Gwen Elizabeth Cooper was a Cardiff Police Constable who was recruited by Torchwood Three, and eventually rose to second-in-command and, for a short while, commander of the unit.
Biography
Early life
Gwen's Family was established in Cardiff by the 19th century. This or, as the Tenth Doctor explained, the influence of the space-time rift in Cardiff, may explain her physical resemblance to a funeral home employee named Gwyneth, who died in 1869 in one of the earliest known effects involving the rift. (DW: Journey's End, The Unquiet Dead)
Gwen Cooper was born on 16 August 1978 to Geraint and Mary Cooper. (TW: Children of Earth, Something Borrowed, The New World) When Gwen was a girl, her father came home one day and she eavesdropped on a conversation Geraint and her mother had. She discovered that someone at Geraint's workplace had been stealing money and Geraint had been falsely accused of the thefts. She ran up the stairs and came back to Geraint with about £2.50, to which her father replied "It's not about the money. It's just that I can't stand anyone thinking I'm dishonest." As Gwen and Geraint played that night, Gwen thought he was the most honest man she'd ever meet. She would later tell this story to Jack and Oswald Danes. (TW: The Blood Line) Before dating Rhys Williams, whom she had met in college, Gwen fought off the romantic attention of police partner Andy Davidson (TW: Adrift) and had a boyfriend named Bruce. Rhys fancied her as soon as he saw her because of her nice personality and her good looks. Rhys often made jokes during the stupidest time. Gwen referred to this as "Rhysing around". (TW: Adam) Rhys and Gwen came to live together, and while Gwen's work in Torchwood occasionally brought alien phenomena to Rhys's attention, Rhys did not believe in aliens, instead concluding terrorists had caused hallucinations by putting psychotropics in the water supply. (TW: Everything Changes)
Gwen was a uniformed police constable called in on a murder scene, only to encounter a mysterious team of people called Torchwood Three, though usually referred to as simply "Torchwood". She got involved when she came across the team investigating one of several murders secretly done by one of Torchwood's own people, the devious Suzie Costello. She also saw an obviously non-human Weevil kill a hospital porter. Captain Jack Harkness took her on a tour of the Hub, then dosed her with retcon, a drug that induced selective amnesia, but she still managed to make notes on her meeting with the team. Subsequently, she joined Torchwood at the invitation of Jack Harkness, who valued her empathetic nature and ability to see beyond the facts. Having seen Costello shoot Jack in the head and Jack immediately come back to life, Gwen was, for a time, the only member of Torchwood Three who knew of Jack's immortality. (TW: Everything Changes)
Life in Torchwood
Early career
Gwen was taught to use guns by Jack, as she was a 'Beat cop' rather than a firearms officer. There appeared to be some sexual tension between the two. Any developing feelings were apparently ended when she returned home and the "ghost machine" showed her memories of her relationship with Rhys. (TW: Ghost Machine) She and another team member, Owen Harper kissed passionately whilst hiding from a partially cyber-converted Lisa Hallett. (TW: Cyberwoman) Following his seduction of her (TW: Countrycide), Owen and Gwen embarked upon a brief affair, largely because she couldn't share her supernatural and extraterrestrial experiences with her boyfriend, Rhys.
Gwen was the only one to hear the ghost of Eugene Jones, although she didn't know that it was him at the time, and was eventually saved by him when he pushed her out of the way of an oncoming car. (TW: Random Shoes)
When Gwen received a precognitive vision of Rhys' death by stabbing, she rendered him unconscious with a stun gun and locked him up in the confinement area beneath the Hub. This was to no avail, as Bilis Manger simply teleported in and stabbed him to death there. She took part in a coup with Owen to overthrow Jack and open the Rift, believing it would resurrect Rhys. She was ecstatic when Rhys returned to life, the previous event having apparently "un-happened", but when Jack battled with Abaddon, whom the Rift had also released, and remained dead for days, Gwen stayed by his side, unwavering in her belief in him, kissing his dead lips before he was finally resurrected. Soon after his recovery, Jack vanished, leaving the team behind to chase after the Doctor's TARDIS. (TW: End of Days, DW: Utopia)
Jack's disappearance
After Jack's disappearance Gwen, along with the rest of the team, was dispatched on a "wild goose chase" mission to the Himalayas by Harold Saxon. (DW: The Sound of Drums)
- Gwen's fate during the Year That Never Was remains yet to be revealed. The exact nature of the fake mission is also unknown.
With Jack still missing, and despite being the junior employee, Gwen nonetheless took over as Torchwood Three team leader. Rhys proposed marriage to her and she accepted. Gwen continued to operate Torchwood Three as Jack had done, and was at one point seen chasing a blowfish-like alien driving a sports car. (TW: Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang)
Reunion
Just as suddenly as he had vanished, Jack re-appeared and once more took over Torchwood. (TW: Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang) Following a case which involved Rhys' hauling company and his attempt to investigate, Gwen came clean about the true nature of her work for Torchwood. Although Jack wanted to retcon Rhys' knowledge of Torchwood, Gwen was able to convince him not to do this and Rhys, for his part, kept the secret. (TW: Meat)
When Adam Smith arrived at Torchwood, he inserted himself into Gwen's memory and she forgot about Rhys. When she came home, he was in the flat and she called Jack thinking he was a mad man who had broken into her flat. She remembered him after he refreshed her memory of how they had met. (TW: Adam)
As Gwen was preparing for her marriage to Rhys, she was bitten by a Nostrovite, which transferred the egg of its young into her body, causing her to wake up pregnant on her wedding day. Rhys eventually saved her by using the Singularity Scalpel to remove the egg from her, while Jack destroyed the mother Nostrovite. She and Rhys were married, though the guests' memories were retconned to forget the alien involvement. (TW: Something Borrowed) Though she and Rhys were now married, she chose to keep her maiden name. (TWN: SkyPoint, DW: Journey's End, TW: The Gathering)
Gwen was upset when Andy Davidson, her former police partner, told her she had become distant since she joined Torchwood. Angry at this, she set out trying to unlock the mystery of the Rift despite Jack's opposition. (TW: Adrift)
When signs of an unidentified life-signs were detected from a warehouse, the rest of the team went to investigate, while Gwen got delayed and avoided an explosion that trapped the others. Together with Rhys, who had given her a lift, she managed to rescue the others and discovered that Captain John Hart was responsible. (TW: Fragments)
With Rift activity being detected in three locations in Cardiff, Gwen went to police headquarters, where she discovered that the Weevils had killed four of the senior police officers. Later, Gwen witnessed the detonation of fifteen bombs, planted by John and Gray, Jack's brother, at strategic locations around Cardiff, causing mayhem. She took command of the confused police officers and helps to subdue the Weevils before making her way to the Hub. She was trapped in the Weevil cage by Gray but rescued by Jack and returned to the control room, though too late to help fellow team member Toshiko Sato, who was shot and killed by Gray. (TW: Exit Wounds)
After the loss
The deaths of Toshiko and Owen had a profound impact on Gwen, to the point where she questioned whether it was worth Torchwood continuing. (TW: Exit Wounds) She was still emotionally unsteady regarding the loss several months later. (BBCR: Lost Souls) Perhaps, to help her cope, she took to placing a photograph of Owen and Tosh next to her workstation in the Hub. (TW: Children of Earth: Day One)
The Medusa Cascade incident
Gwen was present at the Hub when Earth was moved to the Medusa Cascade and invaded by the Daleks and helped out with contacting the Tenth Doctor. Upon first seeing the Doctor, she said, "Ooh, he's a bit nice. I thought he'd be older." After Jack left to help the Doctor, Ianto and Gwen tried to hold off a Dalek invading the Hub with conventional weaponry, even though she knew they wouldn't work, telling Ianto, "I'm going down fighting, like Owen, like Tosh. How about you?" (DW: The Stolen Earth) They survived thanks to Tosh's time lock defence system, which froze the Dalek in time before it could get beyond the threshold of the Hub's entrance, although this also trapped Ianto and Gwen inside. She was able to help the Doctor use the Rift to return the Earth to its original position; she and Ianto opened up the Rift Manipulator to allow the Doctor to use it as a 'towrope' to move Earth back to its proper place.
During the incident she experienced a moment of puzzlement when the Doctor and Rose Tyler shared an in-joke at her resemblance to someone from the 19th Century. (DW: Journey's End)
The Medusa Cascade Incident was erased from history by the Time Field, so Gwen's memory of these events may have been erased as well. (DW: Victory of the Daleks)
The 456 incident
At the beginning of Day One of the 456 incident during September 2009, Gwen discovered a man in a Psychiatric Hospital who displayed the same signs as the possessed children. On meeting him he said he could smell that she was pregnant, which was confirmed by the Hub's medical scanner. Jack ran in and after seeing this placed his hand on her, which was still on the Hub's medical scanner. The picture then switched to reveal the bomb hidden inside Jack's body, forcing Ianto and Gwen to abandon the Hub as it was destroyed. (TW: Children of Earth: Day One)
After escaping the explosion Gwen was attacked by two government agents masquerading as paramedics but managed to fight them off with a fire extinguisher, steal their weapons and then flee the scene. She returned home collect Rhys, realising that if someone was trying to kill her then her husband was next on the list. They were able to escape when Gwen delayed the government hit squad by shooting their tires out.
The two fled to London where they made contact with Lois Habiba, who informed them of the government's plans and eventually became a spy for them. Lois told them the location of the captured Jack and told them they needed to disguise themselves as funeral workers in order to gain access. Gwen and Rhys snuck into the base but were cornered by Johnson outside Jack's cell. They were saved by Ianto, who created a path using a forklift and the group, Jack included, escaped. (TW: Children of Earth: Day Two)
The team relocated to an old Torchwood One storage facilty and witnessed the return of the 456. Gwen went to visit Lois again and convinced her to take a pair of contact lenses that would allow Torchwood to monitor the situation inside Thames House. Later on, Gwen convinced Andy Davidson to allow Clem MacDonald to be released from prison and took him back to the storage base for his safety.
She later witnessed the 456 demand one tenth of the Earth's children and convinced Lois to stand up to the government, who were planning to give them the children, and blackmail them to allow Jack and Ianto access to talk to the 456. (TW: Children of Earth: Day Three, Children of Earth: Day Four)
With Rhys in a hidden location with the recordings that could destroy the government, Gwen purposefully led Johnson and her team to the base and revealed to them what the government were doing, gaining their support. While talking with Johnson, the 456 became angry while dealing with Jack and killed Clem, along with many MI5 staff when it flooded the building with a virus, leading to Ianto's death. Gwen rushed to the building once it was safe and wept by the body of her friend while Jack was reborn again. (TW: Children of Earth: Day Four)
Having failed to stop the government from activating the plan to take the bottom ten percent of school children, Gwen, along with Rhys and Andy, went to fufill a promise to Jack - protect Ianto's niece and nephew. En route, Gwen, upset over Ianto's death, strongly implied to Rhys that she was considering aborting the pregnancy, due to the dangerous world they now lived in. She later recanted her statement and told Rhys she never seriously considered the option. Arriving just as the army did to take the children, the group gathered as many children as they could and ran, along with Ianto's sister and her husband, to a nearby disused building, but were soon discovered. Running from the army proved fruitless and soon only Gwen and a single child were left uncaptured and running but she was saved when Jack destroyed the 456 and she happily embraced the children. (TW: Children of Earth: Day Five)
Gwen was declared dead as a result of the 456 Regulation. (TW: The New World)
Aftermath
Several months later, in December 2009, between the fall of Torchwood Three and before Jack left Earth, Torchwood was described as having completely "fallen". It is assumed that when the Master activated the Immortality Gate and turned every human on Earth into a replica of himself, Gwen and Rhys were affected as well. After Rassilon reversed the effect of the gate, they would have returned back to normal and continued their life as it had been. (DW: The End of Time)
Six months after the 456 incident, in March 2010, Gwen and Rhys went to meet Jack on a hill, seeing him for the first time since he left to travel the world in the wake of the death of his grandson. Now heavily pregnant, Gwen tried to convince Jack not to leave her and Torchwood, but he left, teleporting into space. Gwen was left sobbing in Rhys's arms. With Jack gone, the other members dead and Gwen heavily pregnant, the future of Torchwood Three was left in limbo. (TW: Children of Earth: Day Five) She later gave birth to a healthy baby, Anwen Williams (TM: Shrouded). Gwen, Rhys, and Anwen then went into hiding for the next year. (TW: The New World)
Miracle Day
On Miracle Day Gwen's father Geraint was brought to the hospital, so Gwen and her family were forced to return to Cardiff. Upon arriving there, Andy informed Gwen of the Miracle, and the two of them began investigating online. Shortly after they returned home, Rex Matheson arrived at their secret home, which was shortly attacked by helicopter. With Jack Harkness' help they escaped to Roald Dahl Plass, where Matheson extradited them all to America (TW: The New World).
While her husband and child were sent back home, Gwen was still forced to board the America-bound plane. Onboard, Gwen was handcuffed to her seat next to Jack. She spent her time making fun of one of the workers and Rex repeatedly ignored her. Rex was focused on being professional about his job, prompting Gwen to give a harsh remark about his attitude. During this time, Gwen learnt that Jack lost his ability to keep coming back to life. Jack was poisoned by the other CIA agent onboard, Lyn Peterfield, and Gwen freed herself to keep Lyn at bay while Rex put together an antidote for Jack using tips from Dr. Vera over the phone. Upon having her ancestry insulted by Lyn, Gwen knocked her out and handcuffs her before being returned to her seat by Rex with a recovered Jack. Upon landing in America, Gwen was freed by Rex as the CIA turned on him. Gwen boarded Rex's fellow ex-CIA colleague Esther Drummond's car and fled. (TW: Rendition)
Along with Jack, Gwen took charge of the ex-CI. agents to form a new Torchwood team while stealing supplies (yet again) to make a suitable base of operations. The team soon aquired the phone of the CIA's director Brian Friedkin, who had given out orders to kill her and Jack to keep Torchwood disbanded. Later, Gwen accompanied the rest of the team to a warehouse owned by a pharmaceutical company known as PhiCorp, which stockpiled a large amount of painkillers. This led them to believe that PhiCorp may have had a hand in "Miracle Day" occurring. (TW: Dead of Night)
Gwen, along with the rest of the new Torchwood team, went to Los Angeles to infiltrate a PhiCorp installation there. Unknown to her, they were followed by an assassin. While in LA, Gwen called Rhys and asked him to take her father out of the hospital. Gwen tricked Nicolas Frumkin into giving her his voice print, palm print, and retinal print, which she needed to access PhiCorp. Jack and Gwen both broke into the PhiCorp building, and were followed by the assassin. The assassin tied up both Jack and Gwen, putting a knife to Gwen's throat. He threatened to cut Gwen's throat if Jack refused to answer his questions. Gwen persuaded the assassin to tell her who he was working for, but before the assassin had a chance to speak, Rex arrived and shot him in the throat. The three stole the information they needed from PhiCorp and escaped the building. Gwen then recieved a phone call from Rhys, and was informed that her father had been taken to one of PhiCorp's overflow camps. (TW: Escape to LA)
Using the alias Yvonne Pallister, Gwen returned to Wales. She was reunited with her husband, daughter, and mother, and began planning to take her father out of the Cowbridge Overflow Camp. She went to the camp with Rhys and Andy Davidson, and tried to persuade the employees at the camp to let her see her father. Unfortaunetly, no visitors were allowed, and even Andy's position as a police officer did not persuade them to change their minds. Gwen and Rhys decided to break into the camp to free Geraint. Gwen went undercover as a nurse, and Rhys brought Gwen into the camp in his truck. Gwen found Geraint, and she and Rhys tried to bring him to the truck. Geraint had another heart attack and became unconscious. He was then reclassified as category one. After Rhys informed Gwen that the modules were for "burn victims", Gwen realised that the true purpose of the modules were to cremate category one individuals. (TW: The Categories of Life)
Gwen then attempted to persuade a doctor at the camp that her father was actually in category 2. However, the doctor refused to reexamine Geraint, as that would mean she would be obligated to reexamine all category 1s. Gwen and Rhys decided to try to break Geraint out of the camp again, and succeeded. Rhys took Geraint out of the camp in his truck, while Gwen used the Eye-5 contact lenses to contact Captain Jack. Jack then recorded Gwen blowing up the modules. Gwen returned to America, and recieved a phone call at the airport, saying simply "lenses." Gwen went to the bathroom and put the contact lenses on, where she received text messages saying "We have your mother," "We have your husband," and "We have your child." Gwen asked them what they wanted, and the text responded, "Bring us Jack." (TW: The Middle Men)
Gwen then returned to Torchwood's base in LA, stunning Jack and tying him up in the car. She told Jack that her family had been kidnapped and that she had to trade Jack for them. Gwen ignored Jack's attempts to trick her into letting him go, and brought him where her contact lenses told them to. She even admited to Jack that in a sickening way she was glad the other members of the old team were dead because now that so few knew the truth it made her feel more important. During their journey, she and Jack learned more about each other. After Gwen stated that she could see Jack killed in front of her to save her daughter, Jack responded by saying that he would rip the skin from her skull before he let Gwen take his life. Despite their hostilities, Gwen began to feel guilty for driving her best friend to his death, and asked him to tell her about his life. When they arrived Olivia Colasanto and her men were there waiting for them. Rex and Esther followed them and threatened to shoot Colasanto's people. Andy simultaneously managed to free Gwen's family. (TW: Immortal Sins)
Torchwood then agreed to go with Olivia to see her grandfather Angelo Colasanto who knew what had caused the Miracle. Upon arriving at the Colasanto residence, Olivia explained that Angelo had been kept alive on life support, and that the Three Families were responsible for the Miracle. Before long, Friedkin arrived, and captured Torchwood, Olivia, and her employees. Friedkin then took Rex to another room in order to take revenge on him, but Rex recorded him admitting that he worked for the families with the Torchwood contact lenses. Allen Shapiro soon arrived and arrested Friedkin and Olivia. After Angelo became the first person to die since Miracle Day, Gwen spoke with Rhys on the phone while Jack was sulking. Esther then found a null field generator under the floor, Gwen was deported back to Wales when Jack refused to explain to Shapiro what it was. (TW: End of the Road)
Gwen spent the next two months at home with her family, robbing pharmacies in order to obtain medicine for her father. Geraint was forced to live in the basement, as he would be sent back to an overflow camp to be burned if he was found. Gwen's house had been searched, but the police did not find Geraint. Meanwhile, Gwen's house was being watched by a man who was likely working for the Families. His goal seemed to be to find Jack Harkness, and he seemed to be hoping that Jack would try to come meet with Gwen. Gwen's family had their groceries delivered to them, and one day the delivery man happenned to be convicted paedophile Oswald Danes. Upon entering Gwen's house, Oswald picked up Anwen, which Gwen was not happy about. Gwen and Rhys proceeded to beat up Oswald, until he explained that he had information about the Miracle and wanted to speak to Jack. Gwen asked Jack to returnn to Wales, and Jack arrived at Gwen's house, after he retconned the man who was watching Gwen's house. Using the leads that Oswald had given them, Torchwood realised that the Blessing was at antipodes in Shanghai and Buenos Aires. The police soon returned to Gwen's house, and used a new app to find Gwen's father. Gwen begged them not to take Geraint, pointing out that he was still warm. The man who was taking him comforted Gwen by pointing out that he was about to get a lot warmer where he was going. Gwen then went to Shanghai with Jack and Oswald in an attempt to find the Blessing, while Rex and Esther went to Buenos Aires. Upon arriving in Shanghai, Jack's gunshot wound began to hurt him again, so Gwen helped him with this bandage. However, drops of Jack's blood then began to move towards the Blessing. (TW: The Gathering)
Based on the direction in which Jack's blood was moving, Gwen was able to locate the Shanghai end of the Blessing. Upon finding it, Gwen called Jack and Oswald and asked them to come, and then spoke to Rhys who was planning to visit her father in the overflow camp with Andy. Gwen told Rhys that she wasn't sure if she wanted to end the Miracle since it would mean her father's death, but Rhys told her that she should just let him die if necessary. When Jack and Oswald arrived, the three broke into the facility that housed the Blessing. They found some explosives inside which they strapped to Oswald. Oswald threatened to blow himself and the facility up if the families tried to stop them. A family member revealed that in order to end the Miracle, mortal blood would have to be put into both sides of the Blessing. Rex had transfused Jack's blood into himself, and he was at the Buenos Aires end. Gwen decided that she would shoot Jack as she didn't want him to have to kill himself. One of the family members in Buenos Aires then shot Esther, so that ending the Miracle would mean allowing Esther to die. Jack and Rex were unsure of what to do, but Gwen, having already accepted that ending the Miracle would mean killing her father, decided that it would be better to end the Miracle and let Esther die. Gwen shot Jack whild Rex removed his bandage, and both of their blood was sucked into the Blessing, ending the Miracle. Gwen attempted to escape in a lift with Jilly Kitzinger while Oswald blew up the facility and a family member, but Jack soon came back to life as his immortality was restored when the Miracle ended. Gwen attempted to bring Jack into the lift with them, but Jilly was not willing to wait to escape, so the two of them got into a physical fight. Upon beating Jilly up, Gwen helped Jack into the lift and the three escaped. Meanwhile, in Buenos Aires, Rex survived but Esther did not.
Jack, Gwen and Rex returned to America where they attended Esther's funeral. After the funeral, Gwen watched as Rex was shot by Charlotte Wills, and was shocked when he, having somehow gained Jack's immortality, came back to life. (TW: The Blood Line)
Alternate Realities
Donna's World
If Donna Noble had turned right, instead of left, stopping herself from ever meeting and saving the Tenth Doctor, Gwen would have still joined Torchwood. She and Ianto Jones would have sacrificed their lives to save the Earth from the Sontaran's plan involving ATMOS. (DW: Turn Left)
Personality
As a Torchwood operative she provided an essential foil to Captain Jack, although her personal agenda sometimes interfered with her duties. Her actions and decisions were sometimes guided by her desire to protect her live-in boyfriend, and later husband, Rhys. She had a brief, disruptive affair with another operative, Owen Harper, and according to him was capable of sexual techniques which at first caused him extreme pleasure, but later bored him. (TW: Countrycide) and also shared sexual tension with Jack, but in the end remained true to Rhys. (TW: Something Borrowed)
She was always friendly and related well to people, a trait that she had picked up as a police officer, and the one that caused Jack Harkness to recruit her to Torchwood. (TW: Everything Changes)
Known family
- Rhys Williams - husband
- Anwen Williams - daughter
- Geraint Cooper - father
- Mary Cooper - mother
- Barry Williams - father-in-law
- Brenda Williams- mother-in-law
- In an alternate timeline, Gwen and Rhys instead had a son named Jack Ianto Geraint Williams. (TWN: The Twilight Streets)
Behind the scenes
- Eve Myles initially appeared on Doctor Who as Gwyneth in the 2005 episode The Unquiet Dead. When she was later cast as Gwen Cooper, Russell T Davies denied that the two characters were related, just that they had similar names and the same actress - in fact, he didn't consider the names Gwen and Gwyneth similar. In the fourth season finale, Journey's End, the Tenth Doctor and Rose Tyler notice the resemblance between Gwen and Gwyneth. Gwen states her family roots in Cardiff date back to the 19th century. Russell T Davies explains "It's not familial as we understand it. There's no blood tie. Spatial genetic multiplicity means an echo and repetition of physical traits across a Time Rift." This means that although Gwen may be a physical 'copy' of Gwyneth, she isn't the same person.
- Gwen did not take a her husband's name and continues to be identified as Gwen Cooper on both Torchwood and Doctor Who, reportedly at the request of Myles.