Written By: J. C. Wilsher
Directed By: Ashley Way
Air Date: 13th February, 2008
Summary: Martha arrives at Torchwood, and people die. We promise the two aren't connected.
In the wastelands of industrial Cardiff, which look like the industrial wastelands of most cities in the UK, a lone Weevil lopes its way towards a warehouse. As usual, it's clad in a jumpsuit, begging the question of where it gets said jumpsuit from if it's a wild weevil and not been given it by Team Stalky. But, anyway, as we've previously established, rationality is for geeks and losers, and the Weevil is being pursued by Toshiko and Owen (the geek and the loser, respectively), who follow it inside the warehouse.
There's some ducking quietly around discarded bits and bobs (really, I think Ianto should put 'walking tours of Cardiff's disused warehouses' in the tourist office, since Torchwood seems to get around them all) following the Weevil. They finally catch up to it, and it snarls at them, before loping off. They don't follow it, however. They're a bit more interested in what the Weevil has just found: a dead body, staring vacantly at the ceiling. Owen double checks but yep, he's definitely dead.
It's never a good start to the episode when you're tripping over corpses before the credits have rolled.
**
We've not had the opportunity to use the POV cam on Torchwood before, and although in the cheesy scifi Doctor Who tradition it's supposed to signify someone getting stalked and then horribly murdered by oversized novelty claws that making pinching movements with the ponderousness of most poorly constructed props, here it's a benign presence, opening a door to see Ianto, leaning on the counter of the Tourist Office, flipping through a copy of what might very well be Heat magazine.
Ianto looked up, and offers a small bored smile. “We're closing,” he says, still flipping through his magazine.
Flick. The camera is holding up a business card, and it might say 'tax inspector' given the way Ianto abruptly straightens and tries to look professional. He opens the hidden door for the camera and gestures for it to procede him.
Downstairs, Jack's been rummaging through the dead man's wallet, and has come up with a driving licence. According to his licence, the dead man, now on Owen's most comfortable metal slab, is called Meredith Roberts.
Ianto calls through saying that Jack's VIP guest has arrived, and Jack's practically a blur as he runs out of the autopsy bay. The others are a little slower in following, and don't radiate as much sheer glee as Jack as he says,
“In an underground mortuary on a wet night in Cardiff, I hear the song of a nightingale.”
He's apparently talking to himself, because no one else has caught up yet. Still, he seems to like making dramatic entrances, even if they're not his entrances, introducing “Miss Martha Jones” as she enters, and grins.
**
Hey look. Freema Agyeman's on the opening credits.
And when we come back from the credits, Martha and Jack are indulging in a warm hug in front of the rest of Team... Team... gah. I've really run out of names to call them. The Team, anyway, are trying not to make their curiosity too obvious, smiling politely and wondering who the heck this person that seems to know Jack better than any of them is. Jack quickly introduces them all, and upon Owen's questioning, reveals she's here to finished his autopsy.
Apparently Martha's with UNIT these days, who are “intelligence, military, cute redcap, the acceptable face of intelligence gathering on aliens,” according to Jack. Torchwood's more adhoc and better looking, he points out, though Martha doesn't look impressed by the claim. On the other hand, she probably spends her days surrounded by cute soldier boys.
Martha has noted that around the country people have been showing up dead, apparent suicides, with a “statistically significant” number of them in south Wales. They're really murders, she reveals, as she points out the puncture mark in the victim's eye, and says that if Owen would check, he'll find the blood filled with what is, essentially, bleach.
The Team, +1, hunt down Meredith's records which, due to a mysterious and major crash in the NHS systems (big freakin' surprise – the NHS computer system is probably held together with sticking plasters), are completely blank. It's not a crash, though, according to Tosh, it's definitely deliberate erasure. She'll look into it.
**
It's a rather interesting little screenwipe (the first of some rather interesting screen cuts throughout this episode – you get the feeling that the director just discovered some new functions on his Avid and started gleefully throwing them out right left and centre), and Jack's putting his feet up on his desk, asking Martha how her family is.
“Getting better,” she says, “They send their love.”
Considering that they know him better than Martha does, you'd think at least one of them would call to say hello, but Jack just says to give them his.
“So,” he says, smiling, but fidgeting a little, “End of the world survivors club.”
“I'm so glad to see you,” Martha says, sincerely, sitting down.
Jack rather gleefully says “HA!” she did come to see him. And apparently it's because no one can see his jawline and not yearn for it. They laugh, though it trails off awkwardly, and Jack asks,
“Do you miss him?”
No prizes for guessing who 'him' is.
“No,” Martha says, “I've made my choice. Well. Maybe sometimes. Tiny bit.” She doesn't sound like she has many regrets about leaving the Doctor, not heartbroken or sorry about doing so. In that, she probably has one up on Jack, but then, Martha chose to leave in the first place. “Then I come to my senses again. Anyway. I've got plenty to occupy me.”
She's a medical officer at UNIT, and Jack teases that he has to call her “ma'am”, though Martha pretends to be horrified at the mere thought and tells him that he just has to do everything he has, that's all.
“Should have called me if you were looking for a job,” Jack says. You can't help but feel he'd have liked to be the one helping her out. Jack can come across as remarkably clingy sometimes. Given that he has nothing to his name (so to speak) save the people he surrounds himself with, I suppose it's almost understandable.
“That's just it, I wasn't. This woman from UNIT rang, out of the blue, saying I was just what they needed. Said I came highly recommended from an impeccable source.”
“You mean...” Jack points heavenward. Some people might be referring to God, but in this case, it's close enough.
“Well, who else would've done it?”
Jack nods. “He must have thought he owed you a favour. Guess we all do.”
They share a look and a smile, and Jack, unable to let things stay too serious for long, takes a deep breath and asks, “So, do you think you can get me one of those red caps? For personal use. I'm thinking Ianto might look good in it.”
Martha tells him to get his own uniforms, and then demands the guided tour. Jack mockingly salutes and calls her ma'am, and leads her out.
**
The tour has hit the 'hot house' so the greenhouse now has an actual name, and it seems that Gwen is tagging along on the tour. As they finish the hot house, Jack urges them to hurry on and not dawdle, and the moment he leaves the room, Gwen turns around and dawdles.
“So... you know Jack pretty well then?” Gwen asks.
In the background, we can see Jack pausing, and noticing that the girls are talking. Resigning himself to having to wait, he leans on the railings. He knows better than to interrupt gossiping girls.
“Oh, we were only together for a couple of days, but it was pretty intense,” Martha says, idly.
Gwen's eyes widen. “You mean?”
Horror crosses Martha's face. “Oh god no! No! Not that sort of intense.”
They share an embarrassed giggle. Martha asks this time, “Are you and him?”
“No! Not at all,” Gwen says, firmly.
“We must be the only two people on the planet,” Martha says.
“I know. What are we doing wrong?”
Well, you know, if you asked really nicely... They break up into giggles again.
“Oi!” Jack yells, and they turn to peer at him through the glass. “You talking about me?”
No, they say, alien flora. Oh! Can that be my new codename for Jack?
**
They hit the main Hub, and Martha picks up a piece of alien technology that looks a bit worse for wear in reaching Earth, looking partly melted. Owen, emerging from his little den, says that he thinks it's a surgical device. He demonstrates by putting a ball of paper inside a cup and saying that it'll vaporise the paper and leave the cup intact. Gwen and Jack immediately back up, Jack pulling Martha will him. They know how this is going to end.
Ianto is making his way across the far side of the Hub, minding his own business, and when Owen turns the device on, it causes something on the desk next to him to explode rather in the fashion of a gunshot. He screams like a girl and ducks. When he realises the culprit, he straightens and glares.
“Uh, haven't quite got the callibration right yet,” Owen says, apologetically. Gwen is giggling, Martha looks vaguely shocked, and Owen is seeing his life flashing before his eyes as Ianto continues to glare. Jack is laughing, much more openly than Gwen, who at least has the decency to glance away.
Ianto steps over to them, straightening his waistcoat. “Jack,” he says, sharply. Jack's laughter clears, hearing the implicit 'You. Will. Suffer' in Ianto's voice. Ianto reports that someone else has been attacked, but this time she survived. She's in the hospital.
**
Martha takes blood samples, Gwen questions, and Jack stands at the end of the nearly murdered woman's bed, watching. She doesn't know who it was that attacked her, but apparently her dog attacked him when he came for her with a needle and then she kicked him in the balls.
Jack laughs. “Respect,” he says.
**
Back in the Funhouse, Martha and Owen are getting their medical geek on, mixing chemicals and messing around with blood samples to the tune of something... montage-y. When they finally get the results, they stare at them thoughtfully, and Owen says,
“So you and Jack go back a long way then?” First Gwen picking her brains about Jack, and now Owen. You can't blame them. They've known him for years and don't know anything about him for certain. Martha's apparently only known him a few days, but she seems to know all about him. No wonder they're taking the opportunity to ask questions.
Not that Martha's any less cagey than Jack is. “Forward and back,” she says.
“What brought you together?”
“Let's say we were under the same Doctor,” Martha says, to a frown from Owen. She brings the topic back to the ammonium hydroxide injected into the murder victims. They conclude after some pondering that someone must be trying to hide something in the victim's bodies.
In Jack's office, they go through what they know. Victims, survivor, etc.. Jack dispatches Gwen and Ianto to follow the criminal investigation, while Martha and Owen follow the medical one. Tosh is apparently still not having any luck with getting the medical records sorted. She's going to have to pull some sneaky illegal tricks to see if she can recover any remnants of the files. Jack tells her to do what she has to. This is some sort of conspiracy.
**
Another report comes in of a dead body, and Tosh sends Gwen and Ianto the information. They arrive to find police on the scene, and discover Barry Lenard, a student. They bring him back to the Hub, and Martha tells Gwen, as they walk towards the conference room for no apparent reason, that it's the same MO, same puncture marks. Definitely connected. It's almost like assassinations.
“Except Barry Lenard was a student, who'd want to assassinate a student?” Gwen asks.
Martha only has to think for a moment. “Student Loans Company.”
They still don't know why the victims are connected. Owen's still analysing their survivor's test results. Just as Martha is about to leave, a call comes from Ianto. Apparently Marie, their survivor, has had some sort of seizure.
Martha goes to fetch Owen, tells him about the seizure, and he says he thinks he's found something that might be responsible. Looks parasitic. Other than that, she's absolutely perfect. She's absolutely normal.
The two Doctors go to speak to their patient, asking her what's changed, or what's different about her lately. She pleads ignorance.
Meanwhile, Gwen and Ianto are talking to Barry's best friend who, in the course of things, reveals that Barry used to be diabetic, but it was cured. Considering this is, well, impossible, Ianto's quick to pass on that information to Owen.
Back at the hospital, Owen prompts Marie to come clean. She admits she used to have HIV, but it was cured. It's down to something called Reset, an experimental drug which she promised to keep quiet about as part of her contract, since they gave her a lot of money for it. Marie starts coughing. It comes from somewhere called the 'Pharm' a medical research place. She's a clinical trial subject, Martha says.
She starts seizing, and although Owen and Martha try to do something, it's over too quickly. Just like that, she's dead. They're still staring in bewilderment when a flood of something small, golden, and airborne comes out of Marie's mouth and starts swarming the whole room. Owen hits the emergency alarm, and the pair of them huddle in the corner, cover their mouths with surgical masks and squeezing their eyes shut.
After only a few seconds, the swarm falls out of the air, as dead as the woman they came out of. Owen picks one up to have a look at it. It's a tiny golden insect, and given that this is a science fiction series, who wants to put their money on it being alien?
**
After figuring out its an alien parasite, Martha and Owen call the gang in for a little show and tell. Reset, it seems, literally 'resets' the body to its default settings, removing all illness or disease, making them absolutely perfectly healthy. It's a great medical breakthrough, Gwen says. Yes, problem is that it also comes bundled with an alien parasite, which needs a perfectly healthy host to incubate in.
“So who runs the Pharm?” Jack asks.
It's run by someone called Aaron Copley, who, if you've ever seen Ugly Betty, is in fact Bradford Mede. The Pharm is a partnership between the government and private firms, with high enough security clearance that they could get rid of medical files if they wanted to.
“Kinda handsome to,” Jack says, looking at the file photo of Copley. Martha throws him an exasperated look. “Think he'll like visitors?”
**
The WoodMobile pulls up to a checkpoint somewhere in some woodlands. Jack announces them as Torchwood, and they're let through, apparently expected. He takes note of the fact that the guards at the gate are armed.
They go in to see Copley, who immediately loses points by addressing Jack as “Harker”.
Jack doesn't sound impressed as he corrects. “Harkness. And it's Captain, but you can call me Jack.”
“Captain?” Copley looks up from a file that Jack's already given him. “Where did you park your boat?”
Jack gives a rather strained laugh. “I like a man with a sense of humour. Know any good gags about clinical trials?” Because clinical trials are such a lark.
Copley's file contains pictures of all the murder victims, although he denies ever having met any of them. When he tosses the file to the desk, Jack stands, leans forward and urges his to take a second look, especially considering that one of them died of an alien parasitic infection and mentioned the Pharm's name before she died.
“Alien origin?” Copley says, referring to the parasite. “That's preposterous.”
“Uh, Professor,” Owen steps in, and Jack turns away, looking like he's restraining the urge to throw Copley around the room. Copley isn't being put off by Jack at all, which seems to be a bit of a new and frustrating experience for our dear Captain. “When I was writing my MD thesis your published works on immunology were very helpful.” How to get an academic on your side: mention you cited him.
Jack paces to the back of the room, and forces a smile to his face by the time he turns around.
“Now,” Owen continues, “If there was a drug that could restore the body back to its factory settings you would know about it.” He's appealing to Copley's ego, trying to get him to admit to the greatest discovery in human medical history.
Copley doesn't bite, however, as he claims nothing like that exists.
Jack snorts. “I had a boyfriend whose nostrils flared when he was lying,” he says, conversationally to Owen, before glaring at Copley.
Copley doesn't look impressed to be compared to Jack's boyfriend, the first time that he looks less than easy in the whole conversation. He makes to leave, and Jack says fine, they'll have a look around. Copley refuses and offers them the PR tour, to which Jack says 'nu-uh'. Unrestricted access or nothing.
Nope, Copley says. “Ask Whitehall. We're fireproof.”
“Yeah, I had a bad experience with a politician recently,” Jack says, “I tend not to listen to Whitehall anymore.” Not that he probably ever listened to politicians before the whole Saxon murdering him repeatedly for a year thing.
Copley calls some security people, who escort Jack and Owen back to the Woodmobile.
“We need to turn this place over,” Owen says, as he gets in the passenger side.
“Oh yeah,” Jack says, making his wrist strap do the beepy thing, “Because according to these readings this place has the highest concentration of alien life forms this side of the Rift.” He glances at the security people, and the woman in particular, as he starts the engine, and leans over to Owen. “Grey is so not her colour.”
Meow.
**
Nice aerial shot of the Hub, and Toshiko is attempting a brute force attack by typing in possible pass phrases. I mean, seriously, you don't have software to do that? But anyway, she turns, annoyed, and takes her glass off, telling Jack, who's standing behind her, that she can't hack in and if she keeps trying, they're going to get noticed. Jack states the unnecessarily obvious by saying they need a way in and starting to stomp back to his office.
Halfway there, Ianto yells to Tosh that he has her research, and Jack hurries back to Tosh's side as Ianto sends it over. The Pharm are looking for clinical trial subjects.
“Then one of us goes in undercover,” Gwen says.
No, Jack says, too many things could go wrong.
“Unless you were to put a medic in there,” Martha says, and surely I'm not the only one to find a flaw in that logic. How will putting a medic inside stop things from going wrong? Maybe their medical superpowers will help? “Someone who knew what to look for?”
“Yeah but they know me now,” Owen says.
“I know it's hard to believe Owen, but I wasn't thinking of you,” Martha says, with exasperation.
Jack shakes his head. “No way.”
“Come on, Jack, I've been in worse places.” You know. End of the world? Walking the planet? Ring any bells? “And you know it.”
Jack glances at the others, but they just look back blankly. They've no idea who Martha is, or what she can or has do. They can't help him make the decision. But they do know they need someone on the inside. “Ok,” he says, finally.
**
Owen isn't as happy though. He follows Jack out of what looks like the armoury, protesting. “Jack, can I have a word? Listen, I know you're big buddies from way back whenever-” I think he's just summed up their entire relationship, taking into account temporal peculiarities, in one phrase, “-but you can't just send her in like this.”
“Trust me, she's more than capable,” Jack says. “I'd rely on Martha if the world was ending.” He leans forward, and his voice drops to a whisper. “In fact I did.” He smirks, and walks off.
Owen's eyes narrow, but he refuses to give Jack the satisfaction of asking.
**
Ianto, meanwhile, is giving the summary of the plan to Martha as she packs away her gear in the autopsy bay. He gives her the layout of the place, and tells her that there are signs of aliens in the buildings behind the main house, but she doesn't need to go anywhere near there.
“Spoilsport,” Martha says.
Ianto tells her that all she needs to do at first is to become a trial subject. Try not to draw attention.
“Be invisible,” Martha says, with a fond smile, “I can do that.”
Once she's in, she's to gain access to the computer network, and then to get out.
“Understood,” Martha says, primly, a very UNIT scientist response.
“Cool,” Ianto says, the very adhoc Torchwood response.
Martha presses her lips together in what seems to be an attempt to stop herself from grinning. “So,” she says, “Jack asked me if I could get you a UNIT cap to wear.”
Ianto freezes for a moment. “Did he?” he says, with a small bit of nervous laughter.
Martha nods, still mightily suppressing that smile.
“Well,” Ianto says, picking up the file and starting up the stairs. “Red... is... my... colour.” He says it haltingly, and clearly quoting someone, probably Jack, on that one.
Martha can't help but grin now. “So am I right in thinking that you and he...?” She purses her lips and gives him a significant look we can all work out the meaning of.
“We...” Ianto spreads his hands, briefly at a loss to describe his relationship with Jack. “Dabble.”
“Yeah?” Martha's grin is full blown and gleeful now.
“Yeah,” Ianto says, a little more softly and seriously.
Well, we'd already figured out they were up to something, but I'm sure we're all happy to have it confirmed.
Martha seems like she has a lot of questions and doesn't know what to ask first. “So, what's his dabbling like?”
“Innovative,” Ianto says.
Martha gives a little giggle. “Really?”
“Bordering on the avant garde.”
“Wow,” Martha says, sounding impressed.
“Oh yes...” Ianto's gaze wanders away from Martha and into the middle distance, no doubt thinking of that thing Jack was doing the other night with the flying helmet and the wet celery. He's lost in thought for several seconds, before abruptly snapping out of it. “So, shall we get your cover story sorted?”
To Jack's office every one goes. Turns out that Ianto's given Martha the cover name of Samantha, and figured the Jones was safe enough for her to keep. When she asks how they're going to keep in touch, Tosh pointed out that the place is probably wired and they don't want to be overheard chattering to each other. She hands Martha a pair of contact lenses. Martha protests she doesn't need them. She needs these ones, Jack says.
Scene change again, and they're out in the main hub, looking at the world through Martha's eyes. The contacts, augmented with a neat bit of alien technology, have turned her into a camera, which is what Martha exclaims.
“As Chris Isherwood once said to me as we were cruising the...” And I'm afraid I just can't get the rest of Jack's sentence, no matter how many times I rerun it on my screen. The way that Owen rolls his eyes, however, it's clear that it's a bawdy tale that Jack's told far too many times.
They can also type messages and they appear in Martha's field of view. Power comes from the body heat, so they only work when she has them in, so don't take them out.
“Yeah, so you have to wear them everywhere,” Owen says, wiggling his eyebrows lecherously.
There'll be some things she does with her eyes shut then, Martha says. Tosh says they can also talk directly to her, though Martha asks if the signals won't be intercepted.
“Alien technology,” Ianto says, smiling with a rather smug expression, “Which exploits a solution to the EPR paradox.” Well, you know, there's a general mode of thought that the EPR paradox is only a paradox due to the attempt to apply conventional thinking to quantum mechanics.
Ianto Jones. Pwned by Wiki.
“Quantum entanglement of remote particles? Ok.” Martha waves her hand cheerfully, getting it now. “Cool.”
Ianto nods his head, that smug smile frozen. You can't help but feel that it was a brief attempt to get one up on this stranger who's walked into the Hub, demonstrated she knows Jack better than any of them, and outshone them all, and it's slightly backfired.
“Did I mention she was brilliant?” Jack says.
Owen hides his grin behind a hand.
**
Martha's getting her blood samples taken by a woman whose name I never catch and so will just call Betty for want of a better name, and because I'm not typing 'Copley's assistant' for the rest of the recap. She quizzes Martha on where she's been, and Martha starts to list pretty much every country you can think of.
Third world destinations? Betty asks.
Tosh flashes up a little ! icon in Martha's field of view, and she quickly denies having gone there. I suppose by the time that Martha was going to places in the Western hemisphere, the Master had kinda reduced them to a third world state, but that's neither here nor there. Betty says that exposure to tropical diseases is a concern for them. Martha says she's very conscious of health issues.
Another ! flashes up. Martha quickly says her mum's a nurse.
Hey, that's a point. Do we know what Francine's profession is?
Copley enters, is introduced to 'Samantha' by Betty, Jack orders that she gets close to him. Don't know what that's supposed to accomplish. Maybe he's hoping that Martha's very presence will make him weak at the knees? Doesn't work, though, and Copley gives her the 'don't call us, we'll call you' line.
Thinking quickly, Martha protests that there's something they should know, catching him before he leaves the room. She had hepatitis. She's fine, she claims, but it's still in her blood, right? Betty and Copley exchange significant looks. Perfect, Copley says, and gets her to sign some forms there and then.
“She's in,” Owen says, triumphantly.
“As Chris Isherwood also said,” Jack muses, “It's not just the getting in, it's the getting out.”
What drugs will they test? Martha asks. They say they have several drugs in development, and won't give her anything until they have her informed consent. How very civilised of them. Betty gestures for Martha to precede her out the door.
“It's going to be a long night,” Owen says, “Let her settle in.”
**
Tosh brings Owen a mug of something later on in the night, and it's apparently time for the latest round of Team Torchwood Gossip Catchup. I'm convinced the Hub is powered by gossip. She says that he and Martha are getting along well.
“You know me, Mister Sociable,” Owen says, not taking his eyes off the monitors.
He's looking at her UNIT ID.
“She's beautiful,” Tosh says.
“Is she?” Owen pretends disinterest, but very badly.
“You know she is,” Tosh says, with a smile.
“Fair cop,” Owen admits.
“And a Doctor. Perfect match.” Tosh stares until her mug, the word Bugger going unspoken.
“No, she's only interested in the work,” Owen says, standing up and stretching a bit.
“Do you think?”
“Yeah, bit of flirt so I show her the ropes. Plus, if I tried anything with her, I think Jack would have my kneecaps.” He pokes the computers a bit. “Hey whatever happened to that pool tournament you were organising?”
“That?” Tosh goes to pick something up off the table. “That was never a tournament.”
“What was all that about then?”
“It was supposed to be a date,” Tosh says, sounding tired. Clearly she's given up hope of extracting such a thing from Owen, the way she says it.
“Sorry?” Owen abruptly stops what he's doing.
“I was asking you out on a date.” Tosh says, forcing joviality.
Owen's still staring at her. “A... a date.”
Tosh's face falls. Like the rest of us, I think she thought that he was just blowing her off by claiming not to understand what she was asking. Instead it looks like he was genuinely being clueless. “You didn't realise,” she says, eyes wide.
“You and me?” Owen clarifies.
“Yes.”
“I see. And you still... want that?”
Tosh thinks for a moment. “Yeah,” she says, easily enough. It's a little bit of confidence we don't usually see from Tosh, but it's nice to see.
“Right,” Owen says, turning back to the screens.
“I just thought if we spent some time together, in the evening-”
“Alright,” Owen says.
Now it's Tosh's turn to stare. “Sorry?”
“Let's do it.”
She doesn't look like she believes him. “Are you being sarcastic?”
“No,” Owen says it with a small nervous laugh that's just pure Brains and I have to wonder if some of what Adam did to them all lingered, given Tosh's confidence in speaking up, and Owen not immediately dismissing Tosh and her asking for a date.
“You're being polite, you'll stand me up,” Tosh says, sounding disheartened.
“I've just said yes, haven't I? Look, one date. We'll see where it goes, which might be nowhere.” And, he says, he's going to keep flirting. He's not going to stop now.
“You can be King of Flirts,” Tosh agrees.
What does that make Jack? The Queen?
That sorted, Owen says they should concentrate on Martha. Tosh agrees, though she can't seem to look away from Owen for a minute, a smile playing on her face.
**
Martha's lying, fully clothed, on her bed in the farm, a rather tastefully if sparsely decorated hotel room type affair. She gets up and creeps out of the room, and we see her POV cam on the monitors in Torchwood as she makes her way down the corridor.
Owen types out a message to be careful, which appears in her field of view. She nods, not able to speak up. Martha makes her way to the Administration door she saw on her way to her room earlier, Jack joining Tosh and Owen in monitoring her. She gets to Admin to find the door locked.
Owen asks if Tosh can get them past the door's number keypad lock. “Easy peasy,” Tosh answers, saying that Martha just needs to get the lenses inside the “EPR field” which is sort of a nonsense phrase given that the EPR paradox is a thought experiment, and not a type of energy, but accuracy is for wusses and geeks, and as Martha moves her head nearer to the keypad, Tosh starts figuring out the numbers, and typing them into Martha's field of view.
They get the first number, then Martha hears the steps of the security guards. There's some tense moments, music, and dramatic shots of torches being swept across darkened hallways, and Tosh gets Martha the full code just in the nick of time for her to be able to slip inside the Administration room and shut it behind her.
Once inside, she goes to the computers and, after being unable to hack into it directly, opens up the system so that it can be remotedly accessed and controlled by Tosh in the Hub. They access the system and bring up the data on the alien parasite, called the Mayfly. Beautiful, Gwen says, but deadly, adds Owen.
Jack speaks to Martha directly now, telling her to get out of there. She doesn't need telling twice. She leaves the room and starts creeping around the darkened hallways, looking for a way out.
In the Hub, Gwen is making herself useful by using some of Tosh's codebreaker software to have good rummage through the Pharm's files. She finds the list of covert trial subjects.
Martha's creeping around when an alarm goes off, talking about a breakout in Zone A. That isn't where Martha is, so they're not looking for her. Something else has escaped.
“All patrols proceed with extreme caution,” an announcer's voice is issuing orders, “The escaped creature is extremely dangerous.” It's not at all suspicious of them to be yelling about escaped 'creatures' in the middle of the night, is it?
GET TO SAFETY, is the message Owen flashes into her vision.
Martha grins, and hops out a nearby window.
Gwen's managed to get a list of the clinical trial subjects, and she's showing Jack when a message pops up about “Executive Action: BD.” Who's BD? Jack wonders.
Billy Davis, according to a new popup on the screen. And executive action is an old CIA euphemism for assassination, according to Jack. Gwen spots that one of the names on the list, Elin Morgan, hasn't been reported missing or dead, so Jack orders her to take Ianto and bring the girl in.
Back at the Pharm, Martha finishes shimmying down a drainpipe, and runs across the gravel. She reaches the fence we saw earlier when Jack was eyeing his wrist strap and then the building that contained all the aliens. She ducks into the bushes when one of the patrols runs up, and when they open the gate and go inside, Martha runs through herself before the gate closes entirely.
“What the hell is she doing?” Owen says, nervously, as he watches the monitors. “The Pharm have got their own hitman, god knows what they're capable of.”
“Yeah, and I put her in there,” Jack tells him, sounding angry. The Doctor's so gonna kill him.
Martha runs around buildings, and doesn't immediately see anything, but then something makes her turn around, there's a flash of light and-
The feed from her lenses goes dead. No amount of frantic tapping of keyboards makes it come back.
Whatever the flashes was, it seems to have affected Martha's lenses to the point where she can't see, and she abruptly removes and throws them out. She looks up in time to see a giant version of the tiny alien parasites they found in Marie's body running towards her. She throws herself out of the way and the creature, the Mayfly, ignores her completely. She stands, and unfortunately is directly in the path of the patrol team as they come around the corner of the building.
They hit her with a tranquiliser dart, and down she goes.
You know, I have to wonder how she survived walking the Earth for a year if she was always acting this stupidly.
**
Tosh can't get her back, and Owen says they need to get in there and get her back. Tosh says, in a startling display of backbone, that the place is swamped with security, and it's too great a risk. Wait half an hour, and they can try and get in then.
“Martha can handle herself,” Jack says, “She's been in worse situations than this.”
“You sure about that?” Owen asks.
Not what Jack wanted to hear, really.
**
Ianto and Gwen are in the WoodMobile, and Gwen is doing wicked things to a keypad and a satellite map.
“What's that?” Ianto asks.
“Billy Davis' mobile,” Gwen says, “He'll be at Elin's flat in three minutes.”
Ianto changes gears and really puts his foot down.
**
BD, in classic stalker fashion, enters Miss Morgan's bedroom, needle in hand, and sits on her bed. When she stirs, and before she can panic, he sprays her in the face with something that causes her to freeze, almost paralysed, before he opens her eye widen, moving to inject her.
Fortunately for her, and my stomach, that's when Gwen kicks the door open, brandishing her gun. Ianto's not far behind, and promptly hits Billy with the stun gun. While Gwen checks on Elin, Ianto taps his earpiece.
“Jack, we've got Billy Davis. He can help get you into the Pharm.”
**
Martha regains consciousness, strapped in a mimcry of the crucifix, flat on her back on an examination table. Copley walks in, and Martha demands to be let go. She's here as a volunteer, she says, she can't be treated like this.
Copley says she lied. Martha tries to spin a story about why she was in Zone A, and Copley tells her that she doesn't owe any loyalty to Torchwood, given that Jack Harkness put her in danger. Martha continues to plead ignorance. Copley says it doesn't matter. Torchwood isn't even a nuisance. In fact, they've done the Pharm a favour. Martha's results show she's special.
**
Back in the Hub, Billy Davis is tied to a chair, yelling in pain about something in his stomach. Jack doesn't look sympathetic, making comments about guilty consciences.
“Get stuffed,” Billy snaps.
“Ok, let's try this the hard way.” Jack steps out of range as Ianto comes out of the cells (they seem to be in a passageway of some sort behind the cells) with Janet on a chain around the neck. They let the Weevil run straight for Billy, Ianto only just holding the Weevil back, and let Janet scare seven sorts of shit out of their little captured hitman.
Billy screams that he'll tell them everything, and Ianto sprays the Weevil in the face with... well... a spray, and forces it back into its cell. Billy says that yes, he works for the Pharm, and that he was told to kill people who were going to die anyway. He was killing them before any weird symptoms showed up.
**
“Do you know what lymphocytes are?” Copley asks Martha, as a CGI orb rotates on the screen.
Martha gives him the A-Level biology answer. Hers are different. Nothing like Humans, but they've seen it in aliens. Martha, playing ignorant, pretends to be surprised at the word alien.
Betty hangs up a bag of pink fluid labelled 'RESET' on the IV stand next to Martha.
Her lymphocytes have mutated, she's told, from radiation exposure. Radiation you don't find in the 'temporally stable' environments on Earth. Essentially, they know she's travelled in time and space, and that makes her very valuable to them. They're going to change the world with their drug, Copley says, except it's still got a few flaws. He's keen to see what her “funky” lymphocytes make of it.
Betty attaches the IV to the shunt in Martha's arm, even as Martha protests she's not taking it. But she volunteered, Copley said, clearly not up on his Nuremburg Code.
**
Billy Davis is agreeing, clearly terrified, to getting Jack et al into the Pharm, though he's still going on about his stomach hurting. He tilts his head back, and abruptly blood appears in his mouth. Jack, apparently trying to drown their only way into the Pharm, keeps Billy's head tilted back so that the blood stays there.
“Owen, we need him alive.”
Owen is more than a little helpless. He's going no idea what's going on. He fumbles with his instruments for a moment while Ianto looks on, frowning, his arms folded, from the other end of the room. How about making sure he doesn't drown in his own blood, genius?
“Let's try this.” Owen grabs the supposed scalpel from earlier, and starts trying to callibrate it properly. He fiddles and tweaks, and we see an image of the parasite curled up inside Billy's body. Owen says he thinks he's got it, and turns on the device.
Well, it vaporises something. Unfortunately, that something is a good part of Billy's abdomen. His guts spill out onto the floor, along the with the alien creature that Owen was originally aiming for, the latter still alive. They all make various sounds of disgust, Ianto leaping back to avoid getting covered in anything while Owen gets splattered in blood. Jack orders Owen to deal with it, even as Owen apologises for messing up the settings, and they stick the still twitching alien into a tupperware box with the Torchwood logo, sealing the lid on top.
Ianto is pulling a disgusted face as Owen muses that Billy must have breathed in larva when one of his victims died. Could have been himself, Owen says. Or Martha.
Foreshadowing anyone?
**
Martha is thrashing around on the table, sweating, and Betty says she's been given twice the critical dose. She questions whether Copley's sure about this, though she's just told to keep her nerve. They're making history after all.
**
“Ianto, what have you done with Billy Davis body?”
It's Tosh who's asking, and it turns out that Ianto was just about to dispose of it. Don't be so hasty, Tosh says, since she has an idea. She brings it up on the monitor. “Clever, huh?”
“Oh, you are warped on the inside,” Ianto tells her. “How do you think of of these things?”
Tosh smiles. “I'll take that as a compliment.”
**
It's not the WoodMobile, but there's not much to distinguish this particular car and the SUV given that they're both oversized and large. Team Torchwood are crouched in the back of the car, all five of them, Ianto visibly playing with his gun. Billy Davis is in the drivers seat, and fortunately isn't asked to talk when they pull up at the guard post at the gates. They let him through.
No, Billy boy isn't a zombie. His hands are duct taped to the steering wheel, and Tosh is driving the car remotely. They pull up outside the Pharm, and braking causes Billy's head to fall forward and hit the steering wheel. Team Necro jump out, Ianto, Gwen and Tosh being sent to check out Zone A while Jack and Owen look for Martha.
The gate at Zone A presents no problem for Tosh and her tricorder, and they get in with ease.
Apparently getting into the main building wasn't so hard for Owen and Jack either, as they burst into the room where Martha is being held, finding Copley alone, and ordering him away from Martha.
Copley is happily babbling about the scientific implications of what they're seeing in Martha's body, how she's the only subject to last past the larval stage, etc. etc., how there's only one bug left inside. Stop it, Owen says. Copley can't. He doesn't know how.
The three two girls, plus Ianto, break into Zone A, to find Betty inside changing canisters attached to various machines. They order her to put her hands above her head, and as Tosh approaches she sees what's inside the machines. She calls Ianto over.
“Bloody hell,” Ianto says.
Back in the main house, something is moving around in Martha's stomach, and it looks like we're about due for a rerun of the chest burster scene from aliens if they don't do something quick. Owen says, sounding helpless, that he doesn't know what he can do. Owen rummages through his bag, and find the alien probably-a-scalpel thing inside.
Inside the machine in Zone A, however, is a Weevil, drugged out its mind and hooked up with wires. This is what the Pharm's about, Betty says. They use captured aliens and extract all sorts of useful chemicals from them. Apparently from Weevils they get pesticides.
She sounds quite proud as she says that the Weevils aren't what's going to get them the Nobel. She shows them the Mayfly, the creature that produces Reset. Gwen steps close to the glass, staring at the captured alien, which is weakly tapping at the glass that confines it. It's literally bolted to the inside of its cylinder, unable to move much.
Ianto taps his earpiece and gives a report on what they've found to Jack, walking away as he does so. Gwen continues to stare at the Mayfly, and it seems to stare back. As she moves her head to look at it, the Mayfly follows her movements, and when she raises her hand to touch the glass, the creature's leg moves to touch the glass where she would have, though the sound of it hitting the glass startles her and makes her drop her hand.
She smiles at the creature, gently.
**
Jack's ordering Ianto to go for 'total shutdown', adding 'this place is a torture chamber' before he releases his earpiece and it chirps, presumably closing the comm channel. The statement was more aimed at Copley than Ianto, though Copley doesn't seem too bothered. He sees no need to debate medical ethics. He says they tried to limit the damage of the Mayflys. By murdering people, Jack asks, though Copley justifies it by saying they were going to die anyway.
Owen is fluttering around Martha as they speak, trying to do something, anything, for her.
He says Jack should understand, since he's involved in alien research. Not like this, is the answer.
“I'm closing this place down.”
“In your dreams. This is a state of the art, official, facility.” Copley sees no threat from Torchwood, still believing his government associations protect him. He clearly wasn't watching the pre-teaser sequence.
“Oh, I'm not going to do it by sending a memo. We're in control of your IT systems. As we speak we're crashing your databanks. And that's just for starters.”
Cyber-terrorism, Copley objects, angrily. They're also going to trip all the safety networks, and flood the facility.
“The aliens will die,” Copley says.
“They're already dying,” Jack snarls. “This way they'll be put out of their misery.”
Apparently that experiment in being nice to the captive aliens and helping them get home was just a one-off then. Copley angrily says they're on the same side. That's no how Jack sees it. He sees it as a war crime.
Martha's seizing, and Owen calls for Jack's help. He has the alien scalpel in his hands, and is trying to tweak it. Jack reminds him it's never worked before, and he'd better be sure.
While they're distracted, Copley slips out of the room.
Owen tweaks settings, sees the alien inside Martha, looking a lot like the one Billy Davis had in him. He urges Jack out of the way, and after tense moments, he turns it on. The alien disappears from the screen, and Martha sits bolt upright, eyes wide, before collapsing back. Her internal organs are still internal, but all the monitors watching her vitals suddenly give out long flatline tones.
“What have you done?” Jack asks, in horror.
Owen's frozen, unable to do more than stare at Jack and Martha.
Martha suddenly coughs, and the monitors start beeping.
“Oh bloody hell it worked,” Owen says, utterly relieved. “Thank god for that.”
Jack grabs Martha off the bed, and Owen throws his medical kit over his shoulder, before helping Martha to walk out.
**
Outside things are busy. Tosh is walking around with her laptop, as Jack exits the building just ahead of Owen and Martha. Owen is telling that Martha needs to rest under his close supervision.
“Owen, I don't know how to break this to you, I've got a boyfriend,” she says, sounding pained, but that's physical pain. She's not too bothered about putting Owen down.
“Yeah, but has he saved your life like I did?”
“Um...” They meet up with the others, and Owen takes Martha's arm off his shoulders. “Yes, actually.”
“Do it,” Jack orders Tosh, as Gwen pushes Betty up against the car and pats her down for weapons. A keystroke, and the Pharm's voice announces the facility shutdown is in progress. Screams can be heard from inside the building, the aliens dying.
“Ok, let's go,” Jack says. Job well done, team. Pizza's on him.
“Did you really think I was going to let you just walk away?” It's Copley, and he has a gun, aimed at Martha. Owen steps in front of her and Jack, the best person to provide a human shield, is stuck right at the back of the group.
He's lost everything he's worked for, and is more than a little angry. Owen tries to appeal to his rationality, calling them both 'men of science', though since that tack didn't work in his office earlier in the episode, not sure why he thinks it'll work now. Owen slowly edges towards Copley, while the others stand there, Gwen with her gun out, the others just staring.
“I know you don't want to shoot,” Owen says.
Yes, he really does. And to prove it, Copley shoots Owen.
It's Ianto's reaction we see, shocked and startled by the gunshot, and then Owen's on the ground, bleeding copiously from the chest wound. Tosh stares, mouth opening and closing in horror. Copley raises his gun, telling Martha she's next. Jack doesn't let it get that far. He shoots Copley in the head, and the scientist goes down.
They ignore the dead scientist, and crowd around Owen.
“You've got to help him!” Tosh yells at Martha, who gets up, frantically grabbing Owen's medical kit.
“Owen, stay with me,” Jack is also crouched on the ground, “Owen, look at me. Owen. Owen. Stay with me.” He keeps calling Owen's name as Martha injects something into Owen's body.
“Owen, speak to me,” she yells.
But he doesn't speak. He's looking away from all of them, eyes going glassy, and then he goes completely still. Martha checks his pulse and, shocked, raises her eyes to Jack. “He's dead,” she says, quietly.
Jack's face falls into a blank expression, almost of disbelief. “Owen?” he whispers, “Owen?” He keeps calling Owen's name, even giving him a little shake, as if waiting for him to wake up and tell them it was all a joke.
He doesn't though.
Oooooowwwweeeeen! You rat bastard, why'd you have to go and die just when I was getting to like you? Although, really we should have seen it coming the moment that he agreed to a date with Tosh. It's one of those TV scifi rules. You're not allowed any character progression unless it's immediately followed by very big death.
Poor Tosh. I think she's cursed. I think she's three for three in dead girl/boyfriends now.
We've seen how Owen's changed in this episode to how he was last year. Last year he was very angry, very angry towards, well, towards everyone, but there was a certain anger towards women, as evidenced in his destructive relationships and how even his one positive relationship with Diane was tainted by anger. We can sort of see why after his very Freudian revelation in Adam that he never got along with his mother, but in this episode we see Owen as someone who's happy to flirt, but knows how far to take it (he knows better than to hit on Martha too much because a) Jack would kill him and b) she's not interested) and he's nice enough to say yes to Tosh with the idea that they can explore where it leads. Contrast this with how he and Gwen were acting last year.
They've all grown up while Jack's been away, and Owen has done more growing up than all of them.
It was nice to see Martha again, and she does seem to fit into this scientist role a bit better than the 'tag along companion' role she played in Doctor Who, and it seems that she's definitely moved on. Like she said to the Doctor, she had to get out, or she wouldn't move on with her life. And she has. She has a new job, respect from both UNIT and Torchwood, and a new boyfriend (the pediatrics doctor from The Last Of The Time Lords I wonder?).
I can't help but see Martha as a teensy bit of a Mary Sue, though. She sweeps in. She's friends with Jack. All the main characters want to know about her. She's been through things they never will. She does autopsies better than Owen. She knows about quantum entanglements when Ianto tries to show off a bit of knowledge. She got a recommendation from the Doctor to UNIT. She even gets to hear about the Sexual Adventures of Jack and Ianto, albeit in a roundabout fashion.
Ok. We get it. She's great.
Again, we have to draw comparisons to Slow Decay one of the Torchwood novels, which has similar themes of alien larva in Human bodies, though, like Adam, it's less benign in this episode than the book (honestly, I think the novel writers aren't trying hard enough). I suppose it's one of those things where there are no new stories, just old ones rehashed.
Next Week: Weevils in a church, and the grey smoke monster of doom. Stay tuned.
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