They Keep Killing Suzie

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08 - They Keep Killing Suzie
Writer Paul Tomalin
Dan McCulloch
Director James Strong
Script Editor Brian Minchin
Producer Richard Stokes
Chris Chibnall (co-producer)
Executive producer(s) Russell T. Davies
Julie Gardner
Production code Series 1, Episode 8
Series Series 1
Length 50 mins
Transmission date 3 December 2006
Preceded by Greeks Bearing Gifts
Followed by Random Shoes
IMDb profile

They Keep Killing Suzie is an episode in the British science fiction television series Torchwood. It is the eighth episode of the series, which was broadcast on 3 December 2006.

Contents

[edit] Synopsis

Gwen investigates a serial killer using alien technology; but both the killer and the device hold dangers.

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.
The return of Suzie Costello.
Enlarge
The return of Suzie Costello.

The Torchwood team arrive at a suburban house, cordoned off by police as a crime scene. The detective in charge, Kathy Swanson, seems none too pleased by Torchwood's freedom to go wherever they please. There has been a double murder — the occupants of the house, the Briscoes, are in bed with their throats brutally slashed. A similar murder, that of Alex Arwyn, happened the day before. However, there is an added detail: the word "TORCHWOOD" written on the wall in blood…

There appears to be no connection between the murder victims. Tosh completes a DNA analysis on a sample of the killer's hair left at the scene and finds it contains compound "B67", which Owen identifies as "Retcon", the active ingredient used in the amnesia pill. Back at the Hub, the team conclude that the killer is someone they gave the amnesia pill to. If the pill causes psychosis, any one or more of the 2008 people who have been given Retcon could snap. Gwen suggests finding the link between the murders by using the Resurrection Gauntlet to ask the victims themselves. Despite Owen's misgivings due to what it did to Suzie Costello, Jack relents after Gwen points out that the murders are happening because of Torchwood.

Jack tries to use the glove on Alex, but to no avail. Everyone else is reluctant to use the glove as they have tried it before, all except Gwen. The glove responds to her, and Alex briefly comes back to life, but gives no useful information before he dies again. Their second try, on Mark Briscoe, yields the fact that their attacker was a man named "Max" who went to something called "Pilgrim". Jack presses Mark for more, and Mark reveals that Max knew someone else from the group better: "Suzie".

Tosh digs up information on Pilgrim, a religious support group run by Mark's wife Sarah. The team go to the lock up where Suzie's belongings are kept, according to Torchwood rules. Among the boxes are a book of Emily Dickinson poems, and a Pilgrim flyer. Jack decides that it is time that Suzie came back.

Suzie's body is retrieved from cryo-storage and laid out on an autopsy table. Gwen's first attempt with the glove only gives flashes of Suzie's last moments. Tosh observes that the glove worked better when the alien knife was used to kill the victims. Jack cuts Suzie with the knife, but does not get a response until he stabs her in the chest with it. Suzie jerks back to life, furious that she has been brought back and that Gwen, of all people, is using the glove. Jack questions her about the Retcon pill and Max, but time starts to run out. Gwen tries to keep the connection open, but Suzie apparently dies again, and Gwen collapses. However, Ianto notes that even with the knife in her chest, Suzie is simply unconscious.

Jack questions Suzie, telling her it has been three months since her suicide. There is an entry wound beneath her chin and a larger exit wound at the back of her head. Suzie bitterly notes that not only has she been replaced, but the rest of the team are unwilling to face her. As Jack shows Suzie the photos of Pilgrim members, she points out one of them is missing: Lucy McKenzie, a blonde student who works at the Wolf Bar. Jack, Owen and Gwen go to the bar, keeping an eye out for Lucy as well as Max. Suzie and Tosh watch through a live video feed. Owen thinks he spots Max, but it turns out to be the wrong man. Suzie then sees the real Max with a knife and warns Gwen, just as Jack hits Max with a stun gun. Gwen thanks Suzie for saving her life.

Imprisoned at the Hub, Max is catatonic, except that saying the word "Torchwood" sends him into a rage for ten seconds. Jack questions Suzie about Max, finding out that she gave him Retcon once a week over two years, so she could have someone to talk to. Later, Gwen and Suzie talk alone. Suzie says that Gwen is better than she ever was in all respects, even at using the glove. Gwen has also replaced her in everything — including sleeping with Owen. As the two bond over their work at Torchwood, Suzie reveals that her father is dying of cancer and wishes she could see him. Gwen confronts Jack, blaming him for giving Suzie the glove when she had a dying father; of course she would become obsessed. Jack counters by telling Gwen that she felt so responsible for Suzie dying when she joined that Gwen brought her back to life permanently. They are both responsible.

Owen calls Jack away to show him an analysis of the images captured when Gwen used the glove. Life energy flowed from Gwen into the subjects, only to be stopped when the subject died again. However, in Suzie's case, the energy flow is continuing and draining the life out of Gwen so that Suzie can live. Jack decides the only way to save Gwen is to kill Suzie, but when he goes to check on them, they are both missing. Tosh picks them up at Gwen's car, but before the team can stop them, the Hub goes into lockdown, sealing them in. Gwen and Suzie drive off.

Wondering how Suzie managed to trigger a lockdown without having access to the computer, Jack and Owen find Max rocking himself in his cell, reciting the first line to Emily Dickinson's "Because I would not stop for death" over and over again. Jack theorises that the repeated line is a spoken command to the Hub's organic computer, long programmed into Max. Suzie had planned this all along: If she did not see Max for three months, Max's programming would send him on a murder spree and cause the team to eventually resurrect her. Max is a Trojan horse, set to shut down the Hub at an opportune time for Suzie to escape.

Gwen drives Suzie towards the hospital where Suzie's father is. Gwen asks Suzie about life after death, and Suzie tells her that there was nothing; only a darkness that seemed to envelop everything. However, she adds cryptically that there was something moving through the darkness. Gwen looks more and more haggard and tired.

Ianto manages to get an outside line by using the water tower of the Hub as a relay. Jack calls Kathy Swanson for help, who is amused to hear that the "mighty" Torchwood is trapped in their own base. Jack tells her that a team member is in danger, and Swanson agrees to help by getting a copy of the same book of poems they found at Suzie's lock up. Reading out lines from the poems is ineffective in reversing the lockdown, until Tosh suggests using the ISBN of the book. Although Jack points out that the keyboards are not working, Tosh tells him that the membrane of the organic computer beneath may still respond to the code. Entering the ISBN into the computer restores power to the Hub.

Inside Suzie's father's hospital room, Gwen staggers, finding blood at the back of her head. Suzie coldly states that Gwen is dying slowly from the gunshot wound that killed her the first time; Suzie's own wounds are healing and almost gone. Suzie goes over to her father's bed and wakes him. As he looks up at her in shock, Suzie pulls out his ventilator, causing him to gasp for air. Suzie takes Gwen away in a wheelchair as her father dies.

The team are tracking Gwen's car, with Jack and Owen in pursuit in the SUV. Suzie, while driving, calls Jack, who pleads with her for Gwen's life. Suzie apologises, but since life is all there is, she intends to continue living no matter the cost. Suzie and Gwen reach Hedley Point, where she intends to take the two of them onto a ferry to the outer islands, to keep running. Suzie drags Gwen down the pier, but Gwen collapses halfway at the same time Jack and Owen pull up. Suzie runs, with Jack in pursuit and Owen checking on Gwen, who appears not to be breathing.

At the end of the pier, Jack holds his revolver on Suzie, who taunts him, confident that he will not kill her since all that is left of Gwen is inside her. Jack proves otherwise by shooting Suzie in the chest. However, Gwen remains still while Suzie continues to live on, despite several more shots. Jack orders Tosh to destroy the glove. Suzie, laughing, tells Jack a secret: there is something moving in the darkness — and it is coming for him. Tosh destroys the gauntlet; Suzie cries out, her body jerking once, then falls motionless as Gwen gasps back to life.

Back at the Hub, Gwen seems recovered, and Jack and Ianto place Suzie's body back in storage. Ianto hints to Jack that he wants to spend time alone with him, and Jack asks Ianto to meet him at his office in ten minutes. Ianto wonders what he should put as Suzie's cause of death, given the number of ways she died, and Jack tells him to classify it as "Death by Torchwood". Ianto adds that he is thinking of placing a lock to prevent Suzie from coming back. Jack does not think that will happen, but as he turns to leave, Ianto points out that the thing about gloves is that they come in pairs…

[edit] Cast

[edit] Music

[edit] Continuity

  • The recap at the start of the episode comprises scenes from Everything Changes, which is referenced throughout this episode. This episode takes place three months after the events of Everything Changes.
  • Although the amnesia pill was mentioned in Everything Changes, this episode is the first time that its "magic ingredient" has been named.
  • 3-D glasses similar to those seen in Doctor Who episodes Army of Ghosts/Doomsday are seen hanging on Jack's lamp. According to the tour of Torchwood in the Radio Times, they are not the same glasses, but are used the same way.
  • 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 implies that she slept with Owen prior to Everything Changes . The ending of the episode also hints that Jack and Ianto are in a sexual relationship.
  • When Gwen is dying from the same gunshot wound as Suzie, she has a wound in the back of her head like Suzie, but does not have one under her chin. Although Suzie's chin wound heals before her head wound, and so Gwen gets the head wound first, so it could be that the chin wound comes last.
  • The ISBN quoted in the show does not match the book shown on screen. ISBN 0-19-860-0585 refers to the "Oxford Dictionary of Quotations". In real life the edition of the book of poems shown has ISBN 0-571-108-644.
  • 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.
  • Suzie kisses Gwen good-bye as she leaves Gwen's body on the pier. All the Torchwood personnel have now had a same-sex kiss, although the kiss between Gwen and Carys in Day One was chemically induced, the kiss between Jack and Ianto in Cyberwoman was a kiss of life to save Ianto's life, and the kiss between Suzie and Gwen seen here is not reciprocated by Gwen, who is unconscious at the time, and it is not clear whether it is sexually motivated.
  • At the end of the episode Ianto reminds Jack that "gloves come in pairs", hinting that the resurrection glove may be revisited again at some point.

[edit] Production

  • The episode was originally titled They Keep Killing. This may have been to keep the events of the first episode (Everything Changes) or this episode secret until its airing.
  • This episode was originally planned to be a "overcommission" episode, for use in the case of emergency or as a potential second series episode. However Russell T Davies was sufficiently impressed with the writing to produce it conventionally.[1]
  • Yasmin Bannerman, who played Jabe in the Doctor Who episode The End of the World, plays police detective Kathy Swanson in this episode.
  • The couple who are killed at the start of the episode are identified as Mark and Sarah "Briscoe" on Tosh's computer, but the end credits spell their name as "Brisco" instead.
  • The implication that there may be a second glove was not present in the original script and is an addition by Davies.[1]

[edit] Outside references

  • The poem Because I could not stop for Death — by Emily Dickinson is recited by a character in the episode.
  • Suzie's line, "Captain! my Captain!", is a quote from the poem O Captain! My Captain! by Walt Whitman.
  • The Briscoes may be a possible reference to the character of Briscoe in The Quatermass Experiment, the 2005 remake of which featured Indira Varma.
  • A plot point is based around a drug called Retcon — named after the fannish/critical term retcon, for "retroactive continuity". This is appropriate for the amnesia pill because it rewrites memories. Additionally, by revealing aspects of Suzie's scheme not made known previously, this episode can be said to be a retcon itself.
  • The title "They Keep Killing Suzie" echoes "They Keep Killing Steed", an episode of The Avengers.

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Shannon Sullivan (2006-12-05). A Brief History Of Time (Travel): They Keep Killing Suzie. Retrieved on 2006-12-05.

[edit] External links

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