Suzie Costello
Suzie Costello was the former second-in-command of Torchwood Three in the early 21st century until 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, killing several people. Despite her troubled life, she harboured 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
Early life
Growing up, Suzie was abused by her father, and grew to hate him as a result. (TV: They Keep Killing Suzie)
Working for Torchwood
When she was headhunted into Torchwood Three by Jack Harkness, (AUDIO: Moving Target) Suzie was on the run and had wiped her files clean. (TV: They Keep Killing Suzie)
During her time with Torchwood, Suzie had an affair with medic Owen Harper, and placed triggers on Pilgrim member Max Tresilian for two years, using retcon to remodel his mind around poems by Emily Dickinson in a scheme that would lead to her resurrection with the resurrection gauntlet in the event of her death. (TV: They Keep Killing Suzie)
Suzie was present in the Hub on 26 March 2005 when it was frozen in a time bubble for a day by Torchwood One's Rajesh Singh so that director Yvonne Hartman could procure a Drahvin scanner from the Hub unhindered. (AUDIO: One Rule)
On 29 November 2006, Suzie woke up late to find the whole world frozen in time. The only other person unfrozen was a woman named Alex. After spending days defending Alex from aliens that had paid for an opportunity to hunt her, she realised the only way to end the hunt was for Alex to die. The Referee of the hunt told Suzie that Alex's death would have no effect on the world, so she used her last bullet to kill her, resuming time. (AUDIO: Moving Target)
Suzie found Object One in an Ovid factory. In order to get the object away from Torchwood Cardiff, Jack had her call Yvonne Hartman and give her the object. Yvonne promised to talk to her about the advancement of her career in Torchwood. Jack thanked her, telling her that he had assumed she was just a "daddy's girl". (AUDIO: The Torchwood Archive)
Death
The resurrection 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) Suzie later committed a series of three 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. Suzie'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. (TV: They Keep Killing Suzie)
Resurrections
Three months after Suzie's death, Max killed three people in the space of a day, marking the walls in blood with the word "Torchwood" to draw Torchwood's attention. After discovering her involvement with Pilgrim, Torchwood decided to revive Suzie, ironically with the very resurrection gauntlet that Suzie had killed for earlier. Gwen wielded the glove this time, but rather than reviving Suzie 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, Suzie had foreseen this and through a mental link in the glove, Gwen was forced to transfer part of her essence, which Suzie used to heal her injury, an action which slowly killed Gwen. She also visited her father and murdered him.
Seeing the effects on Gwen, Jack asked Suzie to give up her restored life. She refused. Faced with Gwen's imminent death, Jack shot Suzie down in cold blood. However the link via the gauntlet prevented Suzie from dying. Only after Jack ordered Toshiko Sato to destroy the gauntlet did Suzie die again. Her body was returned to the cryo-chamber. (TV: They Keep Killing Suzie)
Following the destruction of the Hub in 2009, (TV: Children of Earth: Day One) 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)
Legacy
Gwen mentioned how Suzie was resurrected by the glove when Martha Jones asked how they obtained the gloves after Jack resurrected Owen using one. (TV: Dead Man Walking)
After the 456 incident, Jack revealed that he felt responsible for Suzie's death, along with those of all the other Torchwood operatives who died under his command. (TV: Children of Earth: Day Five)
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 abusing 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 Torchwood series 2.
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