Rhys Williams

Rhys Alun Williams was Gwen Cooper's cohabitating boyfriend, and later husband. Although originally he did not believe in the existence of aliens, or know that his partner worked for Torchwood he would later come to accept both facts, and himself become a notable associate of Torchwood Three.

Biography
Rhys was the son of Barry and Brenda Williams, who was born and raised in Wales. As a child, he was a member of the British Boy Scouts.(TW: Children of Earth: Day Three) Around the age of Twelve Rhys enjoyed an attraction to a girl named Cerys Morgan. It is unknown whether this attraction led to any kind of recipricol relationship, though Rhys did not fall in love with anyone between this attraction to Cerys before he met Gwen.(TW: Something Borrowed) After leaving secondry school, Rhys enrolled in college.

Relationship with Gwen
Rhys and Gwen met in college and Rhys fancied her as soon as he saw her because of her nice personality and her good looks. Rhys often went into a tirade when inconvenienced in a queue, driving, or one the phone to an automated voice; Gwen referred to him as "Rhys the Rant" at these times. Their first kiss took place in a supermarket, after Rhys had become angry and irritated with the customer service agent. (TW: Adam) After Gwen and Rhys had moved in together and Gwen qualified as a police officer, Rhys helped her celebrate with champagne, declaring himself to be "so proud" of her. On another occassion prior to Everything Changes, Rhys attended the 60th Birthday party of Mary Cooper. His zip malfunctionmed, resulting in Gwen chasing him around the flat in an atempt to staple his trousers shut. (TW: Ghost Machine)

Although Rhys was aware of the stories about alien invasions, he did not believe that these were genuine, speculating that they were instead a result of mass hallucinations induced by terrorists putting psychotropic drugs in the water supply.(TW: Everything Changes) When Gwen begins working for the Torchwood institute, she keeps the nature of her job secret, letting him believe that she works for nothing more exciting than generic "special ops". However, after Gwen becomes more involved with Torchwood, Rhys showed increasing irritation with Gwen's evasiveness and long hours. Gwen broke off an engagement to go bowling with him in order to answer an urgent call to investigate a meteorite fall with the team. (TW: Day One) He and Gwen had another slight argument when she missed dinner due to her work at Torchwood, Gwen used the Ghost Machine to relive happy memories of the time when the two had a close relationship. (TW: Ghost Machine). On another occassion, Rhys becomes angry and afraid for their safety when Fairies vanadlaise their house. Rhys becomes angry with Gwen when he discovered that she has been lying to him about the nature of Emma-Louise Cowell, who she had taken in as part of her Torchwood work. He stated displeasure at Gwen's ease and readiness to lie to him. (TW: Out of Time)

Unknown to Rhys, Gwen had a brief sexually charged encounter with the alien which had possessed Carys Fletcher (TW: Day One) and had established a sexual relationship with Owen Harper at the end of Countrycide to help herself deal with her two lives at home and at work. (TW: Countrycide). She confessed the affair to him but also slipped Rhys retcon so he would not remember her confession. (TW: Combat)

Death and resurrection
As part of a strategy designed to manipulate the Torchwood 3 team into opening the Cardiff rift, Bilis Manger transferred to Gwen a vision of Rhys lying stabbed to death on the floor of their apartment. Following this, Gwen used a stun gun on him and transferred him unconscious to a holding cell in the Hub. There, Manger freed him and then stabbed Rhys to death himself. When Torchwood 3 opened the Cardiff rift, Rhys vanished from the table in the autopsy room and re-appeared alive back at his apartment, unaware anything had happened. (TW: End of Days)

Becoming Aware of Torchwood
Between End of Days and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Gwen and Rhys become engaged. Rhys was going to get down on one knee to propose but this didn't quite work out due to an inconvenient back twinge. During Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Rhys telephones Gwen and tells her that he has become manager of Harwood's Haulage. (TW: Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang)

Some time later, ne of Rhys's company's lorries crashed and Torchwood 3 investigated, finding that an alien meat was in the lorry. Gwen became suspicious of it and Rhys became suspicious of Gwen and he followed Torchwood to a factory where the meat was being processed and found out that Gwen had been lying to him about her work with Torchwood, also suspecting her of having an affair with Jack Harkness. He argued with Gwen over this but she eventually comes clean about the true nature of her job, which Rhys eventually accepts. (TW: Meat) Rhys then becomes involved in a mission to uncover and destroy an alien meat-trading racket, and ends up taking a bullet to protect Gwen's life. Jack insists that Gwen retcons Rhys after this event, but because Gwen enjoys finally being able to be honest with Rhys, she cannot bring herself to drug him for a second time, and so demands that Jack allow Rhys keep his memories of Torchwood. (TW: Meat)

When Gwen's memories are corrupted by Adam Smith she forgets about Rhys, and upon returning to her flat she believes him to be a stalker. However, Rhys enlightens her about their relationship histry, and she comes to accept his version of events. Gwen's full memories of her relationship are presumeably restored once Adam Smith is defeated. (TW: Adam)

Wedding and Aftermath
A few weeks after that was his eventful marriage to Gwen. On the morning of his wedding day Gwen phoned him to tell him that she had been impreganated by the Nostrovites. Rhys is furious at this turn in events, and argues that Gwen needs to postpone the wedding. However, Gwen insists that the wedding goes ahead, only for it to be interrupted as the shapeshifting Nostrovite returns for it's young. Rhys is livid when Jack mistakes his mother for the Nostrovite and calls her an ugly bitch, punching Jack in the face. Jack later kills the mother nostrovite (who has impersonated Brenda) and Rhys terminated the baby by getting rid of the embryo inside her with the use of the Singularity Scalpel. Gwen and Rhys eventually marry at the altar, although the memories of all the wedding guests are erased. (TW: Something Borrowed) After the wedding, Gwen and Rhys would honeymoon in Paris. (TW: From Out of the Rain) Upon returning from their honeymoon Rhys suggests that Gwen and himself start a family, but Gwen states that it wouldn't be possible with her job. This causes Rhys to become angry that her work with Torchwood has removed her from real life. Gwen realises that she has to share more of her job with Rhys, and he is there to comfort her after she recounts to him the story of Jonah Bevan (TW: Adrift)

After the Torchwood team are trapped in a warehouse explosion set by Captain John Hart, Rhys helps Gwen rescue her colleagues from the rubble. He would later work with Gwen's former colleague Andy Davidson to keep a crowd of angry Weevils contained and off the streets. (TW: Fragments / Exit Wounds) Although never given official status with Torchwood 3, Gwen did at one point identify her husband as a member of Torchwood (TWA: The Dead Line).

The 456
Rhys was a major member of the renegade Torchwood team after the destruction of the Hub. Assisting in Gwen's escape to London, he then acted as a helmsman for the team cooking them food and assisting Ianto with setting up the base. During their escape in a lorry carrying potatoes, Rhys found out that Gwen was pregnant, and considered naming the baby Edward if it was a boy. Upon arriving in London, he accompanied Gwen to meet Lois Habiba, who explained to them John Frobisher's order to have all those involved with the 456 encounter in 1965 assasinated as part of a cover up. Rhys also went with Gwen disguised as an undertaker of sorts to free Jack, who had recently reconstitued after the Hub's destruction, and escaped agent Jonson with Gwen, Ianto and Jack.

The renegade team later came across the abandoned Torchwood One facility, where Jack had been in hiding a few years prior, and Rhys helped the team in gathering more supplies such as food by "acting like criminals". He later watched the footage of the metting with the 456 Ambassador recorded by Lois through Torchwood contact lenses, and was entrusted with the footage by Gwen as part of a plan to hold the government to ransom. Rhys took the images, stored on a laptop to a secret location outside the Houses of Parliament, and waited for Gwen to give him the order to release the files to the public. However, after Jack and Ianto confronted the 456, refusing to surrender a single child to them, Ianto and Clement MacDonald died, and Gwen informed Rhys that their plan was over.

With Jack in custody, Frobisher arranged for Gwen and Rhys to be flown back to Cardiff via a helicopter, and they were greeted by Andy on arriving. It was at this moment that Gwen considered aborting her pregnancy, much to Rhys' surprise and shock. They then arrived at the house of Ianto's sister, with the intent of saving his niece and nephew, and Rhys led the children staying there to an abandoned warehouse to hide when the army arrives to secure the last of the ten per cent of the children for the 456. While hiding, Rhys recorded a message from Gwen on a video camera, as she realised why the Doctor sometimes does not save the Earth, out of shame for humanity's actions. After the 456 were defeated by Jack, at the cost of his grandson, Steven's life, Rhys and Gwen emerged unharmed, with Ianto's neice and nephew saved.

Rhys was declared dead as a result of the 456 Regulation (TW: The New World).

Six months later, Rhys is seen still at Gwen's side, expecting their child. He comforts her as Jack runs away from his life on Earth, teleporting into space, and returns home with Gwen. After the fall of Torchwood, and with Gwen being a mother to their new baby, John Hart is forced to team up with Rhys on a time travel mission involving Ianto's timeline. (TWM: Shrouded)

Personality
In common with most of Earth's population, he believed that alien interference with Earth over the past two years were actually mass hallucinations induced by terrorists putting psychotropic drugs in the water supply. When Gwen put this theory to Jack he derided Rhys as stupid. (TW: Everything Changes)

Easy-going, amiable and straight-forward. Rhys had a cheeky sense of humor, without any embarrasment, such as when he was seen naked by a complete stranger in TW: Out of Time, he knew how to charm Gwen out of her moods. He would on occasion, joke with Gwen about her "Secret Squirrel" job. However, with time, his relationship with Gwen began to fall apart and a note of anger and suspicion began to emerge into his side of the partnership. However, he appeared to have come to terms with things, and now was quite capable of mixing talk about buying a house and Torchwood business with ease.

Known Family

 * Gwen Cooper - Wife
 * Anwen Williams - Daughter
 * Brenda Williams- Mother
 * Barry Williams - Father
 * Mary Cooper - Mother-in-law
 * Geraint Cooper - Father-in- law

Behind the scenes

 * The Production team had originally intended Rhys to die at the end of season one but this was overruled by Russell T Davies, who felt that without Rhys, the show's main link to the real world would be lost.
 * Although Rhys plays a recurring role in the first two series, actor Kai Owen is not given star billing untill the third series.
 * Torchwood Writer John Fay states that Rhys is his favourite character.
 * In SJA: The Day of the Clown, a paper with the name Rhys Williams written on it is seen the noticeboard in Luke, Clyde and Rani's classroom. Probably a coincidence; possibly a production in-joke