Articles Episode Breakdown - Immortal Sins by DJ Forrest

‘People like you, kill me.’

Written by Jane Espenson

Broadcast 19^th August, 2011.

What would you do if an unknown group of people could hack into Torchwood software Eye-5 lenses and tell you that they had your family hostage, and all they wanted in return for their safety was your boss, Captain Jack Harkness?

After last month’s episode, when Gwen learnt that in order to save her family, she has to bring her now mortal boss Jack Harkness to a remote location, we begin a road trip, and a journey down memory lane for Jack Harkness. Somewhere in that memory of his, his past is about to come back to him, and in a way, he never expected.

It’s 1927, on Ellis Island, New York City, and people are lined up in rows, hoping to start their new life in America. The USIS inspector calls out for a Jack Harkness, he calls again above the voices of many. From the back of the room, a call answers him, an arm raises and a young Italian man comes forward, with a bloodshot eye. He looks a little nervous but blows that away with a smile.

   ‘That’s me.’ He confidently hands over his Visa. The Inspector takes it and stamps it before handing it back.

   ‘Welcome to America, Mr Harkness.’

Jack Harkness takes his visa, thanking the man in Italian before quickly correcting himself. Just then the real Jack Harkness shouts from the back of the room.

   ‘Stop that man!’

The thief with the visa makes a run for it, but Jack is too quick for him and tackles him to the ground, pinning him by his arms. Their eyes meet. For a second nobody moves, then as Jack and the thief are pulled apart, separated by guards, the real Jack Harkness identifies himself, ratting out the young man.

   ‘You’ll find everything’s in order. The British consulate arranged for my travel through the Embassy in Rome. That visa belongs to me.’

In a bid to make amends for not checking the original visa, the inspector is humbly apologetic and takes back the visa from the thief. He instructs his guards to then take him to the cells, where he’ll be sent back home. Jack watches him go, and smiles lightly. 

  

A little later in the cells, Jack ambles in and leans against the opposite wall to the cell doors. The young Italian spies him there.

   ‘You’re still here. Thought you’d be in the city by now.’

   ‘Time to spare. Waiting for the next boat to Manhattan.’

The young man quips that he too is waiting on a boat, only his is taking him back home, to Italy. Jack replies a little gruffly that that is what they do with thieves.

   ‘An interesting fact is, they do it also with people who forge visas.’ Suddenly the man has Jack’s attention. He looks directly at the caged man.

   ‘Good eye. Why didn’t you tell them?’ 

   ‘I wasn’t sure, until that moment when you said, why didn’t you tell them?’

Jack grins. Caught!

   ‘I’m on a kind of unofficial official visit. One part of the government pretending to be another part.’

   ‘You work for a government?’

Jack scoffs. ‘Look at me. Do I look like a bureaucrat?’

As the two begin to talk, Jack learns that the young Italian is called Angelo Colasanto, and that he had left his small village on the Almafi Coast, to see the tall skyscrapers in New York. Jack, using his VM, changes his own visa documents so that he can have Angelo released, finding a new companion and someone to spend time with during his stay in Manhattan.

In the LAX bathrooms, Gwen having called her family to no avail, is informed to keep the lenses in as whoever it is who have her family, is watching.

Esther watches the Rex’s recorded film on her laptop screen as Rex, who is still reeling from the death of his girlfriend, Vera hit him hard, given how she died and he tries to drown his sorrows in a bottle of whisky. He doesn’t want consoling, no matter how much Esther tries to convince him that, his actions did some good. It might have alerted the public to what the Modules are all about, but it won’t stop the ovens completely.

Gwen arrives, but she doesn’t look set to stay long. Picking up a device on the shelf behind Esther, she quickly tucks it into the back of her jeans. She enquires after Jack, and when Esther tells her he’s out back, she calls out for him. When Jack finally arrives, she can’t get him outside quick enough. She has something to show him in the car.

   ‘All right, stop your nagging. Told you she missed me.’ He jokes, grabbing his coat on the way out.

   ‘Bad day, Gwen?’ Esther says, watching the pair leave.

Jack, unaware of Gwen’s plans, looks into the back seat for whatever it is Gwen has for him. Suddenly from behind, she tasers him, knocking him out long enough to have him trussed up like a chicken, hands tied up behind his back, feet tied together. The lenses message her. She replies as she sets off on her new journey.

Jack and Angelo enter a little room above a butcher’s shop in Little Italy, New York. Mrs Giardono explains in Italian, the layout of the room. When she looks over at the bed, and back at the two men, Angelo explains to her that he will sleep on the floor. Explaining in English to Jack what the problem is and the solution. Jack nods, speaks slowly and clearly, as if the woman is not only unsure of English but also deaf (think we all do that), that Angelo will sleep on the floor. Happily, the woman slips into the English she knows, and tells the two men that they are welcome in the shop any time. She leaves them alone to unpack.

Awkward for a few moments, they survey the room.

   ‘It’s a good room.’ Angelo says. ‘And it’s cheap.’

Jack begins to unpack.

   ‘You should save your money, Angelo Colasanto. Next couple of years, earn as much as you can. Save it all up, because you're gonna need it. Bad times ahead.’

   ‘Why, what's going to happen?’ Angelo asks, staring out of the window.

   ‘Oh, so many things. Don't worry. It gets better. Then it gets worse again.’

   ‘You talk funny.’ Angelo laughs. Jack walks over to him at the window.

   ‘I'm a very funny man.’ Jack takes Angelo’s hand and notes the red marks on the knuckles. ‘Scars. You been in a lot of fights?’

   ‘Sometimes you have to defend yourself, you know? People say things.’ Changing the subject, he notes the young woman on the fire escape across from them, lighting a cigarette. ‘Hey, she was right. Not much of a view, huh?’

    ‘Ha. A person could argue.’

    ‘You like that, don't you?’

    ‘I like a lot of things.’

    ‘She's beautiful.’

    ‘You like her too?’

    ‘Of course I do.’

    ‘What would you like to do to her?’ Jack asks.

    ‘You tell me.’

Jack thrusts his hands into his trouser pockets and shoulders up to Angelo.

   ‘I'd strip off her clothes. Maybe a little too quickly. Something might tear.’

   ‘Girls don't like that.’ Angelo blushes.

   ‘She's not most girls. She's strong. She'd rip open my shirt.’

   ‘And what then?’

   ‘I'd move in close, so I can smell her and she can smell me.’ Jack whispers, close to Angelo’s ear.

    ‘Then what?’

    ‘Kiss her.’

    ‘Yeah?’

Angelo turns to face Jack.

   ‘I'm kissing her.’

   ‘Yeah?’

   ‘Kissing so deep, like there's not enough air in the room. You know what that's like? When it starts being all teeth, and wet, and hot. And you're just breathing them in.’

Jack and Angelo kiss passionately. They’re naked, on the bed, enjoying the moment.

Sometime later, Angelo looks out of the window, wearing only his boxers and declares that he likes New York. Jack laughs, telling him he’s not seen much of it yet. Angelo tells him as he turns back to look at Jack, that what he’s seen so far is good.

   ‘What are you looking for? I mean, in America.’

   ‘Speed. Change. New things. People moving so fast they are not looking at me, so I can move fast on my own, faster than anyone.’

   ‘Spoken like a true American.’

Jack encourages Angelo back to bed. The young Italian is surprised that Jack doesn’t want him to go, and settles awkwardly back in the bed.

   ‘Turn out the lamp. You've never done this?’ Jack realises.  

   ‘No. The other part, yes. This part, no.’

   ‘What happened to your eye?’ Jack notices, and is concerned.  

   ‘I was born with it.’

Jack asks about his first. Angelo confides it was with a boy from his village. In secret, in the woods. Angelo is offended when Jack asks of the schoolmaster as a conquest.

   ‘He was my teacher. He was my friend.’ Angelo sits up.

   ‘Okay. I was just joking.’ Jack laughs.

   ‘But why? What's so funny? I don't understand. We just did something special. Why do you make it cheap?’

   ‘I suppose I do sometimes. I'm sorry. Really. I'm sorry, okay?’ Jack replies, kissing Angelo’s back softly. Angelo settles down. He asks how Jack knew he was gay. Experience, Jack tells him. Jack also tells him that not everyone would know, not if he didn’t want them to know.

Embarrassed about his own feelings, and not wishing to draw attention to them, he instructs Jack to keep his hands down when they’re out. Jack laughs, not really caring what people know.

Angelo asks Jack where he’s from.

   ‘A magical island called Torchwood.’ Jack replies as Angelo lies against him.

   ‘What does that mean? You keep saying things that don’t make sense.’

   ‘You’ll learn to love it. It makes me more interesting.’

As they kiss, fireworks explode in the skies above them. Suddenly spooked, Angelo leaps off the bed, thinking that they’re bombs.

   ‘Welcome to America, Angelo. Happy Fourth of July.’

  On the road trip, Gwen changes channel on the radio from music to a news report.

   ‘And allegations continue to surface about procedures at the new medical facilities. But Oswald Danes has released a statement in which he says that a global emergency calls for emergency measures, and he advocated a swift return to the category policy.'

In the back of the car, Jack wakes up. Disorientated for a second, he tries to move, something’s wrong.

   ‘I’m tied down. Why am I tied down?’ He struggles in his bonds.

   ‘They’re in my eyes.’ Gwen calls from the front. Jack doesn’t understand. ‘They're in my eyes. The contacts, they're in my eyes. Somebody's taken Anwen, Rhys, my mother, the whole bloody family. And they've said if I bring you, they'll let them go unharmed.’ Jack struggles again. ‘Don't try moving. You'll never get out of those knots.’

Which just goes to prove. If Gwen had secured Rex to the radiator in the house in Wales, he would probably still be there, and perhaps none of the shenanigans would have happened thus far!!!

   ‘My hands are asleep. And my feet. You tied my feet?’ Jack is shocked.

   ‘Of course I did, stupid. Otherwise you’d get out of the car, knock me out and turn the car around.’

   ‘Are you sure they have your family?’

   ‘I phoned a hundred times.’ Gwen tells him. ‘There’s no reply. They’ve got them.’

Jack insists he wants to talk to the lenses. Gwen looks in the rear view mirror at Jack, hoping he won’t cock anything up.

   Jack puts his case across to the rear-view mirror and hopes they’ll accept his alternative. He pleads with them to let Gwen’s family go. He’s buying for time. He has absolutely no intention of going anywhere to meet anyone alone and they know it. They don’t respond.

Gwen is angry. Not only does he not remember her mother’s name, after all this time, but that every time Jack comes back, trouble follows. Aware that someone wants Jack, it’s still unclear who they are and why they want him dead.

   ‘Well, you've done something, haven't you? Way back when in that long bloody life of yours. God, you've lived so long you can't remember half of it. Now you think. Think! What the hell have you done?’

In the Blessed Saint’s Cathedral in New York City, still in 1927, Jack and Angelo sit along a pew, waiting for the padre to enter his box. They watch a wedding taking place at the altar. Jack loves a good wedding, but Angelo is a little more sceptical.

   ‘Look at them. What are their chances?’

   ‘That’s what makes it so brave and wonderful, making a promise and moving forward. It doesn’t matter what happens in the future. Right now, it’s real and it happens, and it’s true. You’re Catholic, right? Do you want to kneel down like that?’ Jack asks, watching those in front praying.

   ‘He doesn’t hear me.’

   ‘He doesn’t hear you? Why?’

    ‘You know why.’ Angelo replies, sullenly. Jack spots the padre, and instructs Angelo to wait for him.

  

In the Confessional box, Jack begs forgiveness for a long list of sins, before making it clear that he’s here to see Father Timothy. The hatch slides open and the young padre addresses Jack.

   ‘The Volstead Act makes an exception for sacramental wines. And the brothers upstate produce more than we can use.’ The Padre tells Jack, as he loads the hessian sack with bottles.

   ‘The extra income feeds a lot of widows and orphans, I’m sure.’ Jack replies. The padre agrees, stating he’s doing it all for charity. Angelo however finds the wine a little rough.

   ‘It’s the blood of Christ, Angelo. I’m sure it’s good enough.’

   ‘This is just a sample. If you make enough profit, we’ll start delivering crates.’ The padre replies.

Back in the apartment, Jack and Angelo are jumped by a group of men who have been waiting on their return. As Angelo struggles, Jack calmly assures him, all is OK and to let them take them. Angelo is not so sure.

In the car, present day, Gwen and Jack argue over the directions. Changing the subject slightly, Jack asks if Gwen is carrying a weapon.

   ‘It's gone. They made me leave it behind. Just give it up, Jack, with all this planning, okay? Because if there was a way out of this, I can guarantee you I would have thought of it.’

Jack makes a final stab at freedom and it almost works.

   ‘Gwen, I shouldn’t. There are reasons I shouldn’t even say this. Secrets. But, we could find Anwen. My wrist strap, it could find her. We could save her.’ For a moment, Gwen is intrigued. ‘It’s coded to my DNA. And it resonates to anything close to my DNA.’

   ‘If you are using my daughter as leverage, I swear to God I will kill you myself.’

   ‘Listen to me, if we recode it to your DNA, then Anwen is a close match. It would respond to her, like a tracker. We could save her together. We could rescue her.’

   ‘You could do that? You could do that recode thing?’

   ‘Yes. A drop of your blood. A single cell would do, but a drop would be easier.’ He lures her in.

   ‘Let’s do it.’ Gwen replies.

   ‘Pull over.’ Jack says. Gwen weighs it up. She would have to untie him. ‘One hand for just a second, alright, Gwen? I’d be saving Anwen.’ Gwen thinks about it a moment or two longer, and the penny drops.

   ‘You bastard. Nice try.’

Her Eye-5 reacts. He always lies

   ‘Oh, mmm, hmm. Whoever this is, they know you.’ Gwen tells him.    

Sal Maranzano, a local gangster, with fingers in many pies, doesn’t like it when two people undercut his prices and make money for themselves. Jack can handle Maranzano, knowing that if he’d wanted them dead, they would be by now. Angelo, scared for them both, tries to keep them both alive by apologising on Jack’s behalf. He falls quiet when it seems that Maranzano had heard a rumour that the two men were a pair of finocchi! He orders them killed but Jack talks him out of it. The gangster needs people like Jack and Angelo. People off the grid. People who could never be traced. Jack offers their services, knowing full well that Maranzano has something he wants.

   ‘There’s a box in a warehouse that needs to find its way to another warehouse. You will not look in the box. You will swear n everything that is holy you will deliver the box, but you will not look inside.’

Jack agrees. They’re instructed to go to Gallaco Wharf, Bay Five, tomorrow night.

Back in the apartment, Jack packs Angelo’s suitcase. He can’t risk them both. He can’t lose a man like Angelo. But Angelo has no intentions of going anywhere. When he realises that Jack had planned this from the start, he’s a little shocked, but wants in on the action. To travel with Jack as a partner, companion, just like his Doctor friend, that Jack mentions, as he begins to unpack Angelo’s suitcase, tearfully.

The following evening, Jack and Angelo head to the warehouse, and open the refrigerator door, to find the box they’re not to open. Since when has that stopped Jack! The strong smell of Ammonia hits their nostrils. Jack realises this is all they had in 1927.

Popping open the box, they soon discover what lurks inside. Looking like something from Tremors but on a much smaller scale, Jack reveals the alien creature as

    ‘It’s a parasite. Like a bug.’ He tells Angelo. ‘It’s a species of Brainspawn, treated as vermin on more than one hundred and fifty planets that I know of, and valued as dinner on one other. It tastes like oysters.’

   ‘You did not.’ Angelo is appalled.

   ‘I had to be polite.’ Jack tells him. ‘Now this part,’ he points at the head of the tendrilled creature. ‘drills into the brain of the host and deposits its larvae there. Little worms, sharp as needles, pushing into the brain very slowly. You go insane, but it takes years. Franklin Roosevelt, he’s going to be elected Governor of New York this November. But he won’t start making the really crazy decisions until his second term as President. Result, America destabilises, pulls out of the war, Germany rises, the Third Reich triumphant, and there’s a whole new history sprawling out.’

   ‘You mean someone is changing the future?’

   ‘Destroying it. Turning order into chaos and feeding off the results.’

   ‘Who would do such a thing? These people above Maranzano?’

   ‘They’re just being used by someone called the Trickster’s Brigade. Believe me, you don’t want to meet them.’ Jack warns. ‘They’re not men, they’re not even human.’

The parasite focuses itself on Angelo. As the young man approaches the box, the brainspawn lunges at him. A fatal move that costs it its life. Jack blows it’s head off, then empties a phial of liquid all of it and shuts the box.

   ‘That’ll dissolve it.’ He says.

   ‘So the mission is complete.’ Angelo asks.

   ‘We just saved the world, Angelo. And no-one will ever know.’

   ‘Then did I pass? Can I stay with you like the Doctor? Learn all the secrets?’

An alarm echoes around the building. Jack looks at Angelo.

   ‘Here’s one of the secrets.’ He tells him. ‘RUN.’

Out of the warehouse the two of them run. Jack helps bunk Angelo up onto the wall, and is about to go up himself when he hears the police yell at him to stop. As Angelo reaches a hand down to Jack, a police man opens fire, shooting Jack. Hit, Jack raises his hands as if in surrender but it’s too late, another bullet hits him in the middle of the head, killing him. Angelo, terrified, makes a run for it, only to find himself caught by two unarmed men, and bundled into a waiting police van, destination, prison. A police officer sends a meat wagon to pick up Jack, but while they’re away, Jack comes back to life, and escapes.

Present day, road trip, Gwen realises, this is all her fault, not Jack’s. She has caused it. She had always known that Torchwood was toxic, right from the first day, but she liked it.

   ‘I’m glad you did.’ Jack replies.

   ‘Stop being so nice. We left nice behind a hundred miles back. I'm trying to be honest, okay? Because do you know what the worst thing is of all? Out of all the shit we have seen, all the bloodshed, all the horror, do you know what is worse than all of that? I loved it. I bloody loved it. And I'd keep telling Rhys I was sorry, and I'd say to little Anwen I'm sorry, but I loved it so much. I knew things no one else knew and, oh, I felt so special. And when we lost people, it was so, so big and I could say it was worth it. Because the bigger it was, the more important I was. And the more people we lost, the more that meant I was a survivor and I was better than them. My God, this is all my fault and now they've got my beautiful little girl and I wished this on her.’

   ‘I used to think the same about Torchwood.’ Jack tells her.  

   ‘That's what I'm saying. Have you got what I'm saying to you, Jack? What I'm saying is no more. Because I know exactly what you're thinking, Jack Harkness. I know it. She won't do this. Not really. Not my Gwen. No, Gwen, she can't hurt me. Gwen loves me. She'd never hand me in. Well, this is about my daughter. And I swear, for her sake, I will see you killed like a dog right in front of me if it means her back in my arms. Understood?’

Jack leans forward in his seat, as far as he can, and growls his reply to Gwen.

    ‘Understood. And let me tell you. Now that I'm mortal, I'm gonna hang on to this with everything I've got. I love you, Gwen Cooper, but I will rip your skin from your skull before I let you take this away from me. Understood?’

Suddenly, Gwen feels as if she knows Jack better now than she ever knew him in the past.

A year later, outside Sing Sing Prison, in New York, 1928, Jack waits in a large warm brown coat, for Angelo’s release. When Angelo hears his voice, he can’t quite believe it is him. In fact, if anything, he thinks Jack is the devil. No amount of persuasion by Jack will prove it otherwise. Even Jack admits that coming back to the same place is something he’s never done before. He encourages Angelo back to the room over the butcher’s shop in Little Italy, just to prove how much he’s missed him, in a hope to rekindle their relationship. All seems to be going well until…

Angelo cannot shake the last image of Jack at the warehouse, as he screams to him to take his hand, just as the police officer shoots him dead. Pulling away from Jack, whose lips he was kissing, he plunges a knife into Jack’s side. It takes Jack by surprise.

   ‘What the hell, Angelo? What did you do?’

   ‘Sei il diavolo.’ Angelo yells.

   ‘I am not the devil.’ Jack growls.

   ‘It’s the only way. The devils seduces with confidence.’ Angelo comes back for a second shot, but Jack grabs his hands.

   ‘No. No.’ Jack punches Angelo away from him.

   ‘Stay away from me, devil.’ Angelo yells before stabbing Jack again, this time through the heart.

   ‘No.’ Jack dies.

What happens next is the mother of all nightmares. Jack comes back to life only to find the owners of the butcher’s shop in their room. The man cries – il diavolo, the devil, before stabbing Jack repeatedly till he dies again.

Strung up by his wrists in a meat locker, Jack comes back to life again, to a larger audience, the entire community has dropped by. A girl beside Angelo doesn’t understand why they are there, or what Jack is meant to have done. The old butcher shows her. An elderly lady gathers the blood that pools at Jack’s feet, holding it up in the glass bottle.

   ‘E’un miracolo.’ She declares, just as Jack comes back to life again. She screams. Another comes, then another, and another gasp back to life. It’s relentless.

After multiple attacks and equal returns to life, Jack is exhausted, drained, and hangs limply while three men weigh up the cost of a man like Jack. Something of a phenomenon that they could use. Frines, Ablemarch and Costerdane come to an agreement and shake hands, forming a triangle.

The end of the journey, Jack and Gwen wait beside the car at five in the morning in Mesa, California.

   ‘This is it. It's been a long time coming. All those years.’ Jack says, regretfully.

   ‘What's the most beautiful thing you've ever seen? Not just on Earth.’

   ‘I'm not doing this. I'm not giving final speeches.’

   ‘Just tell me. Anywhere in the Universe.’

   ‘I saw a firebird once. A tiny little thing, even smaller than a hummingbird.’ He tells her. ‘Literally made of fire. It only lives for a minute. It blazes different colours and sings. It gets so bright you have to close your eyes. And when you open them, it's gone. But the image stays behind your eyelids for longer than it was alive.’

   ‘Tell me another one.

   ‘I've said enough.’

   ‘No, go on, tell me. Just tell me about your life, all the things that you've never said. How many children did you have, Jack?’

   ‘I've lived a lot of lifetimes, Gwen. I can't tell you everything.’

   ‘A lot of lifetimes. That's a consolation, isn't it? Is it? I mean, you've had more lives than anyone.’

   ‘It's not enough. I don't want to die.’ Jack says, turning to glance at Gwen. Below them, an SUV drives towards them, lights on.

Angelo Colasanto lowers Jack down and removes his bonds. Jack’s feet are bloody red. Angelo wipes them with a towel. Jack is still exhausted, but the three men who visited after the baying crowds had had their fill, bother him. Angelo can’t apologise enough, but Jack is no longer listening. All that’s on his mind are the three men.

   ‘Who were the three men?’ Jack asks finally.

   ‘What men?’

   ‘There were three men. Like they were making an agreement.’

   ‘I don’t know. Hurry up.’ He urges, helping Jack into fresh clothes, and helping him escape.

In the alleyway, Jack and Angelo run. Angelo tells Jack there’s a train out of the city tonight. He tells Jack they are going to the West Coast, Los Angeles, together. Jack looks up and begins to climb the fire escape nearby. Angelo is confused and calls after him.

   ‘Where are you going?’

   ‘I left something here.’ Jack replies, lifting the lids on a few vents on the roof. He laughs, cheered by the fact the coat is still there, and pulls it on.

   ‘OK but now we go.’

   ‘I’m going, yeah. Time to move on. But not with you.’ Jack glares at Angelo. The young Italian is thrown.

   ‘I’m sorry. I was terrified, Jack. They said you were the devil, but other people said you were a blessing.’

   ‘Something happened to me once, a long way away. Time itself changed me to a fixed point. And now I can’t die. I suffer and I perish, but I always come back. I’ve lived through a lot of Earth’s past and a lot of its future. And I’ll keep on living this life forever.’

Angelo enquires if they’re both together in the future, but Jack doesn’t want to answer. When pushed, Jack tells him they couldn’t be, because one day, Angelo would die, and Jack would still be alive.

   ‘Then we forget the future. We make the moment now. We make a promise and we go forward.’ Angelo is not going to let go of Jack in a hurry.  

   ‘Angelo, don't.’

   ‘What? You're lonely too. You said you want a companion.’

   ‘Don't make me do this.’

   ’You're not going without me.’

   ‘Just let me go.’

   ‘But you can't. I'm never gonna let you go. I could travel this whole wide world, but where would I find another man like you? Please, don't leave me on my own.’

   ‘I’m sorry, Angelo, but this is the story of my life. It always ends the same way.’ Jack jumps up on the rooftop ledge and looks back at Angelo. ‘You kill me. Men like you, you kill me.’ Jack lets himself fall backwards off the building. Angelo cries out as he sees Jack’s body on the ground below him. Dead again. Haring down the stairs of the building, he runs out into the road, only to find Jack gone, and only a pool of blood where he once lay.

In Mesa, California, the black SUV pulls up a few feet from Jack and Gwen. Two burly bodyguards step from the vehicle, followed by a slim woman with shoulder length brown hair. Gwen leans in to Jack.

   ‘Know her?’

   ‘No.’ Jack replies.

The woman congratulates Gwen on delivering Jack to her, and addresses Jack directly.

   ‘Captain Harkness, the last mortal man. It has been a long journey.’

  A red laser settles on the burliest of the two guards, and a shot hits the ground at his feet. The woman alarmed demands to know who fired the shot, when Gwen spies another laser sighting.

   ‘It’s on you.’

   ‘Who is it?’ Jack asks.

   ‘What the hell are they doing?’ Gwen is curious, if not a little worried.

The sniper is ready for another shot.

   ‘Gotcha!’ Rex has them in his sights.

In a flashback, as Gwen leaves with Jack, Esther responds to the computer, bleeping from the monitor. She discovers that the Eye-5 software has been compromised. Calling to Rex, she manages to find the read out of the conversation between Gwen and the unknown.

   ‘Can we track them?’ Rex asks.

   ‘Yes.’ Esther assures him.

Out in the plains of Mesa, Gwen realises that the other must be Rex and Esther, since nobody is trying to hover a red laser sight over them. However, there’s still the matter of her family. Jack observes the red laser sight on the slim woman, and plays it to his advantage.

   ‘Now, unless you want to be diagnosed Category One.’

The woman raises her arms in surrender. Gwen calls for the bodyguards to drop their weapons and hurriedly cuts Jack loose, before collecting up the weapons and tossing one to Jack. Both turn the tables on the bodyguards and the woman. Up on the hillside, Esther makes the call to the armed police back in Wales, and good old Captain Andy, er, I mean, Sgt Davidson, storms Mary’s house and takes out the kidnappers.

   ‘You took your bloody time.’ Mary says to Andy as he steps inside the room. Just as Andy is about to explain his tardiness, Rhys spots the gunman about to make another shot. Andy makes his first kill.

   ‘Where’s Gwen, Andy? What’s happened to Gwen?’ Rhys asks, worried for his wife.

Pulling up alongside Jack and Gwen, Rex and Esther jump from their vehicle and train their weapons on the outnumbered group. Esther relays the news that Gwen’s family are safe. Rex as usual, lays down his complaints about Torchwood acting like amateur clowns. Gwen hugs him. Jack hands his gun to Esther. Gwen rushes up to Jack and quickly hugs him, while he keeps his eyes on the slim woman.

   ‘I meant every word I said.’ Gwen tells him.

   ‘So did I.’ Jack replies.

   ‘Good.’ Turning to the woman who put her through the ordeal. ‘And as for you, you’d better pray that death comes back to this planet by the time I’m finished with you.’

   ‘So, tell us who you are before I let her loose.’ Jack says.

   ‘I don’t see that anything’s changed. You’re still coming with me.’

   ‘Why would I do that?’ Jack asks.

   ‘You’ll want to come with me because I can take you to the one man who knows how the Miracle began.’

   ‘Who’s that?’

   ‘Angelo. Angelo Colasanto. He’s waiting for you, Jack. He’s been waiting for such a very long time.’

Next Month – End of the Road.