth earlier. He thinks she’s talking nuts and must have been brainwashed, but she swears that every word is the truth. She asks him if he’s ever seen anything so mad, so extraordinary, that just for one second he thought there might be more out there? He asks her to prove it…

Later at the Hub, the group consider what’s happened. Ianto says it’s unprecedented for someone’s partner to find out about them, but Tosh thinks that’s just because they’re all sad and single. Owen disagrees and thinks he’s better off without all that kind of hassle so Tosh suggestively hints that he should try going out with someone who already knows what he does. Owen misses her point and reminds her that only they know what they do.

It’s late at night when Gwen returns to the Millennium Centre with Rhys. He tells her he saw he here earlier with a man who appeared out of nowhere and she starts to brief him about the invisible lift before deciding it‘s too complicated to explain. They both stand on the stone beneath the Tower and then they descend into the Torchwood Hub. After a moment or two of complete shock, Rhys begins to laugh in amazement, especially when the pterodactyl flies overhead. When they reach the bottom, they find the group waiting for them. Jack shakes Rhys’s hand and welcomes him to their headquarters and then Gwen introduces Rhys to the others. Then there’s a brief moment of embarrassed silence before Rhys asks if it’s true that they catch aliens for a living. Owen tells him about the Rift in space and time that runs through Cardiff and explains how it’s their job to monitor things that slip through from other timelines and planets. Jack asks Rhys to tell them more about the alien he saw in the warehouse and Rhys describes it as a huge, shapeless beast like a mound of flesh that fills the entire space. Tosh is surprised to learn that they’re dealing with one entity rather than several organisms. Owen has done some further tests on the meat sample and found it has high levels of chloride, which suggests the creature lives in the water, so he suggests it must have come through the Rift, landed in the sea and then beached itself. Ianto wonders how the gang got it to the warehouse and Rhys says it must have been smaller when they found it because he heard one of the gang say it was still growing. The group are shocked to learn that the creature is still alive as they’d assumed it was dead. Owen suggests the creature’s protein chains are regenerating in spite of the mutilations, so not only is it replenishing its own flesh, but it’s giving the gang an increasing supply of brand new meat. Tosh realises that if they can discover how it works, they could feed the entire world and Ianto suggests they could even release a hit single. Jack reminds everyone that the gang is cutting up the creature while it’s still alive and then he turns on Rhys and accuses him of getting in their way and preventing them from stopping it. Rhys protests and says he only acted because he thought his fiancé was in danger, but Jack corrects him and points out that Gwen is more than capable of looking after herself. He calls Rhys a caveman and says all he did was mess things up for them and now they have to think of another way to get back in. Rhys retaliates and accuses Jack of showing off. He tells Jack he got out by telling the gang he wanted to work for them as a delivery boy, so rather than thingy things up he’s actually given them a perfect excuse. The two men face each other angrily and Jack admits that he’s finding it all quite homo-erotic. Gwen intervenes urgently and insists that they don’t use Rhys as a means of getting in, but Jack thinks its time for a team meeting.

In the boardroom, Rhys pores over the warehouse blueprints and points out the location of the creature, the room where the sedatives are kept and where the packing is done. The group is impressed, especially when Rhys offers to smuggle them in inside his van. Gwen insists he shouldn’t be involved and the two of them start to argue, but Jack agrees with Rhys and says it’s their best way in. Owen thinks they should storm in with their guns in the air and arrest everyone, but Jack reminds him the gang aren’t professional criminals and if they go in with their guns blazing they’ll just kill the evidence and run. The last thing they need is a bloodbath! Jack suggests Rhys smuggle them in, then once he’s loaded up his van, he can leave. Both he and Tosh wonder whether Gwen will be too vulnerable because of her love for Rhys, but she insists he’s not going in there without her. Rhys wants Gwen to reconsider as they both work together well as a team, but Gwen reminds him this is for real and if he messes up, she says she’ll kill him herself. Tosh thinks the plan is to put the creature out of its misery, but Jack says they’re going to stabilise it and wait for the Rift to open again and send it back. In the meantime, it needs their protection and they have to find a way to stop it growing. He overrules the team’s concerns, but eventually everyone agrees anyway. Gwen is surprised to see Jack has a heart after all, but Rhys has noticed the looks they exchange and is becoming jealous.

Owen has used the data from the genetic makeup of the creature to create a computer simulation of what it looks like. Tosh thinks Owen is really a big softie and she’s still upset that he doesn’t seem to notice her interest in him. He complains about having to finish a report, so she brings him some sandwiches and offers to sit with him, saying she’s not tired - but Owen again misreads her comments and thinks she’s offering to finish the report for him instead. They watch Gwen and Rhys talking and Tosh wonders whether it’s possible to do this job and carry on with a normal relationship. Tosh says they’re always slaving away at work and she invites Owen to join her in a game of pool sometime. Owen readily agrees and then says he’ll check with the others so they can all have a tournament together.

Rhys tells Gwen that he suspected she really worked for an anti-terrorism division. That was bad enough, but now he knows what danger she’s really in. Gwen understands what he means and admits that she’s worried sick about him now and she tries again to persuade him not to go on this mission. Rhys smiles and says he’s not going to leave her behind with all these sexy young men. She leans over and kisses him, but she still keeps one eye on Jack who is watching them discreetly from another part of the Hub.

Later, Jack drives Rhys to the Harwoods Haulage office. He checks that Rhys is still willing to help them and warns him that there’ll be no turning back. Rhys tells his secretary that he’s just popped back to pick up a lorry and she offers him a cup of tea and a pastry. Jack works his charm on her and she tells him there are some job vacancies he can apply for. While he’s busy flirting with her, the phone rings and Rhys tells Jack it’s the gang booking him for this first delivery.

As Rhys drives Jack to the warehouse to pick up his first supply, he asks why Torchwood chose Gwen. When Jack explains that it was actually Gwen who stumbled upon them, Rhys points out that the same thing happened to him yet they haven’t invited him to become one of the team. Jack explains that they needed someone with police skills, but Rhys is angry that they didn’t give any consideration to the people who love her. Jack reveals that on her first day with them, Gwen told him off for being too clinical and Rhys agrees that she can be very stubborn. Rhys considers himself to be very lucky to have Gwen. He admits that he wishes Jack was a bit uglier and wonders if there’s any chance he might be gay…

Rhys reverses his lorry into the alley where they’ve arranged to pick up the other Torchwood members. Gwen is waiting for him with a pastry, then she reminds him to get away from the warehouse as soon as he can. She tells him she loves him, then she joins the others in the back of the lorry. Nervously, Rhys starts the engine and then heads off while Jack hands out weapons to the group in the back and Owen explains how he intends to wean the creature off the ketamine. When the lorry arrives at the warehouse, a scruffy gang member checks Rhys’s authorisation document and allows him through. He parks near the delivery entrance and sends another member of the gang to get the boss on the pretext of needing his signature then sends a third member to get him a cup of tea. When the coast is clear, Rhys opens up the back of the lorry - and is surprised to find that it’s already empty! Somehow his new friends were able to get out without anyone’s knowledge. Greg and Dale arrive and while they’re checking Rhys’s documentation, they brief him on the next stage of delivering the meat to the abattoir. Rhys is paid and the workers begin loading the meat into the back of his lorry.

Jack, Gwen and Tosh get to the main area but despite being prepared for what they’ll find there, they’re still amazed by the enormous size of the creature. They sneak closer and see a huge man-sized opening has been literally carved into the creature‘s side and a gang member is standing inside the hole, hacking away at the meat. With each strike of his machete, the creature howls out in agony. As the worker moves past them wheeling a barrow filled with enormous chunks of meat, Jack steps out behind him and knocks him unconscious with a single blast of his stun gun. As Jack speaks to the creature and sympathises with it, a huge eye opens to look at him. Tosh thinks the creature heard Jack’s words and must be sentient. The group then examine the open wounds and realise the true extent of the damage that‘s been done. Jack is horrified and is almost overcome with grief.

Meanwhile, Ianto and Owen arrive through the side entrance and explore the area of the warehouse where the ketamine is prepared. Owen is interrupted by the arrival of another workman, so he grabs the man and throws him against the wall before stunning him with his gun. He then removes a loaded weapon from the worker’s pocket and warns the others that the gang is armed. Gwen receives the message and is worried about Rhys’s safety, but Jack orders her to stay with them.

Vic, the gang member who was seen earlier administering the ketamine, arrives outside the warehouse and the two brothers rebuke him for being late as the last injection was due ten minutes ago. Vic explains that he needed to find some more ketamine as he’s had to increase the dose recently. Greg and Dale don’t care that the creature is in agony as they regard it as nothing more than just a meat supply. They notice the number of bags in the back of Rhys’s lorry is three short of what it should be, so they send some workers back into the warehouse to get some more. Rhys understandably becomes nervous and looks at his watch. He climbs back into the driver’s cab of his lorry and tells the gang leaders that he needs to get going because he has other jobs backing up.

Owen starts searching through the chemicals in the storage area. He collects together a number of different samples and begins making a cocktail. Elsewhere, Ianto is exploring the corridors looking for the main office when a side door opens and a worker emerges, catching him red handed. Ianto reaches into his pocket to get some identification and then stuns the worker. As he drags the unconscious man away, he’s spotted by another worker who then calls the gang leader on his walkie-talkie and tells him they have people in the building. Dale instantly turns on Rhys and elbows him in the face, knocking him out. Gwen contacts Ianto and asks whether Rhys got away in time. Ianto offers to go and look.

In the next few moments there is pandemonium in the warehouse with various members of the Torchwood groups going about their assigned tasks and the gang members making their way through the corridors in search of the intruders, dragging a bloodied Rhys behind them. Eventually the gang bumps into Ianto and he is immediately taken captive. They demand to know how many more of them there are but Ianto tells him it’s just the two of them. Dale realises he’s lying as two people couldn’t hope to take out the whole gang. He disarms Ianto then orders his team to tie him and Rhys up, then begin a thorough search of the area. Owen witnesses the whole scene from the chemical area and he contacts the others to warn them.

Gwen panics and wants to help Rhys, but Jack and Tosh stop her. They try to leave the building but discover all the doors have been locked and they’re trapped inside. They return to the main area where the creature is being held but they have to take cover quickly when the gang arrives through another entrance with Ianto and Rhys. Dale suspects they belong to a rival gang who were hoping to take over their business. He calls out to the rest of the intruders to show themselves or else he’ll shoot Rhys. Unable to hold back any longer, Gwen emerges from hiding and puts her hands up. The gang now knows Ianto was lying about how many of them there are and because Ianto was armed, they assume Gwen must be too and they order her to throw her gun down. She agrees and assures them she’s the last member of the group, but then Dale’s brother spots two more intruders from his vantage point on an upper level. Holding a gun at Ianto’s head, Dale forces both Jack and Tosh to surrender too.

Disarmed and with his friends held hostage before him, Jack slowly approaches Dale. He tells the gang leader that the creature they’re dealing with is an alien from another planet who came through a Rift in time and space. The gang are sceptical, but Tosh confirms that nothing like this has ever originated on Earth before. Vic is horrified at the thought of what they’ve done and although Dale tries to convince him the creature is nothing more than a lump of meat, Jack assures him he’s been carving up a sentient lifeform. Dale points out that he’s making a lot of money from his business and for the first time in his life he’s actually got something for himself, but Gwen tells him he can still walk away from this if he’s prepared to stop now. Dale refuses to back down and then draws his gun on her. Rhys leaps forward and steps between them, taking the bullet himself. As he collapses to the floor, Ianto frees himself from his bonds and grabs hold of Dale’s arm. Bullets fire out across the room and in the commotion, the huge alien creature struggles to release itself. One by one, the cables tying it to the floor break free and the creature rolls around, sending boxes and crates flying. Jack manages to pull Tosh aside just as a heavy cable snaps across the room and smashes into the area where she was standing. Ianto struggles with Dale, but the gang leader gets the upper hand and opens fire on him - but fortunately his gun jams so instead he flees for his life. Jack orders Ianto to go after him, then he calls Owen and tells him Rhys has been shot and the creature is breaking loose. They can’t escape the room for fear of being crushed by the monster so they need him to bring the sedative now.

Owen has nearly finished his cocktail when Vic arrives. Owen throws him up against the wall, but Vic insists that none of this was his fault and he never really wanted to be part of the gang. He tells Owen the sedative will never work now and if the creature is breaking loose there’s no way to stop it. Ianto joins them and stuns Vic into unconsciousness. He confirms that the alien is out of control, so Owen decides to change his plan.

In the main office, Greg and Dale are arguing over what to do next. Dale is hurriedly packing their bags with the money they’ve earned so far, but as Greg tries to carry the first bag out, the door smashes open and he’s knocked aside. Ianto strides confidently in and immediately stuns Greg. Dale reaches for another gun on a nearby table, but Ianto kicks it out of his hand. He stares at Dale for a second, then places the stun gun between his eyes and fires.

Armed with the huge metal syringe and a supply of chemicals, Owen races into the main warehouse area but is stopped in his tracks by the sight of the whale-like creature thrashing around in agony. He quickly fills the syringe with chemicals and then, choosing his moment carefully, he steps forward and injects the entire contents into the body of the creature. The monster cries out in pain and Jack tells Owen the effects of the drugs seem to be making its pain worse. Owen prepares a second syringe full of chemicals and repeats the procedure. Jack is confused and asks Owen what he’s doing, but his friend simply tells him it’s a mercy killing. Eventually the drugs start to take effect and the creature slows down. The animal begins to howl and Jack realises it’s dying. He approaches it in tears and tries to comfort it in its final moments. Owen takes the opportunity to join Gwen and begins treating Rhys’s injury. As soon as he’s done what he can, Owen joins Jack at the creature’s side. He touches it gently and says he’s sorry. Tosh can feel Owen’s pain and she holds him, offering what little support she can. It’s not long before the creature finally closes its eyes and dies.

Later in the Hub’s medical area Owen is treating Rhys’s injury while the others watch in concern. Rhys wakes up and Tosh calls him the hero of the hour. He asks Gwen if she’s alright and she tells him she is now that she knows he’ll recover. They kiss and Rhys cries out in pain. Ianto advises Rhys to let Gwen take the bullet next time, but Rhys says he never will. Jack tells him they’ve given amnesia pills to the gang members so they’ll remember who they are, but not what they’ve been doing over the past few months. Rhys is disappointed that they’ll get away with it, but Jack says the charges would never stand up in a court of law. Unfortunately the creature died and has now been incinerated. Jack asks to have a private word with Gwen. In his office, Jack passes Gwen one of the amnesia pills and tells her Rhys has to forget too. She asks if she can be allowed to give him the pill when they get home and Jack agrees.

Gwen and Rhys leave the Hub through the tourist information entrance. It’s a beautiful sunny day and they pause by the Bay to draw in air from the sea. Rhys doesn’t want to go home just yet and although Gwen reminds him he’s just been shot and needs to recover, he says he’d rather go for an ice cream. They sit together and watch the world going past. Nobody else knows what they’ve just been through or what else is out there. He says he’ll no longer be able to look up into the sky without thinking of all the other worlds and planets spinning around. He’s overjoyed to have been part of it all and wants to know more about every alien that Gwen’s ever seen. He even wants to keep a scrapbook, although he promises never to show it to anyone else. Jack might be handsome and charismatic and he might save the world, but Rhys knows that it’s him that Gwen comes home to every night. Gwen looks at him and says she always will. Rhys takes a call on his phone from his friend and tells him he hasn’t been up to much recently. Just the same old stuff…

Gwen storms back into the Hub and tells everyone she refuses to drug Rhys. Tosh tells her she has to and Owen agrees that they can’t allow him to remember. Jack says he understands how she feels, but Gwen says she doesn’t care about the rules and none of them have any partners in the outside world like she does. She tells them her life isn’t cold and lonely like theirs and she feels she’s lied to Rhys for long enough. What he did today was braver than anything they’ve done because they all signed up for it. He did it out of his love for Gwen and she won’t take that away from him. If that means she has to quit and let them ret-con her too, then so be it. Jack asks her if she really thinks she could go back to her old life without Torchwood and when she points out that she wouldn’t know any different, he says that he would. Jack stares at Gwen for what seems like ages, then he tells her to give Rhys his love and says he’ll see her tomorrow. Gwen leaves and Jack returns to his office without saying another word to the others. Once there, he switches on the CCTV camera at the top of the Tower and watches as Gwen rejoins Rhys and they kiss. Jack turns away with a glint of a tear in his eye and he breathes deeply…

Source: Lee Rogers
 
 
[Back to Torchwood Page]