Articles They Keep Killing Suzie Episode Breakdown

Written by: Paul Tomalyn & Daniel McCulloch

Directed by: James Strong

Producer: Richard Stokes

Music by: Ben Foster/Murray Gold

Additional music by: Funeral for a Friend – Red is the new Black, Middle of the Road – Soley Soley, Lamb - Górecki

     It’s a typical day for DI Swanson as she talks to SOCO outside a house in the suburbs of Cardiff.  Another murder, this time two people, same MO as the last, butchered and a name smeared in their own blood on the wall.  This time the killer has completed his artwork, this time it was evident whose attention he was looking to get.

     As if on cue, Torchwood arrive in their SUV, Captain Jack Harkness donning dark glasses and an air of ownership, his three operatives following behind him, Toshiko Sato, Gwen Cooper and Owen Harper, all donning sunglasses.  Entering under the tape raised by a police officer, Jack strolls towards Swanson and introduces himself. 

   “Tell me something are you always this dressy at a murder investigation?” Swanson asks.

   “Would you rather me naked?”  Jack replies removing his dark glasses. 

     Swanson describes the murder scene, including the one before at 24 Oakham Street. In the house behind them, the bodies of Mark and Sarah Briscoe lie where they were sleeping.  She tells them about the work in progress by the serial killer, and the message on the wall for them to see.  Gwen is shocked when she enters the bedroom and sees the message.

  “Looks like someone wants your attention.”  DI Swanson says.

   “They’ve got it!”  Replies Jack.

     Swanson tells Jack that they found a few of the killer’s hairs that have been sent off for analysis and should be in shortly.  Jack insists that his team be left in peace to do their own investigation.  On leaving Swanson throws a backhanded comment. 

   “It was only a matter of time!”

   “What was?”  Jack replies, forcing Swanson to explain before she leaves.

   “Torchwood walks all over this city like you own it, now these people are paying the price for it.  Ordinary people ripped apart with your name written all over it.  From where I’m standing, you did it, Captain Jack Harkness.  You did it!”

     As Swanson leaves, Owen weighs it all up.  “Least we’ve got a head start.  If it’s someone we’ve pissed off that narrows it down to 4 or 5 million.”  He snaps on a latex glove.

   “And that’s just the humans!”  Jack quips.

     In the SUV Toshiko runs the Briscoe name and that of the other victim through the database but comes up with no matches.  The screen alerts her to the DNA results that are just in.  She calls the team who meet with Swanson outside by the parked cars. 

   “Initial findings say, Caucasian male, early 40’s, smoker, drinks tequila!”  DI Swanson shakes her head.  “Doesn’t match any DNA profile only thing of interest is the compound they found!”  Owen glances over her shoulder.  “Recognise it?”  She asks.  Owen takes control of the folder.

   “Uh oh, we’re in trouble!”  Owen announces.  Jack looks over.

   “What is it?”  Gwen asks.

   “Compound B67!”

   “You’re kidding!”  Jack says alarmed.

   “Retcon!  He’s got retcon in his blood.”

     Upstairs in the Conference room Owen gives a medical breakdown of the B67 compound.  He tries to deduce if the murderer is remembering he’s a serial killer or is becoming one from the retcon.

   “Wait a minute, I’ve taken retcon.”  Says Gwen, worried.

     Jack and Toshiko exchange glances.  “You’d better stay away from sharp objects!”  Jack teases.  More seriously, Jack asks Ianto how many people they’d given amnesia pills to. 

   “2008!”  Ianto replies.

Jack is shocked by the results.

   “What if they all become psychotic?”  Owen theorises.

   “Do you have to sound so happy?”  says Toshiko

   “I’m just saying.  Mean streets!”

      Jack asks Toshiko to narrow down the list to fit this profile and check them out as fast as possible.  To Owen and Gwen he wants to find a link between the victims.

   “Find the link, find the killer!”  Jack says.

As the rest of the team get up from the table, Gwen remains seated, a thought having struck her.  What if they use the glove, to question the murder victims?

   “No way!”  Jack laughs shaking his head at the most ludicrous of ideas.

   “Not after what it did to Suzie.”  Owen reminds her.

   “It brings people back to life, just for two minutes, just to question the murder victims.”

   “That’s exactly what she said.”  Owen snaps bitterly.  “She was one of us and we trusted her and now she’s dead because of that thing.”

   “The glove stays in the safe where it belongs!” Jack replies turning away expecting the conversation to end right there.  But Gwen isn’t ready to let it go.

   “These murders are happening BECAUSE of Torchwood, so Torchwood has got to do something!”

     Jack lifts the box containing the gauntlet out of the safe and places it on his desk while the full team watch him in his office.  He unclips the box and lifts it out, talking as he does so.

   “It fell through the Rift about 40 years ago, lay at the bottom of the bay till we dredged it up. I always figured it wasn’t just lost. Whoever made it, wanted rid of it.” 

   “You know we never gave it a cool name!” Owen sighs.

   “I thought we called it the resurrection gauntlet?”  Toshiko says.

   “Cool name!” Owen restates leaning forward to look across at Toshiko.

   “What about...” suggests Ianto.  “...the risen mitten?”

     As the steady flow of water ran down the length of the tower, in the autopsy room, the team bar Toshiko gather around the body of Alex Arwen, the first victim.  The glove sat at the head of the body.  It was Jack’s turn to use the glove.  Although Suzie had managed three minutes, the best he could hope for was 30 seconds.  Putting on the glove and connecting with the skull of the deceased, Jack feels the glove begin to warm, he tries to search for a connection, before the glove becomes too hot to handle.

   “How does it work?”  Gwen asks watching Jack squirm and move.

   “You just sort of feel like reaching into the dark.”  Jack explains.  “Finding the dead...I can’t...I don’t....”  Releasing hold he feels a powerful electric shock and removes the glove shaking life back into his hand.  Neither Owen nor Ianto want to have another shot, Owen replying that it only ever worked with Suzie. Which left Gwen!

      As Gwen puts on the glove it feels cold, but Jack assures her it warms up pretty quick.  He tries to explain how the glove works but eventually looks at her and tells her to be herself.  Owen, Toshiko and Ianto prepare for the connection.

      The instant she connects with Alex Arwen it works.  Alex Arwen opens his eyes to see Jack and Gwen but all the while wants to see his mum, he dies again unable to give them any information.  Gwen connects well with the victim but shows signs of distress at not being able to re-connect with Alex.

     Mark Briscoe is next.  Gwen applies the glove again.

   “It’s like a rope from my heart to the glove!”  She tells Jack.

Mark Briscoe opens his eyes.  Scared but able to focus on Jack long enough to tell him about his attacker.

   “It’s that man, he belonged to Pilgrim.”

   “What’s Pilgrim?”

   “Oh my god, he had a knife! “

    “It’s alright, he’s gone, but we don’t have much time, what was his name?”

   “Max.  Don’t know his surname.”  Mark whispers.

     Toshiko runs a check of Max and Pilgrim and calls for a description, which Jack relays, desperate for more clues before the time runs out.

   “There was someone he knew better. That woman, she was always talking to him.”

   “What was her name?”

   “Where’s my wife?”

   “Her name?”

   “Suzie!”

As Mark’s connection stops, Ianto stops the stopwatch on 1 minute 5 seconds.

      Although there could be any number of Suzie’s out there, the team can only think of one, their ex team member, Suzie Costello. 

   “We’ve been talking to the wrong corpse!”

     Pilgrim was a small religious group set up by Mark Briscoe’s wife, there was no mention of it on the internet, all posters and documentation were hand written and stored at the back of the Briscoe’s wardrobe.  There were no names listed, no mention of Suzie or Max, as Mark’s wife never kept a register, Toshiko tells the team.

   “That wouldn’t be our Suzie, she wouldn’t be into all that religious group bollocks!”  Sighs Owen as they sit together in the Conference room. 

   “How would you know?”  Gwen asks bemused.  “I mean were you friends?  Any of you? Who was her best friend in this place?”

   “She kept herself to herself!” Owen replies

   “Well then, if she needed to talk maybe that’s exactly where she’d go, a group of complete strangers!”

     Accepting this Jack nods.  “Time we got to know our deceased ex colleague a little better!”

     Pulling up outside a lock up on a dark wet night, the Torchwood team don flashlights.  Toshiko keys in the code that opens up the door of the garage that contains boxes upon boxes of Suzie Costello’s personal effects.

   “Have I got this right? When I die Torchwood gets to keep my possessions, my whole life is going to get stashed in a lock up?”  Gwen asks staring at the huge door.

   “Rules and regulations!”  Jack replies

   “What if I give all my stuff to Rhys?”

   “We’ll stash him away too!”  Jokes Jack.

    “Tread carefully people, with respect!”  Jack instructs as they stare at the mounds of boxes to work through. “This is the life of Suzie Costello!”

As Toshiko finds a light switch, the stacks of piled high boxes become far larger than first thought. 

   “That’s all we are in the end, a pile of boxes!”  Toshiko says sombrely.

      Gwen finds a photograph of Suzie with an older man, her father.

   “Is her father still alive?”  She asks to anyone.

   “Don’t know!”  Replies Toshiko leafing through the pile of papers Jack has given her.

   “You must have looked him up to tell him his daughter was dead.”

   “When Suzie left Torchwood she was on the run.  She wiped all her records.  I couldn’t retrieve her files.  She’s good at computers. She’s good at everything.”  Toshiko appears almost jealous of Suzie.

   “She’s good at murder too!”  Says Owen. “Laugh a minute was old Suzie.”

     Gwen shone her flashlight over at Jack who is engrossed in a book.  When she enquires after it, is told it’s a book of poems by Emily Dickinson, Jack hands it over. 

     Toshiko hands Jack a sheet of paper.  It’s Pilgrim.  Suzie was involved with them.  The team have their link.

       Jack realises they have no choice, they have to bring back Suzie.

     Unlike previous bodies, having Suzie Costello lying on the slab affects the team, they’re quiet but nervous.  They’re unsure and they’re uncomfortable.  As Owen and Ianto check their equipment, Toshiko prepares her PDA, Gwen re-associates herself with the glove and its properties.

   “Do we all get frozen when we die, do we all get kept?”  Gwen asks Jack.

   “Rules and regulations!” He repeats.

   “How long for?”

   “Forever!”

     As Owen begins to record, Ianto stands by with his stopwatch; Toshiko takes her leave and decides to cover the rest from her work station. Jack asks if anyone else wants to leave, Owen looks back at Jack but remains for the time being.  Gwen asks Jack for advice.

   “Yeah I know, empathy, even if she did try to kill me.”

   “You and me both.”  Replies Jack.

     Gwen places the glove against Suzie’s skull and instantly finds a connection, but its past memories, the shooting of Jack, Gwen pleading for her life, and Suzie’s final exit.  Although the monitor picks up the connection, it’s gone inside of a heartbeat. 

     Unable to find a deep enough connection to bring back Suzie, Toshiko asks the team what they do now.  Jack, completely disappointed feels there is nothing more they can do, they’re out of options.  But Owen has another suggestion.

   “There’s always the knife, the one she used on all those people, it’s made from the same metal as the glove.”

   “We’ve seen it before.”  Interjects Toshiko.  “Metallic resonance like the glove works better if the knife is part of the process, like closing a circuit.”

   “Then let’s use it.”  Suggests Gwen

   “Just one small detail, the knife was used to kill people, she’s already dead.”

   “Alright!  So we kill her again!”

      The team looks on as Jack lifts out the knife, used in ‘Everything Changes’ and looks to the team then Ianto, for a name.

   “A Life Knife.”  Ianto says.

     Back in the Autopsy room Jack swipes the blade across Suzie’s skin but aside from a slight sparkle there is nothing strong enough to make a real connection.  Accepting that he will have to plunge the knife into Suzie, Jack does just that.  The connection is powerful enough for both Gwen and Suzie, and both gasp loudly.  Ianto starts the stopwatch and Owen takes readings.

      Suzie understandably is traumatized by the ordeal and has many questions to ask, one including the fact she has a knife in her chest.  She’s surprised to see Jack alive and more to the point realises that she shot herself, but is also sickened enough to realise also that Gwen Cooper has brought her back to life and only for the information regarding Pilgrim.

   “When you were in Pilgrim you gave the amnesia pill to a man, Max, do you remember?”  Jack asks desperate for some answers.

   “What?  You’ve brought me all the way back just for Max?

   “We need to find him who is he?  What’s his surname?

   “He was just someone to....”  Suzie was losing consciousness.  Owen could see the stats dropping off the scale. 

     As the connection breaks Gwen falls backwards, she is physically drained.  Jack angrily takes back the glove, insisting that the glove has some kind of hold on the user.  Owen insists Gwen be taken out of the room.  It is over now, they can’t find out the name and Suzie is dead again.  But Ianto points to the screen, Suzie is far from gone, her vital signs are showing she is still, very much alive.

     It seems impossible!

    “No according to the equipment she’s just unconscious!”  Ianto replies.

     Owen gets to his feet and reads the stats for himself.  Ianto is right, Suzie is still alive.  Jack can’t believe it either and withdraws the knife, but it is clear as day.  Suzie is still with them!

     Downstairs in one of the Interrogation rooms, Jack slaps a folder onto the table between him and Suzie, who is now in a wheelchair, her head slumped to one side, a large gaping gunshot wound apparent at the back of her head.  Gwen looks on silently.

   “How long has it been?”

   “Three months!” Jack replies

   “When can I die?  I just want to go, can’t you leave me alone?”  Suzie asks.

   “You seem to be stuck!” Jack replies

   “But...I’m going to stay like this? For how long?”

   “Don’t know!” Gwen replies

   “Can I see my father?”

   “No.”

   “You wiped your records.  We had no trace of him.”  Gwen tells her.

   “So he doesn’t know that I’m dead?”

   “Well you’re not any more are you?”

      Jack begins the interrogation.  He places the photos of the victims on the table and explains about the investigation regarding Pilgrim and the amnesia pill that was given to Max.  They’re keen to find him.  Jack wants to know where he is.   Suzie is startled to discover that Max has become a serial killer and as Jack explains that the levels of retcon in his blood stream have turned him into a psycho, Owen talks over the loud speaker.  He wants to know how much retcon Suzie gave him. It amuses Suzie that Owen isn’t in the room, nor Toshiko.  Owen asks again how many retcon pills were given to Max and is startled by the result, even Jack can’t quite comprehend the dosage.

   “One a week, every week for two years!”  Suzie confirms.  “I wanted someone to talk to, about this place, it was driving me mad. He was, just...he listened, that was all he just listened.  And as soon as I’d finished talking I’d give him the pill.”

   “You overdosed him!”  Jack replies.

   “I didn’t know that.  I keep getting it wrong don’t I?  Is that why you brought me back, did you think I wasn’t guilty enough?”

   “What was his surname?”

   “I didn’t know.  All I ever did was talk about me.  It’s all my fault isn’t it? It never bloody stops being my fault.  Can’t you just let me die?”

Jack laughs. “You don’t get off that easy.”

   “Yeah you did warn me right at the beginning.” Suzie looks at Gwen.  “That this is the one job that you cannot quit!”     

   “So let’s get to work.  Come on Suzie, just like the old days, there’s got to be something?”  Jack presses, staring directly at Suzie across the table, who is slumped again in the chair.  The photos of deceased victims are spread out in front of them both.

     Suzie eventually leans forward and looks through the array of photos.  There’s someone missing, she tells Jack and Gwen, a girl...a student, Lucy Mackenzie, she worked at a club.

   “Which one?”  Jack pressed.  “Which club? Come on Suzie, this Max is killing every single member of Pilgrim!”  He urges as Suzie begins to tire.  Raising his voice he demands to know the name of the club.  Eventually Suzie forces the name. 

   “It’s the Wolf bar!”

  

     While Jack, Owen and Gwen head out to the bar, Toshiko plays babysitter to Suzie.  Both women monitor the two active screens at the workstation and keep in open comms to the rest of the team. Jack, Owen and Gwen look out for the girl and for anyone matching Max’s description. 

     The music is loud and pumping in the Wolf Bar and it’s packed.  Gwen has the makings of a headache which Suzie puts down to the glove.  “...it gets inside of your mind!”  She tells Gwen, freaking her out a little.

      A positive ID is given on Lucy, who is collecting glasses, but there’s a man matching Max’s description that Owen takes down, but the camera ID proves it’s not him.  Instead while Jack and Owen wrestle the man on the ground, the real Max is heading towards Gwen, the knife ready to strike.  Suzie yells for Gwen to move and before Max can attack anyone, Jack has him in an arm lock and stuns him with the good old fashion “Stun Gun!”

Thanking Suzie for saving her life, the team head back to the Hub with Max in tow.

     Max Tresillian as Owen discovers lives at 106 Endeavour Terrace, and his parents are Sandra and Dave but what is really interesting and what Owen shows Jack is that as soon as he mentions the word ‘Torchwood’, Max gets up and thumps on the toughened Perspex door and yells his anger, before returning after a matter of a few seconds to his seat. 

 

     Jack is impressed by Owen’s study and shouts the name ‘Torchwood’ just as he’s leaving, inciting Max to pound the door again. 

     In the Interrogation room Suzie sits opposite Gwen in a wheelchair still with  a black scarf covering the damage to her skull.  She wishes to see her father and hopes Gwen can change Jack’s mind. 

   “Tell us where he is we could bring him in?”  Gwen asks leaning forward but Suzie shakes her head.

   “I’m not bringing him anywhere near Torchwood.  If he’s still alive!”

   “What’s wrong with him?”  Gwen asks

   “Cancer!  All that waiting and I go and die first.”

   “I could contact him on your behalf?”

   “And say what?”  Suzie takes a sip of her coffee then sets it down.  “So tell me, since I’ve been gone are you enjoying it?”

   “Yeah.”  Smiles Gwen. “Well you know this place, it’s sort of, it’s mad isn’t it!”

     Suzie smiles and agrees and the two women share a moment of swapping happy comments about Torchwood. “Funny thing is when you’re dead you wonder if they’re going to miss me. And look, indispensible! And look what happens, I’ve been replaced...by someone better.”  Gwen sits back in the chair.  “You got the glove working better than I did.”

   “I just got lucky!”

   “No it’s more than that.  The others they prefer you.  You got my job, almost like you planned it. “

      Gwen leans forward again. “Except I didn’t.  And I’m sorry but I’ve got my own function at Torchwood and I’m a lot more than a replacement!”

   “Have you slept with Owen?”  Suzie asks finally.  There’s a pause.  “There you go replaced me completely!”

     Gwen, without knocking enters Jack’s office.  He informs her of a boyfriend he once had who used to do that.  Gwen is angry, angry at Torchwood and angry at Jack.  Not once during Suzie’s time had anyone bothered to find out anything about her, about her family. 

   “It takes me a time to piece things together...”

   “Meaning?”

   “Suzie had the glove, you put her in charge of it. But I’m telling you Jack did you ever ask about her father?”

   “How do you mean?”

   “He’s got cancer. He’s been dying slowly now for years and what do you do, you give his daughter the one device that brings people back to life.  Is it any wonder she got obsessed?”

   “Oh so this is all my fault?”

   “Well isn’t it?  Did you ever stop and think, did you ever look at Suzie did you ever think what that glove would do to her, did you?”

   “Right from the start you thought that Suzie’s death was because of you. Coz it happened when you arrived, then you brought her back to life, all the way because you wanted it so much ok?  We’re both responsible!”  Jack pauses a moment.  “But what the hell are we going to do with her?”

   “I don’t know.”  Admits Gwen.  “What if she never dies, have you thought of that?  Undying forever, just you and her.”

   It didn’t bear considering but something had to be done about Suzie.  Owen interrupts their discussion by asking Jack to join him in the Conference room he has something to show him that can’t wait. 

     With Ianto and Toshiko also in the Conference room all four stare at the screen showing the moment when Mark Briscoe was brought back to life by Gwen.  A spark of life from Gwen to Mark is shown, but when he died, the energy disappeared.  Yet when Suzie is brought back to life, the energy pull is stronger. 

    “What is that?”  Toshiko asks astounded by the visual.

   “Life but from Suzie it’s a permanent connection and she’s getting stronger and is still going right now.  She is draining the life out of Gwen!”  Says Owen.

   “There’s always a price!”  Remarks Jack.

     Gwen returns to the Interrogation room with two mugs of coffee and a plate of biscuits on a tray.  Suzie is growing tired of coffee but underneath the biscuits is a slip of paper. 

  

     Upstairs in the Conference room it is evident from the visual on the screen that Suzie has to be stopped, and by that, it means that they will have to kill her again, and given that Jack is the boss, the onus falls to him.  Removing his Webley he makes his way to the Interrogation room, to discover both Suzie and Gwen are gone.

     As Toshiko searches for Gwen, Gwen herself takes Suzie in the wheelchair out to her car parked near the Bay.  It’s the middle of the night. 

     Discovering that Gwen is not in the building, nor using the SUV, Toshiko locates Gwen at her own car, aiding Suzie into the passenger seat.  Jack and Owen head after Gwen, just as the Hub is plunged into darkness and thrown into lockdown.  Nothing works!

     Gwen buckles Suzie into the car and cuffs her wrist to the door handle as a precaution.  Gwen knows Jack will go nuts over this and will find out pretty soon and come after them, but Suzie has a good feeling that Jack won’t be going anywhere for some time.

      Everything in the Hub is on 100% lockdown, no phones, no computers, no outside access.  They are stuck!  Concerned for Gwen’s safety Jack asks Owen how long she has left.

   “Two hours tops!”

     Toshiko can’t understand how Suzie could have tripped the lockdown given that she’s been dead for 3 months and wouldn’t have been able to gain access to the systems.  So what has she done? It soon becomes apparent that Max is responsible for the lockdown.  In the cells Jack and Owen catch Max reciting a poem, not just reciting it, but repeating it over and over and over again.

   Jack watches as Max repeats the first verse over and over.  The prisoner sits shirtless in the cell, rocking back and forth, perspiring heavily as if he’s been at this hours, repeats the passage from ‘Because I could not stop for death’ by Emily Dickinson.

   “It’s a verbal trigger, say it out loud, repeat it too many times hoping that the Hub locks down...”  Jack says.

   “Do you think its part of the system?  Suzie must have installed a verbal command code way back!”

   “During when she was alive yeah.  Max was just a Trojan horse.  Suzie planned this right from the start!”

    “You see, Max, the retcon, everything it’s all been a hoax to get us to resurrect Suzie.”  Says Jack while a tired Gwen drives

   “She gave Max a whole complex of subconscious triggers.”

   “Like she dies, Max becomes a time bomb!” says Toshiko.  “He doesn’t see her for three months and bam the orders kick in. He follows Suzie’s program, and starts killing.”

     Ianto sits beside the water tower and tries to secure an outside line.

   “And the whole chain of events force us to bring Suzie back.”

   “And then she escapes.”

     In the car as Gwen drives Suzie to meet her father, Suzie questions the night she killed herself.  Right before she’d turned the gun on herself she’d shot Jack right through the head.  She’d been convinced she’d killed him. She is disgusted at Jack for taking the moral high ground on her when he couldn’t die himself.

     Jack has a surprise when Ianto calls over that he has a signal, by using the water tower as a relay.  But who do they call?

     Finally, Torchwood has made DI Swanson’s day.  Joking aside and playing Torchwood’s plea over the loud speaker on the telephone for all to hear in the Station office, that they need some help as they’re stuck in their own building, she resumes her talk with Captain Jack.  He’s requesting a book of poetry, more so from Emily Dickenson and her complete works, and one particular poem, with the passage ‘I could not stop for death’.  When the book arrives and it’s indeed a thick book, DI Swanson requests another brew, it’s going to take some reading to find the trigger words to reset the Lockdown and let them out.

     Gwen is feeling tired and puts the radio on, a song comes on that Suzie remembers her mother singing when she was very young.  It makes her think of her, and life and death in general.

     After a series of verses are read out over the phone and Jack repeats them in the Hub by which nothing happens, Toshiko has a thought, that if words trigger the lock down, perhaps numbers reset it.  She calls for the ISBN number to be read out.  Although the keyboard isn’t working, the membrane underneath the keys might still recognise the codes.  DI Swanson reads out the numbers.

     Power is resumed in the Hub, the lockdown is over and the team can get out after Gwen.  Jack thanks Swanson.  The tracker on the car detects that Suzie and Gwen have arrived at a hospital.  Gwen is now beginning to feel the ill effects of the headache she’s had all day. 

  

     Gwen only has 40 minutes of life left according to Owen.  Jack asks for clearance on the road to the hospital as he’s going to break the speed limit big time.  Kathy gives it.  It’s now a race against time, and dawn is almost breaking.

     Old man Costello lies asleep in the bed, a tube feeding into his mouth.  He’s very poorly!  As Gwen closes the door to the small ward room she feels very unwell.  Suzie smiles knowing precisely what is causing that, and as Gwen slides down against the wall and cries out at the immense pain in her skull, Suzie removes the headscarf completely healed and tells Gwen she is suffering the effects of being shot in the head. As Gwen takes her hand away from the back of her head, she sees blood in her palm. 

     Suzie leans over the bed and looks down at her father.  She calls for her Dad to wake up, as the old man does and sees his daughter there, a look of fear spreads across his face.  Suzie shows no remorse for her actions as she tears the breathing tube from his mouth and says her goodbye’s to him. 

     She wheels Gwen out to the car and drives away with her passenger growing increasingly worse.  Toshiko hasn’t managed to locate their destination but works on it as Jack thunders the SUV along the quiet Welsh roads in hot pursuit.  Suddenly, Jack’s phone rings, unsure who it is, takes the call. It’s Suzie!

   “Did you like the poem Jack?”  Suzie teases.

   “Suzie, don’t let her die, the glove is killing her and keeping you alive.”

   “I know.”

   “Then stop.”

   “But I get to live, why stop?”

   “For Gwen’s sake”

   “She replaced me, now I’m doing the same to her, isn’t that fair?”

   “Suzie we have a tracker on the car and we’re going to catch up.  I promise.”

   “And what happens then?”

   “If she’s dead then I’m gonna kill you Suzie Costello.  I promise!  I’m going to kill you for the last and final time.”

   “But would you, when there’s a part of her that’s now in me?  Could you really do that?  If I’m the only thing left of her?”  Cries Suzie.

   “Why are you doing this?” Jack asks.

   “Because life is all Jack, you should know, I’d do anything to stay, anything.”

   “Suzie please, just stop.”

   “She’s a real find this one.  Gwen Cooper – she’s better than me. She’s so much better. I was never any good. Jack I’m sorry.”  Suzie cuts the call.  She heads out towards the coast to a place called Hedley Point in order to catch the ferry. Jack and Owen have only minutes to reach Gwen before it’s too late.

     It’s daylight as Suzie arrives at Hedley Quay, she unbuckles Gwen and supports her as far as possible along the quay, till Gwen collapses.  The SUV pulls up behind Gwen’s car and Jack and Owen are already on their way towards them.  Suzie apologises to Gwen, but is rejoicing her new found freedom and life.

     Jack and Owen pound the boards towards her.  Suzie runs towards the end of the quay.  Owen tends to Gwen while Jack runs after Suzie and draws his weapon calling to her.

   “Let her go!”  But Suzie refuses.  “Let Gwen go!”  He orders her but again Suzie can’t give back her life. Jack calls to Owen asking after Gwen.  “OWEN, REPORT?”

   “I think we’re too late.”  Owen replies cradling Gwen in his arms

   “If I kill you will she live?”

   “But you can’t Jack!”  Suzie is adamant. “Cos look at me, I’m the last thing left of Gwen Cooper, can’t you see it, just the smallest bit of it.”

   “Not one bit.”  Jack replies opening fire on Suzie.  Suzie falls to the ground and Jack calls back to Owen, hoping that it broke the connection, but Owen calls back that there’s nothing. 

   “But I broke the connection!”  Jack replies horrified.  Suzie laughs.  Owen repeats that there’s still nothing.

 Jack rushes towards her, gun still drawn.

  “I killed you!”  He growls firing twice more.

  “I’m never going to die.”  Suzie says.

   “How much more of this do you want?”  Jack growls out of annoyance.  He fires two more shots into Suzie’s back.  She rolls over onto her front and stares up at him, her coat a mass of bullet holes and blood.

   “It’s all your fault Jack, you recruited me.”

     Suddenly Jack realises the connection was not with Suzie but with the glove.  He contacts Toshiko.

   “The glove, Tosh, destroy the glove it’s keeping them connected.”

     Toshiko removes her spectacles, and calls over to Ianto who is close to the Armoury.  “Ianto, armoury, code 5.”

     Jack fires again and again Suzie laughs.

   “Captain, oh my Captain.” 

     Running towards the site of the glove, Ianto tosses the gun to Toshiko, who loading the first bullet into the chamber, locates the glove and opens fire.  The glove explodes.

      The connection is finally broken, Suzie dies and Gwen gasps back to life. 

     Much later in the Hub Jack meets up with Ianto in the storage facility somewhere in the bowels of the building.  Ianto is finishing the details of the death certificate while Jack laments about limited storage space.  Ianto looks up.  He tells Jack he still has the stop watch.  Jack frowns, unsure what Ianto is getting at.

    “Think about it, lots of things you can do with a stop watch.”

   “Oh yeah!”  Jack laughs.  “I can think of a few.”  He looks at Ianto.

   “There’s quite a list.”

   “I’ll send the others home early.  I’ll see you in my office in say 10.”  He checks his watch.

   “That’s 10 minutes and counting!” Ianto sets the stopwatch.  As Jack strides away Ianto calls after him with regards to the death certificate and what to write as cause of death, considering Suzie had died a few times.

   “Death by Torchwood!”  Jack finally decides.

      Ianto suggests that they put a lock on the storage door in case Suzie comes back to life, Jack assures him that there’s no chance of that.

   “Resurrection days are over, thank god!”

   “Oh I wouldn’t be too sure, that’s the thing about gloves...they come in pairs!”

 

  

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©BBC Torchwood 2006