They Keep Killing Suzie
| 08 – "They Keep Killing Suzie" | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Torchwood episode | |||
| File:They Keep Killing Suzie.jpg The return of Suzie Costello. | |||
| Cast | |||
Starring | |||
Others
| |||
| Production | |||
| Directed by | James Strong | ||
| Written by | Paul Tomalin Dan McCulloch | ||
| Script editor | Brian Minchin | ||
| Produced by | Richard Stokes Chris Chibnall (co-producer) | ||
| Executive producer(s) | Russell T. Davies Julie Gardner | ||
| Production code | 1.8 | ||
| Series | Series 1 | ||
| Running time | 50 mins | ||
| First broadcast | 3 December 2006 | ||
| Chronology | |||
| |||
"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.
Synopsis
Torchwood investigates a serial killer writing their name in blood over the bodies of their victims, but there is even more to this than meets the eye.
Suzie is resurrected as she had been planning, and Gwen almost dies before the resurrection gauntlet which had been keeping Suzie alive and was killing Gwen is destroyed.
Plot
Torchwood is called by Detective Daphne Swanson to investigate the grizzly murder of a suburban couple, with similar injuries as a murder victim the day before. However, at this murder scene, the word "TORCHWOOD" written on the bedroom wall above the corpses. The team tries to find any correlation between the victims but find none; however, a DNA analysis of a hair sample from the murderer shows the presence of "Retcon", the primary ingredient of the amnesia pill. Realizing this could mean that one of over 2000 people that Torchwood has used the amnesia pill on and that any one of them could fall into a similar rampage, Gwen suggests the use of the Resurrection Gauntlet on the victims to determine who the killer is. Owen is worried about the Gauntlet after what it did to Suzie Costello but Jack allows them to proceed. They quickly find that only Gwen has the ability to use the glove, and though they aren't able to learn anything from the first victim, they find that the killer was named "Max" who went to something called "Pilgrim", and that Max knew someone else from the group better: "Suzie". The team investigates Suzie's belongings and finds a flyer for the Pilgrim group. Jack recognizes that the only way to get answers is to use the Guantlet on Suzie.
The initial attempts to resurrect Suzie with the Guantlet fail, until Tosh remembers that the Guantlet worked better when the alien knife was used to kill the victim. Jack stabs Suzie's corpse with the knife, and Gwen is able to bring back Suzie, who is furious that they used the Guantlet on her and that Gwen herself is using it. Jack tries to get information about Retcon and Max from Suzie but time runs out and Suzie falls back, apparently dead. However, they quickly realize that Suzie is still alive, simply unconscious. After she wakes, alive but still showing the signs of the gunshot wound from her suicide, Jack asks Suzie about other Pilgrim members, and she recognizes that one girl is missing but usually spends time in a nearby bar. There, they are able to find the girl, and through a quick warning from Suzie, are able to subdue Max before he could harm the team. Max is brought back to the cells where he remains peaceful except when the word "Torchwood" is stated, sending him into a ten-second period of rage. Suzie admits that she used Retcon pills on Max repeatedly, as a way to talk about the events she saw in Torchwood to someone else, wiping his memory after every meeting.
While the rest of the team avoid Suzie, Gwen begins to bond with her, and learns that Suzie would like to see her dying father one last time. Gwen starts to drive Suzie towards the hospital where her father is. Meanwhile, Ianto discovers that unlike the other uses of the Gauntlet, where energy flowed from the user to the victim temporarily, Suzie is still draining energy from Gwen, and that Gwen will likely die if they can't stop it. As they begin to track Gwen's car, the Hub suddenly goes into lockdown, preventing them from leaving or contacting the outside world. They find that Max is rocking back and forth in his cell, repeating the first line of Emily Dickenson's "Because I would not stop for death", and realize that the response was programmed into Max by Suzie and used to trigger the Hub's organic computer. Jack realizes that this has all been a setup by Suzie; should she have died and not seen Max in three months, he would have become murderous, forcing Torchwood to use the Gauntlet on her and eventually capturing Max for him to act as a Trojan horse into their computer system and allowing her to escape. Ianto rigs an outside and Jack places a call to Detective Swanson, and in order to get her help, is forced to admit that they are trapped in the Hub. Swanson agrees to help by reading lines of other Emily Dickenson poems from the same book that Suzie used to read. None of the stanzas seem to help, but Tosh recognizes that the ISBN of the book may be the code, and successfully removes the lockdown. The team quickly leaves to find Gwen and Suzie.
As they approach hospital, Gwen finds herself nearly sapped of energy. They enter Suzie's father's room, where Suzie wakes the old man, and then quickly removes all the life-support equipment and killing him. Gwen tries to stop her but finds blood at the back of her head, while Suzie reveals that her wounds are gone, and wheelchairs Gwen out of the hospital. Suzie calls Jack, who tries to bargain with Suzie for Gwen's life, but Suzie promised to keep running, and drives the two of them to Hedley Point in order to take a ferry to the outer islands. Suzie tries to carry Gwen down the pier but is forced to let her go after she collapses, just as the rest of Torchwood pulls up. Jack holds Suzie at gunpoint, but she simply taunts him. Jack fires on Suzie, but finds that she cannot die from the bullet wounds. Jack tells Tosh to destroy the Gauntlet; as soon as it is destroyed, Suzie collapses while Gwen starts to recover. As Jack leans over Suzie, she whispers that something is there in the darkness and it is coming for him, and then dies. They return the body to Torchwood's storage, citing "Death by Torchwood".
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".
- At the end of the episode Ianto reminds Jack that "gloves come in pairs". The second one turns up in the series two episode "Dead Man Walking".
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.
- The episode's title is a reference to the Avengers episode, 'They Keep Killing Steed'.
- This episode was originally planned to be an "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 Daphne Swanson in this episode.
- The implication that there may be a second glove was not present in the original script and is an addition by Davies.[1]
Music
- "Red Is The New Black" by Funeral for a Friend (when the team look for Lucy at the Wolf Bar), "Sing" by Travis, "Solely, Solely" by Middle of the Road (when Gwen and Suzie in the car, Suzie says her mum used to sing this) and "Gorecki" by Lamb (when Owen comforts Gwen; Jack and Gwen return to work; Suzie's body is placed back into storage) are featured in this episode.
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.
- 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, though previously revealed facts were not contradicted.
References
- ^ a b Shannon Sullivan (2006-12-05). "A Brief History Of Time (Travel): They Keep Killing Suzie". Retrieved 2006-12-05.
External links
