Torchwood s02e07 Episode Script

Dead Man Walking

Torchwood Outside the Government, beyond the police.
Fighting for the future on behalf of the human race.
The 21st century is when everything changes and Torchwood is ready.
The time is 2130.
This is Doctor Martha Jones.
Autopsy on Owen Harper, caucasian, age 27.
Torchwood officer 565.
Time of death witnessed at approximately 2030.
Autopsy begins.
STOP! Nobody touches him til I get back, is that clear? It's all right.
I've been looking forward to seeing the captain again.
Can you see where it is? You'll owe me a favour.
Well? - They hid it in a church? - No.
When the people found out what it could do, they built the church on top of it.
If I told you not to use it, would you listen? Shouldn't you know the answer to that? I do.
That's the problem.
Jack ? Jack, what have you got? Oh, my God.
You can't use it.
Not after Suzie.
I'm using the glove.
I'm bringing Owen back.
Are you really going to use that after what happened last time? Jack, the gloves are dangerous.
At best it'll give us two minutes.
At worst who knows what will happen? It's not up for discussion.
I thought the glove didn't work for you.
Different glove, different circumstances.
This time, it has to work for me.
I'm not going to give it any choice.
Okay, if you've got anything you need to say to Owen, now's your chance.
Owen it's Jack, can you hear me? Owen, hear my voice, get a hold of it, let it draw you out, pull you out.
I'm not getting any vital signs.
Owen, it's me, Jack.
He's coming, he's coming! Oh, my God! What happened? Where am I? Oh, God I'm shot, he shot me! Owen, you need to listen to me, we don't have long.
Where am I? This isn't the hospital, this is the autopsy room.
What am I doing here? Jack, oh, no! What's that? What's that? The resurrection glove.
We lost you, but I brought you back.
How long have I got? We're at thirty seconds and counting.
Oh, no.
Jesus.
Really? Okay, team, say your goodbyes.
Gwen! No offence, but I've only got two minutes to live.
Tosh! I'm gonna miss you.
And I love you.
I always have.
Owen, I need the code for the alien morgue.
You're the only one who knows it.
You brought me back for that? For that?! I'm sorry.
Jack, it's 231165.
Okay? Sorry, and to help you prepare.
I know what death is.
I want you to be ready.
There's nothing.
Just darkness.
Two minutes.
- Jack, Jack.
.
- Be brave.
Owen! Owen! I'm really gonna need that hand back.
Owen? Two minutes, twenty? Look, I'm not using the glove.
But I'm still here.
Oh, here we go again.
Maybe I cheated it somehow.
Maybe I wasn't meant to die so I'm being kept alive.
Ah, somebody pass me my pants, please.
It's okay.
I hate to say it, but you'll get used to it.
No heartbeat, there's no pulse.
Owen, you can't lead the investigation.
Why not? Because you're the subject of it, and because you're dead.
Are you sure about that? Yes, I'm sure.
Well, I'm okay.
Look, there's electrical activity in my brain.
That shouldn't be possible.
Well, I'm still here and actually I feel amazing! So where's the power coming from? Suzie survived because she was draining energy from me.
Owen could be doing the same to Jack.
I feel fine.
The Philemon filter detects biochemical energy.
It's how we knew Suzie was draining Gwen.
And? Nothing.
There's no connection between them.
It's not Jack.
I told you, I feel fine.
So what's keeping me ticking? I mean, the energy in my brain must be coming from somewhere.
This glove is different to the other one.
Maybe different gloves do different things? - How many are there? - Two.
Well, they tend to come in pairs.
We fished the first one out of the harbour last year.
But where does it come from, originally? Good question.
No idea.
Tosh, do an analysis of the glove, see you if you can find out.
Owen, I don't need to tell you that you're under quarantine.
You don't, and yet you still do.
Hey.
Oh, I woke you up, I'm sorry.
No, no, you didn't.
So, what's up? You coming home soon? You know, tonight, next week, in time for our wedding? I was only teasing! No, it's not that, it's not that.
What's happened? What's wrong? Are you all right? Gwen? A tough day, a tough day.
You're kinda cute when you frown.
The energy from the glove is spreading out through your body, changing its composition.
If you keep this on we should be able to monitor changes as they happen.
You've stopped flirting with me.
I mean, it's all right.
I wouldn't flirt with me in my condition either, but is it still necrophilia if I'm conscious? What was it like? To die? - I don't think I should say.
- Why not? I'm not sure the living should know.
The living It might change the way you live your life.
You tell me right now, Owen.
It's hard to describe, there aren't the words for it.
- It's like, er - What? There was a light, a tiny speck of light.
And I was rushing towards it, like down a corridor, then it glowed brighter and brighter then suddenly there were these gates these big pearly gates and there was this old geezer and he said you've been a very naughty boy.
Idiot! There was nothing, well, not that I can remember.
Suzie said it was different.
What did she see? She said there was something beyond life, something in the darkness, something moving.
Martha! Martha! Martha! Martha! Jack! Help! I need help! Now! What's happening? He just collapsed.
Owen! Owen, can you hear me? - Calm down.
- What happened? I was in the darkness, there was something, something there What did you see? I don't know.
It was waiting for me.
This way.
Owen's body's undergoing some kind of transformation.
His cells aren't decaying, they're changing.
Into what? An energy I can't identify.
But it's growing, all the time.
- He's about 40% something else.
- I don't feel any different.
We need to find out where this energy's coming from.
Presumably it's the same place as the glove, which, judging from its atomic makeup, isn't anywhere local.
Owen said he went somewhere when he collapsed.
Could the energy and the glove come from the same dark place? Are we talking about another dimension? Parallel universe? Yes, guys, I'm still here.
Sorry.
Okay, you said there was something in the darkness, waiting for you.
I felt it, I didn't see it.
Where do you think you went? Don't know.
So, what now? Ianto, check our internal system readings for any dimensional anomalies in the last hour.
Owen, what I said before, when I thought you were dying-- I'm not dying.
I'm dead.
I'm a headless chicken.
I just haven't stopped running about yet.
Well, when I told you I-- Yeah, you didn't mean it.
I know.
You do? Yes, I mean, you didn't say anything before and then suddenly I'm dying and it's like, "I love you.
" You know, that's not love, Tosh.
That's grief.
You're losing something, so suddenly you desperately desire it, textbook response.
Yeah, but Owen I don't go! I'm just going to the toilet, all right? For crying out loud! Melenkurion.
Abatha.
Duroc.
Minas.
Mill khabaal.
Melenkurion abatha duroc minas mill khabaal! Have you seen Owen? He was with Toshiko.
The energy in him just went off the scale.
Owen! Owen? He said he needed the loo.
Owen's digestive system is shut down.
He can't eat or drink, so he doesn't need to pee.
He's not answering.
Well, he's not in the hub.
You mean he's out there? It's Owen, it's not like he's dangerous.
You sure about that? Meaning? You had the power to bring people back to life and you never told UNIT.
Why? They would've wanted to use it.
I'm on your side, Jack, but Owen's just had a surge of energy that we can't begin to understand.
The cells in his body are being transformed into something else.
He's about 50% human.
And that 50% is dead.
We need to stop thinking about him as Owen.
I'll find him.
Smile, it won't kill you.
You're gorgeous, you are.
- Don't you like me? - Get off me.
No blood, brilliant.
What? Oi! How did you find me? Do you know what you've done? You don't care about me.
You brought me back for an alarm code! That is not why I brought you back.
Have you any idea what it means to know that your life is over? That that was it?! That is Owen Harper's contribution to the world.
You idiot! Get off me! - Get off me! - Be careful with him! Get off me you meat head, get off! - That's enough.
- Let go of me! Let's calm down, shall we? Look, mate.
I'm Torchwood.
Yeah, course you are, and I'm MI5.
I'm Owen Harper.
I work for Torchwood, I'm special ops.
Special ops? What's he on about? Special needs more like it! Come on, that's enough! You call that number, you speak to Police Constable Gwen Cooper! I want to make a complaint! Enough.
You're dead.
You break your ankle, what are the chances it'll knit back together? You want to add a wheelchair to your prob problems? I forgot, my digestive system is shut down, that alcohol I drank is just going to sit in my stomach, it won't go anywhere.
Can you just stick your fingers down your throat? I'm dead, it's just another one of those things, the gag reflex, I lost in the process.
Hang on, hang on, if I can just line up my oesophagus That is the single most disgusting thing I have ever seen, and I know disgusting.
Sorry, Jack, I forgot, that goes on for a while after death.
For God's sake, let me out! But eventually that will stop too.
I will fart my last fart.
God, I'm going to miss farting, and sex.
Sex more than farting, I hope.
Oh, you take these things for granted.
It's only when they're slipping away that you realise how amazing they are.
or you know, feel these bricks underneath my hands.
"Only in suffering do we recognize beauty.
" Yeah.
Yeah, yeah! Who said that? Proust.
- You've read Proust? - Yeah.
Well, no.
We dated for a while.
He was really immature.
You know, none of us know whether to take you seriously when you say those things.
When you've lived as long as I have, you don't make any more up.
You've got forever, I could have seconds.
- Hardly seems fair.
- It isn't.
But then forever's overrated.
Not from where I'm sitting.
If you've got forever, you don't notice the flecks on the concrete or bother to touch the bricks.
And you send your friends into danger, knowing the stakes aren't the same for you, that you might get them killed while you walk away unscathed.
Then why did you bring me back? Guilt? No, that's not why.
Then why did you, really? Because I wasn't ready to give up on you.
I guess I was hoping for a miracle.
And I still am.
Let's go home.
Torchwood.
Authorization, Harkness, Jack.
474317.
Jack called in, he's found Owen.
They're okay, they're coming back.
- Is he himself? - What do you mean, himself? I wanted to know why Owen left.
Well actually, more if he talked to anyone about what I said, so I checked the CCTV.
That's a bit like stalking, Tosh! I know! Only now I wish I hadn't.
Look.
Melekurion abatha, duroc minas mill khabaal.
Oh, my God.
What is that? There's too many of them.
They're after me, I stole the glove from them.
Go.
Go! Whoa! They must be really pissed off with you.
Owen! Stay here.
Owen! - Owen, get behind me.
- Yeah, right.
Come on.
Owen, what the hell is going on? Melekurion abatha! Duroc minas mill khabaal! I need to know what Owen was saying.
We all do.
This has never let us down before.
We should be able to play the translation through the computer's speakers.
It's never done that before.
I shall walk the Earth and my hunger will know no bounds.
I've got a really bad feeling about this.
You don't know the half of it.
So I'm King of the Weevils, maybe even Weevil Messiah, but whichever way you look at it, it ain't good.
No, it isn't, and I think it's happened before.
Where did you get this? I found it in an article about Black Death, and what you're looking at there is the first images of the Grim Reaper.
"I shall walk the Earth and my hunger will know no bounds.
" In legend, the person who said those words was Death himself.
But there's no such thing.
Yeah, I'm dead.
I'm not Death.
There is a difference.
Does he know that? Right, that wood-carving dates back to the 15th century, to a small parish called St.
James.
When they heard about the plague, they built a wall around the town.
Unfortunately, that didn't prevent a little girl from dying.
S0 the legend goes, the priest performs a miracle, brings her back to life, but she doesn't come back alone, she brought Death with her, and he walked amongst them.
Are we seriously gonna act on something she's Googled? What was the name of the priest's church? Yep, St.
Mary's.
That's where I found the glove, which makes the parish of St.
James-- The town that 500 years later would turn into a city called Cardiff.
What happened to the town when Death walked amongst them? People died.
12 people.
Death needed 13 souls before it had a permanent hold on the Earth.
How did they stop it at 12? - It just says faith.
- Owen is changing.
Who knows what that energy is? What if it's making him a host, a gateway? I've been thinking there's something in the darkness, waiting for me to finally pass over, but I've got it wrong, okay, it's the other way around.
It's trying to get here through me.
What's this reading now? What happens when it completes? You know, we fight monsters, what happens when we turn out to be the monsters, when I do? Even if we have to fight you, you're already dead.
What do we do with the dead? Come on, what do we do?! You embalm them.
If we inject a formaldehyde solution into my veins, it'll petrify my neural pathways and freeze dry my brain.
It's the only way to be sure.
Are you sure about this? The formaldehyde might irritate, but the ethanol should prevent me feeling its effect.
It's a raging carcinogen, but I don't think I need to worry about that.
You know what I mean.
Yeah.
I can't sleep, I can't drink and I can't shag, and they are three of my favourite things.
Owen! I'm not the same, Gwen.
I came back different, hollow like I'm missing something.
And I do not want to be like this, okay? I'm ready.
Owen's at 95%.
Then let's not waste any more time.
No goodbyes.
Are you ready for the first injection? Someone really doesn't like needles.
Lockdown! Martha just Owen, Owen, don't move.
Everyone spread out.
Where'd it go? I think it went under the cabinet.
Are you all right? - Yeah, I think so.
- Good.
It's there.
Gun! If you destroy it, the connection could be lost.
Now! Oh, my God.
Martha? Martha? What's happened to her? It's the glove.
It did this to her.
Owen, help me with her.
Owen! I will walk the Earth and my hunger will know no bounds.
Police officer, I need a medic now! Where did it go? Owen! So what happened to that thing? - It's gone.
- So it's out there? How do you know her? I take it you're not family.
She's a neighbour, we look in, do her shopping, collect her pension, that sort of thing, you know? Her red blood cell count is through the floor and she's massively dehydrated.
All of which has placed a considerable strain on her heart.
- You've got to help her.
- We are, but you have to accept she's, what, 80? Just do what you can, please.
It must be Death, because it's stolen my life.
We'll find a way to reverse this.
Last time, back when Cardiff was a town, it killed 12 people.
- So? - Why didn't it get to 13? And where does this faith bit come into it? - Ianto, we need answers.
- I'm on it.
Owen, I want you back at the hub.
You're not safe.
Jack, I'm free of it, I promise you, and I'm useful, I'm useful here.
When it came though me, I felt it.
I know what it is, I know what it wants, it's Duroc.
- And what is that? - Hunger.
How do we look for it it? Where do we even start to look for it? We won't have to go far.
It's here.
Why would it follow us here? I'm not sure it did.
Maybe it senses the near-dead.
If you were Death, wouldn't you target a hospital? This is captain Jack Harkness, Torchwood.
You need to evacuate St.
Helen's Hospital Cardiff immediately.
Ladies and Gentlemen, this is Torchwood.
If you can move as quickly and as safely as possible to your nearest exit, thank you.
Can I have a hand in here, please? All right, wake up! Dressing gowns on! It's not a drill.
Can you listen to me carefully, please? Ladies and gentlemen, this is not a drill.
Please make your way to the assembly point in car park one.
Ianto, I need you to crack into the hospital communication system.
Already done it.
They've got multiple Code 4's in intensive care.
- Which floor is that? - Six.
- What's a Code 4? - Heart attack.
We need to do a body count, let me know if we get to 12.
- Have you seen Jamie? - No.
I'll catch you up.
Jamie? Jamie, is that you under there? Owen, Tosh, we're on the sixth floor.
There's fatalities.
Seven of them.
I'm hearing of a fatality during a routine operation.
Let's count that as eight.
That leaves five to go.
Oh.
- What? - There's five of us.
If it was last seen on the sixth, did it go up or down from there? Most of the top floors are evacuated, so if it's still hungry, I'd guess-- We'll make our way down.
Jack, we still have no idea what to do if we find it.
Ianto? I have searched for the phrase; "I shall walk the Earth and my hunger will know bounds", but I keep getting redirected to Weight Watchers! It was a medical journal, History Of Medicine.
Try under Tavistock or Wellcome.
We're on the seventh floor.
It's here, I can feel it.
Owen, you're scaring me.
I'm not exactly reassuring myself.
Come on.
Melenkurion abatha duroc minas mill khabaal.
Take my hand.
Come on! - I'm getting reports of 12 people dead.
- So? The legend says, when Death took 13 souls, its power would be unstoppable.
It'd roam the Earth forever, Jack.
It only needs to kill once more.
That's 12.
We're running out of time.
I think we lost it.
Maybe not.
If I can access the correct frequency - What's your name? - Jamie Burton.
All right, Jamie.
I'm Owen, this is Toshiko, we're going to get you out of here, mate.
- What are you in here for? - Leukaemia.
Jamie, you're going to be fine.
I'll have this door open in a second.
Jamie, they got you in for a round of chemo, have they? Had that.
It didn't work.
So why are you here? They're trying to make me have it again.
It didn't work though.
The cancer just comes back, just makes my hair fall out.
If I'm gonna die I might aswell do it with eyebrows.
Ianto, what have we got? Back in 1479, the priest discovered that Death needed 13 souls - to walk the Earth for eternity.
- He stopped Death at 12.
- It was Faith.
- I know! No, the little girl that died and was brought back to life.
Her name was Faith.
She stopped it.
- Well, how? - It doesn't say.
Faith didn't have anything to lose.
She was already dead.
Jamie.
Jamie, you're scared, of course you are.
The last lot of chemo didn't work and you can't bear the thought of going through all that pain again, and I understand that, mate, I really do, but let me tell you that not everyone dies of this disease.
And the ones with the best chance of making it are the ones who believe that they can beat Death.
And sometimes, just sometimes, you can.
So watch and learn, Jamie Burton.
Watch what? Watch me beat Death.
- Come on! - Okay, go! Come on, Jamie.
Take him.
Okay? Owen, I am not leaving you to face that thing on your own.
I know what to do.
You don't know what we're dealing with.
You're so gonna hate me for this.
Owen! Owen, no! Open the door! What the hell are you doing?! Owen, Owen! How long?! How long can you last here with only 12 victims? There's nothing here for you! Owen Harper's soul has left the building! There's nobody here but us dead men.
- No! Owen! - Owen! What else have you got? What else can you do to the dead?! Jack! Jack! Jack! Owen! Owen! Owen! Is that all you've got?! - Finish! - Owen! No, no, no.
Jack? Jack? Gwen? Anyone? So tell me, Doctor, is it worth starting War And Peace? I'm sorry that you got hurt.
That I got you hurt.
It's not me that I'm worried about.
You soaked up a colossal amount of energy, but it's dissipating now.
It doesn't sound good.
I don't know anything about its properties.
None of us do.
It could take 30 years for it to die out completely.
Or 30 minutes.
Jack.
People died because you brought me back.
We owe them, you and me.
I'm still a doctor.
Let's put me to work.
See if we can't even that score.
We'll see.
Did he really beat Death? You can never really beat Death, never escape it.
It's always in the shadows, waiting.
So what do we do now? My name is doctor Owen Harper.
Torchwood officer 565, I'm relieving you of your position.
What's wrong with you?! Three days ago, I died.
I'm broken, Tosh! And they think I'm fine.
What the hell are you? But they're wrong.
Parker's house.
There's an energy spike coming from there.
And they're getting bigger.
We need to get in there.
But then there's these.
Heat sensors.
How do we get past them? I'm literally too cool for school.
You're Torchwood, yeah? And I'm having one hell of a day.

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