Greeks Bearing Gifts (Torchwood)
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| 07 - Greeks Bearing Gifts | |
| Writer | Toby Whithouse |
|---|---|
| Director | Colin Teague |
| Script Editor | Brian Minchin |
| Producer | Richard Stokes Chris Chibnall (co-producer) |
| Executive producer(s) | Russell T Davies Julie Gardner |
| Production code | Series 1, Episode 7 |
| Series | Series 1 |
| Length | 50 mins |
| Transmission date | 26 November 2006 |
| Preceded by | Countrycide |
| Followed by | They Keep Killing Suzie |
| IMDb profile | |
Greeks Bearing Gifts is an episode of the British science fiction television series Torchwood. It is the seventh episode of the first series, which was broadcast on 26 November 2006.
Contents |
[edit] Synopsis
Faced with sudden telepathic abilities, Toshiko finds a mixed blessing when the dark secrets of others are revealed to her.
[edit] Plot
Cardiff, 1812. A prostitute named Mary and an English soldier go into the woods. He slaps her and she scratches his face in retaliation. Mary runs deeper into the woods, until she hears a high-pitched sound accompanied by a glowing light ahead. When the soldier, flintlock pistol drawn, catches up to her, she turns to smile at him. He raises his pistol and fires. Nearly two centuries later, the Torchwood team arrive at a building site and go inside a tent, unaware that Mary, dressed in contemporary clothes and looking not a day older, is just beyond a barrier, watching…
Inside the tent, the team examine a rusted alien artefact next to a skeleton. Owen identifies the skeleton as belonging to a woman, and by the shattered ribs, believes that she was shot. Tosh estimates from the depth that the skeleton and artefact were discovered that they have been there for nearly 197 years. Jack tells them to get the find back to the Hub. Gwen flirts with Owen, which Tosh notices. Back at the Hub, Owen and Gwen's horseplay accidentally kicks out the power to Tosh's computer, interrupting a translation programme she was running. When Tosh complains, Owen accuses her of being too uptight.
Frustrated, Tosh goes to a pub for a drink. Mary strides right up to Tosh on the pretext of wanting to get away from a man staring at her, but soon reveals that she knows all about Tosh, her background, and Torchwood. Tosh asks how Mary knows this, and she claims that she is a "Scavenger", one of a number of individuals who collect alien objects. Despite her better judgement, Tosh ends up going with Mary and talking about her work and how the other members of the team do not look at the discoveries they make the same way she does.
Mary shows Tosh a pendant, and when Tosh puts it on, she is overwhelmed by voices, hearing the thoughts of people around her. Mary tells Tosh to focus on her voice, and the voices subside, but Tosh is startled to hear Mary thinking she would like to kiss her. Mary tells her that the pendant is a family heirloom, and she wants Tosh to have it. At first, Tosh refuses, but Mary says that she has had it too long — one hears too much, and it changes the way one sees people. Tosh says that she will have to show it to the others, but Mary seems confident that she will not.
Back at the Hub, Tosh wears the pendant. She starts to tell Owen and Gwen about it, but is shocked to hear their thoughts about their affair. She also hears how much emotional pain Ianto is in. Returning home, Tosh finds Mary waiting outside. Tosh is upset at what she has heard about her colleagues' opinions of her. Mary assures her that people are complicated and that they may not even be aware of such thoughts. Mary replaces the pendant on Tosh, who hears Mary's thoughts about making love to her. After a moment's hesitation, Tosh grabs Mary and kisses her.
Later, Tosh lies in bed, undressed and seemingly feeling guilty at what just happened. Mary sees an old birthday card from Owen and deduces Tosh's feelings for him, feelings Tosh now knows are not reciprocated, thanks to the pendant. Although Tosh is upset, Mary tells her that the pendant can do good as well. Tosh asks Mary who she really is, and Mary gives her another name: Philoctetes. She then persuades Tosh to wear the pendant in a public place.
Tosh does so, and among through the hubbub of thoughts, hears a man, Neil, thinking about killing his ex-wife Mary and their son Danny. Tosh follows him to Mary's house and before Neil can shoot them with a shotgun, knocks him out with a golf club, saving them both.
Back at the Hub, Tosh finds the others making fun of Owen. It turns out his initial opinion of the skeleton was wrong: it is actually a man's skeleton, and the wound was caused by an unidentified trauma, not a gunshot wound. Tosh asks Jack about "Philoctetes", and he tells her that the name refers to a character in Greek mythology who was exiled to the island of Lemnos.
Tosh meets Mary at a café, where she asks Tosh about the artefact from the building site. When Tosh says that Jack is looking after that aspect, Mary intimates that he is keeping things from her. Tosh returns to the Hub, where Jack asks her about her heroic acts earlier. Tosh tries to play it down, but Jack finds it odd that a man who was planning murder would say it out loud so that it could be heard. Tosh asks Jack about the artefact but he says that he is still looking into it. When she tries to read his mind, she is unable to do so, although Jack appears to sense something. Disturbed, Tosh leaves.
Back at home, Tosh tells Mary how guilty she feels about spying on her friends, and says she is going to give them the pendant. Mary tells her that if Tosh brings her to Torchwood, she will not come out again, and reveals her true form as an alien. Reverting to human form, Mary tells Tosh that she is a dissident from her world, sentenced to exile. The pendant is the way her people communicate, and the artefact they found is the transporter that brought her here — and can get her back, now that enough time has passed for a new government to be in power. Tosh says Torchwood can help, but Mary refuses, saying that they will only be interested in locking her up.
Tosh wears the pendant and walks through the city again, hearing the innermost thoughts of people. Breaking down, she tells Mary about how overwhelmed she feels. Meanwhile, Owen searches databases for corpses with similar wounds, and finds a series of killings, all with their rib cages smashed and their hearts removed, dating back decades. He calls Jack. Tosh asks Mary what to do, and Mary tells Tosh to get her into Torchwood.
Tosh takes Mary into the Hub, but Jack shows up with the artefact in hand. When Tosh tries to explain, Jack reveals that the artefact is a two-man transporter: for one prisoner and one guard. Mary admits that she killed the guard, but was disturbed. In flashback, the prostitute Mary comes across the alien in the woods, and the alien enters her body. The soldier comes along and shoots Mary, but she moves at superhuman speed towards him, plunges her hand into his chest and rips out his heart. She has been killing and feeding ever since, to preserve her human body.
When the other team members try to close in on her, Mary speeds towards the weapons room, grabbing a knife and holding it to Tosh's throat. Mary offers to exchange Tosh for the transporter, and Jack agrees. When Mary lets Tosh go, Jack places the artefact in her hands, and it activates. Jack reveals that he has reprogrammed the coordinates, and instead of taking Mary home, it transports her into the centre of the Sun.
Later, Gwen and Owen talk to Tosh about what she heard, and she replies that it was none of her business. Tosh apologises to Gwen for invading her privacy, and Gwen admits that neither of them have the moral high ground; she, too, is living with her betrayal (of Rhys). She tells Tosh not to let the experience put her off — being in love for the last couple of days suited her.
Sitting with Tosh at Roald Dahl Plass, Jack gives her the choice as to what to do with the pendant, and she crushes it under her heel. She asks him why she was unable to hear his thoughts, and Jack claims he does not know, although he could feel her trying to probe him. Tosh remarks that it was like reading a dead man, and Jack does not reply. Tosh, tearing up, asks how she will be able to live with what she has seen in the people around her. Although Jack tells her that she only got a snapshot of things people were not meant to know, Tosh continues to wonder.
[edit] Cast
- Captain Jack Harkness — John Barrowman
- Gwen Cooper — Eve Myles
- Owen Harper — Burn Gorman
- Toshiko Sato — Naoko Mori
- Ianto Jones — Gareth David-Lloyd
- Mary — Daniela Denby-Ashe
- Soldier — Tom Robertson
- Neil — Ravin J Ganatra
- Carol — Eiry Thomas
- Danny — Shaheen Jafargholi
- Weevil — Paul Kasey
[edit] Music
- The songs "Spitting Games" by Snow Patrol, (last heard in Everything Changes), "Sing" by Travis, (last heard in Ghost Machine), "Drag" by Placebo and "Suddenly I See" by KT Tunstall feature in this episode.
[edit] Continuity
- Tosh estimates that the skeleton and artefact have been lying at the building site for "196 years, 11 to 11 and a half months." This would appear to place the episode in at least 2008 or 2009, but Tosh also admits that as the earth has been disturbed, she cannot be "more accurate".
- Ianto is revealed still to be thinking about Lisa.
- A pair of 3-D glasses, originally used by the Tenth Doctor in Doomsday and seen in Small Worlds, makes another fleeting appearance. Also visible is a a rifle used against the Daleks in Doomsday.
- A man of questionable mental state is said to be having visions of Cybermen.
- Jack has asked Toshiko to prepare "a list" for UNIT, the first verbal mention of that organization in the series.
- Jack speaks to the Prime Minister on the telephone, although it is not clear if it is still Harriet Jones.
- Toshiko is revealed to be bisexual in this episode. All the principal characters have now had a same sex kiss (although the kiss between Gwen and Carys in Day One was chemically induced and the kiss between Jack and Ianto in Cyberwoman was a kiss of life to save Ianto's life).
- Some scan images of the Cyberwoman are in the autopsy room where the body they find is being held.
- Gwen's boyfriend Rhys, (Kai Owen), does not appear in this episode. It is the first episode since the start of the series he has not appeared in.
- Toshiko now knows about the affair between Gwen and Owen, first seen at the end of Countrycide.
[edit] Outside references
- James Bond and the film Alien are referenced.
- Mary quotes the poem Kubla Khan by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. The historical Kublai Khan appeared in the First Doctor serial Marco Polo (1964).
- The overheard thought "Five cigarettes today ... all post-coital" is a quote from Bridget Jones's Diary.
- Gwen teases Owen by calling him "Amanda Burton", in reference to that actress's role as a pathologist in the BBC drama series Silent Witness. She also imitates the sound played when contestants give an incorrect answer in the game show Family Fortunes.
- This episode has similarities to the Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode "Earshot". In both stories, a person given temporary telepathic abilities uncovers a secret sexual relationship (Owen and Gwen/Giles and Joyce), successfully stops a murderer (Neil/the lunch lady) and fails to read the mind of a sort-of-dead character (Jack/Angel).
