Suzie Costello
Suzie Costello was a member of Torchwood Three in the early 21st century up until late 2007 when she committed suicide.
Although she wasn't alone in having used Torchwood-acquired technology to her own advantage, she had been the most destructive. Suzie, unlike her other teammates, had malicious ulterior motives and carried them out through secret gambits. Despite her troubled life, she harbored a sadistic cruelty that led to her early demise. However, Suzie's influence continued to cause bedlam after her death, through a plan to resurrect herself should she perish, which was eventually undone. She would be revived yet another time by alien technology, only to face a final death beyond any hope of return.
Biography
Costello loathed her father. She had an affair with Owen Harper. When she joined Torchwood Three, she was on the run and had wiped her files clean. She placed triggers on Pilgrim member Max, using retcon that would lead to her resurrection with the resurrection gauntlet three months after her death. (TV: They Keep Killing Suzie)
The gauntlet worked particularly well on the victims of violent deaths, (TV: Everything Changes) and more so on injuries inflicted by the life knife. (TV: They Keep Killing Suzie) In 2007, Costello committed a series of murders with the life knife to improve her use of it. She was discovered by PC Gwen Cooper. Her attempt to kill Jack Harkness in her escape was thwarted when Jack's immortality was revealed. Suzie took her own life. (TV: Everything Changes) This was another step in her plan to revive herself. Costello's body was placed in the Torchwood cryo-chambers and her worldly possessions collected and placed into storage as was common practice for deceased Torchwood operatives.
Three months after her death, Max committed murders, marking corpses in blood with the word "Torchwood" to draw Torchwood's attention. After discovering her involvement with Pilgrim, Torchwood decided to revive Costello, ironically with the very resurrection gauntlet that Costello had killed for earlier. Gwen wielded the glove this time, but rather than reviving Costello for only a few minutes as usual, the glove revived her apparently permanently. This left Torchwood in a quandary since they now had a dead person who had come back to life, yet among other things still had a severe head injury caused by the suicide bullet. Unknown to the team, Costello had foreseen this and through a mental link in the glove, Gwen was forced to transfer part of her essence, which Costello used to heal her injury, an action which slowly killed Gwen.
Seeing the effects on Gwen, Jack asked Costello to give up her restored life. She refused. Faced with Gwen's imminent death, Jack shot Costello down in cold blood. However the link via the gauntlet prevented Costello from dying. Only after Jack ordered Toshiko Sato to destroy the gauntlet did Costello die again. Her body was returned to the cryo-chamber. (TV: They Keep Killing Suzie)
A bomb planted inside Jack destroyed much of the Hub in 2009; it is not known if any of the cryo-chambers survived the blast. (TV: Children of Earth: Day One)
Despite the fact that much of Suzie's actions fell into her own failed grand plan, Harkness later stated that he felt responsible for her death. (TV: Children of Earth: Day Five)
Following the destruction of the Hub, a piece of alien technology concealed within her body was activated, enabling Suzie to be resurrected for a third time. After murdering one young worker at the site, she fled the area, undertaking the alias Sue Costa. A series of brutal murders followed until Suzie was finally tracked down before then being enticed back to the hub. There she met DCI Tom Cutler with whom she had previously shared an intimate relationship. Tom attempted to negotiate with Suzie before the hub was destroyed a second time. Half an hour later the two were locked in each others arms before the explosion took both their lives.
The remains of both Tom and Suzie were later discovered by a tearful PC Andy Davidson. (PROSE: Long Time Dead)
Personality
Suzie was a very cold, selfish, strong-willed and pitiless woman, completely willing to let Gwen die when it meant she got to live. She was highly manipulative, giving Max Tresilian retcon once a week over a two-year period in order to turn him into her "Trojan horse" for her plan. She developed a nihilist worldview from aliens such as Weevils coming through the Cardiff Rift and found murder as acceptable a means as any for achieving her goals, particularly to unlock the secrets of the resurrection gauntlet. She also showed a vengeful side, unplugging her father's life-support system in return for the abuse he gave her. (TV: Everything Changes, They Keep Killing Suzie)
Suzie was shown to be self-loathing when she said to Jack that Gwen was a better second-in-command than she ever was, though this was likely just an attempt to make Jack feel sorry for her. She was also shown to be a coward when facing death the second time, despite having died once before and by suicide, even going so far as to say that Jack couldn't kill her and that she was all that was left of Gwen. However, Jack saw right through this and gunned her down, saying he didn't see one bit of Gwen in her. (TV: They Keep Killing Suzie)
Behind the scenes
- In order to catch viewers unaware with the twist ending of Everything Changes, the first episode of Torchwood credited actress Indira Varma as a regular cast member. She was featured in pre-broadcast publicity for the series.
- In his book Doctor Who: The Writer's Tale, Russell T Davies reveals that he planned at one point to bring Suzie back for an episode of Series 2 of Torchwood.
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