They Keep Killing Suzie (TV story)

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They Keep Killing Suzie was the eighth episode in the first series of Torchwood. It was written by Paul Tomalin and Dan McCulloch and directed by James Strong.

It marked the reappearance, revival, and second death of Suzie Costello, who had previously killed herself in the first episode when it was discovered she was behind the murders that brought Gwen into Torchwood. It was intended to be the first in a line of seasonal reappearances for the character, but Indira Varma was not available for filming during the production of series two as she was pregnant.

Synopsis[[edit] | [edit source]]

Torchwood is linked to a series of brutal murders around the city. As Jack and the team investigate, it becomes clear somebody wants their attention. What is Pilgrim — and how is it connected to a figure from Torchwood's past? The resurrection days are far from over. They have no choice but to bring back Suzie.

Plot[[edit] | [edit source]]

"TORCHWOOD", written in blood across the victims' wall.

Torchwood is called in when a killer, who has killed three people in 24 hours, writes their name on two of his victims' walls with their blood. They arrive at the murder site and meet Detective Kathy Swanson; their relationship with her starts off on the wrong foot. A DNA analysis confirms that the killer has Compound B67 in his blood. Now they're in trouble — #B67 is retcon, an amnesia pill administered only by them. Someone in Torchwood has caused this.

While Jack wants to go through all their files to find a "patient" that matches the police's descriptions, Gwen has an easier and better idea: they have to bring back the resurrection gauntlet. When she first joined, Torchwood was using a metal glove to bring murder victims back to life and ask them questions. Even though it caused their past colleague Suzie Costello's betrayal and then death, Gwen convinces the team to give it a go. Torchwood essentially caused these murders; now it's their job to clean it up.

After Jack tries and fails, Gwen brings back the first victim — Alex Arwyn — who wastes his twenty-four seconds screaming for his mother. The second resurrection goes a little better. Mark Brisco tells them that the killer, named Max, belonged to an organisation known as Pilgrim. In the last of his sixty-five seconds, Mark identifies a woman who was closer to Max, and knows more about this. The Torchwood team are shocked to learn that her name is Suzie. Suzie Costello.

Toshiko does some research: Pilgrim was a religious support group, or a debating society, run by Mark's wife Sarah. All the victims so far are members of this organisation. As they discover when they go through her possessions stored in a Torchwood warehouse, Suzie too belonged to said group, confirming her involvement with the case. Jack decides that they're no choice — "It's time Suzie came back."

Gwen tries resurrecting her, but has trouble with the empathy, seeing as Suzie tried to kill her when they first met three months before. They deduce that it's been too long since her death for the gauntlet to have effect. But what about the Life Knife, used by Suzie to make the glove work more efficiently?

Stabbing her in the chest with the knife brings Suzie back instantly, but she's unable to give them any new information in time. Gwen tries with all her might to keep Suzie alive, but gets pushed away with a mighty force. Except Suzie's not dead. She's just unconscious... What did Gwen do?

The team learns in an interrogation session that Suzie had overdosed Max with retcon, giving him a dose after speaking to him once a week for two years. Looking at the pictures of all those already killed, Suzie identifies Lucie McKenzie as a surviving Pilgrim member.

Jack, Owen and Gwen enter the Wolf Bar — where Lucie works — in hopes of catching Max before he goes in for the kill. Suzie watches from a screen in the Hub to help identify the two. While the team's distracted by a man fitting Suzie's descriptions but not actually Max, the real Max runs up towards Lucie with a knife. Suzie shouts to Gwen to get out of his way, saving her life. Jack knocks him unconscious with a stun gun.

They bring Max into the Hub and lock him up in the Vaults, where he refuses to say a word. He goes into a ten-second rage at the word "Torchwood", part of the drug-induced psychosis. Gwen finds out that Suzie's father has cancer and blames Jack for letting her access the one thing that could save him: the glove. Jack shifts the blame to her for wanting so badly to bring her back to life. Their argument is interrupted by Owen, who tells Jack and the team that Suzie is draining the life out of Gwen.

Gwen, not at the briefing, secretly takes Suzie out of the Hub, and drives her to Greenleaves Hospital to see her dad. Just as her co-workers are about to chase after her car, the base mysteriously goes into lockdown.

Suzie's father.

Jack realises that the lockdown must have been caused by Max in the Vaults. Going down there, they discover him reciting the first stanza of Emily Dickinson's "The Chariot": "Because I could not stop for Death He kindly stopped for me The carriage held, but just ourselves And Immortality."

As Gwen and Suzie proceed towards the hospital, the rest of the team works out that Suzie had a plan all along to be brought back to life and escape. Ianto connects his mobile phone to the Roald Dahl Plass Water Tower to get reception. Within no one else to call, Jack contacts Kathy Swanson, asking her to get a book of poetry and read each and every one of the poems to them until the lockdown is reversed. After some time, Toshiko guesses that the book's ISBN might be the code. This proves to be correct, and the power goes back online.

Gwen and Suzie arrive at the hospital, where Suzie reveals that Gwen is dying in her place. She approaches her father, and disconnects his life-support — "just what the bastard deserves". Knowing the team are nearing, she takes Gwen and drives to Hedley Quay, intending to escape on a ferry.

Suzie refuses to die.

Jack and Owen then finally catch up in the Torchwood SUV. Jack shoots Suzie, but she does not die. He shoots her again and again, to no avail. Jack realises the connection is being held by the resurrection gauntlet, and so orders Tosh to destroy it. In her last moments, Suzie tells Jack that "something is moving in the dark and it's coming"... for him. The moment Tosh destroys the glove, Suzie collapses and Gwen begins to recover.

As Ianto and Jack replace Suzie's body into cold storage, Ianto asks what he should put on the death certificate. Jack answers, "Death By Torchwood". Ianto suggests putting a lock on the storage unit in case she goes walking again, but Jack says the resurrections are over. Ianto, however, points out that gloves come in pairs. They each give this a moment's thought, before getting back to their respective jobs.

Cast[[edit] | [edit source]]

Crew[[edit] | [edit source]]

General production staff

Script department

Camera and lighting department

Art department

Costume department

Make-up and prosthetics

Movement

Casting

General post-production staff

Special and visual effects

Sound



Not every person who worked on this adventure was credited. The absence of a credit for a position doesn't necessarily mean the job wasn't required. The information above is based solely on observations of the actual end credits of the episodes as broadcast, and does not relay information from IMDB or other sources.


Worldbuilding[[edit] | [edit source]]

Literature[[edit] | [edit source]]

Music[[edit] | [edit source]]

Story notes[[edit] | [edit source]]

  • This episode was originally known as They Keep Killing to preserve the surprise of Suzie Costello's return.
  • The episode was repeated on BBC Two, three days later at 9:00pm on Wednesday 6 December 2006.
  • Suzie is stored in morgue drawer 006, which was Alec Trevelyan's 00 number before he became the villain Janus in the James Bond film Goldeneye. Alec has a similar character arc to Suzie, that of a good guy becoming a bad guy for personal reasons.
  • The episode reveals Retcon can enable others to manipulate those who use it if used continually on a subject.
  • This episode contains the first reference to a sexual relationship between Ianto and Jack, as well as the first explicit reference to Jack's omnisexuality in Torchwood, after it had already been established in Doctor Who.
  • This episode reveals that there is some form of afterlife in the Doctor Who mythos. Suzie was apparently stuck in the dark, indicative of a purgatory-like domain. Suzie does not elaborate on whether there is a Heaven or Hell beyond this darkness, but that "something" was lurking around in the dark.
  • The ISBN number 0198600585 doesn't belong to a book of Dickinson, but to the 1996 edition of "The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations".
  • "Górecki" plays incidentally at the end of the episode.

Ratings[[edit] | [edit source]]

  • 1.12 million viewers[1]

Filming locations[[edit] | [edit source]]

to be added

Broadcasts[[edit] | [edit source]]

Date Time Channel Notes
Sunday 3 December 2006 22:00 BBC Three First broadcast.
Wednesday 6 December 2006 21:00 BBC Two England
Monday 26 February 2007 01:55 BBC Three
Thursday 15 March 2007 22:00 BBC HD
Friday 16 November 2007 21:00 BBC Three
Saturday 17 November 2007 02:40 BBC Three
Friday 11 June 2010 00:00 BBC HD

Production errors[[edit] | [edit source]]

If you'd like to talk about narrative problems with this story — like plot holes and things that seem to contradict other stories — please go to this episode's discontinuity discussion.
  • The second victim can be seen breathing whilst the camera pans over the couple lying on the bed the second time.
  • In the first shot of the couple they're lying straight on the bed, but in the second shot they're lying across the bed (the woman's head hanging down from the bed-side), and in the third shot they lie straight again.
  • As Jack prepares to stab Suzie with the Life Knife, her head flinches for a split second before it cuts to the closeup of the knife stabbing her torso.

Continuity[[edit] | [edit source]]

  • Suzie remembers that she shot Jack, as well as herself during the events of TV: Everything Changes [+]Loading...["Everything Changes (TV story)"].
  • Suzie mentions something moving in the darkness, and says it is coming for Jack, indirectly foreshadowing Jack's confrontation with Abaddon, shown in TV: End of Days [+]Loading...["End of Days (TV story)"] as well as Torchwood Three's encounter with Duroc in TV: Dead Man Walking [+]Loading...["Dead Man Walking (TV story)"]
  • Retcon was used to cause Gwen to forget Torchwood as shown in TV: Everything Changes [+]Loading...["Everything Changes (TV story)"].

Home video releases[[edit] | [edit source]]

Series one, part two DVD cover

DVD releases[[edit] | [edit source]]

  • This episode was first released on DVD, with three other episodes entitled Torchwood: Series 1, part 2 on 26 February 2007.
  • It was later released in Torchwood: The Complete First Series on 19 November 2007.
  • It was also released in the Series 1-4 boxset (Region 2 release: 14 November 2011.)

Blu-ray releases[[edit] | [edit source]]

  • Released in the US with the rest of Series 1 as a Complete First Season set on 16 September 2008.
  • It was released in the Series 1-3 Blu-ray boxset on 26 October 2009 in the UK. The US release was on 19 July 2011.
  • It was also released in the Series 1-4 Blu-ray boxset. (Region 2 release: 14 November 2011)

External links[[edit] | [edit source]]

Footnotes[[edit] | [edit source]]

Notes[[edit] | [edit source]]

  1. ↑ Episodes 1-10 of the first series of Torchwood are set anywhere from 2006-2009 as a result of conflicting evidence shown in the episodes Ghost Machine [+]Loading...["Ghost Machine (TV story)"], Greeks Bearing Gifts [+]Loading...["Greeks Bearing Gifts (TV story)"], Random Shoes [+]Loading...["Random Shoes (TV story)"], To the Last Man [+]Loading...["To the Last Man (TV story)"], Reset [+]Loading...["Reset (TV story)"], Adrift [+]Loading...["Adrift (TV story)"], Fragments [+]Loading...["Fragments (TV story)"], Exit Wounds [+]Loading...["Exit Wounds (TV story)"], and The New World [+]Loading...["The New World (TV story)"]. As episode 10, Out of Time [+]Loading...["Out of Time (TV story)"], is set at the end of December, this means that episodes 11-13 are almost certainly set the year after episodes 1-10.

Citations[[edit] | [edit source]]

  1. ↑ BARB Ratings - October, 2006
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Torchwood television stories
Series 1
Series 2
Series 3
Children of Earth: Day One • Day Two • Day Three • Day Four • Day Five
Series 4
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