Something Borrowed (TV story)

Something Borrowed was the ninth episode in the second series of Torchwood. It saw Gwen Cooper marry Rhys Williams and confirm her feelings for Captain Jack Harkness.

Synopsis
Gwen Cooper is about to get married to her fiancé Rhys. Only one problem: on her hen night she is bitten by an alien and wakes on her wedding day heavily pregnant with a shape-shifter's baby. The alien mother is on the loose and searching for its offspring. The only way for the alien to get the egg is to rip open its carrier, Gwen...

Plot
Gwen is late for her hen's night after following an alien. The creature, after being chased by Gwen, pushes her roughly to the ground. Gwen ends up flat on her back and the alien bites her. Jack kills it and helps Gwen to her feet.

It turns out the alien transferred eggs to Gwen,. They mature and Gwen looks pregnant. During her examination, Jack tries to persuade Gwen to cancel the wedding. Owen mentions that if she were going to die, it would have happened already, so Gwen goes ahead. Rhys also tries to postpone the wedding but, Gwen insists. He decides to have the wedding anyway. The alien fertilisation is explained to their families as Gwen's pregnancy by Rhys, kept secret as a surprise.

Tosh arrives at the wedding venue, sent by Jack to guard Gwen. After being propositioned by Rhys' best man, "Banana Boat", Tosh delivers Gwen's new wedding dress. They discuss the possibility of a relationship between Tosh and Owen.

Back at the hub, Owen's autopsy determines the creature is a Nostrovite, a race of carnivourous shape shifters who mate for life and hunt in pairs. After fertilisation, the female transfers eggs to the male, who transfers them to a host to incubate them until the correct time. The female then kills the host, releasing the offspring. The mate of the dead Nostrovite will be hunting Gwen.

The Nostrovite follows and murders the DJ, eating most of him. Her presence is detected by Tosh and Banana Boat. After trapping them on a bed in a black web-like construct, the Nostrovite joins the wedding guests.

Gwen and Rhys are at the altar when Jack demands the wedding be stopped. Owen and Ianto rescue Tosh and Banana Boat, also finding Mervin's mangled corpse. A bridesmaid, Megan, enters the room,. Seeing Mervin's body, she flees. Jack orders Ianto to go after her, but he fails to stop her before she screams murder to the entire wedding party. After firing at and chasing the Nostrovite, Tosh and Jack run after it but lose its track.

Jack questions Owen about Gwen, who says that Rhys' mother Brenda is with the couple. Tosh mentions that Brenda is with Gwen's mother in the garden. Tosh and Jack reach the couple's room, where Jack calls Brenda an 'ugly bitch'. After being punched by Rhys, Jack is told that the woman actually is the real Rhys' mother. They reach the garden to find the Nostrovite still with Gwen's mother. They confront her, and the Nostrovite holds Gwen's mother hostage, demanding her child. Gwen walks towards them, but just as the Nostrovite releases Gwen's mother, Gwen pulls out a hidden gun and fires several times as it flees.

Owen has brought the singularity scalpel to destroy the egg. He sends Gwen to her room, but asks Rhys to wait while he tells Rhys about the Scalpel and teaches him how to use it. Jack enters Gwen's room whilst Owen and Rhys are outside. He and Gwen share an emotional conversation. They nearly kiss, just as Jack transforms into the Nostrovite. Owen enters and shoots the Nostrovite while Gwen exits with Rhys. After realising Owen is dead, the Nostrovite pursues Gwen.

Rhys and Gwen reach the stable and Rhys explains Owen's plan to remove the egg. As the Nostrovite tries to enter, Rhys removes the egg. Just as the egg is vaporised, the Nostrovite enters, impersonating Rhys' mother again. She moves towards Rhys, who picks up a nearby chainsaw. Furious at all that the creature has done to ruin his wedding day and threaten his bride and family, he lunges at the Nostrovite with the chainsaw. Unfortunately, the chainsaw stops working at that moment. Jack appears at the door, and kills the creature with a gun. Jack helps Gwen up. Putting her hand in Rhys', Jack proclaims, "The hero always gets the girl".

Rhys and Gwen's ceremony resumes, and the couple are wed. At the reception, Rhys and Gwen notice everyone falling asleep. Jack has Retconned the wedding party and guests. Jack offers the couple pills, but Gwen declines. She states that there will "be no secrets in this marriage". They exit, thanking the team for everything. Jack and the others clean up. Ianto notes the irony of fighting aliens by day and cleaning by night. Later, Jack enters the Hub alone, blowing some confetti in the air. He retrieves an old tin box, holding old pictures. He looks through them, reminiscing, but picks one up and stops. This picture shows Jack and his bride at their wedding.

Cast

 * Captain Jack Harkness - John Barrowman
 * Gwen Cooper - Eve Myles
 * Owen Harper - Burn Gorman
 * Toshiko Sato - Naoko Mori
 * Ianto Jones - Gareth David-Lloyd
 * Rhys Williams - Kai Owen
 * Brenda Williams — Nerys Hughes
 * Mary Cooper — Sharon Morgan
 * Geraint Cooper — William Thomas
 * Barry Williams — Robin Griffith
 * Carrie — Collette Brown
 * Megan — Danielle Henry
 * Trina — Ceri Ann Gregory
 * Colin Davies — Jonathan Lewis Owen
 * Mervyn — Morgan Hopkins
 * Registrar — Valerie Murray
 * Shop Assistant — Pethrow Gooden

Culture

 * Toshiko has seen Fred Astaire in Easter Parade twice.
 * Jack mentions the movie Evil Dead when he sees Rhys with a chainsaw.

Devices

 * The Singularity Scalpel is given a name.

Foods and beverages

 * All of Gwen's wedding guests are given level 6 retcon (with champagne). Jack also offers it to Gwen and Rhys.

Music from the real world

 * Comfortably Numb - Pink Floyd
 * Filthy Gorgeous - Scissor Sisters
 * Hole in the Head - Sugababes
 * Tainted Love - Soft Cell
 * You do Something to Me - Paul Weller
 * Pachelbel's Canon

Species

 * The Nostrovite doesn't attack Owen, realising that he is actually dead.
 * At the end of the episode Jack takes out a photo of himself and presumably his wife. It's possible that this is a photo of Lucia Moretti, the mother of Alice Carter. (TW: Children of Earth)

Story notes

 * William Thomas previously appeared in DW: Remembrance of the Daleks and DW: Boom Town, making him the first actor to have appeared in the 'classic series', the BBC Wales series and Torchwood.
 * Nerys Hughes previously appeared in DW: Kinda.
 * Gwen states that she would marry Rhys even if "Weevils crawled out of the sewers", or "the sky was full of spaceships". Weevils did crawl of the sewers in Exit Wounds, and the sky was full of Dalek spaceships in DW: The Stolen Earth / Journey's End
 * One of Gwen and Rhys' guests works at the Flat Holm facility and is later a Reality bomb test subject aboard the Crucible during the events of DW: The Stolen Earth/ Journey's End.
 * At approximately 9:30, you can see a picture/scan of a Cybermen.

Ratings
to be added

Myths

 * It was rumoured Rhys would die in this episode. (This was false)
 * The "big gun" would be the gun used by Jack in DW: Bad Wolf/The Parting of the Ways. (Also false, though it would be used in DW: The Stolen Earth/Journey's End.)

Filming locations
to be added

Production errors
to be added

Continuity

 * The singularity scalpel was last used in TW: Reset.
 * Owen is unable to properly use his left hand because of the damage sustained to it in TW: A Day in the Death.
 * A datasheet of Lisa Hallett is in the medical area of the hub. (TW: Cyberwoman)
 * Owen was killed in TW: Reset and returned to partial life in Dead Man Walking.

DVD releases

 * This story, along with the rest of Torchwood Series 2 was released in a complete series box set in 2008.