The Resurrection Gauntlet was a metal gauntlet (also known as The Glove and given the joking name of Risen Mitten by Ianto Jones), had the ability to bring the dead back to life for a limited time.
History
It had a strange but unspecified connection to a knife made of the same metal. It was recovered from Cardiff Bay by Torchwood 3 circa 1967. (TW: Everything Changes)
- The Cardiff Rift would seem the most obvious explanation for the glove's presence in 20th century Cardiff.
Jack Harkness theorised that whoever owned it had wanted to be rid of it. Jack put Suzie Costello in charge of testing the glove. Costello became obsessed with the possibility of being able to bring people back to life. She began buying goldfish in bulk and killing them to test out the gauntlet. (Torchwood wesbite) Mores seriously, she concieved an elaborate plan to use the glove to bring herself back from the dead. (TW: They Keep on Killing Suzie)
- Costello must have worked this out as a contingency plan, in case she had her murders discovered.
The Glove was more effective on recent, violent trauma victims, prompting Suzie Costello to murder several Cardiff residents in order to improve her proficiency in using it. Following her revelation of the murders, she shot herself in the head and died. The Glove was placed in Jack's safe and sealed with a "DO NOT USE" tag. (TW: Everything Changes)
Gwen Cooper was the only Torchwood 3 team member at that time with the degree of empathy required to operate the glove without Suzie. When the glove was used on Suzie, Gwen's life force was slowly drained from her into Suzie and she even began developing the same wound as Suzie in the back of her head where Suzie's was. The only way to break this connection was to destroy the glove, which Toshiko Sato did, saving Gwen and killing Suzie again. However, Ianto Jones pointed out that "gloves come in pairs", implying that there may be another glove. (TW: They Keep on Killing Sizie)
Characeristics
Suzie's research showed that the glove was slightly radioactive and that the glove possesses "low psych levels" which allows it to directly respond to brain activity It was later established it has an empathic link in the form of energy with its wearer, which showed up on video cameras, like "a rope from [the] heart to the glove" and that transfers the life force of the wearer to keep the dead alive. (TW: They Keep on Killing Suzie)