'They Keep Killing Suzie' by Paul Tomalin and Dan McCulloch

Three months ago: Suzie Costello’s obsession with the alien resurrection glove sent her on a course of murder, and, finally, suicide. Now: Captain Jack and his team are called in by Police Detective Swanson to investigate a series of murders in suburbia: the victims’ throats have been cut, and the word ‘Torchwood’ scrawled on the wall in their blood. After DNA tests of a strand of the killer’s hair reveals traces of ‘Compound B67’ – otherwise known as ‘Retcon’, Torchwood’s amnesia drug – Jack orders an investigation into everyone that the team administered the drug to. When Toshiko’s files give two-thousand possible suspects, Gwen suggests narrowing the search by using the resurrection gauntlet to question the victims themselves; Jack reluctantly agrees, but his attempt to use the device to resurrect the first victim, Alex Arwyn, proves fruitless; however, the device works for Gwen, and Alex is revived for thirty seconds. Alex is unable to reveal anything about his killer, but the second victim, Mark Brisco, mentions the words “Pilgrim”, “Max” – and “Suzie”. Shaken by an apparent reference to the colleague who betrayed them, the Torchwood team discover that ‘Pilgrim’ is a religious support group attended by all the victims; a search of the lock-up containing Suzie’s possessions reveals a flyer for ‘Pilgrim’, indicating that she was also a member. Deciding to resurrect Suzie, Jack removes her cryogenically frozen body from the mortuary, but the glove fails to bring her back, so Jack boosts the connection using Suzie’s murder weapon, a knife made of the same material as the gauntlet. As Jack plunges the blade into Suzie’s heart, the glove on Gwen’s hand activates – and Suzie awakes. When the temporarily-revived Suzie refuses to cooperate, Gwen breaks the connection, only to learn from Owen’s medical scanner that somehow the woman is still alive… Jack interrogates Suzie and is appalled to learn that every day for the last two years, she confided in a fellow ‘Pilgrim’ member, Max, about her work at Torchwood, before wiping his memory each time with the amnesia drug. Looking through the files on the murders, Suzie identifies the next victim, a nightclub waitress named Lucy MacKenzie; Jack, Owen and Gwen head for ‘The Wolf Bar’, arriving just in time to apprehend Max before he can kill again. Back at the Hub, Owen finds that Max is suffering from a specific psychosis: the mention of “Torchwood” sends him into a killer rage for ten seconds at a time. Meanwhile, Gwen strikes up a rapport with Suzie, the team member she replaced, and finds that they have much in common. Owen replays the surveillance footage of Suzie’s resurrection, and discovers that an energy surge from the glove has created a link that is allowing Suzie to drain Gwen’s life force. Jack sets out to kill Suzie, only to learn that an unsuspecting Gwen has sneaked the woman out of the Hub, and is now taking her to see her father, who is dying of cancer in hospital; at that moment, the Hub goes into lockdown – Jack and his team are sealed in. When Owen finds Max in his cell chanting words from ‘I Could Not Stop For Death’, a poem by Emily Dickinson, Jack realises this verbal command triggered a backdoor in Torchwood’s systems; all the events surrounding the spate of murders have been part of a complex plan orchestrated by Suzie: she programmed Max to become a ‘Trojan Horse’, activated by her three-month absence into committing a murder spree that would trick her former team-mates into using the resurrection gauntlet to bring her back from the dead. With Ianto using the water tower as a relay, Jack contacts Detective Swanson on his mobile phone for help; after her delight at Torchwood’s predicament has passed, Swanson obtains a copy of Emily Dickinson’s works, in the hope that another phrase will reactivate the Hub; Tosh’s suggestion of using the book’s ISBN number works, and as the systems come back online, Jack and Owen set off in pursuit of Gwen’s car using its tracking device. Meanwhile, Suzie plays with Gwen’s mind, telling her that there is no Heaven in the afterlife, only “something moving in the dark”. Arriving at the hospital, Gwen is wracked with pain as Suzie’s self-inflicted wound begins transferring to her – she is now being slowly shot in the head. Realising she has been tricked, Gwen looks on helplessly as Suzie maliciously disconnects her hated father from his life-support system. Knowing that Jack not far behind, Suzie then bundles Gwen into the car and makes for the sea front, hoping to escape by boarding a ferry; however, Gwen is now close to death, and as Suzie drags her along the jetty, she collapses to the ground, just as Jack and Owen arrive. Hoping to save Gwen, Jack shoots Suzie point blank – but the fatal wound has no effect; Jack pumps more bullets into Suzie’s prone body, but the woman just laughs at him. Realising that Suzie is still drawing power from Gwen via the glove, Jack contacts Tosh at the Hub and orders her to destroy the artefact; Tosh complies, and Suzie instantly dies from her gunshot wounds, while Gwen makes a miraculous recovery in Owen’s arms. Some time later, back at Torchwood, a grateful Gwen looks on as Jack and Ianto consign Suzie’s lifeless body to the morgue once more…

John Barrowman (Captain Jack Harkness), Eve Myles (Gwen Cooper), Burn Gorman (Owen Harper), Naoko Mori (Toshiko Sato), Gareth David-Lloyd (Ianto Jones), Indira Varma (Suzie Costello), Yasmin Bannerman (Detective Swanson), Daniel Llewellyn-Williams (Alex Arwyn), Gary Pillai (Mark Brisco), The Shend (Max Trezillian), Badi Uzzaman (Suzie's Father)

Directed by James Strong
Produced by Richard Stokes
Executive Producers Russell T. Davies and Julie Gardner
A BBC Wales production

TX (BBC3):
Sunday 3rd December 2006 @ 10.00 pm
(BBC2 TX: Wednesday 6th December @ 9.00 pm)

Notes:
*Featuring Captain Jack Harkness, Gwen Cooper, Owen Harper, Toshiko Sato, Ianto Jones and Suzie Costello