Esther Drummond

Esther Drummond was a CIA analyst in the 21st century and a member of Torchwood upon its reformation in 2011.

Biography
She had an elder sister named Sarah. (TW: Dead of Night) Their mother died in 2003. (TW: The Categories of Life)

After discovering the data which the Torchwood virus removed from the CIA database, Esther decided to investigate, as she felt responsible for the injuries her colleague, Rex Matheson, had suffered.

Esther found information about the Torchwood Institute, Captain Jack Harkness, and Gwen Cooper, just as Jack Harkness found her. They were forced to jump from a window to escape a suicide bomber. Jack Harkness told her all about Torchwood before drugging her with retcon. (TW: The New World)

However, Esther continued to research Torchwood, and later discovered that Rex's office was being thoroughly searched. She informed her superior about her continuing research on the Torchwood case, and later discovered that her computer account was subsequently deactivated and that she had a substantial amount of money deposited in her bank account. Understanding that she was about to be removed from the CIA, she barely escaped. Esther tried to inform Rex on their situation, but only managed to gain contact just as he had landed and met his CIA colleagues. She met him, Jack Harkness and Gwen Cooper at the airport, and helped them escape after a brief run-in with Lyn Peterfield. (TW: Rendition)

Forced to go on the run with Rex, Esther was forced to join Torchwood and form a new team. She helped Gwen learn American terms and food as she became confused about somethings and needed to lose her non-American terminology to avoid sticking out. Upon sneaking back into the C.I.A., Esther and the team found the director's phone, which had been giving the orders to kill Torchwood's last members along with Rex and herself. She then accompanied the team to a warehouse owned by PhiCorp. Inside were a large stockpile of painkillers. This leads the team to believe that PhiCorp had pre-knowledge of Miracle Day and may have had a hand in bringing it about. (TW: Dead of Night)

The team then decided to escape to LA so that they could infiltrate PhiCorp's facilities there. Esther decided to say good bye to her sister. However, when Esther arrived at her sister's house, she found the place boarded up, and Sarah refused to let Esther come inside or see her neices. Esther decided to call child services to report her sister. She then went to meet up with the rest of Torchwood, but was followed by an assassin. The Torchwood team went to LA, where they began planning to infiltrate PhiCorp. Gwen and Jack broke into the building, where they were followed by the assassin. While Gwen and Jack were inside, Ether called child services and found out that her sister's daughters had been removed. After the assassin threatened to kill Jack and hurt Gwen, Rex saved them, and shouted at Esther for endangering the mission.(TW: Escape to LA)

After the new categories of life were introduced, and the overflow camps were released, Esther realized that the modules were on the plans for the camps, but had been removed from the photos. The team decided to find out what was in the modules, so Esther got an office job in the camp, while Rex was admitted into the camp due to his injury, and new Torchwood member Dr. Vera Juarez used her position on the medical panels to gain access. Once inside the camp, Esther reassigned Rex to category one so that he would be moved to the module. Esther also witnessed Vera arriving at the camp, and saw Colin Maloney leave with her to give her a tour of the camp. When Esther became worried that Vera had not returned, she called her on her cell phone, but the call failed.(TW: The Categories of Life)

When Colin Maloney returned from the tour, Esther asked him where Dr. Juarez was. Colin claimed that Vera had gone home, and had praised his leadership of the camp. Esther attempted to eavesdrop on Colin speaking with Ralph Coltrane but was unable to hear anything. Esther later overheard Colin being informed that Rex had been captured, and attempted to follow Colin as he went to interrogate him. However, the camp had been put in lock down mode, and Esther was unable to follow him. Later, Esther found out where Colin and Rex were, and went there, ignoring the lock down rules. Esther told Colin that he had recieved a phone call and that she could watch the prisoner for him. When Colin asked who was on the phone, Esther claimed that it was Dr. Juarez. Unfortunately, Colin had murdered Dr. Juarez, and was able to tell that Esther was lying. Rex shouted at Esther to run, but Colin attacked her. Esther fought back, and managed strangle him until he lost consciousness. Esther was disturbed by what she had had to do, and went to the next room to speak with Rex. Rex reminded her that she hadn't actually killed Colin, but had simply moved him to category one, and informed her that she would need to retrieve the keys to free him from Colin's pocket. Esther took the keys out of Colin's pocket, but Colin was apparently still in either category two or three. Colin strangled Esther, but was shot by Ralph. Esther freed Rex, and the two of them escaped. (TW: The Middle Men)

Behind the scenes

 * During pre-production of Torchwood: Miracle Day, this character's name was reported as "Esther Kautsi". (DWM 427)