Rhys Williams

Rhys Alun Williams was Gwen Cooper's husband. Although originally he did not believe in the existence of aliens nor know his partner worked for Torchwood, he came to accept both facts and became himself an associate of Torchwood Three. However, he was reluctant to let Gwen continue in the work, more so after their daughter was born.

Early life
Rhys was born to Barry and Brenda Williams (TV: Something Borrowed) in North Wales. (AUDIO: The Sin Eaters) He had a sister, (PROSE: Slow Decay) as well as an uncle named Mike (AUDIO: Forgotten Lives) and aunts named Carol, (AUDIO: Visiting Hours) Bev (AUDIO: We Always Get Out Alive) and Jean. (AUDIO: Sonny) He was often told stories by his great-uncle Bryn, although to his regret he never paid much attention. (AUDIO: The Devil and Miss Carew)

As a child, Rhys joined the Boy Scouts, (TV: Children of Earth: Day Three) which allowed Barry and Brenda to resume their sex life. (AUDIO: Visiting Hours) He found shopping boring and would always wander off in shopping centres when his mother told him to wait, going into the clothes racks and pretending that they were tepees. Brenda would get angry and upset and hit him in the back of the neck. (PROSE: First Born) In the summer, Barry would drive the family to places like Trecco Bay and St Fagans and would have his driving criticised by Brenda. (AUDIO: Visiting Hours)

Rhys was attracted to a girl called Cerys Morgan when he was twelve. (TV: Something Borrowed) He once put a rugby ball through Mrs Balsam's greenhouse (AUDIO: Visiting Hours) and, after leaving secondary school, he went to college (TV: Adam) with Matt. He tried to look cool by wearing Ralph Lauren shirts and smoking B&H. (AUDIO: The Sin Eaters)

Relationship with Gwen
Rhys fancied Gwen Cooper from the moment they met in college, in part because of her looks. (TV: Adam) For their first date, Rhys took Gwen on a picnic on the beach, not knowing it was a nudist beach. (AUDIO: The Sin Eaters) They were in the queue at a supermarket purchasing ingredients to make spaghetti bolognese when he realised that the dish would give Gwen garlic breath and decided that they would have to make something else, leading her to nickname him "Rhys the Rant" and kiss him for the first time. He decided in that moment that he would marry her one day. (TV: Adam)

Rhys and Gwen did not have sex until they had been on at least five dates. Gwen took Rhys back to her home where he found Geraint Cooper making a cup of tea, surprising him as he did not know that Gwen lived with her parents. (AUDIO: Thirst Trap) He was not much of a cook and Gwen would later remark that his visits to her house might have been the only time that he had a decent meal. After they moved into a flat together, their roles reversed and Rhys became the better cook of the two. (AUDIO: Department X) He celebrated with champagne when Gwen qualified as a police officer and told her how proud he was.

Inspired by his uncle Mike, (AUDIO: Forgotten Lives) Rhys got a job as a transport manager. (TV: Day One) He put on the suit that he wore to a Luckley's interview for Mary Cooper's sixtieth birthday party, but his zip malfunctioned and Gwen chased him around the flat to staple his trousers shut. (TV: Ghost Machine) Although Rhys was aware of the Sycorax invasion, the Ghost Shift and the Battle of Canary Wharf, he did not believe that the parties responsible were aliens and reasoned that they were mass hallucinations caused by terrorists putting psychotropic drugs in the water supply.

Rhys heard about the murder of John Tucker and asked Gwen, who returned home after he had drunk tea with Banana Boat, if she was at the scene, which she denied. After she hit her head and claimed that she was going back to work regardless, Rhys protested and assumed in the morning that she had actually gone out drinking due to her condition after being retconned. He later told her about an argument he had with his mother about how rarely he visited her. (TV: Everything Changes)

Kept in the dark
When Gwen joined Torchwood, she told Rhys that she had been promoted to an admin role in special ops and that she could not discuss it with him. They went on a date to a bowling alley, a cinema and a restaurant, but Gwen had to leave to investigate the Sex Gas meteorite and could not give him an answer for when she would be home when he called to let her know that he was about to start cooking. When she did return home, she did not pay attention to his story about his knowledge of transport routes and he asked if she was "too grand to care" given her new job. (TV: Day One)

Rhys would stay up and listen to the local radio stations every night when Gwen was called out, sometimes until two in the morning, in case there was a report on a bank robbery or a raid on a crack den. Every night she was out there was a "nutter" on the radio talking about UFOs. It occurred to Rhys that the same nutter was probably on the radio every night she was not out as well. (PROSE: Slow Decay)

Gwen was again unable to tell Rhys if she would be home one night and he became frustrated, going to Daf's. There, he did well at a game of poker and left Gwen a message, returning home later that night after Daf and Karen had an argument and he decided against sleeping on their sofa. (TV: Ghost Machine)

Rhys and Gwen organised to go on a date to the Indian Summer as an apology for the amount of time she was spending away; there he bumped into his co-worker Lucy Sobel while waiting for Gwen. Gwen was convinced he had feelings for Lucy and Rhys realised that he and Gwen were falling apart. Rhys tried to change his lifestyle, visiting a weight-loss clinic, in order to maintain their relationship. He unknowingly became the host of an alien parasite. (PROSE: Slow Decay)

After having a few drinks with Daf, Rhys called Gwen to let him know that they were going for a curry and to ask her to record Wife Swap. (TV: Cyberwoman)

Rhys and Gwen returned to the flat to find it vandalised by Fairies. He was angered and confused by how the vandals had managed to get in. (TV: Small Worlds)

Because she was unable to share what she had gone through at Brynblaidd with Rhys, Gwen left him watching television and had sex with Owen Harper, beginning an affair with him. (TV: Countrycide)

Rhys was surprised to find Emma-Louise Cowell staying at the flat and, at Gwen's insistence, welcomed her to celebrate Christmas with them as Gwen claimed that she was her aunt's stepdaughter. When he got a call from Mary, however, he learnt that Emma was not an actual relative and was angry with Gwen for how easy she found it to lie to him. He stormed out. (TV: Out of Time)

Rhys was angry when Gwen left a restaurant to help Jack Harkness chase a Weevil and was upset at the state of their relationship. He went on Daf's "staying single stag" in what he called his pulling top, but he only managed two pints and returned home where Gwen drugged him with retcon before telling him about her affair with Owen, which she had decided to put a stop to. Before forgetting about it, he called Gwen selfish. (TV: Combat)

When the Rift's opening brought about what some believed to be the End of Days, Rhys wondered if terrorists were responsible. Gwen tasered him with a stun gun and locked him in the Hub after Bilis Manger gave her a vision of his death, but Bilis released him from his cell and then killed him with a blade. This led Gwen to join Owen, Toshiko Sato and Ianto Jones in opening the Rift again to return everything to normal, restoring Rhys without any knowledge of Torchwood or his own death. (TV: End of Days)

Rhys and Gwen went out for Valentine's Day. (AUDIO: Dinner and a Show)

Getting on one knee before getting a twinge in his back, Rhys proposed to Gwen whilst lying down on the sofa and she said yes. He succeeded in getting a job as manager of Harwood's Haulage and let Gwen know by telephone. When John Hart made suggestive comments, she told Rhys that he was "some idiot" she worked with. (TV: Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang) He later contributed to the Harwood's radio jingle. (TV: Meat)

Learning the truth
After Leighton Reynolds' lorry crashed, Rhys saw Gwen investigating the meat he was transporting with Jack, Owen and Ianto and called her back to the flat so that he could follow her back to work. He followed the Torchwood SUV to a warehouse where he told Greg and Dale that he hoped to continue Leighton's deliveries and was subsequently shown the Cash Cow, after which he forced Gwen to tell him the truth about her job and was taken to the Hub. He helped the group put a stop to the exploitation of the Cash Cow, in the course of which he was shot, and Gwen later refused to retcon him. (TV: Meat)

Jack was sent to Hell by Patrick Jefferson and, upon returning, bought plane tickets to Paris for Rhys and Gwen so that they could have a weekend away from worrying about Torchwood. (AUDIO: In the Shadows) When they returned, Gwen forgot about Rhys due to Adam Smith messing with her memories and he accused Jack of phasing him out of her memories so that he could have her to himself. Jack recorded Rhys reminiscing about how he met Gwen and she finally started to remember him after he ranted at a cashier. Despite his attempts to get her to stay home, she went to work and retconned herself to forget Adam. (TV: Adam)

Rhys was given a business card by Bilis Manger to pass on to Gwen and did so whilst they were having lunch, prompting her to tell him to go to his friends and remain with them for his own safety. (PROSE: The Twilight Streets)

Rhys worried about Gwen's career and attempted to speak with her about it over coffee after she was able to get a morning off, but Jack called and interrupted the conversation. He visited her in hospital following an insectoid attack and took her to the Hub despite his misgivings once she decided to discharge herself. They learnt from Tosh about the relationship between the two insectoids and chased one to the Millennium Stadium where they both fought and Jack killed the victor, with Rhys remarking that sometimes there were too many people in harm's way. (PROSE: Harm's Way)

Rhys was awoken one night by a phone call from Gwen, who was emotional and needing to talk after Owen died and was brought back with a resurrection gauntlet. (TV: Dead Man Walking)

A newly-married man
On the day of the wedding, Rhys learnt that Gwen had been impregnated by a Nostrovite and planned to cancel the ceremony for her own wellbeing despite the money, but she insisted on it going ahead. He was angry with Jack for interrupting the ceremony when the Nostrovite mother came for the baby and punched him after Jack mistook Brenda for it. He destroyed the baby with a singularity scalpel after receiving instructions from Owen and tried to kill the mother with a chainsaw, but Jack killed it instead and Rhys and Gwen were married. The guests were retconned to forget the Nostrovite and Gwen's pregnancy. (TV: Something Borrowed)

Rhys and Gwen honeymooned in Cuba for ten days. (PROSE: SkyPoint)

Rhys wanted to start a family and repeatedly tried to get Gwen to talk to him about it. When she finally did and claimed that having a baby was impossible because of her work with Torchwood, he told her that living a real life was more important than her job and, when she began to bring up Jonah Bevan, he refused to talk about Torchwood. He made her sleep on the sofa that night and had her tell him everything about Jonah after she prepared an apology meal and asked to discuss their future. (TV: Adrift)

After Gwen overslept and Jack, Owen, Tosh and Ianto were injured in an explosion, Rhys helped her rescue them and learnt that Jack was immortal. He brought up the fact that Gwen too could have been buried if she had not slept in, but she refused to talk about it. (TV: Fragments)

Rhys dropped Owen off at St Helen's Hospital to investigate a Rift flare and went with Gwen to meet with Andy Davidson, who had Weevils locked in the police station cells. When more Weevils attacked, Rhys helped fight them until John Hart sent out a recall signal which ordered them to return to the sewers. (TV: Exit Wounds)

Increased involvement
During the All-Night Zombie Horror Show, Rhys and Gwen found a zombie eating their neighbour's cat and attempted to drive to the Hub, but Rhys crashed the Saab when he swerved to avoid a zombie. He took a golf club from the boot and followed Gwen on foot towards Cardiff's Police HQ, but they instead found themselves trapped in a house on Lloyd George Avenue with Keith Samuels and his family, from whom they had stolen a car. After being saved by Nobby, the pair met with Jack and Ianto at St Helen's Hospital where the zombies were defeated and, on his way out, Rhys notified Nina Rogers and Rianne Kilkenny that it was safe to come out of hiding. (PROSE: Bay of the Dead)

Around the Christmas season, Rhys and Gwen went shopping in Cardiff city centre and they saw Jack and Ianto outside of G.R. Owen's. (AUDIO: Department X)

During the 21st century Dalek invasion, Gwen phoned Rhys from the Hub, asking him to stay indoors and to tell Mary to take her pills and go to sleep. (TV: The Stolen Earth)

The theft of a number of fridges from Harwood's lorries led Rhys to investigate and learn that his colleague Darren had been making late night deliveries to Mr Powell at Queen Street station. He took over Darren's operation in order to investigate and eventually found himself aboard Powell's train with Jack, travelling to and from the station manager's planet from which it was incrementally transporting itself in boxes. Jack pushed Rhys out of the train and he arrived in the past, allowing him to lead his past self to uncover the scheme, with Ianto's help, to ensure that history played out as he had seen and that the train would be destroyed by Jack. (AUDIO: Ghost Train)

Rhys went on Matt's stag night and was concerned upon learning that he had left with another woman, so he visited Muriel Thomas at Gwen's suggestion and found her dead. After Gwen examined the body, they visited Claire and went looking for Matt at the Holy Church of St Francis where they were captured by Matt, whose body was being used to incubate creatures just as his mother's was, and Reverend Neil Hayward. He killed a creature which was feeding on Gwen's guilt and took Matt to safety, with Ianto later destroying the creatures within him with ultraviolet light. Rhys used the incident to suggest that he and Gwen move house. (AUDIO: The Sin Eaters)

When Jack entered a trance after answering the telephone, Gwen warned Rhys not to answer his mobile and they investigated the number that called Jack, tracing it to Cardiff and West Building Society. They visited Madoc House, Mr Tyler and Cardiff and West's private nursing home where they housed employees in trances, learning how the phenomenon began following a storm in 1976. Ianto later released an electromagnetic pulse which put a stop to the phenomenon and revived those in trances. (AUDIO: The Dead Line)

Rhys visited Ivyday Nursing Home with Gwen to collect his great-uncle Bryn's possessions after his death. Gwen became suspicious of how several other residents had left Ivyday and investigated Joanna Carew, who detained her until Rhys tracked her down and released her. They went to stop Miss Carew from helping Fitzroy travel to Earth, but Miss Carew fell from a roof and Rhys and Gwen were unable to save her. He remarked that he could soon be a fully-fledged member of Torchwood, but Gwen told him that he would not want that. (AUDIO: The Devil and Miss Carew)

Rhys was stopped at the Severn Bridge after Cardiff was quarantined due to the Good Thinking virus and caused a panic by claiming that there was a dirty bomb, allowing him to break through the road block in his lorry despite Gwen asking him to stay away. When he found Gwen, she shot him because of the virus and took him to Cardiff Castle where he was given medical attention by Dr Larsen. (AUDIO: Outbreak)

Return of the 456
Rhys was driving the first time that the 456 made the children stop and realised that the phenomenon was deliberately timed to align with British school hours, which he mentioned to Gwen when she let him know that she was driving to East Grinstead and would not be able to view a house with him. He waited for the estate agent, who did not show up, and told Gwen that it looked nice from the outside and that one of the three bedrooms could be turned into a nursery. (TV: Children of Earth: Day One)

Following the destruction of the Hub, Rhys and Gwen fled from Agent Johnson and, having to abandon their car and finding that their bank accounts had been frozen, hid in a lorry which took them to London. During the journey, he was delighted to learn that Gwen was pregnant but was concerned about her. They met with Lois Habiba instead of John Frobisher and learnt where Jack's body was being held, so they disguised themselves as undertakers and rescued him with Ianto's help. (TV: Children of Earth: Day Two)

Rhys, despite being upset to learn that Jack knew of Gwen's pregnancy before he did, helped Gwen, Jack and Ianto set up a temporary base in a former Torchwood One holding facility, largely through theft, and made a sign reading "HUB2". He saw the fiery arrival of the 456 with Ianto and claimed that he knew that Lois would help Torchwood by putting in the Eye-5s, which Gwen had in her possession as she and Rhys had played with them. He watched the video feed in which the 456 revealed that they wanted Earth's children. (TV: Children of Earth: Day Three)

Rhys was concerned for Gwen's safety when Clem McDonald took her gun to shoot Jack and was entrusted with releasing the footage Torchwood had of COBRA's meetings to the public at Gwen's order, sitting with a laptop outside the Houses of Parliament whilst Gwen and Clem waited for Agent Johnson and Jack and Ianto confronted the 456 at Thames House. However, the threat came to nothing after Ianto and Clem were killed and COBRA chose to surrender to the 456. (TV: Children of Earth: Day Four)

Rhys and Gwen were returned to Cardiff in a helicopter by Frobisher and went with Andy Davidson to tell Rhiannon Davies about Ianto's death, with Gwen implying on the way that she intended to have an abortion given the state of the world. He kept an eye out and helped get the children that Rhiannon and Johnny were looking after into hiding, where Gwen told him that she intended to keep their child. The 456 were ultimately defeated by Jack. (TV: Children of Earth: Day Five)

Fatherhood and hiding
Jack parted ways with Rhys and Gwen following the defeat of the 456, but his vortex manipulator was recovered from the wreckage of the Hub and Rhys spent £50 on a new strap for it. (TV: Children of Earth: Day Five) Rhys told Brenda about Gwen's pregnancy and her opinion of Gwen improved somewhat, with her and Barry both being excited about having a grandchild. (PROSE: First Born)

Six months after the 456, Rhys and Gwen received an invitation from Jack to meet him at a hilltop and he used the manipulator to signal a cruiser to take him away from Earth, saying farewell. Rhys and Gwen returned home. (TV: Children of Earth: Day Five) They lived in a house in Cardiff for only a brief time before they had to flee the city with a pre-packed bag to escape security forces looking for Gwen, moving between Torchwood safe houses for weeks afterwards. Rhys told his mother that he and Gwen were "freelance contracting".

Gwen gave birth to a daughter whom she and Rhys named Anwen. (PROSE: First Born) On the day that she was born, (TV: The New World) they took her to a service station car park to meet Geraint and Mary, (PROSE: First Born) which was the last time Gwen's parents saw her for some time. (TV: The New World) Brenda called Rhys some time after the birth to get an address so that she and Barry could send Anwen a teddy bear and let him know that she had been visited by people looking for Gwen. He did not give her an address as they were living in a motor lodge near Tenby.

Rhys and Gwen moved onto a caravan site near Rawbone in North Wales two months after leaving Cardiff and learnt that the people of the village were sterile and supplied with Scion children by the Juniper Tree. Although Rhys wanted to leave after Davydd Hope kissed Gwen and Tony Brown attempted to rape her, Gwen insisted that they stay to investigate and Anwen was kidnapped by Jenny Meredith, who hoped that having her own child would help her grow up. They managed to retrieve Anwen and the Juniper Project to build an army of Scions was ended, after which Rhys and Gwen left with Anwen to find a new home. (PROSE: First Born)

With Torchwood having fallen and Gwen a new mother, Rhys was sought out by John Hart to help him defeat Mairwyn, who planned to use time travel to exploit Ianto and gain access to Torchwood One technology. They were successful, with Ianto killing Mairwyn and retconning himself. (COMIC: Shrouded)

Rhys moved with Gwen and Anwen to an isolated house where he was able to grow vegetables, (TV: The New World) something he had wanted to dedicate time to in Cardiff and outside Rawbone. (PROSE: First Born) He was less suspicious of the outside world than Gwen, but was not comfortable with her telling Anwen stories of her time in Torchwood due to their agreement that she be kept from that part of her life. (TV: The New World)

The Miracle
Rhys and Gwen returned to Cardiff briefly with Anwen after Andy informed them that Geraint had been taken to St Helen's Hospital and learnt about the Miracle, which Rhys refused to allow Gwen to investigate out of a fear of her being targeted. He unsuccessfully tied Rex Matheson up after he arrived at the house and fled with him, Gwen and Jack when an assassin attempted to neutralise them, after which Gwen tasked him with taking Anwen to Mary's. Before he could do so, Rex declared that he was renditioning Torchwood to the United States. (TV: The New World)

Although he did not believe that Jack's return at the same time as the Miracle was a coincidence, Rhys did not believe that it had anything to do with him and that mortality and immortality had been exchanged. Rex and the police took him, Gwen, Anwen and Jack to Heathrow Airport, but he decided that he had no use of Rhys given that he was not a member of Torchwood and had him and Anwen returned to Wales. He promised Gwen that he would look after their daughter. (TV: Rendition)

The police moved Rhys and Anwen to a safe house where they stayed in Andy's custody, but Andy was soon able to relocate them to stay with Mary in Swansea. He was able to talk to Gwen thanks to a video link set up by Esther Drummond and told her that the family would be ready and waiting for her return. (TV: Dead of Night)

Rhys called Gwen whilst she was in Los Angeles and told her that it would be impossible to move Geraint home from St Helen's despite her concerns. However, he visited Geraint and "made a fuss" about getting moved which resulted in him being pushed up the list to be moved to the South Wales overflow camp and called Gwen to let her know, but she did not answer. When he did manage to get through to her, she was distressed to learn that Geraint was being moved to the camp and told Rhys to stop him, but he was too late. (TV: Escape to LA)

Rhys disguised himself as a chauffeur to pick Gwen up when she returned to the United Kingdom and went with her and Andy to the overflow camp to demand Geraint's release. He signed up as a driver as part of a plan to get Geraint out, but Geraint suffered a heart attack and Rhys soon had to return to work moving patients to the burn centre, which he believed to be for burns victims. Gwen later informed him that the patients were being burnt alive. (TV: The Categories of Life)

Horrified to learn what he had been doing, Rhys wanted to stop working at the camp but was tasked by Gwen with driving the van for a second and final attempt to rescue Geraint. He managed to get Geraint back home despite Pidgeon making him later than planned, but he, Mary and Anwen were detained (TV: The Middle Men) in Mary's home on the orders of Olivia Colasanto (TV: Immortal Sins) by the time Gwen had returned to the United States. (TV: The Middle Men)

Rex and Esther learnt of Rhys, Anwen and Mary's capture and informed the police. Andy and a team of police officers saved them and Rhys asked about Gwen's whereabouts and wellbeing. (TV: Immortal Sins)

Rhys was unable to get help for the unconscious Geraint on account of the risk of him being labelled Category 1 and did not tell Gwen the truth about his condition before asking Mary. He updated her on the state of the UK and passed on Mary's message to keep going after the Three Families. (TV: End of the Road)

After Gwen returned to the UK, Rhys worked with her to steal and sell medication and got a job offer with Matty Sheldon, transporting Category 1s to the overflow camps which Gwen gave her blessing for him to accept. He threatened to make Oswald Danes a Category 1 when he arrived at the house in search of Jack and, just before Geraint was found and taken by Ralph Finch, he realised that Shanghai and Buenos Aires, both of which had blood banks burnt down within twenty-four hours of each other, were on opposite sides of the world. Torchwood then split up to visit both cities, with Rhys remaining in Swansea. (TV: The Gathering)

Rhys got a police visa from Andy which permitted him to visit Geraint in the overflow camp to say goodbye to him and pass on Gwen and Mary's love before the Miracle ended. He was with Geraint when he died. (TV: The Blood Line)

The States and back
After the Miracle, Rhys travelled to the United States where he, Gwen, Jack and Rex attended Esther's funeral. He asked that Jack answer in the negative when Gwen asked if he was staying to rebuild Torchwood and was witness to Rex's resurrection after he was shot by Charlotte Wills. (TV: The Blood Line) Rhys, Gwen and Anwen remained in Washington DC for some time afterwards (AUDIO: Army of One, Fallout) whilst Jack left shortly after the funeral. (PROSE: Exodus Code)

Rhys was captured by a Homeland Security SWAT team and taken to Lucas Avery who was investigating the deaths of the Cuckoo's hosts and knew only that Rhys and Gwen's names were connected, meaning he was only one of several Rhyses in Lucas's custody. Gwen and Anwen were soon found and moved to the facility, after which Rhys and his namesakes protected Gwen from the Cuckoo long enough that it died without reclaiming the part of it inside of her. Gwen then indicated that she wanted to return home and Rhys asked if they could take some of the Rhyses with them. (AUDIO: Army of One)

Rhys and Gwen were getting food from a drive-through when Andy called them from Cardiff to ask about the Shiva virus. (AUDIO: Fallout)

By October, Rhys, Gwen and Anwen had moved in with Mary in Swansea (AUDIO: Mr Invincible) and agreed to have no computers or Internet inside of the house to prevent them from being tracked or watched as Torchwood were by the CIA. Rhys also got a job. (PROSE: Exodus Code)

Jack called the house to check on Gwen after he had a vision on Cotter Paluni's World of her being shot, but Rhys assured her that she was fine and agreed to keep Jack's return to Earth a secret from her. He was with her in the street when a gunman fired at her and Jack, transported there by Jodie Chapman and invisible, took the bullets for her before being transported away. (AUDIO: Mr Invincible)

Rhys and Gwen began to drift apart due to Gwen's increasingly bad temper which, unbeknownst to them, was being caused by pheromones released by a Helix Intelligence. This culminated with Gwen attacking and trying to kill Rhys, but Jack shot her and she was taken to a psychiatric ward after being arrested by Andy, only to escape some time later. Jack managed to find her and bring her home where she asked Rhys to kill her, leading Jack to take her with him aboard the Ice Maiden to help put a stop to what the media termed the "masochistic madness". They were successful and Rhys was watching the news when the hydrothermal chimneys created by the Helix were destroyed. (PROSE: Exodus Code)

Rebuilding Torchwood
In 2016, Rhys and Gwen travelled to North Wales following a call from Elunedd at Bryn Offa Residential Home in which she mentioned Jack. They found that Jack had been moved into Mr Griffith's body and attempted to sneak in to investigate with the help of Ceri after Jack's consciousness moved elsewhere, but Gary caught them and the Evolved took over Rhys and put Anwen inside Elunedd. Jack joined the Evolved in return for Rhys's release and, after covering up what happened at Bryn Offa, Rhys suggested that he and Gwen restart Torchwood to keep Anwen safe. (AUDIO: Forgotten Lives)

After returning from North Wales, Rhys visited Brenda at St Helen's Hospital as she was recovering from hip replacement surgery and was given permission by Nurse Brown to stay the night. He became aware of Mr Tate and Mr Nichols' kidnapping of patients for Ronald Fletcher's surgery on Prince Abdullah and kept his mother safe until, without her organs, the surgery failed. He hid himself and Brenda from the Cleaners in the mortuary and, in the morning, he promised her that he would not wait so long before seeing her again. (AUDIO: Visiting Hours)

Gwen applied to Roger Pugh at the Cardiff Council Planning Department to have the Hub rebuilt and was trying to capture a creature with Rhys when she left him a message. Rhys looked after Anwen whilst Gwen showed Roger what Torchwood did and called her several times throughout the day: once to make sure that she bought green peppers instead of red and again to alert her to a hole in spacetime at Cardiff University. (AUDIO: More Than This)

He was looking after Anwen when Gwen went to Talmouth. When he couldn't get hold of Gwen he came to Talmouth to look after her. (AUDIO: Made You Look)

Over the course of one month, Rhys and Gwen had to deal with singing monsters in Cardiff Bay, flying things taking bites out of aeroplanes, alien viruses mutating people and haunted nightclubs with carnivorous dancefloors. They also dealt with an infestation of alien worms in the sewers by burning their nest.

Rhys and Gwen's investigation into missing persons led them to a holiday camp south of Llanelli where they fought and believed that they had killed a Jordia, but it actually got into the backseat of their car and kept them from being able to get home using illusions and mind control. They argued, heard noises in the back of the car and both briefly believed that they had gone blind before forgetting what had happened to them, which came to an end when they finally became aware of the Jordia and apparently killed it. With the Jordia dead, they were able to continue their journey home. (AUDIO: We Always Get Out Alive)

At Gwen's suggestion, Rhys asked Brenda, with whom he had had little contact for some time, to temporarily move to Glades Water Retirement Home to report back on the Sonny robots. He promised to visit her often, but he visited her less and less over the weeks and was jealous of Brenda's fondness for her Sonny, so he was not upset to learn that the robots were to be recalled. He tracked Brenda to a shack in Forest Farm when she disappeared with the robots and, after they were all reset, he recovered Sonny and gave him to her as a present. (AUDIO: Sonny)

When Anwen was due to go away for two days, Rhys quickly organised a weekend away for himself and Gwen in a caravan which a friend gave him for free. However, Hollis Jefferson Albert punctured one of the caravan's tyres in Newport and invited Gwen to speak with Jack aboard the Ice Maiden, so she kissed Rhys goodbye and agreed that it would be best if he cancelled the reservation at the campsite. (COMIC: World Without End) She returned after helping defeat the Vervoids. (COMIC: The Culling)

The Sorvix occupation
Rhys was unaware when Gwen's body was taken over by Ng (AUDIO: Orr) and was on a night out with Banana Boat when she and St John Colchester went to supervise Madrigal's hen do. (AUDIO: Aliens & Sex & Chips & Gravy)

Rhys was surprised by "Gwen"'s behaviour after Mary's death and believed that she was acting out of character, but she rationalised her response by claiming that she felt responsible. He went with her to Mary's funeral and attempted to get her to talk about her feelings rather than go to the Hub only for her to tell him to back off, after which she relented and agreed to stay at home for the day. (AUDIO: Orr)

Feeling that "Gwen" had been acting strangely for some time and upset that they had not had sex for several weeks, Rhys broke down and cried to "Gwen" about the state of their relationship. He told her that he would do anything to fix their relationship and they had sex, with Rhys unaware that "Gwen" had considered killing him. (AUDIO: Love Rat)

Rhys managed to get a hold of Mr Colchester's address and took a bottle of wine to Colin Colchester-Price, feeling that they had something in common as prospective widowers of Torchwood operatives and wanting him to feel welcome in Cardiff. Being a practising Muslim, however, Colin declined the offer. Rhys briefly crossed paths with Bilis Manger during his visit and thought that he seemed familiar. (AUDIO: A Kill to a View)

Rhys was reading Anwen a bedtime story when he was joined by "Gwen". (AUDIO: Zero Hour)

After Andy was questioned regarding the murder of a refugee, Rhys took him to Mr Colchester and Orr at the Hub and later went around his house with beer to keep him company. He unwittingly exposed Andy to radio static, leading him to racially abuse and attack the takeaway man per Helen White's conditioning, and went with him and "Gwen" to the source of the radio transmissions. He let Andy stay at his after his house was burnt down. (AUDIO: The Empty Hand)

Rhys called "Gwen" whilst she was busy dealing with Yvonne Hartman (AUDIO: Poker Face) and again after she visited Andy at work. (AUDIO: Tagged)

At Yvonne's suggestion, Rhys and "Gwen" went with the Colchester-Prices to the Escape Room and were put through various challenges by Escape which included one in which Rhys and "Gwen" had to climb ladders and shock one another to extend them. Rhys accused her of shocking him for longer than necessary and responded in kind as they argued. He and Mr Colchester discussed her change in personality and he fell into a pit during a rope climb, but he survived and helped the others get out. (AUDIO: Escape Room)

Rhys continued to dwell on "Gwen"'s actions in the Escape Room and finally learnt the truth when he went to the Hub after the Rift was opened and Gwen and Ng were split. Finally in control of her body, Gwen decided that she, Rhys and Anwen would leave Cardiff so as not to be defined by Torchwood. (AUDIO: Herald of the Dawn)

A new life
Unseen by Jack, Rhys and Gwen attended Mr Colchester's funeral and slipped away after Colin's speech, (AUDIO: Future Pain) leaving Cardiff. (AUDIO: Herald of the Dawn) Rhys continued his career in haulage as a lorry driver (AUDIO: Sargasso) for a time. (AUDIO: Misty Eyes)

Rhys oversaw the transportation of shipping containers from Milford Haven to the Port of Wilmington aboard the Corinthian Tide and met Kaitlin Russell, with whom he searched the ship for Captain Anika Banaczik after the engines stopped and the power went out in the North Atlantic garbage patch. They were attacked by the Nestene Consciousness and a facsimile of Banaczik who wanted information from Kaitlin, but they managed to blow up the ship and escape in evac suits. Upon being picked up, Rhys called Gwen to let her know that he was heading to the airport and said goodbye to Kaitlin, unaware that she was under the Nestenes' control. (AUDIO: Sargasso)

Friend showed Rhys and Gwen adverts for properties in Iceland (AUDIO: How I Conquered the World) and they moved into a lighthouse there.

In Iceland, Rhys worked at the docks whilst Gwen helped out at a shop. The two of them were trapped inside their home by Ng to protect Gwen from the Mist, but Ng became trapped with them and was ready to commit suicide to break her deal with the Mist and save Gwen. Rhys managed to convince his wife to keep Ng from killing herself, after which Ng got rid of the Mist by expressing her regret to her child and Rhys gave her his thanks. Afterwards, Gwen told Rhys that she intended to talk to Kristin Magnúsdóttir and join the Icelandic Tourism Information Centre. (AUDIO: Misty Eyes)

According to one account, Rhys and Gwen had a son by the time of the Security Drone Incident in January 2021. Gwen used his boxing gloves and a moped to take out a Dalek during the attack. (TV: Revolution of the Daleks)

Rhys joined Kristin in investigating Friend's Deadcoin auction as Gwen was in Peru, having been lured there by Yvonne. He called Yvonne and Tyler so that Kristin could track them as they travelled to Carcassonne and they located the Deadcoin servers in Iceland, which Kristin was unable to hack into and which Rhys instead tricked the guards into loading into a van for him and Kristin to take them away. Afterwards, he said that he would think about joining the Tourism Information Centre if he could make it work around Anwen. (AUDIO: Heistland)

With the Deadcoin, Rhys purchased media servers to prevent them being used to stream Janet's Late Teatime, resulting in the programme being streamed through three struggling computers instead. He revealed this to Friend on the programme, delivering a line of technobabble which Gwen did not believe he could say, and his actions plus that of Torchwood prevented Friend from sending out a pulse to its bioweapons and wiping out most of humanity. (AUDIO: The Apocalypse Starts at 6PM)

Back in Cardiff
The family moved to Cardiff and Rhys became unhappy with his marriage, leading him to download Now or Never and, under its influence, go on a date with Becky. Andy brought him back to his senses by switching off his mobile phone and they worked to put a stop to the app and the damage it was doing to Cardiff. They broke into the Now or Never office where Rhys accessed the computer and made everyone affected engage in small talk until their failure to abide by the rules of the app caused it to be deleted from their phones. (AUDIO: Thirst Trap)

Alternate timeline
In an alternate timeline in which John Hart took control of the Torchwood Institute and became King of the British Empire, Rhys was married to Gwen and came to Torchwood Cardiff to demand answers when she disappeared. There, he learnt from the king that she had been killed, and was offered a million pounds. Insulted by John's disregard for human life, Rhys threatened to go to the press only to be shot dead by the king, who ordered that his body be disposed of in an incinerator. (AUDIO: The Death of Captain Jack)

Personality
In common with most of Earth's population, Rhys initially believed that alien interference with Earth in the 2000s was mass hallucinations induced by terrorists putting psychotropic drugs in the water supply. When Gwen put this theory to Jack he called Rhys stupid. (TV: Everything Changes)

Rhys was easy going, amiable and straightforward. He had a cheeky sense of humour and little modesty, such as when he was seen naked by a complete stranger. (TV: Out of Time) He knew how to charm Gwen out of her moods. He would joke with Gwen about her "Secret Squirrel" job. However, his relationship with Gwen began to fall apart and a note of anger and suspicion began to emerge. (TV: Combat) He appeared to come to terms with things, and later was quite capable of mixing talk about buying a house and Torchwood business with ease. (TV: Children of Earth: Day One)

Rhys liked root beer. (AUDIO: Fallout) He did not consider himself to be religious. (AUDIO: Army of One)

He had poor knowledge of the Welsh language. (AUDIO: Forgotten Lives)

Behind the scenes

 * The production team had originally intended Rhys to die at the end of series 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 was not given star billing until the third series.
 * In The Sarah Jane Adventures television story, The Day of the Clown, a paper with the name Rhys Williams written on it is seen the notice board in Luke, Clyde and Rani's classroom.