Countrycide

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06 – "Countrycide"
Torchwood episode

A grisly find in the woods.
Cast
Guest stars
Production
Writer Chris Chibnall
Director Andy Goddard
Script editor Brian Minchin
Producer Richard Stokes
Chris Chibnall (co-producer)
Executive producer(s) Russell T Davies
Julie Gardner
Production code 1.6
Series Series 1
Length 50 mins
Originally broadcast 19 November 2006
Chronology
← Preceded by Followed by →
"Small Worlds" "Greeks Bearing Gifts"
IMDb profile

"Countrycide" is an episode of the British science fiction television series Torchwood. It is the sixth episode of the first series, which was broadcast on 19 November 2006

Contents

[edit] Synopsis

The separated Torchwood team is at the mercy of hunters, playing a game of cat and mouse in an old village in the Brecon Beacons.

[edit] Plot

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A young woman, Ellie Johnson, drives along a lonely road winding through the Brecon Beacons at night. She spots what appears to be a body in the road and stops. Discovering it is just a pile of clothes and a football arranged to look like a body, she retreats to her car, locking herself in, but finds her tires flat and her car keys missing. The car remote activates, unlocking the doors, and a hooded figure reaches in and attacks her…

The Torchwood team drive their Range Rover along the same country road as Owen complains about the countryside. They are investigating the disappearance of 17 people within a 20-mile radius, with no apparent pattern as to why these people were taken. Gwen wonders if the Rift has spread out this far, and Jack admits that they do not know, especially since its activity is increasing all the time. Jack decides to begin where Ellie Johnson's mobile phone signal gave out, and tells the others to set up camp.

Owen continues complaining about having to rough it as the team sets up their tents, unaware that they are being watched. Gwen tries to lighten the mood by asking everyone who the last person they kissed was. Owen reveals that his last kiss was Gwen (in "Cyberwoman"), raising everyone's eyebrows. Tosh asks for details, but Gwen simply replies that it was "complicated". Jack asks if the last kiss includes non-humans, making the others squirm. Ianto then breaks the mood by saying that his last kiss was Lisa. Gwen apologises for bringing the subject up. Owen suggests going for firewood, and Gwen joins him.

As they walk through the woods, Gwen scolds Owen for revealing their kiss, but Owen retorts that he could tell that her sex life with Rhys is unexciting because Rhys is too familiar. Owen and she, on the other hand, are not cosy, which is why the sex would be amazing, and why Gwen denies their mutual attraction. Although angry, the two nearly get into a clinch before she spots a hooded figure watching them through the trees. They pull their pistols, but the figure gets away. Gwen then sees something on the ground, covered with canvas. It is a body, stripped of its skin and internal organs.

The team gathers around the carcass. Owen concludes that it is a male corpse, and was killed elsewhere before being dumped at that spot. As Jack notes that this does not look like the work of the Weevils, they hear the sound of the SUV starting up. By the time they reach the camp site, they see the SUV being driven away, wrecking their tents as it does so. Ianto tracks the SUV's signal to a small village three and a half miles west. Realising that the carcass was a decoy, and despite suspecting a trap waiting for them, Jack decides to go anyway.

The team come across a village with no apparent signs of life. Jack sends Tosh and Ianto to look for the SUV while the rest investigate the pub, which they find empty. Going into the back kitchen, Gwen finds another body, this one only partially stripped of flesh. Jack and Gwen go on to investigate the next house, finding another body. Jack suggests they go on to the other houses. Meanwhile, Tosh and Ianto come across a locked building, behind which they find game animals hanging on the side of the building and the trees. Ianto points out that the SUV is further up the hill, but turns back to find Tosh gone. When he searches for her, a hooded figure pushes him to the ground.

The next house is locked, and when Gwen yanks the door open, a shotgun blast just skims her side leaving her wounded. Jack rushes in to discover a frightened young man, Kieran, wielding the shotgun. Kieran says that he thought "they" had come back for him but does not elaborate. Owen examines Gwen's wound and finds that, luckily, most of the pellets are lodged near the surface. Kieran babbles that "they" cannot be human; the only way is to barricade the door. While Owen extracts the pellets, he worries about Tosh and Ianto, but Jack says they can take care of themselves — the four of them will make their stand in the pub.

Tosh and Ianto are locked in an underground room, with chains and hooks hanging from the walls. Tosh finds multiple pairs of shoes and empty clothes tucked into a corner. She then spies a refrigerator and finds that it contains human body parts. The two realise that they are not captives: they are food.

Jack and Owen barricade the doors of the pub while Gwen catalogues what they know about the killings. Owen still believes that the Rift has dumped some kind of alien psychopaths in the countryside. The lights go out as something starts to try the doors. The door to the cellar opens, and Jack fires into the darkness. At the same time, Kieran exchanges gunfire with someone coming through the doors. As the others take cover from the gunfire, Kieran is dragged away. Despite Jack's protestations, Gwen insists on going after the others, and Owen follows. Jack goes to the cellar to see who he shot.

A middle-aged woman, Helen, comes through the reinforced door, holding a rifle on Tosh and Ianto. Appearing frightened, she asks about their well-being, and they tell Helen about the other three in the village. Apologising that she cannot help them, she says that she has been sent to collect the two, adding that no one is safe — every ten years, the "Harvest" takes them. Left with no choice, they follow her.

Jack finds a masked, wounded man, Martin, wearing a hooded raincoat, and interrogates him. Jack warns him that in the past, he was a torturer. Jack applies pressure to Martin's wound, and he begins to talk. Meanwhile, Gwen and Owen encounter Huw, a policeman, who tells them there is a village meeting tonight, which is why he is here. The two spot a light, and head towards it, asking Huw to come along.

Tosh and Ianto are taken into a kitchen where they see body parts on the tables and plastic-wrapped torsos hanging from the ceiling. Tosh asks Helen if these "creatures" look like humans, and a man steps forward, asking, "How else're we gonna look?" As Helen laughs, the two now realise that the creatures are all too human: they are cannibals. The man, Evan, cuffs the two, and reveals that he has also caught Kieran. Ianto head butts Evan, allowing Tosh to escape the house into the woods. Evan pursues her and finally catches up. As he starts to choke the life out of her, Owen appears, holding a gun on Evan. However, Evan seems unperturbed and Huw reveals that he is Evan's nephew. The three Torchwood officers are captured and led back to the house. They find the "vanished" villagers all there and realise that the whole village is involved. Owen describes them as "sick fuckers."

Just as Evan is about to bleed Ianto, Jack crashes through the door with a tractor. He emerges with a shotgun and shoots and disables all of the villagers. Jack is about to execute Evan when Gwen tells him not to do it, because she needs to know the reason why the villagers have done this. Jack relents.

In the pub, Evan explains that the cannibalism is a tradition. Once every decade, they target travellers and butcher them. Gwen wants to understand why they do this, but Evan scoffs at her. However, he offers to tell her something if he can whisper it. She agrees, and he whispers in her ear, "'Cause it made me happy." Jack takes Evan outside to the waiting police, who are taking the rest of the village into custody. Gwen walks off, deeply shaken.

Later, Gwen stands in a bedroom wearing only a man's shirt. She says aloud that she had plans for a normal life, but then she met Torchwood. Her experiences with them have changed how she sees the world, but she cannot share it with anyone. Owen steps forward, undressed, telling her that she can, now, and they kiss passionately.

[edit] Continuity

  • This is the first episode not to feature a supernatural or extraterrestrial element and also the first not to feature any scenes within the Hub. It does not include any CGI elements at all. The only other Torchwood episode to contain no CGI effects is "Out of Time". It is also the first non-science fictional/supernatural storyline taking place within the televised Doctor Who universe since Black Orchid, a Fifth Doctor adventure broadcast in 1982.
  • Cannibalism also features in the Torchwood novels Another Life by Peter Anghelides and Slow Decay by Andy Lane. However in both of these stories, there is a supernatural explanation.

[edit] Production

  • The programme's title (a pun on "countryside" and "-cide") is one of several references to the contrast between town and country, emphasised throughout the episode by Londoner Owen's remarks about the countryside.
  • The word "fuck" is used in dialogue in this episode; when broadcast on CBC in Canada, the word was bleeped although other explicit language remains unaltered.

[edit] Music

  • The song "Monster" by The Automatic is featured in this episode (when Ellie stops her car to check on the 'body' in the middle of the road).

[edit] Cast notes

[edit] External links

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Torchwood series 1 episodes