Director
Andy Goddard
Broadcast
24th December 2008
Additional
Music: Hot Chip Over and Over from the Album The Warning (2006)
Crazy
Frog from Crazy Frog Presents Crazy Hits (2005)
Muse
Assassin from the Album Black Holes and Revelations (2006)
It’s typical, the night
Captain Jack Harkness gives the team the night off, he’s chasing down a rogue
weevil with no intentions of coming quietly, they tussle and the spray is ineffective. Cut and bleeding from a slash to the chest,
Jack chases after the weevil through the streets of Cardiff.
Gwen Cooper sits
opposite her boyfriend Rhys on her night off, they’ve just finished their meal
at the restaurant and Rhys is talking but it’s clear she’s not listening. As Rhys focuses on Gwen something catches the
corner of his eye and he sees the weevil running away from Jack Harkness.
Jack stops to check the
readings on his VM and spots Gwen with her boyfriend at the restaurant as Rhys
brings Gwen to the attention of the strange creature. Gwen has never been happier to see Jack and
smiles as he reaches them. Jack promises
he’ll have Gwen back as soon as possible but Rhys has other ideas and bemoans
the Captain for the fact Gwen is rarely home and this is her first night
off. He becomes aggressive and orders
Gwen to “Sit the fuck down!” Of course Gwen is not going to be spoken to like
that and heads off into the night in pursuit of the weevil with Captain Jack
Harkness.
Jack apologises for
butting in at the restaurant but this particular weevil has been a pain in the
ass all night. Gwen tells him that Rhys
will get over it, he normally does, but Jack concerned doesn’t want Gwen to
destroy her life on the outside of Torchwood
“You
promised to keep a hold of your life, don’t let it drift!”
Jack has located the
weevil in the multi storey car park and walks carefully along the levels till
he spots it. But someone else has the
same idea, and with the screeching of tyres, a white van speeds up, opens its
doors, masked men exit and round up the weevil with cattle prods and coerce it
into the back of the van and away. Jack
calls to them and one man turns to face them, wearing a balaclava, smiles and
disappears with his team.
Back at the Hub and in a
fresh shirt, Jack throws out the questions about who would want the weevils and
what would they want them for. As he
reaches the office, Ianto reads off his clipboard a series of unexplained
injuries logged at A&E recently. It
could be connected. As Jack reads off
the list, the injuries are identical to attacks made by weevils. Jack also informs Toshiko that the weevil
spray is lacking the effect it had in the past indicating that the weevils are
becoming immune to it, mutating or possibly evolving.
While Jack waits for an
answer on his phone call he queries the van owner. Toshiko reports back that the licence plate is
fake but she’s running a check on the amount of vehicles matching that
description in the Cardiff area. Always
one step ahead of Jack’s suggestions, she smiles having an answer for each of
his questions, and walks back to her desk.
Her computer is busy processing the data that will give them the vans
last whereabouts.
Jack hears the voice
mail from Owen Harper’s phone. He’s not
picking up.
Gwen calls home and
speaks to the answer machine in the flat, “Hi
it’s me...” she says. “I’ve
left three messages now, look I’ve got dozens of excuses and hundreds and
thousands but none of them are good enough.
Things have got away from me a bit lately. It’s this job it never lets up. Look I’ll see you later I’m not sure what
time yet, I’ve got some work to finish off first.” Gwen curses herself for that last remark.
Rhys angrily deletes the message from the answer phone.
Dr Owen Harper is nursing
another glass of liquor, he still can’t cope with the loss of his beloved
Diane, despite her only being in his life for little more than a week. Normally he’d chat up the barmaid and they’d
leave together but he’s not even interested although he enters into
conversation with her, till her boyfriend steps in threatening her and
upsetting the ambience. Owen lays the
boot in and takes another drink.
Gwen tries to call Owen
again and has the same luck as Jack. She
can’t understand why he’s avoiding work.
Toshiko tells her that he’s not been the same since Diane left,
something which Gwen is surprised about, even more so when she learns that Owen
had a soft spot for the pilot.
In the cells Jack and
Ianto stare at the weevils, one in particular is moaning as if in pain, but
Jack suspects that one of their kind is hurt and they’re communicating through
a low level telepathic field. The weevil
is clearly distressed.
“Kind of hope we’re wrong though.”
“Why?”
“Because that means that not only is someone
kidnapping weevils but they’re causing them pain.” Jack replies repulsed by the thought.
Toshiko locates the vans
whereabouts to Unit Q19, a warehouse in Cardiff Bay near the Docks. Using CCTV Toshiko has managed to track the
van to the location. Jack watches the
screen as Toshiko brings up the data, as the men climb out the CCTV goes
down. Is it deliberate?
Toshiko and Jack head out there to
investigate, but their arrival doesn’t go unnoticed.
With flashlights to see
their way in they both sweep the building for any clues as to who or what
they’re dealing with. Jack gives a brief
history lesson about what the use the warehouses back in the War. Telling her
of the bodies of dead GI’s, and stares ahead as if he’s seen a ghostly
apparition. A door slams shut forcing
the pair to draw their weapons . Lying
in the archway to another area of the warehouse, a body is spotted. It’s not moving and Toshiko can see blood. As they reach the body they discover it’s not
only dead but that it’s been mauled by a weevil. Suddenly the ‘frog song’ ringtone belts out
from the pocket of the man’s trousers, Toshiko comments over it and Jack is
surprised that she thinks it’s his ringtone.
He extracts the phone from the dead man’s trouser pocket and against
Toshiko’s wishes, responds to the call.
The caller demands that Jack
drops the case but Jack isn’t about to.
As the man hangs up, Jack calls Ianto on the dead man’s phone and
requests him to locate every single phone call to and from the phone in the
last 24 hours as fast as he can.
Owen who has been
ignoring the phone calls from the Hub, ignores the next one instructing him to
get his butt back to the building, but when his attempts of pretending to be an
answer phone don’t wash with Jack, he returns to work with an air of
sarcasm. It’s duly noted by everyone.
In the autopsy room they
ascertain from the dead man’s wallet that he’s called Dan Hodges and is a
salesman for Web Publishing Software, holding up the wallet to show the team,
Gwen reveals to them that he was married with a child.
Owen reveals that Hodges
was indeed killed by a weevil but he took a right beating before hand, he
points out the damage on the body to the team.
What he can’t understand is why the man was beaten first before being
left for the weevil.
Ianto enters the autopsy
room with information on the phone. The
last number was blocked and all other numbers and calls had been erased. This gang moves fast.
Gwen has drawn the short
straw on breaking the news to the family of the deceased and steps from the
house to climb back into the SUV. Owen
remains in the vehicle, his mind elsewhere.
Broaching the subject of Diane to Owen was perhaps not the best moment,
as after a few coarse words, Owen leaves the SUV in a huff and slams the door,
storming off. He returns to the Hub some
time later and grilled by Jack as to where he’s been. But Owen’s approach is anything but
apologetic. He slaps himself onto the
seat and drains the last of a bottle of water.
Jack is glad that he’s back and to add salt into the wound tells him
that Toshiko has had a terrific idea.
“Owen Harper you’re going into property.
Toshiko is in the middle of fixing you a cover story.”
“Hang on, why me?”
“Jack and Gwen were in the car park, I was
in the warehouse. If they’ve got access
to CCTV they’ll recognise us.”
“We have to get under their guard and find
out what’s going on.” Jack says.
“Yeah alright.” Owen
replies. “I could do with being someone else right
now.”
Owen enters the Estate
Agents and shakes hands with Mark Lynch, a refined looking gentleman with
chiselled good looks. He finds Owen’s
cover story about Jellied Eels a little hard to believe but Owen carries it off
with an air of confidence. Owen is
looking to relocate his business to Cardiff and he hopes that Mark Lynch has
the right sort of property for what he needs.
On his application he
requests properties out by the docks. “A nice big warehouse.” Owen replies staring out of the large Agent’s
window. While Lynch goes off to print
out what Owen is looking for, Owen lifts a sheet of paper to deflect what he’s
about to do, and removes from his inside coat pocket a piece of alien tech that
allows Toshiko to access the hard drive of the laptop.
Jubilantly she calls to
Jack that they’re in, and begins to access the computer to see what Lynch has
including encrypted files. Owen removes
the device when Toshiko downloads all that she needs.
Lynch provides Owen with
a list of properties at the docks but they’re not what he’s looking for. Lynch isn’t impressed but counters and
smiles. Owen asks about the Q19 property
out on the docks but Lynch tells him that that property has been sold. Toshiko corrects Owen through an ear piece
that Lynch is lying. Lynch suggests that
they meet up after work and go for a drink, allowing Owen to settle into the
new area, which must be difficult coming from a big city. This also gives Lynch a chance to check
Owen’s credentials.
Second guessing Lynch,
Toshiko confidently tells the team what Lynch will do, and follows it up with
answering the phone as Owen’s receptionist.
Ianto informs Jack that
he’s tracked down more suspicious injuries at the hospital that sound pretty
bad. Jack and Ianto head over to
investigate.
Gwen offers to go with
them but Jack tells her to go home and not let her relationship with Rhys
drift.
Across the city, in
their flat, Rhys is getting ready to go out with Dav and a few mates as Gwen
enters. He’s going to an all day Stag
Do, despite the fact Dav isn’t getting married, he felt he was missing out and
is having a ‘Staying Single Stag’.
Ianto pulls around the
curtain at the hospital to give them some privacy. The injured man tells them he’s already given
his statement.
“According to your chart here you almost had
your heart torn from your ribcage.” Jack told the patient as he sat beside
him, eating a few grapes. “A ten hour operation to repair chest
wounds.”
“Why should I talk to you?”
“Let me tell you what did this to you. Six feet high, teeth like a shark, rippled
skin and the rage of a wild animal.” Jack says leaning closer towards the
patient.
“Am I close?”
“I was mugged, there was three of them. They had knives.”
“So why were your wounds described by
paramedics as bite marks?” Asked
Ianto popping a grape into his mouth.
“I can’t help it if they got mixed up.
They’re overworked.”
“Well
there are lots of ways I can get you to talk but the easiest would be if you
consider the consequences should you not tell me the truth and that is this
creature will attack again, somebody will die and it will be on your
conscience.” Grinning wolfishly at
the patient Jack pressed for the truth but the patient was terrified for his
own life, telling Jack that everyone would kill him if he blabbed.
Venturing into the cells
Jack stares through the small window in the door at the weevil contained within
as Toshiko asks both Jack and Ianto what the patient meant by ‘everyone’. It left them with only one option.
Jack releases Janet back
onto the streets of Cardiff, but keeps her tagged so that they can monitor
her.
“Go
Janet”
Lynch brings over the
drinks and sits opposite Owen at a table in the same bar he’d been in
previously. The boyfriend of the barmaid
brings over a few friends to even up the score against the bruises on his
face. Owen realises that he has to deal
with these lads, in a vicious manner to earn Lynch’s trust further.
Jack, Toshiko and Ianto
follow the bleeper, which brings them out through the car park onto a quiet
road where the white van also pulls up, deals with the unfortunate weevil and
subjects it to a beating before putting it into the van.
“The
weevil has landed.”
Toshiko is less than
impressed by Jack’s methods, knowing that he wouldn’t subject a human to the
same kind of treatment. Not wishing to
rise to it, Jack insists that they need to follow the van.
Owen is invited back to
Lynch’s flat, a minimalistic apartment, large and spacious. Owen stares at the size of the rooms, and the
contents within, some areas barely look lived in. Lynch wants to know what Owen uses as a
release for his anger, but Owen tells him that he’s not an angry person.
As Lynch changes his
shirt Owen notes scratches down the man’s back that are the usual for a weevil
strike. After much deep talking about
life and what Owen uses to channel the rage, Lynch tells him that something is
coming out there in the darkness.
Gwen waits up for Rhys,
sets out two glasses of Scotch on the table.
She’s ending her relationship with Owen and racked with guilt knows it’s
time to ‘fess up to Rhys. On his return,
she tells him about her affair with Owen, then breaks it to him as he reacts to
her news that she’s also drugged him with retcon, so that he’ll not remember in
the morning. It affects him somewhat
quicker than she had planned and he falls into a deep sleep before he can grant
her the forgiveness she wants for her actions.
Owen goes in search of
the bathroom and discovers many rooms on the upper level, at Lynch’s apartment,
including one that’s padlocked, and housing a chained weevil, suspended off the
ground by its wrists. When Mark locates
Owen in the room, he smiles and shows off the weevil, telling him it took 5 of
them to bring it in, but he has no clue on the species, but thinks it could be
a scientific experiment gone wrong. One
of the lads thought it was an alien, but Lynch thinks it could be them, in a
thousand years time “When all we have
left is our rage.” Lynch suggests that Owen give it a smack, when Owen questions
why he would, Mark lays into the defenceless creature pummelling it like a
punch bag. Owen calls for him to stop,
as the weevil is hardly putting up a fight.
Lynch then sets about
belittling Owen, having already decided that Owen is punching above his own
weight, his website a complete con and wants to know why Torchwood are
interested in what he does. He mocks Owen who shows off the butt of his gun
that he’s not a man if he’s hiding behind the gun. If he wants to know what is
going on he won’t find it with a weapon.
Owen discards the gun.
Gwen stands in the quiet
Hub calling out to anyone who might be there, but she’s all alone, just her and
the body in the autopsy room.
On the streets, Jack,
Ianto and Toshiko are following the location of the van and locate the tracker
down a side alley, fastened to a wired fence.
Now they have no clue where the white van gang have taken Janet.
Owen and Lynch sit in
the car and wait at the address for the fight club. They don’t start moving until more people,
men only, move towards the open doorway at the bottom of the street. They exit the vehicle as more people arrive
at the venue.
Gwen sits on the sofa
with two pizzas and sits on her own eating the pizza between sobs. A phone keeps messaging and after checking
her phone each time realises it’s not hers but the dead man’s, in the autopsy
room. She opens the bag of belongings
and checks the phone. It gives a post
code address. Gwen brings up the address
on the computer and presses her ear piece, only to discover she’s not wearing one. Locating one on Toshiko’s desk she calls Jack
who is a little concerned that she’s not at home as he’d instructed her to
be. She tells him about the phone and
patches through the location. Jack
informs her that he’ll pick her up on the way.
Owen has no idea what to
expect when he arrives at the venue, and he certainly wasn’t expecting to see
grown men fighting each other before bouts in the cage with a weevil. Each man has to pay £1000 to go in the ring,
the winner takes the lot if he stays in the longest. Lynch tells Owen that the guy in the ring who
died, didn’t want to come out, it was as if he wanted to die. Owen tells Lynch that this has to stop before
someone else dies. He strides away Lynch
goes after him and asks him how long Owen is going to do this, the lies, the
bullshit, he knows Owen is hiding something, and pulls a gun on him,
instructing him to get in the cage.
Owen tells him he will
so long as Lynch puts the gun down.
Removing his jacket, psyching himself up, Owen goes down to the cage and
steps inside, facing the weevil. The crowd cheer until the doors close, then
they watch with baited breath.
Owen closes his eyes and
makes peace with himself before Jack and Torchwood come crashing through the
doors and fire warning shots, demanding they stop what they’re doing. But it takes Owen by surprise and he glances
towards his team as the weevil charges towards him and takes him down, mauling
him as he screams on the ground. Jack has no alternative but to shoot the
weevil. Catching it in the arm, the
weevil withdraws and Owen is taken out of the cage. Lynch can’t believe how calm Owen was and
steps into the cage with the injured weevil.
Jack nods to the weevil to finish the man off.
He calls to the men in
the room to go home and that the fight club is now closed.
In hospital Jack tosses
a bag of grapes onto the table in front of Owen, who looks up at him. Owen is battered and bruised, and tells him
he shouldn’t have.
“I
hate grapes.”
He confesses to Jack
that he didn’t want saving.
Jack shrugs “Do you want us to apologise?”
“For
a few seconds in that cage I felt totally at peace and then you blunder
in. Do you always know best Jack? Is
that what you believe?”
Not wishing to engage in
an argument with Owen Jack ends the conversation abruptly before leaving.
“I
want you back in work tomorrow.”
When Owen returns to
work he visits the weevils down in the cells and as they snarl at him, he snarls
back and mocks them. They huddle in the
dark confines of their cells and moan to each other. Owen smirks darkly.
King of the Weevils.
©BBC Torchwood 2006
