Greeks Bearing Gifts (TV story)

Greeks Bearing Gifts was the seventh episode in the first series of Torchwood. It focused on Toshiko Sato, as would the series 2 episode To the Last Man. Because Toshiko abused her access to alien technology, it also marked the unwilling reveal of Gwen Cooper's sexual escapades with Owen Harper to the rest of the team. This created guilty feelings inside of Gwen, crippling the progression of her affair. It also damaged relations between the team members until a breaking point arose near the conclusion of series 1.

Synopsis
Tosh is given an alien pendant which lets her hear other people's thoughts. As the Torchwood team puzzle over a centuries-old skeleton, the pendant forces Tosh to question her commitment to Torchwood. Is her new-found ability a blessing or a curse?

Plot
In Cardiff, 1812, a talkative woman leads a soldier into the forest. Afterwards, Mary says something to make him slap her twice. She scratches his face and runs further into the forest. She sees a bright light and hears a screech. The soldier catches up and shoots her. In 2007, the Torchwood team is at a construction site where a skeleton was found. Mary, the prostitute from 1812, is there in modern dress looking on amusedly. A strange object is by the skeleton, its function unknown. Toshiko and Owen discuss the skeleton.

Later, Toshiko is in a bar. Mary comes over to talk to her. Mary reveals she knows about Torchwood and her. She is a "scavenger" or a "collector" of alien artefacts. Toshiko seems to bond with Mary and reveals her innermost feelings. Mary offers Toshiko a pendant. When Toshiko puts it on, she hears people's thoughts. Mary asks her to refine this to just hear her and Toshiko hears her think that she would like to kiss her. Shocked, Toshiko takes off the pendant. Mary tells her to keep it. Toshiko says she must show it to the other members of Torchwood. Mary predicts she won't.

The next day, Toshiko goes to the Hub and puts the pendant on. She tells Gwen and Owen she has something to show them, but upon hearing their thoughts, she learns they are having an affair and they both pity her. Later, when Ianto offers her some coffee, she hears his thoughts, malevolent and bestial. She hears his pain at the loss of Lisa Hallett. Visibly upset, she takes off the pendant.

She finds Mary, whom she tells about Owen and Gwen's thoughts. Mary explains that thoughts are complicated. Mary puts the pendant on Toshiko again and hears her thinking about having sex with her. Mary and Toshiko kiss passionately and the scene cuts. Toshiko is lying in bed, looking regretful. She tells Mary of her attraction to Owen and how she was upset by his affair with Gwen. Mary tells her that good can come of the pendant, too. Toshiko asks Mary who she really is. Mary calls herself "Philoctetes". Toshiko heeds Mary's advice and listens to the thoughts of people in public. She hears a man planning to kill his ex-wife and son. She follows him and saves them. She returns to the Hub where Owen is being teased by the others about misidentifying the skeleton; it was actually a man who died of an unidentified trauma. Tosh asks Jack about the name "Philoctetes" and he says it is a mythological Greek character exiled to the island of Lemnos. Mary tells Toshiko to read Jack's thoughts about the item found with the skeleton. Toshiko can't read his mind, and Jack seems to notice when she tries. She tells Mary this, and Mary tells her that she is an alien exiled from her home world. Toshiko offers Torchwood's help but Mary refuses. She asks Toshiko to sneak her into the Hub to retrieve the artefact. There they find Jack holding the artefact. He explains that it is a two-man transporter for a guard and and a prisoner. Mary explains that she took the body of the young prostitute Mary, and has been ripping out people's hearts to feed her human form. She takes Toshiko at knife point and demands the transporter. Jack gives it to her. It turns on and she disappears. Jack programmed the device to teleport to the centre of the sun. Later, Toshiko is confronted by Owen and Gwen about what she heard. Toshiko says that it was none of her business. Owen storms off. Gwen admits her affair with Owen is wrong but she can't stop. She says that Tosh seemed happier with Mary in her life, and that she should not let everything that has happened bring her down.

Jack and Toshiko sit by the fountain above the Hub and discuss the pendant. Toshiko believes that it may be the most powerful artefact ever found by Torchwood, and asks Jack for his advice. He says it is her choice. She crushes it with her foot. She asks why she could not read Jack's mind. Jack denies knowing why but admits he could tell she was trying. She tells him that it felt like she was trying to read the mind of a dead man. He doesn't answer.

Cast

 * Jack Harkness - John Barrowman
 * Gwen Cooper - Eve Myles
 * Owen Harper - Burn Gorman
 * Toshiko Sato - Naoko Mori
 * Ianto Jones - Gareth David-Lloyd
 * Soldier - Tom Robertson
 * Neil - Ravin J Ganatra
 * Carol - Eiry Thomas
 * Mary - Daniela Denby-Ashe
 * Danny - Shaheen Jafargholi
 * Weevil - Paul Kasey

Science and technology

 * When Jack is studying the alien device, he finds traces of ilmenite, pyroxene and even dark matter.

People

 * A man still sees Cybus Cybermen outside his house.
 * Tosh uses the pendant to save Carol and Danny from Neil. Detective Inspector Henderson handles the case, and passes the info on to Jack.

Species

 * Mary belongs to a species retroactively named Arcateenians. They communicate telepathically through pendants like the one given to Tosh.

Organisations

 * Toshiko is preparing a list for UNIT.

Cultural references to the real world

 * Jack refers to Owen sarcastically as "Quincy," when the latter identifies a skeleton as "dead." was a television programme about a forensic pathologist which aired during the late 1970s and early 1980s.
 * Tosh compared the whole in the skeleton's chest to "that bit in Alien where that thing bursts out of John Hurt".

Story notes

 * At this point in the series, all the current members of Torchwood 3 have had a same sex kiss: Owen and Colin in Everything Changes, Gwen and Carys in Day One, Jack and Ianto in Cyberwoman (although Ianto was apparently dead on that occasion) and Tosh and Mary in this episode.

Ratings

 * 1.3 million viewers

Filming locations
to be added

Production errors
to be added

Continuity

 * An Arcateenian appears in TV: Invasion of the Bane.
 * The x-ray of a Cybus Cyberman is seen behind Owen in the autopsy room.
 * Owen mentions someone still recovering from the events of TV: Doomsday, saying that he's still seeing Cybermen outside his mother's house.
 * Toshiko's observations of Ianto's thoughts reveal he is still in turmoil after the death of Lisa Hallet. (TV: Cyberwoman)

Home video releases

 * 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.