Using alien technology to interrogate the victims of a serial killer, Gwen learns that the common link is dangerously close to home. And the resurrection device has a deadly secret of its own.
Originally Titled They Keep Killing
(Probably never actually titled this, but all pre-release information omitted ‘Suzie’ from the title in an effort to save the surprise. The full title may be a reference to The Avengers episode They Keep Killing Steed.)
Length 52’43”
First Transmitted
10pm, 3rd December 2006, BBC Three and BBC HD 9 pm, 6th December 2006, BBC Two
Guest Cast
Indira Varma (Suzie [Costello]); Yasmin Bannerman ([Kathy] Swanson); Daniel Llewelyn-Williams (Alex Arwyn); Gary Pillai (Mark Brisco); Shend (Max [Ruzyllyon]); Badi Uzzaman (Suzie’s Father).
Writers Paul Tomalin & Daniel McCulloch
Director James Strong
Setting
Cardiff (including the Bay, Greenleaves Hospital and Hedley Point), across two days, three months after the events of Everything Changes (Autumn 2007), so late 2007 or early 2008.
Did You Spot?
Jack says “Not the right time for a séance…” to Gwen – Eve Myles’ character, Gwyneth, from Doctor Who in The Unquiet Dead (2005) conducted a séance to communicate with the Gelth creatures. For the first time, an episode begins with a flashback sequence, full of clips from Everything Changes and merging seamlessly in from the usual saga sell. The return of B67 (aka RetCon), the amnesia pill from the first episode. Suzie confirms there’s “nothing” out there in death, just as the very first victim we saw in Everything Changes.
Twisted Reality
Owen references the 1973 movie Mean Streets. The Resurrection Glove seems to now be inspired strongly by the alien healing device in Babylon 5, first seen in The Quality of Mercy (1994). Max quotes the Emily Dickinson (1830-86) poem ‘The Chariot’ (1856) to lock down The Hub. The copy of The Complete Works of Emily Dickinson is the current imprint, first published in 1975, and the only imprint available at this time – making the ISBN “guess” slightly more plausible than if there were multiple ones in circulation – it also retails at £20, as Swanson comments. Greenleaves Hospital doesn’t really exist, nor does Hedley Point/Quay. “Captain, my captain” is a misquote of ‘O Captain! My Captain!’, a poem written by Walt Whitman
Love is in the Air
Jack flirts with Swanson. Sarah and Mark Brsisco died in bed together. Gwen suggests she might leave all her possessions to Rhys in her will – Owen doesn’t bat an eyelid at this reference to her supposed-boyfriend, solidifying their casual status. Owen and Suzie slept together (Jack seems to know this – he gives Owen a look when he asks if anyone else wants to leave before they resurrect her), but Gwen doesn’t admit to her if she has. Jack had a dramatic boyfriend once – half of a pair of twin acrobats. Suzie toys with Jack’s feelings for Gwen, asking if he’d kill her if she hosted the only remaining parts of Cooper. Owen doesn’t seem as happy as he should be about Gwen’s return from near-death. What’s that look Gwen gives Jack when he enters at the end? (Although perhaps that’s just the music giving the impression of something more). And just what do Jack and Ianto get up to after everyone goes home? And what, exactly, are they timing with the stopwatch?
If it’s Alien, it’s Ours
The Resurrection Gauntlet (aka the Risen Mitten) returns, with more information as to its source: it fell through the rift 40 years ago and lay at the bottom of the bay until it was found by Torchwood. The alien knife also returns, now renamed the Life Knife, and is seemingly linked to the glove, or at the very least made from the same metal.
Captain Jack’s Large Weapon
Jack brandishes the “Life Knife” and the stun gun at different points, and then repeatedly shoots his pistol into Suzie’s back and chest.
Torchwood Shop: Now Open for Business
The pre-printed Torchwood boxes.
Cymru am Byth
More flack jackets and Police cards missing the ‘Heddlu’ translation.
To Live and Die in Cardiff
Alex Arwyn, 28, is killed prior to the episode’s start, followed by Mark and Sarah Briscoe, 33 (the first two of whom are briefly resurrected). Suzie Costello, repeatedly. And Suzie Costello’s father (who was dying of cancer).
Sounds Brilliant
At the Wolf Bar, ‘Red is the New Black’ by Funeral for a Friend can be heard, a track from their fourth EP, 2003’s Seven Ways to Scream Your Name. In the final moments of the episode, Lamb’s ‘Gorecki’ is used – this was the fourth single, released in 1997, from their first album Lamb, also released in 1997. We also hear ‘Sing’ by Travis again. While Gwen is driving Suzie to see her father, ‘Solely, Solely’ by Middle of the Road is the song that Suzie says her mother used to sing to her.
Quotables
“At last; you must be Torchwood. My team bitch about you all the time.” – Swanson
“I’m Captain Jack Harkness.” – Jack
“So I’ve heard. Tell me something, are you always this dressy for a murder investigation?” Swanson
“What, you’d rather me naked?” – Jack
“God help me, the stories are true.” – Swanson
“It was only a matter of time.” – Swanson
“What was?” – Jack
“Torchwood walks all over this city like you own it. Now these people are paying the price. Ordinary people, ripped apart with your name written in their own blood! From where I’m standing you did this Captain Jack Harkness. You did it.” – Swanson
“Give Ianto a stopwatch and he’s happy.” – Owen
“It’s the button on the top.” – Ianto
“Have I got this right? When I die you get to keep all my possessions? My whole life’s gonna get stashed in a locker.” – Gwen
“Rules and regulations.” – Jack
“What if I leave all my stuff to Rhys?” – Gwen
“We’ll stash him away too. Tread carefully people, with respect. This is the life of Suzie Costello.” – Jack
“That’s the glove, Gwen. Get’s inside your mind.” – Suzie
“Yeah, alright, Suzie, stop creeping me out.” – Gwen
“What if she never dies? Have you thought of that? Like, undying forever, just you and her?” – Gwen
“No way.” – Jack
“Could be.” – Gwen
“I wouldn’t wish that on her. I’d sooner kill her right now.” – Jack
“Could you though – kill her?” – Gwen
“Yeah.” – Jack
“Really?” – Gwen
“Oh yeah!” – Jack
“But if there’s nothing… what’s the point of it all?” – Gwen
“This is. Driving through the dark. All this stupid tiny stuff. We’re just animals, howling in the night. Because it’s better than silence.” – Suzie
“Captain, my captain,.do you want to know a secret? There’s something moving in the dark. And, it’s coming. Jack Harkness, it’s coming for you.” – Suzie
“Oh, Jack, what do you want me to say on the death certificate?” – Ianto
“Good question.” – Jack “She had quite a few deaths in the end.” – Ianto
“I don’t know. Death by Torchwood” – Jack
“That’s the thing about gloves, sir – the come in pairs” – Ianto
Weren’t You In?
Yasmin Bannerman has been seen in an episode of Red Dwarf (1999), several episodes of Cold Feet (2000), several of Mersey Beat (2002) and the Doctor Who episode The End of the World (2005). Badi Uzzaman has a lengthy career of bit-parts in the last 20 years, his 50+ credits including appearances in Boon (1986), The Bill (1985-90), K2 (1992), Son of the Pink Panther (1993), Cracker (1994), Hetty Wainthrop Investigates (1997), Kevin and Perry Go Large (2000), Clocking Off (2003) and Life Isn’t All Ha Ha Hee Hee (2005). Shend (sometimes credited as The Shend, born as Chris Harz) also over 30 small roles to his name since 1989, including Boon (1990), The Detectives (1994), Johnny and the Dead (1995), Big Train (1998), a semi-regular role in Red Dwarf (1999), and Hogfather (2006).
Unanswered Questions
The slow demystification of Torchwood continues, as it seems Cardiff police “bitch about [them] all the time”. Why are the police only getting involved with the murder of Alex as all the other members of Pilgrim had previously been murdered also? Torchwood “walks all over the city like they own it” – just how much do they liaise with the police? Why had Gwen never heard of them before the events in Everything Changes? How does Ianto know off the top of his head how many people they have given Retcon pills to? The glove washed up in the rift 40 years ago – who does it belong to? Why, for such a high-tech organisation, are they using such an antiquated stopwatch? Does it have an emotional significance for Ianto? It looked like Mark had his throat slit, so how is he able to talk when brought back? For that matter, how is Suzie able to think or function at all with half her brain blown away? It seems odd that Mark would so clearly remember Max hanging out so much with Suzie as she’s been dead for three months – had Max continued to show up for Pilgrim meetings? Did Gwen not check her contract when she signed up? Torchwood owning all her property is a fairly significant point for her to miss. Who stashed away Suzie’s possessions? Why are some of the boxes of Suzie’s possessions left open, especially as some are shrink-wrapped? And, how does Toshiko find the Pilgrim flyer so quickly? What happened between Tosh and Suzie that she was so unwilling to look her in the eye? Was it really just because of her attitude to the job? How will Owen use the knowledge that Suzie thought she killed Jack? Has he started to work out Jack may not be mortal? If the knife completes the circuit, why does removing it not kill her again (especially as destroying the glove worked so well at the story’s conclusion)? What happened to Suzie while she was dead – how conscious of the passage of time was she? In the intervening three months she’s become extremely bitter. Was Suzie really just talking to Max for the two years, or did she spend the whole time ‘programming’ him? Her whole plan hinged on someone being able to use the glove to bring her back to life, (since destroying Torchwood after her death would form no purpose otherwise), but they seem to have only had it a short amount of time in Everything Changes, as the murders have only just started. The string of events that needed to follow in a particular order (for example, what if Max had locked down Torchwood before Gwen had got Suzie out) is also particularly coincidental. In three months did Toshiko never spot the backdoor Suzie set up? Why does Max try to stab Gwen? Why is Max unable to communicate at all? Is he ever going to get better? Why is Gwen the only one not involved in the video replay of Suzie’s resurrection? Owen calls Jack to the meeting, but not Gwen? Jack says Gwen is “getting herself fired” by taking Suzie away in the car – this despite Ianto still having a job after the events of Cyberwoman. If Suzie can’t walk on her own when her and Gwen leave Torchwood, why does Gwen leave the wheel chair behind (and how does she get a new wheel chair at the hospital so easily)? Why does Jack call the police instead of another branch of Torchwood? Or Gwen for that matter? Where did Swanson get the book from at that time of night? If Swanson was so dubious about Torchwood, why is she suddenly so willing to give them clearance on the roads? How much did Jack explain the situation that she trusts them enough to do this? Have they been instructed to bow to Torchwood? If so, by whom? How is Suzie so certain of the details of the Resurrection Glove’s powers (such as Gwen getting “shot in the head… slowly.”), especially after knowing so little about the glove in Everything Changes? Why is Suzie trying to take Gwen on the ferry if she’s just going to die? Why not leave her in the car? What does “Code 5” stand for? Does Ianto know anything about the other glove?
Fuck Ups
Swanson talks about the latest victims in the present tense. When Gwen is laying out the photos of the Pilgrim group she lays out one or two, but when we cut to Owen’s perspective several more photos have been laid out across the whole table. Suzie looks remarkably good for a corpse killed by a self-inflicted gunshot wound at such short range. Given the angle she shot herself, the exit wound also seems all wrong. If bringing the corpses back to life actually restarts their hearts, how can stabbing Suzie directly in the chest help to bring her back to life? How is Suzie wheeled into the interrogation room? There is no visible lift – only stairs. In Cyberwoman when the hub goes into lockdown, it was said that it would take 6 hours to bring everything back – how is it brought back up so quickly, using a dead keyboard no less? Two police officers have left their desk and left their monitors unlocked with Outlook open – seemingly Cardiff Police haven’t heard of security, and they both seem to have identical desktops (watch the beginning of Swanson’s second appearance, and then over her shoulder as she claims “it’s gonna be a long night”). Although they go to such great lengths to get the cover price (£20) right for the Complete Works of Emily Dickinson, the ISBN they quote (0198600585) is actually for The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations. It’s 0571108644 that they need to break the lockdown. The radio is suddenly switched off in the next scene with Gwen and Suzie in the car. Did they get bored so quickly? And we’re not entirely certain how Toshiko uses a powerless keyboard by pressing the membrane beneath the keys, although the semi-canonical torchwood.org.uk website does explain that the computer infrastructure is part-organic, which may explain it. A cancer patient would rarely die so quickly on having their breathing tube removed, though, we are never told what sort of cancer he has (such as lung cancer) if this would be the case for him. How can the police give Torchwood priority road access when their van isn’t too clearly marked? In the SUV at early dawn, Owen says that Gwen has “minutes” and then next scene at the docks is in broad daylight. Although, as quite large chunks of time are not shown on screen, it is possible that the car chase took place very early in the morning, implying that a sunrise could have taken place off screen. However the shadows of the pair as they walk up the pier are about the same length as the pair are tall, which would put the sun at about 45 degrees, about 3 hours above the horizon. Why isn’t Gwen more visibly bleeding when we see her in the daylight if there was already so much blood on her hand in the hospital? Also, even if they just chose not to show the blood, presumably she still would have lost it, so her jumping back to life after the connection is broken is inconceivable. How does a gunshot shatter a metal glove?
Torchwood: Declassifed Episode 7 (Length: 10”22)
Broadcast BBC Three, Monday 27th November, 1:40am.
Russell T Davies, Richard Stokes, John Barrowman, Burn Gorman and Gareth David-Lloyd tell us what a dark story this is.
Davies informs us Suzie was always planned to return, David-Lloyd describes Suzie’s character as “fascinating”, Barrowman talks about it being a continuation of the first episode, James Strong, Gorman and Davies talk about the implications of bringing her back.
Barrowman, Naoko Mori, David-Lloyd, Stokes and Davies describe the evils of the glove and Gwen’s special abilities.
Davies hints that the other glove might be back.
Davies covers Gwen and Suzie facing off while Strong, David-Lloyd, Barrowman, Eve Myles and Davies covers Gwen’s place in Torchwood and her betrayal in this episode.
Strong looks at Suzie’s motivation and giving the episode a cinematic feel.
Finally, Davies talks about the first image he had of the show then Myles and Paul Chequer preview the following episode.
Site Review by Rob Tizzard
With the opening of this week’s episode, it feels we’ve been dazed and confused and headed off on a whirlwind of different avenues, only to be jerked right back to the beginning for a little reminder of the potential darkness of the heroes. We’re reminded of Suzie, who was second in command of Torchwood back in episode one, until she began killing people and eventually shot herself.
From last week’s trailer and general mood of the first half of this episode, you get the feeling of a quiet little side step to give this character the fuller story she deserves. Yes, Suzie’s back from the dead, this is science fiction after all, and it seemed for a few moments like it was for good. So they hadn’t tricked us, Suzie is to be part of the team, and instantly one of the most fascinating. I for one am thrilled to have her back, not knowing she was going in the first place.
It soon becomes clear she can not be back for good, as the true nature of what she has become through her service to Torchwood becomes clear. This isn’t just a reminder of the potential danger each of the team pose to each other, it’s a brightly coloured oil painting of the darkness they are exposing themselves to. This isn’t a job you can ever leave, many might wonder why Ianto or Tosh were not fired after their mistakes, the simple reason being they can’t be. Once you are with Torchwood, it’s for good, even after death.
This is only just becoming clear to Gwen, who wakes up with a start in this episode, back to her empathic best. But this is because it forms a crucial part of the story and the parallels between the two women is broadly displayed for all to see. The end is just pure dark, much darker than I thought Torchwood would go, we’re talking Hellraiser/Event Horizon here. Suzie has become ruthless, desperately running from something and will do anything to escape it.
Suzie’s whole plan is thrilling when uncovered, if not a little too easy for the team to figure out. And she keeps mentioning Jack coming back to life, would her plan have worked if he had died or if he had worn the glove? Suzie is a brilliant character and even though she was only back for a brief time, I hope we haven’t seen the last of her, either in flash back, through time travel or the other half of the pair of gloves… This is the only episode of Torchwood, and even counting all of the new series of Doctor Who, that I have had a desperate urge to watch again straight afterwards… and I did. I defy any regular viewers to not be hooked now!
Reader Reviews
With a title that gives a definite nod towards The Avengers’ They Keep Killing Steed, I half expected a little light relief from They Keep Killing Suzie. My prediction proved somewhat wide of the mark, the episode being a bleak, uncompromising affair – maybe I should have paid more attention to the fleeting glimpses of blood, gore and violence seen in the ‘next week’ teaser that closed Greeks Bearing Gifts!
Suzie’s back – and she’s even meaner than last time! Aside from triggering Max to viciously murder members of her Pilgrim group, she also manages to kill her father once revived and shows only a modicum of remorse for Gwen, who is the only person at Torchwood who displays any genuine concern for her, when it boils down to whether it is Gwen or herself that should die.
Unfortunately, the episode is not without its rather glaring faults. Suzie’s failsafe plot seemed more than a little implausible, particularly considering that as the team member who had the only real success with the Resurrection Glove, she could hardly rely on anyone being able to bring her back. Gwen being there was a fluke she would not have anticipated while plotting her scheme. When you also consider that Suzie would have been aware that up to that point, no-one had been revived for more than two minutes, the whole idea just falls apart. As if that wasn’t enough, if she’s blown her brain out, how is it that when revived, she’s not a gibbering idiot (even allowing for her having miraculously failed to blow out her tongue, considering to the bullet’s entry point)? As has been mentioned elsewhere here, the speed at which the lockdown is reversed is at odds with information provided just a few episodes previous, and there is no doubt that the Torchwood crew worked how to override Suzie’s tampering much, much too quickly. Finally, a continuity cock-up of Ed Wood magnitude appears in this episode, where a night-time car chase cuts to a daylight scene at Hedley Point, which cannot be more than 40 minutes later than the previous shot. Maybe an ill-considered homage to Plan Nine from Outer Space?
Despite these drawbacks, the episode is effective, and certain elements, such as the suggestion that Gwen can inherit the gunshot wound that Suzie suffered when committing suicide, due to the connection between them and the glove, is pretty nasty – quite a terrifying idea. It’s good to see Suzie back after we were tricked into thinking she’d be part of the team in Everything Changes, and Indira Varma does not waste her chance to shine upon her brief return to Torchwood.
As in Everything Changes, the subject of the experience of death is tackled in this story, and Russell T. Davies’ atheist leanings clearly come to the fore once more. Nothing is out there. Except, it seems, something dark and nasty that is coming for Jack. Intriguing!
An effective episode that is spoiled, at least to an extent, by a flawed central premise and a bizarre continuity error that should never have got through to broadcast.
Alan Hayes
