They Keep Killing Suzie

A grisly murder in a perfectly ordinary Welsh suburb is bad enough, but to make matters worse, two victims’ throats are slashed and “TORCHWOOD” is written on the wall of their home – in their blood. Police find traces of DNA left behind by the killer, including a compound that’s unknown to their crime lab – but it’s a substance that Owen recognizes immediately – the prime ingredient of Torchwood’s “amnesia pills,” including the one that Jack slipped to Gwen when they first met. But over 2,000 doses have been administered during Torchwood’s tenure in Cardiff, and even attempts to use the resurrection gauntlet – an alien artifact whose use had previously been banned by Jack – aren’t producing any results with the murder victims. Then Jack decides that it should be used on the one member of Torchwood who knew how to use it best – one who’s already dead herself. But once brought back to life, how far will Suzy Costello go to stay that way?

written by Paul Tomalin & Daniel McCulloch
directed by James Strong
music by Murray Gold & Ben Foster

Cast: John Barrowman (Captain Jack Harkness), Eve Myles (Gwen Cooper), Burn Gorman (Owen Harper), Naoko Mori (Toshiko Sato), Gareth David-Lloyd (Ianto Jones), Indira Varma (Suzie), Yasmin Bannerman (Swanson), Daniel Llewellyn-Williams (Alex Arwyn), Gary Pillai (Mark Brisco), Shend (Max), Badi Uzzaman (Suzie’s father)

Notes: In pre-broadcast publicity, this episode’s title was listed as They Keep Killing, in order to preserve the surprise elements of the plot (in much the same way as Cyberwoman was referred to by the working title The Trouble With Lisa). The title switcheroo is a bit of a Doctor Who tradition, with Invasion Of The Dinosaurs part 1 having been aired only as Invasion part 1 – which created problems during a 1970s purge of the BBC archives intended to destroy another story with the same name.