PC Gwen Cooper arrives on a rainy murder scene and watches as the forensic investigation unit is pulled, mid-investigation, to allow special access to a four-man team in civilian clothing from Torchwood Institute. A forensic tech believes that Torchwood is some kind of special ops group. Gwen's concerned about crime scene contamination and spots a good vantage point on a parking garage and runs up there to observe the team at work. Captain Jack Harkness is waxing philosophical about the taste of contraceptives in the rain as his team sets up around the body. Doctor Owen Harper complains about the rain. Suzie Costello puts a metal gauntlet on her right hand, then places her hand beneath the head of the murdered body and he gasps. Toshiko Sato attempts to question the murder victim, but he takes some time to calm down, and he didn't see his murderer. They have some time remaining, and Tosh doesn't know what else to ask, but Jack does -- he introduces himself and asks the victim his name -- which is John Tucker -- and he wants to know what death is like. John tells him he saw nothing and then falls dead again. Torchwood bickers over what went wrong until, suddenly, Jack yells up to Gwen, "What do you think?" Gwen runs for it. When she makes it home, her boyfriend Rhys Williams is watching a drama. He mentions he saw the story of the murder on the news and Gwen lies, saying she wasn't involved. She lies awake in bed, watching the clock until at least 2 am. The next morning, Gwen asks her friend Yvonne to do her a favour and look up Captain Jack Harkness. She serves beverages at a briefing about the murders, where they mention that the murders were done with the same weapon, some sort of blade. She and her partner respond to a bar brawl and Gwen gets a good knock to the head. She sees a doctor at the hospital and, as she's leaving, she catches sight of a man in a long coat heading up the stairs. She follows up the stairs to the top floor, which is sealed with plastic and caution tape. She hears a porter entering from the floor below and asks him who sealed off the top floor. He'd assumed it was the police or somebody spraying chemicals. She returns and pushes her way through the plastic. She sees what she assumes to be a strange looking man wearing a mask at the other end of the floor. She asks if he's seen the man in the long coat, but there is no reply, only a soft growl. She keeps talking, with no response. The porter comes through, saying he asked around and couldn't find why it was sealed. He admires the workmanship of the mask, especially the teeth, when the creature bites him in the throat and his blood sprays. Jack bursts in, and as his team sprays the creature with something and hoods it, he rushes Gwen out of the hallway. She keeps running until she's outside, where she's catching her breath when the Torchwood SUV nearly hits her. She chases it in her patrol car, leaving her partner behind. She calls in the plate to control, and Yvonne asks if she's seeing ghosts, as there has been no Captain Jack Harkness save for an American volunteer that disappeared 21 January 1941. She follows the SUV to the Wales Millennium Centre, where it drops off the four she'd seen before, and drives away. She quickly parks the patrol car and follows them, yelling to them, but they ignore her. Security distracts her, telling her she needs to move her car, and when she turns back they are gone. Control has no record of the plate, and her partner shows up, complaining about the walk from the hospital. He says there is no staff missing from the hospital and takes her home. Even though Rhys has dinner waiting, Gwen lies and says she needs to work. She stakes out the Millennium centre, eventually going to Jubilee Pizza, where they say they deliver to Torchwood. Gwen brings pizza to a small office by the pier. She says they're for Mr Harkness, and Ianto Jones presses a buzzer and points her down a secret passage. She enters Torchwood Three and a vault door rolls closed behind her, then a metal cage closes around the vault door. She gets her first view of the Hub, including a water feature in the centre, a severed hand in a bubbling container, and a woman welding. Jack walks down to a desk and they all ignore her until Owen and Tosh break down laughing, and we find they've been watching her stalk them for the last three hours. Jack immediately brings up the fact Gwen sneaked in as a pizza girl and asks his team, "And before we go any further, who the hell orders pizza under the name of Torchwood?" Owen replies back, "Me. I'm sorry. I'm a twat." Gwen confronts them about what she has seen. Tosh says she covered up the murder of the porter, as it's her job to do so. Gwen dodges a pterodactyl as Jack takes her to show her the murderer, telling her it's an alien being they call a Weevil. He brings her back to the main room and introduces the team, over Gwen's protest that it's classified. Jack ignores her concern and gives everyone an assignment, including Gwen. Jack takes Gwen out the scenic route, a granite slab that lifts them up to the pavement in front of the water tower, where she saw them disappear the night before. Jack demonstrates that the people walking by can't see or hear them until they step off the paving slab. She asks how it works, and he says he has no idea, but he might guess that there was once a dimensionally transcendental chameleon circuit placed right on this spot, which welded its perception properties to a spacial-temporal rift. They go to a bar, where Jack ridicules Gwen's disbelief after the Christmas invasion and the Battle of Canary Wharf. He establishes that they catch aliens and scavenge their tech, and don't answer to anyone so that no one government can abuse the power. Gwen's pretty sure they can abuse it themselves, even if there's a rule about no tech leaving the base. They're the third Torchwood, and they're in Cardiff because there is a rift in Cardiff that drops all sorts of alien things there. Gwen assumes that they've been trying to solve the blade murders, but Jack tells her that's not what they're doing. They were only there to get practice using the resurrection gauntlet, which requires recently deceased murder victims, the more violent the death, the better. Although Gwen feels she has a duty to act, Jack reveals that he's drugged her drink with an amnesia pill of Jack's design, laced with a sedative. She says she could just tell somebody else -- and Jack threatens to do the same to anyone she tells. Gwen runs for home. Meanwhile, Tosh, Owen, and Suzie have all taken alien items from the base. Tosh scans a copy of A Tale of Two Cities with one touch and uploads it to her computer. Owen tries to pick up a girl, who shuts him down until he sprays himself with a spray bottle; then she grabs him, kisses him, and drags him out. Her boyfriend catches up with them and is about to punch him when he sprays again and the boyfriend kisses him. Owen calls for a taxi. Suzie uses the gauntlet to resurrect a dead fly. Gwen is home, hurriedly typing notes about Torchwood. Her vision gets blurry and she makes more and more typos until she passes out. Ianto hacks into her home computer and erases her notes. In the morning, Rhys brings her a drink, worrying that she'd been drinking with a head injury. At work, Yvonne asks her about Captain Jack, and Gwen doesn't know what she's talking about. Over by the murder investigation, they've reconstructed the very odd blade weapon from the shape of the wounds. Gwen says she hasn't seen it, but she spends the rest of her day in a daze, until it is 2 am and she is, again, awake and staring at the clock. As she closes her eyes to sleep, she remembers that she's seen the blade. She goes back to her computer room and draws the blade on the back of an envelope. She can't remember, but her mental image includes sparks and smoke. She sees a brochure for the Wales Millennium Centre with the word REMEMBER scrawled on it. Gwen goes to Roald Dahl Plass, and Suzie is waiting for her outside the water tower. They face off next to the paving stones on either side of the lift. Gwen remembers the welding gear. Suzie pulls out the knife, saying she's the only one who bothered to read the police report, and she knew that the sight of the knife could break Gwen's amnesia. While Gwen tries to remember, Suzie fumbles with her bag and then pulls out a handgun, saying Gwen is the only person in the public that could make the link. She loves her job but it's driving her mad. She killed three people to practice with the glove, as she thinks that if she becomes good enough with it she could resurrect people permanently. While she is ranting, Jack comes up on the lift. Suzie continues to rant until she says that the perception filter doesn't work on her, and she shoots Jack in the forehead. Gwen gasps. Suzie cocks the gun and aims at Gwen, who gasps again as Jack stands up behind Suzie, as the hole in his head heals before our eyes. He says it's over, but Suzie has her own ideas about that. She shoots herself through the head and falls down as Gwen says, "I remember." Ianto seals away the gauntlet and the knife in a lockbox. Owen and Tosh return their devices to the base. Jack zips Suzie's body into a bag and puts her into a cold storage facility in the Hub. On top of the Millennium centre, Gwen asks why Jack didn't tell Owen and Tosh he was shot in the head and survived. Jack says that Gwen didn't tell them either. He confesses that he was killed a long time ago and brought back to life, and since then he can't die. Maybe if he finds the right sort of doctor he can explain it. He doesn't tell people because it freaks them out, so he asks Gwen to keep it quiet. He offers Gwen a job, and she accepts, as the pterodactyl flies overhead. 
<EOS>
Gwen is having dinner with Rhys, after bowling and a movie. He asks her about her new job at Torchwood. Gwen lies, saying she will mostly be handling filing. A meteor falls through the sky and Gwen notices it crash on the town's outskirts. They run to get a better view, then Gwen gets a message and tells Rhys that she has to go to work. Gwen is picked up by the team in the Torchwood SUV, commenting on the dual computer stations and a seemingly illegal link to the police CRIMINT computer system. They arrive at the crash site and find, to their disappointment, that the amateurs -- the British Army -- have beaten them there. Jack tells the team to employ the usual formation; Owen informs Gwen that the usual formation varies. While the rest of the team head to the meteor to examine it, Gwen remembers her equipment and returns to the car to get it. Army security stops Gwen until Jack comes back to collect her and tells them to back off. The others move into action, taking samples and readings, and Gwen feels inexperienced and out of place. When Owen starts trying out nicknames, the least of which is New Girl, and asks for a bigger chisel to help get a part of the meteor, Gwen cracks a joke about Owen needing a bigger tool for the job and tosses the chisel at him. She misses. It punctures the skin of the meteor, and, as Jack tosses around gas masks, it begins to release a purplish gas that coalesces and rises into the air. Gwen looks around at her team guiltily. At an alley near a night club in Cardiff, a young woman, Carys Fletcher, is leaving a distraught voice mail for Eddie, who she says has stood her up again for another woman, when she is confronted by the gaseous creature. It backs her against a wall, then flows into her body. Carys, confused and shocked inhaled the Sex Gas through her mouth and nose. After all of the gas was inside of her body, she exhales. She suddenly goes from upset to sexually aggressive, and gains re-entry into the club by kissing the bouncer. She picks out a man, Matt, and nearly drags him into the women's toilet. They have sex, and, at the moment of climax, Matt dissolves into a glowing cloud of dust, while the energy portion of Matt is absorbed by Carys. Gwen keeps apologising, Owen keeps taunting her, Toshiko wants him to lay off, and Jack just wants her to get past it and back to work. Ianto thinks he can help, as he's heard an unusual 999 call for the nightclub. The team investigates, and PC Andy is surprised to see Gwen. They find the dust and the CCTV tapes that show Carys and Matt having their deadly sex and the alien taking her over in the alley. Jack arranges for a body to be taken out of storage to fake a suicide for Matt, which shocks and dismays Gwen. Jack confiscates the tapes. While the team analyses the meteorite and scene data, Carys is feeling the effects of the previous night. She spends most of her dad's breakfast monologue staring into the distance, claiming a hangover. Gwen tells Tosh, Owen, and Jack about Rhys, and finds the other three don't have time to date. Tosh tries to track Carys by cross-checking video from the surveillance cameras with a database of the faces of the UK population. Meanwhile, Carys breaks down crying in the shower. As she brushes her hair afterwards, she is racked with pain several times as she stares into the mirror. The postman arrives and Carys pulls him into her house, throwing him down on the couch and pulling at his clothing, but the team arrives before she can do the deed. She breaks away but Owen catches her with an alien device that he didn't have permission to carry. After dressing Carys and bringing her to the Hub, Jack puts Gwen in charge of interrogating her. In a holding cell, a consciousness takes over Carys momentarily. It tells Gwen it is not here for conquest, but to feed off human orgasmic energy. Carys pleads for help and doubles over in pain, causing Gwen to open the door and help her up. However, the alien presence takes over and Carys kisses Gwen. After pulling herself away, Gwen suddenly begins passionately kissing Carys. In the main Hub room, Owen notices this on a monitor and is amused. He informs Jack and Toshiko, calling it a treat. Back in the cell, the presence in Carys realises it needs a man for its energy. Carys breaks through and pleads for Gwen to help her. Gwen regains her senses, walking out of the cell and locking it. Gwen receives a call from Rhys just as Jack and Tosh arrive to help get her away from Carys. She signals them that she is all right and vaguely tells Rhys how her job is going so far. Returning to the main Hub area, Gwen is confronted by Owen, who jokingly congratulates her on her methodical investigation before telling another dirty joke. Angered at Owen's lack of care for Carys' plight, Gwen pins Owen to a wall and yells at him; they should be helping her instead of studying her like a lab rat. Jack breaks it up, saying that throttling Torchwood staff is his job. Ianto shows up with dinner. At dinner, they all laugh over alien anecdotes until Jack excuses himself for the restroom. Ianto, Owen, and Tosh quickly ask Gwen if she has learned anything about Jack yet. Gwen's surprised they're asking her, but they know nothing, except that Owen believes Jack is gay, which Tosh diagrees with. Tosh thinks Jack will go for anything if it's beautiful enough. Ianto doesn't care. They're not even sure he's American, as Tosh found no US citizen by his name born in the last 50 years. Ianto thinks he's CIA. Gwen hears a faint crying and notices Carys on the monitor, and Jack returns. She tells Jack that they should be doing something to help her. Jack explains the scans, tests, and searches that Gwen didn't know were already running. They are doing everything they can think of to analyse the problem. Gwen explains, "You've been hidden down here too long, spending so much time with the alien stuff, you've lost what it means to be human." Jack challenges her to show him what it means to be human in the 21st century. Gwen creates a complete profile of Carys' life, and Jack is curious about why Gwen put such effort into it. She insists Carys is not a threat, but someone in trouble who needs their help, and the information can help them help Carys fight the alien influence. Jack is momentarily speechless, and calls her brilliant, until she asks to bring in Carys' dad. Tosh breaks up the discussion with the results of the tests. The alien in Carys is producing a cloud of pheromones around her, turning her into a walking aphrodisiac. They can't let Carys near any man and realise Owen has gone down to her to get medical scans. They arrive to find him naked and cuffed in the cell; Carys took Owen's swipe card after the pheromones overpowered him. Toshiko tells Owen that he's very lucky that his card is all she wanted and frees him. Gwen asks if Owen is okay then cracks a joke at his expense. The possessed Carys, meanwhile, makes her way to the Hub's exit and is confronted by Jack. They battle with the ambient weaponry until she takes the mysterious hand hostage to keep Jack from following her to the exit. However, Jack soon catches up through a secondary exit. Even though Ianto offers to help, Jack opens the door in exchange for the hand, which Carys hurls to the floor. The ladies give chase and lose her in the plaza. Gwen berates Jack for caring more about a severed hand than a girl's life. After Owen dresses himself, he demonstrates the results of his bio-scan of Carys on a rat showing that the physiological effects of the gaseous creature will make the body literally explode if it inhabits a person too long, dubbing the end result "Rat Jam". They then wonder where Carys could be as the alien in her wants orgasmic energy. Owen then jokes if he was possessed by the alien he'd come after Gwen, much to everyone's annoyance. Tosh then comes up with an idea. The alien in Carys walks a street in a shopping district, in a daze of overwhelming sexual imagery. She drops in on her now ex-boyfriend and attempts to hold back the alien influence. After she learns her ex was only using her, she lets the alien kill him. The team arrive later. Jack makes a joke about his numerous exes. While driving through town, they discuss how to stop the alien before Carys dies. Gwen double checks the records, finding that she is working as a receptionist at Conway Clinic. Owen recognises it as a fertility clinic, an ideal source of orgasmic energy. They also determine that the alien takes hosts because Earth's atmosphere is poisonous to it. Jack gives Gwen a gun, and is surprised when she protests that she's never used one. Carys is already at the clinic, dragging the sperm donors into the private rooms. When the team arrives, there are piles of dust everywhere. When they surround her, Carys collapses, too weak to fight the alien any more. Jack kisses her, and she glows as he gives up some of his life force to revitalise her, confusing Tosh and Owen. Carys faints. Gwen offers herself as a host for the alien, asking the alien to spare Carys. Gwen backs away, and the alien flows out of Carys' body. Jack drops a portable prison cell and traps it inside before it can reach Gwen. Separated from its host, the alien dies, falling into a pile of dust. Gwen kisses Jack in thanks for saving her life, causing Jack to pause and consider after she leaves. Gwen and Jack take Carys back to her father. As Gwen clears up, Jack asks her to keep perspective on the job. She challenges Jack to come clean. Jack says the answers to her questions won't make her feel better. He asks her to be normal, for him. Gwen has dinner with Rhys, then they go to bed. 
<EOS>
Gwen and Owen are running down a city street one evening, chasing a signal that Tosh is tracking. Tosh doesn't have a visual yet. Jack is on his way, driving the SUV. Tosh finds their quarry on the CCTV feed and calls out to the tracking team that it's a man in a hoodie. They chase him through a shopping area, until he ducks under a closing exit barrier at the High Street Arcade. Only Gwen has kept close enough to make it through; Owen and Jack have to pause until the mechanism can be reversed. She chases the man in the hoodie over the gate into the train station and through some travellers until she tackles him. The runner squirms away, leaving Gwen with his jacket. Gwen is angry that she lost him, but Tosh says the signal is still right there. Gwen finds a device in the jacket. It's beeping, and lights on it are flashing, as she lifts it up in both hands she presses a button. The world around Gwen blurs and the other people disappear. She's in the same station, still night or evening. A little boy, in short pants, coat, and tie, with a little grey hat, walks out of the booking hall, with a suitcase, two brown paper packages on string, a stuffed bear, and a tag pinned to his lapel that says he is Tom Erasmus Flanagan. Gwen tries to talk to him. He doesn't really answer, but says he's lost and no one there knows who he is. Tom walks back towards the booking hall. Gwen fades back as Jack comes up with Owen, apologising for missing the gate. He asks Gwen if she's alright. Gwen says she's just seen a ghost. Back at the Hub, Tosh goes over the CCTV, which shows that Gwen didn't go anywhere after pressing the button. Gwen protests that the encounter felt very real, to the point where she could actually feel the little boy's emotions. Owen suggests both hallucinations and dementia, causing Gwen to shout at him. Jack examines the device while Tosh tries to backtrack the hoodie guy with the CCTV and the little boy from the vision. Owen says not to bother, he's found Thomas Erasmus Flanagan on 74 Bryaeron Terrace, Butetown in the phone book. DI Cooper(Gwen) and DS Harper (Owen) pay a visit to the address. A blonde woman answers, and she turns out to be Tom's daughter, Eleri. Tom is watching TV. When Gwen says she needs to ask about an incident the previous evening, Eleri says they were watching the Strictly Come Dancing finale. Owen and Eleri go to make tea while Gwen speaks to Tom. Tom never lost his accent, despite his 66 years in Wales. He says he was evacuated with the other children from the East End in 1941, when he was 8, and was sent to Cardiff as a way station on his way to the country. His mother and big sister sent him off from Paddington station and he never saw them again. There was a mixup and he had been left at the Cardiff station all alone. It felt like the end of the world as he wandered around, totally lost and forgotten, looking for someone to look out for him. Eventually they realised he'd been forgotten. He was taken in by a nice family, and since he had no family left in London, he never returned after the war. Gwen tries out theories on Owen as they walk away, but is interrupted by a call from Rhys. He's doing the laundry, and wants to know if she's coming home tonight. She isn't sure, and he is angry. He feels that even if she needs to keep secrets for her job, she should know whether or not she'll be home. He says he's going out tonight and hangs up on her. Back at the Hub, Jack and Tosh have found Sean Harris, also known as Bernie, a known petty thief. They've also analysed the device, which is a nanotechnological instrument of such complexity that it makes the work of NASA look like Toys Я Us. Gwen notices that the machine isn't currently beeping and lighting up. Ianto shows up with snacks and coffee. All except Ianto go to Splott, which is listed as Bernie's neighbourhood, to look for him. They strike out rather impressively, as they discover that Bernie has managed to annoy pretty much every person who knew him, right down to his own mother, who won't let him back in her house until he pays her the 50 quid he owes her. Gwen, Tosh, and Owen have just given up when Jack walks up and keeps on walking. They follow him and ask where he's going. He says they're going to the railway station to experiment with the same conditions that were there during Gwen's experience. They all stop under the bridge to argue about how dangerous it is. Jack tosses the device to Owen and taunts them about giving up on the search for Bernie. As Owen lifts up the machine, it starts beeping and he calls for the rest to come back. The world blurs for Owen and suddenly it goes from sunny afternoon to rainy night under the bridge. A girl stumbles down the wall. She's in a pretty pink coat, a nice dress, and a 1960s hairstyle, but she is sobbing. She's Lizzie Lewis, and she's running away from a boy called Eddie Morgan; she has realised the other girls were right, she shouldn't have gone outside with him. Eddie comes up behind her, asking if he's a bad boy. He flatters her and she stops running. He kisses her but the kiss turns hard and she starts to fight away. He slaps her as she cries, then he grabs her hair and pulls a blade. As she pleads, he drags her over towards the wall. Owen blurs back to the rest of the team. He's frantic, knowing she was so scared, but he could not move and couldn't help her. He pants and starts to cry as Gwen takes the device. Back in the Hub, Jack tells Tosh it was 40-45 years ago, and she finds that the only child of Mabel Ann Lewis of Hatford Street died March 29th, 1963. She had been raped and murdered on Penfro Street under the bridge at age 17. No one had ever been brought to trial. As Owen asks Tosh to look for Eddie Morgan, Jack notices that the scan of the device shows a quantum transducer. This is a device for converting energy from one form to another. This particular transducer seems to amplify the energy of human emotion into ghosts. Jack says, "When you feel dejà  vu, something behind you in an empty room, there was, there always is." Owen pushes for more information about Lizzie's death and Jack realises that Owen wants the case reopened. He emphatically states that, no matter how it felt, Owen was not there, he was not a witness, and they can't take it to court. Tomorrow, they'll do their job -- which is to find the origin and uses of the alien device and secure it. He sends Owen home and stalks off after ordering, "Gwen, with me." Gwen finds Jack in an area of the base which has been set up as a shooting range. He starts with the basics, then stands back to watch her. After a somewhat rocky start, the roof is safe and she's hitting targets with a gun in each hand. As they finish up, Gwen checks her watch and says she's got to go. She jokes that Jack lives there, in the process finding out that Jack does actually live there. He doesn't have a place to sleep because he doesn't sleep. When Gwen asks if it gets lonely at night, he doesn't answer. Gwen goes home, finding that Rhys has gone out to Daf's to play poker. She's brought the device home and uses it to see happy scenes, such as her flirting with Rhys in the kitchen when they celebrated her new job as a police constable. Rhys comes back, and they make up. As she kisses him, she hides the device back in her purse. Owen is home drinking liquor from the bottle. He's taken the reports on Lizzie's murder from Torchwood. With some effort, he finds Eddie's current address on Prysse Ave. He goes to the address, selecting a false ID from the Gas Supply Services. He talks his way into Eddie's home, even though Eddie doesn't have any gas service. Owen sits down with him and talks to him, saying he knows about the bridge. Owen describes the entire scene of the murder while Morgan visibly gets tense. Morgan chases him out, saying he'll get nothing from him. As Owen returns to his car, he spots Bernie smoking, and chases him. People in the neighbourhood dislike Bernie, and the bystanders help Owen keep track of him. Finally, Owen corners Bernie in a fenced backyard. Bernie asks Owen not to hurt him. Owen replies, "I'm not gonna hurt you. I'm gonna bloody kill you." They go to a pub to wait for the rest of the field team. Bernie is babbling when Jack puts down the device and says, "It's worth knowing we're probably about the only people you can tell." Bernie stole the device from a storage unit. It was with a bunch of strange coins and rocks in a tin. After he'd taken the device, it started going off near the old wharf. He saw a woman dumping her dead baby in the water, and realised he knew the woman. He went and told her what he saw and she gave him money to keep quiet. Jack realises that Bernie doesn't know anything more about the device and they begin to leave. He yells after them that he's got rights, but they don't stop until he asks if they want the other half. They go to Bernie's flat on Evelyn St to collect the other half and the alien coins and rocks. Tosh finds that they fit together like LEGO. Bernie is dismayed that they're going to confiscate everything. Gwen trails behind the others and Bernie tells her that he never used the second half again, as it showed him he was going to die bleeding in the street outside. Gwen hurries down and calls out to Jack, but the machine starts beeping. Without stopping to think, Gwen holds it in both hands as Jack bolts toward her, yelling. The world ripples around Gwen and she sees herself standing with her hands covered in blood, holding a knife. In the vision, Gwen is asking for help. She couldn't stop it and he's dead. Owen had the knife. Gwen stands there in shock as the vision ends. Back in the Hub, Jack tries to ease Gwen's fears, telling her it's only a possible future. Gwen wants more assurance, demanding to know if any of that alien stuff they collect is ever of any use. Tosh and Owen are out for a drink. She tells him she found Eddie. Owen tells her what he did and asks what she found out; Tosh found that Eddie had major issues with mental instability and hasn't left his house in years because of his agoraphobia. They realise that Bernie must have tried to blackmail Eddie. Meanwhile, Eddie calls Bernie. Gwen shows up at Bernie's to let him know what Jack said about possible futures. Jack calls Gwen to let her know that Eddie had been frightened by Owen, and they're on their way. Tosh sees Eddie on the CCTV, coming up Evelyn Street. Bernie runs for it and Gwen follows. Eddie confronts Bernie with a knife and a paranoid rant. Gwen tries to calm him, but Eddie gets angrier, as he blames women for making him bad. Jack and Owen jump him, then Owen gets the knife and threatens Eddie with it. He realises what he's doing and gives the knife to Gwen, who is relieved. As Eddie goes to hug her for saving his life, he walks right into the outstretched knife in her hand. He drops to the ground, bleeding. Owen begins CPR, but realises quickly that it's futile and stops. Gwen is staring in shock, blood on her hands, the picture from her earlier vision. Back at the Hub, they debrief. Owen is glad that he decided not to kill Eddie. Gwen is shocked and guilty, and Tosh and Jack try to comfort her with the thought that it could have been anybody. Jack gives Ianto the device for the secure archives, then takes the silently crying Gwen to the bay to watch the sun rise. 
<EOS>
During a mundane day at Torchwood Three, the team decide to go get a drink, but Ianto politely stays behind. Once alone, he brings a Japanese doctor named Tanizaki into the Torchwood Hub, and takes him to a holding cell deep below the surface. There, a partially Cyber-converted woman is strapped to a conversion unit surrounded by instruments keeping her alive. Ianto introduces her to Tanizaki as Lisa Hallett, his lover. They both worked at Torchwood One in London before its fall in the Battle of Canary Wharf. Lisa was only partially converted during the battle, and Ianto managed to get his half-Cybernetic girlfriend to safety afterwards. He rigged the equipment in secret to keep her alive, hiding her in the Hub's basement in hopes of curing her. He hopes Dr Tanizaki, a cybernetics expert, can undo the conversion and make her human again. They take her to the autopsy lab and let her breathe on her own, but soon the rest of the team return to deal with a rogue UFO. Ianto leaves Dr Tanizaki to take Lisa back to the cell while he prepares for the team's arrival. After he leaves, Lisa's Cyberman influence takes over. She attempts to "upgrade" Dr Tanizaki to repay him for his favour, killing him. As the rest of Torchwood deal with the Arcan leisure crawler that's entered their atmosphere, there is a brief power flicker; Ianto covers up by claiming that the generators have been acting up all day and offers to look into it. Returning to Lisa's cell, he finds Dr Tanizaki's body bloodied and mutilated after a failed cyber-conversion, with Lisa standing over him. Ianto tells Lisa to stay in the cell as he drags off the corpse to hide it from the team. Lisa re-enters the cybernetic unit and begins to drain more power from Torchwood, soon noticed by the others. Arming themselves, Gwen and Owen head for the holding cell where the power drain is occurring, believing themselves under attack. Once there, they find and Owen recognises the cyber-conversion unit, but are attacked by Lisa. Owen is knocked out. Gwen points her gun, and tries to reason with Lisa, who knocks the gun out of her hand and pushes her over. Gwen lands on her back on the conversion unit. Before she can sit up, Lisa straps her down. Jack tries to shoot Lisa before she can start the unit up, but Ianto tackles him, allowing Lisa to escape after starting up the machine, leaving Gwen powerless as the machine's saws and knives get closer to her head. Gwen is terrified and yells for help. Jack tries to shut off the conversion unit but Lisa had altered the machine.  He calls Tosh and tells her to shut power off to the base. Tosh does this, which unfortunately also means entering total lock-down. The team regroup in the Hub as the power is drained further by Lisa to recreate a new army of Cybermen. Jack demands that Ianto tell them everything. Ianto pleads that since he cleans up after Torchwood but is never asked about his life, they should help him restore Lisa, but Jack maintains that there is no cure. Ianto asks that he be permitted to reason with Lisa before the team attempts to attack her again. Lisa appears in the Hub and Ianto tries to remind Lisa she is still human, but she is disgusted by her partially-human appearance. She offers to implant her brain into Ianto, believing that sharing the same life is true love, but Ianto refuses. Lisa therefore declares the two incompatible and throws him aside, knocking him unconscious and sending the rest of the team into action. Jack orders Toshiko to go to the surface with emergency power cells so they can open the weapons lockers while Gwen and Owen are to search for any weapons. He will try to delay Lisa's advance. Lisa electrocutes Jack twice, to Gwen's and Owen's shock. Gwen and Owen are momentarily trapped by Lisa in the autopsy lab, and hide in a locker.  As Lisa searches for them, Gwen and Owen kiss.  Gwen's phone rings, alerting Lisa to their hiding place and Gwen and Owen to try to escape.  As Lisa corners Gwen, Owen grabs a scalpel and stabs Lisa in the chest seemingly killing her.  When Lisa starts to revive, they escape to the main Hub where they find Jack, very much alive. Jack sprays Lisa with a special "barbecue sauce" that helps their pet pterodactyl identify its prey. As it attacks Lisa, the rest of the team, along with the recovered and protesting Ianto, escape through the invisible lift. Upon exiting the lift, Ianto punches Jack.  Tosh runs up to them and tells Jack that she rigged the doors to open after a few minutes and Ianto runs to go back inside. At the entrance to Torchwood, Jack and the rest of the Torchwood group catch up to Ianto who pulls a gun on them and threatens to shoot them if they try to stop him.  Jack knocks the gun away, pulling his own and threatens to shoot Ianto, warning that if he fails to kill Lisa within ten minutes, he will come down and kill them both. Ianto returns to Torchwood by himself. Unbeknownst to the team, a pizza delivery girl, using Torchwood's other entrance to bring some pizzas ordered earlier by Ianto, finds the pterodactyl on the floor. Then Lisa is suddenly behind her. As Ianto makes his way to the holding cell, he finds Lisa's body has died. The delivery girl, appears calling Ianto.  She has a large cut across her forehead, claims she is Lisa and she took the girl's body so they could be together. She begs Ianto to hold her.  Crying, Ianto hugs her, then pushes her away and holds her at gunpoint. Lisa tries to explain she did this for Ianto. He cries and fails to shoot. She promises they can be upgraded together. The rest of the Torchwood team arrive just in time to hear that, and open fire on the girl, killing her and leaving Ianto to mourn over Lisa's body. The next day, Ianto enters the Hub. Jack and Gwen watch him cleaning up and they discuss how Ianto couldn't bear to live without Lisa. Gwen asks Jack if he would have shot her if she had stood by Ianto. Jack simply states that she didn't. When she asks, he refuses to tell Gwen that he'd ever loved anyone to the extent that Ianto loved Lisa. They continue to watch in silence. 
<EOS>
At the Torchwood Hub, Jack wakes from a nightmare of dead soldiers in a train carriage with rose petals spilling out of their mouths. He finds a single rose petal atop his desk. Ianto, still in-office, informs Jack about strange weather patterns in the area. The next day, Jack takes Gwen to visit an old friend of his, Estelle Cole, give a talk on fairies. Estelle shows them the Cottingley fairy photos, then compares them to photographs she had taken the day before. She claims to have found proof of the fairies' existence. After her presentation, Jack and Estelle discuss the photographs and the nature of fairies at her home. Gwen asks Estelle and Jack about an old photograph she found of Jack. They both claim it is of Jack's father, and say that he had a relationship with Estelle during World War II. Estelle mentions that Jack looks and walks just like his father. Jack interrupts that thought, and asks Estelle to let him know if she encounters any more fairies. On the way back to Torchwood, Jack explains to Gwen that the fairies are creatures from the dawn of time and are not bound by linear time. He says that the fairies can be very dangerous. Jack instructs Toshiko to watch for strange weather patterns in the area in order to locate the creatures. Meanwhile, a young girl, Jasmine Pierce, decides to walk home from school alone as her mother's boyfriend, Roy, did not arrive on time to pick her up. She encounters a man, Mark Goodson, who tries to lure her into his car. When Goodson makes a grab for Jasmine, a strong wind kicks up, accompanied by strange, ethereal voices. Goodson retreats into his car while Jasmine continues to skip home to play with her fairy friends in the nearby woods. Later, a tense Goodson, still hearing the voices, stumbles through the Cardiff market, attacked by something unseen by the other shoppers. He starts to cough up rose petals. He gets himself arrested to seek the safety of a jail cell, but continues to be attacked by unknown forces. He is found the next day, dead by asphyxiation. Torchwood arrives and find Goodson's mouth filled with rose petals. Jack confirms that Goodson was killed by the fairies as part of their protection of a "Chosen One", a child who will soon become the fairies' if Torchwood cannot find her in time. Late at night, Estelle hears the strange voices. She calls Jack to alert him. However, before Torchwood can arrive, she drowns in a rainstorm although everything around her is completely dry. Jack mourns her loss, and Gwen makes him admit that it was he who had a relationship with Estelle long ago. Jack explains that he has seen the rose petals before, on a train in Lahore in 1909. Some of his troops had drunkenly run over a little girl. A week later, all of his men died, their mouths stuffed with petals, and he realised that the young girl had been a Chosen One. Gwen returns home to find her own flat in disarray, with leaves and rock patterns on the floor. The team understand that the fairies are becoming more protective and aggressive. At her school the next day, Jasmine is bullied by two girls and the fairies make a gale sweep over the area. Torchwood arrives. Jasmine's teacher says that no-one was harmed, but the only one not affected by the storm was Jasmine. Meanwhile, Jasmine's mother Lynn and Roy are celebrating five years together with a backyard barbecue party. Jasmine helps her mother with the food, and gives disturbing answers to her mother's questions. When Jasmine goes outside, she finds that the backyard has been fenced off by Roy to prevent her from going to the woods. Angry, she bites him. He slaps her and calls her a bitch. A sudden wind rushes up and the fairies make themselves visible to everyone, attacking and killing Roy. Torchwood arrives in time to prevent harm to other guests, but Jasmine and the fairies race off to the woods. Jack catches up with her and demands that the fairies not take her away. They refuse, stating that she is their Chosen One and if she is prevented from going, many more people will die. Admitting he has no other choice, Jack requests a promise that Jasmine will not be harmed. The fairies respond that she will live forever. Jack lets Jasmine go, and she skips away, surrounded by glowing fairies. Lynn, seeing this, cries angrily and hits Jack over and over. The only thing Jack can do is apologise. Lynn has lost both her boyfriend and her only daughter in one afternoon. The Torchwood Three crew return to their transport vehicle with tension in the air. Gwen, Owen, and Toshiko are evidently disturbed by Jack's concession to the fairies' demands, but all proceed silently. None of them speak a word about what just transpired, afraid to set off a powder keg, but they make little effort to hide their disapproval. Jack notices a few dirty looks from his peers, leaving him to defensively respond, "What else could I do?" Back at the Hub, Gwen sorts through the pictures in the case. A Cottingley Fairies photograph from 1917 appears on the board room monitor screen. Spotting something, she zooms in on the photograph until the face on one of the fairies becomes clear. It is Jasmine, frozen in mid-dance, smiling. A fairy voice whispers: "Come away, O human child! To the waters and the wild With a faery, hand in hand, For the world's more full of weeping than you can understand." 
<EOS>
A woman is on the phone with her dad when she loses signal. She stops her car when she sees something resembling a body laid out on the road. Taking with her a baseball bat, she ventured outside to see if he's okay. As she nears the corpse, she realises it's actually a football in a hoodie. She sees a flash out of the corner of her eye, and runs back to her car. Her car's not starting, her car keys are gone, and her mobile's not working. Someone from the outside unlocks the doors, and begins to pull her out of the vehicle. She screams out of sheer terror. The Torchwood team responds to reports of 17 people missing in the same 20-mile radius in the Brecon Beacons using the last mobile phone signal from the last disappearance as their starting point. After stopping at a rural hamburger stand, they begin to set up camp. During friendly chatter, Owen reveals that his last kiss was with Gwen, prompting the others to get more details. Owen and Gwen quickly go off to get firewood, Gwen scolding Owen for revealing the kiss, when they suddenly see two hooded figures through the trees. They try to chase them, but instead find a corpse. As the team investigates it to determine the cause of death, they hear their SUV start and drive off without the team. Ianto tracks the vehicle to a nearby village; Jack believes that the corpse was a lure to make them come to the village, and warns the team to be alert as they split up to investigate. Jack, Gwen and Owen search the pub and nearby homes to find two further corpses, each stripped to the carcass much like the first. Other than that, the homes are deserted, save for one young man named Kieran who accidentally shoots and wounds Gwen with a shotgun, believing "they" had come back for him. Jack tries to calm Kieran down, but the man insists the only way to protect themselves is to barricade themselves in a building. Jack orders his group to the pub to create a defensive position while Owen tends to Gwen's wound. They learn from Kieran more about the victims, still unsure if they are dealing with aliens from the Rift. Suddenly, though, as they discuss possibilities, the lights go out and movement comes from both outside the pub and from within the pub's cellar. The diversion prevents them from keeping Kieran from being dragged away, and Gwen and Owen try to follow against Jack's orders. Jack stays behind to interrogate Martin, the man he shot from the cellars. Gwen and Owen come across a policeman named Huw, who says that he is there for the town meeting that night. The man directs the two towards one of the lit buildings in the village. Meanwhile, Toshiko and Ianto attempt to find the SUV, but are both quickly captured. They awake in a cellar full of old clothes, shoes and a refrigerator full of human body parts; Toshiko realises they are to be food for their captors. The cellar door opens, and a scared woman named Helen enters the room holding a shotgun to the two, learns from them of the other Torchwood members, and then tells them that she cannot help them; she has been asked to collect the two for the "Harvest" which happens every ten years. They are taken into a kitchen filled with body parts and corpses. Toshiko quickly realises that Helen is acting, and that she and others are cannibals. A man named Evan begins to handcuff them to be prepared for butchering. Ianto headbutts Evan, allowing Toshiko to escape, pursued by Evan. Evan catches up to Toshiko and starts strangling her, but before he can choke her to death, Owen and Gwen, along with Huw, show up to stop him. Evan looks unconcerned as Huw reveals himself to be Evan's nephew, and the two lead the three Torchwood members back to the village at gunpoint. Just before Ianto is cut open and bled, Jack, having learned of the villager's intent from Martin, bursts through the building on a tractor, and disables the assembled villagers. They spare Evan's life to try to learn the truth: that every ten years, the village target travellers passing through the area, and butcher them. When Gwen demands to know why, Evan simply whispers to her, "'Cause it made me happy." which Gwen finds to be highly disturbing. The surviving villagers are taken into custody by the police. After returning to Cardiff, Gwen looks outside the windows of Owen's flat and thinks about how she cannot share any of her Torchwood experiences with anyone, including her boyfriend Rhys. Owen then appears behind her, and reassures Gwen that she can talk to him. They kiss in the nude, and begin a long-lasting sexual relationship. 
<EOS>
In Cardiff, 1812, a talkative prostitute leads a young soldier into the forest. When she provokes him about his virginity, he slaps her twice. A chase ensues. All of a sudden, though, she sees a bright light, and hears a screech. She walks towards the light, but 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 reveals that the corpse has been dead for 196 years, eleven to eleven and a half months, while Owen identifies it as female. All is going well at Torchwood until Owen and Gwen accidentally kick out the plug to Tosh's computer, screwing up a translation program she's running. Feeling dejected, Toshiko goes to a pub, where Mary approaches her. Mary reveals she knows about Torchwood and about her. She is a "scavenger" or "collector" of alien artefacts. Toshiko seems to bond with Mary, and reveals her innermost feelings, despite hundreds of Torchwood protocols disallowing this sort of conversation. Mary offers Toshiko a pendant. When Toshiko puts it on, she begins to hear people's thoughts. Mary asks her to refine this to her thoughts only, and subconsciously allows her desire to kiss her slip. Shocked, Toshiko rips the pendant off her neck. 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 changes her mind after learning of their affair. 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 -- how they pity her. Mary explains that thoughts are complicated. She puts the pendant on Toshiko again, and both end up thinking of sex together. The two kiss passionately. Later, 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 a busy Cardiff street. She hears a man planning to kill his ex-wife and son. She follows him to their house, and saves their lives. When she returns to the Hub, Owen is being teased by the others for misidentifying the skeleton: it was actually a man -- not a woman -- who died of an unidentified trauma -- not a gunshot wound. Tosh asks Jack about Philoctetes, and he tells her his story: in Greek mythology, the archer was exiled to the island of Lemnos, to be left there alone for ten years. Mary tells Toshiko to read Jack's thoughts about the item found with the skeleton. Toshiko tries and fails to read his thoughts; Jack seems to notice when she tries. She tells Mary this, and decides that she must show the pendant to her co-workers. Mary, however, convinces her to change her mind by showing her her true form: she is an alien exiled from her home world. Toshiko offers Torchwood's help, but Mary refuses. Humans' way is invasion, not help. She thinks she will simply be assessed, and then locked up in the base's prison cells. Mary instead asks Toshiko to sneak her into the Hub to retrieve the artefact, which could finally take her home. The two enter to find Jack holding the transporter. He explains that it is a two-man transporter for a guard and a prisoner. Mary explains that she killed the guard, then 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 that they return the transporter. Jack gives it to her. It automatically turns on, and she disappears. Jack had reprogrammed 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 that her affair with Owen is wrong, but that 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 the device 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 respond. He comforts her about her experiences, wipes away her tears, and silently walks away. 
<EOS>
Torchwood is called in when a serial killer writes their name on two of his victims' wall with their blood. They arrive at the murder site on 96 Oakham Street, and meet Detective Kathy Swanson; their relationship with her starts off on the wrong foot. A DNA analysis confirms that the killer has Compound B67 in his blood. Now they're in trouble -- #B67 is retcon, an amnesia pill administered only by them. Someone in Torchwood has caused this. While Jack wants to go through all their files to find a "patient" that matches the police's descriptions, Gwen has an easier and better idea: they have to bring back the resurrection gauntlet. When she first joined, Torchwood was using a metal glove to bring murder victims back to life and ask them questions. Even though it caused their past colleague Suzie Costello's betrayal and then death, Gwen convinces the team to give it a go. Torchwood essentially caused these murders; now it's their job to clean it up. After Jack tries and fails, Gwen brings back the first victim -- Alex Arwyn -- who wastes his twenty-four seconds screaming for his mother. The second resurrection goes a little better. Mark Brisco tells them that the killer, named Max, belonged to an organisation known as Pilgrim. In the last of his sixty-five seconds, Mark identifies a woman who was closer to Max, and knows more about this. The Torchwood team are shocked learn that her name is Suzie. Suzie Costello. Toshiko does some research: Pilgrim was a religious support group, or a debating society, run by Mark's wife Sarah. All the victims so far are members of this organisation. As they discover when they go through her possessions stored in a Torchwood warehouse, Suzie too belonged to said group, confirming her involvement with the case. Jack decides that they're no choice -- "It's time Suzie came back." Gwen tries resurrecting her, but has trouble with the empathy, seeing as Suzie tried to kill her when they first met three months before. They deduce that it's been too long since her death for the gauntlet to have effect. But what about the Life Knife, used by Suzie to make the glove work more efficiently? Stabbing her in the chest with the knife brings Suzie back instantly, but she's unable to give them any new information in time. Gwen tries with all her might to keep Suzie alive, but gets pushed away with a mighty force. Except Suzie's not dead. She's just unconscious. What did Gwen do? The team learns in an interrogation session that Suzie had overdosed Max with retcon, giving him a dose after speaking to him once a week for two years. Looking at the pictures of all those already killed, Suzie identifies Lucie McKenzie as a surviving Pilgrim member. Jack, Owen and Gwen enter the Wolf Bar -- where Lucie works -- in hopes of catching Max before he goes in for the kill. Suzie watches from a screen in the Hub to help identify the two. While the team's distracted by a man fitting Suzie's descriptions but not actually Max, the real Max runs up towards Lucie with a knife. Suzie shouts to Gwen to get out of his way, saving her life. Jack knocks him unconscious with a stun gun. They bring Max into the Hub and lock him up in the Vaults, where he refuses to say a word. He goes into a ten-second rage at the word "Torchwood", part of the drug-induced psychosis. Gwen finds out that Suzie's father has cancer, and blames Jack for letting her access the one thing that could save him: the glove. Jack shifts the blame to her for wanting so badly to bring her back to life. Their argument is interrupted by Owen, who tells Jack and the team that Suzie is draining the life out of Gwen. Gwen, not at the briefing, secretly takes Suzie out of the Hub, and drives her to Greenleaves Hospital to see her dad. Just as her co-workers are about to chase after her car, the base mysteriously goes into lockdown. Jack realises that the lockdown must have been caused by Max in the Vaults. Going down there, they discover him reciting the first stanza of Emily Dickinson's "The Chariot": "Because I could not stop for death He kindly stopped for me The carriage held, but just ourselves And immortality." As Gwen and Suzie proceed towards the hospital, the rest of the team works out that Suzie had a plan all along to be brought back to life and escape. Ianto connects his mobile phone to the Roald Dahl Plass Water Tower to get reception. Within no one else to call, Jack contacts Kathy Swanson, asking her to get a book of poetry and read each and every one of the poems to them until the lockdown is reversed. After some time, Toshiko guesses that the book's ISBN might be the code. This proves to be correct, and the power goes back online. Gwen and Suzie arrive at the hospital, where Suzie reveals that Gwen is dying in her place. She approaches her father, and disconnects his life-support -- "just what the bastard deserves". Knowing the team are nearing, she takes Gwen and drives to Hedley Quay, intending to escape on a ferry. Jack and Owen then finally catch up in the Torchwood SUV. Jack shoots Suzie, but she does not die. He shoots her again and again, to no avail. Jack realises the connection is being held by the resurrection gauntlet, and so orders Tosh to destroy it. In her last moments, Suzie tells Jack that "something is moving in the dark and it's coming" for him. The moment Tosh destroys the glove, Suzie collapses and Gwen begins to recover. As Ianto and Jack replace Suzie's body into cold storage, Ianto asks what he should put on the death certificate. Jack answers, "Death By Torchwood". Ianto suggests putting a lock on the storage unit in case she goes walking again, but Jack says the resurrections are over. Ianto, however, points out that gloves come in pairs. They each give this a moment's thought, before getting back to their respective jobs. 
<EOS>
Finding himself lying in the middle of the road, Eugene Jones makes his way to the police tape blocking off a crime scene. An officer lifts the tape for an exiting officer, and Eugene slips past. He recognises the staff of Torchwood Three, a group to whom he has been trying to speak for quite a while. As the team try to determine what happened to the victim, Eugene realises that the dead body on the ground is him. He tries to touch Toshiko, but his hand runs right through her. "Am I dead?" Eugene's mobile phone rings. Tosh answers it, and hands it to Gwen to tell Eugene's mother of the accident. As the team leave for Eugene's home, he climbs in the car, and finally realises that he must be a ghost. During the drive, Eugene recalls his childhood: the day his father left home, and the beginnings of his interest in aliens, in particular, an artefact given to him by a teacher: an alien eye. He thinks of his prior encounters with Torchwood and how he never got the chance to tell them about the eye. At Eugene's home, Gwen notifies his mother and brother, Terry, of Eugene's death, while Ianto and Owen look at the alien "artefacts" in his room. Most are fakes, including an "alien" rock made with painted Rice Krispies. One empty stand interests Gwen. Eugene follows the Torchwood team in hope of finding out what happened to him. Back at the Hub, Eugene is amazed by all of the technology and alien artefacts. Owen tries to convince Gwen that Eugene's death was only a road accident. Owen has too much paperwork to perform an autopsy on Eugene's body. Gwen will do it herself. As she presses the scalpel to Eugene's body, Eugene faints; Gwen looks up, thinking she saw movement. As she looks down to start the autopsy again, Ianto enters with the news that a drunk driver in a red car has been pulled over, and admits to striking someone near Cardiff. Eugene awakens, lying on the floor of the Hub, and walks home. Seeing his mother crying, he walks on. In the conference room at the Hub, Gwen cannot let go of Eugene's death. Owen and Tosh point out there is no evidence of involvement of anything mysterious or alien. In the morning, Gwen finds Owen watching a DVD he stole from Eugene's room. Gwen, upset, offers to return the DVD to the rental shop while she grabs lunch. As she leaves, she takes Eugene's cell phone from the evidence box. The video store is closed. Gwen stops at a cafe around the corner, followed by Eugene. Gwen asks the waiter about Eugene, but he does not remember him. Eugene, upset because the cafe is his usual lunch spot, recites his usual order, two eggs, ham and chips. Gwen places the same order. Gwen sits at a table, and flips through the pictures on Eugene's phone. The most recent are of random shoes. Eugene says he doesn't really remember anything from the last few weeks, and that Gwen should call his friend Gary to see if he knows anything. Gwen flips through his list of contacts and phones Gary. She leaves a message. Stopping at the hardware store, Gwen meets Josh, who works there. Repeatedly hitting on Gwen, Josh tells her Eugene was a nice guy, but a loser -- a complete failure. He asks if Eugene committed suicide. Gwen returns the DVD, pays a £34 fine and leaves the store. Eugene himself contemplates on Josh's words: has his whole life really just been one big failure? Gwen's next stop is Eugene's old employer, a telesales business. As Gwen wanders through the office, she glances at the phones and the floor, trying to find the shoes from the picture. She spots a pair of Converse All Stars from the pictures, worn by Gary. She asks him if he saw Eugene the day he died. Gary says that he hadn't. He goes off on another office worker for writing, "Good luck on your new job!" on the sympathy card. As Gwen follows Gary between a row of cubes, she is stopped by Linda, a friend of Eugene, broken up by his death. Concerned she may get in trouble for talking during work hours, Gwen agrees to meet Linda for lunch. While she looks around Gary's desk, Owen calls. Gwen tells him she's taking care of a few personal things and will be back soon. At lunch, Linda fills in some of the missing pieces of Eugene's last weeks. A few weeks before, Eugene was depressed. When Linda came into work one day after an argument with her boyfriend, Eugene agreed to help her move to Australia to start a new life. He told Linda he would sell his alien artefact. When he brought the eye to his office, a few of his friends laughed; ignoring them, though, he still placed it on eBay. The price soon climbed to £15,005.50. Gwen's phone rings. It is Eugene's mother asking Gwen to come by. She thanks Linda and leaves. Gwen and Mrs Jones watch a video of a maths competition that Eugene lost when he was a boy. She explains to Gwen that Eugene was given a plastic eye by a teacher as a consolation. Terry tells Gwen that the night Eugene lost the competition was the same night their father left, and that Eugene blamed himself. Mrs Jones tells Gwen the boys' father really left for a job in America, but Terry tells his mother that he and Eugene found out the truth two weeks back: their father still lives in the area, working in a garage across town. Suddenly Eugene begins to remember why he sold the eye: after discovering the lie, he realised that he'd been believing in fantasies his whole life, waiting for something that'll never come. So why not sell it? Gwen drives to the garage to tell Eugene's father about his death. Eugene talks about how finding his father made him believe that everything he had hoped for was for naught and he might as well sell the eye and get something for it. As Gwen opens her car door, Eugene asks her not to go. As if hearing him, she reconsiders, and closes it again. He tells Gwen  he doesn't want anything to do with his father, and when he apologises Gwen tells him it is alright. Back in the Hub, Jack confronts Gwen about turning off her phone. She tries to explain to Jack what she is feeling, and mentions the alien eye. Jack believes it might be a Dogon sixth eye, an item that allows its user to see his past and put it in perspective. They were traded for the novelty factor. Gwen tells Jack that she has almost tracked it down, and he gives her the weekend to finish her investigation. Gwen's next stop is a lecture at Aberystwyth University called "Black Holes and the Uncertainty Principle". Gwen runs into Gary, who initially runs away from her. He finally admits to her that he bid up the price of the eye to cheer Eugene up, but Eugene started to think that the bids were made by an alien. Gary says that the £15,000 bid was real. When she asks Gary again if he saw Eugene the day he died, he says that he had coffee with Eugene before he went to meet the auction-winning alien. Gwen asks him about the shoe photographs. He says they are random shoes, and he misses Eugene. In a hotel room in Aberystwyth, as Gwen looks through some of Eugene's belongings, Eugene tells Gwen that he took the eye and called a taxi to take him to the meeting place. As he talks, he realises that he really enjoys the time he is spending with Torchwood, and Gwen in particular, and doesn't want it to end. He tells Gwen that he loves her. She stands and walks to the window near where Eugene is standing, and Eugene blows on her hair to make it move slightly. She brushes the hair from her face, closes the window and heads to bed. Eugene lies down next to her. As Gwen returns from Aberystwyth, Eugene recognises the Happy Cook restaurant as the location of the drop off. Gwen enters and recognises the waitress's shoes. Eugene begins to remember coming in and meeting Gary and Josh. At first he thinks they came for moral support, but Josh makes it clear that they were the real buyers and did it as a joke and to cheer him up. Although someone made a real bid of £15,000, Josh got carried away, and although they only had £34 with them, Josh still expects to be given the eye so he can turn around and resell it. Eugene uses his phone to take a few photographs of the shoes under the table. When Eugene doesn't hand over the eye, Josh tries to take it from him. Gwen, meanwhile, is hearing the same story from the waitress' point of view. Apparently, the two men began to fight over the eye. When the waitress picked it up, Josh grabbed it and headed for the door, only to be tackled by Eugene, who grabbed the eye and swallowed it. Josh tried to get the eye out of Eugene, who then escaped. As the waitress finishes her story, Josh and Gary come into the restaurant, and Josh begins to talk to the waitress to tell her not to mention anything to anyone asking questions. As Josh talks, Gary sees Gwen standing off to the side. Josh turns to run. Gary trips him and tells Josh he misses Eugene. Eugene remembers all of what happened. Josh and Gary chased him from the restaurant and then lost him. Eventually, Eugene stops running to catch his breath and, as he walks across the road, he is struck by a car. Gwen calls Eugene's father to tell him the news. Gary, Gwen, Eugene and his family are at Eugene's funeral. For the first time, Eugene sees his father as a normal man, and begins to wish he had more time with him. At the back of the funeral home, Gwen is handed a paper bag containing the eye by the mortician. Eugene doesn't understand why he's still around, now that the eye is no longer in his body. Gwen is giving a last speech to the dead man, almost seeming to know he's there, when the Torchwood SUV pulls up. Gwen hands the bag to Jack and asks if she can have a few minutes to speak with Eugene's family. As she crosses the street, a car comes around the corner and nearly hits Gwen. Charging from the pavement, Eugene yells her name and knocks Gwen to the ground. Not only can Gwen see him, but so can everyone else. Gwen gives him a huge kiss. For a moment he can say thank you to Gwen, before he floats up into the light. 
<EOS>
A plane called the Sky Gypsy lands on a Cardiff air strip. Out step the pilot, Diane Holmes, and passengers Emma-Louise Cowell and John Ellis. The Torchwood team welcome them. The people on the plane think that they are in the year 1953.  Jack informs them they fell through the rift and were transported over fifty years into their future. The team make it their duty to look after the occupants of the plane until they can adapt to the 21st century. At first, they are fascinated, yet appalled by new items they had never seen before such as tea bags and dirty magazines. Gwen looks after Emma, since her parents have died. She takes her to her home, where she lies to Rhys that Emma is her cousin and that she came for a visit. The couple take her to a nightclub. They separate Emma from a man she is kissing. Gwen explains that things are different than in the 1950s. Later Emma finds a job as a shop-girl in London. Gwen is hesitant, wanting to get her a job in Cardiff where she can look after her, but she has to change her mind when Rhys discovers that Emma is not Gwen's cousin and is upset at just how easily Gwen lied to him. Gwen agrees to let her go and tells her to not talk to strangers when travelling to London. As Emma leaves, they wish each other a happy Christmas. Meanwhile, Jack starts a friendship with John, who wants to find his son, Alan Ellis. Tosh  finds him, John pays a visit, but is devastated to find his son is suffering from Alzheimer's disease. Severely depressed, John takes Ianto's car to kill himself by carbon monoxide poisoning. Jack tries to convince him to stop.  John said that he died decades ago. A reluctant Jack joins him in the car as the carbon monoxide slowly kills John. Jack's immortality leaves him unaffected; all he can do is express sorrow at the sight of another life cut short. Owen looks after Diane, who wants to fly, but can't because her license expired decades ago. Owen convinces her to go out to lunch with him. They begin a sexual relationship. As it progresses, Owen falls in love with her. Diane admits to the same feelings. One morning, Owen finds she has gone, leaving a note on his pillow. He rushes to the airfield, where he finds her attempting to take off in the Sky Gypsy. Owen tries to convince her to stay, but she is confident that due to the exact weather conditions from where she took off, the rift will open again to take her back to her time. After she kisses Owen goodbye, she takes off and her plane disappears into the clouds. Heartbroken, Owen cries softly. In the end, Jack, Gwen and Owen think back on how the three have touched their lives. 
<EOS>
Jack is chasing a weevil. It evades him, having seemingly developed an immunity to the "weevil spray" used by Torchwood. Gwen is meanwhile having dinner out with Rhys. Rhys is furious when Jack shows up unexpectedly and whisks Gwen away to help him. While chasing the weevil, Jack and Gwen have it snatched out from in front of them by masked men in a white van. The next morning, while Tosh is unable to trace the plates, she does use the CCTV to track the van to a warehouse near the docks. There Jack and Tosh find the dead body of a young man apparently attacked by a weevil. His cellphone rings, and an unknown voice warns Jack not to interfere in things he doesn't understand. Further research shows a recent spike in hospital visits for apparent weevil attacks. Owen, meanwhile, is still upset over the loss of Diane. At a bar, he speaks with a bartender, who notices he is dodging calls from work, and gets into a short fight with her boyfriend, who believes he is chatting her up. He avoids for some time answering his phone, but ultimately agrees to come into the Hub. Examining the dead body discovered by the others, he determines that the man had first been assaulted by humans before being mauled by the weevil. As Owen is the only member of the team not yet seen by the unknown perpetrators, he agrees to go undercover to meet with real estate agent Mark Lynch , who may have something to do with the incident. Gwen is tasked with telling his wife about him dying, and afterwards she and Owen get into an argument and decide to end their affair. Jack and Ianto go to the hospital to speak to a patient with injuries that might be Weevil-inflicted. The patient refuses to talk, saying that "they" will kill him. Jack decides to take a desperate measure: they will release the weevil they have in captivity which he calls "Janet", plant a tracking device on its clothes, and then see if it will be picked up by this mysterious group. Tosh and Ianto have grave reservations about letting it loose in the city, but Jack assures them they will be with Janet each step of the way. They do so, and watch Janet being captured. Gwen has meanwhile been sent home by Jack so she can spend some time mending things with Rhys. When she arrives home, Rhys leaves to spend a night out on the town with friends. Gwen is alone. Posing as an exporter of jellied eels, Owen has met with Mark Lynch to supposedly investigate procuring a new warehouse for his business. Lynch invites him out to drinks, and they end up at the same bar Owen was at the previous night. The same man whom Owen had fought with the previous night approaches him with friends. They attack Owen, but Lynch helps him defeat the men. Rhys returns home earlier than expected, and Gwen hands him a drink. She then confesses to him that she has been having an affair with a co-worker. Rhys initially does not believe her, and then starts to feel woosy. Gwen has put Retcon in his drink, so that she can confess to him, and hopefully gain his forgiveness, but he will not remember her confession in the morning. She tries desperately to get Rhys to say he forgives her, but he passes out before doing so. After being invited over to Mark's home for drinks, Owen finds a chained weevil in a locked room in the house. Mark, aware that Owen isn't who he claims, is still intrigued by his anger and offers to take Owen with him for the evening's entertainment. The entertainment is a fight club which Mark moves to a different empty building each night. Mark brings Owen into the fight club where Owen sees men fighting each other to warm up. Each contender pays £1000 to enter a cage with the weevil. The man who stays in the longest wins the pot. Mark informs Owen that he is up next. Gwen shows up to the Hub with pizza, but finds it empty. While she sits there alone and sobbing, the deceased man's cell phone begins to chime in the morgue. Text messages with the location of that evening's event show on the screen and Gwen passes that information onto Jack, Tosh, and Ianto. Owen seems more than willing to enter the cage and leaves his guard down as the weevil attacks. Just then Jack and Gwen bust in and have Owen pulled from the cage and send the participants scattering. While Jack is tending to Owen, Mark realises that both his fight club and his livelihood are ruined. Not willing to commit himself to a meaningless life in prison, Mark enters the cage to end his life, knowing the Weevil will surely maul him to death. Jack does not stop the Weevil as it attacks and kills Mark. Owen is recuperating at the hospital when Jack appears and gives him grapes. Owen tells Jack that he did not want to be saved. Jack asks if Owen wants him and the team to apologise for saving his life. As he walks off, Jack tells Owen to be back at work tomorrow. The next day, Owen returns to the hub. Down in the vaults, he looks at both the captive Weevils, who gape at him with bloodthirsty expressions and hiss at his face. Owen, not willing to be intimidated, hisses back with menacing intent far more pungent and fearsome than theirs. They both groan submissively, recoil, and cower at the superior predator, as Owen looks on with a decidedly satisfied smirk. 
<EOS>
Captain Jack Harkness and Toshiko Sato investigate a report that music from the 1940s has been drifting out of a derelict dance hall called "the Ritz". They enter the dance hall and are transported back to 20 January 1941 through a temporal shift.  The hall is full of people dancing to live music. They go downstairs to return to the present, but cannot resist going back to 1941 once more. When they go downstairs for the second time they do not go back to the present, and they realise they are trapped. Jack encounters an American captain by the name of Captain Jack Harkness. Torchwood's Jack quickly invents the name "Captain James Harper". When Toshiko asks him, "James Harper" admits he used to be a con-man. He took Jack Harkness's name as a disguise. The real Captain Jack will die the next day in a routine training exercise. "James Harper" and Toshiko devise a plan to leave the second half of an equation on something that will last through time so back in the present day, Torchwood can find it and combine it with the half they have already. The full equation will let them bring Toshiko and "James Harper" back to the present. Toshiko finds the manager, Bilis Manger, has a Polaroid camera, which has not yet been invented. While taking the photo, Toshiko misses the first part of the equation. When Bilis gets the camera, she must find another way to get this part back to present. She decides to use her own blood and writes the missing bit of the equation on a card. She puts the card inside a can for the Torchwood team. Back in the present day, Ianto and Owen find they cannot get through to Toshiko when they try to call her. They order Gwen to investigate. Just as Gwen hears music drifting from 1941, "James Harper" and Tosiko hear Gwen's calls drifting the other way. Back at the Hub, Ianto and Owen argue over the best way to bring them back. Ianto realises the real reason why Owen wants to open the rift is to bring back Diane Holmes. Meanwhile, at the Ritz, Gwen encounters the caretaker called "Bilis Manger." He opens the hall for her to look around. After Ianto checks with the records, he realises the Bilis Manger of now is the Bilis Manger from 1941 and orders her to withdraw. Outside, Gwen finds the photograph left by Toshiko and notices part is missing. She continues searching. At the Hub, Owen ignores Ianto's protests and tries to open the rift with the rift manipulator. Owen finds there is a piece missing and decides to look for it in Bilis's office. At the Ritz, Owen finds the missing piece in a grandfather clock. Gwen also finds the card left by Toshiko in 1941 and informs Ianto. She also tells them three of the numbers have been scraped out by someone and reads the message that Toshiko has written below the equation: "Tell my family, I love them." While all this is happening, "James Harper" gets to know the real Captain Jack and slowly begins to fall in love with him. "James" and Jack are joined by Jack's girlfriend, who wishes to be with him. She makes to leave hoping he will follow. When he does not, "James " insists that Jack kiss her goodbye, hinting at his death tomorrow. Jack takes "James'" advice, but thinks it has made things worse; now she thinks she loves him. On the stairs, Jack and "James" recount their worst war stories. Jack tells how he saw a young boy shot through the eyes. He yelled for his mother as he died. "James" tells how he had to watch his best friend, whom he had persuaded to enlist, tortured by the enemy and killed in front of him. Later, during a bomb raid, Jack confesses he is scared. They sit down at a table for a private talk. Jack slowly realises "James" knows something bad is going to happen and goes to his girlfriend. Jack returns later, however, to find "James" on his own and joins him. They hold hands for a few seconds but are interrupted by a couple who want the "lover's corner". Jack tells the couple he and "James" were just discussing strategies. Jack turns down "James's" offer to go somewhere else. Disheartened, "James" returns to the edge of the dance floor where he is joined by Toshiko. He says tomorrow Jack will lead his men in a routine training exercise to be surprised by the Messerschmitts. Jack kills three of them before dying when his plane bursts into flames. His men all make it back to safety. Back in the present day and at the Hub, Owen and Ianto are still arguing about the rift. When Owen goes into Jack's safe to retrieve the rift manipulator's blueprints, Ianto tries to snatch the blueprints. Owen overpowers Ianto and kicks him to the ground before heading towards the rift manipulator. Ianto orders him to stop. He is now pointing a gun at him. After Owen taunts Ianto about his relationship with Jack, Ianto shoots Owen in the shoulder to stop him. He is too late. The manipulator activates. Owen falls unconscious while Ianto screams at him. Back in 1941, "James" and Toshiko sit at a table. "James" explains someone brought him back to life one day and hints he has not been able to die ever since. "James" apologises to Toshiko for "dragging" her into "James's" business. Toshiko replies it was her choice to get involved. "James" promises her he will look after her but breaks down when he realises that there is nothing that can be done to save Jack. During the next song, Jack stands at the other side of the dance floor, thinking about what "James" has told him. He takes "James's" hand and they begin to dance to the slow music. They start to kiss, but are interrupted by the rift bursting open in the doorway. Toshiko rushes to it and pleads with "James" to follow her. James" explains to Jack that it is his duty, unwillingly lets go and heads towards the rift. At the last minute, "James" turns back to kiss Jack passionately before letting him go again. In the rift, "James" turns around to face the real Jack who salutes him before he vanishes. Back in the present day, Gwen gleefully greets Jack and Toshiko as they leave the Ritz. Jack takes one last look at the dance hall before returning to the Hub. At the Hub, Owen is performing self-aid on the bullet wound courtesy of Ianto. Ianto says he never meant to kill Owen. He meant to hit his shoulder. He also says there is no sign of Bilis. Toshiko, who is helping Owen, explains what she and Jack saw in 1941, while Owen taunts Ianto about opening the rift not having any immediate side-effects. Owen and Toshiko flirt mildly. Jack walks past them looking down as he enters his office. Toshiko joins him. They toast to the real Captain Jack Harkness. 
<EOS>
Gwen and Rhys have a morning in, until Jack calls Gwen to tell her to watch the news. UFOs have been sighted over the Taj Mahal and police have clashed with English Civil War era soldiers. They speculate and Gwen concludes it can't be an act of terrorism -- terrorists use bombs. This is different. At the Hub, Ianto recites verses from the King James Bible, Daniel 12:8-9. Jack cuts in as he moves onto an apocalyptic text on Abaddon the "great devourer," remarking how mankind is obsessed with anything that "denies the randomness of existence." Institutions across the globe, including UNIT, have their eyes trained on Torchwood and the team question their responsibility. Running a simulation, Toshiko demonstrates how the rift -- more specifically, Torchwood Three -- is the epicentre of all the temporal incidents. The rift is expanding and history is falling through the cracks. Jack is quick to put the blame on Owen, who justifies opening the rift to save Jack and Toshiko. Jack has ordered Owen and Toshiko to investigate a quarantined hospital. They find the bubonic plague has broken out after the admittance of a plague victim from the 14th century, the time of the Black Death. Owen is not only terrified by this development, he also blames himself for it as the one responsible for opening the rift. He instructs the woman's doctor in what medicine to give her. Owen warns the doctors this may happen more often and leaves. Gwen and Jack go to investigate a Roman soldier who was arrested by PC Andy. They explain to him how the soldier arrived. Andy states that even if he believes them, he is still confused. He does not know how to treat the new prisoner. The pair solve this by drugging the soldier and taking him to the cells at Torchwood. Back at the hospital, Toshiko sees her mother, who tells her in Japanese that the darkness is coming and Toshiko must open the rift to stop it all. Her mother vanishes. When the team return to the Hub, Jack says that this is all Owen's fault. Owen and Jack quarrel. Jack roars at Owen to get out. Gwen screams at them to stop. Owen tells Gwen nervously that Jack will wipe his memories. Gwen screams at them to stop again, but Owen has already walked out the door. At the prison, Gwen sees Bilis Manger in a cell. He apologises -- somehow speaking with his mouth closed -- before disappearing. Back at the Hub, Ianto sees Lisa, who tries to convince him to open the rift. Ianto does not believe it is Lisa but being told to open the rift still makes him think. Owen and Jack fall out; Jack fires Owen, who goes to a bar to drown his sorrows. Diane appears and tells him to open the rift. He decides to do it. Jack and Gwen go to Bilis' clock shop "A Stitch in Time". They question him, and Bilis reveals that he can step between eras in time, then disappears. Jack leaves, but Bilis returns and shows Gwen a vision of Rhys dead in their flat. She runs home to find Rhys alive. He won't come quietly to the Hub, so she knocks him out and gets Jack to help her get him to Torchwood's base. Once there he wakes up and is very angry at Gwen. She says that she only wants to protect him. The team, minus Owen, are all in the central area of the Hub when the power goes off. Gwen runs to the cells, shouting Rhys' name. The power goes off and Rhys' cell doors open. He tries to open the door, but Bilis appears and stabs him twice, twisting the dagger. Gwen arrives to find Rhys dead and no sign of Bilis. His dead body is cleaned and brought into the autopsy room, where a sort of funeral is held. In the autopsy room, she cries and shouts at Jack, who consoles her. Owen bursts in and tries to console her, but she shuns him. Toshiko is very happy to see Owen, and hugs him. Owen announces that he's opening the rift. Ianto follows him and Jack orders him to stop Owen, but Ianto says no. Toshiko and Gwen follow as well and begin to open the rift, but they are stopped by a security protocol that demands retina prints of all Torchwood personnel. Jack threatens Gwen with a gun, but she just walks up to him. He insults the gang, saying, "You're a united front now. Toshiko, the poor girl who'll screw any passing alien that gives her a pendant. Owen, so strong he gets in a cage with a Weevil, desperate to be mauled. Ianto, hiding a cyber-girlfriend in the basement. Your three comrades pumped bullets into her. Remember?" Gwen insists that she must get Rhys back and Jack answers, "Yeah, because you're so in love with Rhys that you spent half your time in Owen's bed." Gwen erupts with terrifying anger. She punches Jack with extreme force, knocking the gun out of his hand. As Jack reels on the floor, Gwen roars, "FUCK YOU!!" Owen seizes the revolver and turns it on him. They're relieving Jack of command and getting back what they love. Jack tells Owen that if he wants to take charge, he'd need "significantly bigger balls." Jack picks himself up and walks forward and Owen opens fire. Jack is dropped by a head shot but Owen fires another two rounds into his torso and shoots him in the cheek. Ianto, stunned, drops to Jack's side and asks Owen, "What have you done?" Owen answers he's "sick of people doubting" him as Gwen tries to calm him down. With Owen calmed, the team activate the machine with all of their retinal scans, including Jack's. As the Rift opens, Jack revives. He comes round and asks what they've done. The team evacuate the Hub as an earthquake splits across Cardiff. Jack is weak so Gwen holds his hand while he walks. Outside, the team find Bilis, who speaks of "[the] son of the Great Beast, cast out before time" named Abaddon trapped inside the Rift, before disappearing. Suddenly, a huge creature rises above Cardiff. Anyone in its shadow immediately dies. This gives Jack an idea: he can't die, so Abaddon can feed off his life. Gwen drives him to an open space. Screaming, she tearfully tries to stop him without success. Jack shoves her away, shouting at her to drive to safety. Still she doesn't leave, crying by the SUV. Jack stands before Abaddon. The shadow begins to kill Jack, but a blue light flows out of Jack's chest to destroy Abaddon. The creature dies from absorbing Jack's immortal life force and the rift is sealed. Jack lies dead before Gwen as she holds him, crying over his body. The timeline has been restored with the closing of the rift. Rhys is alive. Gwen is so happy to see him that she kisses him on the lips. Yet there is a price: Jack has not resurrected. Owen, Ianto and Tosh appear resigned to the reality of his death, but Gwen refuses to move from his side, telling them forcefully that she "wants to sit with him". Days pass, the team increasingly concerned for Gwen, but she remains faithfully by Jack's side, watching him, occasionally smoothing down and re-arranging the body bag he lies in on the morgue slab. Ianto is seen crying into Jack's military coat. Finally, Gwen appears to give up. She picks up Jack's hand, pressing her cheek to the back of it before hesitantly leaning over him and kissing his lips. She stands and walks away, almost crying, from the morgue before hearing him gasp a breath and weakly calling, "Thank you." Gwen sprints back to find him alive and smiling up at her. Jack has recovered some strength, although he is still pale. Gwen accompanies him into the main Hub area, taking his hand and smiling up at him. Toshiko runs into his arms and Jack embraces her. Next, Ianto comes forward somewhat uncertainly, extending an unsteady hand but Jack pulls him into an embrace and then kisses him on the lips. Owen, clearly shaken, steps up to Jack as the Captain walks towards him. He begins to stammer his apology but Jack cuts him off. "I forgive you." Breaking down, Owen sobs into Jack's shoulder and clings to him as Jack hugs him. In Jack's office, Gwen and Jack are talking. Jack tells her that although the rift is sealed, it will be more volatile than before. Gwen asks him what vision would have tempted him to open the rift. He says simply, "The right kind of Doctor." Jack walks out of his office to find the severed hand of the Doctor glowing, the preserving liquid bubbling actively and its tank sounding some sort of alert. His excitement is obvious, a nervous smile mixed with confusion covering his face as a wind sweeps through the area and the sound of the TARDIS materialising is heard. Jack turns his head to something, smiles widely and picks up the Doctor's hand. Gwen looks on. The sound of the TARDIS dematerialising is heard and Jack has gone. Gwen enters the room, calling for Jack, who is nowhere to be seen. The rest of the Torchwood team enter with coffee and Gwen asks them if they've seen Jack. Owen remarks that the Hub has been dishevelled after they cleaned up. Gwen looks around the emptiness of the Hub, "He was just here." Crossing her arms over her chest, she frowns. "Something's taken him; Jack's gone." The team stand in the Hub, wondering what has taken Jack. 
<EOS>
It is midnight on a lonely Cardiff street. As an old woman approaches a crossing with traffic lights, a red Chrysler Crossfire sports car races through Cardiff, driven by a Blowfish. The traffic lights go red. He stops and impatiently urges the old lady to cross the street. The Torchwood SUV stops, and asks the lady if she saw the Blowfish; she points them in the right direction. After they've gone, she mutters, "Bloody Torchwood!" The team catch up with the Blowfish after a short chase. Owen shoots the tires, forcing the Blowfish to leave the car. He flees into a house, where he shoots a resident and holds another hostage. The team hold him at gunpoint, and the Blowfish taunts them. He dares Ianto to shoot him, but Ianto hesitates. A shot is heard, killing the Blowfish. When Ianto turns around, he sees Jack, having just fired the shot. He greets the team with the words, "Hey kids, did ya miss me?" At the Torchwood Hub, the team wants to know where Jack has gone. He tells them he's been with "my Doctor". But he came back for Ianto and the rest. Tosh notices that there has been Rift activity. Captain John Hart walks through the Rift at the top floor of a multi-storey car parking structure. He sees a man held at knife-point, and intervenes, grabbing the mugger's neck, and dropping him over the edge to his death. John then goes to a nightclub called Bar Reunion, tells everyone whom he finds unattractive to leave, and pulls out two side-arms in front of the bouncers. Everyone panics and runs out. Meanwhile, Torchwood Three inspects the body of the dead mugger on the street. Tosh notices traces of Rift energy on his neck. Jack then gets a message on his vortex manipulator; a hologram of John appears, telling him to come to the nightclub, alone. He does, but the others follow him in a taxi. When Jack arrives in the club, he and John approach each other and kiss, then fight. They break for a drink. John tells him that the Time Agency is gone, and he has been to several rehabs for drink, drugs, sex and murder. John sees the others, and ridicules their team name -- not Excalibur? Jack explains that John was his partner in every sense of the word. John tells them that there are three deadly radiation cluster bombs scattered over Cardiff that could endanger everyone on Earth. They must be found, and neutralised. With the help of Torchwood, it's an easy job. They enter the Hub and John is checked for weapons. He has many, including several concealed knives and pistols. Jack takes Gwen to the side to tell her he has seen the end of the world. He shows signs of having fallen for Gwen, and jealousy when he realises Gwen is going to marry Rhys because "nobody else would have her". Tosh, meanwhile, finds the locations of the three bombs all over the city. Gwen organises the team to go searching for the bombs in pairs: Jack and Ianto, Owen and Tosh, and Gwen and John. Jack has problems with this, and talks to Gwen alone. Gwen explains she could get to know John better, to gain his trust and learn what he is really up to. Jack relents, but gives Gwen three rules on how to handle John: keep him in front of her at all times, never trust him, and never let him kiss her. The teams split up and Gwen and John are in the container docks. After some flirting, they find a cluster bomb in a container. Once Gwen has it, John kisses her, poisoning Gwen with paralysing lip gloss. He throws away her mobile phone, and tells her that she has two hours before her major organs shut down and she dies. He shuts the doors to the container, trapping her inside, unmoving. Meanwhile, Owen and Tosh are in an abandoned building and find the bomb, but John arrives, knocks out Tosh, and shoots Owen in the hip. Jack and Ianto are in an office building searching for the other bomb. Jack asks Ianto out on a date; Ianto accepts, but tries to change the topic. Jack explains that John Hart is a reminder of his past; "I want him gone." He goes to the roof, while Ianto searches downstairs. Ianto hears a noise and realises it is John, holding him at gunpoint. John tells him Owen and Gwen are in trouble. Jack finds the last cluster bomb, and is confronted by John. John wants the cluster bomb, but Jack refuses. He wants Jack to join him in travelling and conquering the stars. Jack isn't tempted, and throws the bomb over the edge. "Oops!" John pushes Jack off the roof too. John retrieves the bomb and tells the dead Jack -- splayed across the pavement -- that murder rehab never worked. He returns to the Hub. Ianto goes to Owen, and helps Tosh dress his wound. They then go to the docks, and eventually find Gwen just in time to inject her with an anti-toxin. At dawn, John goes to the corpse of the Blowfish, who worked for him, and takes out a small pyramid-shaped object from his pocket. He is then surprised to find the rest of the team holding him at gunpoint, and even more surprised to see Jack, who then explains that he is immortal. John then tells the truth: there are no cluster bombs. He was looking for an Arcadian diamond that belonged to a lover of his once; it was only a "dying woman's wish" in that he killed her. The "bombs" actually comprise a device that would lead him to the location of the diamond. However, once they've assembled the device, the woman's hologram says that there is no diamond either. A device shoots into John's chest, and the hologram explains that the device is a bomb that locks into the DNA of whoever killed her; it cannot be removed without it prematurely exploding. There are ten minutes until the bomb goes off, but John cuffs himself to Gwen. She has a plan that would kill her and John, but would save the city. Tosh says that the Rift is still open from John's arrival. Gwen takes John there, but Jack and Owen stay behind and quickly work on a solution. They arrive at the car park, quickly followed by Jack and Owen, who inject John Hart with the DNA of all the Torchwood members, which temporarily confuses the bomb. The bomb releases itself, and they throw it through the Rift, with just one second to spare. Just as it explodes, they are shifted back in time to the moment John first arrived. John, impressed, lets Gwen go, and reluctantly agrees to go back home. Before he disappears, though, he has one last thing to tell his old friend: "By the way, I found Gray". Jack, shocked, is asked who or what "Gray" is. He replies "It's nothing, let's get back to work." 
<EOS>
Beth and Mike are a married couple who are awoken from sleep when they hear someone in their house. Mike grabs a cricket bat, while Beth calls the police. Two burglars enter their room, knock Mike out, and threaten Beth. An unseen, violent struggle occurs as a lamp by the bedside glows brighter and brighter. The Torchwood team soon arrive at the couple's flat, where one of the burglars is dead and the other severely injured. Tosh and Jack investigate the scene, while Gwen and Owen go to the hospital to interview the husband and wife, as well as the surviving thief. An officer at the crime scene and Gwen both suspect that the husband was responsible, citing the fact that he kept a cricket bat in the bedroom. Jack and Owen both suspect the wife though, with Owen claiming, "It's always the one you least suspect." Beth claims to remember nothing, however. Owen and Gwen stay until the burglar regains consciousness. Upon being questioned by Gwen, he confirms that "the woman" did it before he flatlines. Beth is brought to the Hub's interrogation room. Jack attempts to get her to confess, showing her the crime scene photos and questioning whether she might be covering for her husband, but to no avail. Although a body scan reveals nothing either, a power surge also occurred at the hospital while Beth was there. Owen then tries to draw blood from her arm, only for the needle to snap: twice in a row. He then breaks a scalpel against Beth's arm with nary a scratch. Beth also claims to have never been sick. Having seen enough, Jack tells her to stop pretending she's not an alien. When Beth claims that aliens don't exist, he takes her to a holding cell and shows her a Weevil. While Beth continues her disbelief, the Weevil cowers at her presence. Unable to explain the oddities surrounding her, she asks Jack how she can prove she's not an alien. Jack decides to use a mind probe on her, despite Ianto's objections that the head of the last alien they used it on exploded. Gwen comforts Beth as she's strapped in. The mind probe begins, with Beth appearing in great pain. Gwen objects, but Owen assures her it's safe and Jack tells them to go deeper, as Beth is still claiming to be human. The lights flicker and Beth's heart rate rises and still Jack insists on continuing. Beth eventually passes out. But Jack's persistence pays off, as Beth immediately sits up rigidly, the skin on her right arm transforming into a ridged formation -- spotted with several glowing lights. Despite attempts to talk to her, she repeats the same words in an alien language, which Jack identifies as her name, rank and serial number. Jack relates to the team what he knows about the species, which isn't much, as they leave no survivors. The aliens, which he calls Cell 114, infiltrate planets by disguising themselves as the local inhabitants and relate information back to their superiors, with the sleeper agents being completely unaware. Tosh shows the team an implant inside Beth's arm, where the data is stored, which is protected by a force field. The decision is made to tell Beth what she is. She is quite distraught at the revelation, questioning whether her memories and feelings for her husband are even real. Gwen assures her that her humanity does not only lie in her body, but in her mind as well. Beth asks if they will kill her and if they have killed other aliens. Gwen tells her that they have, but only when in a "kill-or-be-killed" situation. Beth wishes that she had never found out and that she could live a normal life. Jack points out that she would change on the day of the attack. Beth protests that she is not that person. Jack disagrees. Back in the Hub's main area, the team debates what to do with her. Toshiko suggests freezing her. Although Jack objects that she could still transmit data, Tosh believes she can single out the transmitter and disable it. As Jack and Gwen lead Beth out of her cell, the memories of her attack on the burglars begin to return. As she's prepared to be frozen she asks that if they cannot figure out how to make her human, that she be prevented from hurting anyone, permanently, to which Jack agrees. Tosh concentrates an electromagnetic pulse on her arm and then Owen sedates her. However, unbeknownst to the team, Beth's implant reactivates, sending a signal elsewhere. Throughout Cardiff, seemingly ordinary people stop what they are doing as they are activated, abandoning their jobs and families, with some even killing their loved ones who try to stop them. Back at the Hub, Beth wakes up in her cryochamber and breaks out of it, setting off alarms. Since her implant gathered information about the Hub, she is easily able to exit through the tunnels. Owen theorises that her body merely projected what they expected to see and that her vital rates did not drop to zero as they believed. Jack does not think Beth has activated, as she could have killed them all if she had. Beth has gone to the hospital to say goodbye to Mike. She tells him she will only hurt him if she stays. He protests as she hugs him that nothing she could do would be worse than her leaving him. They are both surprised at a sudden sound and look down to see that Beth's arm has morphed into a spike, which is now protruding from Mike's chest. Distraught, she calls for help. Jack and Gwen arrive and take in the scene. Beth insists it was an accident. Gwen scans Beth's arm to check that it's safe. When Beth refuses to leave Mike, Jack and Gwen are forced to drag her out of the room before hospital staff arrive. Elsewhere, Patrick Grainger, the leader of the local council, begins his day with his family. When the doorbell rings, he goes to answer the door. One of the sleeper agents, David, is at the door. After confirming Patrick's identity, David morphs his hand into a spike and runs Patrick through with it repeatedly, in front of Patrick's family. Patrick's wife begs for the lives of her children, but David makes no reply other than to stab her husband one more time and leave. Meanwhile, another sleeper uses a fuel tanker to destroy both a motor way and an underground fuel pipeline used by the military in emergencies. Torchwood realise that more sleepers have activated and scramble to coordinate a plan. However, the team is cut off from one another when another sleeper destroys a telecommunications station. Jack and Gwen urge Beth to try to connect with the other sleepers so they can prevent more deaths. She activates her implant and tells them that only one remains: David. While Owen, Gwen and Tosh are panicking at the lack of communications, Jack rigs up a CB radio to contact them with. He tells them David is heading for an abandoned farm and that he needs to know why. Ianto and Tosh's research reveals that there is a stockpile of ten nuclear warheads stored in a mineshaft at the farm. Jack theorises that this is how the cells are so effective: they use the weapons of the people they conquer against them. As the team in the Hub ponders what will happen if Jack and Gwen don't reach the sleeper in time, Owen suggests that they all have sex. Ianto bemoans that the end of the world has become worse. David arrives at a military compound and decimates the soldiers guarding it, as they are unable to fell him with bullets. His way cleared, the sleeper proceeds to break through the entrance's security codes with ease. As he breaks through the final lock, Jack runs David down with the Torchwood SUV. Nonetheless, David gets back up and stabs Jack through the chest, taunting him that they know all about Torchwood and that they will be factored into the invasion plans. Gwen uses the scanner to disable David's transmitter and shielding. Pulling himself off the blade, Jack shoots David and demands to know when the others are coming. David claims that they are there already. Laughing madly, he detonates his suicide implant, as the others run to get clear. Later, Gwen and Beth are in the Hub, preparing for Beth to be frozen. Beth claims that while the guilt of what she has done is horrific, what she fears more is losing it and becoming an uncaring murderer. She thanks Gwen for being so kind to her and wants her to remember her for who she was. Beth then morphs her arm into its blade form and holds it to Gwen's throat. As the team all surround them, guns drawn, Gwen tells them that it's a trick; that Beth wants them to kill her. Beth denies this, claiming that she will kill every human. As she raises her arm as if to strike, the team all fire at her, killing her. Gwen protests that she would not have hurt her. The team assure her that they couldn't take that risk and that Beth knew that. Jack comforts Gwen as she looks on Beth's body. That night, Gwen and Jack discuss Gwen's upcoming wedding and whether or not they stopped the invasion. Gwen believes that even if they have not, they know more now than they did and that they can fight. 
<EOS>
It is the year 1918, the climax of World War I, and two members of the Torchwood Institute, Gerald Kneale and Harriet Derbyshire, have arrived at St Teilo's Military Hospital to investigate the rumours of ghostly apparitions appearing within its walls, spooking its populace. Harriet is using a device to track the activity of the Cardiff Rift that has suspiciously coincided with these sightings. The two Torchwood personnel unintentionally spook an unusually jumpy nurse as they come clamouring down the stairs of the hospital in search of what they suspect to be triggering the disturbances of the rift. Gerald apologises for the intrusion and Harriet asks the nurse if she has caught sight of any ghosts today, to which she testifies three sightings in the hospital ward thus far. Gerald and Harriet take heed, heading into the ward on the double. Inside the ward, the nurse laments that these reported sightings could be a result of delusions brought on by patients having nervous breakdowns -- the wounded and shell-shocked soldiers being treated at St Teilo's aren't in the best mental state from their traumatic experiences at the war front. They have been ordered by Field Marshal Haig to "fight to the last man" and "fight on to the end," at which Gerald and Harriet express pity. However, it becomes evident they do not have time to have condolences for the victims when the hospital lurches violently. This is not the product of a bomb explosion; it is a fissure about to tear open in the Cardif Rift. The Torchwood agents enter the storage room, where the rift activity is peaking on Harriet's detector. They are greeted with a ferocious burst of white light and turbulent wind. The rift has split open and a time shift is in full force. To Gerald and Harriet, it appears that two people have emerged from out of nowhere. They gaze at a woman dressed in clothes completely unlike their own, as though they were from another era entirely. This woman is a familiar face to some, but a complete stranger to Gerald and Harriet. She is Toshiko Sato from the year 2008, part of a Torchwood ninety years into the future, along with a soldier from the WWI era who somehow ended up in their time, Tommy Brockless. Tommy is dressed in hospital pyjamas with an unmistakable leather jumper belonging to a man of the 1918 war front. They have somehow made contact with the Torchwood agents of the past across this breach in the Cardiff rift. Toshiko instructs Tommy to tell these people from another time something important, or else everything they know will end. Tommy quickly explains that he is also residing in this hospital at the same time he is speaking to the agents. The two must fetch him and find a way to get him to the future alive so that he can speak to them now from 2008. Gerald and Harriet immediately return to the recovery ward to find another Tommy Brockless, the one native to 1918, propped in a hospital bed, recently scarred from battle. Gerald comfortingly tells Tommy to come with them, but he coils up with apprehension. Gerald introduces himself along with Harriet, reassuring Tommy that they will take care of him. He asks them, "Who are you?" Gerald gives a succinct reply: "We're Torchwood." In the year 2008, it is time for Tommy Brockless to annually awaken from cryogenic storage. Once he is, he panics until Toshiko reminds him that it is that time of year for him to wake up. He asks for a cup of tea, which is provided by Ianto. Gwen doesn't understand why he's here, and Jack explains that one day, they are going to need him. Later, Owen and Tosh take him in for blood samples, when he recites his name, rank, regiment and parents' death dates. During this, Jack explains to Gwen that there was once a time shift in St. Teilo's Hospital in 1918, going on to say that eventually, chunks of 1918 will appear in the hospital until the rift is complete. Once this is complete, the rift will cause a chain reaction, creating time shifts all over the world. When Gwen asks how Tommy fits into the picture, Jack says Tommy stops it somehow, showing her "Eyes Only Document, FAO Torchwood, commander overseeing case 1918/TB", and the temporal lock, which can only be opened when the rift nears completion, that comes with it. Tosh and Tommy leave on a date shortly afterwards. Gwen goes off to the abandoned St. Teilo's Hospital, where she sees a man with a deformed leg, who then disappears. Moving through the hospital, she sees several firemen, who tell her that they are going to knock the building down. Jack arrives later and theories that knocking it down might have triggered psychic trauma from the soldiers. When the workmen begin, Jack sees a man in a wheelchair being carted down the halls, and Gwen sees an injured man sitting in a chair, along with a nurse. Unlike the previous ones, this nurse notices Gwen. The nurse panics, telling her that she shouldn't be here. While at a bar with Tosh, Tommy discusses his girlfriend in 1916, how the war changed him, and then comments that he and Tosh would make a good couple. After ordering a drink, he sees news footage of the Iraq war and comments that there always seems to be a war going on. He questions if the human race is worth saving, and Tosh answers yes. He then feels a spark of psychic trauma from the St. Teilo's time shift. On a boardwalk, he kisses her, but receives mixed signals from Tosh, who tells him that she is a bit older. They kiss again and head back to the cryogenic chamber, only for Jack to call her to tell them that Tommy's time has come. Jack calls a meeting, saying that the demolition of the building is pulling 1918 into the present-day. The team head back to the hospital. Owen and Tosh place rift monitors throughout the hospital, and Owen warns Tosh that she and Tommy have become too close. Gwen calls, reporting a detail from the report: "Through a hole in the external wall, we hear the roar of great engines. Outside is a woman in strange armour, ripping a Union Jack, perhaps some future heroine of the Empire." Gwen believes that this might mean that the catastrophe isn't happening now, but Owen realises that the roar is traffic, the woman is a painting, and that the Union Jack is a building from just outside. At the Hub, Jack sees the box open, and he reads through the papers inside, finding that they are instructions for Tommy and Tosh. He reveals that in 12 hours, there will be a brief shift, allowing both 1918 and 2008 to exist at the same time. Jack says that Tommy will step through the fracture into 1918 and will be trapped there forever. He gives him a rift manipulator, which will close the fracture behind him. Jack takes Tosh to his office and reveals to Tosh that Tommy will be shot by a firing march because of shellshock or "cowardice." Tosh protests, but Jack says that she must. Ianto gives Tommy the same clothes that he was wearing when he stepped through the rift. Tosh was also here, telling Tommy what to do. Tosh offers to take him home until 6:30 tomorrow, which Tommy accepts. At the Hub, Ianto asks if Jack could, and Jack explains that he wouldn't because he's seen amazing things. Ianto and he passionately kiss. Tommy asks what will happen to him in 1918, and Tosh tells him that he'll going back to France. At 6:30, the rift monitors sound the alarm loudly. They begin to see the ghosts. Tommy hears Gerald and Harriet talking to his past self in 1918. He begins to refuse, calling Torchwood no better than the army. Jack simply says he has to. He then leaves, along with the rest of the team, at the insistence of Tosh. Time begins to fracture, and Tommy and Tosh arrive in 1918. She tells Tommy to tell Torchwood what to do, and he does. He heads to bed, like he was never away. But Tommy hasn't used the time shift yet, and the chain reaction begins. Owen realises that he can use the shifts to open the exact point in time where Tommy is, with Jack as a psychic projection, making Tommy use the key. But Tosh volunteers to go instead, accepted by Jack. She goes back as a psychic projection and convinces him to use the rift manipulator. The time shift closes, as do the others around Cardiff. Tosh laments over Tommy, and Owen reminds her that she saved the world. Tosh corrects him, saying it was Tommy, and asks aloud if humanity is worth it. 
<EOS>
Rhys Williams is driving. One of his work colleagues phones him to say one of their firm's lorries has crashed. When he arrives at the crash site, he is told that the driver died in the crash. Rhys gives a police officer the driver's details and is informed that, before he can move the lorry, Torchwood want to look at it. When they arrive, Rhys spots Gwen. The Torchwood team search the lorry. They find meat in the back and confiscate all of it. They will take a sample back to the Hub. Gwen recognises the lorry as one from Rhys' firm. They head back to the Hub and Rhys tries to follow them, but is turned away by the police. Back at the Hub, Owen notices the symbol saying the meat is fit for human consumption is fake. Gwen tries to dismiss any thought of Rhys being involved with the meat. Toshiko rings Rhys' office for information, pretending to be the police.  Rhys informs them the meat comes from Harries &amp; Harries. Moments later, Owen says the meat is alien. The team realise it must have been in different food products for months. As they discuss the location of Harries &amp; Harries, Gwen receives a text from Rhys, asking her to come home. When Gwen arrives at her flat, Rhys explains about the accident and the meat in the back on the van to see if she breaks. When it fails, Gwen goes back to work. Rhys follows her. He sees Gwen with Jack near the invisible lift in Roald Dahl Plass. He follows her to the factory where he is captured and taken inside. Jack and Gwen see this and think that he is involved. Rhys is taken inside and is questioned. He explains about Leighton and lies about the meat being taken away, claiming it had been incinerated. He asks to pick up from where Leighton left off.  They have captured a living alien, the source of the meat. It grows even as they cut chunks of its living flesh. Back at their flat, Rhys and Gwen argue over her presence at the crash and the factory. Gwen admits to the nature of her work for Torchwood. Rhys remains incredulous and asks her to prove it. In the Hub, the team await Gwen and Rhys's arrival. Gwen takes Rhys to the lift. As they descend, Rhys is amazed, but still passes off Myfanwy as being extinct. He is introduced to Jack, Owen, Toshiko and Ianto and is told about what Torchwood actually does. Rhys tells the team what he saw in the warehouse. Jack and Rhys argue about Rhys messing things up and about being able to get back in. Rhys says he can get them in because he became a delivery boy. Jack calls a meeting. Rhys shows them where everything is on the warehouse blueprints. Gwen is adamant that Rhys is not to get involved, but Jack and Rhys insist the idea is their only option. They will go in with stun guns, since the people are not organised criminals. Jack gives Gwen the option to stand down from the mission, since Rhys's involvement might make her vulnerable. She declines. Jack tells the team they will save the alien and send it back through the Rift. Owen makes a model of what he thinks the creature might look like. Toshiko brings him a sandwich and admires its beauty. Toshiko offers to keep Owen company while he works, but he gives her the work since he feels knackered. The pair spy on Gwen and Toshiko musters up the courage to ask Owen out for a game of pool. Owen misreads the signs and thinks she means a Torchwood tournament. Rhys and Jack get the van for the infiltration. On their way to get the rest of the team, Jack explains why Gwen was picked for Torchwood. Jack and the others climb into the back of the van. They drive to the warehouse. Rhys tries to buy time for the team to get out of the van, then realises they have already gone. Ianto and Owen enter a room filled with meat. Jack, Gwen and Toshiko enter the room where the alien is held. After taking out some of the workers, they find they are armed. Rhys's cover is blown and Ianto is captured. They are brought into the main room, where they learn the alien is dubbed the "Cash Cow". Gwen reveals herself to save Rhys. Jack and Toshiko are spotted. Jack tells Dale and the others they actually have an alien, which stuns them. Rhys is shot and Ianto unties his hand and grabs Dale's gun hand, making him fire at the Cash Cow and the ropes tying it down. As the ropes break and the Cash Cow moves all over the place, Ianto goes after Dale and the others. Storming through the room, Ianto stuns Dale and the other worker. Owen is informed that the sedative won't work, leaving him with no option but to euthanise it. Owen bandages Rhys's wound as the Cash Cow dies. Back at the Hub, Owen patches up Rhys' wound and Jack says they gave the workers amnesia pills to forget what they did during the past months. Jack tells Gwen Rhys must be given a pill too. She asks if she can give it to him. On exiting the Hub, Rhys has a changed view of the world. Gwen cannot bring herself to give him the pill. Jack relents, unwilling to fire Gwen and lose her from the team. 
<EOS>
The Torchwood team is investigating a strange box when Gwen Cooper arrives, slightly late because she was spending time with Rhys. Looking around, she sees Adam sat down, and asks in confusion who he was, to which Adam replies "That's what I said to you on your first day remember?" Putting a hand on her shoulder, Gwen suddenly has false memories of Adam being here. Smiling, she hugs him. Adam is then seen editing the Torchwood database to add his file into it. Tosh asks him what he was doing, which he replies as updating details on rift activity. Adam and Tosh then kiss, much to the displease of Owen, who is wearing glasses. Meanwhile, Jack is down in the cells where he sees a young boy, which causes him to stop and stare. Gwen calls him, but when Jack turns around again, the boy is gone. Gwen is then seen in her apartment. Rhys comes up behind her and attempts to give her a hug, but Gwen, thinking he is a stalker, points a gun at him and gets Jack to come over to her apartment. We learn that all of Gwen's memories of Rhys have been wiped, to which she even thinks he put up photos of them together while she was gone. However, Jack and the rest of the Torchwood team simply dismiss it as temporary amnesia due to stress. Owen is seen trying to flirt with Tosh unsuccessfully over beers. Jack is off trying to catch another Weevil down in the sewers, but then encounters a strange man whom Jack refers to as "Dad?", who tells him to get out, to which he does quickly. Exiting the sewers, Adam seemingly appears out of nowhere, but when Jack questions him how he got here, Adam simply implants false memories into Jack that he came with him. Adam asks him what he saw in the sewers, to which he replies simply, "My past." At Torchwood Hub, Tosh has found out the box is made of wood. Owen asks on the origins of the box, to which Ianto replies that Adam found it in an excavation, and he will go check in his diary. Owen again tries to flirt with Tosh but fails and ends up managing to anger her. Owen is devastated. Gwen is seen at a general store with Rhys. When they get to checkout, the cashier leaves to answer a call, despite clearly being able to see Rhys there. Rhys, angry, begins to go off on a rant, to which Gwen laughs. She has regained some of her memories back. Ianto is flipping through his diary and is shocked that he has made no mention of Adam at all. Adam then appears behind him, and Ianto questions who he really is. Adam's hand starts to flicker, and we learn that Adam exists simply from people being able to remember him. Discovering Ianto knows he is not who he says he is, he decides to implant memories of Ianto killing and strangling three women, claiming that he forgot about the thrill he got from doing this. Ianto sinks to the floor, crying. Some time later, Jack comes in and Ianto tells him to put him in his vault because he is a monster. However, Jack refuses to believe it, even after he uses the best lie detector on the planet and confirms he is telling the truth. He pulls up CCTV footage of the Hub and finds Adam implanting the false memories. Jack, after checking, finds that not only is there lacking a blood sample of Adam, his file was updated only 24 hours ago. When he comes back into base along with Tosh, Owen, and Gwen, he holds him at gunpoint. Gwen and Owen are confused by this as they still believe Adam as part of the team, and Tosh, upset, pulls out her gun at Jack. Ianto grabs her and Jack quickly sends Adam to the cells. Jack and the others then go to the meeting room to discuss Adam. After remembering their true memories, Gwen of Rhys in high school, Owen of his tenth birthday, Tosh on her fondness of maths and Ianto recalling his girlfriend, Lisa, Jack hands them all an amnesia pill to wipe out their memories of Adam, thereby erasing his existence. The next day, all of the Torchwood team are confused why they cannot recall anything from the past 48 hours. Owen has taken off his glasses again, and Tosh has also reverted to her old personality. Jack is seen messing with the box when a component falls out. Ianto comes in, asking if he's seen his diary, which Jack gives back to him, saying "Measuring tapes don't lie." Picking up a plastic bag, he asks Ianto: "Who's Adam?" Ianto replies that he doesn't know and leaves. Jack, fiddling with the box and the component, manages to open it, finding it to be filled with sand, which he stares at ominously. 
<EOS>
A series of seemingly-professional murders in Cardiff prompt Jack to call in UNIT medical specialist Martha Jones for help. The Torchwood team are surprised and curious about Dr Jones' relationship with Jack, as they still do not know much about his past. Martha informs him there have been similar murders throughout the UK. Owen and Jack flirt with her. Jack is more open and lighthearted when Martha arrives, dropping hints about their travels with the Tenth Doctor. When the two sit down for a brief catch-up, Jack tells Martha she should have contacted him if she was looking for work. Martha replies that she wasn't; UNIT rang her out of the blue, and said she was what they needed, having been recommended by an "impeccable source". Jack and Martha conclude it must have been the Doctor, as no one else knew about Martha's time-travelling experiences. Jack says thoughtfully that perhaps the Doctor thought he owed Martha a favour. They all did, which makes Martha thoughtful. As the Torchwood team investigate the murders, they discover that one of the victims had been cured of diabetes and another of HIV. They trace the killings to a medical centre named the Pharm. One woman had been attacked but survived and is in a hospital. She has a seizure after admittance and fly-like creatures rise out of her mouth and try to enter Owen and Martha, but die first. Owen and Jack go to the Pharm and talk to the director, Professor Aaron Copley, but fail to gain access to any areas of the facility. After searching for ways of infiltrating the Pharm, the team learn the facility recruits people for human trials. Jack concludes it is far too dangerous to send one of their own undercover, but Martha suggests that if a doctor with the appropriate knowledge went in there, it would be less dangerous. After a verbal protest from Jack and a silent one from Owen, Martha convinces Jack to let her go in undercover as she's "been in worse situations". Owen follows Jack and begs him not to let her go. Jack assures him he'd rely on Martha if the world was ending and he has. Ianto sets up Martha with her instructions and gear. A short conversation about his relationship with Jack ensues. Toshiko fits Martha with contact lenses that act as cameras, so the team can monitor her while she is inside. Martha goes undercover as Samantha Jones, a hepatitis sufferer, to investigate the centre's real purpose. Back at the Hub, Tosh and Owen are keeping watch over Martha in the Pharm. Tosh remarks upon seeing Owen gazing at the picture of Martha's UNIT badge, about their quickly developing friendship and that she and Owen are a perfect match, both of them being doctors. She points out Martha's obvious beauty and shares a laugh with Owen, who tries to feign ignorance. Owen remarks that the flirting is harmless, seeing that Martha is only interested in work and that if he tried anything, "Jack would have his kneecaps". This seems to cheer Tosh up. Owen asks her about the pool tournament she was supposedly organising. Tosh says it was supposed to be a date. Owen looks abashed and asks Tosh if she is still interested. Tosh eagerly says yes. If they got to know each other outside of work, something could come of it, and Owen casually agrees to one date, which excites Toshiko immensely. He points out he wouldn't stop flirting with people just because of their situation and Tosh tells him that he can be "King Of Flirts". The conversation disintegrates and they change topic and watch over Martha again. Inside the Pharm, Martha discovers the facility is responsible for the drug "Reset", which is what cured the previously incurable diseases. The problem with Reset is that it works by releasing alien parasites called Mayflies into the human bloodstream -- the Mayfly larvae proceed to "reset" the human body, eliminating even incurable diseases like HIV. The downside to the drug is the Mayfly larvae eventually hatch and eat the person from the inside. Trying to escape, Martha is attacked by an adult Mayfly. She is captured by the Pharm workers who strap her to an operating table. The medical director examines her and states that her white blood cells have mutated due to "travel in time and space". He questions Martha about her alliance with Torchwood and her travels. All the while, Martha acts as if she doesn't know what they are talking about. He is curious to see how her immune system will react to Reset and injects her with it. While Gwen and Ianto track down the Pharm-hired assassin carrying out the murders, arrest him and take him to the Hub, Jack and Owen find during questioning that he has a Mayfly in him as well. Jack needs the assassin alive so Owen tries to use the singularity scalpel to vaporise the Mayfly in his body. He screws up and the fly bursts out of the assassin's stomach instead. Toshiko concocts a program that will get them into the Pharm by controlling the car from the back while the dead assassin is strapped in the driver's seat. Inside the Pharm, the team split up: Tosh, Gwen and Ianto are sent to find the "research labs", while Owen and Jack find the Director and Martha. Tosh, Gwen and Ianto discover the "labs" where alien life-forms are being held captive and tortured. By the time Jack and Owen reach Martha, the Reset drug has been injected and the Mayflies fight each other off until one remains inside. While Jack tells Prof. Copley that his team are shutting the Pharm down as a result of the damage they are doing, Owen tends to Martha, using the alien gun to extract the Mayfly from her body safely. The trio exit the Pharm before it reaches complete shut down and meet up with the other three by the vehicle they came in. Owen, who is supporting Martha as they walk, continues to flirt with her by suggesting she should spend a few days in bed, hopefully under his supervision. Martha says that she already has a boyfriend. Owen asks if he's ever saved her life like he just did. Martha replies that he has. As the team get ready to leave and Owen is ushering Martha towards the car, Professor Copley returns and points a gun at Martha, telling Jack and the others that he wouldn't just stand by and watch them ruin his work and let them get away with it. Owen steps carefully in front of Martha and attempts to reason with the Professor, claiming they are both rational men and that he doesn't really want to shoot. Professor Copley shoots Owen in the chest and Owen falls to the pavement in extreme pain, unable to even scream. Whatever mercy Jack was going to give the Professor is lost with this unforgivable act. Copley then points his gun directly in Martha's path and voices his intent to end her next, but the precious moment he wastes on a threat gives Jack a chance to shoot the Professor in the head, killing him instantly. Martha, Jack and Toshiko run to Owen, who lies on the ground, bleeding. While Martha gets out medical supplies, Jack holds Owen's hand and assures him he'll be all right, while Toshiko becomes hysterical. Martha and Jack try to get him to focus. Martha attempts to treat Owen's wound by injecting a medicine near his heart. Toshiko looks over him as a look of peace comes over Owen's face. Martha says that he is dead. 
<EOS>
Owen Harper lies dead of a gunshot wound, about to be opened up for autopsy by Martha Jones at the Hub. Jack orders the team to do nothing until he arrives. Jack enters a strange cafe where a girl, that appears twelve years old, reads tarot. She tells Jack he owes her a favour and where to find what he is looking for. As he leaves, she holds the Death card. Jack goes to St Mary's, an abandoned church where Weevils sleep and store collected bric-a-brac. He breaks into a safe and retrieves from it a box. When Jack returns to the Hub with the box, to the astonishment of the team, it holds a left-handed resurrection gauntlet. Gwen objects to what Jack is about to do, reminding him of what happened with Suzie. Jack ignores her. He hopes to bring Owen back for two minutes for everybody to say their goodbyes. He resurrects Owen, who is confused and scared. Tosh tells Owen that she loves him, and Jack -- after initially upsetting Owen by asking for the morgue access code -- tries to prepare Owen for death. The connection is lost, Owen stops breathing and Jack holds his hand, believing him dead. Then, Owen says that he will need his hand back. The glove has brought Owen back from death permanently. Unlike Suzie, there is no obvious source of life energy. No energy is being drained from Jack as Suzie drained energy from Gwen, but Owen is getting energy from somewhere. Toshiko tells Owen she didn't mean it when she told him that she loved him. Owen says that this is a textbook reaction to grief, but does not want to discuss it further. He changes the subject and leaves the room. Owen has visions of himself in a place shrouded in darkness, full of eerie whispers. He temporarily loses control of his body. During this incident, his pupils turn black and he speaks in an unknown language. Although he has been put in quarantine, Owen escapes and goes to a bar in Cardiff. He finds he can no longer get drunk or get an erection, so he can no longer have sex as all his life processes have stopped. He is now the walking dead. Jack catches him and they have a bar brawl. When Owen shouts that he belongs to Torchwood "special ops", Jack assumes a fake English accent and denies it. This results in them both being put in a police cell. As they bicker, Owen hears the drinks in his stomach sloshing and realises that he can no longer digest them so they'll just sit there if left. Also unable to force himself to be sick by sticking his fingers down his throat, he is forced to stand on his head until the liquid comes back through his throat allowing him to vomit, much to Jack's amused disgust. After a moment of panic, Owen and Jack bond. Jack says that he once dated Marcel Proust and that his immortality, which Owen covets in his position, is not the gift that Owen envies. They leave after Jack reveals his thoughts on immortality. Outside they encounter Weevils which chase Owen and Jack until they are cornered on a rooftop. Instead of killing them, the Weevils bow to Owen, who again temporarily loses control of his body and addresses the Weevils in the same unknown language. At the Hub, the team learn that Owen's cells are changing slowly. When complete, something will take over Owen's body. Research shows a similar incident occurred in legend, at the town that predated Cardiff during the time of the Black Death: a little girl died, and the town priest subsequently performed a miracle to resurrect her, but Death itself came back with the revived girl. Death sought to kill thirteen victims, as doing so would allow it to enter the world permanently. But before Death could take more than twelve victims, what the story simply describes as "faith" stopped the entity. Believing this legend is recurring, Owen suggests he must have his neural pathways closed by embalming to stop Death from using him as a gateway. As the team are getting Owen ready for the process, the resurrection gauntlet springs to life and attacks Martha. Owen destroys the gauntlet with a gunshot, but not before it has drained Martha's life and reduced her to an old woman. Before the team can get Martha help or do anything about Owen, the cellular conversion completes, allowing Death to fully possess and then emerge from Owen. Upon manifesting, Death kills Jack, and heads to a hospital, drawn to those close to death. It begins going after patients who are helpless or alone, sucking each one dry and adding their death to its count. As Jack resurrects, the Torchwood team rush Martha to the hospital in her greatly aged state, where a nurse says that as her red blood cell count is low and as she is over eighty, her chances of survival are slim. Upon realising from the Weevils gathering outside that Death is here, the team evacuates everyone from the building, while Death, after taking twelve souls, chases after Jamie Burton; a young leukaemia patient who has been left behind. Owen saves Jamie and helps Tosh and him escape. Ianto, who is waiting with Martha, explains to the team that according to research he's uncovered, the "faith" which defeated Death before was the resurrected child, whose name was Faith. Owen realises that he is the only one who can fight Death; he is already dead and has nothing to lose. After kissing Tosh and stealing her alien lockpick device, Owen locks the other team members out of the hospital and begins a brawl with Death, finally consuming its energy and forcing it back into the darkness. On returning to the Hub, Martha explains to Owen that the energy keeping him "alive" is dissipating but it could take anywhere between thirty seconds and thirty years to die out completely and end Owen's "life." Owen asks Jack to let him work again, as by doing his job as a doctor, he can try to repay the twelve lives that have been lost as a consequence of his resurrection. Toshiko and Jack discuss Owen literally fighting off Death in the hospital; Jack gravely declares, "Ah, you can never really beat Death. Never escape it. It's always in the shadows, waiting!" 
<EOS>
Owen Harper sits on a rooftop ledge, talking to a woman who is on the verge of committing suicide, whose name is later revealed as Maggie Hopley. He tells her about his recent ordeal with being dead and resurrected. As his memories begin, we see Jack let him off, but he has to stay at the Hub so that Martha can run some tests on him. Martha has been assigned the position of Torchwood Three medical doctor. As he talks to her, he cuts his hand on a scalpel. Martha has to stitch it back together, saying that it will have to be stitched every week because of his inability to heal. The team has a meeting about a man they've been keeping an eye on named Henry Parker, who hasn't left his house since the 1980s. Later that day Owen is in his flat, where he decides to get rid of some things since he no longer needs them. After he has finished clearing up, Toshiko comes round and begins talking to him. He does not really listen. After a few minutes Owen demands to know why Tosh has come and why she is still in love with him when he has nothing to give her. He yells at Toshiko that he is broken and breaks one of his fingers to prove it. Leaving Toshiko distraught and alone in his flat he runs outside and then to the Cardiff canal, where he jumps in and spends thirty-six minutes under water before giving up trying to drown himself. After realising he has no breath and returning to the surface, he finds Jack watching. The Torchwood team has another briefing and decide they want to obtain the alien device that Henry Parker has. Owen agrees to go get it, using his death to pass heat sensors and multiple guards. Owen comes to a room where there is a bed hidden by veils, in which Henry is lying. He tells Owen that he needs the device to live; Owen tells him that the device has no life-sustaining properties. Henry and Owen have a conversation about the nature of life and death, which convinces Henry to give up the machine. Almost immediately, he goes into cardiac arrest; Owen attempts to perform CPR on him, but has no breath since he's dead, and Henry Parker dies. Later, the Torchwood team bid farewell to Martha as she leaves to return to UNIT. Later that night, Owen sees Maggie on the top of a building, and goes up to the roof to talk to her. Owen finishes his story to Maggie. He talks her out of suicide by revealing that the Pulse is more than just a random artefact -- it is a reply to humanity's search for extraterrestrial life, proof that they are not alone. 
<EOS>
Gwen is late for her hen night, due to being sent after an alien with a carnivorous appetite. Wounding it, she learns that it's a shape-shifter; she follows the trail of blood, calling Jack in as backup. Losing sight of the creature, Gwen is suddenly attacked by it. It pushes her down as she attempts to fend it off; it bites her arm in the struggle. A gunshot rings, and the creature falls the ground, dead. Jack helps her up, taking notice of the bite wound. Jack insists on having Owen have a look at her wound. Once her arm is bandaged, Gwen takes off for her hen night; she explains that work kept her late. Gwen finds some of the comments her friends say about Rhys to be quite offensive. Gwen wakes up in her apartment the next day, feeling drowsy. She then notices her wedding dress hung up and smiles. She gets up to get out of bed, but then notices something that makes her look in the mirror; apparently, she's pregnant. Despite the extreme shock, all Gwen can say is "Oh." Calling Jack for help, Gwen is soon examined by Owen. Once he tells Gwen that she's actually pregnant, Gwen is dismissive of the idea and asks Jack for a second opinion. He says Owen is right about her being pregnant, prompting Gwen to ask what with. Jack explains some aliens keep their bloodline going by passing eggs onto a host; inside, they mature until ready to be born. He then makes a joke about how "Darwin would have a field day if he got to space". Jack also explains that there is a procedure for this; the public know it as imasculate conception. Jack tries to persuade Gwen to cancel the wedding, but she declines the idea. He then tells Gwen that she is not thinking straight, earning an angry reply in return; he thinks her hormones are causing her rash decisions. Owen mentions that if she were going to die, it would have happened already, so Gwen goes ahead. However, she decides to call Rhys and inform him of what happened; he heads straight home and begins ranting. He also tries to postpone the wedding but Gwen insists. He agrees to have the wedding anyway. The alien fertilisation is explained to their families as Gwen's pregnancy by Rhys, kept secret as a surprise. However, Gwen realises this lie won't work; their parents will be planning for their grandchild. And telling them that she lost the child would be devastating. 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. Tosh notes that the wedding vows would seem like a bad joke, since Owen is undead. Back at the hub, Owen's autopsy determines the creature is a Nostrovite, a carnivorous shape shifter who mates for life and hunt in pairs. After fertilisation, the female transfers eggs to the male, who transfers them to a host to incubate until the correct time. The female then kills the host, releasing the offspring in a "midwife from hell" fashion. The mate of the dead Nostrovite will be hunting Gwen. The Nostrovite infiltrates the wedding and murders the DJ, eating most of him. Her presence is detected by Tosh and Banana Boat; however, Banana's blunder costs Tosh the chance to shoot the creature. They're knocked out and trapped on a bed in a black, web-like construct. Gwen and Rhys are at the altar when Jack demands the wedding be stopped. Owen and Ianto rescue Tosh and Banana Boat. They also find Mervyn'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. Ianto jams the phone lines via the Torchwood SUV to prevent the guests summoning the police and Jack reveals his Torchwood affiliation, much to the surprise of Gwen's father. Before he can press the issue, Tosh notices the alien and alerts Jack. The Nostrovite reveals its true appearance and attempts to attack them, but flees out the window under a hail of bullets. Tosh and Jack give chase but lose its track, though Tosh surmises that it won't have gone far. Jack questions Owen about Gwen, who says that Rhys' mother Brenda is with the couple. Tosh notices Brenda with Gwen's mother in the garden, however, and they come to the conclusion that the alien has assumed Brenda's form to get close to Gwen. 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 really Rhys' mother; the alien can't copy smells and Brenda always wears awful perfume. 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 and charges, Gwen shoots it several times in the stomach with a gun hidden in her bouquet, though it manages to flee. 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. The rest of the team met up with Own, who explains that he and Gwen emptied clips into the alien, but "some mother instinct or something" is making it unstoppable. Since ordinary firearms are ineffective, Jack decides that they need a bigger gun and begins to assemble one taken from the SUV's boot compartment. 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 vapourised, 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. However, the chainsaw stops working, causing Rhys to swear profusely. The Nostrovite calls him a bad boy and raises its hand to attack him. Before it can do so, it is blown to bits from behind, spattering Rhys with its gory remains and black blood, revealing Jack at the door with a large laser 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 so they will not remember the bizarre events. Jack offers the couple pills, but Gwen declines. She insists 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 being "Wedding Fairies" 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. 
<EOS>
Local Cardiff residents transform an old cinema, the "Electro", into a local history museum airing old celluloid movies as part of its exhibits. The volunteer management discovers that a black-and-white film of a travelling company seems to take on a life of its own, restarting itself in the film projector and preventing the projector from being turned off for a period of time.  Unknown to them, two figures from the film, the troupe's leader and its "Mermaid Woman", step out of the projection screen and become real, disappearing into the streets of Cardiff. On the same night Ianto, who has convinced Gwen and Owen to join him for the evening at the museum, claims to see Jack in the footage. As the team review the film back at the Hub, Ianto notices the absence of the two characters, and the team recognises Jack. Jack admits that he was once part of such a show as the "man who could not die". and describes one troupe, known as the "Night Travellers", who would perform only at night, appearing by "coming out of the rain" and disappearing as mysteriously but usually resulting in some of the local residents going missing. Meanwhile, the troupe's leader, known as the Ghostmaker, and the Mermaid Woman prey on innocent victims, drawing their "last breath" into a silver flask and leaving them with no saliva or tears, and close to death in a near vegetative state. Torchwood investigate and discover multiple stories and old superstitions relating to the Night Travellers, but a chance mention to a hospital nurse leads them to a still living eyewitness -- an old woman in a nursing home. She explains to the team how her family was taken from her by the Night Travellers, and relates an old nursery tale that children should hold their breath as the travelling show came into town to prevent themselves from being taken. As the team investigates, the Ghostmaker decides to release more of his companions from the film to regain their audience and begin travelling again like the old days. Jack surmises that if they were released from the film, they could be captured by it as well using a home movie camera. The team rushes back to the theatre as the Ghostmaker is releasing the others from the film and is able to use a camera to confine all the Night Travellers save for the Ghostmaker; Jack then rips open the camera and exposes the film to sunlight, effectively exorcising the ghosts. They are able to capture the Ghostmaker, who in a last fit of revenge, opens the silver flask and throws it into the air. Ianto catches and closes it quickly, but too late to save all but one victim; the other victims, with the loss of their breath, quickly pass away. Torchwood restores the breath to the last victim, a young boy, and the silver flask is stowed away back at Torchwood. Though the rest of the team believe the threat is over, Jack surmises there may be more reels of the Night Travellers. Someone buys such a reel at a car boot sale. It has the emblem of the Night Travellers troupe carved on the canister. A man is inclined to pick it up, but drops it on the ground, dislodging the lid and exposing a piece of the film. He picks up the canister and closes the lid tight, but for a brief moment, the sound of familiar calliope music drifts into the air. The sound reaches all the way to Jack's ears, but vanishes almost immediately. Jack wonders for a moment if his suspicions are true. He dismisses it as hearing things that aren't there and resumes his duties, putting the case of the Night Travellers to rest if time will allow. 
<EOS>
Jonah Bevan is walking home across the Cardiff Bay Barrage when a bright light appears. Six seconds later he is gone. Seven months later, at the instigation of PC Andy Davidson, Gwen is investigating the disappearance of Jonah. Her research reveals there are more cases resembling Jonah's disappearance. Toshiko discovers that these disappearances happened during a negative spike of rift activity, which were previously discarded as aftershock. Gwen then compiles a list of all missing persons and informs Jack. However, Jack tells Gwen that nothing can be done and orders her to stop the investigation, which she refuses to do. The investigation slowly turns into an obsession and takes a toll on the relationship between Gwen and Rhys. Returning to the Hub, Gwen interrupts Jack and Ianto during a sexual encounter and, after apologising, tells Jack that she wants to continue the investigation. Jack sternly refuses, but Ianto secretly gives Gwen a GPS device with coordinates to a hidden location, leading Gwen to a facility on Flat Holm. It harbours 17 of the missing people that the rift took and subsequently brought back, including Jonah, the boy she has been looking for. However, he has aged 40 years and is very deformed. Gwen also finds Jack there, and she demands access to Jonah. Jonah tells how he was stuck on a "burning planet" and how he was taken into a building that was actually a rescue craft, from which he witnessed the burning of a solar system. Afterwards, Jack reveals that he set up the facility when he first took command of Torchwood, in order to care for the victims of the rift, who had previously been locked away in the vaults. Gwen brings Nikki, Jonah's mother, in to see him under the supervision of a facility staff member.  At first she is horrified, believing it to be a cruel joke, but Jonah starts telling her things that only he would know.  Nikki calms and they hug for a moment, but when Jonah tells the staff member with growing distress that he can feel "it" starting up, she urgently tells Nikki to get away from him. She resists and says that she can take care of him. However Jonah starts screaming, a scream so horrible that everyone flees. Gwen reveals that the scream lasts for 20 hours every day because he looked into the heart of a Dark star, which drove him insane. A week later, Gwen goes to see Nikki, who implores her not to show the island to anyone else.  She states that it would have been better for her to have remembered her son as he was, rather than to know of his true fate.  Gwen takes down her notes over the missing.  Nikki packs up Jonah's room and, knowing he can never return home, breaks down into sobs.  At home that night, Gwen prepares a romantic candle-lit dinner for Rhys, who, realising that she is shouldering a massive heartbreak, instead lets her cry into his chest. Rhys comforts his wife and lets her confide her sorrowful experience with him. 
<EOS>
The Torchwood team, minus Gwen, investigate a derelict building and are trapped when it explodes. The four experience flashbacks about their origins with the alien-fighting organisation. Captain Jack is picked up by the all-female Torchwood Three in Victorian times when they become aware of his immortality. They torture him to extract information about the Doctor to no avail, but soon decide to enlist him as an agent. After many decades have passed, Jack now works for Alex Hopkins, and it is New Year's Eve, 1999. Jack discovers that his boss has murdered everyone else in the Hub because of his fear of the new millennium and the horrors it may hold. Alex has used a piece of alien technology that showed him the future, and decided to eliminate his team as "mercy killings," knowing that if they lived, their fates would perhaps be even worse. He cannot do the same to Jack because of his immortality. He turns Torchwood Three over to Jack, telling him, "The 21st century is when it all changes and we're not ready". Alex Hopkins puts his gun to his head and takes his own life. Jack is now left without a team, but he is now in command of Torchwood Three. After 100 years of servitude under supervising authority, Jack is free to act as he desires. Toshiko joins Torchwood after Jack finds her in a top secret prison. She leaked information from her Ministry of Defence job to a vicious gang holding her mother captive. UNIT raid the building and take Tosh, Milton and her henchmen to a secret prison where she is told she will be kept forever. However, Jack is impressed by her ability to assemble a sonic modulator despite flawed instructions. He has her released and given a pardon once she accepts the Torchwood job. Ianto harasses Jack for a job after the demise of Torchwood One, where he worked. Helping Jack fight off a Weevil and repeatedly praising his coat doesn't work at first, but they capture a pterodactyl together -- with the help of some chocolate -- and Ianto is enlisted. Owen meets Jack when he bursts into a hospital room after brain surgery on Owen's ailing fiancee Katie. Despite warnings from Torchwood, the surgeon tried to remove an alien from her brain. When the alien lifeform was threatened, it emitted a toxic gas, killing all the humans in the operating room. Jack arrives too late. After explaining the situation to Owen, Jack knocks him out. Owen wakes to discover a massive cover up. He encounters Jack when visiting Katie's grave. After a fight, he agrees to join Torchwood as a medic. Back in the present, Gwen and Rhys help to pull everyone from the debris in the building. However, Jack receives a holographic message from John Hart in which he claims responsibility for the bombs and says he has taken Jack's brother Gray captive. 
<EOS>
Toshiko detects rift activity in three locations across Cardiff. She and Ianto go the Central IT Server Building, where three Cowled Men with scythes approach menacingly. The agents shoot them as they get closer. Meanwhile, Owen sedates a Hoix in a hospital with a packet of cigarettes and a special mixture. Finally, Rhys drops Gwen off at the police HQ, where Weevils have killed "the four most senior officers", causing panic. Captain Jack goes to the Hub to face John Hart, who says he loves Jack and shoots him with two machine guns. When Jack returns to life, he is chained over the ground. John is angry because he was very rude to him in front of people "that hardly knew me". After an electric shock to silence him, John tells Jack he hopes he can stop him, he really does. As the rift manipulator is activated, John tells the Torchwood gang to go to the roofs of their buildings. They make their ways to the top of the central server building, the hospital and the police HQ. Gwen, Andy, Rhys, Toshiko, Owen and Ianto look on as John, from atop Cardiff castle, detonates explosives in fifteen key locations that cripple the city. He whisks Jack back in time to meet Gray. It turns out Gray is in control, threatening John into action. Gwen takes charge of the team and the police. She makes her way to the Hub, where she finds John has returned to help the team after being forced to bury Jack alive in Cardiff in 27 AD. Gray activates a signal and Weevils flood the streets of Cardiff. This stops Toshiko and Ianto from reaching the nuclear power station to halt a meltdown. Owen goes to the nuclear facility, reminding his teammates that he's king of the Weevils. The others are attacked by Weevils at the Hub, but subdue them, only to be locked into cells by Gray. Owen, at the nuclear facility, tells Nira Docherty, a scientist who is trying to contain prevent a meltdown, to leave. She refuses for a few moments, claiming a soldier never leaves their post, before Owen reveals his layman's knowledge about the nuclear station is adequate. Although Nira thinks it sounds more dangerous outside, Owen figures it's about even with the situation at the plant and gives her a can of Weevil spray, sending her on her way, thanked by Nira in return. Owen waits for instruction from Toshiko, admitting to her, "Tosh, you're going to have to help me out here. I haven't got a bloody clue what I'm doing." Tosh tells Owen her plan to divert a secondary power source for Turnmill that will restore its power, and if it works, she can guide him into restoring the coolant system. However, while her attention is focused on using a remote control device, a gunshot rings out and Toshiko stumbles backward, before noticing a huge amount of blood oozing from her wounded stomach. She glances up to see she has been mortally shot by Gray, who stares back at her with cold hatred, before toppling over in horrific pain. Gray kicks away her device and mocks her, seeing death as more of a relief and asking her how it feels to be dying, declaring the battle to be over. A knocking interrupts his taunting and he heads for the morgue. In agony, Tosh makes her way down the steps to the autopsy room, gets her device back, and injects herself with a powerful pain-killer. She denies that she's hurt when Owen asks and helps him to flood the room he's in with coolant, halting the meltdown. As this is happening, Gray discovers Jack in a cryo-chamber in the morgue, placed there by Torchwood in 1901 on his own request. He tells Gray he forgives him. Gray refuses to give him absolution, so Jack uses chloroform to put him to sleep. He frees the others from the cells and they head back to the main area. However, an unexpected power surge alerts Tosh that there is going to be an emergency lockdown once it hits, which will seal Owen in the station. Owen sees the doors closing and makes a run for the exit, but fails to make it out in time, leaving him to face his death all over again. Banging on the door, he shouts to Tosh that he cannot get out. Knowing what's about to happen, he begins shouting angrily about not wanting to die like this, let alone for the second time. When he figures out Tosh can't help him, he starts panicking for the rest of his teammates to come rescue him. Once he realises it's hopeless, he dissolves into a screaming rage. Toshiko, dying, asks Owen to calm down. He demands a reason. Tosh tearfully replies, "Because you're breaking my heart", and he is quiet. The two talk as they prepare to die, Owen unaware of Tosh's wounds. Owen asks what will happen to him, and though Tosh resists explaining at first, Owen begs her to say it because he needs to know. Tosh replies that the room where Owen is locked inside is a containment chamber which will flood with irradiated coolant. Owen concludes his body is going to slowly decompose as he watches. Tosh regrets being unable to stop the power spike, but Owen responds there was no way she could have known about it and thanks Tosh for saving his back so many times before in the past. He remembers back when Tosh had to fill in for him on his second week at Torchwood by pretending to be a doctor when investigating a Space Pig because he had a hangover, and the two laugh wearily. Owen realises they never had their date together and apologises because they "sort, er, missed each other", and for not noticing Tosh's love for him until it was too late, reciprocating it back to her. The coolant venting process activates, and Owen lets Tosh know it is starting. Tearing up, Toshiko starts to grieve for Owen, but Owen lets her know it's okay. Coolant pours into the room where Owen is trapped and he accepts his fate. Owen tells Tosh it will be all right. He calmly stands up and prepares to die. The room is engulfed with a bright flash, and Owen disappears. The last thing he can be heard saying is, "Oh, God." Toshiko bleeds to death as she watches the screen show Owen's fading signature. Jack and the others arrive. He notices the puddles of blood leading down the steps of the autopsy room and sprints to Toshiko, cradling her. Ianto mentions the nuclear plant, worried about Owen, before Tosh tearfully tells her team what happened and she couldn't save him. Gwen gives her another dose of pain-killer and tries to soothe her, but Toshiko dies in Jack's arms with Gwen at her side. She looks in Jack's eyes and smiles at him one last time before her life fades and her face goes slack. Gwen and Jack cry helplessly for their deceased teammate. Ianto leans himself against an autopsy cart, trying to maintain his composure, while John looks at them all solemnly. The following morning, a news broadcast airs in Cardiff about its efforts to recover from the attacks during the previous night. Rhys holds Gwen beside him, who is filled with misery. Back at the Hub, Jack prepares to cryo-freeze Gray, though John is quick to warn him that if Jack woke him up in 100 years, he will not have grown any better from his tortured state of mind. Aware of this, John suggests killing Gray could be the release he needs. Jack refuses to entertain the thought, believing too much death has occurred. John comforts Jack by saying it wasn't his fault. He also questions him for not putting up a fight when he was being buried alive. He tells John it was his penance, answering his curiosity. John reverently bids farewell to Jack with a hug and kiss, then consoles him for his recent losses. Jack and Gwen gather Owen and Toshiko's personal belongings for archiving. When Jack collects Owen's lab coat adorned with colourful pin-back buttons, and Gwen bags up Tosh's raspberry-coloured glasses, the pain of coming to terms with their deaths resurfaces and they become tearful all over again. Meanwhile, Ianto reluctantly begins Owen and Toshiko's respective final logouts, soon joined by Gwen and Jack. Upon finishing Toshiko's, a video appears in which she thanks Jack, admits her love for Owen and hopes she didn't die for nothing. It evokes a few smiles from the group, despite the great sadness they feel over her death. When Toshiko's farewell message closes, Jack lets his grief subside and resolves that the team has to carry on. Taking the losses of Owen and Tosh very hard, Gwen is unsure if she can continue, but Jack tells his last two comrades that they'll start from the end. He embraces her and Ianto in a hug. Torchwood Three has lost two of its most beloved members, but they will never be forgotten by their comrades. 
<EOS>
One night in Scotland, 1965, young children are driven in a school bus to an undisclosed location. When the bus stops, the children exit and walk towards a light. It grows brighter as they draw closer. One hesitates, then flees as the light covers a large area. Forty-four years later, in Cardiff, September 2009, at 8:40am GMT, Gwen Cooper is withdrawing money from an ATM when she notices two children standing completely still and unresponsive. In fact, all the children all over the United Kingdom freeze. After a minute, the children start moving again, acting as if nothing has happened. Gwen goes to the Hub and begins to investigate the incident. At a hospital, Dr Rupesh Patanjali fails to save a man's life. Jack Harkness and Ianto Jones, whom Dr Patanjali believes are the man's neighbours, ask to see the body alone. Jack uses a laser saw to open the corpse. He extracts an alien organ. Dr Patanjali re-enters, sees the alien organ and asks if the men are Torchwood. Jack quickly denies it. Dr Patanjali tells them the bodies of five ethnic males have vanished over the past two months. Jack tells him it's a problem for the NHS. Ianto and he drive away. Back at the Hub, Gwen tells them what has happened with the children. A woman named Lois Habiba begins her first day at work for her new boss, Bridget Spears, assistant to the Permanent Secretary to the Home Office, John Frobisher. Frobisher is visited by UNIT Colonel Oduya, who tells him children "stopped" at the exact same time all over the world, as the Torchwood team also discovers. Oduya says UNIT has gone to yellow alert, although they don't know if the phenomenon is extraterrestrial in origin. Dr Patanjali wanders in the plaza outside the Hub. Gwen goes to meet him, as the self-appointed "recruitment officer," since, as Jack says, the team needs a doctor. While they talk, all the children again suddenly stop at 10:30 am. They scream, then chant in unison: "We are coming." The Torchwood team later discovers that an adult patient in a mental institution in East Grinstead -- Timothy White -- also stopped and spoke the same words. Every child in the world said the same words. Mr Dekker, head of MI5's technology division, who is also in charge of alien monitoring, tells Frobisher the aliens called the 456 have re-established contact for the first time since 1965. Frobisher meets with the Prime Minister, Brian Green, and suggests, "It might be best if certain historical events were taken off the record." Green agrees, but refuses Frobisher's request he issue a "blank page"; he doesn't want his name attached. Green puts Frobisher in charge of the crisis so Green can have deniability if things go wrong. Lois fields a phone call from Jack Harkness. When she logs it, the computer flags Torchwood as classified. Curious, she logs on as Bridget Spears and finds Torchwood was established to defend the Earth against extraterrestrial threats. Back at the Hub, Jack and Ianto agree they need to question a child. Jack visits his daughter, Alice Carter, and her son Steven, his grandson. Alice refuses to let Jack use Steven. Ianto visits his sister, Rhiannon Davies. He tries to talk her into letting him take one of her children on an "outing", but she refuses. She also asks Ianto about his having been seen out to dinner with a man. Ianto admits his feelings for Jack. He explains he doesn't have an inkling for men, but Jack has affected him differently, so he isn't broadcasting his sexual choices. Rhiannon promises him that she will not tell anyone about his relationship. However, it becomes evident she gossiped to her husband Johnny when he walks in and thoughtlessly calls Ianto a "gay boy" who, according to his wife, has been "taking it up the arse". Feeling humiliated, he takes the riffing with a grain of salt and puts up with Johnny to save face. Suddenly, a car alarm begins wailing. Johnny looks out the window and asks whom the "black car" belongs to. Ianto confirms it as the Torchwood SUV. Ianto ignores Johnny's warning that his car is a target on their estate. He puts too much faith in the vehicle's triple deadlock, a costly mistake. Johnny alerts him a few hooligans have broken into the company car with ease. Panicked, Ianto bursts outside to find the SUV nowhere in sight. Johnny says the local thieves always do a victory lap to parade around in their stolen ride and takes the opportunity to pelt them with bricks on the pass around, rather than calling the authorities as Ianto requests. Surely enough, the Torchwood SUV blazes back into view one last time. The joyriding jokers cheer and whoop as they drive off with the car, one of them mooning the group as they pass by. David cheers the joyriders on from his bedroom window, which earns him a scolding from Rhiannon. An exasperated Ianto watches the car disappear around a corner as Johnny chases the thieves with an armload of bricks. Gwen visits Timothy White. He tells her that when he was a child he was put on a bus and taken away with a group of children; they were told they were going to a new home. He watched the other children approach a bright light, which took them. He escaped; he got scared and ran away. His real name is Clem McDonald. He has an unusually heightened sense of smell. Clem tells Gwen the aliens are coming back, that he has been smelling them for months -- and that she is three weeks pregnant. Gwen calls Ianto, now back at the Hub, and tells him to start a search for information about MacDonald, missing children, and Scotland. Ianto's research triggers an alarm at an unidentified military monitoring station. At the Home Office, Frobisher orders Bridget Spears to issue a blank page, an order to kill. Four people are on the list. One is Captain Jack Harkness. The others are Colonel Michael Sanders, Ellen Hunt and Captain Andrew Staines. Lois sees Bridget is distressed. She goes into Bridget's e-mail account and finds the blank page order, recognising Jack's name from his earlier phone call. Jack returns to Cardiff hospital, hoping to question a child in the children's ward. Dr Patanjali tells him that another ethnic man has died; when Jack goes with him to examine the body, Dr Patanjali shoots him. A young woman named Johnson comes in and waits until Jack revives, proving the rumours about his immortality. She kills Jack again, then orders her men to surgically implant a bomb in his body. Patanjali is a spy, under orders to infiltrate Torchwood. Johnson kills Patanjali to stop Jack from finding him and learning why he was shot. Jack revives again and returns to the Hub. Gwen uses a scanner at Torchwood. Clement's claims are true; she is pregnant. Jack arrives and places his hand on hers, inadvertently scanning himself, finding the bomb in his stomach. He tells Gwen and Ianto to get out. He kisses Ianto, watches him rise on the elevator, and tells him, "I'll come back. I always do." The Hub blows up in a massive explosion, knocking the running Gwen to the ground. Meanwhile, all of the children chant, "We are coming, we are coming, we are coming back". 
<EOS>
The Hub has blown up. As Gwen emerges from the rubble she is seized by an assassination squad and is dragged into an ambulance. The men pin her flat on a stretcher. One prepares a needle, but they let go of her when she bites one of them. Leaping to her feet, Gwen drives off in the ambulance with one of the men. Holding him at gunpoint, she is told that the government has ordered the destruction of Torchwood but he doesn't have any further information. She makes it home and hurriedly wakes Rhys telling him what has happened and that they need to leave immediately. Just then she gets a call from Ianto, who has also survived, and tells him what she has learned. Neither can understand why the government has ordered their deaths; however they cannot set up a meeting point as the phones have likely been bugged. Gwen is forced to leave when the assassination squad show up. Shooting out the tires on the squad's vehicle, she and Rhys go on the run. The next morning, Johnson finds Jack Harkness' remains in the ruins of the Hub, little more than an arm and a head. They are taken to a warehouse in London. His body begins to reconstruct itself. Meanwhile, Ianto sends a card to his sister through their newspaper, asking her to meet him at the park where his leg was broken as a child and to bring a laptop computer. Her son David knows Ianto left it and warns her they've probably been bugged. Typically, a car with two government agents is parked in the estate, and the men are listening to their conversations. Johnny decides to get back at the men by making them listen to obnoxious things, such as how David "pissed the bed" after the raid last night. Micah taunts his humilated brother while he objects that his dad is lying. Rhiannon gets annoyed and goes upstairs to read Ianto's message, soon joined by her husband after he drops the vulgar act. Meanwhile, the body bag containing Jack's remains is now filled with a skeleton and muscles, as opposed to the few pieces of flesh from the explosion, showing that his body is regrowing. Gwen and Rhys find that their bank accounts have been frozen, and with nowhere else to go decide to head to London as this is where everything is happening. The two sneak aboard a lorry, which is full of potatoes; during the trip, Gwen tries to announce her pregnancy to Rhys and lets him figure it out through her body language. He is excited to learn about their future child, but the thought of letting Gwen endure this danger while pregnant upsets him, and he expounds the reasons for him to stick with her while she's on the run. At around the same time, Jack's body has halfway completed regenerating, but his outer skin is still burnt, raw, and unformed, nor can he see. He has recovered enough to regain conciousness, and immediately bellows out in mind-numbing pain with a primal scream. Later on that day, Johnny cleverly rounds up a posse of children from the estate and they surround the agents' car. He accuses them of snooping, and when they deny it, he deems them perverts and rallies the kids to get the "paedos". The group swamps the vehicle and rocks it aggressively, obstructing the agents' view out the car windows. Given the unfriendly neighbourhood, this creates a believable and convenient distraction for Rhiannon to drive away unnoticed. Rhiannon meets with Ianto in a park and discovers he has been wounded by the Hub's explosion. While they speak, the kids in the park, along with the rest of the children in the world, suddenly stop moving again and declare another ominous message; "We are coming tomorrow." Ianto approaches a girl in the park after the kids return to normal with the intent of learning what she felt during the moment she froze, but gets rebuffed by her protective mother, who thinks he's doing something perverted. Ianto gives up on the kids and requests Johnny's car and his sister's laptop so he can track Jack down. In London, Gwen tries to contact John Frobisher. Her call is taken by Lois Habiba. At MI5, Frobisher, Bridget and Lois see an unknown device being built by Mr Dekker to the 456's specifications. Lois meets with Gwen and Rhys and tells them it was Frobisher who issued the kill order on Jack and several others. Gwen recognises none of the names. Lois also gives Gwen information about the compound where Jack is being kept. She also suggests a way for Gwen and Rhys to gain entry. Jack, now fully re-formed and no longer in acute pain, is sealed in concrete by Johnson to prevent his escape, who pragmatically refuses to reveal any information to him because he remains alive and a viable threat, which is why she has chosen to keep him contained. Gwen and Rhys, as Lois had suggested, pose as funeral directors come to fetch Rupesh Patanjali's body, also held at the compound. Their plan initially works. The soldier who requested the retrieval, Camara Kodak is friendly and does not suspect Gwen or Rhys to be imposters. Rhys gets defensive when he flirts with his wife and lets him figure out they're a married couple. It doesn't give them away, but Gwen is unhappy with Rhys's slip of the tongue. When the group enters the cell with Patanjali's body bag, Gwen disables the camera surveillance with the same pen she used in the mental care facility, then pistol whips Kodak to the back of the head while he isn't looking, rendering him unconscious. Gwen snatches his keys and locks the guard inside the cell, while she and Rhys start opening the next one. Their disabling of the hallway camera attracts the suspicion of the guard watching the security footage. The second cell turns out to hold the body of the undercover soldier who was shot by the sniper attacking Gwen. When she disables the camera in this cell, the guard at the desk sees the act perpetrated and sounds the alarms. Not willing to waste time on Rhys finding the key for the third lock, Gwen breaks it open with several gunshots, only to find it blocked by a concrete slab. The soldiers in the compound surround Gwen and Rhys and open fire. Gwen empties her gun defending herself and her husband as he declares they'll have to surrender, while Johnson calmly marches forward with a patrol unit to corral them. Gwen discovers it was a mistake to waste her limited ammunition on the cell lock -- her gun is out of bullets. Cornered, she lowers her weapons and kneels to the floor. The room quakes and a pile of rubble begins falling from the ceiling as the concrete wall is forcefully yanked out of the wall. Ianto, who has also arrived in London and learned where Jack was taken, has stolen a forklift. He lifts Jack's cell and pulls it out of the compound. Gwen and Rhys escape with Ianto in the forklift, chased by Johnson and many soldiers. The forklift isn't fast enough to outrun them. Gwen pulls out her other gun and returns fire at the men shooting at the trio, Rhys ducking for cover. They find themselves blocked by the cement truck used to pour concrete in Jack's cell. Rhys hops out and drives the truck out of the way, then Gwen turns it into a barricade by shooting its gas tank, igniting the vehicle and allowing the group to get away without being pursued. Johnson informs Frobisher they have run into a roadblock. He replies that they cannot let the Torchwood personnel escape and tell someone of the situation at hand or they'll be on the chopping block. Ianto drops the concrete block into a quarry where it breaks apart, releasing Jack. He revives and stands up, unclothed and covered in bits of mud and concrete. Rhys  offered him the coat from the funeral director's suit, and Gwen hands it off to him while trying not to stare at his nude body. Jack reunites with the group and learns about the message the children have spoken. Torchwood Three departs in Johnny's car to figure out their next move. Back at the MI5 headquarters, the mysterious device is completed: a sealed, glass-walled chamber filled with a concoction of gases poisonous to humans. Frobisher, Spears, and Decker contemplate its purpose. Bridget wonders what could possibly live inside that gas, but Dekker informs her they don't have time to figure it out with the 456 arriving tomorrow. Frobisher indicates only Britain knows about the 456's contact with Earth and their return will not concern a global level. Dekker sees that the room for the 456 is like an ambassadorial suite or throne room. As his colleagues walk out of the room, Dekker huffs on the glass walls and embraces the tank with an unnatural sense of welcoming anticipation. 
<EOS>
The team, including Rhys, have set up a base in an old factory once used by Torchwood One for storage. As a former police officer, Gwen knows all the tricks of the criminal trade, including stealing mobile phones, debit cards and laptops from people off the street. Jack makes off with a car. Soon the base is stocked with creature comforts; coffee, electricity, access to the Torchwood server, toiletries, and new clothes for the group, including replacement World War I era apparel for Jack, thanks to an Army Surplus special. When he researches the other people targeted for assassination, Jack is shocked. He seems to recognise them and he runs off. In Cardiff, Jack's daughter Alice is still trying to contact him; she goes outside and borrows a girl's mobile to phone the Cardiff police, but the government's scanners pick up Jack's name and try to find the connection between them. Agent Johnson gets word of this. Her team take Alice and her son away to "help" them. Suddenly, Steven points southeastwards to London as all the children on Earth are pointing towards London. A pillar of light descends from the sky and enters Thames House. Fiery energy fills the gas containment system. John Frobisher and Mr Dekker meet with the aliens, who instruct the humans to call them "456". During the discussion, Frobisher extracts a promise from the 456 that it will not mention its previous visit to Earth in 1965. Gwen surprises Lois Habiba at a cafe and asks her to wear some special contact lenses to allow Torchwood to see what is going on. Lois protests but takes the contacts. Gwen phones PC Andy to bail Clem McDonald out from police custody and brings him to the base. Jack sneaks into Frobisher's house and steals his wife's mobile. He phones Frobisher, having made the connection between the children and the events of 1965. He threatens Frobisher with "blow[ing] this thing sky high". Frobisher tells Jack they have taken his daughter and grandson into custody and will kill them if he does. Jack threatens to do the same, but Frobisher knows he would never do such a thing. That night, Frobisher, Bridget Spears and Lois Habiba enter the gas chamber room, which is being filmed for the Prime Minister and being transmitted to a conference room where UNIT, an American general and the Prime Minister are watching. Frobisher demands the 456 cease using human children to communicate; in return the 456 demand a gift: 10% of the children on Earth. Back at the warehouse base, Clem tells Gwen he can smell the man who brought the children to the aliens. When Jack walks in, Clem recognises him as the man who gave the twelve children up to the aliens in 1965. When Gwen protests that Jack is a "good guy" who fights aliens, Jack informs them that in this instance, he had done what was asked. He gave the 456 the children "as a gift." 
<EOS>
Jack recalls the events of 1965. The aliens had offered a cure for a deadly new flu strain that will soon arise, and, in return, wanted twelve children. Jack's partner claims that the aliens say the children will live forever and he was asked for because he can't die and doesn't care. Clement escapes abduction. Jack is in charge of handing over the children. It turns out that Clement wasn't taken because the 456 disappeared first. Jack had not known Clement had escaped. The 456 do not seem to care when they hand over the information for the cure. Back in the present, Clement steals Gwen's gun and shoots Jack. Gwen retrieves her gun, Jack wakes up and Clement runs off in a panic. Gwen calms him down. They wonder why Clem wasn't taken; perhaps he was on the verge of puberty and so not wanted by the 456. At Johnson's facility, Alice and Steven are imprisoned, and Alice warns Johnson about angering Jack. Back at the Home Office, Frobisher asks what would happen to the children, and the "456" by responding that a "remnant" is watching -- Clem realises the 456 is talking about him -- and then says it is off the record. It invites Frobisher in with a camera. A cameraman enters. A 456 appears in profile. Dekker says he detects three heartbeats and three distinct types of life in there. A child, one identified as one taken in the 1960s, who has not aged, is hooked up to something. The cameraman leaves. A recording of Frobisher's voice announces this is off the record. The 456 says they do not harm the children and they feel no pain. If humanity refuse to hand over the children, they will wipe out the human species. The Americans demand all the records of 1965 from the Prime Minister and threaten him with UN sanctions for withholding the information. Jack and Ianto argue about Jack's role in the swap of children. Jack calls Frobisher to confirm the 456 have returned. Jack insists the 456's return is proof that they cannot be trusted. Frobisher says he has Jack's daughter and grandson but they will not be harmed if Jack does not reveal Britain's dealings with the 456. Jack insists he needs to confront the 456. Lois attends a COBRA meeting. The PM says they will try to haggle, but they can't take military action. There isn't anything to target. The PM and Frobisher talk about camouflaged targets but no more. Bridget looks at Lois with suspicion. The PM tells Frobisher to offer "sixty units" and no more. Back at the 456 "embassy," Frobisher offers the 456 one child per million people on Earth. The 456 refuse. Around the world, children begin to chant a number. It is a tenth of all the children in the world. Back at Johnson's facility, she is being kept in the dark. She decides to go into London, but keeps her team on the lookout for Jack. At the COBRA meeting, a discussion ensues over how to select the tenth and how best to present it to the public. At first a random lottery is suggested, since the government could protect itself from the resulting aftermath. However, one of the Cabinet members, Denise Riley, does not agree with the idea, as it would put her own children at danger of being selected. Yates suggests an alphabetical draw, which Riley scorns. Eventually Green declares that the children and grandchildren of everyone at the table will be exempt from possible selection but refuses to widen the scope to include nieces and nephews. Denise won't accept this, and suggests that the criteria for selection should be the school league tables since the higher schools will be producing graduates who will contribute to society while the failing schools will be producing people who are "drains on society". This proposal is accepted and given to Frobisher. The Torchwood team decide Lois's footage gives them leverage to blackmail the Cabinet. They force their way into Thames House. Ianto phones his sister to warn her, knowing that the line is tapped. He sends a message to those listening -- to protect their children -- and makes a quick call to Gwen, providing Johnson with information of Torchwood's location. Frobisher begins to plan how children will be gathered and notes that the government can promise an "inoculation" to prevent children from chanting messages in unison. He suggests it be reported that the false vaccination "went wrong," allowing the government to put the blame on the 456 for the loss of the children. Johnson arrives at the Torchwood Hub, but Gwen was expecting them and shows them what they were recording. Rhys has gone into hiding and is ready to send out the footage to the public if anything goes wrong. Jack and Ianto enter Thames House. Jack talks to the 456, who will not yield on their request for ten percent of the world's children. Jack says he is making it a war. The 456 say, "A virus has been released. It will kill everyone in the building." Jack runs out of the room and warns two guards of the virus. Meanwhile, Ianto orders the 456 to release an anti-virus or he'll blow a hole in their tank. Jack returns and tries to negotiate, but the alien refuses. Ianto and Jack shoot at the 456 chamber, but the bullets bounce off. The 456 start to shriek. Clement screams in agony and starts to bleed. The 456 say the Remnant will be disconnected and Clement dies in Gwen's arms. Jack says he will get Ianto out, aware that he can survive anything but Ianto can't. Ianto tells him it is too late: he's breathed in the virus. Within seconds, Ianto collapses from toxic exposure and Jack catches him in his arms. Everyone in Thames house is collapsing and dying, save Dekker, who dons an environmental suit in time, and Jack, who can't die. Ianto sobs quietly as his strength fades. He tells Jack that he loves him, slipping away. Jack starts crying as he begs Ianto to stay with him. Ianto wakes and whispers that "it [their relationship] was good while it lasted." Jack agrees. Ianto gives Jack a dying request: "Don't forget me." Jack answers, "Never could." Ianto's last words are, "A thousand years' time you won't remember me." However, Jack denounces them; "Yes I will. I promise, I will." Ianto gasps one final time and dies in his arms, Jack hopelessly pleading for his lover not to leave him. The 456 tell Jack that he will die, and that, tomorrow, the children will be delivered. Jack kisses Ianto and succumbs to the virus himself. The Gold Command room is left with no choice but to enact the plan to deliver 35 million children to the 456 or face annihilation. The Cabinet decide to go ahead and deliver the children. At Thames House, a room has been filled with dozens of body bags, all victims of the virus attack, which has been cleansed from the building. Gwen walks into the room of the dead with support troops. One man points out Jack's and Ianto's bodies and she walks towards them. Gwen calmly removes the sheet over Jack and smiles faintly. He will revive and all will be well. However, she glances to the right and her expression darkens, knowing Ianto is underneath the sheet who won't be coming back. She lifts the sheet off his face and sees that Ianto is pale and lifeless, fixing his crooked tie. The sight breaks her heart and she begins to cry. Jack wakes up and comforts her, equally as torn apart by the death of his partner. Defeated, Gwen tearfully says, "There is nothing we can do." 
<EOS>
Gwen appears on a camcorder tape, asking why the Doctor has not appeared to save them. She remarks that sometimes he must be appalled at the way humanity deals with times of crisis. The Prime Minister speaks to the nation, telling the UK about the upcoming "inoculations" and saying it is safe for the children to return to school.  Colonel Oduya of UNIT talks with the 456, asking them what they need the children for. He is told that the children are for "the hit": they create chemicals which the 456 use as recreational drugs. The government, although horrified at the reason, begins to put their plan into action. John Frobisher is ordered by the Prime Minister to publicly state that his own children will be taken for "inoculation," to portray themselves as much victims as the public and to make the 456 the true villains. Frobisher threatens to reveal to the press the true nature of the inoculations. Green persuades him not to, noting that Frobisher's children would know their fate. Frobisher decides to murder his family and commit suicide. Bridget Spears visits Lois Habiba in prison, where she is being held on charges of espionage. She tells Lois that "John Frobisher was a good man and it wasn't his fault, nor will history remember him this way". Spears takes the Torchwood contact lenses to record evidence against Green. Rhiannon Davies and Johnny, told by Jones that the government is lying, keep their "creche" service running for the local estate. Gwen, Rhys and Andy Davidson arrive to tell them of Ianto's death and warn them special forces will soon arrive to take the children. Gwen also tells Rhys that she has decided to get an abortion, as she doesn't want to bring a child into this kind of world. As Gwen, Rhys and Rhiannon prepare to help the children escape, Johnny goes to stop the soldiers. He warns a nearby crowd of fathers they'll never see their kids again. They begin attacking the army. After downing a few soldiers, the gang are rounded up. Andy tries to call his superiors to learn what is happening. He watches as soldiers break into people's houses and take children away. Realising that what the soldiers are doing is wrong, Andy removes his police jacket and tie and one by one punches the soldiers to the ground. He is soon forced to the ground and a baton is placed round his neck to keep him there. Rhys, Rhiannon and Gwen take the children to abandoned warehouses at the bottom of a field. After they get the children quiet, Gwen makes the tape. She and Rhys then have a talk, and she agrees that she won't abort the baby, knowing how much her husband will suffer. They are soon discovered by the troops and have to run again. Rhiannon and Rhys are captured by the soldiers as are many of the children. Gwen and one child keep running. Taken by Johnson to a warehouse full of equipment to try to stop the 456, Jack, with the help of Dekker and Johnson, devises a way to defeat the 456 using a reconstitution wave of the same wavelength the 456 used to kill Clem, using the children as one vast transmitter. Mr Dekker tells him that for it to work, the wave needs to be sent via one child, who will "fry". They only have one child available to them: Steven. Ignoring his feelings and his own daughter's protests, Jack uses his grandson as the prime transmitter. Alice tries to tell Steven to escape. Steven, still thinking that Jack is his uncle, does not run but asks Jack what he is doing. Jack ignores the question and transmits the signal. Oduya is shown with the 456 as it smacks the tank edges, screeching. Blood appears. There is an explosion of blood and the tank fills with bright light. The beam of fire appears and moves up through the sky, vanishing. Steven, as predicted, is killed, something that affects even the apparently emotionless Johnson. Gwen, the only one from the estate left uncaptured, happily embraces the liberated children. Jack is left grieving, and Alice severs all contact with him. Six Months Later Jack has travelled the world for six months, but this is not enough to rid himself of his guilt. He arranges a meeting with Gwen -- now heavily pregnant -- and Rhys on a hilltop in a remote location. Jack tells them that there is a cold fusion freighter near the edge of the Sol System. He intends to get onboard for further travels. Gwen tearfully tells him he can't just run away.  He replies, "Yes I can. Watch me". He uses his vortex manipulator, which Gwen had retrieved from the ruins of Torchwood, to signal the freighter, which teleports him off Earth. Gwen is left sobbing in Rhys' arms. They both walk away in forlorn, knowing this is effectively the end of Torchwood Three. 
<EOS>
Oswald Danes is about to be put to death by lethal injection. As he receives the fatal concoction, he thrashes on the gurney. At the CIA, the word Torchwood has appeared conspicuously in numerous places. Esther Drummond is on the phone with Rex Matheson, who keeps asking, "What is Torchwood anyway?" As Esther speaks, he is impaled by metal rods that fall from the truck ahead of him. Suddenly, the word "Torchwood" is wiped from the system. Esther claims it must have been a virus. Gwen Cooper, former Torchwood agent, has woken from a nightmare. Oswald is talking to a governor's assistant. Oswald says he can't be held and executed again because of the Eighth and Fifth Amendments. In rural Wales, Gwen is telling her daughter, Anwen, about a singing alien she once met. Rhys walks in, upset she is talking to their baby about Torchwood. They complain about the helicopters that fly over their private estate and quickly pick up guns when the doorbell rings. Rhys placates Gwen as she has a panic attack, telling her the Torchwood days are over. Andy Davidson phones to say Gwen's father is in hospital. They rush back to Cardiff, despite Rhys' warnings. He is still alive due to the Miracle but unwell. Her parents tell her that she shouldn't have come, as they're worried someone might have seen her. Rex Matheson is taken to hospital, and Esther is told by Doctor Vera Juarez that his survival is a "miracle". There have been a lot in the last day. Soon all the headlines are naming this Miracle Day. No-one on the planet has died. Rex is soon recovering and talking to Esther on his mobile. The Torchwood files were uncovered at the exact moment the last person died. Esther looks for hard copies of the lost data, all categorised under 456. She finds the buried hard copies of the data in boxes and files, and pictures of Captain Jack Harkness and Gwen, but is interrupted by Jack. She runs away and finds that someone has "killed" the archivist and is set upon by an armed man. Jack appears and shoots the man, who opens his coat to reveal bombs strapped to his body, which he detonates. They escape by jumping from a window into a fountain below. Jack tells Esther everything about Torchwood, Gwen and extra-terrestrial lifeforms. He gives her a dose of the "smart drug" retcon -- a selective amnesia pill. Esther wakes up and finds a bruise on her body from jumping from the CIA building into the fountain with Jack. In pain from his fall, Jack checks the bruise he suffered and discovers it hasn't healed -- an indicator he has lost his immortality. Jack goes to the hospital Rex is in, where they have the remains of the suicide bomber. He poses as FBI Agent "Owen Harper" for the exam, also attended by Vera. The man is still alive even though his whole body was burnt in the explosion. At Jack's suggestion, the doctor heading the exam tries to take off his head to see if he will live. Rex secretly watches the operation, hacking into the security cameras at Vera's instigation. He tells Esther to book him a flight to the UK. He drives to Gwen and Rhys's house in Wales and demands they tell him about Torchwood, but a helicopter flies up and the pilot fires a missile at the house. Gwen, Rhys and Rex see Jack firing at the helicopter. As they drive away, Gwen shoots the helicopter down with a bazooka. The helicopter goes down in flames and goes belly-up in the sky as it falls down to the beach below, its spinning rotors forcing the group to duck to the floor of the Jeep. Jack and Gwen gaze at their victory with relief and nostalgia, but Rhys and Rex look a bit unravelled. The group arrive in Cardiff, where Gwen instructs Rhys to take their baby Anwen to her mother's home so she can be safe, and asks Jack if they'll be rebuilding Torchwood. Gwen still has the Eye-5s, but all their other technology was obliterated with the Hub. Rhys grows testy with Gwen's choice to follow "Captain Jack Bollocks", and Gwen reprimands him, saying, "What choice do I have?" However, Jack is not in the nostalgic mood like Gwen is. He makes her pay attention to the wound on his forearm that has not healed. While the Miracle Day has made the world immortal, Jack has become mortal again, a normal human being after centuries of never-ending deaths. Rex, completely in the dark, doesn't comprehend the apparent nonsense. Jack snaps at him for sticking his nose where it doesn't belong, and notices Rex has popped his stitches, bleeding profusely. Rex knows he cannot die, making little effort to abide by Jack's concerns to get it checked. His attention is more focused on a cluster of wailing sirens from the distance. A cavalcade of police cars surround the group, with the officers filing out before them with guns and rifles drawn. Andy steps out among the crowd and apologises to Gwen, having been forced to do this by orders from above. Rhys states Rex has no jurisdiction on British soil to make an arrest. Rex corrects him -- this is not an arrest, but a rendition. Torchwood's services are being legally handed over to America. 
<EOS>
Rex and his security escort arrive Heathrow Airport with Jack and Gwen, finding fellow CIA agent Lyn Peterfield has been sent to help him, much to his annoyance. She tells him that they had better hurry up as both the Brittan and the U.S. are asking questions about this. They police force Gwen and Jack towards the plane, with Jack telling Gwen not to resist as it will only amuse Rex. Rex has also taken Jack's vortex manipulator. However, Rex stops Rhys from boarding the plane, explaining that only members of Torchwood, Rex orders him to be taken back to Wales with Anwen. Rhys tries lying that he's a secret member, but is not believed, being taken to the van with Anwen. Gwen yells threats and swears at Rex and Lyn, telling her family that she will be back. Oswald Danes, newly released convicted rapist and murderer, is interviewed on TV. Before the interview, Oswald takes most of the food for the people at the station, to a female production assistant's disgust. She tells him that she wants him to die. On the air, he is questioned about the kind of person he is. At one point, he is shown a picture of Susie Cabina, his victim. Asked what he would say to Susie's mother if she's watching, Oswald is stunned, but mumbles something. When asked to repeat himself, Oswald says that he's sorry for what he did, breaking down into a sobbing fit as he apologises for the person he is. Esther and other CIA agents watch on the TV.  Charlotte Wills notes that she's not buying the act. However, Esther tells her that they should have some sympathy as the Miracle has only made life harder for people like him. Oswald and a police officer enter a lift. Jilly Kitzinger congratulates him on his performance, certain he was acting. Jilly offers her card, but Oswald makes a point of tearing it up outside the lift after he had received news of another interview. Jilly, still trying to win Oswald over, explains if Satan walked the earth, he would need representation. However, Danes counters, by saying if Satan DID walk the earth, "He would truly be working in PR." On the plane, Gwen and Jack catch up; she's angry that he took so long, thus putting Anwen in danger. However, Jack easily counters most of her angry comments by asking, "Did you miss me?"; she does. Gwen then goes on to say that she thought the next time they met would be like a fairy tale; she'd be an old woman and he'd still be the same. Rex interrupts them, asking what Jack's vortex manipulator is. Not answering, Jack asks if anyone is investigating morphic fields, going on to explain the basics of it. He then decides to make fun of Rex, pointing out that the beeping coming from his manipulator means he has low sodium levels and needs salt. Rex calls Dr Vera Juarez, who confirms this diagnosis; Rex asks for salty Pretzels. Dr Juarez attends a conference in Washington, D.C. She learns the scope of the problems that the Miracle is causing. People still age and can be critically injured; a fellow doctor compares it to the Greek story of Tithonus. She overhears that skin cells will continue to grow as old cells die and the Miracle is species-specific to humans. Germs will become resistant to medicine as they have an eternity to feed on bodies and grow stronger. Vera also learns food and medical supplies will drop rapidly and the ever growing population could become a big problem. Meanwhile, Esther talks to Brian Friedkin about the malware unable to remember that Jack released it to keep Gwen safe, saying she wants to follow up on it as investigating unusual programs are kind of her passion; she mentions that she also works closely with Rex, when prompted by Friedkin. After she leaves, Friedkin examines Esther's file to see if she is valuable or expendable. Receiving an e-mail from Lyn - "investigate morphic fields?" - Friedkin pulls out a red phone and texts the message. A single word comes back - "Remove". He e-mails the message to Lyn. On the plane, Jack asks for a Coke. Saying that she'll supervise, Lyn heads after one of the flight attendants, Danny; she tells him to ask Rex what he wants, giving herself an opening to slip arsenic into Jack's drink. Danny tells her that Rex has had too many pain killers to want a drink; she hands him the Coke for Jack and cup of water for Gwen. Jack and Gwen talk about what she was up to; she planned on planting roses. Once Jack drinks his poison, Lyn smiles to herself. Moments later, Jack gets up, noting he doesn't feel well. Rex takes him to the bathroom, where he begins vomiting repeatedly. Mocking him, Rex hopes Jack isn't airsick as it would be ironic, given he dresses like a pilot. Jack sees his reflection, reminding Rex that he told him that somebody has been trying to eliminate Torchwood the moment the Miracle began. Rex is amused, wondering if that means food poisoning. Back at the CIA, Esther discovers Rex's account has been deleted from the CIA database after she sees agents she doesn't know in Rex's office, altering his computer. At her station, Esther discovers that her own password no longer works; she receives a call from her bank, asking about investment options. To her horror, Esther discovers she's received a lot of money from a Chinese bank account, framing her as a double agent. She steals Charlotte Wills' ID and car keys, fleeing the building; she sets up false leads to buy herself time. Upon reaching the exit of the parking garage, she sweet-talks the guard into letting her pass. On board the plane, Danny informs Gwen and Jack that there wasn't enough time at Heathrow for a handover of medicine. Gwen points out that Danny gave Jack a drink, and now he's feeling ill; however, she then realises that Lyn went to supervise him, finding the idea someone needs to be supervised pouring a drink ridiculous. When Lyn points out Gwen's blaming everyone now, Gwen retorts "It's either you or the big, gay steward; so my money's on you." Danny insists that he's not gay. Rex asks for Lyn's purse, but she refuses; he takes it by force and finds a bag of pills. Gwen points out she was right, but Lyn says it's medicine, Gwen and Rex try having Lyn take one to prove it isn't poison; she admits it's indeed poison, but she runs a lot of agents who would sometimes need poison. When asked what she gave Jack, Lyn remains silent; Rex handcuffs her to her seat. Jack asks for the pills, identifying each one and asking for his symptoms. Realising he's been given Arsenic, Jack mentions a Slovenian boyfriend of his that took some for better skin; Rex is confused by this as this happened in 1800s. Rex calls Vera at the conference, convincing her that Jack is the only mortal man left in the world and he's in danger of dying from arsenic and the only things they have to work with are chemicals on a plane. The group comes up with a plan to save Jack: improvised EDTA. When they attempt to inject Jack with the antidote, Lyn breaks frees of her cuffs and kicks the syringe away. Gwen confronts Lyn, who insults her by calling her English; this proves to be a mistake as Gwen reacts violently and punches Lyn out cold and injects Jack with the EDTA, causing him pain at the cost of curing him. A relieved Rex handcuffs Gwen again. Jack, Gwen, Rex and Lyn arrive at Dulles, Esther has been trying to contact Rex. She tells him about his office and her account. Having been given a key by one of the corrupt agents Friedkin sent, Lyn slowly unlocks her handcuffs. Rex notices via a text message that he has also been "bribed", and received even more money than Esther. He lets Jack and Gwen go, knocks the guards out and breaks Lyn's neck. Vera and Esther arrive in cars outside the airport, and Jack, Gwen and Rex get into Esther's car. Vera drives off. Lyn, with a twisted neck, stumbles in front of their car, surviving because of the Miracle. She tries to harm them, but falls over, making Vera run over to assist her. The four drive off. Panicking, Esther wonders what's happening. Calmly, Gwen says, "Welcome to Torchwood." 
<EOS>
Brian Friedkin finds his TV on; a news show on Oswald Danes is shown. Turning of the TV, he is held at gunpoint by Rex, who is furious the CIA has been poisoned against him. Friedkin explains he has mysterious bosses that have been around for decades, and he failed to find them; he presents a mobile they used to give orders. Rex phones Jack, who warns the police will reach the house soon; Esther is tracking them back at base, informing Gwen where to put a spike strip. Rex shoots near Friedkin's ear, stunning him in place as he takes the mobile. Rex and Jack pick up Gwen and take off as the police drive over the strip, popping their tires. Later, a parade of men and women march throughout D.C., carrying candles, wearing masks of crying faces; they call themselves the Soulless, believing that this new-found immortality has robbed humanity of their souls. Having been out shopping, Gwen watches in shock and confusion. Gwen returns to base, complaining that the only food she could get was crisps, since everyone is panic-buyingm due to speculation on the internet; she also passes out new mobiles. Gwen worries that she's emptied Jack's account, but he tells it's been gathering interest for the last 109 years. Esther then tells Gwen that the American terms are "chips" and "cell phone", making Gwen retort "Thank you, Ms. Translation." Jack also explains that the latest news on Rhys and Anwen is that Andy has taken them into protective custody. However, Andy's old mobile number has been disabled, leaving Gwen unable to contact him. Esther and Rex reveal they cannot trace the call, since it hits a vine; the signal branches out repeatedly to prevent the caller from being traced. Jack decides that the best option they have now is to investigate morphic fields to find out what caused the Miracle. Esther then reveals that she's been going through Friedkin's past actions, and has found something that stands out; the CIA has blocked off a warehouse in D.C. Since they were forced to abandon Charlotte Wills' minivan, they need to steal a new car; Jack becomes upset that Rex said it first, pointing out that he's in charge of Torchwood, and says the plan himself. They try several car doors on the street to find one open. Gwen simply tosses a brick through a window, saying "found one." Rex finds dry-cleaning in back that fits him, asking Esther, Gwen and "World War II" to avert their eyes while he changes his trousers. Wanting to annoy Rex, Jack says the mobiles have cameras in them, taking a random picture of the back. Angered, Rex asks if they're on a mission. Gwen points out this is how Torchwood handles things. Rex gets back at her by telling her to drive on the right side of the road; in America, it's the opposite side. They reach 3rd on Boston Avenue. Esther and Gwen drive up to the guard; Gwen pretends that she's a lost tourist. Asking the guard to check a map for a street, Gwen slams his head against the car, knocking him out. Impressed, Esther guesses Gwen's incapacitated guards before; Gwen flatly responds "so many times." They find the warehouse is just millions of painkillers from PhiCorp. Rex discovers millions more, and it dawns on them PhiCorp must have been ready for the Miracle; he steals some for his heart wound. At the emergency meetings, the doctors realise that aborted pregnancies or miscarriages are impossible; some countries consider putting contraceptives in their water supplies, to prevent unplanned births. Jilly Kitzinger attempts to bring Vera Juarez to PhiCorp, and Vera agrees to come over later. Back with Torchwood, Jack believes they need to take on PhiCorp themselves. However, Rex points out that they need resources and allies; Jack reluctantly agrees. When Rex suggests bringing his ex-CIA instructor in, he arranges to meet him at the Freeville Hotel. Keeping his distance from the hotel to make sure it's safe, Rex watches with a heavy heart as the police arrive; even his former instructor has fallen for the setup. Meeting up with everyone, Rex gets into an argument with Jack over what to do, pointing out that he got all his staff killed; this angers Jack as his staff were his friends. Rex drives off in the car, leaving them to walk. Jack, Gwen and Esther walk back to base; however, Jack notices a busy bar and decides to get a drink. Gwen attempts to get him to focus, but Jack says it's because "[he's] so mortal." Esther ponders going home and allowing the lies to take hold; however, Gwen comforts her. At the bar, Jack finds a bowl full of chips; the bartender explains that they're sobriety chips, and "everyone is throwing a lot of sober out the window tonight." Jack offers to give a button from his coat, prompting the bartender to say he'll jump over the bar to protect it. Jack introduces himself, asking if he likes the coat; the bartender introduces himself as Brad, saying yes. Elsewhere, Dr. Vera Juarez returns home; she is startled by someone calling her. She turns to find Rex on her bed, insisting she treat his wound again. Rex explains the situation, and that both them now have enough to make a case against the other. Vera asks if blackmail is what their relationship amounts to; Rex points out that it's kind of hot. Despite both being tired, they end up having sex; at the same time, Jack makes sure his sex with Brad is protected. Resting, Rex and Vera discuss the Miracle and PhiCorps connection to it. Vera then explains that her mother died last year, and she wouldn't have let her go if she new the Miracle was coming. Rex tries getting Vera to spy for Torchwood, even bringing her mother into the equation; this only angers her. Vera gets up for a shower, telling Rex to let himself out. Elsewhere, a drunk Jack calls Gwen and as a long talk about how they're the only Torchwood members left; when Jack tries to talk to her about the bond between them, Esther interrupts the call; she has found Rhys and Anwen's imprisonment area and sends a Skype to Gwen. Oswald Danes, meanwhile, is being harassed by people who want him dead. Even the police officers beat him up after sending the attackers away; they dump him off at his motel. Jilly Kitzinger again tries to take Oswald for her employers. He agrees to take the flight to Dallas. In the morning, Vera decides that she'll try to help Rex; she calls him and tells him that she'll do what she can. Rex returns to base to only find Esther and Gwen. Jack arrives shortly after, joking "I thought we broke up"; he swipes some of Rex's pills to help with his hangover. They show Rex and Esther the Eye-5 contact lenses, which they can use to record images, send texts to the wearer, and read lips. However, Gwen lies that the Eye-5s are isomorphic, meaning she has to infiltrate PhiCorp instead of Rex. Knowing she's lying, Jack snickers under his breath; Esther knows she's lying too. Vera arrives at PhiCorp, where she is surprised that she isn't meeting one-on-one will Jilly; many doctors have been called in to watch a presentation. Pretending to need the use of the restroom, Vera opens a fire door to let in Gwen. Vera calls Rex, demanding to know who Gwen is; Rex lies that Gwen works for him, when she actually works for Jack. He orders Vera to keep her phone open during the presentation, so they're kept in the loop. In the meantime, Gwen heads towards Jilly's office; along her way, she spots Jilly escorting Oswald Danes. Though Jack wants Gwen to deviate from the plan, Rex orders her to stay on task. Oswald is let into a room, where three people in dark suit await him. Gwen reaches Jilly'as office, where she looks through her files. Back at the presentation, a movie of a senator explains that because of the Miracle, the medical care humans get has to change; the first step is getting a hold of almost any drug with a prescription. Jilly then leaves the presentation, prompting Rex to have Vera call Jilly to keep her out of her office. Rex hears a phone ringing; he and Esther are left shocked that it's the phone they took from Friedkin. He answers it, asking for a reply; however, the phone shuts off. Rex begins grabbing supplies, explaining that they may have their enemy scared now; the only thing they have to do now is find Jack, since he left without them noticing. Jack confronts Oswald in the waiting room of a broadcast centre by sneaking in through a window. Oswald mistakes him for one of the crew members for conducting his latest interview. He asks Jack who will be interviewing him. Unable to come up with a feasible answer, Jack gives up and threatens him with a gun. He asks Oswald why he met to PhiCorp, and if they mentioned a man named Jack Harkness. Oswald is in the dark about the purpose of his meeting and deduces Jack's name by the fact he cares about it so much. Jack then poses the burning question in his mind. Earlier, he saw a video which Oswald claimed he felt forgiven, which Jack knows is a lie, since Danes doesn't feel any remorse. Oswald decides to give him the real truth, exposing the most repugnant aspects of his sociopathic personality. He praises the fact he killed Susie Cabina because she flaunted her innocence. She bruised so easily that Oswald felt like he was "painting her" with each blow, and when she died, he felt her life force leave through him, a feeling he accuses Jack of knowing as well. Oswald relives the ecstasy every night, because it was the best moment of his life. Jack realises Oswald's intentions for his actions -- he is upset that nothing in his life will ever match up to that day. Because of this, the murderer is searching for execution, since the very act of living has become like torture. Jack, thoroughly disgusted, warns Danes that they he'll broadcast the message easily from inside the centre. Oswald deflates the threat immediately when he calls for his PhiCorp-appointed protection. Two guards emerge to take Jack. Danes decides to take out his earlier beating by two cops on Harkness, ordering the guards to "hurt him a little, but not in the face", just like how the cops brutalised him. Jack is battered by the guards and tossed out of the broadcast centre. A naive woman outside asks him if he got to meet Danes, or touch him; Jack is left confused. On the broadcast, Oswald says that PhiCorp is to be joined. The future is now infinite and frightening, but he is offering the people a hand of assistance. He calls for the people to walk with him on the journey into a great enterprise. Jack bitterly stares at the television in the display window of the broadcast centre, watching Oswald Danes twist the world around his finger. 
<EOS>
Despite the risks, Esther Drummond decides to pay a visit to her sister Sarah, only to find her house boarded up with messages to stay away. When Sarah answers the door, Esther discovers she's added several locks to it and is apparently having a nervous breakdown. When Sarah explains that she's been questioned about her, Esther explains she's leaving Washington DC soon and wants to say goodbye to her nieces. However, Sarah says she won't let them outside, believing everything people are saying about the Miracle online. Forced to leave, Esther calls Child Services, explaining Sarah may pose a danger to her daughters. Unbeknownst to her, an agent of the Families has found her and is ordered to follow her to Jack Harkness. Arriving in Los Angeles, the Torchwood team take in their new surroundings while Rex Matheson puts money in the parking metre. Jack expresses his fondness for seeing the Pacific Ocean, saying it must have been in the 1940s that he last saw it. Esther questions him if he's joking, but Gwen Cooper changes the subject, asking where PhiCorp headquarters is; it's in the next city. Jack informs his team that they have to find a base of operations in the meantime, with Gwen complaining about the locations he always chooses. In the meantime, Rex phones Dr Juarez, having been handed a flier advertising Dead is Dead, learning Ellis Hartley Monroe is leading a campaign to treat those who should have died as they are dead and wait for their "pause" from death to come to an end. Dr Juarez, on the other hand, is being shown an abandoned hospital along with a medical panel; it's intended to be used as storage for the overflowing ICU patients. Despite protests, the plan will go through. Elsewhere, Oswald Danes is enjoying the privileges of being in a fancy hotel, everything paid for by PhiCorp of course. Jilly Kitzinger arrives and explains to him that PhiCorp has made her his personal assistant, saying she will do anything within her job description for him; however, that doesn't mean she has to like him, as she is disgusted by what he has done. Oswald prepares to leave for another interview, but is told he has been replaced by Monroe; her popularity is growing fast, putting Danes in danger of being thrown back to the mob. Jack has located a small house of residence, and a mysterious man, following Gwen, states that "Torchwood has been located." Rex goes to meet his dad, who has regressed into a thief. He says he doesn't want to live forever. When Rex shows him his wound, his dad tells him to "get the hell out." Esther shows that server 113 of the PhiCorp computer system contains information they need. The security for their server system was designed by a Nicholas Frumkin; every entry point is activated by Frumkin's voice print, palm print and iris recognition. Jack and Gwen impersonate a couple and gain the respective things with the help of a water bottle and Gwen's cell phone. The new temporary hospital that Juarez is managing is failing miserably: no ID checks, no electricity and people just being thrown in without permission. Moore has a rally just outside. Oswald, who is there at the time, decides to go into the hospital, locking everyone out. He says he is not scared of the people inside. He says he wants to help, promising food and security. This gets him more popularity among the populace of the world. Monroe, while leaving, is poisoned. Frumkin is put at gunpoint by an unnamed person. He tells them that Torchwood is behind what is about to happen. For the palm and eye, he mutilates Frumkin, who lives through every second due to the Miracle. Esther's sister Sarah has been taken to a psychiatric hospital. Gwen is admitted undercover at PhiCorp under the alias of Yvonne Pallister, International Sales Representative, and Esther poses as "Lorraine" in Human Resources to get Gwen to Floor 21. She also sends Jack to Floor 21, with him posing as a delivery worker. Jack sets a small fire and then extinguishes it, to set off the fire alarm. They enter the room with a blank server. Rex realises the possibility that someone might have followed Esther while she was at her sister's house. The mysterious agent who followed Esther knocks out and gags Gwen, and when Jack enters, he follows. Rex goes to rescue them. The man says that the reason Jack is mortal is because of something that happened many years ago, and that Jack caused this. He says that the moment has come when they found "specific geography." He is about to reveal this information when Rex bursts in and shoots him in the throat. Monroe finds herself gagged, inside a vehicle and into a compactor. She's still alive due to Miracle Day. A screen in the dashboard lights up with a spinning triangular symbol and a voice speaks to her. It apologises to her about what is to befall her, musing that they could have been friends under different circumstances. However, though her style was in their liking, the anonymous group has Oswald Danes, not needing another player for their cause. Monroe's strategy nearly revealed their hand too soon, which would have ruined their long-awaited plans. The voice tells her a final cryptic statement: "We are everywhere. We are always. We are no-one. And soon, the families will rise." Ellis is mulched into the wreckage of the compacted vehicle. All that can be seen inside the cube of twisted chassis is one terrified eye from a person who can no longer scream. Rex reprimands Esther for her mistake during the operation, announcing this is her last warning. Esther apologises and begins the lengthy process of compiling data to seek out the organisation that has put a hit on Torchwood and learn more about PhiCorp. They find that PhiCorp plans to build overflow camps, and worse still, it's already started. Rhys Williams phones Gwen with the news they are moving her father out of the hospital, and into an overflow camp. Rhys doesn't know the government's plans are duplicitous, thinking his father-in-law will be safe. Gwen frantically tells Rhys to stop the removal of her father from the hospital. Rhys runs outside to find ambulances pouring out onto the street. It's too late for him to stop the patient transfer -- PhiCorp has captured Gwen's dad. 
<EOS>
In City Hall, Washington D.C., Vera Juarez is told the medical panels are over and a report was submitted by the Health and Human Services Secretary directly to Congress. The categories of life have been unanimously approved for enactment. There are three categories for the living, since no one dies. Horrified at what the legislation may mandate, Vera calls Rex Matheson to join the covert investigation Torchwood and he are making. Gwen Cooper returns to the United Kingdom under her alias of Yvonne Pallister. She finds her father has been taken to an overflow camp. Rhys Williams meets her, disguised as her driver. Her mother has prepared for Gwen's arrival and found her father at the Cowbridge Camp, a formerly derelict army barracks closed down in 1996 -- now an overflow camp for patients in South Wales. The next day Gwen travels with Andy Davidson to Cowbridge. Andy remarks that though the system is "bloody chaos, at least it works", relieving the pressure on geriatrics and other hospital departments. Gwen asks, "Who's paying for all this? PhiCorp. You got health care being run by private business and believe me, that's just the start of your problems." Gwen heads to admin, demanding the release of her father. A military officer suggests she fill in a claims form. Andy supports her by fabricating a story about her father being removed under police authority. Told the camp is not under the Welsh police, she is handed a package titled "Overflow Camp Health Care Provider Framework". Gwen turns this over to see PhiCorp's logo. Under threat of arrest, Gwen, Andy, and Rhys leave Cowbridge. Gwen, infuriated at the red tape stopping her after everything she's done with Torchwood Three, tells Rhys, "We're gonna break in here, we're gonna find my father and we're gonna get him out -- tonight." In Venice Beach, California, Esther Drummond confides in Jack Harkness about her insecurities at being "useless" to the team. She mentions the death of her mom in 2003 and asks Jack about his mom. He replies vaguely. As Esther asks Jack where he's from, they receive text messages from Rex. They meet Rex and are introduced to Vera. Vera mentions she was lucky to catch a flight because most of them were full. There's a Miracle Rally later that night. Back at the makeshift Torchwood "hub", Vera tells off Rex and explains she flew across the country to support her patients who are now being held against their will in the overflow camps. They smile and kiss. Reconvening with Jack and Esther, Vera asks, "Am I Torchwood now?". Jack replies, "Welcome aboard". The group, including Gwen via video conference, clarify how the categories of life work. Category one is anyone without brain function or who would have ordinarily died; category three is people with no injuries; category two is everyone in between -- people alive and functioning with an illness/injury that will persist, but won't die. Rex notes the categories are arbitrary -- he himself was a category "one", but has become a "two". They discuss who is behind PhiCorp. Rex thinks there is more going on behind the pharmaceutical company. Esther points out the consistent presence of modules at every overflow camp based on building specs she collected from Jilly Kitzinger's desktop. These modules are buildings seen in all the camp plans, but they are sealed off and hidden from view -- only revealed in undoctored satellite photographs. Esther lets Gwen know that these modules also exist overseas in the overflow camp in Wales. Gwen and Vera wonder if these modules are for vivisection. Esther thinks this would explain the rush to strip category ones of their rights. Jack and the team agree they need to infiltrate the camps and find out. Gwen will go on a night shift at Cowbridge as "Nurse Pallister". Esther will join the clerical staff and do paperwork on the module at San Pedro. Vera will join Esther at San Pedro as a medical inspector. Rex argues he will get to the heart of the module due to his sustained injury from a pole running through his chest, which allows him to be taken to San Pedro posing as a patient. Jack is left behind. Jack decides to go to the Miracle Rally in Los Angeles. Nurse Pallister and Rhys enter Cowbridge. Gwen finds her father, Geraint. She explains it's not safe for him to stay. He needs to get out as quickly as possible. Just as they reach Rhys' truck, he collapses from what appears to be another heart attack. Gwen calls for help. She is horrified to find out that he is now being labelled a category one because he went unconscious. In San Pedro, Esther recategorises Rex as a category one in the computer system. She gives Rex a video camera to record footage of what he sees while he is moved to the module where category one patients are kept. Vera is taken to camp supervisor Colin Maloney. Vera insists she be taken to the module. Maloney decides to bring her to see patients first. At first, Vera is impressed by category twos being seen every hour. Rex is taken to the module. Inside, he gets up in the dark. Patients sit on racks like objects. Rex feels the walls and thinks they may be ceramic. He finds it strange, cold, and similar to a refrigeration unit. He steps outside. Vera gets off Maloney's golf cart tour to check out a building. Maloney tries to stop her. She sees patients without insurance left unattended, in filth, some labelled category one when they are still perfectly conscious. Vera, in a rage, says the system will never work because of men like Maloney who see healthcare as a business and she will prosecute him. The situation escalates and in a panic Maloney disarms a military officer and shoots Vera twice. Maloney drives Vera to the module and puts her in one of the cold units where Rex was previously dropped off. At the same time Rex notices that the module is small -- only three units. There is no way all category one patients could be accommodated. As Vera begins crying over her injuries, left in the dark, Maloney is shown switching "on" the module she is in -- releasing gas and flames inside. He trembles and sobs with remorse. In Cowbridge, Rhys finishes his undercover "job" driving "burn victims" to the module. It registers with Gwen that the module houses ovens to burn category ones. She sees smoke piping up from one of the units. In San Pedro, Rex catches sight of Vera inside one of the modules as the interior is engulfed by flames and he desperately shouts her name, trying to open the door. Rex cries as he films the fire, while Esther's call to Vera fails as her phone is destroyed in the oven. Gwen notices the modules in the Wales camp with terror, now aware that the black smoke billowing out of its smokestacks is being cast off from the murdered. And Oswald Danes is being hailed with rapturous cheers. 
<EOS>
Stuart Owens (Chief Operating Officer of PhiCorp), working late with his secretary Janet in Phicorp Central, Los Angeles, reviews paperwork on Phicorp acquisitions. He calls Zheng Yibao in Shanghai, China to investigate a large land purchase near Shanghai centre. Zheng warns Stuart he might not like what he finds, then enters the guarded building on that site. Seven hours later, Stuart calls Zheng for a status report. Zheng reports he found nothing, then jumps from a tall building with no apparent signs of distress. There are news reports on the existence of a 45 Club, people who believe that jumping forty-five floors is now the only way to lose consciousness forever. Rex Matheson is still speaking into his video camera in San Pedro, reporting what he's seen. He reports that Category 1 patients are burned and suggests that "they" will burn "anyone they just don't like". Esther Drummond, from her desk at the camp, attempts to call Dr Vera Juarez on her cell phone, but the call fails to connect. She then investigates Colin Maloney, who is acting suspiciously while intimidating Ralph Coltrane. Colin claims that he has just finished playing badminton. Colin plans to "drop" Dr Juarez's car at Constitution Mall to thwart investigation, then puts the camp on "lockdown". Colin tells Esther that Dr Juarez had left while saying that his camp was "very good indeed", which sounds suspicious to Esther. At Cowbridge, Gwen Cooper, disguised as a nurse, confronts Dr Alicia Patel about Gwen's father Geraint Cooper, who has been labelled "Category 1". Dr Patel says, "There's a fine line between categories 1 and 2" and that she was following governmental guidelines and she is too busy to revisit patients. Gwen points out that those patients are being burned, and Dr Patel replies, "It's the law." Gwen accuses Dr Patel of running a "concentration camp" and of being a coward, and tells her, "Don't call yourself a doctor," and, "Shame on you." Gwen finds Rhys Williams working as a driver for the camp, and makes plans with him to help her father escape. At a bar in Los Angeles, Jack Harkness finds Janet and coerces her into helping him, also revealing through Torchwood's hacking that Stuart intended to send Janet away against her desires. She was having an affair with, knowing that he's married. Jack finds Stuart and his wife Elizabeth at a restaurant, and sends Elizabeth away while he talks with Stuart. Stuart suggests that he is just a middle man in "all this", and that even Phicorp is just a pawn. Stuart suggests that "this pattern" started "maybe five years ago" based on "Market Share Projections". Stuart also says that he found an Italian document which said, "They have found the Blessing" but he doesn't know what it means. Back in San Pedro, Rex attempts to leave the camp by knocking out a guard and putting on the guard's uniform. Rex is captured in disguise after wandering into a checkpoint. Colin interrogates a handcuffed Rex alone. Rex tells Colin his intention to go public with his videotape evidence in order to expose events at the camp, including Dr Juarez's incineration. Colin looks for a method of silencing Rex, and decides to slowly push his ballpoint pen into Rex's heart through his open wound. Rex screams in pain and points out that he can't die because of the Miracle, then faints. Esther finds the interrogation area, but is confronted by Colin before finding Rex. Esther tells Colin that she had just spoken with Dr Juarez, which Colin knows is a lie, and Colin attempts to grab Esther. Colin initiates a fight. Esther chokes Colin into unconsciousness, then she leaves Colin on the floor to hurry to Rex's side. Esther returns to Colin to get the handcuff keys, but Colin grabs her and proceeds to choke her. Ralph Coltrane arrives and shoots Colin into unconsciousness. Rhys steals a truck to get into Cowbridge, and meets Gwen with her father on a gurney. Gwen overhears that sick people are arriving in Wales like "boat people". Gwen and Rhys load Geraint into the truck, then Rhys rams the truck through a gate to escape. Gwen uses the Torchwood contact lenses, then steals some explosives and blows up part of the Cowbridge Camp as a message, "This is the truth for the whole world to see, we let our governments build concentration camps. They built ovens for people in our names. Now I don't care if the whole of society bends over and takes this like a dog. I'm saying no." She sets the camp in flames. While watching in America, Jack laughs and says, "That's my girl." At San Pedro, Rex says, "The regular army is coming in, they'll shut it down". Esther points out that the camp was sanctioned, and she'd used her real name to gain entry. In Venice Beach, Jack congratulates the Torchwood team for getting the word out, as the White House refuses to apologise for the camp and compares the camp to a state of emergency in time of famine or pestilence. Jack says that they need to look at the bigger picture, while they search the internet for "the truth". Gwen arrives at Los Angeles International Airport and is paged to pick up a phone-call for her that says "lenses". Gwen puts in her Torchwood contact lenses again, and receives the text, "We have your mother. We have your husband. We have your child. Bring us Jack." 
<EOS>
Gwen drives Jack through California to bring him to the people holding her family. Flashbacks are seen of Jack's past. In 1920s New York City, he awaits his visa at Ellis Island. Angelo Colasanto steals it. Jack confronts him, retrieves his visa and visits Angelo in his cell. They talk, and Jack uses technology to create a visa for Angelo. Angelo is freed and enters a relationship with Jack. At one point, they are retrieving an alien from a base when Jack is shot dead. Angelo is captured and imprisoned. Jack returns to America after Angelo's release. Angelo is terrified by Jack's immortality. Angelo takes Jack to the butcher shop beneath their room. There are people terrified of Jack. They sadistically attack him with knives, guns and meat hooks to kill him and collect his blood. Three men visit Jack. They seem to know something about his immortality. Angelo, overwhelmed with horror and guilt, eventually lets Jack go. Jack quickly recovers and flees with Angelo to a rooftop, where he explains his immortality before jumping off to his "death". When Angelo reaches the ground, Jack is gone. As Gwen and Jack arrive, Rex and Esther have contacted Andy Davidson in Wales. He has freed Gwen's family. They train snipers on the three people who want Jack. Jack says he has won, but they say that Jack will come with them anyway. They have the information about the Miracle he wants. Angelo is still alive. He has something to do with the Miracle. 
<EOS>
The Torchwood team arrive at the Colasanto residence. The woman who brought Jack Harkness is Angelo Colasanto's granddaughter. She explains that since meeting Jack, Angelo has devoted his life to making immortality possible. Angelo himself is now aged and infirm, bedridden and connected to life-support machines. His granddaughter, Olivia Colasanto, explains the three men who witnessed Jack's resurrection represented three different families who are in some way responsible for the Miracle. When Esther Drummond tried to trace them, there was no record of them. The CIA enter the residence, having tracked Rex Matheson through a phone call he made to Vera Juarez's brother. Rex confronts Brian Friedkin, who confesses that he is working for the families, which he transmits through the contact lenses. Allen Shapiro arrests Friedkin, but he triggers a bomb he is carrying, killing Olivia and him. Rex and Esther are once more allowed to work for the CIA. While speaking to Angelo, Jack removes his breathing apparatus and kisses him. The life support machines to start beeping frantically and Angelo dies, leaving the CIA attempting to figure out how he died. Esther notices the flooring under Angelo's bed is higher than the rest of the room. Jack examines it and says it is a null field, cancelling the morphic field causing the Miracle. Jack warns that any state with knowledge of this alien technology could cause a catastrophic disaster, since a null field can conceal mass weapons. Oswald Danes begins to wear down Jilly Kitzingers last nerves inside a hotel at Dallas by tuning her out with rockabilly music when she tries to discuss the televised exposure in she has planned for him. He requests that she brings him a prostitute. Jilly is also approached by a woman who addresses herself as Shawnie Yamaguchi, with unusual eagerness to become her assistant. When the weary Jilly enters her room to take off her high heels, Yamaguchi wins her over, as Jilly does not realise she is a mole for the CIA. Meanwhile, Oswald receives his prostitute, but attempts to treat her more like a date, which irritates the woman. After her patience is exhausted, she walks off in a huff, warning Oswald he is a "Category 0". Oswald beelines to Jilly and confronts her for not mentioning this to him. Congress has initiated a mandate that will allow a new category of life to deal with people who have earned the ovens for violating morality, such as criminals and death row convicts like him, and contrary to what Danes thinks, he is only loved on television, not in society. He then strikes Jilly across the face and gives her a bloody lip. Finally sick of putting up with Danes, Jilly's temper explodes and she grabs hold of him in retaliation, flailing and screaming. Oswald clobbers her again and charges out of the room, stealing her laptop. Kitzinger picks herself up and stands outside her room bellowing at the departing Oswald her many grievances -- she'll issue a whole new set of charges on his head for the assault, that the ovens are opening up just for him, and even if he runs, his face is too famous for him to hide. Jilly later discusses with Shawnie her plans to sic the world against Oswald, when she encounters the same man from the Cowboys Stadium. He tips her off Shawnie is a CIA field agent, then shoots Shawnie as she stands in the hotel elevator after being excused by Kitzinger. The man tells the bewildered Jilly that she is being considered for a promotion above PhiCorp for a position in the family, to which she agrees. He whisks her away while informing someone else on his mobile phone Jilly is now in the family's hands. This person is revealed as Charlotte Wills, secretly infiltrating the CIA under her colleagues' noses. Noah Vickers asks her who was she talking to after fetching records from several Catholic churches. Wills replies, "It's just a family thing -- that's all," resuming her masquerade without missing a beat. Jack begs Rex and Esther to get him out of the Colasanto manor, claiming the alpha plate from the generator. Rex knocks out the guard by Jack and instructs him to leave Esther and himself behind so he can implement a lie that Jack escaped on his own with a stolen vehicle, since the CIA may still need their services. As they sneak out the back door, a guard spots them and shoots Jack. Rex takes out this guard but Esther knows she's been spotted. Rex sends her away to deal with the guards who will investigate the shot. He smears the blood from Jack's wound over his chest so it looks like his injury is leaking out and leaves Esther driving away with a critically wounded Jack in the back seat, listening to a radio announcement declaring total economic collapse of biblical magnitude on the horizon. Esther panics when the faintly conscious Jack does not provide any words at all that could defuse this crisis. She has no idea where to go for help. Elsewhere, the deported Gwen sits on a plane back to Wales, crying in despair. 
<EOS>
Two months have elapsed. Back at CIA headquarters, Rex is making progress trying to track down the Three Families. References to them are few and far between but he soon begins to think that there is a mole in the CIA. After her deportation back to the UK, Gwen has been working at keeping her father hidden from the government agents responsible for rounding up all Category 1's. Esther and Jack are hiding in Scotland while he recovers from his gunshot wound. They are all soon reunited and even Oswald Danes, also on the run, turns up. Collectively, they soon discover a connection in two places, Shanghai and Buenos Aires, and set out to find the source of the Blessing. Jilly Kitzinger is already in Shangai, having been drawn into the secret families. With the help of Oswald and Rhys, Jack and Esther figure out that Jilly is being used to mistranslate news clips from before the Miracle regarding the destruction of blood banks. One is in Shanghai and the other is in Buenos Aires where Rex has tracked the possible location of a man who was in the cellar in 1928 when Jack was repeatedly killed. The man in Shanghai, who died before the Miracle after burning down the blood bank but not before living for awhile, is shown to have said that "the Blessing saved me" which causes them to realise its there but leaves them confused about why the one in Buenos Aires was blown up. Rhys realises that the two cities are antipodes, exact opposites of the world and that the Blessing must run between them. Splitting up, Esther, carrying her stockpile of Jack's blood, travels to Buenos Aires and meets up with Rex while Gwen, Jack and Oswald travel to Shanghai using old Torchwood connections after Gwen's father is taken away again. In Shanghai, the group discovers that Jack's blood is being mysteriously drawn from his wound into the ground, implying a connection between Jack's blood and the Blessing. 
<EOS>
Oswald Danes and Jack Harkness prepare for their confrontation with the Three Families. Gwen tells them about when she was a little girl and her father came home one day. He told them everyone thought he had taken money from his workplace and he wouldn't be getting as much money. Gwen says she ran upstairs and came back with about £2.50. Her father replied, "It's not about the money, it's just that I can't stand anyone thinking I'm dishonest." As she played with him that night, she thought that he was the nicest man in the world. "And today's the day that I kill him." As they are now aware that Jack's blood is drawn to the Blessing, the Torchwood team use small amounts of it to determine headings towards the two sites. Rex and Esther contact the CIA for help in infiltrating the Buenos Aires site of the Blessing, while keeping Jack, Gwen, and Oswald's presence in Shanghai a secret. Director Shapiro puts his team on the task. The team includes Charlotte, who is reporting surreptitiously to the Three Families. A detachment of the Argentinian army under the command of Captain Federico Santos soon arrives to assist Rex and Esther. While the group is loading up, a Three Families agent with the army opens the briefcase and, seeing it contains packets of blood, detonates a suicide bomb. This makes the other soldiers Category 1 and destroys the briefcase that contained Rex and Esther's supply of Jack's blood. Although Rex, Esther and Captain Santos survive unharmed, Rex tells Santos to report that Esther and he died in the blast to allow them to better infiltrate the Blessing site. Director Shapiro realises the Three Families' mole must be inside his team. He has Noah run a newly developed program to track any recent phone calls made using the Three Families' method of avoiding traces. Realising she is moments from being discovered, Charlotte calmly retrieves a hidden explosive device from a side office, puts it in her purse in the main meeting room and leaves. The trace finishes decoding her phone number and Noah freezes with fear, now aware that she likely prepared to kill them the instant her cover was blown. Shapiro turns his head to the left and sees Wills left behind her purse and the final warning beeps of the hidden armed bomb are sounding. The doomed man knows what awaits him and responds, "Oh, fuck." The explosion "category 1s" Shapiro and the rest of his team and lightly injures Charlotte, shielding her from suspicion. Jack, Gwen and Oswald infiltrate the Shanghai Blessing site and make their way to its exposed face, where they meet the Mother, Jilly Kitzinger and several armed guards. The guards stand down when Oswald reveals he is wearing an explosive vest. This advantage seems short-lived. A radio transmission from the Cousin at the Buenos Aires site reveals that Three Families' operatives there have captured Esther and Rex, but when Oswald says he didn't expect to leave Shanghai alive, the operatives stand down. After examining the face of the Blessing, Jack and Gwen question the Mother about the Miracle. She admits the Miracle was produced by introducing Jack's immortal blood to the Blessing. This is the first part in a larger plan to take control of the world. By stopping death and destabilizing the economy, the Families are poised to take control of the banks and influence the world's governments. This will lead to a fascist oligarchy which can "decide who lives, how long, where and why." When Jack moves to open his veins and release his blood into the Blessing, the Mother stops him. This will not undo the Miracle. The original effect required Jack's blood to be introduced at both Blessing sites simultaneously. Since Rex and Esther's supply of Jack's blood was destroyed, she confidentially informs them that there is no way to do this. The Mother orders all of Torchwood killed. Before this can happen, Rex interrupts and claims he still has some of Jack's blood with him -- or rather in him. When he arrived in Buenos Aires, Esther helped Rex transfuse almost all of Jack's blood into his body. This did not kill him only because of the Miracle. The Mother counters that reversing the Miracle would require almost all of the blood in both Rex and Jack's bodies. This would likely kill at least one of them once the Miracle reverted. Rex and Jack do not back down. The Cousin shoots Esther and tells Rex that by undoing the Miracle he will now be killing Esther forever. Rex falters, torn by his feelings for Esther, but after reassurances from Jack and Gwen, he rises and opens the wound over his heart, releasing Jack's blood into the Blessing. Gwen shoots Jack through the heart, releasing his blood as well. The Miracle ends almost immediately, accompanied by an effect Gwen calls "a breath": all of the world's Category 1 patients regain consciousness for a few seconds, then die in the next breath. This includes Gwen's father, with Rhys Williams at his bedside, who found him back at the Cowbridge Overflow Camp with Andy Davidson. Rhys tearfully lays his phone next to the dying man's ear so he can hear his wife Mary wishing him goodbye over the phone. Geraint then passes on. Andy witnesses an unidentified and very sickly little girl wake up. He tries to comfort her with his company as she finally perishes. At the same time, both of the Blessing sites begin to shake, making the structure around them unstable. Oswald grabs the Mother and urges Gwen to leave. She does, but as the exit elevator rises, Jack returns to life. A brief struggle ensues between Jilly and Gwen. Gwen incapacitates Jilly and returns in the elevator to rescue Jack. The Mother begs Oswald to let her go, but Oswald proclaims he is happy to die and go to Hell, as that is where "all the bad little girls" go. Utterly unrepentant and gleeful, his final spoken words are directed toward his victim Susie Cabina, whom he believes was sent to damnation for being bad. Oswald beckons the girl to run away, because he's coming to get her in the depths of Hell. Jack and Gwen flee the facility seconds before Oswald detonates his explosives, destroying the Shanghai facility. Kitzinger follows close behind, but stumbles to the ground. Jack and Gwen cannot go back for her. The explosion engulfs the whole complex and Jilly disappears in the flames, and they can only assume the worst. The Buenos Aires team also move to leave, but before the Cousin can make it out, Rex regains consciousness long enough to grab him and throw him over the edge of the chasm around the Blessing. He vengefully tells Esther's killer, "Guess what? Death came back!", sending the Cousin to his demise. Rex falls to the ground next to Esther. They watch each other die, but are rescued by Captain Santos and members of the Argentinian Army. Paramedics immediately start work to revive them. Rex will survive, but Esther's eyes weakly peek open for one last fleeting moment, and she dies on her medical cot outside an ambulance. Several months later, Jilly Kitzinger has beaten the odds and survived the explosion at Shanghai. She is alive and well in America, but at the cost of selling her jewelry to buy her way out of China. She spends many weeks in search of one person, and after much persistence, he finally appears before her. Jilly meets the blue-eyed man at a familiar park bench. When she pleads that she has no place to go and no life to live, he offers her a chance to participate in the Three Families' "Plan B", then departs. After some delay, Jilly follows. Elsewhere, Gwen, Rhys, Jack, Charlotte and Rex attend Esther's funeral. Afterward, as Charlotte is leaving, Rex receives the recovered data from Noah's computer. He finds the phone trace indicating that Charlotte is the mole. When Rex tries to stop her from leaving, Charlotte shoots him and is almost immediately gunned down by other agents. Jack and Gwen rush to Rex's side. He is without a pulse, dead, but then gasps and regains consciousness. Jack and Gwen ask, "What?" in shock. Rex questions them on why they are surprised, and Gwen indicates to look at his wound. Rex opens his shirt to see his wound from the gunshot and the one he initially received heal without leaving scars. As Gwen keeps gaping in shock, Rex gives an angry and confused look at Jack. "You, World War II, what the hell did you do to me?" 
<EOS>
Maria Jackson  and her father, Alan, are moving into a house opposite Sarah Jane Smith on Bannerman Road. As her father sorts boxes, Maria watches a television commercial for the popular new soft drink called "Bubble Shock!", which contains Bane. Maria's mother, Chrissie, helps out and pesters her former husband for money before leaving. That night Maria is awakened by a bright light. She follows it to Sarah's house and finds a glowing alien. As it disappears into the night sky, a terrified Maria runs home and locks the front door. The next morning a local girl, Kelsey Hooper, arrives to welcome the new family. She at first seems somewhat overbearing and pushy, feeling entitled to take advantage of the new family's internet and television and feeling free to complain about their lack of music channels. Nevertheless, she is friendly and invites Maria to spend the afternoon with her, offering to take her into town. When Maria says she has no money, Kelsey tells her about the free Bubble Shock! bus. It takes visitors for a guided tour of the Bubble Shock! factory. As they leave, Mr Jackson follows to say goodbye and they all spot Sarah next door. Kelsey dismisses her as a madwoman and claims she caused the prior neighbours to go insane as well; they'd starting talking of seeing aliens. Ignoring Kelsey, Mr Jackson tries to introduce himself. Sarah meets his overtures with a declaration that she doesn't like to be bothered, but as he makes it clear his feelings are hurt, she attempts a modicum of small talk. This abruptly stops when she overhears the girls' plans and hurries to give chase in her car. On the bus, Maria questions Kelsey about the secret ingredient in Bubble Shock! known only as Bane. Kelsey echoes the claims made by the television adverts that Bane is organic and that makes it good. Maria is not convinced enough to drink any of it. Kelsey informs her she must be part of the official 2% of the population that doesn't like the drink. After the bus reaches the factory, all the guests go through a security scanner and have to turn off their mobile phones. Unknown to them, the scanner collects their DNA. A boy, the Archetype, lies in a medical chamber with a breathing mask over his mouth. A worker informs his supervisor, Mrs Wormwood, that the DNA of the children has been transmitted. Mrs Wormwood is delighted and believes "mother" will be equally pleased. The guests are led by PR agent Davey, who offers everyone numerous free samples of the drink whilst dully providing a pre-written PR statement on the virtues of the drink. He notices Maria has not taken a sample and insists she does. She says that she doesn't care for it, and is in the 2% of the population who feel likewise. Davey cryptically replies that the factory is working on a way to make sure 100% of the population will consume the drink. Sarah is sneaking around the factory when she notices a door. Using her sonic lipstick, she opens it, before being captured by guards who take her to Mrs Wormwood's office. Sarah comments that Wormwood was described in the Bible as a star that would fall to Earth and taint the world's water supply. Wormwood recognises Sarah's name from e-mails and phone calls the company received, all of which went unanswered. She agrees to grant Sarah an interview. Sarah asks how they obtained a license to make food and drink in two weeks. Mrs Wormwood replies that they are only satisfying the Western world's need for food. Sarah presses her on the nature of the mysterious Bane ingredient. Every test she has had run on the drink has failed to reveal anything -- almost as if the drink had a form of intelligence and was hiding its contents. Mrs Wormwood insists that she drink some Bubble Shock! Sarah refuses and suggests that Wormwood comes from space. Mrs Wormwood mocks such an idea as crazy talk and has her secretary Lesley escort Sarah out of the factory. Once in the lift, Wormwood orders her secretary to kill Sarah, but she foils the attack and escapes further into the factory. Kelsey tries to phone her friend Suki and wanders into a restricted area. Her mobile phone disturbs an unknown beast and sets off an emergency alarm, causing the factory to be evacuated. Davey finds her huddled in a corner, screaming for someone to get "that thing" away from her. Davey angrily responds that the creature is not "a thing", Kelsey is; the creature is his mother. Mrs Wormwood dispatches guards to locate and kill Sarah. She demands the alarms be switched off for the Bane Mother's sake. Maria tries to find Kelsey but she sets off the alarm again and prompts a system overload that allows the Archetype to escape. Mrs Wormwood and Davey lead teams in an attempt to find the source of the alarm. Soon, Maria bumps into the Archetype. She tries to introduce herself, while the Archetype just repeats what she says back to her. They hide in a cubicle in the women's toilets and are soon joined by Sarah, with both parties surprised to see one another. Just outside, Davey reports they have searched everywhere and have found no sign of the intruders. Mrs Wormwood asks him if he has checked inside the women's toilets. Somewhat shocked, he replies that his training on human culture had stated it was strictly forbidden for males to enter. Frustrated at his stupidity, Wormwood storms into the toilets and slams open all the cubicles but finds no one there. Davey points out the window has been opened, and Wormwood realises Sarah and the children have escaped. Outside they flee to Sarah's car. Maria protests that they left Kelsey behind. Sarah uses her sonic lipstick to get out of the factory grounds. In Mrs Wormwood's office, Kelsey rants about the treatment she has received. Unable to make sense of her tirade, Wormwood decides to change into her natural form in order to scan the girl's mind. She deactivates her image translator, causing Kelsey to scream. Some time later, Kelsey lies unconscious in the office. Davey notes Wormwood held back, to which she replies that children have parents who would cause them trouble by asking questions. She attempts to make sense of Kelsey's thoughts and finds most of them to be no use, focusing on boys and pop culture. She eventually discovers Kelsey knows of Sarah and lives on the same street. She dispatches Davey to take Kelsey home with his true objective being to kill Sarah and retrieve the Archetype. Upon arriving back at Bannerman Road, Sarah tells Maria to go home and not get involved. Maria replies that it is too late for that and reveals she saw the alien from the previous night, which shocks Sarah. However, Sarah puts her foot down and tells Maria her life is dangerous; she does not want anyone else getting hurt for the decisions she has made. A furious Maria runs home and her father attempts to comfort her. Sarah questions the Archetype on his origins. She finds that despite his appearance he lacks a navel or any common-sense knowledge. Most surprisingly, Sarah's alien watch reveals him to be only hours old. When she asks him who he is he only replies, "I am everyone". A male voice calls out to Sarah. The Archetype asks what it is but Sarah quickly responds that it is nothing and that he is not allowed to go upstairs. Soon after, Davey's car pulls up on the street. Kelsey attempts to flirt with him, but he just tells her to get out. Kelsey enters the Jacksons' house and a relieved Maria asks her what happened. Kelsey remembers nothing, instead believing Maria abandoned her for no reason and that she had to get a lift home from Davey. Realising this means he is on their street, an alarmed Maria runs to Sarah's house to warn her. Sarah initially mistakes her intent and shuts the door on her but quickly opens it when Kelsey screams -- Davey has revealed his true Bane form and is crawling along the side of the house. Sarah quickly rushes both girls inside, but Davey easily knocks the front door off its hinges and chases them up the stairs. Sarah tells the children to wait as she dashes into a room she declares off limits and returns with a mysterious spray with which she attacks Davey. The spray works and he is successfully repulsed, regaining his human appearance before running away. As Sarah unhappily notes that she has just used up the last of her spray on Davey, Kelsey slips away into the mysterious room and loudly declares her amazement. Sarah and the others follow, revealing a room filled with mementos of past adventures and also a talking computer, Mr Smith. One of the mementos is a transmitting device given to Sarah by the glowing alien Maria had seen earlier; that alien was a Star Poet who had gotten lost, and Sarah had helped her find her way home. In gratitude, the Star Poet had told Sarah that she could use the device to contact the Star Poet if she ever needed help with poetry. Maria and the Archetype show particular interest in the device, but Sarah discourages them from touching her possessions. When asked about how she got interested in aliens, Sarah explains that years ago, she met a man unlike any other who took her on adventures in time and space. Then, their time together ended, and she was "back to a normal life of electric bills, burst pipes, bus tickets and rain". She continues that while at first she tried to forget their time together, she eventually met him again years later and had an epiphany: she could continue her work on Earth, finding aliens who come to Earth and helping the friendly ones. She contrasts herself with other groups who approach alien visitors with "guns blazing." Also, K9 is introduced to Maria, the Archetype and Kelsey when Sarah communicates with him via a long-distance visual interface facilitated by Mr Smith, as he is not currently at home with her. Sarah reveals that he is closing off a black hole that is threatening Earth and has been in there for "a year and a half now, plugging the distortion".  He does not know how long he will have to remain there. After he signs off, Sarah admits that his absence makes her feel even more isolated than before. As Sarah has been talking to Maria and the Archetype, her scanner watch which detects alien life forms has been going off unnoticed. After the Archetype points it out, Sarah uses the watch to find the alien life form: it is in Kelsey's Bubble Shock! drink. They realise with horror that the "organic bane" ingredient is literally a living Bane, and the drinkers of the highly popular soda are now Bane hosts. Earth is being primed for a Bane takeover. Comprehending the need for immediate action, Sarah uses Mr Smith to patch into the Bubble Shock! factory communication systems. In order to do so, Mr Smith determines the Banes' communication frequency and reads its numbers aloud as he displays them. Sarah is able to contact Mrs Wormwood when Mr Smith "dials" the frequency. She offers Wormwood an ultimatum should the Bane not leave Earth: if they do not leave, she will "do something" to stop them. Mrs Wormwood scornfully challenges her to "bring it on" and discontinues the conversation. She then declares that the Bane must begin their takeover immediately and exercises mind control over all the Bubble Shock! drinkers, including Alan and Kelsey. Sarah is able to stop Kelsey, but all the other drinkers begin marching, chanting, "Drink it". They are commanded to "convert" those who have not imbibed; Mrs Wormwood plans to kill those who cannot be converted. Harried by mind-controlled Bubble Shock! drinkers, the group heads to the factory. After gaining access to the factory grounds, the group finds themselves trapped between the Bubble Shock! mob at the factory gates and a deadlock sealed door to the factory itself. Having cast about for a solution, Sarah drives through the factory wall in the Bubble Shock! bus. The surprise entrance doesn't phase Mrs Wormwood.  She appears rather pleased that Sarah  has delivered herself to their doorstep, and brought the Archetype along as a bonus. Revealing that the Archetype was created to deal with the "2%", Wormwood declares he is no longer needed as plans have been sped up and disables the Archetype by manipulating her ring. Cornered and about to be eaten by the Bane Mother, Maria uses her mobile phone to try to hold off the Bane. While the Bane Mother is momentarily affected, she is not incapacitated. Mrs Wormwood dismisses the attempt and informs Maria that her mobile is too small; she has only made the Bane Mother angry. The Bane Mother descends, but the Archetype reveals that he has a much more powerful communications device with him: the one given to Sarah by the Star Poet. When Mrs Wormwood taunts that it is useless without the frequency number, the Archetype declares that he can use the memory capacity of 10,000 humans that the Bane gave him in order to recall the frequency numbers that Mr Smith had said aloud earlier. He quickly programs the transmitter device with the Bane frequency to destroy the monstrous Bane Mother; as the device transmits, the Bane all recoil with pain. Mrs Wormwood screams that the Bane mother is dying; subsequently, their control over the populace ends and the Bubble Shock! factory is destroyed. The Bane either die or flee. At least Mrs Wormwood appears to escape, swearing revenge. Back at the Jackson home, Maria reunites with her father and Sarah tries to introduce herself properly, deciding on the spur of the moment to introduce the Archetype as her adopted son. When asked his name, the Archetype replies that he has none. Sarah hurriedly explains that he's joking, but is spared trying to think of a name on the spot when Maria's obnoxious mother barges in. She hustles them out the door amidst tacky statements about neighbours inviting themselves over, promoting the Archetype to identify her out loud as "rude." Maria's father is mortified, but Maria seems accustomed to such displays and steps back as her parents squabble over money. That evening, the gang try to think up a name for the Archetype and decide on Luke. Mr Smith is able to create adoption papers for Luke, so there will be no issues with paperwork. That night, the trio sit together in Sarah's garden, looking up at the stars. Sarah proclaims that there are many adventures to be had on Earth, hinting at things to come. 
<EOS>
Sarah, Luke, Rani and Clyde are running a routine check on Mr Smith, concluding with manual calibration of the energy reversal beam. Before they finish, the attic starts shaking, and Mr Smith warns them of an unknown force locking in on their location. Just as suddenly as it began, the shaking stops and a small man in a bowler hat teleports into the room. The man greets them and tells them he is Ambassador Rahnius, sent by the Galactic Alliance to thank them for protecting Earth. With a click of his fingers, he bestows upon them a gift: a set of sparkly red deeley boppers each. Confused, Luke asks what they are. Rahnius explains that cultural differences make humans very difficult to buy for. He makes himself comfortable by hanging his hat on the back of the door and taking a seat. Whilst telling a story he breaks wind noisily. This raises Sarah's suspicions. They have encountered an alien race with "gas problems" before. Suddenly, K9 teleports into the attic and identifies Rahnius as a Slitheen. His cover blown, Rahnius activates a device on his ring that attaches a clamp to K9, deactivating him. He unzips his forehead and peels off his skin to reveal his true form, then activates another device that roots Sarah, Luke, Rani and Clyde to the floor through their "Deadly Deeley Boppers". His enemies immobilised, Rahnius reveals his plans to steal K9. With his extensive knowledge of the past and the future, no bank in space will be safe from them - they'll crunch the credit of the cosmos. With Rahnius distracted by K9, Luke reminds Sarah of the energy reversal beam, but Sarah reminds Luke it is still uncalibrated and none of them can reach the switch. Clyde tells them to leave it to him as he grabs Rahnius' hat off the door. Sarah gets Rahnius' attention, telling him she still has her sonic lipstick. She signals Clyde, who throws the hat. It hits the calibration switch. Mr Smith channels the energy reversal beam through the sonic lipstick. Rahnius is now stuck to the floor and everyone else can move again. Sarah tells Mr Smith to send Rahnius back where he came from, along with K9's clamp. Sarah exclaims that it was the most bizarre five minutes of her life. K9, a red nose adorning his face, agrees. 
<EOS>
Maria and Luke start their new school but find all is not as it seems. Aided by Sarah and their new friend Clyde, they find the Slitheen, old enemies of the Doctor, this time disguised as teachers, have taken control of the technology block and are trying to switch off the sun. Luke unknowingly gives the Slitheen the code to start the machine and they start to absorb the power of the sun. Sarah investigates the company controlling the science block, and Maria, Luke and Clyde investigate the school. Sarah is attacked by a female Slitheen, who disguised herself as a company secretary, Janine. Luke finds a secret room and is confronted by the Slitheen commander Glune Fex Fize Sharlaveer-Slam Slitheen, disguised as the headmaster Greg Blakeman. Maria is underneath an IT desk while Luke's science teacher Tim Jeffery unzips in front of her, revealing himself to be a Slitheen Kist Magg Thek Lutiven-Day Slitheen. The only thing visible to Maria is his big green Slitheen feet. Maria runs away and is chased by Kist. She meets up with Clyde, who spots Kist and runs away with Maria. As Carl, the school genius, saves them from Kist, Carl unzips to reveal a child Slitheen. They escape and head back to 13 Bannerman Road. Clyde figures out that the Slitheen are allergic to vinegar, and the team head off back to the school with squirty bottles of vinegar. After Maria uses the vinegar to blow up Glune, they head over to the secret room in the block and Luke tricks the Slitheen by telling them the machine won't take the power of the sun. He turns the machine off and uses the sonic lipstick to cause the machine to malfunction. As the room explodes, the continental Slitheen, still disguised, escape whilst Janine is electrocuted and explodes and Kist and Carl are trapped. They beg for Sarah's help, and she tries to open the door, but Kist is killed when the technology explodes. However, at the same time, Carl escapes. Sarah is highly affected by this, as she thinks Carl is dead. Afterwards, she tells Clyde about her travels with the Doctor, and then accepts him into the team, before sharing a long hug with Luke. She now knows that she's not alone in the world any more. 
<EOS>
At the local nursing home, Lavender Lawns, elderly women claim they have seen a mysterious nun who appears and vanishes like a ghost. Clyde informs Sarah of the story and she, Clyde and Luke investigate. Meanwhile, Chrissie Jackson moves back into her ex-husband's house, but only makes more trouble for the family. Chrissie tries to catch up with her daughter, but the touchy subject of how she abandoned the family comes up and Maria calls out her mother for being thoughtless, only thinking about how divorce would affect her. Maria turns angry at Chrissie and yells at her mother, telling her to leave. Some of this anger later gravitates towards Alan, and she runs off to Sarah's house to avoid any more uncomfortable conversations with her parents. Back at Lavender Lawns, Luke encounters an old lady who peers at him through a window. He learns that her name is Bea Nelson-Stanley, and she is suffering from Alzheimer's disease. Luke finds Bea outside, where she gives him an ancient talisman, but has trouble explaining to him her reasons for doing so due to her condition. It is really the key to a portal in space and time. An order of nuns are hiding an ancient creature, the Gorgon. Meanwhile, Clyde is stuck doing favours for Mrs. Randall. He, Luke, and Sarah leave Lavender Lawns to figure out the mystery of the apparent nun hauntings. As Maria arrives at Sarah's residence, Luke, Clyde and Sarah are upstairs. Sarah asks Mr Smith about any evidence of ghosts at Lavender Lawns. He disproves her concerns quickly, but instantly detects the talisman and reveals Luke has brought an alien device into her house, causing Sarah to confront him. Luke explains he had to keep it a secret to avoid breaking a promise with Bea. Sarah takes the talisman and holds onto it for safekeeping from the nuns. Mrs Gribbins, one of the caregivers at Lavender Lawns, is involved in the fishy activities, and after Sarah and the gang leave, she speaks with the nun who has been stalking the nursing home, Sister Helena. Gribbins tells Helena that the talisman they have been searching for has been passed on to the boy who just visited the nursing home by Bea. Annoyed by Mrs Gribbins's oversight, when she had previously described Bea as barely knowing her own name, Helena turns against Mrs Gribbins. She has Gribbins escorted to a room where a hooded woman sits in a wheelchair, with gnarled fingernails and wrinkled, orange skin. The woman lifts up her hood, causing Mrs Gribbins to scream in terror at her countenance. A blue light fills the room. When it fades, Mrs Gribbins is revealed to have petrified into a statue. The next day, Sarah Jane and Maria go back to Lavender Lawns to speak with Miss Nelson-Stanley about where she got the talisman. However, this proves difficult, as Bea's Alzheimer's hinders their success. Bea does mention a past where she was an archaeologist with her late husband Edgar, who found and gave her the talisman. Sarah also perks up when Bea speaks of Sontarans, going as far to make a remark about their potato-like appearance and use of ray guns, which proves she has knowledge about alien life despite a cloudy memory. While Sarah and Maria are gone, the nuns track down Luke and Clyde, arriving at Sarah Jane's house. Luke, not knowing he shouldn't speak about the talisman, attracts Sister Helena's full attention. Alan encounters Sister Helena, thinking her to be an ordinary nun, and donates to their cause. However, when he leaves, Helena and the other nuns kidnap Luke by force and put him in a hearse. Clyde chases after the hearse in vain as it charges down the street. He immediately calls Sarah and warns her about what just happened, making her and Maria depart Lavender Lawns and come back home. Sarah, Clyde, and Maria concoct a plan to rescue Luke from Saint Agnes Abbey. At the entrance gate to the abbey, Sarah Jane poses as a reporter wanting to get a story about religious information concerning the nuns, and she is permitted inside -- though the nuns have already prepared for her arrival and trap her in the abbey. She finds Luke, but is soon confronted by Sister Helena, who reveals Luke was never in any danger; Helena tries to coax her into giving up the talisman. Sarah Jane does not comply. Meanwhile, Clyde and Maria sneak out of Sarah Jane's car and infiltrate the abbey through an open window, soon reuniting with Luke and Sarah Jane. However, Helena is no longer willing to be so passive and makes Sarah Jane return to her house to get the talisman, keeping the kids in her possession as insurance. Luke and Clyde have to remain at the abbey while Maria is taken back to Bannerman Road with Sarah, with the Gorgon in tow. When she gets back home Sarah Jane quickly fetches her sonic liptstick and the talisman while Maria remains with the unwelcome guests. When Helena reveals that the Abbess does not speak, Maria deduces that the Gorgon must be exerting telepathic control over the sisters, since looking after a Gorgon "isn't exactly normal for a bunch of nuns". Helena advises her to shut her mouth or the Abbess might demonstrate her idea of "solving a problem like Maria" When Sarah enters with the talisman, Helena reaches for it only for Sarah to demand the release of Luke and Clyde or she will destroy the talisman with sonic disruption. Unfortunately, the Gorgon has other ideas and begins to unveil her face; distracted, Sarah has the talisman snatched from her. Unaware of the Gorgon's presence, Alan walks into the living room and gazes upon the Abbess's exposed face. Several blue streams of light in the form of serpents surge out of her glowing mouth and eyes, surround Alan, and turn him to stone, terrifying his daughter Maria. Having gotten what they came for, the nuns and Gorgon leave. Maria is distraught to see her father petrified and falls to tears, wishing she'd never met Sarah with the alien in her yard. Sarah consoles Maria and gets her to accept that it was in her favour to learn about the truth, promising they can find a way to rescue Alan before he dies. Sarah Jane and Maria talk with Mr Smith to see if there is any chance to save Alan's life. Mr Smith tells Maria and Sarah that Alan's body is undergoing a slow molecular conversion into stone, but the process will not be complete until 4:00 PM; the time is 2:30 PM, giving them ninety minutes to undo the petrification. They conjecture that the talisman may be able to reverse Alan's molecules back to flesh if they can reclaim it from the nuns. Sarah returns to the abbey to take it back. On the way there, she drops off Maria at Lavender Lawns so that she may get Bea to break through her Alzheimer's and divulge answers about the talisman's alien properties. Back at the abbey, Luke and Clyde ponder their escape. At first, Luke throws out a few facts about the history surrounding the abbey, making Clyde think he's getting off track with useless facts, until it becomes clear Luke's thoughts are leading him to an answer: he remembers that the abbey they are trapped inside was built during a time of refuge. It could have secret passages hidden away. He finds a bust of a Gorgon's head and twists it to the side, unlocking a hidden chamber. The boys escape via a secret passage. As Luke and Clyde sneak out of the abbey, they see the Gorgon stumble. Continuing their escape, they find the gardens in the courtyard filled to the brim with statues of the victims that were permanently petrified by the Gorgon's gaze, ushering them to make haste to save Sarah. While Sarah and the others are gone, Chrissie arrives at her house and spies her petrified husband in the window, not aware that it is him. She barges into Sarah's house to get a better look at this "statue" that her obsessed neighbour made in his likeness. Chrissie, thinking she can speak in private, feels compelled to open up to the statue and say what she hasn't told Alan face-to-face. She regrets that she's screwed up the Jacksons' family life, berating herself over her mistakes, believing she's going to make more. She apologises and walks away. One of Alan's petrified eyes sheds a tear, a sliver of him still possibly conscious. Sister Helena places the talisman in the side of a stone altar, joined by nuns chanting, "Serve the Gorgon. Serve the Gorgon." A green energy begins to swirl out of the altar, which is really a portal, beginning the process of joining the Gorgon homeworld with Earth. The Gorgon is a parasite inside the Abbess, a woman who has had her lifespan prolonged by its influence, though robbed of her free will and appearance. Her body is dying, and the Gorgon needs a new vessel -- it chooses Sarah as its next host. Chatting with Bea, Maria struggles to get a breakthrough as the elderly woman's Alzheimer's disrupts her ability to think straight. Maria sees the clock on her bedroom wall reads 3:00 PM, warning her she has an hour left before Alan is lost forever. Desperate, Maria realises Bea is enamoured with thoughts of her passed on husband Edgar. She begins to ask Bea questions about Edgar, which proves to be the catalyst that jogs her memory. Bea's Alzheimer's clears up, and Maria is able to explain her plight. Bea reveals that she was once petrified herself, and Edgar saved her long ago, because the talisman can revert those turned to stone back to normal. Maria thanks Bea, who gives the girl a mirror. Maria doesn't understand Bea's intentions for doing so. As Maria leaves, Bea chides the girl's education for not realising it is to reflect the Gorgon's face. Clyde distracts the nuns long enough for Luke to grab the talisman, closing the portal. However, Sarah and both boys are recaptured. The boys are locked in the supply cellar, while Sarah is taken and tied next to the portal. Luke sees Clyde standing on a barrel by some old canvas bags. He turns around to find a bucket, dumping out the contents. He fixes on a flat trowel from the supplies. Clyde asks him if he's going to dig a tunnel, but Luke has other plans. He improvises a screwdriver, using the flat trowel tip to notch the tool in the screws, turns it delicately, and removes the screws on the lock on the cellar door, letting him pry it off and open the door. Luke and Clyde escape again and join Sarah just as the Gorgon begins to transfer itself. Maria arrives and uses Bea's mirror to block the transfer and send the snake entities back at the Gorgon. She tries to block them by raising up her hands, but is too late. They turn the Gorgon -- and Abbess -- to stone. Almost immediately, the nuns release their captives and stagger back in horror at the sight of the statue; Helena, more pleasant now, openly demands to know what is going on. Sarah joyfully tells her that the Gorgon has lost its control over them, which goes right over her head. Helena then gasps in horror as the other Gorgons start emerging from the portal, but Maria disconnects the talisman and the portal shuts down, sending the other Gorgons back forever. Sarah then reminds Maria about saving Alan and they immediately run for the car, leaving the very confused sisters to ponder their lack of an Abbess and the sudden appearance of a very ugly statue. The group rushes back to Sarah's house. With seconds to spare, Maria hangs the talisman around her father's neck. With a shimmering energy, the talisman brings Alan back to flesh and blood. He does not remember his ordeal, but Maria is quick to embrace him in a tight hug. Chrissie returns to Sarah's house right after Alan is released from the petrification, none the wiser. However, she protests that Sarah has gotten carried away by making a statue of Alan, but now that he has changed back to normal, she cannot incriminate his neighbour for this, finally giving up. Maria thinks it is better for her mother to remain uninformed about the strange alien happenings surrounding Sarah Jane Smith. As Chrisse's stay at Alan and Maria's flat comes to an end, Maria apologises at Alan for yelling at him. He forgives her, since it was "only a tiff." The two hug, but Chrissie wedges herself between them to get in her cab, and return to Ivan. Alan tries to hasten her departure by reminder her the metre's running, uncomfortable around his ex. Chrissie ignores him, more concerned about patching things up with her daughter. Maria and Chrissie hug and say their goodbyes, promising to watch after each other. Chrissie hops into her cab, then waves at her family as it drives away. After Maria witnesses the talisman restore her father, she goes back to Sarah and wonders if it will cure Bea of her Alzheimer's. Mr Smith implies it is possible. This encourages her to have Sarah take her to see Bea for one more visit, returning her mirror in the process. Bea initially repulses at the sight of the talisman because it has to stay hidden from the Gorgons. Sarah Jane tells Bea that the Gorgons have been vanquished, putting her at ease. Now accepting of the alien artefact, she places the talisman around her neck and hears the voice of her late husband Edgar telling her, "I will always love you, Bea." Misty-eyed, Bea smiles and remembers her husband, earnestly thanking Sarah and Maria for bringing Edgar back to her. However, her Alzheimer's does not subside. As they leave Lavender Lawns, Sarah brightens Maria's spirits by letting her know the talisman has still helped Bea by letting her find peace. Maria comments on how lucky Bea was to have Edgar, then asks Sarah if she wished she had someone special to share her experiences with. Sarah assures her that she's found one for the second time, looking at Maria. The two rush back into her car to return home in time to watch the Viszeran Royal Fleet pass through the solar system, all 600 ships. Sarah says it "only takes a few seconds, but it is the most magnificent stellar light show this side of the galaxy." 
<EOS>
A new laser tag centre, Combat 3000, has opened in London. Lance Metcalf, a teenage boy from Clyde and Luke Smith's school, is reported missing after going there. Mr Smith tells Sarah that twenty-four children have gone missing from all across England in places where other branches of Combat 3000 have opened. Luke tries in vain to master the art of telling jokes. Neither does he understand games. Clyde takes him under his wing to Combat 3000 to teach him how fun fun is. Sarah learns there have been mysterious storms at the time of all the disappearances connected with Combat 3000. Investigating, Maria and she also find that Mark Grantham and a humanoid, insectoid alien called Kudlak are abducting the children for an unseen "Mistress". Luke and Clyde have survived Round One of Combat 3000 and are challenged to make it to the door to the championships, facing other accomplished players. When Luke and Clyde approach the door, they are attacked. They escape, but are locked in a room from which they disappear. Mr. Grantham points an alien gun at Sarah and Maria, but Sarah uses her sonic lipstick to escape. Maria and Sarah arrive in a different room where they are confronted by Kudlak. They have arrived too late to save Luke and Clyde. On a screen they see them transported to space by a transmat beam. Sarah and Maria create a diversion and escape Kudlak. Back at Bannerman Road, Mr. Smith informs them Kudlak is a member of the Uvodni race, who were part of a planetary alliance fighting against the Malakh. The Malakh won the war, but the Uvodni continued fighting. Kudlak was injured on the front line and forced to leave the fighting. He was sent as part of an Imperial Fleet to recruit "warriors" from other worlds. His ship was led by a Mistress, who kept the patriotism and bloodlust in Kudlak alive. After decades of recruiting (mostly human) children via Combat 3000, Kudlak and Mr. Grantham have abducted Clyde and Luke. Meanwhile, Luke and Clyde find themselves on a spaceship. They rescue other children from holding crates, including Lance and a girl called Jen. On Earth, Mr. Grantham breaks into Sarah's home, but is overpowered by an electric shock. Back on the Uvodni ship, the children make their way to a shuttlecraft, but are recaptured. Sarah and Maria blackmail Grantham into transmatting them to the Uvodni ship, where they talk to the Mistress. When Kudlak brings the children to the Mistress, everyone is reunited. They discover the Mistress's true identity as a face on a computer screen, with no real person behind it. Kudlak is stopped by Luke before he kills anyone. Luke has discovered a ten-year-old message from the Uvodni Emperor, stating that an armistice had been reached with the Malakh. Having no programming to understand the concept of peace, the Mistress buried the message and continued to command Kudlak to recruit warriors, even though her missions no longer had any real point. With the truth revealed, Kudlak destroys the Mistress, releases the children and swears to do what he can to reunite the surviving recruits with their families. Back on Earth, Grantham has escaped, but Sarah decides not to have him arrested. After chatting with her friends, Jen decides to thank Luke for saving her with a kiss. This kiss, being his first, leaves him quite confused, since he's never experienced romantic inklings before. Luke asks Clyde if he has any knowledge to share about dealing with girls, but it's the one mystery even he can't figure out. 
<EOS>
Sarah Jane Smith and Alan Jackson pick up Clyde, Luke and Maria. They stop off in the Ealing Palace Park where Clyde practises his skateboarding. Alan, disappointed at what he sees, tries to teach Clyde, showing off his own skills. Maria takes photos of everyone. While being photographed, Sarah becomes very cold and mutters that someone just walked over her grave. As they leave, a black-cloaked, hooded figure peers from behind a bush. Back in Sarah's attic, Sarah tells Maria, Luke and Clyde about a meteorite on course with Earth. She reassures them Mr Smith will deflect it the next day. After sending Clyde home and Luke to make tea, Sarah gives Maria an alien puzzlebox. It was a gift from a Verron Soothsayer, who told her to give it to the person she trusts the most and just to "remember". Sarah says she chose Maria and sent Luke away so he wouldn't be offended. Maria tries to open it that night, but falls asleep holding it. A mysterious, cloaked figure approaches Sarah's house. He holds out a hand. The lights in the house go out, her car disappears and the puzzle block glows blue in Maria's hand. The next day, she tells her dad she is going to Sarah's. Alan has not heard of the woman. Maria takes this as a joke. He mentions Andrea and thinks Maria is joking when she asks who Andrea is. Across the street is a strange woman in Sarah's house who seems to know Maria, but neither Sarah or Luke are there. Her dad calls the woman Andrea. Maria rushes into the house but the layout is entirely different. Checking the attic, she finds it is filled with old junk and Mr. Smith is gone. Maria checks yesterday's photos. Sarah and Luke are not in them, but Andrea is. Sarah, Luke and Mr. Smith have vanished. She alone remembers them. Maria searches her mobile phone contacts, but Sarah, Luke, and Clyde's numbers have all vanished. She remembers the impending meteor, but no one will listen. Remembering Clyde's number from memory, she calls him, only to find that he is an acquaintance rather than one of her best friends. When Maria asks about Sarah and Luke, Clyde doesn't know what she's talking about and brushes her off. Maria decides to search for information on Sarah in the library. She and her father find a newspaper article from 1964; a thirteen-year-old Sarah Jane Smith drowned after falling from a pier, where she was larking around with her friend, Andrea Yates. Alan reasons that Andrea told her about the accident. As Maria watches, the names of the deceased and the survivor on the report switch for a second, though a bemused Alan claims he saw nothing. Realising that she can't get her father to remember anything about Sarah, Maria tells him she was lying to stop his worries. She goes to talk to Andrea. Andrea can't seem to recall her best friend's name until Maria mentions the incident in 1964, at which point Andrea panics and throws Maria out. Andrea rushes to the attic and finds a second puzzle box. The cloaked figure reappears and reminds Andrea of their agreement. She can't bear the memory and begs him to help her. He offers to make Maria disappear. After Andrea accepts, he dispatches a Graske, who chases Maria into a dead end under a tunnel and teleports her away just after Alan picks up the first puzzle box, which Maria had dropped during the chase. When Chrissie comes round, she cannot remember Maria, although Alan can. Meanwhile, Maria escapes from the Graske and finds herself on a beach promenade near two girls in school uniform. She grabs a newspaper and sees the date: July 13th 1964, the day of the accident. When Maria asks the two girls where she is, they introduce themselves as Andrea Yates and Sarah Jane Smith. After failing to dissuade Andrea and Sarah from going to the pier, Maria is recaptured by the Graske and is taken to join the adult Sarah on a white, misty plain called Limbo. The mysterious figure summons Sarah and explains that he has removed Sarah from Earth's timeline so the meteorite will destroy it and create the chaos on which he feeds. Luke also no longer exists, as in the altered timeline the Bane never came to Earth and thus he was never created. He removes his hood to reveal a featureless face and a mouth with sharp, pointed teeth. He tells her how her life was so important to the Earth, but he found just the right time to "snuff it out". As he leaves, he also mentions that he will proceed to remove the Doctor from time as well, to ensure nothing can interfere with his plan. Chrissie becomes angry at Alan for making up that they had children, and Alan begins to realise that what Maria said was true. He accompanies Chrissie to Andrea's birthday party. Recalling Maria's suspicions, he questions Andrea, who takes him to the attic and sorrowfully reveals the truth. When Andrea was on a school trip in July 1964, she and Sarah left the school group to explore on their own. After getting into the locked pier, they larked around for a bit before looking over the railings. However, the gate Andrea leant against was open and she tumbled down, grabbing hold of an overhanging girder. Sarah Jane tried to save her, but could not reach her. A hoarse voice offered to switch the girls' places. Andrea, terrified, accepted. The two girls immediately swapped places and Sarah fell, with Andrea safe. The figure appeared and gave Andrea the puzzle box, then removed himself from her memory, promising to always be with her. Due of the figure, Andrea had forgotten about her friend's entire existence, but Maria's questions made her remember both Sarah and the deal she made with the figure. The figure then reappears in the mirror, though Alan cannot see him, and offers to remove Alan. Andrea apologises both for removing Maria and for what she is about to do. She grabs Alan's puzzle box as the Graske appears. Alan is chased into the street by the Graske, but he knocks it down on his skateboard and uses its snare device to bring back Maria. Maria returns to reality, leaving Sarah on her own in limbo. At Andrea's party, Clyde switches on the television. Everyone at Andrea's party learns that a huge meteorite is heading for Earth and the air force are planning a missile strike. Alan tries to fire the snare again to return Sarah, but she does not appear; Maria deduces that she returned to her home, so Sarah should be in her attic. The missile strike fails and the guests flee the party to watch the approaching meteor. In the attic, Sarah appears in the mirror and explains that she cannot return while Andrea is still there. Andrea grows angry when Maria says Andrea was "meant to die", arguing that she has the right to live and she will be forgotten. Sarah agrees that neither of them should have died. It was a pointless death, something that Sarah never forgot. Witnessing Andrea's death gave her the resolve to fight pointless deaths herself. When the figure reappears, Andrea realises the error of her ways and, in an act of selflessness and courage, withdraws the agreement with the Trickster, throwing the puzzle box at the mirror which smashes both. Back in 1964, Andrea whispers, "Remember me," to Sarah just before she falls to her death, while Sarah and Luke reappear with Alan and Maria in the attic. Sarah activates Mr Smith to stop the meteor, now only metres from impact. The party guests have fled, but Clyde and Chrissie remain as targets for the incoming meteorite. Mr Smith activates the magnetic buffer and the meteorite diverts at the last minute. Clyde joins the others in the attic, where Alan demands an explanation of his daughter's involvement with aliens, monsters and supercomputers. The four look at each other and have no answer. 
<EOS>
Having discovered what Sarah, Maria, Clyde and Luke do together, Alan Jackson threatens to move house again, only to have a change of heart when he sees how upset Maria is. His condition for not moving away, however, is that he is kept up to date on their battles against aliens. A BBC news report on a family searching for their son, Ashley, missing for five months and last seen boarding the Bubble Shock bus, brings a shock. Ashley looks exactly like Luke. Mr Smith compares their DNA, and confirms that Luke and Ashley are genetic matches. Apparently, Luke was not "grown" by the Bane, but was in fact a kidnapped boy whose memory was wiped. His lack of a navel is explained as the result of its removal by the Bane, who are eggborn and find navels offensive. Chrissie Jackson calls the police and reports Sarah as a child abductor. As Clyde arrives wanting answers, Sarah is arrested and the police put Luke into the charge of Ashley's parents, Jay and Heidi. Sarah is detained by the police until UNIT intervene and have her released. Depressed, Sarah decides she was wrong to involve children and tells Maria to stay away from her, suggesting that she and her father move away. Mr Smith suggests she take on a case to take her mind off things. She visits the Pharos Institute, a research centre where alien technology is being used to conduct experiments into telekinesis. Here she meets the annoying child prodigy Nathan Goss. That night, Luke's new parents watch television and switch to a channel that glows green. They announce to the Xylok that they have the boy in their possession. Luke's new parents are very unpleasant. They keep Luke locked up in his room at all times. Clyde Langer cuts school to visit Luke, but Heidi does not let them see each other. She claims that her son is a keen skateboarder, which worries Clyde; he knows Luke has a poor sense of balance and is a dreadful skateboarder. He decides to bring a photo of Jay and Heidi to Mr Smith. Luke becomes frantic upon seeing Clyde leave the house. He tries desperately to escape. Mr Smith, meanwhile, sends Sarah back to the lab to steal one of their headsets, which he needs to work out Nathan's plans. Back at Luke's new home, his "parents" are meeting with Nathan, just as Luke is breaking out of his room. He fails to escape, but finds his parents are actually Slitheen. Luke asks how they are not fat, as Slitheen wearing skin suits are known to be, and they explain they are using improved compression field technology. Nathan Goss is Korst Gogg Thek Lutiven-Day Slitheen, a child Slitheen Luke met before, now in a new disguise and looking for revenge. Clyde gets to the house only seconds after Sarah has left. He takes the photo to Mr Smith, asking if the photo can be checked to see if it is a fake. Mr. Smith tells Clyde it is a fake, and he knows because Mr. Smith faked it. Clyde is confused, as Mr Smith is the Xylok who has been behind everything. Noting that Clyde is not a part of his plan,  he fires a bolt of energy at the boy, causing him to digitise and vanish from the real world, and laughs fiendishly. Clyde wakes to find himself inside Mr Smith. Sarah Jane Smith returns from the Pharos Institute, having stolen a telekinetic headset. Elsewhere, Maria and Alan go to Ashley's house, where they find a skinsuit. Maria realises the Slitheen have Luke. Alan gets a message on his computer from Clyde, who states Mr Smith has turned evil. The Jacksons and Sarah confront Mr Smith and are nearly killed as it fires a bolt of energy from a built-in gun. The Slitheen take Luke to the Pharos Institute, where they test his abilities. Luke overcomes the Slitheen and escapes as Maria, Alan and Sarah arrive. Working together, Sarah's gang and the Slitheen discover Mr Smith's intentions. Alan adapts a computer virus to destroy Mr Smith. Using the Slitheen teleporter, Sarah arrives in her attic, where Mr Smith is using Luke to awaken other Xylok from the Earth's core. He plans to crash the Moon into the planet, cracking it open like an egg and freeing the other Xylok. Clyde returns when Mr Smith states he is merciful, but Mr Smith then threatens the humans with its gun. Sarah unlocks a safe and calls on K9. The robots battle and Sarah inputs the virus, which makes Mr Smith forget its purpose. As the Moon grows closer to the Earth, Sarah tells Mr Smith it has a new purpose: to safeguard planet Earth. The Moon returns to its original position, K9 goes back to the safe to guard the black hole and the Slitheen return to Raxacoricofallapatorius. As Sarah, Maria, Luke, Clyde, Alan and Chrissie watch the ship leave, Sarah reflects that she never thought she could be part of a family. 
<EOS>
Sarah and Maria discuss the experiences they have shared since Maria's arrival in Bannerman Road. They watch the night sky as they look forward to many more discoveries. In rural Goblin's Copse, at a radio telescope used in the Tycho Project's search for alien life, Lucy Skinner and her astronomer dad, Professor Nicholas Skinner, also watch the night sky. They spot strange lights floating about. Professor Skinner investigates, but goes missing. Lucy investigates, and is promptly captured. The next day, Luke and Clyde play a strategy game with Mr Smith to learn about battle strategies. Sarah interrupts. She had heard reports of the strange lights the previous night. Despite Mr Smith's assurances that strange lights rarely herald alien activity, she pursues the story. Maria and Alan have received an important letter, but have found that the implications are far larger than they imagined and will cause an imminent major change in their lives. Alan tells Maria the decision is not just his to make. Sarah, Clyde, Luke and Maria head to the countryside to investigate. They arrive at Goblin's Copse and discuss the size of space. They are watched by something. Inside, the team finds Lucy, who tells them that her dad is still missing. Luke and Clyde look outside for the professor after Sarah warns them to stay away from the woods. As the boys search the woods, the creature watching them becomes invisible. While Lucy sleeps, Sarah decides to ask Maria what is troubling her after noticing some unusual behaviour, and Maria reveals that Alan has been offered a job in America, at the head office of his firm. Maria is ambivalent about the news; she is happy for her dad but sad that she must leave her friends behind. Sarah closes herself off from Maria, telling her she's happy for her, but is clearly upset. At his house, Alan discusses the job with Chrissie and how it will change Maria's life more than his. In the woods, Clyde and Luke hear a noise. A Sontaran, armed with a gun, reveals himself and chases them. The boys lose him, but come across a cloaked object. When Lucy wakes up, Sarah persuades her to recall the events of the previous night. Professor Skinner appears, though he seems strangely detached and unemotional. He orders Sarah and Maria to leave immediately, which they do. Lucy makes him some coffee and he approaches her strangely. Luke calls Sarah and when she and Maria arrive, he and Clyde show them the object. When the cloaking field is disabled, Sarah Jane immediately recognises the Sontaran ship. Its Sontaran occupant, Commander Kaagh, appears behind them, armed. Maria tricks Kaagh and the group escape, splitting up, with Kaagh chasing them. Sarah Jane and Clyde attempt to reason with Professor Skinner. They find his mind is controlled by the Sontaran. Outside the observatory, Luke and Maria crawl into a vent that leads into the building. Maria and Luke watch from the vent while Kaagh and Sarah talk. He says he was badly wounded when the Tenth Doctor defeated the Sontaran army. As the only survivor of the botched invasion, he has vowed revenge on Earth for his peoples' humiliation. He reveals his plan to use the Tycho radio telescope to take control of Earth's satellites, and steer them to crash into nuclear stockpiles on Earth, triggering nuclear annihilation. Clyde protests, so Kaagh says he will experiment on him. Sarah steps in front of Clyde, defying Kaagh. He pulls out his gun and shoots her. Kaagh shoots Sarah. She sprawls unconscious on the floor. He boasts to Clyde she will be taken to Sontar as a prize and he will be hailed as a hero instead of a laughingstock. Perhaps he will be given a more honourable epithet, like "Kaagh the Avenger". Luke and Maria, hidden in a nearby vent, watch the scene unfold. They catch Clyde's attention and motion for him to join them. Sarah awakens to find she is in a store room with Lucy Skinner. Kaagh has taken her sonic lipstick. Undeterred, Lucy and she start to build a device to jam the satellite. Aware that Kaagh will detect it, they plan to escape when he comes to investigate. Luke, Maria and Clyde provoke Kaagh into chasing them through the observatory's corridors and service tunnels. The teens escape into the forest and block Kaagh's exit. They run to his shuttle, where Luke uses the chemicals stored there to synthesise a knockout gas to incapacitate the Sontaran. He sets off the intruder alarm. Knowing it will bring Kaagh, Clyde goes to distract him. As Luke works, Maria tells him about the upcoming move which leaves him upset, but Maria reminds him it won't matter if Kaagh succeeds. Sarah activates her new invention; just as she expected, Skinner comes to find it. Sarah and Lucy sneak out, locking Skinner in the room, and try to figure out how to disarm the satellites. They let Clyde in by the same door Luke, Maria and Clyde escaped through earlier, just in time to save him from Kaagh, whom they lock out. Kaagh enters through the main door, breaks down the door to the room Skinner was locked in and rages at him. Maria, uncertain Luke will synthesise the gas in time, decides to ask Mr Smith for more information on defeating Sontarans. As Mr Smith is still in Ealing, she calls her dad and asks him to contact the computer. Alan does so, unaware he has been followed into Sarah's attic by his ex-wife, Chrissie. She demands to know what is going on; Alan quickly brings her up to speed on Sarah Jane's alien hunting and Maria's role as her assistant. Chrissie realises he is telling the truth because his lip twitches when he is lying. Maria's parents, fearful for her safety, decide to join their daughter at Goblin's Copse. Sarah, Maria, Clyde, Luke and Lucy all meet up. Sarah takes Luke and Lucy with her to try to deactivate the transmitter, while Maria and Clyde search for the switch that will move the transmitter away from the satellites. However, Kaagh and Skinner get there first and capture them. Luke tries to break into the observatory's main computers,  succeeding when he realises that Sontarans, who have three fingers on each hand, use base six mathematics. Kaagh appears and reveals Lucy is a sleeper agent. He activates the mind-control chip implanted in her. He orders her to re-activate the transmitter. He threatened Maria's life if Sarah tries to stop him. All appears lost, but fate plays an unexpected hand. Chrissie, having been watching from the shadows, bellows "Try my size fives, Humpty", and swings her high-heeled shoe into his probic vent, knocking him unconscious but electrocuting Chrissie as a side effect. The transmitter is deactivated, this time for good. Kaagh is escorted back to his ship and ordered to return to Sontar, which he is only too glad to do; he is humiliated that he was defeated by "half-forms" (children) and a woman. Sarah is relieved, even if she is not entirely convinced that the Sontaran is gone for good. Six weeks later, Maria and Alan say their goodbyes to Sarah, Luke and Clyde as they leave for their new life in America. As father and daughter pull away, Chrissie whispers to Sarah Jane that she was not entirely ignorant of her daughter's alien-hunting hobby. The group smiles and waves good-bye to Maria and Alan as they wave back, watching their cab leave Bannerman Road and send the Jacksons on their journey to America. Later that night, Sarah, Luke, and Clyde are looking out at the stars through one of her telescopes. Luke and Clyde tell Sarah Jane they will miss Maria, but Sarah gives them a piece of advice:   The trio turn their attention skyward, hoping the best for their friend. 
<EOS>
A group of boys are playing football when the ball goes out of the pitch. A child goes over to fetch the ball but sees a clown, who is, in fact Elijah Spellman. A few seconds later, the child is scared by the clown and disappears, never to be seen again. A new family is moving into number 36 Bannerman Road, formerly occupied by Alan and Maria Jackson. Luke Smith still misses Maria, even though she's keeping in touch by e-mail. His mum Sarah sympathises and reminds him Maria will visit England soon. She'll be at her mother's wedding. Yet, as Luke notes, it's not the same. There's a new girl at Park Vale School, the boys' comprehensive: clever and inquisitive Rani, who wants to be a journalist. Clyde is smitten -- even forgetting his odd sightings of clowns, always just out of the corner of his eye -- until he notices there's also a new head at the school: humourless Mr Chandra. He is determined to improve the students' scores and put an end to the recent rash of child disappearances. He is not impressed by Clyde, the class clown. Clyde doesn't make it to lunch before receiving a summons to the new head's office. While he is waiting by Mr Chandra's office, Clyde has another clown sighting. He tries to laugh it off, but he is shaken when his friend Dave ducks into a small art closet for supplies and doesn't come out. The art closet is empty; Dave has vanished into thin air. Sarah brings the new family tea and biscuits as a welcoming gift, but when Gita Chandra's back is turned, she performs a scan to check that no alien "residue" remains from the Jacksons' previous inhabitancy, because of Clyde's earlier remark. Only Gita Chandra is there -- her husband and daughter are at school, she explains -- so the two women share tea. Gita describes her family. She is thrilled to learn that Sarah is an investigative journalist. Her daughter Rani wants to become one herself. Clyde and Luke are walking home from school when Clyde sees another clown. Though Luke doesn't see anything, the boys give chase. They encounter only Rani, who has also been seeing clowns. Rani wonders if there is an extraordinary or supernatural explanation of the disappearances. The three are deep in discussion when they reach Bannerman Road and find Rani's dad is Mr Chandra. He is not pleased to see his daughter with Clyde, whom he has pegged as a troublemaker. On the other hand, he is delighted she has made friends with Luke, one of Park Vale's most gifted students. Luke helps Rani unpack. In her room, they continue their talk of the missing children. The mention of clowns jogs Rani's memory: she remembers taking a ticket to see a circus museum. Rani decides to investigate. Luke feels he has no choice but to follow. Clyde and Sarah have independently discovered the same thing. All the missing children received tickets to the same circus museum, and only children with tickets were seeing the clowns. They elect to visit the clown museum as well. Spellman's Magical Museum of the Circus is run by the strange Elijah Spellman. He shows them around and leads them to a room filled with clown mannequins. Clyde spots a picture on the wall: an old watercolour painting of a man wearing red, blue and yellow -- just like the mysterious ghost clowns he'd been seeing. Sarah Jane explains that the figure depicted is the Pied Piper, a legendary figure of European folklore who stole the children from Hamelin. Elijah Spellman agrees. He reveals that he is the Pied Piper and the mysterious clown. He has come for more children. Nor will he tolerate discovery -- with a word, he vanishes, and the clown mannequins come to life and threaten Sarah and Clyde. They run to the entrance, where they meet Luke and Rani and find that while Sarah's sonic lipstick is effective against the clown mannequins, the Pied Piper has trapped them in the building. Spellman frightens Sarah Jane Smith with insights on her childhood whilst Clyde, Luke and Rani try to escape from the museum. Luke and Clyde  get outside whilst Sarah remains terrified inside the circus. Rani's phone rings and she is confronted by a dilemma as Mum appears on the screen. While the phone rings, Spellman freezes. After a few seconds, Rani declines the call and runs out of the circus. Sarah Jane follows and the gang get inside Sarah's car to drive back to Bannerman Road. Once there, Sarah gives Rani a choice: live across the road and not interfere with her life, or go with Sarah and a whole world of adventure. Rani chooses to join Sarah and says she will explain to her mum that she is completing some work experience with her. Sarah, Rani, Luke and Clyde go into Sarah's house. Rani is amazed at the alien gear in Sarah's attic, particularly alien supercomputer Mr Smith. The new team quickly determines the history of the Pied Piper is traceable to a meteorite that fell to Earth in 1283. The extrasolar meteorite originated in the Jeggorabax Cluster, a region of space known to house entities that feed off of emotions. To confirm this, Mr Smith will need a sample of the meteorite. Fortunately, it is on loan from the University of Munich to the Pharos Institute. Luke confronts Sarah about her fear of clowns. Why should his mum, who has seen some of the strangest things in the universe, be frightened of clowns? Sarah explains that she was frightened of a clown marionette owned by her Aunt Lavinia when she was a child. It was one of the few times she missed having parents she could call on for comfort. Sarah visits the Pharos Institute and borrows a piece of meteorite to give to Mr Smith. Whilst she is there, Spellman appears and tells Sarah that families will perish at the deaths of a nation of children. Meanwhile, at Park Vale School, a host of red balloons fall from the sky. As the children grab them, they seem to lose free will, and mindlessly walk out of school towards Spellman's museum. Sarah remembers when Rani's phone rang earlier, Spellman froze. She gets Mr Smith to ring all the children's mobile numbers, breaking the spell, but Spellman kidnaps Luke and imprisons him in the hall of mirrors. Currently, he is sleeping with the other missing children whom Odd Bob has caught and after a while, "they just fade away". Sarah demands the children be brought back, but Spellman correctly deduces she is still afraid of him and says he has been responsible for her lifelong fear of clowns. Spellman and she face off, unaware that Rani and Clyde have entered the building. Clyde faces Spellman unafraid. He begins to tell jokes. The humour loosens the grip that fear has on Sarah, which in turn weakens Spellman, who feeds on fear. Spellman weakens and Sarah forces him back into the fragment of the meteorite, which she puts into an alien box which nothing can escape from. Rani is a little shaken by her odd experiences, but vows to help Sarah, Luke and Clyde in their adventures. 
<EOS>
A young woman, Cheryl, is paying a regular visit to her astrologer, Martin Trueman. When she confides that she is spending her mortgage money to see him, Trueman breaks down and confesses that he is a con artist. As he stands by his window, unable to face her, he is hit by a shooting star. Suddenly, he's found a renewed belief in astrology. Some time later, Rani and her mum have dragged Mr Chandra, Luke and Clyde to Martin Trueman's astrology seminar at East Acton New Theatre. Sarah has come, too, thinking she might do a story on Mr Trueman. Before entering the auditorium, each of them fills out a card with his or her birthday and gives it to Cheryl, who is now working as Mr Trueman's assistant. Luke, who was not really "born", does not have a birthdate, a fact that troubles him. Mr Trueman begins his show by naming a random date and asking those born on that date to stand. Clyde stands, despite his stated intention not to; he is unnerved, but Sarah reassures him that it's a trick of persuasion. Mr Trueman selects another audience member. To the audience's astonishment, he divines her life story. Sarah can just convince her friends -- and herself -- that Trueman is just using cold reading techniques. Then Trueman selects her. He reveals an impossible amount of knowledge about seemingly ordinary Sarah's extraordinary travels and more importantly, about the Doctor. Stunned and intrigued, Sarah stays after the show to talk to Trueman alone. She demands to know the source of his uncanny knowledge. He insists that astrology alone is responsible for his success. When he concludes the interview by warning Sarah against opposing him, she has no choice but to leave, as baffled and as unnerved as when she met him. On the way home Clyde encounters Trueman, who hypnotises him to walk to his house and hypnotises him to become his slave. In his trance Clyde suddenly seems to gain a new sense of purpose and direction, and sets off to meet Sarah and Luke back at 13 Bannerman Road where he threatens to kill them, while Mr Smith stands idly by and insists that "nothing is happening". Clyde's hand glows with lethal energy and he points it at Sarah, declaring that she must be destroyed. Sarah and Luke talk Clyde out of threatening them, a feat Sarah attributes to Clyde's intrinsic goodness overriding any hypnotic techniques Trueman may have used. The friends continue their discussion of Trueman. Mr Smith gives them background on astrology: a belief system widespread throughout the galaxy, he says and, in his opinion, mere superstition. It is a physical impossibility for "imaginary patterns in the sky" to affect reality, as the computer puts it. Luke theorises that, if that is the case, maybe the Ancient Lights Trueman speaks of are from another universe, the one that existed before Event One. Mr Smith interrupts the theorising to patch through a television programme. Mr Trueman has taken over the airwaves and broadcast one of his astrology talks. This lecture/demonstration features a large, twelve-pointed star, each arm marked with a different sun sign. Trueman lights up the points of the star one by one, giving him control over people born under that sign. He begins with those born under the sign of Gemini, a group that includes Rani's mum. The investigators return to the theatre to stop the broadcast, but the possessed Children of Gemini threaten to stop them. Clyde bluffs his way through by making up horoscopes. The Ancient Lights create a portal to the theatre. Trueman reveals that Luke's theory on the Ancient Lights is true: in the previous universe, he claims, they controlled all lifeforms. The Ancient Lights survived the Big Bang and needed Martin Trueman to rule the world because he was the "Chosen One". Sarah tries to talk him out of it, but he will not listen. Rani and Luke try to shut down the broadcast by flicking the mains switch off, but the Ancient Lights protect it with a force field. As they struggle to find a way through, Trueman's wheel reaches the sign of Aries, and Rani, an Aries, comes under Trueman's control. Of the twelve sun signs on Trueman's wheel, only Taurus now remains. Sarah is a Taurus, but cannot think of what she and Luke can do with only seconds remaining before she, too, falls under Trueman's control. Luke has an idea: since he was not born, he theorises, he doesn't have a star sign. He won't be under Trueman's control under any circumstances so he is the only person able to destroy Trueman's wheel. Doing so severs the connection with the Ancient Lights and prevents their entry into the universe. Sarah pleads with Trueman to leave the theatre and escape with them, but Trueman refuses; he cannot bear to return to his former life and chooses to become "one with the stars" disintegrating into space. As the friends celebrate back at Sarah's house, the clueless Earth authorities begin what the investigators know will be a fruitless search for Trueman. Luke and Sarah decide that, since Luke was able to use his lack of a birthday to save the universe, they will take today's date as his own equivalent of a birthday. 
<EOS>
Sarah is going away for the weekend to track down an alien lifeform and leaves Luke to stay with Clyde and his mother for the weekend. Rani walks by the detention room at school. She witnesses a boy, Jacob West, controlling his teacher and fellow students. He runs into the boy's bathroom, drops a strange pendant on the floor and leaves. Rani picks up the pendant and pockets it. On Bannerman Road, Rani and her father, Haresh, are deciding on tea and choose to have a pizza. Rani discovers that Haresh will follow her verbal instructions. She deduces that the pendant causes people to follow instructions given to them by the pendant's wearer. Although she initially has fun with the pendant, when her father offers to die as a result to an idle comment, Rani realises how dangerous it is. The next day, somebody knocks on the door of the Langers' home. Clyde answers it and finds that his long-lost father, Paul Langer, has turned up. His arrival upsets Clyde and his mum. After an emotional discussion among the three of them, Clyde leaves with his father. During the course of the day, Clyde reveals to his father that he is involved in tackling alien threats. Meanwhile, Rani goes to Sarah's attic only to find that Mr Smith has been deactivated while the house is empty. Rani decides to leave the pendant there so no-one will find it. After a talk with her father, she decides to investigate matters herself. She finds Luke, and they go to the school to search for clues. Clyde convinces his father that he is telling the truth by taking him to Sarah's attic. Paul finds the pendant that Rani left and puts it in his shirt pocket. Outside, they meet Haresh, who asks them about what they were doing in Sarah's house. Paul ends up instructing Haresh to do press-ups and realises it must be due to the pendant. Luke and Rani run up to them. Rani works out what has happened and confronts Paul and Clyde. Paul instructs Clyde to forget who Rani and Luke are. They walk off. Paul finds his hand has a strange blue symbol on it. Clyde and Paul are walking in town. Paul can't stop looking at the symbol on his hand. Luke and Rani attempt to contact Sarah, but she is preoccupied trying to pursue an alien called Travast Polong. Meanwhile, Luke and Rani send a picture of the pendant to Maria and her father to investigate, as her father can hack into UNIT. They discover the pendant can cause a symbol known as the mark of the Berserker to appear on one's skin. Haresh refuses to stop the press-ups. Paul gets everything he wants for free -- including a new car -- and uses this to bond with his son. He instructs Clyde to forget about how he left him and his mum when he was young and to forget about his mum. The pendant takes over Paul's skin, causing blue veins to appear, and he collapses. He declares himself the Berserker and Clyde his soldier. Sarah appears and Clyde recognises her. She tells him that his mum, Rani and Luke are the most important people in his life when he asks who they are. Clyde and his mum talk Paul through his memories, whilst Sarah shows him a reflection of himself in her handbag mirror and he remembers who he really is. Everyone the Berserker commanded has their commands undone. Clyde tries to get his mum and dad back together, but Paul tells his son that he has made his mum's sister pregnant. Clyde tells his father he doesn't need him, and not to mess up with this baby. His dad then leaves to return the car and clothes. Clyde tells his mother to forget about the pendant, what she knows about Sarah's adventures with her son, and his father, then throws the pendant into the sea. Sarah reveals that her parents died when she was young and she would do anything to see them again. When Clyde is gone, she takes out a picture of her mother and father and rubs her finger over the latter. 
<EOS>
A boy appears through a time fissure. Sarah and Luke find the fissure as Clyde and Rani chase after the boy. They bring him back and Sarah opens the fissure so he can return home. The boy is scared, so Sarah Jane takes him through. Before she can leave, Sarah discovers it is 1951. She pauses, then returns through the fissure. The boy asks if he completed his task and the Trickster appears, saying he did it perfectly. This time Sarah will not be able to resist temptation. Rani, Clyde and Luke try to convince Sarah to let them go through, using her travels with the Doctor as leverage, but she tells them that it is too dangerous and the Doctor knew what he was doing, mostly. She closes the fissure and they head home. At home, the kids agree that something is wrong with Sarah and set Luke to find out what. In the attic, Sarah asks Mr Smith the status of the fissure. It is inactive. She asks him for the history of Foxgrove. After he tells her, she puts Mr Smith away and looks at a black and white photograph. Luke enters and convinces Sarah to tell him the truth. She explains about her parents, their death in a car crash and how she was raised by her aunt. Luke asks why she doesn't go back. Sarah tells him it could be a trap. Luke notes that it could just be a coincidence, but Sarah decides not to go. That night, Sarah gets ready to go through the fissure and attempts to leave, but is caught by Luke. He asks about her clothing, then the two head out. At the fissure they discuss the dangers of crossing your own timeline. Sarah passes through and the fissure closes, but not before Luke jumps through. The fissure is still active and can be opened, so Sarah and Luke head towards the village. They are watched by Oscar, the boy they rescued. Clyde discovers Sarah's house empty. After failing to get either of them on their mobiles, he heads to Rani's house. With Gita's help, he gets her out of bed. On entering the house they find that it is empty and Mr Smith has no idea where they might be. He has a theory that Sarah may have gone back in time through the time portal. Mr Smith detects the box which the Verron Soothsayer gave Sarah has become active again and is glowing blue. Clyde explains what it is and suggests it will protect them with its boxy goodness. Sarah and Luke arrive in the village, where they meets her parents at a fete. The new arrivals introduce themselves as Victoria Beckham and her son David. Luke sees Oscar and follows him, but finds only a newspaper. Sarah helps out with serving tea and talks to her mother, learning more about her parents. On taking the box to the portal, neither Rani nor Clyde can find a way to use it. Then the box changes colour to red. Sarah leaves the fete as her emotions begin to get the better of her. Luke tells her that her parents' deaths are today. He wants to go home. They argue, but Sarah disables her parents' car engine, stopping them from being killed and changing the future. They leave the village and head for the fissure as the weather begins to turn. Clyde and Rani watch as the time portal opens and Oscar steps out. When Oscar changes into a Graske they run off. They evade it by hiding behind bins. Time starts to change. Clyde puts his arm round Rani and they experience the transition from their version of the present into a new, post-apocalyptic version. Sarah and Luke arrive back in 2009. London has been destroyed and the Trickster reveals himself. She asks how he did this. He tells her that she did it when she stopped her parents' deaths, and the Trickster triumphantly proclaims "You gave the world to the Trickster!" Sarah demands to know how saving her parents could have altered time so drastically. The Trickster explains the village was built on a fault in time. Sarah's tampering with a fixed point in time opened this fault, allowing the Trickster to physically enter this reality and ravage Earth for the last half century. Sarah and Luke go back through the fissure as the Trickster gloats he has already won. Clyde and Rani explore London, ruined and reduced to rock formations, while Clyde explains that it is an alternative timeline. On the other side of the time fissure, Sarah and Luke notice the unnatural weather. They run towards the village. The fete has been moved to the village hall because of the weather. Clyde and Rani wonder how they will get home from this alternate time line, then notice a Graske. They follow him. Sarah tries to figure out how to stop the Trickster before he manifests. She tells Luke there was only one person who would immediately know how. She finds a police box and mistakes it for the Doctor's TARDIS before discovering a policeman inside. Having followed the Graske, Clyde and Rani discover the last surviving humans being worked as slaves. Rani finds her mum and shouts to her. The Graske hears her, but stays away, which Clyde puts down to him being scared. Despite Clyde's warning, Rani runs after her mother. Sarah and Luke try to find the Trickster and discover the fete has been moved to the town hall. Rani wonders how her mother still exists. Clyde tells her that time tries to compensate for changes in the timeline. When they talk to Gita, she explains they are being made to mine every resource from the Earth. Clyde asks her how the world became like this. Gita tells them of the legend of Sarah Jane Smith and how she handed the world to the Trickster when he tricked her. The Graske sets the slaves back to work. Clyde figures out that he and Rani must warn Sarah, but wonders why the Graske works for the Trickster. Sarah asks her parents if they have noticed anything strange or any new person in the village recently. While Eddie believes it to be none of their business, Barbara helps. Rani and Clyde talk to the Graske, who tells them the Trickster uses the slaves to mine minerals to create a ship so he can extend his reach to the rest of the universe. Clyde and Rani implore the Graske to help them restore the original timeline but he refuses. They note that he is simply the Trickster's slave. He tries to grab the puzzle box but Clyde makes him tell them the truth first. Years ago, the Graske nearly died in space, but was saved by the Trickster in return for eternal servitude. Clyde promises the Graske that if he helps them, they will give him the puzzle box to free him from the Trickster. The Graske agrees, and reopens the fissure so Rani can tell Sarah the new information. Rani passes through the fissure and goes to warn Sarah. Sarah finds an unusual reading inside an old, open-roofed building. Rani, meanwhile, enters the village hall and asks where Sarah is. She is told they were looking around the village and heads after them, soon followed by Eddie. Rani finds them and warns them that the Trickster is entering through the Abbot's Gateway. The Trickster appears and Eddie arrives to take Barbara away. In the village hall, Eddie and Barbara figure out that something is wrong with them when fruit rots and flowers wither at their touch. Sarah threatens to send the Trickster back with her sonic lipstick, but he tells her it is no use. Luke reminds her of the only way to save the world, to re-activate her parents' car engine. The Trickster tries to convince her not to, but she runs off anyway. Barbara and Eddie come to realise who Sarah is and what she was trying to prevent. Sarah repairs her parents' car when they approach her. After asking if their daughter had a good life and telling her how proud they are of her, they enter the car and drive off. The weather changes and the Trickster begins to fade. He cannot see how the timeline could have been restored. Sarah proudly states that the Trickster's plan never considered that her parents would willingly sacrifice themselves to save the world. The Trickster vanishes, howling in pain. Back in the modern day, the timeline is restored around the Graske and Clyde, who gives the Graske the box. The Graske teleports away, beaming over its newly returned freedom. The fissure reopens as Sarah, Luke and Rani return. Sarah Jane recloses the fissure and destroys the device which opened it. At home, Rani is joyed to find her parents alive and well and Clyde heads home. Sarah reminisces over her parents, showing Luke her only picture of them. Although she could not save them, she finally knows why they left and is incredibly proud of them. As Sarah and Luke share a hug, writing can be seen on the back of her parents' photo, one last remnant of the notes they used to share: "Mr Smith, I need you". 
<EOS>
Rani realises her mum has vanished. Sarah and Luke go to the Chandras' house and talk to her and Haresh about what happened. Rani suspects it could be aliens at work, but Sarah says that it is not always aliens. People go missing all the time and come home safe. Sarah, Luke and Clyde head to Gita's shop, Bloomin' Lovely, to investigate while Sarah uses her scanner watch to search for alien traces. Luke and Clyde find a cheque signed by Mrs Wormwood. When Mr Smith scans it, there is a hidden code which offers clues to Mrs Wormwood's location. Sarah and Rani go to rescue Gita, discussing the Bane and Bubble Shock on the way. They find Gita in a trance, unresponsive, and meet up with Mrs Wormwood. The former Bane operative explains she took the blame for her species' failed attempt at invading the Earth and has been exiled from her people and world. The Bane will eat her alive if they catch her. When the Bane attack, Mrs Wormwood uses her phonic disruptor on them. It emits sound which penetrates their ears and stops them in their tracks. The Bane grab Sarah by the leg, but Mrs Wormwood saves her, attacking the Bane with a metal pole. The three head back to Bannerman Road, shocking Luke when he opens the door. In the attic, Mr Smith does a bio-analysis on Mrs Wormwood, confirming she is Bane. Mr Smith asks if having her in the attic is a good idea. Sarah asks Mr Smith to put a containment field around her if she causes trouble. Mrs Wormwood says that an ancient immortal, Horath, tried to take over the galaxy, but was defeated three thousand years ago. Unable to destroy him, Horath's captors separated his body and consciousness and placed them at opposite ends of the galaxy. Mrs Wormwood says the Bane have found Horath's consciousness, and are trying to find his body, which is, like so many other things of galactic importance, on Earth. Once united, the Bane will be able to conquer the galaxy. The only clue to the body's location is in the Tunguska Scroll,  kept in UNIT's Black Archive, a secure storehouse of alien artefacts. Sarah visits her old friend, retired Brigadier Sir Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart, to get his help to enter the Archive. Sarah and Rani obtain the Tunguska Scroll. UNIT personnel stop Sarah, but she uses her sonic lipstick and escapes with Rani and the Brigadier. Meanwhile Luke talks to Mrs Wormwood. When the Bane attack the house, he releases her from the force field. She is about to escape when a Bane tries to eat her. Sontaran Commander Kaagh shoots it and reveals himself as her agent. Luke and Clyde are surrounded by Bane. Clyde picks up a hose and soaks the Bane, trying to force them back. Mrs Wormwood arrives and uses her phonic disruptor to blow up the Bane, leaving goo on Luke and Clyde. Sarah arrives with Rani and the Brigadier. To prevent UNIT finding them, Sarah, Luke, Clyde, Rani, the Brigadier and Mrs Wormwood all hide in Gita's flower shop. Mrs Wormwood asks Sarah for the scroll but she refuses. Commander Kaagh arrives and grabs Sarah's sonic lipstick, destroying it. He demands the scroll and threatens the youngsters. Sarah gives the scroll to Mrs Wormwood. Mrs Wormwood forces Luke to go with her and Commander Kaagh. Mrs Wormwood, Kaagh and Luke arrive at a factory where Kaagh has hidden his space pod. He places the Consciousness of Horath in the scroll. Mrs Wormwood says that Luke could be ruler of the galaxy as her son. Luke grabs the scroll and runs. Kaagh chases him. Just as Kaagh is about to shoot Luke, Mrs Wormwood, in her Bane mode, jumps in front of Kaagh and transforms back to human. She uses her phonic disruptor again. Meanwhile the others go to Sarah's house to speak to Mr Smith, to try to find the whereabouts of Luke, Mrs Wormwood and Kaagh. Major Kilburne tries to stop them, revealing himself as a Bane agent. The Brigadier uses a hidden gun in his cane to stun the Major. They borrow Gita's van and go after their friends. Mrs Wormwood, Luke and Kaagh arrive at a stone circle and find a force field around it. Only humans can enter. Mrs Wormwood forces Luke to insert the scroll. When he does, the stone circle opens. It's a portal which leads to Horath. Mrs Wormwood uses her sonic device again and Kaagh drops to the ground. Sarah arrives. Mrs Wormwood tries to convince Luke to go with her, saying she is his mother. Luke says his real mum is Sarah. Clyde, meanwhile, walks over to Kaagh to check if he's hurt.  Kaagh asks Clyde to help him regain his honour. Mrs Wormwood is upset, but convinces herself that the best way to heal her broken heart is to kill Sarah's gang. However, as she prepares to do so, Kaagh shouts, "Sontar-ha!" and pushes her into the portal. It explodes, trapping them in another dimension, leaving Luke feeling a bit sorry for Mrs Wormwood. Sarah Jane reveals she has another sonic lipstick and destroys the scroll. She then reflects on how amazing the universe can be, as well as her own corner of it, as she bids goodbye to the Brigadier. She asserts that aliens will always visit Earth as it's a wonderful place to be. 
<EOS>
Sarah Jane Smith gives an overview of her life and tells how life on Earth is just as exciting as travelling the stars. She goes to interview Mr. Yorke, the head of Genetec Systems, about nanoforms and the threat they might pose if released into the environment along with the fact he is centuries away from proper programming to back his boasts. Yorke takes her questions poorly and has her thrown out. Sarah takes it in stride. She returns home to find Luke and Clyde playing football. Rani comes over just as a "meteor" crashes onto the Earth. They race inside and Sarah Jane activates Mr Smith, who tells them that the falling object crossed the solar system in forty-five minutes. Sarah says it can't be a meteor. Mr Smith notes the falling object sent a distress signal. His monitor shows Judoon calling for help. He says a life-pod was launched before the ship crashed. Sarah explains the Judoon's job and their dimwitted methods. Mr Smith says UNIT has secured the area. Worried that UNIT will get into a fight with the Judoon, Sarah tells her companions that it's time to move out. As they leave, Gita causes a delay by asking Sarah if any of her contacts would be interested in her flower shop, "Bloomin' Lovely". Sarah distractedly gives Gita a brochure from Genetec Systems. Gita decides to fill the company's office with plants as a sort of guerrilla marketing and drags Haresh with her. They soon find the Judoon pilot pursuing his now-escaped prisoner and are nearly hit by stray blast from his weapon. Sarah explains that under the rules of the Shadow Proclamation, Earth barely exists. To make matters worse, the Judoon are brutal and will execute anyone that gets in their way. In the meantime, the Judoon is knocked out by the escapee with a board, allowing him time to escape his straitjacket and flee. Sarah and the others find the Judoon and move his blaster away. The Judoon awakens, takes out its "language assimilation/cataloguing device" and records Sarah's offering of help and warning not to harm them. Assimilating English, the Judoon says his name is Captain Tybo and his prisoner, Androvax, is the "Destroyer of Worlds". To prevent Tybo from harming any innocent humans in his zeal to recapture Androvax, Sarah insists on helping his investigations. After hearing a young girl's scream nearby, Sarah and Clyde run to investigate, leaving Luke and Rani to keep Tybo distracted. They find the girl. They attempt to comfort her and find out where her mother is. However, Sarah's watch begins to beep. She had been scanning the girl, who is not human. Androvax steps out of the girl's body and into Sarah's, then puts Clyde in a trance. Captain Tybo figures out that Luke and Rani are distracting him. He smashes their mobile phones to prevent any more mistakes. He says Androvax is a Veil life form, capable of possessing others. They find Clyde in the theatre, revive him with a squirt bottle after slapping him proves ineffective, and learn Androvax has Sarah. Tybo "commandeers" a police car and they pursue Sarah/Androvax back to Bannerman Road, where she has been talking to Mr Smith. Sarah returns to Genetec Systems, where she talked to Mr York about the nanoforms. Captain Tybo, Rani, Luke and Clyde reach the attic only to discover that Mr Smith has been set to self-destruct in sixty seconds, which will destroy all of Bannerman Road. Captain Tybo is prepared to blast Mr Smith, but Luke stops the countdown by telling Mr Smith that exploding would contradict his purpose of defending and protecting Earth, as the resulting explosion would destroy several city blocks. Mr Smith tells Luke, Rani, Tybo and Clyde where Sarah is -- Genetec System Labs. Androvax plans to use the nanoforms to build a spaceship for escape, then allow them to run wild and destroy the Earth. Meanwhile, Gita and Haresh have been arrested by the security guard there, but when Androvax sets off multiple alarms, the guard leaves and they escape. Luke, Rani and Clyde arrive with Tybo. Rani insists they hide when she sees her parents roaming the building. The kids decide to lock the Judoon Captain in a shielded room to prevent him harming Sarah Jane in his zeal to stop Androvax. More Judoon arrive on the scene, right behind Haresh and Gita. Haresh wants to find out what they're up to, but Gita is more concerned about finding the security guard, who's taken her mobile, and staying alive. The Judoon comment that Gita is more intellegent than Haresh; interfering with their work will warrant termination. In the meantime, Sarah argues with Androvax, but when the kids arrive in the lab, Androvax captures Luke and sets the nanoforms after Clyde and Rani with Sarah's sonic lipstick. They recall that nanoforms will go dormant at low temperatures and defeat them with a fire extinguisher. Androvax takes Luke aboard the now-complete space ship. Sarah attempts to take control of her body again. Clyde and Rani also appear and Luke steals the ship's power core, insisting they'll let Androvax escape if he releases Sarah Jane. Androvax finally agrees, but the Judoon arrive to arrest him moments later. The nanoforms, meanwhile, have begun eating the building and Haresh and Gita are trapped inside. Luke uses the spaceship's computer to deactivate the nanoforms. The Judoon leave with their prisoner in the ship. Tybo, taking into account the youngsters' part in stopping Androvax, chooses not to prosecute them for locking him in the room. Instead, he revokes their interplanetary travel rights -- oddly as Earthlings shouldn't have any -- effectively "grounding" them on Earth. Sarah and her team arrive home safe, where Gita and Haresh regale them with the harrowing story of their encounter with aliens. 
<EOS>
In the year 2059, a boy called Adam walks inside the dark, mysterious 13 Bannerman Road. It is no longer occupied by Sarah Jane Smith, but by a self-described "mad old woman," Rani Chandra. Mr Smith has long since broken down and the whole house seems to be deteriorating. Rani herself is unkempt and unwell. She lingers over old photographs and drawings as she tells Adam how she came to be in this sorry state. In 2009, Rani is intrigued by reports of strange lights. She goes to Sarah to discuss them. Sarah, Luke and Clyde are laughing about Maria Jackson, who is now hiding aliens from the American government. Sarah says the strange lights were just lightning; Mr Smith has already checked up on them. Hurt by Sarah's dismissive attitude, Rani returns home to sulk and finds an e-mail from Sam Lloyd, her best friend before she moved to Ealing. Sam is an orphan who lost contact with Rani, even though she confided in him about her adventures with Sarah. Rani visits Sam, who tells her that there is a "demon" in a closed funfair and people have disappeared. Rani goes in to investigate, but Sam returns to the orphanage. Rani finds the caretaker, Harry, and pretends she has a twisted ankle to get into his office. There, she hears a voice say, "Playtime has begun". She witnesses the people who disappeared walk from the haunted house and begin playing on the rides; all of their eyes have turned red and they smile fixedly. The rides seem to operate themselves. While Rani observes the people on the rides, Harry is contacted by a red face in his mirror. The voice says, "Playtime is over", and the people return to the haunted house. Rani makes her way into the haunted house and discovers a red-skinned alien called Eve. Eve is a child and the two talk. Meanwhile, Sarah tries to call Rani, who mutters to herself that she wishes they'd just leave her alone. Eve says her race can allow people to see their pasts and futures, as well as manipulate timelines. They were killed off in a conflict between two other races. Eve's parents placed her in a ship that crashed on Earth. Harry found her and has raised her ever since, hidden in the fair. Eve says the people she has possessed are her friends. She is not allowed outdoors because of her inhuman appearance. Eve asks Rani if she wants to see her future. Rani sees herself old and insane. She denies violently that such a thing could happen to her and decides to help Eve escape. Clyde investigates Rani's disappearance and finds Sam's e-mail. Sarah, Luke and Clyde go to the orphanage, where Sam tells them where Rani is. Sarah and Clyde leave to find Rani, while Luke stays behind with Sam. Sam tells Luke that Eve saw Rani in his mind and wanted to meet her. The red face appears in a mirror. Sarah and Clyde find Harry. They also see the face in the mirror. The face scans Sarah's mind and shows her past and a glimpse of her future: the Doctor's TARDIS in her attic. Sam captures Luke and the face does the same for him, showing him as a university graduate. Sarah runs outside and Clyde follows. The face exclaims they need "the darkness"; it is their future. Sarah and Clyde go to find Eve, who is escaping with Rani. Though they argue, Rani insists on taking Eve outside. Meanwhile, back at the orphanage, Luke brings a couple of mugs into Sam's room, but discovers Sam is gone. He goes to the computer and sees a note that says that it wasn't Eve that wanted Rani. Eve is thrilled to see the outside world, but soon her ability to manipulate people and rides goes out of control; she sends her "friends" out for "playtime" and the rides spin wildly. When Rani gets angry at her and storms off, Eve possesses her too, causing her eyes to turn red. Sam arrives at the funfair. Eve says Rani was scared of the future and growing old, but now she will be young forever. Eve doubles over in pain, energy flashing between the rides and her body. Sarah tells her she has to let the people go, but Eve tells her she doesn't know how. Sarah and Clyde go back inside to consult the face in the mirror. The face identifies itself as Ship, the computer system that drives Eve's ship, programmed to protect Eve until she is fully grown. Ship says Eve is slowly dying. She is too young to control her powers and must be brought back to Ship for treatment. Harry makes the homeless people and Rani sit while Sarah, Sam and Clyde go to the beach to locate Ship and get Eve on board. Ship absorbs Eve's excess energy, saving her life and returning Rani and the others to themselves. Rani and Harry run to the beach and also board Ship. Eve invites Sam and Harry to travel the stars with her. Ship reveals that the darkness it seeks is a black hole as it is the only thing that can provide it power. Sarah, realising that the black hole K9 is containing would be perfect, quickly has Mr Smith patch her through. She arranges for K9 to transport the black hole into Ship's engines, which allows him to come home for good. As soon as K9 teleports back home, Mr. Smith enquires if he will be staying permanently. "Affirmative," K9 replies. "Oh, good," Mr. Smith exclaims in a resigned tone. As Rani and her friends prepare to leave, Ship stops her and offers to grant Rani a wish. As she had said she wished Clyde, Luke and Sarah would leave her alone, Ship erases them from existence. Rani, Eve and Sam try to convine Ship that wasn't what was meant, but Ship doesn't listen and leaves, taking Eve, Sam and Harry. In 2059, Rani has finished her tale. Adam tells her he's not from across the road; his mum sent him. Rani is confused. Adam's eyes glow red. He is the son of Eve and Sam. He explains that Ship was damaged and she got it wrong. He has come here to grant her a wish. She wishes Ship never took her friends away and Adam corrects it. The scene on the ship repeats, but this time, Ship keeps quiet and doesn't erase anyone. Ship takes off happily with Eve, Sam and Harry, onwards to more adventure. Sarah Jane, Rani and Clyde are joined by Luke and find K9 at Sarah's house when they return. Sarah Jane takes a photo of Rani, Luke, Clyde and K9. In 2059, Rani is now living a very different life. She still lives in Bannerman Road, but is healthy and sane. The house is clean and well-lit. Her three grandchildren rush into the attic to hug her, followed by their father, Shuresh, who asks her how her trip to Washington DC was. She says it was great and she and Luke got to catch up with Maria. The photo of Rani with Luke, Clyde and K9 is on a shelf. 
<EOS>
Sarah Jane Smith is sneaking out of her home for "a traffic report meeting". It is the fifth time this month she has made an odd excuse to the gang for going out. This time Luke activates Mr Smith and has him track her. Sarah stops on Morris Drive, where she almost uses her sonic lipstick as a normal lipstick. Luke, Clyde and Rani find her on a date, secretly seeing her new boyfriend. with a suave-looking man. They watch through a restaurant window as Sarah Jane kisses him. As the kids leave, Clyde is puzzled by a strange sound: the distorted sound of the TARDIS engines, although he doesn't understand what the noise is. Sarah is upset when she learns from Mr Smith and K9 that the gang have been spying on her. She says she was about to tell them. The man's name is Peter Dalton. Sarah forgives them and jokes with Luke that she may have to tell Peter about her investigations of aliens. After Sarah leaves, Luke also hears the TARDIS. Peter arrives, and Clyde, Rani and Gita try to spy on him. Sarah Jane is reluctant to reveal her secrets to Peter right away. She asks Rani to take a parcel that's been delivered to her, but it starts moving. In the Chandras' house, a non-evil but mischievous many-eyed creature bursts out of the parcel and rampages briefly. It attracts K9, who runs out of the house in front of Peter, but Luke passes off K9 as a prototype toy. With K9's help, Rani and Clyde catch the creature and bring it to Mr Smith, who transmats it to its home planet, Polongus. Meanwhile, Sarah, Peter and Luke go out for a meal. Luke and Peter bond quickly. Two days later, Peter proposes to Sarah in a restaurant. She accepts and the surrounding crowd applaud. However, her engagement ring begins to glow red. Clyde starts to investigate Peter and tracks down his house over the Internet. He and Rani go there, but find the place virtually deserted, with newspaper covering the windows, dim, and plastic wrap covering some of the furniture.. In the attic, Clyde tries to convince Sarah that Peter may be more than he seems. Sarah claims she knows about the empty house, that Peter now lives in a flat closer to work. Rani and Luke are convinced, but Clyde is still suspicious. He is shocked to learn Sarah is getting married to Peter in two weeks. Sarah seems to be in a trance, controlled by her glowing engagement ring. Mr Smith tries to alert Sarah to alien activity in the ring but she deactivates him, saying she doesn't want to deal with aliens anymore and may never have to tell Peter about her secret life. On the wedding day, Clyde tries to insult Peter subtly, saying the wedding has been arranged too fast. Luke becomes angry and suggests Clyde is projecting his attitude towards his own father onto Peter. Luke wonders why none of Peter's family are attending the wedding; Peter explains he has no living relatives. Sarah arrives in a limousine, with Rani as her bridesmaid. The boys react with surprise and appreciation at her dress. Clyde reveals K9 is at the wedding, further enraging Luke. When the registrar invites anyone who wants to object to speak now, the Tenth Doctor bursts through the doors shouting, "Stop this wedding now!" Everyone is baffled why he wants the wedding stopped, but the Doctor firmly repeats that he wants the wedding stopped. Wind begins to blow inside the room and K9 emerges from hiding, saying he has detected alien activity. The Trickster materialises in a white gown and disappears with Sarah and Peter as the Doctor calls out to her. As Luke, Clyde and Rani regain consciousness, the Doctor introduces himself. K9 and they are the only people in the hotel. It now exists in a white void trapped at 15:23:23, with that one second repeating over and over again. The Trickster has literally trapped them in a second, cut off from the rest of the world and, more importantly, cut off from the TARDIS, which cannot materialise properly due to the Trickster's time distortion.  Using K9's sensors and his sonic screwdriver, the Doctor determines that Sarah is trapped in a similar situation as they, but another second. He surmises the Trickster has separated the two groups to prevent them helping Sarah. Sarah figures out what has happened. She removes her engagement ring, realising it has been influencing her actions and clouding her judgment. Peter protests that the angel told him that the ring would only ensure everything worked out at the wedding. He points out that Sarah accepted his proposal on her own. Peter explains that the Trickster came to him when he had fatally fallen down the stairs at home and offered him his life and the love he never had. The Trickster declares that Sarah and her allies will only be returned to the real universe when she says, "I do". While searching for a way out of the hotel, the Doctor confronts the Trickster, stating he is the personification of the Pantheon of Discord, a group of aliens from a different universe thriving on chaos and trying to break into this universe. The Trickster reciprocates with his own knowledge of the Doctor. He explains that, with her marriage marking the beginning of her new life, Sarah will forget her old life of defending Earth; he also mysteriously comments that 'the Gate' is waiting for the Doctor. The TARDIS appears, trying to "lock on" to its pilot. The Doctor explains they can use the artron energy that powers the TARDIS to fight the Trickster, but his attempt to help Luke, Rani and Clyde into the TARDIS fails. The TARDIS and the Doctor are cut off from the hotel. However, Clyde's attempt to enter the TARDIS results in him becoming charged with artron energy, allowing him to attack the Trickster within the Void space. The Trickster's power is momentarily disrupted by Clyde's attack. The Doctor materialises the TARDIS in Sarah's second. He reminds her there is only one way to end the Trickster's deal, and tells Peter he knows that he's a good man and how sorry he is. As the Trickster and Clyde appear, both weakened by Clyde's attack, Sarah tearfully tells Peter that the only way to stop the Trickster is for Peter to take back the deal, even though this will mean his death. Peter really died in the accident. He is living a half-life that will become real only when he marries Sarah. Although the Trickster claims that Peter is too weak to make that decision, Peter says that his love for Sarah has strengthened him and that he was right, they are the perfect match for each other. He ends the deal, throwing his ring into the Trickster, who bursts into flames, screaming in agony. Peter and Sarah Jane reaffirm their love for each other before he disappears forever. The two seconds merge and the Doctor, Luke, Clyde, Rani and K9 run in and huddle together as time begins moving forward again. Everyone returns to the hotel at the moment before the Doctor's arrival. Peter has vanished and nobody but Luke, Clyde, Rani, K9 and Sarah remember the Trickster or the Doctor. People begin to whisper where Peter has gone and a tearful Sarah announces that the wedding is off. Later, as Sarah contemplates in the attic, she activates Mr. Smith and is joined by Luke, Rani and Clyde, who console her on her loss. The kids lament that the Doctor disappeared without saying goodbye, but Sarah notes that sudden vanishing acts is something the Doctor is known for. At that moment, both Mr Smith and K9 detect a temporal flux as the TARDIS materialises in the attic. The Doctor tells Sarah that he wouldn't just take off without a proper goodbye, and allows the three youngsters to come inside and look around the TARDIS control room. They soon exit, however, to give Sarah and the Doctor a chance to say their good-byes. The pair recall their first parting, thirty years earlier, and each tells the other not to forget them. As he departs on his travels again, The Doctor assures Sarah Jane that she still has an incredible life ahead of her, and suggests that they may still see each other again. 
<EOS>
Professor Rivers tells the story of a haunted manor. She speaks of Lord Marchwood and how he employed Erasmus Darkening. Marchwood thought Erasmus could make gold out of nothing. His two children, Elizabeth and Joseph, spy on Erasmus and they vanish for eternity. Rivers is telling the story to Sarah, Clyde, Rani and her assistant Toby. Luke is at home as their standby lest something goes wrong. Sarah Jane separates and finds a book on the history of the manor. She turns from the book case where she is reading, and behind her, the books move. Clyde and Rani go outside and find a shed and a fountain. The fountain ceases flowing and wet footprints appear in the shed. They hear a young girl cry. It stops as Clyde pulls a sheet from a mirror. A man's face appears in the mirror. They run back to the manor to find Sarah. Meanwhile in the control room, the camera in the playroom cuts out. Rivers goes to investigate. Abruptly, the nursery monitor starts to play. Seconds later, Rivers vanishes. The gang go to investigate and find all the toys have come alive. On the mirror in the room, a message appears: "Get out". Clyde and Rani explore and find a secret passageway leading to Erasmus' lab. Meanwhile Sarah goes outside. She finds a creature with red eyes in the bushes. It advances on her. Lord Marchwood's ghost manifests and he fights it off. Clyde and Rani find a computer, then turn around to see Erasmus Darkening. Lord Marchwood arrives with his children to rescue Clyde and Rani. Sarah hears a recording of Professor Rivers saying, "Sarah Jane help me", over and over. Then she sees her. Rivers warns her, "He is coming for you", and disappears. Sarah reunites with Clyde and Rani and they find Lord Marchwood. Sarah believes they are not ghosts. Toby, Sarah, Clyde and Rani discover all the people that have disappeared, except for Professor Rivers who hasn't been absorbed yet. Erasmus arrives and they all disappear. Erasmus tells them he will come for them all. Sarah and Toby investigate Erasmus' secret chamber while Rani and Clyde distract Erasmus. Toby tells Sarah of a creature who used to come into his room and watch him every night. Rani and Clyde are chased by something into a game room. When all the games start playing by themselves, they run outside and are locked out. Sarah and Toby find Erasmus' machine. Sarah suspects Erasmus was trying to get home to another galaxy with the machine. The machine malfunctioned and all the people that disappeared were trapped between dimensions. Clyde and Rani run into the pavilion. Sarah and Toby are interrupted by Erasmus. Sarah works out that the machine is giving Erasmus and all the people that disappeared eternal life. She also works out the creature that attacked her earlier came through the machine. Lord Marchwood again rescues Clyde and Rani. Sarah, Clyde, Rani and Toby reunite with Lord Marchwood. Sarah comes up with a plan to stop Erasmus. Erasmus is destroyed and Professor Rivers is returned. Sarah destroys Erasmus' machine with her sonic lipstick. Sarah, Clyde and Rani say goodbye to Professor Rivers and Toby. Rani declares that this must be the end of the haunted house dealings. Clyde quickly rebuffs her and says that there were never any ghosts in the first place. He asks Sarah if there really are no such things as ghosts. Sarah answers, "That's right.. No such thing as ghosts." Her voice slows and becomes hesitant as she peers up at the manor, seeing something peculiar from up above, before slinking into her car. As the trio drive away, Lord Marchwood and his children watch from the window. 
<EOS>
In art class, Luke and Clyde discuss his drawing abilities when Mr Chandra enters to tell Clyde that his painting has won first prize in a competition to see the Mona Lisa at the International Gallery. Although pleased, Clyde does not recall submitting his work to a competition. Luke had secretly entered it himself. At the gallery, Lionel Harding and Phyllis Trupp examine newly arrived painting from Paris. Despite her clearly having feelings for him, Lionel ignores Trupp's attempts at a kiss and the two leave moments before the Mona Lisa's hand reaches out. Luke rushes home to tell Sarah about the competition. She interrupts him over the state of his bedroom. Luke snaps and accuses her of wanting him to be perfect, the way the Bane had created him. The next day, after arriving at the gallery, Luke confides his troubles to Clyde and Rani before being led away by Phyllis. After they notice a Chinese Puzzle Box, Lionel arrives to show Clyde his winning painting. Meanwhile, Phyllis reveals her feelings whilst looking at the Mona Lisa, who reaches out to grab her. Clyde's painting, showing three women holding Sontaran blaster guns, is shown to the class, who applaud his work. Despite feeling slightly embarrassed, Clyde says that he takes comfort in drawing and asks Luke not to tell Sarah that he drew K9. Lionel takes the class to see the Mona Lisa, but is shocked to find Phyllis in the portrait and calls security. Mr Chandra ushers the class out of the gallery, but Luke, Clyde and Rani sneak away to investigate. Meanwhile, Mr Smith informs Sarah of the incident at the gallery to distract her from worrying about Luke. She decides to investigate despite a lack of alien activity. After revisiting Clyde's painting, Rani notices one of the Sontaran guns is missing. Moments after Lionel arrives, the Mona Lisa appears and holds the missing gun on them. She opens fire on the group before cooperating with Lionel. Sarah arrives at the gallery, having spoken with Haresh. She notices two different alien energies in the gallery. Meanwhile, Luke is adamant in his resolve not to seek Sarah's help and the three discover the police and gallery staff trapped inside various paintings. Mona Lisa remembers Lionel from his previous visits to the Louvre. She tells him to help find her "brother", a painting done at the same time and place. It is in the gallery. As they try to escape, Luke notices Sarah's car outside. Meanwhile, Sarah enters the chamber where Phyllis is held, where she is discovered when Lionel and the Mona Lisa arrive. The Mona Lisa tells Sarah not to interfere, referencing Luke's earlier conversations, and imprisons her in a painting. Luke, Clyde and Rani arrive too late to save her after they hear her screaming. Luke, Rani and Clyde beg the Mona Lisa to release Sarah from the painting. When she refuses, Luke pushes her over and escapes with Sarah's painting. Rather than chase after them, the Mona Lisa brings the Dark Rider from his painting to eliminate them. The three youngsters avoid his shots, while Lionel and the Mona Lisa proceed through the gallery to locate her "brother", The Abomination, whose groans and grunts echo through the building. Mona Lisa pauses on her quest when she catches sight of a window. She asks to step outside. Lionel opens the window for her, but she panics when her outstretched arm returns to its painted self. The two enter an unfinished room in the gallery, where Clyde walks in on them. He tries to hide, but is captured by the Dark Rider after overhearing their plans to release The Abomination. Luke and Rani try to figure out why the Mona Lisa is alive. Clyde is forced to accompany Mona Lisa and Lionel as they try to find the hidden painting in the basement. Luke and Rani realise the paint used to create both paintings came from a sentient rock that fell to Earth. Meanwhile, the Mona Lisa, Lionel, Clyde and the Dark Rider discover the caged Abomination painting in a locked cabinet. However, the puzzle lock is missing. Luke realises the Chinese Puzzle Box is needed to release The Abomination. He is confronted by the Mona Lisa and Lionel. The Mona Lisa tells them she has Clyde in her possession. Upon receiving the box from Luke, Lionel smashes the box. Before she can shoot Lionel, Luke tells her of another way to release The Abomination. Mona Lisa takes Luke and Rani to Clyde, whom Luke tells to draw a new Chinese Puzzle Box. Despite his and Rani's concerns, Clyde draws a new one. The Mona Lisa animates the box and uses it to open the cabinet holding The Abomination. As the door opens and the energy is released, Luke opens the sketchpad to the drawing of K9, allowing it to animate. The drawn K9 zaps The Abomination, which prevents it from escaping, sending the Mona Lisa and the Dark Rider back into their paintings forever. Clyde is left puzzled when he looks round for K9 and discovers he has vanished. Everyone who was imprisoned in the paintings is now released, and Luke and Sarah are reunited, as well as Lionel and Phyllis. Despite his apologies and eagerness to start a relationship, Phyllis angrily leaves Lionel in the chamber while Sarah and the group reflect on the day's events. Sarah almost feels sorry that Mona Lisa is a consciousness trapped in a painting, though being trapped in a painting has soured her opinion of the woman. She praises Luke for being her clever, resourceful, and dependable son, who notes he is also messy and promises to clean his room when they get home. In the meantime, Sarah thinks she needs to have a chat with Clyde about featuring Sontaran blasters in his artwork. He looks at her discouragingly until she puts her arm around him, letting him know she's just teasing, and the group smiles. 
<EOS>
Sarah and the gang chase a child Slitheen into a warehouse, where a disguised Slitheen sets up the countdown for a matter compressor that will form a web around the Earth's orbit to squash its huge reserves of carbon, transforming it into a very large diamond. However, two orange-skinned Blathereen arrive and teleport the Slitheen onto their ship. They state that they hunt Slitheen without profit. They introduce themselves as Tree and Leef Blathereen, and invite themselves to tea at Rani's house. Whilst there, the Blathereen reveal that Raxacoricofallapatorius was once the most admired planet in the Raxas Alliance, governed by the Blathereen, until the Slitheen came into power. Their economy was destroyed, and eventually the Raxacoricofallapatorians revolted against the Slitheen; some were brought to justice, but some escaped to distant planets to gain money. The Blathereen returned to power and started to capture the various Slitheen. The Blathereen give Earth a gift: a pot of Rakweed. They say it can survive in even the harshest conditions, and would end Earth's famine. With Sarah as their ambassador, the Blathereen could form an alliance with Earth. Clyde is suspicious. After the Blathereen leave, Mr Smith analyses the plant and concludes that it is, as far as he can tell, harmless. With the alien stuff dealt with, Sarah orders the kids to bed since they have a biology test tomorrow. Clyde, having completely forgotten about it, is horrified and decides to take drastic action. After subtly getting K9 to reveal his knowledge of GCSE Biology, Clyde picks him up and absconds with him, intending to use him to cheat; Mr. Smith feigns ignorance since he welcomes a break from 'the dog'. Whilst getting dressed, Luke can't find his tie and goes into the attic to look for it. The Rakweed has mutated and released harmful spores into the atmosphere. Luke accidentally inhales some spores and becomes properly ill for the first time, since the Bane gave him perfect health. Sarah decides that Luke has to stay home, and Rani is concerned. In school, Rani learns that Clyde has K9 to help him, and will talk to him through an earpiece, to her mingled fury at the idea of cheating and fear if K9 is discovered. Sarah discovers the Rakweed, and Mr Smith explains that the plant has mutated and is releasing spores across the Earth that will infect humans who may pose a threat to the Blathereen, and more Rakweed has grown outside Sarah's house on Bannerman Road. A news report reveals that the Rakweed spores are already having an effect, with people collapsing from strange red and black marks on their skin. What's more, at the current rate of propagation, the plant will have seeded the whole of London within hours, and within a week the entire Earth will be infected. Mr Smith also reveals that the Rakweed will put humans into a coma from which they will never awaken. Sarah sees red and black spots on Luke's chest and the Rakweed releases a massive wave of spores that head towards Sarah and Luke. Sarah shouts for Mr Smith to somehow stop them as the Rakweed spores come closer. Meanwhile, Clyde and Rani prepare to begin their exam. Clyde slides the question papers under the table for K9 to analyse and asks for the answers to be relayed to him via the metal earpiece. K9 initially refuses, stating that his order is unethical, but is soon persuaded by Clyde, who says to K9, "You said a test was one human demonstrating intellectual superiority over others. I brought a supercomputer into school, that's pretty smart, wouldn't you say?" K9 considers by flashing his eye light. He finally agrees and Clyde says he wants the answers "short and to the point". In the attic, Mr Smith analyses Luke and determines that they have half an hour before he is completely poisoned, being at 63%, and that he is unable to find an antidote as the spores are constantly adapting; it could take him days to create one himself, and even then it might not work. Clyde is caught cheating when K9 is discovered by the teacher, but everyone is distracted when the Rakweed plants spawn in the classroom, infecting the teacher and creating panic among the students. Sarah asks Mr Smith to locate the Blathereen using the teleportation co-ordinates she recorded, and learns that they are hiding in Antarctica. In their base, the Blathereen mock Sarah's greed for glory over accepting the Rakweed and gloat over their plan's success. Mr Smith teleports Sarah to the Blathereen base, despite the fact that he only has enough energy for a one-way trip, but Sarah is not in a joking mood and determined to save her son at any cost. The Blathereen, still gloating and gorging aboard their ship, are flabbergasted when Sarah teleports into their midst, packing a six-barreled super-soaker loaded with vinegar and threatening to blast them into oblivion if they so much as move without her consent. Rani learns about the Rakweed's effects after finding some of the students unconscious, and calls Luke, who is now 87% infected and falls unconscious mid-conversation. Sarah bargains with the Blathereen to destroy the Rakweed, but she is tricked and strapped into a chair which, they say, "cost a fortune!!" Clyde, Rani and K9 discover that the Rakweed has spread throughout the school grounds and find themselves trapped in the building. Meanwhile, Sarah discovers that the Blathereen are addicted to eating Rakweed, and plan to cover the Earth with it, as it has a high value on the galactic market. They soon reveal their true identities -- members of a family, descended from both the Slitheen and the Blathereen, known as the Slitheen-Blathereen family, who tend to take after the greedy Slitheen more than the noble Blathereen. Clyde and Rani discover from news reports that the spores are spreading across the whole of London, with the districts of Southall, Perivale, Acton and Chiswick all reporting serious cases. They are nearly infected but then the school bell rings, neutralising the Rakweed spores and some actual Rakweed. Sarah learns that the Rakweed plants somehow rely heavily on communication with each other in order to spread. She breaks out of her restraints and manipulates their teleportation device to return home, only to discover Luke unconscious. K9 utilises the school bells to defeat the Rakweed within the building. Clyde uses K9 to connect with Mr Smith to send the frequency level required to spread the noise across London. Mr Smith hacks into every single device that could emit those levels of noise and are within the affected areas, warning Sarah and the kids to brace themselves since it will be very loud. True to his word, everything from microwaves, car alarms and mobile phones go off in a great cacophony of noise, destroying the Rakweed. Luke and the other infected people recover from the deadly spores, and he and Sarah embrace. Furious at the upsetting of their plans, the Slitheen-Blathereen teleport into the attic and confront Sarah and the gang. Sarah gives them a final chance to simply call it off and leave, but they insist on committing murder most foul which leaves her with no choice. On Sarah's request, Mr Smith activates the alarm, which initially confuses them since their smell is highly sensitive but soon causes the Slitheen-Blathereen's stomachs to swell, then explode, covering everyone and everything in their gory remains. K9 deems the "disintegration successful" and explains that the undigested Rakweed in their stomachs reacted to the alarm, creating an uncontainable amount of methane gas and causing them to "fart themselves to death." As punishment for trying to cheat, Clyde is told to clean up the mess, while the others prepare a barbecue. Later, Clyde walks out, mop in hand and still covered in goop, while the rest of the group has changed into casual, clean clothes, telling Sarah he has finished cleaning. He discovers she overcooked the sausage and tells her, "You cremated our picnic!" After switching to a fresh outfit and washing up, Clyde joins his friends at the outdoor picnic table for a leisurely meal. During the epilogue, Sarah comments on the possibility that one day some alien races will want to help humanity, the importance of friendship and that "Earth could become a shining example to the entire universe". 
<EOS>
A video recording from Luke begins, with Luke explaining that the world will end because of him, warning that "he" is coming. One year earlier, Luke tells Sarah about Mr. Chandra's decision to let him take his A-Levels early, allowing him to start university a year ahead of everyone else. Sarah reminds Luke that they are handcuffed to a bomb, set to detonate in seconds. As a Slitheen tries to make his escape, they are rescued by K9, who renders the bomb inert. Rani and Clyde arrive and throw a bucket of vinegar over the Slitheen, causing him to explode. When the day of the exam results arrives, Clyde expresses his concerns to Rani and Sarah about Luke. Luke joins then and announces he has four A*'s and that he is headed for Oxford University. Four days before leaving, Luke sees Rani leaving for school, then joins Sarah in the attic. Luke confides in her about his fear of leaving. Sarah comforts him and offers to make scrambled egg for breakfast, despite a disastrous attempt before. After school, Clyde receives a text messages from Luke, asking to see him, but not to reply. When Rani asks if he will see Luke, Clyde replies that Luke needs to get used to them not being around. Meanwhile, Sarah presents Luke with a leaving gift: her old Volkswagen Beetle, which she had restored. Luke assumes she can't wait for him to go, but Sarah admits she is scared of losing him. That night, Luke overhears Sarah and K9 talking about how Luke was a big mistake. However, it turns out to be a bad dream. The next day, Rani visits Luke before school. Luke tells Rani that he had a nightmare, and she urges him to tell Sarah. They conclude that Luke's worries about leaving are causing the nightmares. Later, Rani asks Clyde why he hasn't contacted Luke. Clyde explains that, despite his concern, he is unsure of what to say. That night, Luke experiences another nightmare; he finds himself in a dark corridor from school before being approached by a bitter Clyde and Rani. They express their envy about him leaving before them, and mock him for his superior intelligence, calling him an alien. Sarah Jane arrives and takes comfort in Rani and Clyde, and the three brand Luke a loser. Luke then begins to hear the Nightmare Man, who explains that he feeds from his nightmares to gain power. Luke wakes up. He tells Sarah about his nightmares, who then asks Mr Smith to scan Luke. He reveals that Luke is fine, aside from raised anxiety levels. Luke receives a text from Clyde, asking to meet him later. Luke arrives at school, where a surprise party is held by Rani and Clyde. After talking with Clyde, Luke sits down and falls asleep. He meets the Nightmare Man, who prevents him from telling anyone about him. When Luke is woken up by Clyde. Rani recognises that Luke had another dream, but his fear stops him from telling her about it. That night, he tries to send Maria a message, explaining his nightmares, but finds himself unable to. Seconds later, Luke falls asleep. He finds himself in the attic, where Sarah, Clyde and Rani are showing the house to Josh, a replacement for Luke. Mr Smith tells Sarah that Luke is calling from Oxford, but she dismisses it by telling him to take a message. The Nightmare Man then takes Luke outside, where Clyde and Rani are dumping Luke's belongings, include a sketch Clyde drew of the two of them together. Just before they set it alight, Sarah quickly arrives to add a photo of them on top. Luke asks the Nightmare Man what he wants, to which he responds that he wants to exist, and that one more nightmare from Luke will grant him access into reality. Luke wakes up. The day before he is due to leave, Rani and Clyde spend the night to see Luke off the next morning. While his friends are asleep, Luke sneaks into the attic with Rani's video camera to record a message, the same message that was shown at the beginning. However, just before he can finish, he falls asleep, allowing the Nightmare Man passage into the real world. Meanwhile, Luke finds himself stranded in a black void. Having escaped from Luke's dreams, the Nightmare Man heads to Luke's room, moments before Sarah enters the attic. The Nightmare Man promptly invades Rani's dreams, followed by Clyde's. Meanwhile, Sarah is watching the footage on Rani's camera when she sees the message recorded by Luke moments ago. A panic-stricken Sarah calls upon Mr Smith and K9 for help. Mr Smith provides Sarah with more information about the Nightmare Man, identifying him as an alien from another universe. With the help of some sentient concrete and an energy boost from Mr Smith, K9 is able to communicate to Luke in his dream. Meanwhile, the Nightmare Man sneaks outside and attempts to ensnare everyone in Bannerman Road. His efforts, however, are thwarted when Luke, Rani and Clyde are reunited in their nightmares. He returns to the attic and disables K9 and Mr Smith before confronting Sarah. The Nightmare Man taunts her by listing off her worst nightmares, but Sarah calls his bluff by telling him to send her to sleep, saying that without the gang she has no reason left to live. Knowing that Luke, Clyde and Rani together are weakening him, the Nightmare Man disappears into their dreams. Rani's nightmare begins with her lying on her sofa while a BBC news report is being broadcast. As Rani attempts to switch it off, the reporter, Louise Marlowe, berates Rani for being ignorant. Shocked that she is being spoken to directly, Rani approaches the television screen, where Louise grabs her and pulls her into the studio. Rani discovers her clothes have changed; Louise questions Rani's journalism aspirations and forces her to present a story exposing Sarah's adventures. When Rani refuses, Louise asks how often she is put in near-death situations. When the broadcast goes live, Rani is hesitant to proceed when she hears Luke calling out to her. She is reunited with him after imagining a doorway, despite Louise questioning his importance to her. Clyde finds himself working in an abandoned burger bar cafe. He is visited by an elderly, wheelchair-bound Sarah, who begins to criticise Clyde's future and calls him "stupid". She continues to compare him to Luke, who she claims is working in government and is set to be an astronaut. She tells Clyde that she once went to space, but when Clyde reminds her that he already knows, Sarah reveals that social services are trying to put her in a care home. Clyde tries to leave but finds the entrance locked. Moments later, Clyde hears Luke calling out to him and reunites with him after imagining a doorway. Luke is back in the school corridor, hounded by the laughter of the Nightmare Man. Luke calls out to him, successfully making contact, but is unable to wake up. As Luke is about to give up, K9 appears and tells him that Rani and Clyde are also under the Nightmare Man's influence. Luke calls out and encourages them to imagine a doorway into his corridor, soon reuniting with them and weakening the Nightmare Man. When he arrives and sends Rani and Clyde to their own dreams, Luke tells him that their friendship will overcome any hardship. The strength of their friendship overpowers and sends the Nightmare Man into his own nightmare where an elderly Sarah constantly tells him about Luke's success. The three then wake up and are reunited with Sarah. The next morning, Sarah tells K9 to accompany Luke to Oxford, allowing him time to make peace with Mr Smith. Luke says goodbye to the gang and leaves Bannerman Road in his new car. 
<EOS>
A teenage girl enters an old asylum and approaches the Vault of Secrets. She tries to access it, but only has one disc and needs two. She is confronted by the Alliance of Shades. She runs, hurts herself and falls over.  Androvax, the "destroyer of worlds", exits her body and escapes. The Alliance of Shades arrive and scan the unconscious girl. They announce the Veil is no longer in her. Sarah, Clyde and Rani are in the attic, speaking to Luke on webcam. Mr Smith interferes with a NASA space probe on Mars, as Sarah wishes to prevent the probe discovering an "ancient and deadly civilisation". Gita and her husband Haresh have joined B.U.R.P.S.S. (British UFO Research and Paranormal Studies Society) after their encounter with the Judoon and Androvax. When the couple return home on Bannerman Road, Gita spots Androvax entering Sarah's front garden. Gita gives Haresh a tyre iron and he goes to investigate. He encounters Sarah, Rani and Clyde. After speaking with them, he leaves. Unseen, Androvax enters Rani's body. Sarah scans for alien activity and realises Rani has been taken over. Sarah and Clyde chase her/him to the attic and order Mr Smith to contain him after he willingly exits Rani's body. Surprisingly, he asks for Sarah's help. They learn Androvax is dying. Since they last encountered him, he has escaped a Judoon prison in a swamp. In doing so, he was poisoned by an alien swamp viper. He is dying slowly and intends to free a hundred of his people from cryogenic sleep in the Vault of Secrets. They are the last survivors of the Veil species aside from Androvax himself. Forty years ago, their ship crashed on Earth and was sent to the Vault by the Alliance of Shades. Ocean Waters (B.U.R.P.S.S.'s founder) arrives with Minty at Bannerman Road to scan for alien activity by picking up beta particles. Sarah uses her sonic lipstick to deactivate this device. The three of them go to investigate a mental asylum, where they find the base of the Men in Black. They discover Ocean Waters was abducted in 1972 and met the Men in Black. The Men in Black arrive to confront them. They activate their robotic hands. They tell Sarah that she must hand over Androvax and their disc or be incinerated. The gang arrive home, where they agree to let Androvax use Clyde's body. They speak to Ocean and Minty. Ocean has the other disc needed to enter the Vault. She recalls past encounters with the Men in Black and Mister Dread. As Androvax grabs the two discs, the Men in Black arrive and tell them to prepare to be incinerated. The incineration is averted. Androvax escapes and enters Gita's body. Gita leaves to the Vault. She is followed by Mister Dread, Sarah, Rani and Clyde. Sarah Jane makes Mister Dread's car malfunction, so he acquires a new one which he takes from a civillian by force. They all arrive at the asylum, where Rani and Clyde rescue Gita. Androvax leaves and encounters Sarah. She refuses to help him because when the Veil are reawakened and leave Earth, the spaceships will make Earth explode, ending human civilisation. Androvax takes over her body. Clyde jumps away from an incineration blast from two Men in Black causing the two men destroy each other. Rani explains to her mother about aliens and how she, Sarah and Clyde have met them. Mister Dread is placed into his capsule and made to sleep. Androvax goes to the Vault in Sarah's body. When Rani, Clyde and Gita run in at the point Androvax wants to open the vault, Androvax pretends to be Sarah. He/she lies to the gang, telling them that Androvax is dead and that they don't need to be worried about them and then opens the Vault, revealing many spaceships. Androvax leaves Sarah's body, and locks himself inside the Vault, which is hyper-dimensional making it bigger on the inside. The team awaken Mister Dread, who gives up four hundred fifty years of his energy powering the transmat device to move Androvax's spaceship into space allowing Androvax and his race to leave without destroying Earth. Mister Dread is low on power and declares his mission terminated. He erases Gita's memory, lest she tell the world about their experiences. He goes to sleep in his capsule. The team returns home. Ocean and Minty arrive to ask about the Men in Black. Sarah denies everything and Gita says she doesn't believe in aliens. Minty and Ocean say that the aliens have won again and leave. Androvax is in outer space. He flies away to find a new world for his species. As the Veil ship departs, his voice can be heard narrating, "Somewhere, there is a new planet for the Veil. A new hope, it is the legacy of Androvax, a new beginning a second genesis." 
<EOS>
Sarah and the gang are talking to Luke on a webcam when UNIT arrive on Bannerman Road outside her house. She is told by Colonel Tia Karim that her friend, the Doctor, is dead, but doesn't believe it. Colonel Karim tells the gang that alien undertakers, the Shansheeth, are organising the funeral. This makes Sarah more suspicious, so much so that she dares to ask who would believe something like that. Mr Smith tells her the Shansheeth are called the galactic undertakers. That night, Sarah tells Luke the news and that she thinks the Doctor is still alive. Luke thinks the idea is crazy. The next day Sarah goes to the funeral, accompanied by Rani and Clyde. Just as he is getting into the private car, Clyde receives what seems to be a static electric shock to his hand. The gang go to Mount Snowden, home to the UNIT base which will host the Doctor's funeral. At Snowden, the gang bump into the Groske, a blue, tame version of the Graske. One of the Groske follows them and tells Clyde he "smells like time." Clyde looks at his hand, where he sees artron energy. The gang are taken to the parlour where a gathering of remembrance is taking place. Sarah asks to see the body, but Karim refuses, and Sarah is suspicious until told that he was hurt. She sits down with Rani and Clyde, confessing that she thinks the Doctor regenerated, and she doesn't even know what face he could be wearing. The Shansheeth play music on a harp to help the mourners remember the Doctor, but their thoughts of him are interrupted by the entry of Jo Jones (nee Grant), who has dropped the flowers she brought. Jo chatters while she and her grandson Santiago pick up the flowers. When they recognise each other, Jo sits next to Sarah. Santiago sits behind Rani and Clyde. Sarah and Jo talk and make friends, as do Santiago, Clyde, and Rani. After the remembrance, the gang is in a bedroom where Jo agrees with Sarah's belief that the Doctor is still alive. As Clyde, Rani, and Santiago leave the room, they again meet the Groske who told Clyde that he "smells like time". Clyde gives chase, but the Groske jumps into a ventilation shaft. Meanwhile, Azure of the Claw Shansheeth is "filleting the Cradle" - using the harp from the remembrance to view the memories of the Doctor that were collected at the gathering. The Shansheeth wearing red and yellow agree Sarah and Jo have the strongest memories. They play more music through the vents, putting Sarah and Jo into a trance. Clyde, Rani, and Santiago follow the Groske into the vent, where they lose him, but overhear the Shansheeth discussing their plot to use a memory weave to steal Jo and Sarah's memories -- which will kill them. The artron energy on Clyde's hand returns with a bright, blue light, alerting the Shansheeth to their presence. The youngsters shuffle their way backwards out of the vent. Sarah and Jo hear the clatter, which breaks their trance. They run into the corridors and bump into the others. Clyde tells Sarah and Jo that this is a trap and they are the prize. Clyde freezes and starts talking in a different voice, a voice that knows Clyde, Rani, Jo, and Sarah. Clyde regains control of his voice and realises he has someone else's hand. Clyde disappears and the Doctor takes his place. Rani demands to know who he is. The Doctor explains that he used Clyde's residual artron energy to switch places with him, which is trouble for Clyde, who is now in a red, wasteland-like planet full of debris. Although she had mentioned that she expected it, Sarah marvels that the Doctor has regenerated again -- though, as before, he smiles and says, "Hello, Sarah Jane." Having never seen this current incarnation either, Rani and especially Jo are bewildered -- Jo asks, "What Doctor? The Doctor? My Doctor?" until Sarah asks Jo if she knew the Doctor could change his face. She does, but is shocked that the Doctor is much younger than the other Doctors she has met and has a baby's face compared to theirs. The Doctor responds to Jo, "Oy, imagine it from my point of view! Last time I saw you, Jo Grant, you were what, 21, 22? It's like someone baked you." Hearing this, any doubt that Jo has that it is indeed the Doctor vanishes. At this point, the Shansheeth arrive, and the Doctor strides forward to meet them, irritably saying, "I've been looking for you. Have you been telling people I'm dead?" They tell the gang the death certificate had been sent out early. Azure of the Claw Shansheeth says this can be rectified. He shoots the Doctor with an energy beam, saying, "Rest in peace!". Caught in the energy beam, the Doctor disappears and Clyde reappears. He and Clyde keep swapping places. The energy beam disengaged, the Doctor, Jo, Sarah, Rani, and Santiago run from the Shansheeth, and find safety behind a locked door. The Doctor takes Jo and Sarah by the hand. All three swap places with Clyde on the alien planet. As the Doctor works on the machine he used to swap places, they talk. The Doctor says he looked in on Jo and all his old companions before he last regenerated. He tells Jo that her forthcoming thirteenth grandchild will be dyslexic, but a great swimmer. With the help of Sarah's sonic lipstick and some natural tea carried by Jo, the Doctor adjusts the machine so they can travel to Earth without sending Clyde to the planet. Clyde and Rani talk with Santiago. He hasn't spoken to his parents in six months. Meanwhile, Colonel Karim is working with the Shansheeth. They are plotting to use Jo and Sarah's memories of the TARDIS to create a new TARDIS key, so the Shansheeth can stop death across the universe by interfering with the timelines. Rani, Santiago, and Clyde are rescued by a Groske and taken through the ventilation shafts. They come to a hiding place, but Karim discovers them. She locks them in and turns on the heat, making the place so hot the children may boil. The Doctor, Jo, and Sarah come to the rescue, but the two companions are kidnapped and strapped into the memory weave. Their minds are scanned and they begin remembering the TARDIS. These memories begin to generate a new TARDIS key as the Shansheeth and Colonel Karim make their intentions clear. The Doctor, Rani, Clyde, Santiago, and the Groske come to the door of the room where Sarah and Jo are strapped into the memory weave. It is locked. The Doctor tells them to remember all of their adventures with him, in as much detail as possible. Sarah and Jo both remember past encounters with the Doctor and all the creatures and enemies they met. Clyde and Rani tell Sarah to remember their experiences fighting aliens as well. Santiago tells Jo to remember all the places she's visited. Jo remembers all the countries she has been to as Sarah remembers her battles with aliens. The Shansheeth begin panicking as the memory weave reaches critical. The Doctor tells Sarah and Jo that it's his funeral and they realise there is an empty, lead-lined coffin waiting next to them to be used. Karim tries to get in the coffin with them, but they keep her out as the memory weave explodes, frying the Shansheeth to "fried chicken", killing Karim, and blasting the doors off. The Doctor and Sarah's companions enter the room and open the coffin, to find Sarah and Jo hugging each other out of fear. They notice the Doctor and everyone else looking down at them and laugh happily that they survived. The Doctor takes them in the TARDIS and materialises in Sarah's attic. Mr Smith detects the time fluctuations of the incoming TARDIS and activates to state that it has landed. Clyde and Rani exit the TARDIS. Santiago is shocked that they have a sentient computer, which trumps anything he's seen. In the TARDIS, Sarah and Jo examine the new interior. Jo feels the TARDIS is the same no matter how it looks. Jo says she could stay and travel with the Doctor forever, but notes he could get in trouble with the Time Lords. Sarah and the Doctor remain quiet, but the Doctor tells her that it's about time he got going. Sarah and Jo tell the Doctor that if he ever did die, they believe they'd feel something. The Doctor agrees and whispers that the entire universe might shiver if he died. He then shouts to make his old friends jump and they exit the TARDIS. They all watch as it dematerialises. Jo and Santiago leave for Norway and the trio are left behind. Sarah says that she googled TARDIS and learned of others whom she believes to have been companions of the Doctor. She tells them of Tegan, fighting for aboriginal rights in Australia; Ian and Barbara Chesterton, Cambridge professors who are rumoured not to have aged since the 1960s; Harry Sullivan, her old friend from UNIT, who worked on finding remedies for diseases; Ben and Polly, running an orphanage; and a Dorothy-something who has raised millions of pounds through her company "A Charitable Earth". As they watch Jo and Santiago leave, Sarah says, "With friends like us, he's not really going to die, is he?" 
<EOS>
Sarah tells Mr Smith to do a maximum scan. Clyde asks what is going on. Rani tells him that Mr Smith picked up an alien energy trace for a second, then it vanished into the signals of every energy source on Earth. When they leave Sarah's house, Rani reminds Clyde of their school assignment. Clyde sees no point in doing the reading considering they might be invaded. Rani's dad comes to see her in her room, but she asks him to leave so she can finish the assignment. Clyde's mum also comes to see him. She compliments him on his latest cartoon drawings. As they sleep, the mix of signals and sounds transmitted across Earth is suddenly cut out. Rani wakes to find her parents missing. She sees no-one on the street. Sarah is also gone and Mr Smith does not seem to be in the computer that houses him. Rani searches for another person. She finds nothing has a signal any more. She prays she is not alone. She hears a knock at the door and opens it to find Clyde. They head into town to look for someone besides them. They can't find anyone and realise that if everyone suddenly disappeared, there should be crashed vehicles everywhere. There are not, which means that whatever took the humans didn't want to do any damage. They go to a cafe for breakfast and try to figure out why they have not been taken. They decide to return to the attic, but notice crates being knocked over. They spot another person, who runs away. Giving chase, they follow him to an apartment block. He is a schoolboy called Gavin who has been living with his aunt and uncle since his mother died, his father having disappeared. Rather than being relieved to see other people, Gavin is afraid of Rani and Clyde. They try to convince him they mean no harm and Rani tells him about aliens to try to gain his trust. Gavin is sceptical. As they try to persuade him to help, a strange noise is heard. Gavin slips away while Rani and Clyde try to work out what it was. Clyde points out a couple of strange facts about Gavin. He should have been happy to see other people on Earth rather than afraid. Also, his room is almost bare and there are no pictures of him with his aunt and uncle indicating they care little for him. They go back to the cafe and see a strange image on all the screens, even the mobile phones. They hear a noise getting closer and investigate. Rani notices Gavin and goes down an alley; Clyde looks around the corner and sees a yellow robot. It corners him whilst Rani is cornered by a red robot. The robots both lift their arms and point them directly at Rani and Clyde. Gavin pushes the robot facing Rani against the wall so they can escape. Clyde runs away from the yellow robot and hides in a store. He evades it and meets up with Rani and Gavin. They look at the images on the screens and go in search of the robots, then decide to return to the cafe. Rani and Clyde talk about what makes them different, mentioning time fissures, space travel and the TARDIS, much to Gavin's confusion. All of these things pertain to Sarah as well, however. Clyde then remembers something that connects only him and Rani. During their encounter with the Judoon, the two were given a ticket forbidding them from leaving Earth; hence it would be illegal to remove them, which is the only logical explanation why the robots left them behind. This doesn't explain why Gavin is still there; he knows nothing about aliens. The robots burst into the cafe. The three children escape out the back door. Rani and Clyde tell Gavin to get away, thinking the robots must be after only them. The two split up to distract the robots. They are each cornered again. The robots scan them, but do not kill them. In the cafe, Clyde shows the robots a newspaper so they can learn the language quickly. The robots reveal that the strange image is a countdown. They demand the "sun and air", saying that if it is not given to them by the end of the countdown, the human race will not return. Clyde and Rani are confused by the robots' demand, but then Rani realises that they aren't saying "sun and air", but "son and heir". It turns out that Gavin's dad was an alien king. He has died, and the robots have come to take Gavin to their planet. They sent the news in the energy trace from the previous night, but Gavin never received it. Clyde and Rani search for Gavin, finally locating him at the Ealing Circle Nature Reserve. The robots cannot see him. They determine that Gavin is wearing a bio-damper ring to shield his alien half; when this is removed, the robots send him the information again, showing him the planet he is meant to rule. Gavin agrees to go. He orders the robots to return everyone to Earth. He bestows upon his new friends the titles Lord Clyde and Lady Rani before he leaves, and gives his bio-damper ring to Rani. Everyone returns to their rightful places. Mr Smith fixes the records to indicate that Gavin has moved to Australia. Clyde and Rani think about the fact that if they had never met Sarah, they would have been in big trouble. Sarah worries that one day, if their adventures together come to an end, she doesn't want the two of them to be alone like she was. Rani shoots down her fears by saying after the day's events, she has no idea what it is like to be alone. Sarah sees she has a fair point and decides to reward her friends by ordering a pizza, for saving the world. After she leaves, Clyde and Rani agree that they are not alone, because they've got each other. She gives him a warm smile and hands over Gavin's ring so he may wear it like she has, a slightly more intimate gesture. They affectionately address each other by their knightly titles and share a high-five, a score one for the "hangers-on" of Sarah's troupe, who have proven they are indeed quite the opposite --  invaluable protectors of the Earth. 
<EOS>
Sarah, Rani and Clyde look at a newspaper article about someone who claims to have seen an alien. They go into the man's shop to search for any traces of aliens. Rani finds a music box and Clyde finds a bloodstained arrow. The Shopkeeper comes out of a side room. He knows Sarah Jane's name, as well as a "great many things". He admits he used the newspaper article to gain her attention. He explains that three pieces of chronosteel, a metal forged in the time vortex, are lodged in Earth's history and have the power to reshape its destiny. He opens a time window, tells them to find the disguised pieces to get home and pushes it towards them. He talks to his parrot, Captain, mentioning the gang only have until an hourglass runs out to save the world. Clyde, Sarah and Rani each wakes alone, with no idea where they are -- or when. Rani meets a maid, who tells her she is in the Tower of London's royal chambers and that Queen Jane wants to meet her. The maid, whose name is Mistress Ellen, thinks Rani is a visitor from the Far East, come to be the queen's new lady-in-waiting. Clyde meets a boy called George Woods, who is watching Germans land on a beach and says it is 1941. Sarah is trapped in a box, which is opened by a girl who thinks she is a ghost. The girl touches her to find that she is real, then explains it is 1889 and no one lives in the house they're in; she was investigating stories of ghosts. The girl's name is Emily Morris. Clyde and George confirm the men are Nazis and go to warn the Home Guard. Meanwhile, Rani is introduced to Lady Jane Grey. Rani makes a good first impression on the young queen, who likes a girl who speaks to her as a friend rather than royalty. The Shopkeeper watches them in his crystal ball. Sarah asks Emily why she is obsessed with ghosts. Emily explains that she lost her mother nine weeks ago and doesn't want to believe that she's gone. The clock strikes eight, which is when the haunting is supposed to begin. Lady Jane receives a warning that Lady Mary and her army have come to claim the throne. This makes Jane an "unlawful claimant" and a traitor; the punishment is death. Clyde and George reach St Michael's Church, but the telephone is dead and the Nazis have also come to the church and capture them. The Nazis have a piece of metal that Clyde realises is the chronosteel. Sarah discovers that the "ghost" is actually the voice of someone from the future. She shows Emily that she is also from the future. They hear children giggling behind a door. They enter the room, which is hot because in the future, it is on fire. Rani overhears Lady Matilda plotting to kill Jane, Clyde and George escape the church and Sarah and Emily decide to save the children trapped in the burning room. The Shopkeeper, watching them, says they are taking too long and if they do not get back soon, they will all be trapped in the past forever. Rani saves Lady Jane from Lady Matilda, who tried to kill her so she will die a martyr rather than a common traitor. The knife Matilda was going to use is a piece of chronosteel. Sarah and Emily talk about the children, which distresses Emily; this is how her mother died. They turn the clock hands to eight and can now see the young woman who was talking before, and it emerges she is an extremely neglectful babysitter, as she locks the children she's meant to be looking after in their room while she leaves to meet someone. Clyde and George run into the local schoolteacher, Miss Wyckham, who tells them the village is surrounded by Germans, so they go back to St Michael's. Lady Jane gives Rani permission to return home, but Rani wants to stay and comfort her. The hourglass runs out, but the Shopkeeper cannot close the time window; if it is left open, the whole planet will be sucked in and destroyed. Sarah keeps looking for the chronosteel and Rani reassures Lady Jane that she will be remembered for hundreds of years. Clyde, George and Miss Wyckham return to the church, where it is revealed that the teacher is actually a spy. The Nazis explain that their transmitter blocks British radar, allowing them to invade without being detected. Clyde pulls out his mobile phone and pretends it is a bomb; George grabs the chronosteel and they ring the church bell to alert the Home Guard. Sarah finds the chronosteel, a key that is locking the children's room. She cannot touch it; she has been sent to the wrong time. They go into the room and find that the boy, Ben, has lit a candle and started the fire despite his sister Katy's warnings. Emily's fear about her mother connects to theirs, allowing her to cross over into their time. She gets the key, saving the children and retrieving the chronosteel. Rani takes the chronosteel and vanishes in front of Lady Jane and Mistress Ellen. Ellen thinks it is witchcraft, but Lady Jane thinks Rani is an angel and knows that she will not be forgotten. George, inspired by Clyde's speech about defeating the Germans, says he is going to join up as well. Clyde returns to his own time. Sarah tries to get back, but Emily wants her to stay and accidentally takes the chronosteel, so Sarah goes home empty-handed. However, back in the shop, a woman comes and gives Sarah the key, which saves Earth from destruction. The Shopkeeper teleports away, after implying that the parrot, Captain, was the one who sent them on the mission. The woman explains that she is Angela Price, Emily's granddaughter, who told Angela to pass on the key. She and Sarah go for a cup of tea and a chat. Clyde researches George and discovers he was recently knighted by Queen Elizabeth II, whilst Rani reads about Lady Jane and finds she was happy in her final moments. 
<EOS>
A meteor hurtles towards Earth. Mr Smith redirects it to a safer crash site and says it will contain germ pathogens. The gang hurry to neutralise the germs. The meteorite reads all clear. Then a strange woman appears, claiming to be saving the world. She drives off in a red sports car and Clyde points out that she is doing the same thing as Sarah. Sarah does not look pleased. They find the woman has just moved in across the street and go to find out who she is. She behaves coldly towards them, telling them to get out of her house. Her name is Ruby White and she sees them as amateurs. She moved to Ealing because of all the alien activity -- Trueman, the Bubble Shock! factory, rhinos driving police cars and alien plant life. Sarah decides to stay away from Ruby, but keep her eyes open. The next day, Gita waves to Sarah on her way home. Sarah says she has to make Luke's tea and then realises he is at university. Clyde and Rani go to check that she is alright. She calls Luke, just two hours after she last spoke to him. She can't remember K9's name. Rani suggests she take a holiday and visit Luke. Mr Smith gives a red alert. A fleet of Dark Horde warriors are heading for Earth. They trace the scan beam and lock onto the attic to neutralise enemy technology. Mr Smith diverts the teleport to an uninhabited area. Sarah gives Clyde a gun and says they must protect the Earth by any means. An advance party of three warriors lands on Earth. Sarah plans to use a device to overload their sensors. She asks Clyde for the sonic lipstick, but he said she told him to bring the gun. Sarah has made a big mistake. Then Ruby arrives and tosses spheres to Rani and Clyde. She uses an artificial intelligence to convince the Dark Horde that they are faced by a stronger version of themselves. Their logical reaction is to flee. Clyde suggests calling the AI "Mr White". They take Ruby back to the attic, where Mr White gets along well with Mr Smith. Sarah says she'd be glad to have an adult friend. Whilst explaining to Ruby how she became involved with aliens, Sarah forgets the Doctor's name for a moment, something she can't believe she did. She orders Mr Smith to medi-scan her. He tells her there is evidence of brain tissue deterioration. Sarah takes this to mean she is too old to continue defending the Earth. Ruby makes friends with Clyde and Rani, who are eager to show off their knowledge of aliens. Sarah feels very left out. Sarah asks Ruby to take over the duty of protecting the Earth, offering her the house, Mr Smith and Clyde and Rani. Ruby agrees. Sarah goes to leave, not even bothering to tell Luke she is going. She orders Mr Smith to wipe her voice from the command program so she can no longer give him orders. She realises something is wrong and begs Ruby to help her. Instead, Ruby teleports her to a "secret cellar" which houses her stomach. She reveals she is the one making Sarah ill, draining her life force. She is a Qetesh, whose race devours peoples' thrills and emotions. She targeted Sarah, who has the most exciting life on Earth. Mr White is making a farewell message for Clyde and Rani so they will believe Sarah has gone because "she" will tell them. Ruby's stomach drains Sarah directly as Ruby gloats about how she will feast on the Earth. Ruby explains that rather than stop aliens, she will help them and feed on the excitement and terror that humanity will feel. Back in the attic, Clyde and Rani watch Mr White's faked video of Sarah. Clyde can't believe Sarah has simply gone. He blames Rani for putting the idea of a "holiday" in her head. Mr Smith starts acting strangely. He tries to warn Clyde  -- "Beware Ruby". Ruby shuts down Mr Smith and teleports Clyde to her spaceship. It was her prison, until she reprogrammed its game console. Ruby leaves Clyde in the prison to suffocate. Rani tries to call Clyde and hears a knock at the door. She opens it to find Luke. K9, who is back in Oxford, tracks Clyde's phone to space. Rani goes to place the phone near Mr White so K9 can reset him and free Mr Smith from his influence, as well as rescue Clyde. Clyde leaves a message on his phone for the others to find, then collapses. Rani distracts Ruby, who is not convinced, but luckily K9 resets Mr White in time. K9 rescues Clyde and the restored Mr Smith imprisons Ruby in a containment vortex, but she escapes. Clyde and Rani go to rescue Sarah. Ruby corners them in the cellar and threatens to devour them completely. Luke arrives and gives Ruby a warning to leave Earth. When she refuses, Mr White sends a hologram so everyone on Earth sees a meteor hurtling straight for them. Ruby cannot handle the sudden inrush of emotions and thrills from six billion people. The stomach swells, then shrinks and releases all the energy it took from Sarah back into her. Sarah sends Ruby back to her prison ship, where Ruby swears to get revenge on her. Sarah thanks her team for saving her, knowing she could count on them while Mr Smith and K9 finally seem to have put aside their animosity after working together to defeat Ruby. Luke takes them all out for a treat and Sarah says that although the universe is full of amazing things, they have stiff competition on Earth. 
<EOS>
In the attic, Sarah Jane Smith watches the star-filled sky with her telescope, narrating the wonderful things she has seen. A seeming meteor approaches Earth and crashes in a junkyard. A homeless person witnesses this and sees a metalloid figure emerge, scan the area and then make itself invisible. Back in the attic, Sarah speaks via the computer to her son, Luke Smith, with her friends Clyde Langer and Rani Chandra. Sarah misses her son but Rani comforts her, saying Luke will be back soon and that Sarah should make the most of her peace and quiet. Very early next morning, Sarah is awoken by the doorbell. She finds a baby girl on her doorstep. When the baby cries, every light bulb on Bannerman road burst. Rani is woken later by a text from Sarah saying to come right away. Rani reports to Sarah that all of the light bulbs on Bannerman Road have gone out. Sarah reveals to Rani and Clyde, who appears later, that the child is an alien. Clyde feeds the baby milk, calming her down. Meanwhile at a power plant, an orb of energy appears and an attractive woman walks out. She confronts a fallen worker, introducing herself as Miss Myers. She is looking for her child. She hypnotises the fallen worker, putting the rest of the power plant personnel into an unconscious state. Miss Myers learns that her daughter is at Bannerman Road and heads there. Gita Chandra encounters Sarah and the others with the baby. She assumes that Sarah has begun taking in foster children, an idea which the others go along with, calling the baby Sky. Gita then tells them about the meteor which that fell the previous night. Sarah and Rani go to investigate. With Professor River's help and the eyewitness account of the homeless man, they discover that the metalloid alien is headed for Bannerman Road. Clyde is babysitting Sky when the alien attacks them. Clyde and Sky are rescued by Miss Myers and taken to the power plant. Miss Myers tells Clyde a little of "Sky's" purpose. Clyde is suspicious of Miss Myers, and runs away with Sky. He evades Miss Myers and her henchmen while Sarah and Rani break into the plant. They reunite with Clyde and Sky. The metal alien arrives and corners them. It reveals that the baby is a weapon. The child begins a metamorphosis. Myers is delighted that the weapon is "priming" itself; an energy aura surrounds Sky and she becomes a pre-teen. Sky, having just transformed, launches a powerful jolt of electricity at the metal alien, sending it crashing into the wall. Miss Myers encourages Sky to finish off the Metalkind but Sky is scared and confused until she is comforted by Sarah. Miss Myers reveals that she created Sky. The Bannerman Road gang escape with Sky to Sarah's house, where Mr Smith can scan her. He determines that Sky was created to be a bomb to destroy the whole Metalkind species across the entire universe, killing Sky in the process. Rani tells Sky of Sarah adopting Luke and about what it is to be a girl. Sky learns of her purpose and with the Bannerman Road gang returns to the power plant, as Miss Myers is the only person who can "defuse" Sky. They break in again and Sarah confronts Miss Myers alone, leaving Sky at the car with Rani and Clyde. Myers is a member of the the Fleshkind species, who have been locked in war with the Metalkind for centuries. The Metalkind that was injured has been hooked up to the power plant. Myers plans to have it summon the entire Metalkind species, so Sky can destroy them all. Miss Myers tells Sarah that she will be forced to hand over Sky to save Earth from the cruelty of the Metalkind, who have vowed to destroy all Fleshkind. The injured Metalkind tells Sarah that the Fleshkind invaded his home planet and mined the ore, which was actually the Metalkind children. Myers is determined that Sky fulfil her destiny. Sky believes that she should fulfil her purpose to save Earth from the oncoming Metalkind army, even if it means dying, and runs from the others to confront the Metalkind. Sarah Jane goes after her, tasking Clyde and Rani to shut down the power, thus closing the portal which the Metalkind will use to come to Earth. Rani and Clyde find a room in the power plant where they begin to manually shut down the power. Sarah finds Sky and tries to convince her that she doesn't have to sacrifice herself and destroy the Metalkind. Sky is fully primed and ready to "fulfil her purpose" when Clyde and Rani succeed in deactivating the power in the plant. Sky absorbs the energy of the portal and collapses. She revives, and reports that she feels different. Myers confirms that Sky is different, and her genetic programming has been altered. She is no longer a weapon. Miss Myers says that she has lost her daughter. The Metalkind breaks free, grabs Myers and uses her own pendant to teleport them both away from Earth. The gang return to Bannerman Road. Gita is confused, seeing Sky now much older than the baby she saw Sarah with earlier, but Sarah explains that there was a mix-up at the foster agency with the "other Sky". This girl -- now called Sky Smith -- will be staying for awhile. Sarah and Sky go to the attic and are surprised to see Captain and the Shopkeeper. They were the ones who left Sky on Sarah's doorstep; the young girl would be safe with the former time-traveller. It is the Shopkeeper's task to put things in the right place as a "servant of the Universe". Sky expresses her desire to stay with Sarah, and the Shopkeeper agrees. He tells Sarah she will find out who he is in good time, then teleports away with Captain, leaving Sarah confused just like last time. Sarah offers Sky pizza but the young girl is unaware of what it is. 
<EOS>
Clyde shows Rani The Silver Bullet, a superhero comic strip he has written and illustrated. Rani is impressed with her friend's latest project, but isn't quite as taken with his idea for another tale, starring an adventurer named "Susie June Jones". Meanwhile, Rani's father, headmaster Haresh Chandra, meets with Sarah and her newly-adopted daughter to discuss Sky's enrolment at the school. When their conversation is interrupted by the sudden appearance of a fish on the office's window-ledge, Haresh suspects a student prank. However, when he, Sarah and Sky go outside, they find that it is raining fish. Leaving Haresh and his pupils gaping at the bizarre, fish-covered school and playground, Sarah, Sky, Clyde and Rani race back to the attic of No. 13 Bannerman Road, where Mr Smith is busy monitoring reports of the unusual storm. Sarah explains that accounts of such phenomenon have been attributed to tornadoes sucking up fish and depositing them elsewhere. Just to make sure, she asks Mr Smith to carry out a scan for any alien energies that could be to blame. The Xylok computer does not detect anything suspicious. He informs Sarah of a possible link to a new exhibit at the Museum of Culture, where a Mojave Native American totem pole is on display. Legend has it that when this artefact was removed from the cave where it was hidden, a storm of fish fell from the skies. The gang arrive at the museum; as they race inside, Clyde gives some change to a homeless girl begging on the street. Making their way to the Native American display, the gang easily find the totem pole: a tall, wooden post carved with creepy-looking faces. Clyde plays the joker and tickles one of the faces, only to get a nasty splinter in his finger; while he tries to remove it, Sarah, Sky and Rani meet Doctor Samantha Madigan from the anthropology department. She knows of the totem's legendary powers, but doesn't attribute the recent storm to Hetocumtek, the vicious warrior supposedly imprisoned inside the artefact by Native American medicine men. As Sarah conducts a fruitless scan of the totem pole, Clyde removes the splinter. With no alien threat apparent, the friends leave. Clyde returns home. After dinner with his mum, he goes to his room to work on his comic book. After completing the final panel of The Silver Bullet, Clyde signs his name and goes to bed. He notices his finger is still hurting. As Clyde falls asleep, he fails to see his name mysteriously glow on his pictures and school certificate. The following morning, Clyde visits Sarah to show her his completed comic book. She is full of praise -- until Clyde says his name. Her attitude changes in a second. She is furious at Clyde for his teasing of Luke and promptly throws him out of her house. Astonished, Clyde crosses the road to tell Rani what happened -- but then Haresh says Clyde's name. His daughter and he become enraged. Rani spitefully tells Clyde she hates him and Haresh expels the bewildered boy from school. Upset and confused to hear such venom from people he considers his friends, Clyde quickly walks away. Back at No. 13, Sarah tears up all the pictures drawn by Clyde that she can find. Mr Smith voices his concern at her inexplicable anger. She calms down as Sky enters the attic. With Sky about to attend her first day at school, Sarah decides to return to the museum to write an article on the totem and the fish storm. Sky mentions Clyde -- and Sarah's attitude changes once more. She furiously bans her daughter from ever mentioning Clyde again. Sky is unaffected. She and Mr Smith are confused at Sarah's sudden hatred of Clyde. They ask her what he did that has upset her so much, but she will not discuss the subject and orders Mr Smith to alert her if he sets foot on Bannerman Road again. Meanwhile, in the park, Clyde phones Luke, only to find his best friend won't talk to him either. Clyde meets his mate Steve, who asks him to join in a game of football; Clyde tactfully refuses -- then Steve says his friend's name and he too is overwhelmed with hatred. Clyde realises that people saying his name is what turns them against him. After stomping Clyde's phone into bits, Steve and his mates prepare to do the same to their former friend, but Clyde runs for it instead. Racing out of the park with an angry mob close behind, Clyde evades his pursuers by hiding behind some bins. Once his ex-mates have run past, he notices his finger is still bleeding and makes the connection to the totem. Returning to the museum to look at the artefact, Clyde bumps into Doctor Madigan. He asks her about Native American curses. Before he can learn anything useful, Sarah turns up and causes a scene. Doctor Madigan tries to calm her, but she says Clyde's name and instantly turns against him. She refuses to give him any information, making Clyde realise that his name affects anyone, not just people he knows. She has him frog-marched out of the exhibition hall by security guards, while Sarah phones the police to make a harassment charge. Clyde picks himself up from the pavement and sees the homeless girl watching. He returns home, only to discover his mum affected by the curse after reading his name on mail. Accusing Clyde of lying to her, Carla demands he leave the house never to return. Clyde tries to reason with her, but when she opens the door to let in the police, he is forced to make a hasty exit out the back door. On the run, Clyde tries to get some money from a cash machine, only to watch as the screen fills up with his name, over and over again. Night soon falls and a thunderstorm begins. Soaked, with no home, no family and no friends, Clyde tries to find shelter in a doorway. He begins to cry in despair at his situation. All seems lost, but then Clyde finally gets a break. The homeless girl appears before him and offers to help. Clyde awakes to find himself lying on a makeshift bed beneath a bridge, in a "cardboard city" occupied by the homeless girl, who introduces herself as Ellie Faber, and other homeless people. When Ellie asks her new friend his name, Clyde knows that he will lose her if she were to speak his real name. Taking inspiration from a discarded pizza box, he calls himself "Enrico Box". Ellie says she has been living rough for two years, after her father died and her mother remarried. She tells Clyde there are perils threatening the homeless; something called "the Night Dragon" causes people to disappear for no reason. Sky is puzzled to find Sarah in the attic busily throwing away all of Clyde's things. She asks what Clyde has done wrong. Her mother refuses to answer. Later, eating lunch at school, Sky tries asking Rani about Clyde, but her friend just gets angry and storms off. At the museum, lightning crackles around the Hetocumtek totem pole. Called in by Doctor Madigan to help, Sarah scans the artefact and finds it alive with alien energy -- and the totem's eyes start to glow. Bustling Doctor Madigan from the room, Sarah urges her to close the exhibition. Ellie and Clyde go out on the street to beg for money. They aren't very successful, so Ellie decides to get something to eat. Back in the attic, Mr Smith notices Sarah crying, even though she doesn't know why. Ignoring the subject, she reports that the ancient totem is no longer dormant -- something has caused it to come alive. Ellie takes Clyde to a "soup kitchen". She introduces him to an old lady nicknamed Mystic Mags. Staring at the tea-leaves in her mug, the elderly lady warns that something bad is coming, something worse than the Night Dragon -- and it has put a curse on Clyde. Worried he will get Ellie into trouble, Clyde runs off. Ellie goes after him, not wanting to lose her "lucky charm". Back at Bannerman Road, Haresh is worried about his daughter. Rani is upset that she has lost something special, but she doesn't know what. Sky pays a visit to Clyde's mother, who is crying for no discernible reason. When Sky tries asking about Clyde, the woman becomes extremely angry. Seeing Clyde's name glowing on an envelope addressed to him, Sky realises something has cursed her friend's name. Back at the museum, one of the totem pole's carved faces starts to move. Sheltering from the rain in an old building, Clyde burns his Silver Bullet artwork to make a fire for himself and Ellie. He asks the girl about the recent "fish storm" -- perhaps it was a sign of something bad coming? Ellie tells Clyde that she had lost hope of ever reclaiming her life, but since meeting him her faith has returned. Back at the museum, more of the carved wooden faces are now coming to life. Hearing Sarah and Rani discussing the totem's increase in power, Sky recalls how Clyde got a splinter in his finger. Sarah and Rani angrily tell Sky not to mention Clyde, but she persists and calls on Mr Smith to explain her theory. Sarah and Rani get angrier whenever Clyde's name is mentioned. Mr Smith tells them this is proof of Sky's theory. The Xylok determines that the totem is using psychophonic programming to isolate Clyde so that Hetocumtek can use the boy's energy to come back to life. To break the curse, Sky encourages Sarah and Rani to say Clyde's name. Acting against their instincts, the duo repeat Clyde's name -- and it works. Now free of the curse, Sarah and Rani recall how much Clyde means to them. They resolve to get him back. Elsewhere, Clyde shows Ellie a sketch he has made of her. He hopes to make money as a street artist. Flattered, Ellie kisses him and goes to get them both a drink. Just then a familiar car pulls up, and Sarah, Rani and Sky rush out and envelope Clyde in a group hug. Clyde is overjoyed his friends are free of the curse, but when Sarah urges him to come and help beat Hetocumtek, he tells them he needs to wait for Ellie. Sarah is insistent, so Clyde reluctantly leaves, vowing to return for his friend as soon as he can. Together they speed back to No. 13, where Mr Smith hacks into the transmat system of a passing alien spaceship and uses it to teleport the totem pole into the attic. The artefact is now bristling with energy, its faces contorting in anger at the gang's interference. It fights back by sending a ferocious gale around the room. Refusing to give in, Clyde steps forward and repeats his name again and again -- and the totem vanishes. With his nightmare finally over, Clyde goes home and receives a heart-felt welcome from his mum. Some time later, Clyde, Sarah and Rani go looking for Ellie. They can find no trace of the girl, not in the "cardboard city" under the bridge, nor at the mission; she has vanished. Clyde is understandably worried, concerned Ellie thinks he abandoned her. However, after noticing a poster about a singer called "Ellie Faber", he realises that he doesn't even know his friend's real name -- and then a truck drives past, with the name "Night Dragon Haulage" emblazoned on its side. Hearing Clyde's surprise, a nearby homeless person explains that the company's drivers often give lifts to people living rough on the streets. Clyde is upset to realise he's never going to see Ellie, again, and is comforted by his friends. That night, Clyde lies in bed thinking of Ellie, hoping she has found a better life for herself. All he has left is the picture he drew of her. 
<EOS>
At the offices of Serf Systems, a cleaner hears strange noises coming from a nearby lift; when she goes to investigate, something small and nasty grabs her and then drags her inside. At No.13, Bannerman Road, Sarah, Clyde and Rani prepare for the return of Luke, while a nervous Sky worries about meeting her new "brother". Downstairs, Luke checks out his bedroom, only to find that it now belongs to Sky. Heading upstairs, he enjoys a happy reunion with his mum and his two friends -- collectively nicknamed "Clani" -- before meeting Sky for the first time. Their first encounter is awkward. Sky feels guilty for taking his room. Luke says he left K9 back at university, busy backing up the entire Bodleian Library. Mr Smith voices his delight. Sarah tells them the top three journalists in the country are invited to a launch rehearsal for the "SerfBoard", the new must-have computer that is going to be launched that afternoon. Clyde and Rani are oblivious to Sarah Jane's status as one of the three, leaving her slightly offended. Sarah says she will be able to take two guests to the launch: Sky and Luke -- much to Clyde and Rani's disappointment. Later that morning, Sarah, Luke and Sky arrive at Serf Systems. They are asked to complete non-disclosure agreements and meet Lionel Carson, Sarah's former editor and one of her oldest and dearest friends. After exchanging pleasantries, Lionel confesses that he is personally not fond of technology, but came to impress his grandchildren. The gang are joined by public relations manager John Harrison, who shows them to their seats in the main auditorium. As they walk in, Sky tells Luke that she can feel a strange build-up of electricity in the area. As the rehearsal begins, Harrison introduces Joseph Serf. The handsome, charismatic man himself bounds onto the stage and begins running through his presentation. Each audience member is given a free SerfBoard. Yet something else grabs Sky and Luke's attention: As Joseph is explaining the SerfBoard and it's benefits, his face suddenly turns to pixels and than back to a normal human face. He glitched! After the rehearsal ends, the gang head out to the foyer. While Lionel is suddenly enthralled by his new device, Luke and Sky explain what they saw and fill Sarah in on their suspicions. Leaving Luke behind to investigate, she and Sky take the SerfBoard home for analysis. Joining Clyde and Rani in the attic, Sarah instructs Mr Smith to access Serf Systems' CCTV recordings. As the Xylok computer plays back the rehearsal, Sky locates the point where Serf glitched. Studying the freeze-frame, the gang can clearly see that only Serf is affected by the distortion. The rest of the picture remains undisturbed. Immediately suspecting alien holographic technology at work, Sarah orders Mr Smith to search the company records. They learn Joseph Samuel Serf founded Serf Systems but withdrew from public life several years ago after an almost-fatal skiing accident, since then only showing up in publicity photographs and at events since then. Noticing that in all his appearances Serf has never been seen touching anything or anyone, Sarah deduces that Serf died in the accident and has long since been replaced by an advanced hologram allowing an unknown party to take control of the company. The gang consider whether the SerfBoard has any hypnotic properties to encourage buyers. While Mr Smith begins a deep scan of the device, Sarah phones Serf Systems to arrange an interview with Serf. Speaking to Mr Harrison, she drops enough hints about her suspicions to make the PR manager agree to a meeting immediately. Sarah knows she is walking into a trap, but needs to find out what is going on. She heads back to Serf Systems, leaving Rani and Clyde to supervise the SerfBoard. Sarah and Sky return to Serf Systems and rejoin Luke, who has had no success with his snooping. Instructing her children to remain out of harm's way, Sarah meets Harrison, who escorts her to Serf's office but then refuses to leave. During the interview, Sarah tries every trick she knows to expose Serf. She notices the businessman refuses to shake her hand due to an "allergy", and her deliberately-dropped pen is swiftly replaced with a new one from Harrison. Back at the attic, Mr Smith informs Clyde and Rani the SerfBoard is just a standard, low-tech laptop. Still suspicious, the two don protective gear and prepare to activate the device -- only to discover that, despite its attractive appearance and name, the computer is rubbish. Meanwhile, at Serf Systems, Sky tells Luke that she can feel the strange electrical build-up again, coming from below. They take a lift to the basement, but Sky thinks the source lies even further under the building. Figuring out the secret code in the lift, Luke sends them down to the unlabelled sub-basement. While exploring the dark, litter-strewn corridors, Luke and Sky hear Sarah and Serf's voices behind a heavy metal door. Stepping into the room beyond, they find themselves in a strange chamber occupied by short, hooded figures, all wearing welding masks and working frantically at controls labelled with such things as "Eyes", "Arms", "Bum", "Expressions" and "Voice". Upstairs, Sarah notices that Serf has begun to behave oddly, mispronouncing his words and getting stuck mid-expression. When Sarah deliberately spills her water, the effect is astonishing. Serf rises shakily to his feet and the spot on his arm where the water splashed begins glitching. In the control room, the diminutive workers are thrown into a panic as their supervisor, Plark, frantically shouts instructions. Speaking urgently into an earpiece, Harrison orders the supervisor to use "hypno-power". Back in Serf's office, this causes him to act overly charming to Sarah to change her mind. The plucky reporter is having none of it; she has been put under hypnosis by much better foes. After dismissing this attempt, she shoves her hands through Serf's body, disrupting it even further. As the businessman's systems go wild, Harrison pulls out an alien-looking taser-like gun and points it at Sarah. Seeing a monitor screen showing his mum in danger, Luke cries out -- immediately alerting the aliens to his and Sky's presence. As the workers close in on the two unwanted intruders, the supervisor throws back his hood and removes his protective mask -- revealing a hideous, one-eyed face. As the diminutive, one-eyed creatures close in on them, Luke and Sky brace themselves for the worst. To their surprise, the supervisor, Plark, implores them to escape. Sky looks at the monitor and is shocked to see the angry Mr Harrison about to shoot Sarah Jane with the alien-looking gun. Sky leaps for the hologram controls, sending Serf into a frenzy and Harrison's shot flying wild. Sarah runs, only to be captured by a security guard, her sonic lipstick confiscated. Harrison is furious at the apparent failure of his workers and activates a pen-like control device that sends a surge of agonising energy through the collars the creatures wear around their necks. Looking at his monitor, Harrison sees that Luke and Sky are in the control room -- the "Light Chamber" -- and orders their immediate capture. As an alarm blares out, Plark urges the two kids to run, but they swiftly are captured by guards. Sarah rejoins the children and then watches in outrage as Harrison punishes Plark with an even stronger surge of painful energy. She protests, but Harrison ignores her, saying he paid good money for the Skullions. Sarah is appalled at hearing the aliens are the survivors of a spaceship that crashed in Central Asia. They were sold as slaves on the alien species black market. Harrison doesn't care. He only cares about making a profit. He intends to activate the hologram Serf's hypnotic power in the upcoming press conference, transmitting it across the world to make everyone buy the SerfBoard. He will then get all the profit, and be a very wealthy man. After locking Luke and Sky in one storeroom and Sarah in another, Harrison heads upstairs to prepare for the press launch. Sarah finds herself locked in with another prisoner, the cleaner, Adriana, who explains she met one of the Skullions who was trying to escape, only for them both to be captured by guards. Back at No. 13 Bannerman road, Clyde and Rani watch a news report on the upcoming launch of the SerfBoard. Worried that their calls to their friends have gone unanswered, Rani comes up with a plan. Elsewhere, Luke and Sky are given food by Plank, the lead Skullion. Luke offers his bottle of water to the supervisor, but the creature refuses: water is harmful and burning to his kind, who can only drink citrus juice. After Plark leaves, Luke and Sky wonder how they can help free the slaves. Sky has an idea: by using the dog-whistle that Luke uses to call K9, they can send a message to Mr Smith. It works, and Luke rejoices at his smart sister. In the attic, a suited-and-booted Clyde watches as Rani and Mr Smith complete work on two fake press passes: they are now Trevor and Janet Sharp, two journalists from Twilight Years, a magazine for the over-60s -- the real couple having been stranded at the airport due to a "computer malfunction". Mr Smith receives a high-pitched transmission on K9's wavelength, a Morse-code message from Luke: "CLANI GRAB HARRISONS PEN." Back at Serf Systems, Sarah and Adriana's guard investigates the ruckus they are making -- and gets sent sprawling by a jury-rigged tripwire created by Adriana, allowing the two prisoners to escape. In the Light Chamber, Harrison informs the Skullions they are now working for their lives. If the press launch is not a success, they will be killed by the torture pen. When Plark asks for a drink, the cruel businessman sprays his slaves with water, burning them, but not killing them. In the meantime, Luke and Sky are freed by Sarah and Adriana. They are informed of Luke's Morse code message to Mr Smith. In the control room, they see Clyde and Rani on the monitor screen. The two "journalists" meet Lionel Carson, then edge nearer towards Harrison. Disguised as a cleaner, Sarah goes upstairs and uses a corporate phone to contact Mr Smith and gives him an order. Mr Smith sends a message to the planet Skultos, requesting a rescue mission be sent to the roof of Serf Systems to save the Skullions. Clyde and Rani arrive in the main foyer, uncomfortably acting like a married couple. They dismiss suspicion of their young age as a "new company policy". They begin their search for Harrison and soon spot him and the "pen" he uses to shock the Skullions. Rani's attempts to grab the pen fail dismally, but Clyde does better: by bumping into the PR man, he switches the control device for a real pen. Below, Plark and the others Skullions are overjoyed that their master can no longer shock them. They agree to follow Sarah and Adriana to the roof where the ship will rescue them. Following Lionel and the rest of the journalists into the auditorium, Clyde and Rani take their seats as the video trailer of Serf plays on the main screen. Harrison appears and reclaims his stolen pen from Clyde posing as Trevor. Seeing that the PR man has his control device back, Sky and Luke drive the hologram themselves. As the audience looks on, Joseph Serf stumbles onto the stage and gives a bizarre presentation. Behind the scenes in the Light Chamber, Luke tells Sky to make Serf sound American instead of British, but Sky types in the wrong words and mixes cowboy mannerisms into Serf's performance. Furious and confused, Harrison activates his pen. Up on the roof, the Skullions collapse in the worst agony they have ever experienced. Using the hologram's speech and hypno controls, Sky makes Serf compel his audience to grab the pen from Harrison. Lionel leads the rush, and he seizes the device from the astonished PR man and stamps it into pieces. To Harrison's further dismay, Serf orders his guests to go away and tell everyone that the SerfBoard is a sham. Clyde and Rani are amused, but wonder why the founder of Serf Systems would say such a thing. The hologram waves and says, "Hi Clani", and points to the roof, telling them to go up and meet Sarah before shutting off and fading. However, Harrison overhears. He races ahead of the two, appearing before Sarah, Adriana and the terrified Skullions. Sarah reminds Harrison that she told him she would stop him. Harrison asks what army does she have. Sarah points to the Skullion ship as it arrives above the building. Rani grabs a distracted Harrison's weapon. The gang holds him at bay as a green teleport beam stabs down and envelops the Skullions. As Plark bids goodbye to Sarah and the gang, Harrison rushes forward to grab them, declaring them as his property. Unfortunately for him, he is teleported aboard the ship with the Skullions. Luke voices the hope that the Skullions will give Harrison a taste of his own medicine and put him to work as Adriana wonders what she will do now that she has lost her job. Eager to help, Sarah recommends that she give UNIT a call and mention who sent her. Some time later, Sarah, Clyde, Rani and Sky watch a news report detailing Joseph Serf's sudden unexplained disappearance. Sarah notes how sad it is that the public will never know what happened to the real Serf. Sky finds her brother in her room putting up a picture that Clyde has drawn: it depicts Sky, besides the caption "Sky's Room". Overjoyed, she gives Luke a hug. The Earth is shown from space with the caption: "And the story goes on forever". 
<EOS>
Two men arrive at the home and laboratory of Professor Alistair Gryffen to give him a case. The case holds technology from a "fallen angel", a downed alien craft. They tell him the Department wants a full report in twenty-four hours. Elsewhere, a teenage boy named Starkey, who operates under the pseudonym of "Stark Reality," is by an outdoor public display board terminal. He hacks in to post a dissident message. As he finishes, a teenage girl named Jorjie arrives and proposes, once again, working together. Starkey refuses. When she refers to him as Starkey he is surprised she knows his real name. She says she hacked his criminal activity file. She admires his work and wants to help. CCPCs arrive and the two take off together. They end up in an alley with police at each end. They try doors until they find one unlocked. Inside they find Gryffen's laboratory. They hide in the shadows and watch as he experiments with the space-time manipulator. When the youngsters try to leave, Starkey accidentally kicks the power plug from the wall and the machine goes haywire. Instead of the professor's lost family, four reptilian warriors come through the STM's beam. Starkey is hit with their mucus-like secretion. As Jorjie and the professor turn to aid him, a fifth being comes through the beam. It is a dog-like robot who, after distracting the aliens to allow Starkey to escape, informs the humans his power is running low and he must self destruct to destroy the four creatures. Starkey and Jorjie flee the building as Gryffen stays just outside the door, saying he suffers from a condition. Because the dog saved them, Starkey tries to help him, but is pulled back by Gryffen as an explosion rocks the room. They look inside to see the robot's parts strewn across the floor. Starkey picks up an oval, palm-sized object that seems to be active. The surviving alien goes down the stairs. A boy arrives and asks what's going on. He notices Jorjie and introduces himself as Darius Pike, personal assistant and supplier of ordered goods, a delivery boy as Jorjie puts it. She introduces herself. Starkey warns her not to use real names so she calls him "Stark Reality". Darius comforts the distraught Gryffen and quietly places a call to the authorities while Starkey apologises to the professor. Just then the palm sized ovoid pulses and floats into the air. The parts of the robot dog are reintegrated and refashioned into a new, but still recognisable, design. The robot introduces himself as K9 and begins to recalibrate his systems, including his new flight system. K9 exits the building for a test flight as the police arrive. They arrest Starkey, informing him of a sentence of six months in virtual reality (VR) detention. As everyone leaves the lab, the lone surviving reptile warrior, which K9 called a Jixen, sneaks off into the shadows. Professor Gryffen works with K9. K9 informs him his memory has been scrambled and he does not recall who he is. He also says the Jixen mucus is used to mark their enemies for tracking. Any Jixen that smells Starkey will recognise him as their enemy. In response to K9's question, the Professor says the space-time manipulator was built from parts found in a fallen angel. Starkey is in a barren room wearing VR goggles. He sees a plain white room with no details. Jorjie appears, having used her own goggles to communicate with him. With the computer system she shows him images of aliens locked up and experimented on in a secret Department facility. He says some of them might deserve it. She tells Starkey the reason she wanted to work with him was to expose this facility to the public. Starkey points out that he is in detention and can't help her. Gryffen works on K9 and activates a piece of music which K9 doesn't recognise; the damage to his memory is too great. He tells Gryffen he retains only fragments. He asks why the space-time travel device is here. Gryffen says the Department wants him to get it operating properly. Gryffen explains the ability to travel through space and time is enormously valuable. There is no limit to where you could go or whom you could bring. K9 asks whether he will be able to return where he came from if Gryffen fixes the device. Gryffen hopes he will. As Gryffen works on K9, the robot makes a sound. K9 explains he was in his remote identification system. Once a sound is imprinted, he can hear it across dimensions. Soon after, an intruder alert level 5 goes off in the detention facility. They trigger the end of the VR session and Starkey turns to see the Jixen enter his cell. After he is again sprayed with the Jixen's mucus, a CCPC enters and is attacked by the Jixen. This allows Starkey to escape. Back at Gryffen's lab, Darius is tuning up Mariah, the professor's antique car. As Darius and the Professor discuss K9 and letting him stay there, Starkey enters the lab, covered with Jixen mucus. K9's still-repairing systems identify him as a Jixen warrior. Only the professor's protestations and Starkey's repeating some of the first words he said to K9 cause K9 to stop and reconsider his actions. As this crisis is averted, June Turner, Gryffen's primary contact with the Department, arrives to discuss the explosion in the lab and the robot "dog" seen in the vicinity. She asks if the professor has seen Starkey since his escape. June makes it clear that capturing the robot "dog" is a Department priority and she expects the Professor to find him and bring him in for study. If he fails or refuses, his funding for the STM project will be ended. It will be dismantled and given to a more co-operative researcher. Gryffen tells her there is no need to do that. After she leaves, Starkey and K9 come out of their hiding place and Starkey thanks Gryffen. After June leaves, Starkey tells Darius that no one has ever stuck up for him like Professor Gryffen has. Darius agrees that the professor is a great guy. Starkey also thanks Darius for not turning him in. Darius tells Starkey there will be other chances. As Jorjie enters, K9 tells her about nearly "neutralising" Starkey. To apologise, K9 gives Starkey a special whistle that will call K9 to wherever Starkey is. 
<EOS>
At the mansion, Gryffen watches a recording of his wife and children. Darius doesn't like Starkey staying, but K9 insists that he must or the Jixen will tear him asunder. Starkey asks why can't he just get the Jixen before it gets him. K9 states the odds aren't in his favour. Starkey becomes alert when someone knocks at the door. Jorjie arrives and talks about travelling through time via the space-time manipulator. Darius says it's too dangerous and anything could come through like dinosaurs. Suddenly the STM activates and sends a couple of black rats through, which scares Darius. K9 tells Gryffen that the Jixen is alive and on the move. Some time later, K9 detects the direction the Jixen is heading. Starkey says it must be heading for Dauntless Prison. Jorjie says the Department keeps captured aliens prisoner there. They have no rights and are treated inhumanely which isn't fair. Darius asks why the Jixen would go to an alien prison and suggests Starkey give himself up. K9 says one word, "Meron", which Darius hears as "moron". Jorjie corrects him and asks what it means. Gryffen explains it's an enemy of the Jixen and very dangerous. Starkey decides they should go to the prison and get the Jixen before it gets him. K9 says that isn't a good idea. The last thing they'd want would be to get caught in is battle between the Merons and the Jixen: whole planets have been wiped out. Jorjie's mother calls her. Gryffen asks K9 to go to the prison and track the Jixen. K9 says he will, but with great discomfort. While Darius is with Mariah, Starkey says they should help K9 find the Jixen. Darius agrees but only with the promise that Starkey will leave and not come back after they stop the Jixen. They get into Mariah and go for a drive. Gryffen tracks K9 through the monitor. On his way to the prison, K9 is detected by the Department. K9 enters the Department exclusion zone. The Department's defence robots attack and disable K9. He falls in a dustbin that Starkey and Darius walk by. Starkey and Darius climb down and find a locked door, which Starkey tries to unlock. Darius wishes him good luck on getting out and walks into a brick wall which breaks. He has stumbled upon the entrance. They spot two scientists taking a sample from an alien on the other side of the corridor and are apprehended by the CCPCs. Starkey calls K9 with his dog whistle. Gryffen takes this as a sign he is in trouble and asks K9 to wake up. As Starkey and Darius see the alien prisoners, Gryffen begs K9 to respond. They look at the alien prisoners. Starkey notes there's a lot they don't know about the Department. They are met by Thorne, the prison governor, who throws them in a cell with an alien called Mr Wiffy. Darius complains he can't keep them in here with no charges. June comes in and says he can. She is surprised to see Starkey, "the boy everyone is looking for". She says they're not to be harmed. Thorne asserts his authority as governor, but she challenges this as a department inspector in charge of alien threats. She suggests he searches his prisoners before he "blabs his face off". She takes Darius's communications device and contacts Gryffen, who asks why the Department is imprisoning aliens. She says they need to be catalogued to look out for others of their species and if the species commit a crime, they'll know what they are looking for. They can't be allowed to wander around London. Gryffen says they should be sent back home. She says they have tried, but insists it's the only way and ends the call. June warns Starkey he will be returned to virtual detention, where his sentence will be restarted, plus an extra six months for escaping, unless he tells her where she can find K9. If he does, they will both be released. Starkey refuses. She leaves them. Gryffen waits for K9 to wake up. He thinks of his family and tells K9 if he survives and they don't he'll never forgive himself. He'll never get past that he wasn't there for them. When K9 doesn't respond, Gryffen creates a sound that K9 knows, dropping a ball over and over. K9 reactivates. He says his living metal frame required down time to repair from the Department's weaponry and his combat conditioning shielding has now done its job. K9 starts to make his way to Dauntless Prison. Darius tries to convince Starkey to give K9 up. Suddenly, Jorjie arrives. Asked how she found them, she says she tracked Mariah's autodrive and then followed the bickering. Darius gives her a key card for the keypad up the corridor that he picked from Thorne's pocket. Jorjie unlocks all the cells in the corridor. All CCPC units are ordered to the cells. K9 goes through the prison, scanning for the Jixen. As the kids and aliens run, Starkey looks behind to see if they are being followed when he is attacked by the Jixen. The Jixen corners him, but K9 shoots it. However, he has used up all his power and his energy levels don't have time to reboot. He recommends they run. Starkey and K9 lure the Jixen to the cells. Starkey puts his jacket, covered in the Jixen tracking slime, in a cell which the Jixen finds. Starkey locks the cell. As they taunt the Jixen, one of the scientists walks in. He morphs into his true Meron form and attacks K9. As he advances on Starkey, the Jixen emits a loud scream which makes the Meron retreat. In Thorne's office, June hears the Jixen's scream. Thorne locks the door, saying it's best they stay here. June spots Starkey and K9 on a camera and suggests they go capture him. Thorne refuses, saying they don't know what's going on down there. K9 isn't in good shape. Saying his immunity levels are down to 19%, he reroutes energy reserves to critical systems and tells Starkey to leave. K9 can't go as his power levels are critical. Starkey tells him to try. June grabs Thorne's locking device and promises he'll never darken the prison's doors again. He's finished. Thorne vows revenge. Starkey and K9 meet up with the others and Darius unlocks the door. Through the door, they are met by June, who tells them they are blocked by a force field and orders the aliens to return to their cells. Darius calls her a monster. She says that the system works but Starkey argues she's imprisoning innocent aliens. She says she's doing this for the future, so their children's children will be safe. Jorjie tells her that she helped the aliens. June is shocked to see Jorjie here, just as Jorjie is to find she works for the Department. The Jixen arrives and attacks Starkey and June. K9 tries to fight it but exhausts his firepower. June gives Jorjie the force field device and tells her to arm it to self-destruct. Darius grabs it and June tells him to attach it to the Jixen. When the Jixen advances on him, he throws it to Starkey, who attaches it to the Jixen, killing it. Jorjie and Darius agree they make quite a team. K9 calls the assessment logical, amusing the kids. Starkey faints. That night, Starkey wakes up in Gryffen's house. He calls for K9 and Gryffen shows him that the robot dog has been waiting by his side. Starkey asks K9 how he got away from June. Darius says that all the information about the aliens and the prison was leaked to the media. The prison is being shut down. K9 confirms the Jixen is gone. As one problem is solved, another presents itself. Gryffen reports bad news about the rats. They multiply every ten seconds. He says he knows the machine needs more work before he tampers with it. As Starkey gets up, Gryffen asks where he's going. Starkey says he has a job to do and he had a deal with Darius. Jorjie's gone home and the Jixen's dead. Starkey thanks K9 for saving him from "termination" before he leaves. Later, Starkey hacks into the display board terminal again but is met by two CCPCs. K9 moves to protect him and they both run away. 
<EOS>
K9 and Starkey hide from the Department's surveillance. They go over a fence when K9 senses the police. K9 detects an invisible camo vehicle. They hide and it goes past them. At Gryffen House, Darius prepares a lunch while Gryffen works on the STM. Once Gryffen has it working at full capacity, he will travel through space and time and see his family again. Unknown to them the STM activates, and an alien creature appears. Gryffen asks Darius if he was to go back to any point in history, where would he go? Darius says he'd go back 10 days and find out who stole his wallet. The alien sneaks up on Gryffen and when Darius turns around, his friend is nowhere to be seen. June and Jorjie return from shopping. June will be home by midnight, and she expects Jorjie to be in bed. Back at the mansion, Darius searches for the professor. Jorjie finds Starkey who asks her what she's doing there. He had told her about his three hiding places and she's already checked two of them. Darius alerts them to Gryffen's disappearance. When Darius returns, Jorjie asks if he has any news. K9 detects phosphane gas, a cooling agent that won't be invented for three hundred years. K9 accesses the STM and contacts a human soldier from the year 2618, Senior Lieutenant Medowin of Special Operations Commando, Global Command. He tells them the Korven threat must be stopped at all costs. K9 tells the team that the Korven are due to invade Earth in the year 2480. Medowin says the Korven are sending an operative through time to find the scientists who created a system to cool the Earth, which was abused before 2050. Gryffen is one of those scientists. If the Korven get their data, they will cool the Earth and destroy humanity. Before he can reveal the Korvens' weakness, his transmission stops. K9 knows the Korven's weakness: during the leeching process, their entire being is focused on their victim. This is the only time they are vulnerable. K9 follows the trail of phosphane gas with Darius accompanying him. As the Korven brings Gryffen to a deserted iceworks, Gryffen begs him not to take him outside and demands he be taken home. At the Department Mobile HQ, June sends Jorjie a message saying she assumes the reason she isn't responding is she's busy doing homework. Drake interrupts her, requesting an update on the recent alien activity. She declines as she is Head of the Alien Activity Section and Drake is Head of Security and she doesn't report to him. When Drake asks her about information-sharing, she says it works on a need to know basis. When she feels he needs to know something, she'll share it with him. Drake tells her he will do the same. They're "one big happy Department". As the team go to the entrance of the iceworks, K9 detects more phosphane. Gryffen is strapped to a table by an immobilising force field. He asks what the Korven is going to do to him. It uses a device which mutes Gryffen and takes out its phosphane tank. As the team move on, K9 detects the phosphane is becoming uncommon but still present. Darius and Jorjie go one way while K9 and Starkey go the other. Starkey notices it's getting colder. They're getting closer. K9's thought and energy levels are being affected by the phosphane. Starkey sees the Korven start the leeching process. He turns to see K9 on the floor; the Korven sneaks behind Starkey and captures him. Starkey is forced to the table by the immobilising force field as well. Starkey calls out for K9, but is muted by the Korven as well. The Korven restarts the leeching. Darius and Jorjie find K9 on the floor. Seeing the Korven leeching Gryffen, they try to get K9 to help. He tries to focus but engages his self-protection protocol and shuts down. Gryffen has flashbacks of his lost family and cries out. Darius gets angry and decides to help Gryffen. He destroys the phosphane tank and gets the Korven's attention. The Korven prepares to shoot Darius, but K9 overrides his self-protection protocol and shoots the Korven. K9 shuts down. Darius wakes Gryffen, who recognises him. The Korven gets back up. Darius grabs the Korven's arm before it can shoot him, but can't hold on. Jorjie tells K9 to fire but K9 interprets this as a warning that there's a fire. Starkey tells K9 to fire his Photon Beam. K9 interprets this as "Baked beans?". Starkey shouts out, "Baked beans". K9 shoots the Korven with the temperature required to make baked beans edible, killing it. Back at the mansion, Gryffen works on K9. Starkey asks if he will be okay. Gryffen says his power activation module was damaged by the phosphane, but with a few minor repairs and a recharge he should be fine. Gryffen accesses the Department's computer and reprogrammes it so that Starkey is no longer a wanted dissident; he may not even exist. Jorjie says he'll never have to sleep behind a fence. Starkey says not until he finds a place to live. Jorjie tells Gryffen that Darius says there's a spare room. Gryffen calls it a splendid idea, saying Darius and he could use some company. K9 and Starkey go to bed. They bid each other good night as K9 emits the remainder of the phosphane gas in a manner similar to flatulence. 
<EOS>
Gryffen is at work trying to fix K9's memory. He finds a fragment from just before he transported here, an alien called Zanthus Pia, head of the Galactic Peace Commission, who orders him to leave immediately. He warns that assassinating him will gain his assassin nothing and others will replace him. He vows they will have peace in the Galaxy. Gryffen tells K9 he'll have to work harder if he's going to retrieve his memories. K9 assures Gryffen he's working as hard as he can as that fragment is all the memory of his own time. Starkey tells Gryffen he can't get blood out of a stone. K9 corrects him and references the rocks of Nebulax 4. Gryffen finds K9 can retrieve data but not memories. Starkey offers to take K9 for a walk to get his mind off it. As they walk, Gryffen watches them on the monitor and notes how much the surroundings have changed, a common effect for someone who hasn't gone outside in ten years. They go to a ferris wheel, which speeds up as a group of CCPCs walk in. Starkey thinks he's been found and tells K9 to save himself. K9 declines the order. Meanwhile at the mansion, as Gryffen instructs them to leave, a strange man enters the STM. The CCPCs keep the worried crowd under control. Drake informs them of a dissident attack. A bomb has been attached to the speed clutch in the control centre. If they try to stop or even slow the wheel, the bomb will explode. K9 decides to help. Starkey says the place is swarming with CCPCs. K9 says it is a compulsion as he is programmed to assist humans in distress. Starkey notices a CCTV camera arriving on the scene.  Gryffen investigates the state of the man that emerged from the STM. The man grabs Gryffen, telling him to stay where he can see him. Gryffen asks how he can control the portal. He says he didn't.  Gryffen decides to get him some tea. On the scene, Drake talks to a news camera, stating the dissident threat will be tracked down and eliminated and urges people to stay in view of a CCTV surveillance point and report any suspicions. Starkey tells K9 that the story of the Department saving the day from rogue dissidents is a publicity stunt. K9 says it's unlikely. Starkey asks if it's such big news and such a big threat, why haven't the CCPCs done anything? K9 agrees and says he isn't interested in the camera and has to help the people. Back at the mansion, Gryffen apologises for being inquisitive but he can't control the STM. The man tells him he followed someone here, a cybernetic device known as K9. Starkey asks the crowd why Drake doesn't do anything. A mother whose children are stuck on the wheel asks Drake the same question. While Drake is distracted, K9 and Starkey sneak into the control room and find the strangely non-explosive bomb. This is a publicity stunt planned by the Department. K9 destroys the bomb, which slows the wheel, saving the people on it. Starkey and K9 are praised by the crowd to Drake's dismay. They leave. Back at the mansion, the man grows impatient and demands to know where K9 is. He says that his name is Ahab and he is the most renowned bounty hunter in the galaxy and he's here to bring K9 to stand trial before the Galactic Council for murder. K9 is wanted in the year 50,000 for the unlawful disintegration of Zanthus Pia, president of Galactic Peace Assembly. Gryffen says there is no K9 here. Ahab's voice analyser reveals he's lying. When Gryffen refuses to tell him where K9 is, Ahab grabs his face. They are interrupted by a Department broadcast from Drake claiming that the "mechanical dog" was not the hero of the ferris wheel incident. Ahab asks how to find the Department. Gryffen suggests he go to the nearest CCTV camera. He does and tells Drake they need to talk. The team are shocked when Gryffen tells them what Ahab said and refuse to believe K9 is a murderer. Starkey says his programming forbids it. Gryffen says that according to Ahab, K9 disintegrated Zanthus Pia with extreme prejudice. They argue the legality and morality of the situation until they conclude K9 should hide. Darius offers his services. At the Department Mobile HQ, June and Drake argue about K9. Drake says she was aware of a dangerous alien yet failed to alert his section. She says K9 isn't dangerous and his technology could be of great value to the Department. Drake agrees and decides to have him apprehended and dismantled to learn his secrets. June says his section has no jurisdiction as K9 poses no security threat. Drake consults Lomax, who says he will consider the matter and orders them to keep doing what they're doing. June assumes K9 is under her control, and Drake simply agrees to keep doing what he's doing. Darius takes Jorjie, Starkey and K9 to his secret storage facility in the sewers, made up mostly of food and supplies that fell off the back of trucks and vans. June comes to Gryffen's house and tells Gryffen to tell her if Drake comes looking for K9. Gryffen tells her of his encounter with Ahab and that the kids are hiding K9. She asks him to have Jorjie come home with her. Ahab arrives at Department Mobile HQ and shows Drake how he intends to subdue K9. They make a deal. As Starkey, Darius and Jorjie eat, Starkey tells Jorjie he's "defragging". Jorjie wonders if it's possible K9 assassinated Zanthus Pia. Starkey refuses to believe it but Darius argues neither they nor he know what he did before he came here. Starkey asks if he has done anything suspicious. As Starkey pets K9, K9 accesses the remains of his memory and an encounter with Zanthus Pia. The clip shows K9's HUD stating Zanthus must be destroyed. The clip glitches and cuts to a burning corpse, which K9 identifies as Zanthus's remains. As everyone is asleep, K9 determines he is guilty and a murderer. K9 decides to surrender himself to the Department and leaves. He is spotted by a CCTV camera. At the Department Mobile HQ, June uses this to trace him to the sewer. She is angry Jorjie spent the night there and decides to get her.  She tells Gryffen to tell them to stay there if they contact him. Gryffen wonders why K9 would be so careless as to miss a motion detector. He contacts K9, who shows him his memory of Zanthus Pia's corpse. He says his human life protection protocol was compromised. Starkey and the others look for K9. Darius spots him. They try to stop him, but K9 insists he must surrender to the authorities and stand trial.  Drake and Ahab arrive and Starkey tells K9 to run. K9 says he he must face justice. June is contacted by Drake, who tells her Ahab betrayed him and took K9 and the kids to Gryffen's house. He explains his arrangement with Ahab which would have given the Department access to K9's technology. She decides from now on all matters concerning K9 will be handled by her section. At the house, Ahab pulls K9 to the STM vortex. The leash-like device Ahab uses on K9 turns him into a conductor, restoring his memory of Zanthus Pia. K9 did not kill him; Ahab did. When K9 notes the device Ahab uses generates extreme cold, weakening him, Jorjie throws a cup of tea on the beam, disabling it. The force of the device throws Ahab into the STM and he disappears. June arrives at the house. She says K9 is under the control of her section and not security. She gives Gryffen responsibility for K9 and makes K9 and the team the "Official K9 Unit". As Jorjie leaves with June, Darius asks what's stopping Ahab from coming back. Gryffen says he went to the time of his destination, but not the place. He's been landed in this exact spot fifty thousand years from now. Darius thinks he's home safe and sound, but Gryffen explains the planets are continually moving through space. The Earth won't be in its current location. Darius asks where he is. K9 says, "Lost in space". 
<EOS>
Vibeka, an activist, is protesting CCPC violence when she is apprehended by two of them. K9, Starkey and Jorjie witness the arrest and Starkey records it to "publicise the violence". Jorjie decides to take action and despite Starkey's warning she throws a stone at one of the CCPCs. The three run as Inspector Drake arrives and takes Vibeka away. Two CCPCs corner them and a third confiscates Starkey's recording. Drake orders the CCPCs to use an unknown device, the Inhibitor, into which the CCPC puts an alien substance. The device fails, destroying the CCPC and sending K9 flying. Drake is angered at this and crushes the top off his cane. At Jorjie's house, June is shocked to learn that Jorjie threw a stone at a CCPC. She is even angrier that Jorjie dismisses her concerns by complaining of a headache. Jorjie says the CCPC was using a strange weapon. Back at the mansion, Gryffen repairs K9, and lectures Starkey on his "tomfoolery." In the Department Mobile HQ, Drake suggests June send Jorjie to Magdalene Academy. Two weeks later. Jorjie arrives at the Academy, where she meets Vibeka, who warns Jorjie not to put on the bracelets worn by several of the students; they change people's behaviour. Jorjie takes her advice and doesn't join Melaina's study group. When she goes to the mansion and complains about the school, Starkey and Gryffen don't agree with her. Gryffen analyses video playback of the explosion and finds the strange substance vaporises under pressure. K9 says the CCPCs used it to try to take control of him and it is an alien substance. When Jorjie returns to the academy, she finds Vibeka now wears a bracelet. She tells Starkey, who comes to Magdalene to investigate. Vibeka flirts with him. Gryffen discovers the alien substance is cerulium. K9 describes the planet Ceres, and how lack of free will destroyed its civilisation. At the Academy the girls give Jorjie a bracelet and persuade her to wear it. She falls under its influence almost immediately and returns to the mansion, where she flirts with Darius while K9 identifies the bracelet as cerulium. Starkey tells her to take off the bracelet, but she refuses until K9 destroys it with his laser cannon. The next day she returns to school with a fake bracelet, asking where she can get another one for her mother, June Turner. Drake realises that his plot is uncovered and the girls attack her, but K9 arrives and destroys all the bracelets. Melaina is the only one remaining. When Drake deactivates her, Jorjie reveals to the other students that she is a robot similar to the CCPC. 
<EOS>
Darius is in a junkyard when he is approached by two strange vagrants. They say the junkyard belongs to them and tell him to leave, then lock him in a wardrobe. He grabs onto a bar in the wardrobe and finds himself holding on for his life over a bottomless pit. Back at the mansion, Gryffen and Starkey are frightened for no clear reason. They are not the only ones feeling this. There are news reports of mass stampedes and riots across London. Darius arrives at the mansion, frightened after his ordeal. Darius is shocked to find the junkyard is on the news and the two vagrants are being interviewed. Drake interrupts the interview when they start talking about a monster. Darius says there is an alien in the hole. K9, Darius, Starkey and Jorjie go to the junkyard, only to find CCPCs patrolling it. K9 distracts the CCPCs by alerting them to a violation of Department Regulation 29d: use of unapproved sandwiches at a picnic. When Drake arrives to find the CCPCS gone, they decide to hide in the wardrobe anyway. Darius refuses because of his earlier experience. They understand his fears when he again holds onto the bar and nearly falls. K9 saves him. Drake agrees with K9, asking them if they saw the alien. As they leave, Drake shouts to the alien, refusing to acknowledge his fear. Back at the mansion Gryffen shows the team news items about the spread of fear. Gryffen tells the team that Darius is claustrophobic. At Department HQ, Drake tells June about the alien inside the wardrobe. Back at the mansion, Starkey and Jorjie try futilely to scare K9 to make him understand fear. At the junkyard, June finds nothing in the wardrobe. Drake insists there is an alien. When Starkey investigates the wardrobe, he determines, "Your own fear makes you see the hole". He is taken away by two CCPCs to a cell. He is met by Drake, who show signs of paranoia though still refusing to acknowledge his fear. K9 decides they have go to the junkyard and prove the fear isn't real. K9 goes to the hole and finds nothing, but Starkey and Gryffen temporarily lose contact with K9. He sees a Jixen but registers no data; Starkey tries to convince him it's not real. Drake decides to arm a bomb and destroy the wardrobe. K9 believes the Jixen is not real and it vanishes. Starkey and Jorjie return to the mansion to warn Gryffen to tell K9 to get out, but they feel the explosion. K9 escapes. Drake tells the creature he has won and destroys the wardrobe with his mechanical hand. K9 reveals he felt the bomb was coming and Jorjie congratulates him on experiencing a feeling. The team have a group hug. 
<EOS>
As a storm rages outside, Darius and K9 play chess against Starkey and Jorjie, and lose. Jorjie gets a call from her mother who wants her home, but agrees to let her stay. Something shatters upstairs. Gryffen sends Starkey to investigate. The STM activates. While upstairs investigating the sound, Starkey sees a boy outside of his bedroom window for a split second. Starkey is visibly shaken when returning to the others and tells them what he saw. When asked by Gryffen to describe the boy, he tells Gryffen he was a "skinny blonde boy around seven or eight." Gryffen runs to look. The others doubt what Starkey saw. Jorjie wonders why Gryffen ran off. Gryffen returns to say the storm is intensifying over the Channel. Later, Starkey is reading poetry to Jorjie and Darius. Darius tells them years ago Gryffen and his family went on holiday and they were taken from him. As the storm grows louder Jorjie predicts her mother will be calling again, which she does. When Drake asks who she's talking to, she hangs up, surprising Jorjie as that's her "trick". They hear scary giggling and Starkey suggests they investigate. Darius, obviously frightened, is the last to get up. As they leave, he closes the door. The giggling is heard again as the STM powers up. Gryffen suddenly hears a voice calling his name. As Starkey, Jorjie and K9 look around, they spot a boy and an equally odd-looking girl. K9 scans them and finds no signs of life. K9 says that the boy and girl are "non-corporeal entities". They vanish. K9 tells Starkey and Jorjie to go while he stands guard. They spot the girl, who runs, and then the boy, who also runs away, both giggling. As Jorjie searches, Darius appears, startling her. Starkey, while searching, asks why K9 stays when he could go through the STM to some random place. K9 tells him that he stays for the same reason Starkey does, they are needed where they are. Starkey again spots the boy, who runs away. K9 detects nothing. As Darius and Jorjie go on, Darius grabs hold of a hand.  Darius thinks it is Jorjie's hand and says that it is "tiny" and "freezing". Jorjie says she's not holding his hand. Darius sees he has some strange slime on his hand. As Starkey tries to find the boy, a mysterious hand grabs him. It's Darius scaring him. Jorjie is with him. They find the recording of Gryffen's family. K9 is annoyed at them ignoring him, while Darius, Jorjie and Starkey watch the recording. Starkey and Jorjie recognise Gryffen's son and daughter as the children they saw. Darius doesn't believe it, saying they are Gryffen's children, Jacob and Mina. He says it's the last video taken of them. As the storm strikes again, K9 tells the kids to stop being so scared at the flashes. Darius recognises the voice of Eleanor, Gryffen's wife. They see the children again. Darius recognises them with a shock. K9 realises they only exist as light; Starkey reasons that if they are dead, they can't harm him. The children charge up energy and fire on Starkey, Darius and Jorjie, knocking them unconscious. K9 fires on them, but his photon beam has no effect, merely passing through them. K9 thinks they can only affect carbon-based life, but they disrupt his circuits, knocking him out as well. Eleanor suddenly appears to Gryffen. She says he cannot touch her. She is too fragile. She tells him his children must complete a task before they join him to make him eternally happy. Darius and Jorjie are trapped on tables near the STM, which is absorbing energy. As Darius calls out for K9, he wakes up, locked in a closet with Starkey. Starkey fails to unlock the door with his "jimmy key", which is covered in slime. K9 tells Starkey he needs to power his photon burst before trying to blow through the door. Darius and Jorjie call out to Gryffen. Gryffen tries to remember Starkey and K9 but fails. Gryffen goes into the STM room and tells the children to stop playing. When Jorjie and Darius call him, he asks who they are. Gryffen is in a trance. They try to wake him. K9 suggests to Starkey that with his attempts to retrieve them, Gryffen has warped space-time into their shapes. K9 blasts the door. They go to the STM room, where K9 tells Starkey to go round the STM vortex while he distracts the children. Darius and Jorjie try to snap Gryffen out of it, but he is mesmerised by Eleanor. K9's energy is depleted and he is disabled by the children. Starkey tries to stop Darius and Jorjie from being pulled into the vortex. K9 reactivates and warns Gryffen they are merely "echoes" of his family and Jorjie tells him that for them to fully materialise, they must absorb life force. K9 tells Starkey to get to Gryffen as he is the closest thing he has to a son. Eleanor tries to silence him, but he persists. Darius and Jorjie try to help Starkey convince him as well. Starkey tells Gryffen that his family wouldn't want to harm people. This lets Gryffen see what they are. Eleanor refuses to accept this, but as the storm passes, she realises she and the children aren't wanted and they leave. Jorjie gets a call from June, who says she will pick her up. When Starkey asks Gryffen if he will be okay, he says that he will be as he was. The team cheer themselves up by joking around. 
<EOS>
June speaks to protesters on the introduction of Department microchips. She insists they are for their own good. When they start throwing fruit, Drake orders the CCPCs to arrest the protesters. K9 arrives and opens fire on the Department banners and balloons, then shoots Drake. June wonders why K9 has done this. At Jorjie's house, she tells Jorjie of K9's attempt on Drake's life. They go to Gryffen's, where they show Starkey, Gryffen and K9 footage of him shooting Drake. K9 says that he has no memory of it. June tells him to hand himself over. Gryffen tells K9 to download his memory of the morning, but K9 says he erased an alarm. When erasing the alarm, half an hour on each side of the erase request was wiped. Darius and Starkey argue over K9's innocence. K9 insists that he must turn himself in. Later, when Darius is cleaning Mariah, Jorjie is appalled he could accuse K9 of attacking Drake. Darius says he's just a machine and Jorjie asks if that's the same way he feels about Mariah. Jorjie talks to Starkey about K9 and speculates that K9 malfunctioned or another robot dog from the 50th century came through the STM. Starkey tells Jorjie about the time Drake threatened Starkey and K9 offered to "take him out." Jorjie voices her concerns about Starkey to Gryffen, concerned he may put himself in danger. Darius is apprehended by CCPCs and sent to Drake. He says Darius isn't someone who picks the losing team and offers to join Darius. While watching a recording of the attack, Jorjie wonders why Drake smiled smugly. Starkey wonders if Darius is correct about K9 and talks to Gryffen about his concerns. At Jorjie's house, June tells Jorjie that she will make sure Drake deals with K9 "by the book." Jorjie tells June about Drake's smug smile during the attack. K9 is fitted with a device to find him if he goes "walkabout" during the night. K9 says he would like to know himself. Gryffen adds a trip wire alarm to K9's tail. Later that night, K9 attacks Mariah. At Department HQ, June sees Drake's smug smile in the recording and finds his warrant for K9's arrest under Operation Orthrus. When she tries to look into the matter, she is denied access. Drake appears behind June and asks what she is doing.  June asks why she hasn't been informed of Orthrus. Drake replies that Operation Orthrus is classified. She asks Drake why he smiled before he was shot, when everyone else ducked for cover. At the mansion Darius goes to wash Mariah. He finds her a wreck, with the words, "K9 woz ere", on her window. As Darius furiously tells Starkey about K9, K9 destroys the device Gryffen put on his tail. When the team watches the recording, Starkey insists K9 has been framed to distract them. K9 insists that he must surrender himself. When CCPCs arrive at the door, Starkey tells K9 to prepare his photon cannon, but K9 refuses. When Drake and two CCPCs arrive to arrest K9, Jorjie demands to see the warrant. One of the CCPCs grabs her arm, but Darius puts a bucket on its head and Gryffen attaches his radio recording device to the other CCPC and plays back music.  This disrupts the CCPC's circuitry and makes it start dancing. As the kids leave, Drake stops Gryffen's control over the CCPC. As the CCPCs pursue K9 and the others, they are split up and Darius is alone with K9. K9 arms his photon cannon and fires at Darius, but misses. Darius runs to Starkey and Jorjie and tells them that K9 tried to kill him. They don't believe him, but K9 arrives and arms his cannon at Jorjie. Starkey stands in front of her to protect her. As K9 prepares to fire, he is shot by a second K9, the true K9. When the fake prepares to fire again, K9 disables it. Drake arrives to arrest K9 but is stopped by June who reveals that Project Orthrus is not approved by the Department. 
<EOS>
Starkey is chased by a Jixen in a mysterious, misty place of plants and a strange stone obelisk. He finds Jorjie and then Darius, who is terrified. He points to a strange creature behind them, then wakes, but is still in the nightmare when he is attacked by a Jixen. He runs to K9, who identifies an alien threat. K9 is not talking of the Bodach, but himself. K9 fires and Starkey wakes up. K9 tells him it is the afternoon. Starkey wakes Gryffen, who was talking in his sleep. Gryffen had a bad dream. Darius is dreaming he is in Mariah, surrounded by clowns, pleading with her to let him out. She says she is taking him to the circus. K9 spots Darius sleeping and begging to be let out of the car. At Jorjie's house, she is woken by her dog whistle. She has been contacted by K9, who remotely recalibrated the whistle. Jorjie admits she had a nightmare. When she calls the gang clowns, Darius grows fearful. Gryffen tries to phone her mother, but she doesn't answer. No one does. Gryffen shows the gang a view of an empty street. Everyone is asleep. Starkey faints when he hallucinates that Gryffen has turned into a strange alien. K9 wakes him. Gryffen's psychrotron detects London is being bombarded by psychic energy. Everyone is being made to sleep and dream, save K9. As a robot, he does not sleep. Gryffen suggests wearing tin-foil hats to shield them. On her way to the mansion, Jorjie sees people asleep on the street. She arrives but an alien is behind her. The alien keeps trying to get into the mansion, demanding the Eye of Oblivion. Starkey recognises the alien from his dream. It is a Bodach, come to feast. When Darius threatens to go out, the Bodach leaves. Gryffen looks up the Bodach. They feed on nightmares. Starkey recognises the stone obelisk in the book as the one in his dream, but he didn't see the eye, just the eye socket. Gryffen gets out a package holding Department Artefact 781. This is what is putting everyone to sleep. K9 confirms the Eye's disturbance brought the Bodach to Earth and it wants it back. It takes control of everyone who has been walking in their sleep. Gryffen enters a hypnotic state to enter the dreamscape. The team finds the sleepwalkers at the door and K9 asleep. Starkey tries to use an alarm clock to wake K9 but fails. Darius starts to feel drowsy. K9 enters the dreamworld with Gryffen. The Professor says that if the Eye is put in the obelisk, everyone on Earth will fall asleep. K9 suddenly leaves. Starkey and Jorjie try to keep the main door closed while Darius, now asleep and under the Bodach's control, opens the back door for it. Darius takes the Eye. Gryffen wakes up and notices it gone. Gryffen alerts Jorjie and Starkey to the Bodach, whose sleeping army surrounds them. Darius gives the Eye to the Bodach. K9 flies past and takes off its mask. It is June, in the same trance as the rest of the Bodach's army. Gryffen says the Bodach have no physical form. They control others through their sleep. June is their avatar. She attacks K9 with the Eye. The army falls asleep when she departs. K9 goes to destroy the obelisk, the Bodach's link to Earth, but June puts the Eye in. K9 tries to ram the obelisk, but it is protected by a force field that knocks out his weapons. Jorjie puts on the helmet and enters the dreamworld. She shows June a fake love tattoo for Darius. June grows angry and wakes. K9 tells June to remove the Eye and leave, then destroys the obelisk. 
<EOS>
At the Department Mobile HQ, an officer detects a pyramid-like alien ship entering Earth air space. Inspector Drake prepares to lock orbital missiles. June tells him to stop as it hasn't been fully analysed. Drake doesn't tolerate trespassers. When June asks if they come in peace he replies, "Then they leave in pieces". The ship disappears, apparently burning up in the atmosphere. K9, Starkey and Jorjie spot a shooting star as two CCPCs interrupt their stargazing. Jorjie spots the pyramid spaceship uncloaking. K9 goes to have a look and bumps off it. Two aliens arrive and knock out the CCPCs. As the aliens turn their attention to Starkey and Jorjie, K9 comes to their rescue. The aliens hail K9 as their "Great Liberator" and bow. The aliens arrive at the Mansion and call K9 "Great One". They identify themselves as Nehetka and Geb and tell the team that K9 liberated them in their distant past from the Huducts. The Anubians show the team their history book and tell them of their oppression for generations and liberation by K9. When Darius insults the old K9, Nehetka is offended. Gryffen says it would be best if Darius left, which he does. As Gryffen admires the Anubian ship, they tell him they must hide from the Department, whom they call K9's enemies. Gryffen disputes this, but Nehetka insists they are enemies. In the garage, Darius wakes to find Geb decorating Mariah. Darius goes to Gryffen, only to find he is finishing a throne room. Nehetka has suggested this may jog K9's memory banks. Darius activates K9. The Anubians are outraged at Darius' dog whistle and the idea of him giving commands to K9, who taught the Anubians that "freedom's everything". Gryffen accepts their request to banish Darius from the house and never return. Geb makes Jorjie and Starkey give them their dog whistles. Starkey thinks Gryffen has fallen victim to mind control, but Jorjie doubts that K9, being a robot, would be affected. She wonders about the old K9, but Starkey insists K9 means well. At the mansion, Gryffen presents Starkey and Jorjie to K9, who is preoccupied with restoring his memory banks. K9 informs Starkey he intends to liberate London from the Department. K9 notices something in his memory banks, Tenklept. Nehetka tell him legends say K9 saved Tenklept the Glomb from being eaten by a Yakoclaw. That night Starkey and Jorjie go to the mansion to take the book while the Anubians are sleeping. They read it in Starkey's room. It has a drawing of K9 leaving the Anubian homeworld with their oppressors now their slaves, wearing the same headband worn by Gryffen. They read further and see a drawing of Anubians holding hands with an alien and on the next page attacking the same species. They see many races attacked by the Anubians. They decide to show K9 this but are met by the Anubians, who put the headbands on them. Darius returns to the mansion to find Gryffen, Jorjie and Starkey hypnotised. Darius wakes K9 and tells him there is something wrong. The Anubians have replaced his friends with robots, pod people or clones. K9 scans Gryffen and determines he is human. When Darius leaves, Nehetka says a slight attitude adjustment and he'd make a fine court jester. He tells Geb to see to it. Geb follows Darius into the garage.  Geb moves towards Darius with his arm outstretched. Mariah opens a car door hitting Geb and knocking him out.  Darius removes the ankh from the front of Geb's breastplate. June arrives. She tells Gryffen she is looking for Jorjie and is shocked when she sees Gryffen and Jorjie in Anubian dress. A struggle ensues. Nehetka takes action against the Department and begins the world's liberation. Hypnotic headbands materialise on all Department officers. Drake initiates code red but falls victim to the Anubians as well. K9 witnesses the Nehetka hypnotise June. He recognises the headbands as the ones used by the Huduct to control the Anubians. Nehetka reveals they made the Huduct their slaves instead of reconciling. K9 decides to take action, but is attacked by Nehetka, who deactivates him. Suddenly the Anubian ship uncloaks and Darius contacts Nehetka, revealing he has taken control of their ship with the ankh. Darius threatens to crash the Anubian ship into the mansion. K9 reactivates and knocks out Nehetka with his photon beam. The Anubians are taken away by CCPCs. Darius teleports back and K9 apologises to the team. Gryffen decides K9 will do the redecorating. When Starkey asks where the Anubians' ship is, Darius tells him he parked it somewhere but cheerfully states, "It's invisible", as he walks off with Gryffen and laughs. Starkey and Jorjie chuckle at him. 
<EOS>
At the Gryffen house, the STM suddenly activates and starts pulling everything in the room towards the vortex. Gryffen and Starkey express their disbelief the STM could have turned on by itself. K9 registers the power source as unknown. He fires on the STM, locking off the plasma thrusters and shutting it down. After K9's long and detailed explanation of how he did it, Darius and Jorjie walk in, wondering what happened. Gryffen suspects someone has touched the STM, but Darius and Jorjie say they haven't, as does Starkey, who has a strange itch on his arm. Gryffen determines someone or something has breached the vortex. He sends K9 to search the house. Darius gets his payment from Starkey for a pair of resistors which don't work. Starkey witnesses a weird distortion and loop, when Jorjie complains about Darius. K9 returns to Gryffen and tells him he has found no presence. That night, K9 wakes next to Starkey and tries to warn him of something, but time suddenly reverses and K9 goes back to sleep. Starkey feels the same strange itch as before. That morning, Gryffen is cooking breakfast when Starkey walks in. Gryffen is startled and drops an egg. Time loops and his dropping the egg repeats. Starkey keeps feeling the same strange itch and starts sneezing. Gryffen wonders if he's allergic to something. Gryffen decides to check and takes a blood sample from Starkey. Gryffen finds a strange mark on Starkey's arm. Starkey tells him it has suddenly become itchy, which it never had before. Darius returns back from shopping, confusing Gryffen as he thought Darius went shopping the day before. Darius tells Starkey to pay for the resistors and Starkey tells him he paid him yesterday. Darius refuses to believe it and demands he pay up, starting an argument. Starkey calls Jorjie, thinking she'll back him up, but she says Darius gave him the resistors yesterday and he didn't pay him. Even though K9 didn't witness it, he scans Starkey and determines he isn't lying. Starkey gives up and pays Darius. As K9 records it, a "temporal error" occurs, reversing time. Starkey talks to K9 in his bedroom. He wonders if Jorjie lied or if he really didn't give Darius the money. K9 detects a temporal loss; he lost seven seconds. Starkey researches schizophrenia and tells K9 he heard voices and saw faces as a child. He hopes they are memories. K9 tells Starkey to relax when he thinks he's going mad. K9 has had similar moments. Darius asks Gryffen if he's found out what happened to the STM, wondering if it has been sabotaged. Both Gryffen and Darius say it wasn't them. Gryffen asks Darius who else was here. His question is answered when Starkey walks in. Gryffen tells Starkey his blood results are ready and goes to have a look. Gryffen is shocked at the readings. Starkey's body is producing strange antibodies. K9 scans them and confirms they are alien. Darius assumes he's an alien but Gryffen says Starkey's immune system is capable of defending against alien pathogens. Darius insists Starkey's an alien but K9 confirms he's human. Gryffen states that alien immunology is beyond known science and only two people have experimented with it, a couple who tested the antibodies on themselves and their son.  This leads Starkey and Gryffen to believe that the child is Starkey. In his bedroom, Starkey researches and analyses his alien antibodies, experiencing the itch again. A strange creature slithers through the cellar and the STM activates. Starkey asks K9's help but he is asleep. Starkey tries to stop the STM, using the same method K9 did. He succeeds, but Gryffen walks in, demanding to know what Starkey is doing. He finds someone has tried to access time, but when Starkey says it is the same as the incident yesterday, Gryffen and K9 tell him it never happened. Gryffen thinks Starkey switched it on. Starkey leaves to get his stuff and K9 offers to join him. They notice that everyone has lost memories. K9 checks his memory of searching the house after the first breach and learns temporal loss corrupted the file of the cellar. They go down and discover strange tracks. Gryffen and Darius discuss Starkey tampering with the STM. Gryffen believe that Starkey is trying to find his parents. As Starkey and K9 search, they hear slithering. A time distortion occurs and K9 shuts down. Jorjie goes to Gryffen and Darius, looking for Starkey. They tell her what Starkey was doing with the STM, but Jorjie wonders if the STM is what's causing time-shifts across London. When Gryffen says the STM is localised, Jorjie determines Starkey isn't tampering and turns on the news. The newsreader apologises that the King's birthday message was both not shown and shown twice. He interviews Brook Thomas, a spokesperson for a train company, about the news that all the trains are arriving on time. She says that the trains are 100% on time even if they are several hours late and that some trains are arriving even before they leave. The newsreader introduces the interview again and the spokesperson repeats her statement. Back in the cellar, K9 reactivates and determines he has lost three seconds. Starkey finds some reptilian skin. Starkey shows Gryffen, who apologises for doubting him. The team realise the snake skin was shed. The snake is growing and is getting hungrier. Gryffen's analysis identifies it as an Oroborus, a time-consuming snake. Starkey decides to go alone to the cellar and stop it since he has alien antibodies. They plan to lure the Oroborus beneath the STM, then Gryffen will activate it. If the vaccine isn't effective, Starkey will be consumed. Starkey goes to the cellar and faces the Oroborus, then slowly backs away. The Oroborous gets right beneath the STM room, but Starkey is trapped in a dead end and the Oroborus blocks the door. Gryffen activates the STM and sends the Oroborus away, while K9 finds Starkey. They return to the others, who are relieved to have them back. Later that night, when Starkey is in bed, Gryffen visits and apologises for doubting him. He gives Starkey a picture he found of two scientists he believes are his parents and bids him good-night as Starkey looks at the photo. 
<EOS>
As they make their way to the River Thames, Starkey explains fishing to K9. Two CCPCs ask them what they are doing and K9 explains fishing to them. Starkey and K9 arrive to find dead fish. K9 warns him not touch them, as he has detected an unknown alien substance. Starkey picks one up with his fishing net so he can bring it back to the Manor to analyse and accidentally bumps K9 with the fish. This causes a corrosive spot to start on K9. At Gryffen Manor, Jorjie sings along to music and accidentally elbows Darius, who is carrying a pile of books. Gryffen asks him if he was going to sell the books. Darius denies it, but Gryffen tells him to take them back to the library. Jorjie starts singing again and Gryffen has to raise his voice to get her attention to tell her to keep it down. As Darius goes to the library, he sees two aliens appear and vanish. At Gryffen house, Starkey takes readings of the toxin in the dead fish. It is extraterrestrial. Starkey finds a match: the toxin is chenium, a corrosive byproduct of the manufacture of Qualon 37, used in the making of inter-dimensional starships. K9 estimates that if it builds up in the food chain, 85% of life in the Thames Valley will die. In June's office, Drake orders a CCPC to be more persuasive. June tells him she sent her squad to investigate possible alien activity, but they were turned back by Drake's unit. Drake is contacted by the CCPC, who tells him the aliens won't stop talking. Drake tells June he won't "upset" her squad again. He has business to attend to. She leaves. K9 and the team find where the toxin is entering the river. Starkey sees the aliens. They knock him to the ground and disappear. Back at Gryffen's house, K9 looks up the aliens in his file. They are the Medes, a species who can project their images as avatars if they cannot physically be present. The team decide to go to the pollution's source. K9 goes through the drains as Darius and Jorjie track him through the streets and Gryffen and Starkey monitor them. K9's transmission starts to break up. In Drake's office, June finds the missing schematics for a Fallen Angel on his computer. When Drake arrives, she asks him about his interest in the ship. Before he leaves, she warns that he better not be in possession of the ship. June goes to Gryffen's house, where she shows him a blueprint of the Mede starship and the molecular refractor on the top, telling him Drake, not the Department, is exploiting it. The molecular refractor allows the ship to dematerialise and with this he could spy anywhere and not be seen. The gang spots a factory. Gryffen and June analyse an image of the Mede avatar which cannot be seen in infrared. Starkey insists that Gryffen tell June the situation. Gryffen informs her that Darius, Jorjie and K9 are looking for the source of the pollution in North West 12. June contacts Jorjie and warns her to get out, but she and Darius are caught by CCPCs. Darius and Jorjie are tied up in the factory, where Drake's men are experimenting with the refractor. K9 sees the Medes' avatars, who tell him to come with them. He replies in their language. They take him to the factory, the source of the pollution, where he sees the workers casting chenium. He finds Darius and Jorjie and frees them. Darius and Jorjie are recaptured. June arrives, takes control of the CCPCs, and the CCPCs take the workers away. K9 asks Starkey to help him deliver the molecular refractor to the Medes and tells June that Drake had the Medes locked up. K9, Starkey and June gives the Medes the refractor, apologise for what Drake did to them and let them go. The Medes clean up the pollution and repair the damage to K9 before they leave in their ship. After noting the "awesome" day they had, Starkey asks K9 if he wants to go fishing. K9 cheerfully refuses. 
<EOS>
In Gryffen's house, Darius plays his guitar loudly. Its sound dampens. In Jorjie's bedroom, she listens to some music on her stereo as it encounters interference and turns into a loud screeching sound. June tells her to turn it off. K9, Starkey, Darius and Gryffen watch the news. A storm rages across the United Kingdom and the North Sea, disrupting communications. They barricade the windows. Gryffen has K9 analyse the sound waves. Gryffen tells Starkey he thinks the hurricane is being caused by singing. As Jorjie tries to contact the others, the ceiling falls, trapping her. Darius refuses to believe that the storm is being caused by music, but Gryffen insists that music and weather are similar. K9 consults his database and finds the Aeolians, masters of amplification, wiped out over a thousand years ago in the Centaurian Catastrophe. Gryffen pinpoints the source of the sound at the Holy Cross Cathedral. At Department HQ, Drake notes their scientists are baffled, Thames Valley has turned into "Cyclone Valley" and the tornado has destroyed the Royal Albert Hall and Hyde Park. Drake suspects Gryffen, who he says almost single-handedly caused the Great Cataclysm. He decides to arrest Gryffen for being a "mad scientist". Jorjie, still trapped in her bedroom, desperately tries to reach her dog whistle. K9 warns that Earth is the perfect planet for the Aeolian's amplification abilities. Gryffen loads a schematic of the Cathedral for him to analyse. It is the perfect resonating chamber. Gryffen suggests an Aeolian survived. Jorjie reaches her dog whistle and contacts Darius, who is searching through the sewers with Starkey and K9. Starkey and Darius argue over who should go help Jorjie until K9 asks Starkey to head on with him. Darius leaves. Darius reaches her bedroom, tries to lift up the debris but can't and calls for help. Jorjie is frightened. Darius holds her hand. June arrives at Gryffen's house and asks Gryffen if the weather is caused by one of his experiments.  He denies it and shows her the sound wave readings. He tells her it's the mating call of a female Aeolian. Darius calls Starkey for help; Starkey can hear Darius but Darius can't hear Starkey. Jorjie falls unconscious. Darius gets the two syringes Gryffen gave him and uses the red syringe. He comforts Jorjie as she reawakens. Gryffen and June are confused as to why the sound waves are so varied, as the mating call should be consistent like a bird's song. The weather briefly returns to normal. Gryffen determines that the Aeolian will feed back on itself and vibrate the planet to dust. Jorjie tells Darius that when the ceiling fell on her, her life flashed before her eyes and she felt she has left many things unsaid. She says there are people she's gotten close to recently, a person she saw at the mansion whom she's fond of. Darius tells her he's had the exact same feeling. When Darius asks who, she replies, "Starkey", shocking Darius. When Jorjie asks the name of Darius' girlfriend he makes one up: "Jorjette", a really lovely French girl. The CCPCs arrive to help. K9 decides they have to go to a tunnel which doesn't concentrate the sound. The CCPCs lift the debris off Jorjie. Starkey and K9 arrive in the cathedral, where the Aeolian plays the organ. She tells K9 that she lost her mate in the Centaurian Catastrophe, which left her alone in the universe. The music continues. This sound will smash the Earth like a hammer smashing an egg. When Starkey asks if there's any way to stop the feedback loop, she replies it can only be stopped if she is answered by her mate and she fears he is dead. At the house, Gryffen detects an incoming signal from the Orpheus constellation: the Aeolian's mate. The female Aeolian has to get the exact sequence right or her husband won't recognise her. Drake and four CCPCs arrive. Drake orders the CCPCs to stun her. K9 tells Drake that the feedback loop hooks up with gravity; the Earth will shatter like a wine glass. Drake refuses to listen to a "robot dog and a juvenile delinquent" and the CCPCs shoot the Aeolian. To contact the Aeolian's mate, Starkey plays the organ with the tune he's been humming. K9 threatens to "liquidate" Drake and his "gangsters" when Drake threatens to shoot again but orders the CCPCs to stand down after K9's threat. The Aeolian's husband arrives. The Aeolian thanks Starkey for the music and leaves with her husband. The weather returns to normal. 
<EOS>
In a museum, K9, Jorjie and Starkey stroll through a virtual reality Sherwood Forest. They find a notice stating, "Here stood the Major Oak, sanctuary to the outlaw Robin Hood and his band of Merry Men." Jorjie tells Starkey she thought she would marry Robin Hood when she was a kid. When Starkey notes that both Robin Hood and the Major Oak are long gone now, a virtual reality simulation of Robin Hood comes out of the trees and contradicts him. He says the Major Oak lives in the museum and welcomes them to Sherwood Forest. K9 says he should be shorter. Robin is shocked at this "sorcery." Jorjie is surprised K9 has met the real Robin Hood. When Starkey asks Robin Hood about his tights, he tells him it was "chilly" in his day. K9 confirms that Britain was three degrees cooler in the Middle Ages; Robin notes that pollution has affected the planet and the oaks and silver birches have been cut down or died out. Robin Hood starts to glitch and loop and K9 detects an alien threat. They turn off the virtual reality forest as the patrons flee. A Department officer says a signal of alien origin is causing magnetic interference in Sector SE14 Delta. They patch into a CCPC's vision and June sees the CCPCs malfunctioning. She orders Inspector Drake to the scene. The curator insists the oak tree hasn't been misplaced. K9 detects an unidentified alien species and decides to investigate. The Major Oak has been stolen. June arrives and stops the CCPCs, who think the curator is a suspect, with a command override. They find a hard, alien substance where the tree used to be. K9 scans it. It could be vomit or snot, but he needs to examine a sample. He blasts off a chunk. Starkey picks it up and they run off. At the mansion, Gryffen listens to news of the theft. K9, Starkey and Jorjie arrive to show him the alien substance, which K9 says is emitting a high-pitched frequency. As June examines where the Major Oak was displayed, Drake arrives with orders from Lomax. The aliens have been classed as an A-level threat, "which means it's time to let the big boys play". June claims this is not his jurisdiction, but Drake picks up a piece of the alien substance. Gryffen tests the substance's magnetic field, confirming it made the CCPCs malfunction. K9 is not affected. Unlike the CCPCs, his electromagnetic shielding is impenetrable. Darius arrives, wondering if the museum is offering a reward, disgusting Jorjie with his selfishness. Gryffen asks Darius if the post office had his invitation for the Annual Bournedecker Awards for Scientific Excellence. When Starkey wonders if he'll leave the house, he says he won't. Gryffen says that he sees it as a tradition that every year he gets an invitation and every year he doesn't show up. Darius suggests the postman lost it. In fact, the postman is trapped underground by the alien substance. Gryffen completes the analysis of the substance, which is actually paper-mache. Whatever they're dealing with is genetically altered. When Starkey wonders why it chose the Major Oak, Gryffen states that many species target one species. Considering what it did to recycled paper, he hates to think what it could do with the Oak. K9 suggests that he return to the scene of the crime and scan for a trail. Jorjie says the museum is probably patrolled by the Department, but Starkey says they know where to find the thieves: in the sewers. K9, Starkey, Jorjie and Darius search the sewers. Gryffen detects interference while monitoring K9, and asks him if he's all right. K9 replies that it was just a spike in the electromagnetic interference. He finds oak leaves on the floor. June contacts Gryffen to tell him the alien substance has stumped the Department scientists. Gryffen says they're "slow-witted" and he has already unravelled the sample's mysteries. Gryffen says that the thieves won't make ransom demands as they aren't looking for trade and already have what they came for. The team finds slime on the sewer walls. Darius, Jorjie and K9 move on. As Starkey takes a closer look, he finds slimy oak leaves, hears a creature growling and decides to move on. Gryffen monitors K9, who seems to be confused. K9 confirms he is experiencing the same electromagnetic interference created by the substance from the museum and stares into space. K9 tells Darius the interference is getting worse. Darius looks around and finds no sign of Starkey. As Starkey searches, his light flickers and he calls out for his friends. The creature's growls grow louder as the light dims. When it turns off, the alien creeps behind Starkey. Darius and Jorjie hear something fall. The creature drags Starkey to its lair. Jorjie asks if K9 is sure he knows where he's going. He tells her that he does. Gryffen's videolink with K9 starts to break up, but K9 tells him everything is all right on his end. Gryffen knows something is affecting K9's circuits. He compares the high-pitched frequency of the alien substance to a dog whistle. It is sending out a distress signal. He tries to tell K9 but communications are scrambled. Starkey, now trapped in the alien substance, warns the alien what Jorjie will do once she finds out what they've done to the Major Oak. The postman is trapped next to Starkey and hopes that Jorjie is a "super soldier with a couple of bazookas". He gives his name as Patrick. Starkey gets his dog whistle out and calls for K9, but this only gains the attention of the alien creature. The magnetic interference weakens and Gryffen can talk to K9 again. K9 notes that the magnetic interference matches the pitch of a dog whistle. Gryffen explains to Darius that K9 was confused as he's been following an alien distress signal. K9 will consider the alien hostile until he can confirm Starkey is safe. As Starkey whistles again, Patrick and he are released and fall to the ground, where they sees alien eggs. Starkey continues to whistle as K9 races to find him. K9, Jorjie and Darius find Starkey, but before K9 can neutralise the creature, Starkey shows him the eggs; the creature is a mother, and its lair is a hatchery. The creature doesn't want to attack or eat anyone. She's just protecting her babies. Gryffen tells K9 not attack the creature, known as a Centuripede. She's here to build a pod for eggs, or as K9 and Darius put it, an "interstellar baby carriage" or "a spaceship made out of wood and centipede spit". She specifically needs oak wood. Centuripedes have bred in oak forests for thousands of years, but since there are no more oak trees this may be the last spawning of the Centuripede on Earth. June contacts Gryffen, who reports the situation to her. She says that both the alien and K9 are "history" if Drake catches them. Drake sets a gas bomb to detonate in four minutes. Darius runs with Patrick, who is carrying Jorjie, who doesn't want to leave the aliens. K9 insists that Starkey leaves, but he wants to help save the aliens. K9 tries to keep the gas out with a photon spread, but he can't guarantee he can give the creature enough time. Starkey decides to "make time". As K9 holds off the vapour, Starkey helps the Centuripede put the eggs in the pod. As the others make their way out, K9's power depletes. As the others climb up the ladder, K9 uses his maximum power. Darius is the last to climb up, rummaging through Patrick's postbag to find Gryffen's invitation. As Jorjie, Darius and Patrick get out of the sewer, they see no sign of Starkey or K9. K9 can't hold his power much longer, but Starkey places the final egg and the pod rises. The mother collapses and appears to be dead. K9's power is exhausted. Starkey goes to the mother, whose body cracks into white light, knocking him down. The mother transforms into a butterfly-like creature. The bomb explodes. Darius says there is no chance they could have survived. They spot the mother and her babies flying up into their pod. Darius and Jorjie believe Starkey and K9 dead, but Starkey, who is with K9 behind the others, says how beautiful it was. Starkey tells them the creatures gave them a lift. Starkey shows Jorjie a "token of appreciation" from the creatures: three acorns stashed in their nest from Robin Hood's time. Darius shows Gryffen his invitation on his monitor and discusses his finder's fee. Patrick protests that Darius can't charge people for their mail, but Darius snatches the envelope and runs away while Starkey and Jorjie laugh. The Department's propaganda messages reappear in the sky. 
<EOS>
In the sewers, two men in hazmat suits are looking through rubbish. One of them uses a device which sprays microbes on the rubbish. Darius walks in and hides as he takes a look. The microbes consume all the rubbish, which interests Darius. He makes a noise which alerts the men to his presence, but runs away before they can catch him. As one of the men grabs an empty can of cola, the nanoforms eat at his hand while the other man sucks the nanoforms back into the device. At the mansion, Gryffen and Starkey fail an experiment due to a hygiene crisis. Gryffen tells Starkey he has traced the contamination in the chess room. The source is pepperoni pizza. Starkey and K9 look through the chess room as Darius wades through the sewer and snatches the device. At Department HQ, June asks the survivor about the accident. He says he suspects it's alien. A mishap like this hasn't occurred before. June suggests it could have been a malfunction but he says the microbes, as harmless as yeast, have turned into "bloodthirsty flesh-eaters". Darius brings the device to the house and uses it on the rubbish, amazed at its efficiency. The worker shows June the scene of the accident. They find the device gone. She scans the empty hazmat suit and detects a possible alien trace. Drake arrives and asks what June is doing. She asks him the same question as this is only a city sanitation issue. He tells her disappearance of state property is a very serious problem. He is "eternally vigilant". In the chess room, Darius wakes from his nap as the microbes clean his mess. He does not know he is being followed by microbes, but uses the device to recapture them. Jorjie arrives, angry she has been sent to help clean up. K9 and Starkey thank her for her assistance. When they arrive in the chess room, they find it spotless. Darius says he cleaned it and shows Starkey his cleaned clothes. Starkey and Jorjie ask what the thing under the red sheet is and Darius reveals the device. K9 detects an unstable cross species, ordinary yeast cells spliced with something "more sinister". Darius compares it to a vacuum. K9 strongly advises he remove the object from the house, but Darius tells the others this could make him a fortune and dismisses K9 as a "panic artist". K9 scans the room and discovers there is not one living thing left in it, not even an ant, a spider, or a moth. When Starkey asks him where he bought it, Darius smiles. At Department HQ, Drake tells the worker not to talk to anybody, especially June. Meanwhile, Jorjie demands Darius take the device back where he found it, but he says he has a window of opportunity. The device could become a household appliance and he would be rich. K9 complains he isn't listening and whatever is inside the device is an unstoppable life-form that could get out of control. Darius insists, "Finders keepers", and says he is simply a "businessman trying to make some creds". Darius tells K9 he found it in the tunnels of Sector NE12. Gryffen walks in, shocked at the "miracle" of the chess room. K9 asks Gryffen to use his atomic spectrometer to analyse what's been at work here. Gryffen confirms that whatever it is, it's too good to be true. Gryffen has never seen anything like it. On Starkey's shirt, the smaller microbes have been consumed. When Darius thinks of the million creds he could earn, Gryffen warns him that in the wrong hands this could be lethal. Someone has been tampering with the microbe's gene coding. It has been crossed with microbes from another planet, possibly the vicious omnivores from Pluto, the most voracious bacteria in the known universe. These microbes' dormancy gene has been turned off; they are always hungry and could literally eat the world. At Department HQ, June tells Drake she has received an analysis of the microbes in the imploder. She knows his project with the microbes, Black Hunger, closed down because it was too unstable. Drake tells her he's solved it with the imploder, an electromagnetic containment device which stores and transports the Hunger. June's analysis tells her he removed its self-limiting and dormancy characteristics. Drake tells her it's to make it more efficient and he refuses to believe it could get out of control. As K9, Jorjie and Starkey move the imploder through the tunnels, a CCPC spots them. K9 says he's taking them for a walk. When Starkey and Jorjie start barking and growling, the CCPC leaves. At Department HQ, Drake says the planet is constantly threatened from within by dissidents, anti-social undesirables and juveniles. June believes people aren't the problem. The planet is surrounded by alien menaces which need to be defeated. Drake believes they need to use alien technology to deal with the human problem first. He plans to use Black Hunger to take the hijacked fallen angel technology to control society; future generations will thank him. June tells him the reason she has stayed in the Department is to make sure he doesn't succeed. She doesn't want her daughter growing up in his world. Drake is determined to see her leave before he does and she tells him to bring it on. As the team go through the tunnels they spot a CCPC. Jorjie suggests they just drop the imploder, but K9 says they should put it where Darius found it. K9 distracts one CCPC, who chases after him. As Starkey and Jorjie move on, another CCPC comes and chases them, but they hide behind some rubbish. As they continue on, their way is blocked by debris. Starkey decides to use the imploder to do some "spring-cleaning" and remove the debris. The CCPCs report to Drake at Department HQ that intruders have been sighted: two juveniles and a robotic dog in Sector NW12. Drake orders a Department officer to set the imploder to self-destruct. When he asks about the CCPCs and the two juveniles, Drake angrily orders him to proceed. As the team move the imploder, K9 suggests containing the swarm but a CCPC arrives and they move on. With two minutes to go, June arrives. When she asks who gave the order to secure the tunnels, Drake tells her he has found the imploder and needs to make sure it is neutralised. The explosion will sterilise the area and take the people who stole the imploder with it. With one minute left, K9 detects the imploder will detonate. Jorjie and Starkey put it on the floor and run. K9 tells them they have to defuse it. With thirty seconds to go, Starkey presses the buttons hoping it will deactivate. With fifteen seconds left, Jorjie deactivates it by bashing it with a piece of rubbish. June asks the officer the status of the swarm. He tells her it's still at large. She asks where the tunnel leads, and he tells her it leads into the River Thames. At Gryffen's house, Gryffen tells Darius that after the swarm reaches the Thames, the Earth will be devoid of all life in a week. K9, Starkey and Jorjie make their way out of the tunnels as the swarm spreads. They find an exit protected by bars with the Thames on the other side. Starkey tells K9 to blast through but he cannot let the swarm escape. K9 lets the swarm attack him, and then fires a beam, which swallows the swarm. The Department officer reports swarm activity has ceased and they have been completely neutralised. June tells Drake he almost killed everyone. He says calculated risks must be taken to protect society, but June tells that he almost destroyed society and will point this out in her report. Drake has gone too far this time, and June is going to take him down. Later, June reports to Lomax that Operation Black Hunger had been closed down because it was too dangerous, and Drake restarted it without clearance. June confirms the situation has been resolved and they must be thankful for K9's help. Otherwise it would have ended disastrously. Although Drake has been with the Department for many years, this is not Drake's first breach of orders and is his most serious to date. Lomax decides Drake will be moved to other duties. June thanks him for hearing her out and asks if she is taking over from Drake. Lomax tells her Drake will be replaced by Inspector Thorne, who appears on the monitor and tells June he looks forward to working with her. Back at the house, Gryffen congratulates K9 on his "stroke of genius" in reversing his fuel cells to stop the swarm. He explains the imploder is basically an electromagnetic compressor. By overheating his fuel cells and reversing the polarity, he did the same. K9 has the entire swarm in his stomach, sucking them all up like "slurping a milkshake", as Jorjie puts it. Gryffen expects Darius to apologise, but Darius thinks that he K9 can go into business together. K9 tells him not to push his luck. Gryffen asks K9 what he's going to do to the swarm. K9 will evacuate his fuel cells the next time he is on Atrios. 
<EOS>
At the mansion, Gryffen works on the space-time manipulator, K9 beats Starkey at chess and Jorjie looks at files from when the mansion was a police station. Jorjie is dressed in 1960s attire and is researching for a history assignment at school. She finds that in 1963 there was a Russian spy ring in the district and the old station was the centre of investigations. Jorjie puts on VR goggles to do further research at the cyberpedia. The STM produces a ball of green energy. It hits Jorjie. She vanishes. K9 tells Starkey the quantum equaliser maintains the balance between space and time. Jorjie has been sent to a different time. Darius finds a newspaper dated 23 November 1963 with a picture of an arrested cat burglar. He spots Jorjie in the background and shows the team. In 1963, a constable finds a confused Jorjie. When Jorjie tries to contact Gryffen, the constable takes away her communicator. A boy called William Pike, who looks exactly like Darius, tells the constable he's her brother. The constable takes them both away. Back in 2050, Starkey decides to go after her and K9 joins him. Darius and Gryffen will stay in 2050 to manage the STM. In 1963, Jorjie figures out William isn't Darius. The constable finds a folder in a car but is interrupted by the arrival of K9 and Starkey. He takes their communicator, but they escape. He finds another man with a communicator, puts him in Jorjie's cell and tells Bill to come with him for interrogation. The man introduces himself to Jorjie as Miles Barrington Smythe. In 2050, Gryffen tells Darius to go through old newspapers looking for Jorjie. Darius spots a story about his grandfather, convicted for treason as one of a Russian spy ring. In 1963, while the constable looks at the communicator, a man who looks like Thorne arrives. The constable and the man, whom the constable knows as agent Barker from MI6, meet Bill in an interrogation room. The constable leaves and Bill and agent Barker square off. In 2050 Gryffen ascertains the past has been changed and Darius shouldn't exist. Darius fades away just before June arrives for Jorjie. Starkey and K9 lurk near the station, trying to work out a rescue for Jorjie. Starkey contacts Gryffen, who tells June what happened. He promises to get them back and explains to Starkey they must save Bill or Darius will not exist. K9 and Starkey rescue Jorjie and Miles and go after Bill. On the way to the interrogation room, K9 creates a distraction by playing an audio clip sounding like a car crash.  Miles tells the constable that there has been a large car crash but the constable recognises him and runs after him clearing the way for K9, Starkey and Jorgie to get to the interrogation room. In the interrogation room, K9, Jorjie and Starkey arrive to save Bill. Barker threatens to have them all arrested. K9 blasts the wall. Barker allows them to continue. As Starkey tries to contact Gryffen, Miles arrives. Starkey tells Bill to escape, but he refuses to disgrace his family and stays to prove his innocence. Barker insists he's guilty and will go to prison. K9 decides to look through the document. It's written in Russian and there is a coded message. Based on a basic mathematical equation, the details of a spy network located in this area are revealed. This message is to a spy, instructing him to use his government employee card to access information. As Bill is not a government employee, it can't be him. K9 detects that an explosive has been triggered and shortly after everyone ducks the document explodes. Gryffen contacts Starkey. He has less then a minute. Bill is released and the team get back to their own time. In 2050, Darius returns to existence and the others come through the STM. Later, K9 ascertains that no significant change to the timeline has occurred. In 1963, Barker meets with Miles (who is a Russian spy) to discuss their close escape. Barker complains that Miles took his time setting the self-destruct and "the mechanical dog" almost revealed his name. Miles hopes the next time he passes material on to Barker, he'll take better care of it. Miles hopes that one day Britain will have a society like communist Russia. They leave the street. 
<EOS>
K9 flies to Department HQ and hides on its roof, curious about its new open day. He contacts Starkey in a queue to the entry with Darius, asking him if they have ever had a careers day. He replies it's a once in a lifetime opportunity. K9 doesn't like this. As he looks over people queuing, Starkey tells him to move back. In Department HQ, June is talking with Thorne. She is intrigued because the Department hasn't recruited like this before. Thorne tells her she keeps saying the Department needs to be open and transparent. The CCPC guard opens the door, letting the visitors in. Thorne arrives to greet the crowd and introduce himself. As they move on, Thorne tells everyone that the Department is a multinational security facility, offering career opportunities in the UK, the Americas, the Pacific Union and other countries. Starkey and Darius stop and ask K9 where to go. He tells them to go back down the corridor the way they came in, the way to Thorne's office. As they make their way they spot a CCPC, the first they've seen inside. K9 suggests they abort the mission. The CCPC moves on as Starkey and Darius get to Thorne's office. Darius stands guard at the door as Starkey investigates the office.  Starkey finds an interesting picture on Thorne's desk. Despite K9's warnings, Starkey moves closer and is sucked into it. A shocked Darius grabs Starkey's communicator. K9 tells Darius to take the picture and bring it back to Gryffen and by all means don't look at it. Darius and K9 arrive at the Gryffen House, and tell Gryffen that Starkey has been sucked into the picture, which K9 identifies as a Library card from Ukko. Gryffen wants to take a look at it but Darius warns him not to. K9 brings him up to date: Starkey used the careers day to get in Department HQ; Darius and Starkey arrived at Thorne's office and discovered the Library card, and when Starkey looked at it he was sucked in. K9 tells Gryffen he thinks it's a set-up by Thorne. When Gryffen asks K9 what the next step is, he tells him to get a mirror. At Department HQ, Thorne enters his office and discovers the Library card missing. He looks at CCTV footage and finds Starkey and Darius. When a CCPC arrives, Thorne demands to know how they escaped. The CCPC tells him their orders were to allow them to find their way to his office. Using a mirror, Gryffen, Darius and K9 look at the Library card to find Starkey trapped on a barren planet, calling out for them. K9 tells Gryffen and Darius the Ukkans are an all-female race of Librarians who mastered -- or "mistressed" -- the art of archiving. They can reduce a whole world to an infinitely compressed hologram, which they file in their archives as a library card. They do it because nobody else will; they preserve endangered planets in holographic form. K9 compares it to squashing the data when you zip a file on a computer. This particular card is of the barren planet Urlic. K9 tells Darius they would have to speak to a Librarian to get Starkey out. Gryffen asks him how. K9 doesn't know. At Department HQ, June asks Thorne about the Ukkan Library card. He tells her he's exploring its properties for use by the Department. June tells him it's extremely dangerous and spots the base of the card on Thorne's desk. Back at the house, K9 confirms Darius' observation that the light on the card is blinking faster. Darius answers the door and sees an alien on the doorstep. K9 says she is the Ukkan librarian they're looking for. She introduces herself as Yssaringintinka. She goes to take a look at the card, causing Darius and Gryffen to avert their eyes. She assures them she has become immune to the effect of the card over millennia. Gryffen tells her Starkey is trapped on Urlic. She is more concerned about Urlic than Starkey, as his presence threatens the planet with contamination if he leaves anything behind. Gryffen asks if she can get him out. She asks him where the plinth is. He tells her that the card is all that they have. She says she can extract Starkey with a retriever, but only if the card is on the plinth. K9 tells her it's at Department HQ. She tells them to go get it, but Gryffen warns her the Department doesn't like people dropping in. The Librarian gives everyone purple glasses to allow them to look at the card without being sucked in and so that they can talk to Starkey. They contact Starkey, and he says that he is thirsty because it's hot on the planet.  They warn him to not leave anything behind. Yssaringintinka states that the card's fail-safe will close the portal in two hours. June goes to Thorne's office with a warning that Lomax wants to know why Thorne has been interfering with alien technology. As prison numbers are rising, he wants to use Ukkan technology to dump them on other planets. June warns him that LOMAXX wants the card back in twelve hours or Thorne will be forced to resign. Back at the house, Jorjie has arrived. K9 tells the team they have to do a deal with Thorne. They will offer him the card if he gives them the plinth to get Starkey out. Gryffen refuses, saying he hates liars like Thorne. He's a scientist and science is the pursuit of truth. K9 tells him that to a machine like himself, truth is just software. Yssaringintinka asks why he is careful with truth when his house is so messy? "Tidiness comes before truth". Gryffen is contacted by Thorne, who tells him he has something of his, he wants it back and if he goes to take it by force, people will get hurt. K9 interrupts. Thorne has stumbled across technology he wants to exploit but doesn't know how, so he set a trap. He can do nothing with the technology unless he has more information. He tells him about the Ukkan goggles and offers him the Librarian as a consultant. As K9, Jorjie and Darius go through the tunnels, Jorjie is angry because Darius didn't tell her earlier about Starkey's plan to infiltrate Department HQ. Darius confirms he didn't want her to join in. Jorjie wants a look at the card to make sure he's all right. K9 tells her she can't. Yssaringintinka has the goggles disabled. Later, they meet with Thorne. Jorjie gives Thorne a pair of protective goggles. The reason Yssaringintinka disabled the goggles is revealed as Darius opens the box containing the card, double-crossing Thorne and sucking him into the card. Thorne has double-crossed them as well. His box contains a brick rather than the plinth. At the house, Gryffen sees Yssaringintinka making his cabinet neater. He tries to make it messy as she puts it back. On Urlic, Thorne is trapped with Starkey. Thorne tells him his plan to turn the planet into a prison colony and the first inmate will be Starkey. Starkey tells Thorne he's the second. Thorne is contacted by June. He demands she gets him out of there. June replies that Thorne is not in any place to make demands. June goes to Thorne's office in Department HQ and grabs the plinth. On Urlic, as Starkey drinks from his water bottle, Thorne tells him he's thirsty as well. Starkey doesn't care. Thorne tells him he should be grateful. If it weren't for him and the Department he'd have nothing to rebel against. Starkey remarks that Thorne's shirt is "skanky" and he looks like he's "selling funeral insurance". June arrives at the house and gives Yssaringintinka the plinth, with only three minutes until the link is closed. She tells K9 the position Starkey and Thorne are standing is crucial for the extraction. As Starkey and Thorne fight over the water, Yssaringintinka tells them where to stand and the others tell them to stop fighting. Thorne is persistent but Gryffen warns him to do what Yssaringintinka says. She says that the extractor doesn't work well with two entities, so they must put their arms around each other. Starkey grabs Thorne and they return to the house. When Thorne threatens to have everyone arrested, Yssaringintinka threatens to erase him if he harms anyone. He deserves erasure for his overdue Library card alone. She tells them that humans don't deserve to live on Earth as they have made such a mess of it. Starkey thanks her for retrieving him. She tells him it was her pleasure although the same can't be said for Thorne. She asks Gryffen to show her out. On the doorstep she asks him to come back to Ukko with her as they are short of men. He is tempted but passes. He thanks her and she teleports home. At night, as Starkey and K9 go to bed, Starkey asks if he missed him. K9 tells him that as a cybernetic robot he does not experience emotion, much. Starkey asks K9 to turn his night light off. As K9 falls asleep Starkey tells him he missed him. 
<EOS>
A crowd of people including Jorjie and a friend watch a broadcast. The CCPCs show their new, greater powers for health and safety. They may now enter homes without permission, search without warrant and make the world safe for anyone who isn't guilty. Jorjie's friend asks about freedom. As the CCPC broadcast repeats, Starkey, with K9 behind the crowd, uses a device to interfere with it, mimicking the CCPC. Two CCPCs on patrol move towards the crowd.  After the CCPCs leave, Jorjie introduces Starkey to her fellow agitator for freedom, Marcus. Starkey tells him he might know him as "Stark Reality"; Marcus says he only knows what "JJ" has told him. Marcus, Jorjie, Starkey and K9 move on but are soon met by a CCPC with a damaged face and a different voice. As the damaged CCPC admires the birds, four more arrive. The gang run away but run into more CCPCs.  Jorjie asks Starkey where to hide from the surveillance but he says that they are in a part of the city that he is unfamiliar with. The damaged CCPC tells them to follow him but Starkey thinks that it is a trap.  K9 confirms that there the damaged CCPC is leading them to a surveillance-free area. They hide behind bins until the CCPCs leave. K9 scans their CCPC's neural functions and finds his connection to Department Central Control has been turned off. He also finds traces of human DNA in his system. As the damaged CCPC looks through the bushes, Marcus says he's a type of "mutant". K9 believes the CCPCs are pursuing him, not the team. Starkey wants to get rid of him. Jorjie asks the CCPC what will they do with him. He says he will be liquidated. Jorjie compares him to a lost puppy. K9 insists that cybernetic units aren't part of the animal kingdom. K9 says that he is not a dog and the CCPC is not a puppy. Jorjie decides to take him to the Gryffen House. When Starkey asks how they are to get him there, Jorjie suggests Mariah and contacts Darius. They go to Mariah and Jorjie introduces Darius to Marcus. At the Gryffen House, Gryffen takes a look at the CCPC's neural circuitry and finds implanted human DNA. K9 wonders why they would ruin a perfectly good cyborg. Gryffen tells him some wouldn't consider it 'ruining' as the human element adds other dimensions: emotions, instinct, and intuition. Jorjie says they have to help him, but Gryffen says he's certainly not human and he's no longer strictly a robot. Because he loves birds, Jorjie decides to call him Birdie. Starkey warns that interfering with a CCPC unit is a maximum crime and even having him here could land everyone in detention facilities. Gryffen tells everyone to rest. They will make their decision in the morning. That night in Starkey's bedroom, K9 says humanity is "a mass of uncontrolled motivations and other brain aberrations", and "the so-called modern human skull houses a Stone Age mind". Human intelligence is not perfect, yet humans act as if it is the highest level of evolution and the worst thing that could happen to Birdie is to be turned back into a cyborg. Starkey tells him there's nothing wrong with being a cyborg if that's what you are, but Birdie isn't one or the other and doesn't fit in anywhere, even though he's dangerous to have around. Starkey can't help feeling sorry for him. Darius is going to brush his teeth when he spots Birdie behind him. He asks to borrow a toothbrush, but Darius tells him he doesn't have any teeth. Birdie asks to borrow teeth. Darius tells him to take being human one step at a time, even if he's excited; start by going to sleep. In the morning, Gryffen finds Birdie has taught himself to make toast. K9 tells him "electrocuting bread is not rocket science". Gryffen says his human initiative to learn is developing. June arrives. Starkey hides Birdie. June accuses them of interfering with the CCPC. Starkey tells her they didn't do anything and Gryffen says he was like that when they found him. There's only one place a Department cyborg's neural circuitry could be experimented on in this way: the Department laboratories. June insists she would have known. All experiments on Cyborgs are strictly regulated. Starkey suggests Thorne might be behind it. June confronts Thorne but he says it's an interesting story but doesn't confirm or deny it. June is suspicious. She asks why he has CCPCs scouring London for the rogue cyborg. He tells her the public could be in danger and it's his duty to find it. She warns him that if he has been experimenting with the CCPC, the people will know he is responsible. When she leaves, Thorne orders all CCPC units to override all existing command protocols and gives them a new priority: locate Birdie. Marcus arrives at Gryffen's house to learn how Birdie is and say how he enjoyed yesterday with Jorjie. Gryffen alerts everyone that the CCPCs are hunting Birdie, and agrees he can't hide there. Jorjie, Marcus and Darius say that they can't just kick Birdie out of the Manor and Gryffen agrees. K9 suggests that as Birdie's problems result from mixing human and cybernetic, they convert him to one or the other. If Gryffen says full conversion to human is impossible, they should make him fully cyborg. Gryffen says that they'll need a new control cortex and he has nothing like that. K9 suggests getting one from the Department laboratory; Birdie's identity chip will gain him entrance. Birdie confirms he knows the layout of the Department laboratory and can guide K9. Starkey says it's too great a risk and asks if it's worth it. K9 says Birdie isn't one thing or the other and doesn't fit in anywhere and even though he's dangerous to have around, he can't help "feeling sorry for him" as Starkey points out, although he does not feel. Gryffen prepares to remove Birdie's identity chip and attach it to K9. Later, K9 makes his way to Department HQ and through the rooms. Gryffen notes all the CCPCs in London hunting for Birdie works in their favour, as the building is deserted. Birdie guiding him, K9 finds himself at CCPC storage, where he sees several CCPCs. Starkey thinks its a trap but the CCPCs aren't moving. K9 scans them and finds they are decommissioned, scheduled to be liquidated. Gryffen determines they are failed experiments. K9 finds a control cortex and takes it. Thorne is contacted by a CCPC who says a CCPC's identity unit has been activated and is exiting Department HQ. Back at the house, K9 confirms he has destroyed the identity chip and the Department can't track them. Gryffen detaches Birdie's head but is interrupted by Thorne and his CCPCs, demanding entrance. Gryffen tells Darius and K9 to hide Birdie, who reattaches his head. A CCPC shows Thorne the equipment Gryffen used on Birdie. Thorne orders the CCPCs to arrest them and they put them in cuffs. Thorne orders them to find Birdie. Darius, K9 and Birdie hide in the garage, where Birdie suggests he turn himself in. K9 notes his human element is developing as he shows the human compulsion to sacrifice himself for others. Darius decides to get Birdie out of the city. K9 says he has a plan and tells Darius to push the the car into the lane. Thorne intercepts Birdie's signal and orders all CCPCs to the garage. They arrive, only to find K9 with Birdie's voice. He tells them it's a diversion, Thorne realises they've escaped. Jorjie realises Marcus told Thorne Birdie was in the house, which was why he wanted Birdie to be kept here. Gryffen realises that's how she knew about Birdie. Jorjie asks him why and Marcus says because of a chance of a reward and a job at the Department. He tells her he plans to fight the system from the inside and it pays well. Jorjie tells him he's only interested in creds. He says he has to live on something and human beings aren't robots. She says he betrayed Birdie. He says he was going to split the reward money with her. She says she doesn't want it. Thorne and his CCPCs arrive. He assures them Birdie, K9 and Darius won't get far. Gryffen tells him to remove the cuffs and asks what the charge is. Starkey says there's no evidence of Birdie. Thorne shows Gryffen the stolen cortex. Gryffen thanks him for the loaner. Thorne says K9 broke into Department HQ and stole property. Gryffen corrects him: he borrowed it and he didn't break in, he entered. Thorne says K9 did this using a stolen identity chip. Gryffen again asks him for evidence as Starkey says there's no law against borrowing cortexes. Thorne says he has a witness in Marcus. Jorjie says Marcus was having him on to make a fool of the Department as he always does. Marcus asks for his reward. Marcus tells him that Birdie was here. Thorne is outraged at this new name, while the others claim he made it up. Thorne demands Marcus tell him where he is. Marcus tells him he doesn't know. As Thorne leaves, Marcus asks Jorjie to tell him. Jorjie refuses and tells him to stop calling her "JJ". Later, Jorjie is embarrassed she could be so wrong about someone. Gryffen tells them that human relationships, as beautiful as they are, can be difficult and he sometimes envies K9 as he doesn't have to deal with them. They are contacted by Darius. He shows them Birdie, who bids them goodbye. K9 asks how his human element feels. Birdie says it feels scary because he has to make decisions for himself but also beautiful for the same reason. K9 promises to Birdie he will be kept in his memory banks. Jorjie apologises to Darius for earlier; he doesn't have to be a protester to make a difference. The team all say goodbye, Birdie says goodbye to Darius as he leaves "free as a bird". Darius records him admiring the beauty of nature, especially the birds. 
<EOS>
At Gryffen House, Jorjie opens up her new VR game, Little Green Men, with its distinctive headphones. In the Department Mobile HQ, June listens to news of panic spreading around the country. The emergency services are swamped. The city is in chaos and huge queues are building up, making it impossible for emergency vehicles to reach the hospitals. June phones Gryffen, asking for the location of Jorjie and the boys. Gryffen tells June that Jorjie is doing her homework but goes to look for her when June asks him to. Gryffen walks in on Jorjie playing and says her mother wants her. She doesn't respond. He calls June and tells her to come by immediately. Gryffen tries to take the headset off, but thorns spring out and cut him. Gryffen then goes looking for Darius and finds him in Mariah with the same headset as Jorjie.  He tries to remove Darius' headset and thorns also spring out and cut him. Gryffen carries Darius in to the chess room and meets June there. K9 arrives with Starkey, who is fine. K9 scans Jorjie and Darius. They have strong vital signs and no tissue damage. Gryffen asks Starkey about the game. It's a networked virtual reality game and all the kids are mad about it. Gryffen warns what is happening to Jorjie and Darius could be happening to all the children playing it. K9 detects that out of the twenty-one million calls to the emergency services in the last thirty minutes, twenty million feature the keywords 'son', 'daughter', 'Little Green Men' and 'VR Game'. Twenty million children have been infected. K9 detects that the signal to the headsets weakens and June pulls the headsets off. Darius and Jorjie act as if their minds have been wiped clean. A signal is being transmitted by the game, disrupting their neural processes. K9's database of twenty-two million systems of transmission from nine thousand worlds across ten thousand centuries doesn't include this one, so, he reasons, it must not exist. If it existed, the transmission would be of such power and sophistication its creator could not be unknown to him. June finds the game is made by Greenroom Entertainment. K9, Starkey and June go to investigate. At Greenroom headquarters, they are told Senior Vice-President John is unavailable. June says she is from the Department and the doors open. Starkey recognises a tape of John as a Custodian. June warns he has thirty seconds until K9 levels the building. K9 announces his Doomsday weapon is online, and Armageddon mode is activated. John gives in and they go to the lift. June asks Starkey about the Custodians. They run juvenile detention centres and he was strapped to their VR education system. John tells them Greenroom Entertainment is aware of the situation and is working to resolve the problem; normal programming will resume shortly. K9 detects an alien and goes to investigate. Starkey follows him. At Gryffen House, Jorjie's arm is turning green and lumpy. Gryffen contacts June, who tells John they have to go to level three and shut the signal broadcast down. Thorne arrives. Little Green Men is John's creation. K9 and Starkey spot an alien in a chair. K9 cannot identify it from his memory banks; logically it shouldn't exist. Starkey asks if it's extinct. K9 says that the thought hadn't occurred to him. K9 has Gryffen examine one of the headsets for glitches. K9 tells Starkey he thinks he knows how the signal is delivered. The alien is an Etydion, the most powerful telepathic race ever. K9 didn't scan for a neural signal; it was not known there was a living Etydion in the universe. K9 explains the Etydions willingly sold themselves and were once the most valuable commodity in the universe. With an Etydion in an armada, it could broadcast a wave of fear so intense the opposing army would drop their weapons and flee. The vanquished and conquered banded together to vaporise the Etydion homeworld. The Etydion has to be tied up. Etydions are receivers as well as transmitters; if they transmit nothing, they have to be completely cut off from their senses. Gryffen contacts K9. He has found a low level emitter in the middle digit of the claw attached to unidentified alien DNA. K9 tells him it is Etydion DNA to amplify the telepathic signal. Starkey receives a signal in his brain from the Etydion. The light goes on and Starkey and K9 hide. Thorne shows June the Etydion on the screen. June warns Thorne that anyone found abducting aliens, sheltering or harvesting secrets about technology from an extra-terrestrial can be tried and convicted secretly by the Department. John tells her he wasn't abducted. He offered himself to them. He was given the home he wanted. In gratitude, the Etydion gave Greenroom Entertainment a means to reach an audience they never dreamt possible. The target audience is children, the future. The VR games are clearly the first step in reaching them: a networked virtual reality broadcast, coupled with a mild telepathic signal to draw and hold the audience. This will produce the kind of children every educator and every parent wants: good children. Thorne tells June good and quiet children make good and quiet citizens. John signals the Etydion. Thorne tells June it's what they have been working for, a population that will be happy, content and untroubled. June protests that the children won't be able to think. Thorne calls it an "overrated pastime". Despite K9's warnings, Starkey decides to show himself and is followed by K9. K9 tells the Etydion to release Starkey after Starkey is hypnotised. June is contacted by Gryffen, who tells her he's losing Jorjie and Darius. He says that this is far bigger than an invasion. They are being changed on a cellular level. Despite Gryffen's warning, she insists he shows her, breaking her heart. She shows Thorne what his broadcast is doing. Thorne gives in and tells John to shut the transmission down. When John doesn't comply, Thorne orders him. John asks him for the magic word and Thorne threatens him with violence. He tells Thorne and June he wants fifty million credits to end the transmission. He tells them to remember he is the only one who knows how the transmission works. Thorne refuses to give in since the Department will be bankrupt if he authorises the transfer. June explains the Department will not be needed if there is no human population to protect. She begs him to save Jorjie. As Gryffen returns to the chess room he finds the mutation has progressed. The children's skins have become greener and they are growing spines. Thorne gives in and announces the credits will be transferred once the transmission ends. When John delays, Thorne and June demand he ends the transmission immediately. He tells them he's trying to but something is wrong and the creature won't respond. K9 detects a massive neurological surge. Starkey, under the Etydion's hypnosis, pulls the wires connecting it. Now John has no control. John doesn't understand what's happening, but June does. He has been outsmarted; the Etydion was tricking him. Neither John or Thorne were in control. As June goes to the presentation room, Thorne tells John he'll see his containment sectors from the inside. K9 tells the Etydion to free Starkey, who is no threat. K9 is a threat if Starkey is harmed. The Etydion releases him as June and Thorne arrive. K9 tells them the Etydion is irreplaceable as it is the last of its species. June tells Thorne he has to destroy it. K9 tells them the Etydion plans to make Earth its new home and populate it with its own kind. He is using the DNA in the headsets to amplify the signal. Thorne prepares to take action but the Etydion uses its mental powers and knocks him out. June tries to kill it, but is affected as well. K9 tells him his determination is threatening lives and he has no choice but to stop him. Starkey shoots K9 and disables him. June gets back up and K9 warns her not to use the weapon. He won't be able to protect her. She shows Jorjie to the Etydion and begs him not to take her away from her. Gryffen contacts June, telling her the alien DNA has stopped spreading. K9 explains the Etydion is a receiver and transmitter of emotions and is receiving very strongly. Darius and Jorjie return to normal as the Etydion dies. Gryffen contacts June and shows her Jorjie, restored to normal. 
<EOS>
In a Department prison, a girl looks confusedly at her virtual reality surroundings. Gryffen appears. He asks her if she knows her name and where she is. She doesn't know. Gryffen tells her her name is Taphony. She is in a virtual reality prison and her memory has been blocked. In thirty seconds he will disrupt the prison's security circuits and she will be able to escape. When the security system is breached, Taphony removes her VR goggles, the door opens for her and she leaves. Two CCPCs tell her to halt and return to her cell. When they grab her, she turns them into dust. At the mansion, Gryffen and K9 are working on the STM. Gryffen says it's taking too long and she should be away by now. K9 warns him he has no control as she is an unstable time entity. Gryffen says that's no reason to lock her up. He's releasing her into time to allow her to find where she belongs. K9 insists it's a bad idea, but Gryffen doesn't listen. At the Department Mobile HQ, Thorne orders the perimeter sealed to ensure no-one enters or leaves the prison. June says it's an internal security matter. Thorne maintains it was clearly engineered from outside. Thorne tells June the escaped prisoner is a maximum security inmate associated with Project Taphony. Back at the mansion, Gryffen can't keep the portal open much longer. K9 explains that as a Time Blank, she does not obey the normal rules of time. She is present physically, but her essence exists outside normal time. Gryffen is relieved she has gone through the portal, when she appears in the house. Darius walks in with Gryffen's birthday cake, singing, "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow". He spots Taphony and they introduce themselves. He offers her some cake but when she touches it, it disintegrates. Gryffen and K9 come down to meet her as Darius introduces Taphony to Starkey and Jorjie, who have just walked in. Gryffen tells Darius his birthday isn't until tomorrow. K9 scans Taphony, finding a partial memory block and a strange energy force. Gryffen introduces himself to her as Darius shows her to the lab. K9 warns Gryffen that as a Time Blank, Taphony can sustain her existence only by absorbing the life force of another. They need to get her back into the portal as soon as possible but as Gryffen says, he owes her an explanation. Gryffen takes a look at her and finds no psychic damage. All Taphony remembers is that she was in prison. Gryffen explains to everyone she didn't do anything and something was done to her. When the Department began acquiring alien technology, they experimented on a being capable of time travel. Gryffen was brought in because of his experience. The Department called the experiment a failure. To keep it a secret, Taphony was imprisoned. Gryffen couldn't rest until he freed her. Darius suggests showing Taphony around. Gryffen says it's a good idea and the kids leave. K9 reminds Gryffen of his warning they have to get her away. Gryffen says she is a young girl and should have some fun. K9 states the odds that she will cause a major time disruption is 94.78%. Gryffen tells him as he gets older he has to make amends for the past. The Department imprisoned her because they are "inhumane and unscrupulous". K9 says that she was imprisoned because she is very dangerous. As Gryffen and K9 watch Darius and the others show Taphony around, K9 notes Jorjie is considerably paler than usual while Taphony is "blooming". Darius sees no reason Taphony can't stay here. K9 thinks it inadvisable as Taphony does not belong in this time-space continuum. Gryffen says his plan was to set Taphony free and not to have her stay. Taphony doesn't want to leave and says that the Manor feels like home. Gryffen tells her it's too dangerous. She gets angry and grabs him, inflicting great pain and making him collapse. The team help him up and find him rapidly aged. K9 scans Gryffen's DNA ageing rate and finds its degradation has accelerated by a factor of a hundred. Taphony says he helped make her the way she is. He can feel what it's like to be a "freak in time". Jorjie follows her out of the chess room. She tells Taphony everyone is angry at what she has done to Gryffen. He is their friend. Taphony dismisses this, saying Gryffen is in better shape than Jorjie is. She tells Jorjie that she feels lost. Jorjie tries to comfort her but Taphony warns her not to touch her. Jorjie assures her she is there for her. Taphony says that in all her life Jorjie is the only friend she's had. Jorjie says they will talk more later. Meanwhile, Gryffen tells Darius, Starkey and K9 the only thing that can help him is getting rid of Taphony. K9 confirms that as long as she is here, the disruption to Gryffen's timeline will continue. Gryffen agrees K9 was right all along. K9 warns him that if he has a birthday in his present state it will become permanent. Starkey warns that it's dangerous to get Taphony to do things she doesn't want to do. Darius says they don't want to become a "dried up pile". This offends Gryffen. Darius says he was talking about the cake. K9 stops the discussion of the cake and says Taphony must be dealt with. Later in the chess room, Jorjie tries to convince Starkey and Darius she is not dangerous; she just doesn't understand. Darius believes Jorjie's life is being stolen by Taphony and Starkey adds that Taphony wants Jorjie's future. Jorjie suggests she doesn't understand the harm she's causing. Taphony zips into the room. Jorjie calls it cool and tries to get the boys to think so. Darius reminds her of what she has done to Gryffen. Taphony listened to what they were saying. She does want to be friends and she's only teaching Gryffen a lesson. She assures them Jorjie will be fine. They go to the STM room to play frisbee. Taphony slows it down. She distorts time around them until K9 arrives and asks her what she is doing with his friends. She says they are having fun. K9 declares that the fun is over. Starkey assures Taphony she's going to make everything right. K9 warns him that Gryffen has 2.33 hours left and Jorjie has even less. Jorjie feels unwell and Starkey decides K9 is right, but Taphony speeds off. K9 confirms that Taphony's life essence is increasing as Jorjie's diminishes, just as he predicted. Darius compares her to a vampire. Jorjie still insists she wants to be friends. Gryffen says Darius is right and they need to treat Taphony as a threat. June arrives and is met by Taphony. Taphony realises that she is from the people who locked her away. June confirms this and says that she was not the one that imprisoned her. Taphony tells her Jorjie is her friend. June finds Jorjie near death and Gryffen rapidly aged. June tells Gryffen he will explain later why he released her. For now, what do they do? K9 says Taphony must be returned to the portal and transported before she can do more damage; Gryffen only has 1.57 hours left. Taphony arrives. She refuses to just jump into the portal and disappear. She asks if she have friends where they want to send her. K9 tells her it is possible. She asks if they will play catch. K9 says it's unlikely that "pointless plastic entertainments" will exist. She asks if she will have a mother. He says that would be impossible. She says if she stays here she can have all of it. June tells her that absorbing Jorjie won't make her Taphony's mother and Darius tells her it won't make them her friends. Taphony says they are her friends. Darius tells her they won't be any more and Starkey agrees. Taphony speeds off. Gryffen now has only 1.13 hours left. The gang split up to search for Taphony. Each finds her and each rejects her. June, Starkey and K9 are by Jorjie's side. Jorjie tells them if she isn't saved she wants to thank them all for looking out for her. Starkey asks K9 if there is any specific reason why Taphony needs Jorjie. K9 says she is a female of similar age, so she is the most logical but not completely necessary choice. She could have chosen Starkey, June or Darius. Darius suggests that they all offer. June agrees. Taphony arrives and freezes time, shocked they would all offer to sacrifice themselves. K9 confirms it; he is immune to the time freeze and is able to communicate with her when she freezes time. Like her he does not conform to all the rules of this time continuum. Taphony asks K9 if he understands what she is doing. She only wants to stay. K9 understands but does not agree. She says Jorjie is her friend. K9 asks her why she is taking Jorjie's life if she is her friend. People do not hurt their friends. That's what makes them friends. Taphony unfreezes everyone. Starkey and Darius tell her there is no reason she can't take them instead of Jorjie. Taphony says there is a reason; they are her friends. She asks the Professor how long he has. He says ten minutes. In the STM room, Darius asks Taphony if there is any way to keep in touch. Taphony says he won't remember her but she always will remember him. With only two minutes left for Gryffen, Taphony goes into the middle of the room as Gryffen powers up the STM. Jorjie arrives with June, who thanks her. Taphony tells her that's what friends are for. Darius throws the frisbee to Taphony before she leaves. Time is reversed all the way back to Gryffen finding she has gone through the portal, but this time she hasn't arrived at the house. Darius walks in singing, "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow", carrying the cake with Starkey and Jorjie behind him. Gryffen thanks him but tells him his birthday isn't until tomorrow. Gryffen decides they should celebrate anyway. As Gryffen goes downstairs, K9 bids goodbye to Taphony, who has arrived safely in a dimension suited to her. 
<EOS>
Darius is talking with Freddie "the Entertainer" Maxwell about what he calls "Destruct-entertainment", Robot Gladiators for the discerning lover of mayhem. Freddie has the customers paying hand over fist for video uplinks of his robots fighting in the ring. Even if half of his technology is prohibited by the Department, he dismisses rules as "for the little people". Darius agrees, saying he feels the same way. Freddie asks Darius if he still works for Professor Gryffen. Darius corrects him, saying he quit because Gryffen treated him like dirt. Freddie tells him he heard Gryffen is full of himself, but he has to admire his genius as there isn't one robot in the stables that doesn't carry a bit of his legacy. Freddie asks what Darius brought for him. Darius shows him something he took with him when he left Gryffen: K9. Freddie laughs at K9. Darius, annoyed, asks if he is interested. Freddie says he has a deal. In Gryffen House, Darius tells the team about Freddie Maxwell, aka "Freddie the Entertainer", and calls him a two bit hustler. According to Darius' contacts, he is the mastermind behind Crashclub, old robots modified and forced to fight in an arena for the entertainment of rich "toffs". Gryffen congratulates Darius and hopes that at last he can put an end to the man who has made a mockery of his Thought Matrix, a revolutionary robotic brain that allows a robot to think for itself rather than to be programmed. When K9 doubts that the thought matrix is that revolutionary, Gryffen explains that while such sophistication may be common in the future, before Gryffen came along, robots were nothing more than wind-up toys. Robots moved on thanks to him and they would have moved on even further if the Department hadn't confiscated his technology. Jorjie suggests they alert the Department as Freddie is using banned technology. Gryffen has tried already, but according to June, the Department has got "bigger fish to fry". Gryffen says that he worked long and hard on the technology and he did it for humanity, not to facilitate "revolting" entertainment. As he leaves, Starkey decides to do something about it - undercover work. While K9 communicates to Starkey from inside of a crate, Starkey tells K9 to think of his situation as a holiday. Darius says a really cheap holiday to a slave camp. K9 refuses to speak to Darius, calling him a "traitor" who gave him to a crook like he came from a flea market. Starkey tells K9 that Darius has to do this to find out where Freddie keeps the illegal technology and Darius adds selling him for a bargain made Freddie his pal. K9 needs to find evidence on Freddie if June is to take action. K9's crate is opened by two robots modelled on clowns, Chuckles and Boris. K9 says there has been a mistake and he was supposed to be delivered to the gladiator pens. Chuckles tells him that he's in the pens and they, Chuckles and Boris, are the gladiators. Chuckles says that he and Boris used to be clowns, but since Freddie owns them now they are gladiators. A big powerful robot which Chuckles identifies as the Pain-Maker arrives as he and Boris retreat in fear. He says none of them stand a chance against him. The Pain-Maker pounds their fuel containers. Darius notes it's no second-hand rust bucket and Starkey adds that it's built for combat. Jorjie says that K9 would deal with him without raising a sweat. Chuckles and Boris show their new roommate, K9, around the place. The walls are the only interesting feature. An alarm activates. Boris is wanted in the pit. He goes down to see Starkey. Darius claimed he is a robotic genius and Freddie hired him on the spot. K9 thanks him, but says it is completely unnecessary. Starkey tells him Darius is in Freddie's office. The minute he finds out how Freddie is getting this illegal technology, they will leave. Starkey tells him that he might like getting to know his ancestors until then. K9 compares it to Starkey being locked up with chimpanzees. K9 says that he can calculate the age of the universe with 98% accuracy, while they struggle to avoid bumping into furniture. Starkey suggests there must have been a K9 which did the same somewhere long ago and that Boris and Chuckles are his past. K9 says he understands what they mean by the 'dim past'. Darius tells Freddie he doesn't understand how he can swipe tech from the Department and run the place under their nose. Freddie gives Darius lesson 16: "Always be prepared for a swift departure if needed". K9 watches Boris blow up a balloon and let the air out over and over again. He asks Chuckles why he keeps doing it; it's illogical. Chuckles thinks it perfectly logical and says that balloons were his act in the circus and kids loved it. Chuckles wants to go home to the circus. Freddie calls Boris into the ring. Freddie tells an unidentified person in his office that Boris is one of his best and is a real contender and should give his "boy" a challenge. Boris honks his horn as the Pain-Maker is brought into the ring. Freddie says that K9 should be the one fighting and asks the man if he wants to see K9 fight. When his guest is silent, Freddie addresses the viewers of the match. The Pain-Maker strikes at Boris, who evades the attack acrobatically. He cannot hold out, however, and is destroyed by the Pain-Maker. Freddie says it's not the match he anticipated and he still thinks K9 should have fought. He asks the man, who is Thorne, why he purchased him if he doesn't want to see him fight? Thorne assures him K9's turn will come. Starkey examines the wrecked Boris and K9 asks who did it. Chuckles tells him that he fought the Pain-Maker. When K9 tells Starkey he is changing the plan, Starkey tells him to use his head. They want to shut Freddie down for good and K9 can't arrest him. K9 says he could give him a "good zapping". Starkey tells K9 to just keep up the act a little longer and any minute now Darius will find the evidence they need to shut down Freddie. At the house, Darius announces he quits. Starkey says he can't. The plan relies on him. Darius says no amount of sucking up to Freddie is going to give him any time to search his office. Gryffen says there has to be some way of exposing him. He tells Darius to think about what Freddie's weaknesses are. All Darius knows is that he likes peanuts and money. Gryffen decides to threaten his finances enough to get him out of his office. Starkey has an idea but needs another undercover operative, Jorjie. After changing into business attire, Jorjie says that the plan won't work. Starkey tells her to just act and speak like her mother. Gryffen advises her to keep the details vague and remember that if she believes it, she is it. Darius advises that if he does suss her, "Lose the heels and make a run for it". Jorjie arrives in Freddie's office. He tells her to talk to her secretary because he has a fight to organise. She introduces herself as Carolyn Fincher-Jones of His Majesty's Revenue and Customs. He says she's very young to be a tax person, as she calls it. She interprets this compliment as an attempt to influence her. He says he has never given a compliment in his life. He says he's just looking after the office for a friend. She notes his name is on the front door and asks if he is currently engaged in a commercial enterprise. Freddie calls it a hobby. Jorjie asks for the receipts for VAT and threatens to call in more people tax people to investigate. Because of this threat, Freddie goes to get his receipts. Darius comes through the other door and congratulates Jorjie. In the pens, K9 is dressed up since Chuckles insists he look the part. K9 will not risk Chuckles fighting and being destroyed because he must protect his new friend. Jorjie searches for evidence. Darius decides there's only one place a criminal like Freddie would hide something: the one place he'd never think to look himself. Jorjie finds a data chip under his bowl of peanuts. Starkey arrives as Jorjie uploads it to Gryffen. They hide under the table as Freddie and Thorne arrive. Freddie tells him about the tax woman who just arrived and describes her as trouble. As a CCPC closes the door, Thorne asks if he's sure it isn't Jorjie Turner. He asks about Starkey, and says she has a friend called Darius Pike. They come out from under the table. Thorne tells them not only did he know they were here, he knows everything they have been up to for the past two days; he was setting a trap. Did they think Freddie would believe that Jorjie is a tax woman and Starkey is a robotics expert? He confirms he is working with a known criminal using technology banned by the Department. Thorne announces it's showtime and Freddie addresses the viewers. K9 is going up against the Pain-Maker. When Darius and Jorjie assure him that K9 will defeat him, Thorne says he hopes so. He knows K9 can regenerate. This is an extremely valuable technology which could be of great benefit to the Department. To secure it, he will force K9 to regenerate. The Pain-Maker is laced with explosive solarmite. After one photon shot by K9, everything inside the bunker will be destroyed except his regeneration unit. The Pain-Maker flashes Boris' handkerchief, angering K9, who prepares to fire. The gang try to warn K9 but Thorne says he can't hear them. The Pain-Maker attacks K9 but he hovers and evades every assault. K9 refuses to fight him. Starkey notes he is too decent to act the way Thorne would, much to Thorne and Freddie's dismay. Thorne starts the Pain-Maker's self-destruct sequence. It detonates. Thorne orders the CCPCs to recover anything they can find. K9 arrives having escaped the explosion. He explains that although solarmite would damage him, the only explosion capable of destroying him is his self-destruct. Freddie asks when he and Thorne are getting together to build his new arena. Thorne says he was never here. Thorne leaves and Freddie follows him. Darius offers K9 peanuts and he refuses. Back at the house, Gryffen finds no damage to K9 from the explosion. No one understands how Thorne knows about K9's regeneration unit. K9 suggests Thorne has sources of information beyond what they know about him. Darius comes in with a call for K9 from Chuckles and Boris, who has been rebuilt. They are going back to the circus and he thanks them for shutting down Crashclub. At the Department Mobile HQ, Thorne speaks with Lomax. He assures him the Department will have no recorded connection with Crashclub. Freddie will take the whole fall. K9 knows of Thorne's intent to take his regeneration technology, which will make acquiring it harder, but not impossible. They will get it and their plans will succeed. Lomax orders him to use all the powers at his disposal. Thorne assures that he intends to. 
<EOS>
The STM is activated as K9 watches. Gryffen and Starkey walk in. Starkey says the STM is doing something to K9 again. K9 has been recalling scrambled information since this morning and collapses. Later, Gryffen is working on K9. He says siphoning temporal power from the STM is very dangerous. K9 says it's a calculated risk and there is an even bigger connection between him and the STM than they thought. Starkey says there has to be some other way of finding the connection. After Gryffen activates the STM to full power, K9 warns he is entering attack mode. As Gryffen and Starkey duck, K9 fires, causing an explosion. Starkey and Gryffen are unharmed, but K9 is gone. He returns and warns them to stay back. He detects an alien and fires at Gryffen, who evades the shot. Starkey tells him it's Gryffen. K9 says he does not compute and warns him to retreat or he will fire again. K9 remembers when Gryffen worked on K9, imprinted the sound of a ball in his memory and played fetch. K9 identifies him as human and stands down. Starkey and Gryffen are relieved until he refers to himself as a dog rather than a unit. K9 says his archives are scrambled. Gryffen has Starkey get his VR goggles as this is more serious than he thought. Gryffen gets ready to find out what the connection between K9 and the STM is. They start at the beginning, when he first came through the STM, fighting the Jixen warriors and looking "a bit different" and "really like a dog". They see his battle with the Jixen and his self-destruction. Starkey tells K9 he self-destructed and saved him. Gryffen notes he sustained no damage when he came through the portal, then changed. They see Jorjie and Starkey and how he protected them and then regenerated. K9 tries to remember Starkey. He recalls when Starkey spoke his first words to him to convince him he wasn't a Jixen. K9 recognises Starkey as "young master" and asks for walkies. Gryffen tells Starkey it's best to play along until his memory returns. Starkey confirms he is his master but they aren't going for walkies now. They ask K9 who else he remembers. K9 remembers Jorjie and Darius finding him incapacitated by the phosphane gas and Darius seeing the Korven leech Gryffen. He tried to focus but shut down. Darius got angry and took action. The Korven started to drain Darius. Starkey told K9 to fire his photon beam and K9 killed the Korven. K9 starts acting strange. He is remembering when he encountered a hallucination of a Jixen. K9 warns Gryffen to keep back or he will incapacitate him. He is experiencing something like a dream. He remembers the time he fought the Bodach. He tried to destroy the Obelisk but June was too close while putting the second eye in. K9 tried to ram into the Obelisk but it was protected by a shield and he bounced off. Jorjie put on the helmet and went into the Dreamworld to wake June. K9 was then able to destroy the Obelisk. K9 says he is dangerous. He remembers the time the team hid from Ahab in Darius' hideout in the sewers. As Starkey, Darius and Jorjie ate, K9 was "defragging". Jorjie wondered if K9 had assassinated Zanthus Pia. All but Starkey had gone to sleep. Starkey petted K9. He accessed the remains of his memory and encounter with Zanthus Pia. The clip showed K9's HUD stating Zanthus must be destroyed, then glitched and cut to Zanthus' remains. K9 decided he he was a murderer. When K9 remembers this, he arms his cannon. He shoots, turning the STM off. Gryffen tells K9 he almost hit the STM. K9 could have destroyed their only chance of figuring out his connection to it and getting him back to his own time. K9 says doesn't remember his own time as he is only a dog. Starkey says he's K9 and he has to help them help him. K9 remembers his purpose: to protect humans. He recalls when they met with Thorne so he could give them the base of the Ukkan library card. They doubled-crossed Thorne, sucking him into the card. He asks who the "tall human" who he feels like biting is. Starkey tells him that Thorne is a Department Inspector. K9 doesn't remember the Department. He remembers when Jorjie stayed over as a storm raged. When her mother called, Drake asked who she was talking to and she hung up. He remembers June saying K9 is under the control of the Department, her section and not security. She gave Gryffen responsibility for K9 and made K9 and the team the official "K9 Unit". Gryffen tells K9 about June and says that he has great respect for her. K9 says his short-term memory is incomplete. He turns off the STM. The directives from the STM are in conflict with his programming. Starkey asks what that means. K9 says it means his existence is an error and the logical solution is to self-destruct. He starts his one-minute count down, warning Starkey and Gryffen to get out of the room. Gryffen tells K9 to stop and that he, not the STM, controls his own directives, and that he's being illogical. K9 says that to say he is illogical is illogical. Gryffen asks if he remembers the Anubians who made him think he was a god. K9 remembers when Gryffen, Starkey and Jorjie were controlled by the Anubians and Darius arrived and woke him. K9 turned his attention to Darius and explained running memory scans meant he couldn't concentrate on anything else. K9 went back to his memory search as the Anubians grabbed Darius. Geb told Darius his audience with K9 was at an end. When Darius left, Nehetka suggested an attitude adjustment and he'd make a fine court jester. K9 says there is a programme conflict between him and the STM. The logical procedure is to erase memory and reboot, but Starkey refuses to let him. Gryffen gets an idea and asks if he remembers the ball. As he drops it, K9 tries to remember. He recalls when he was disabled in a dustbin and Gryffen tried to wake him up. Gryffen watched a recording of his family and told K9 that if he survived and Starkey and Darius didn't, he would never forgive himself. When K9 didn't respond Gryffen made a sound that K9 was familiar with, dropping a ball over and over. K9 reactivated. His living metal frame required down time to repair and his combat shielding had now done its job. K9 made his way to Dauntless prison. Gryffen tells him he is a machine and not a dog. He throws the ball and K9 goes to fetch it. K9 is surprised they are friends with a machine. Starkey points out that K9 is friends with machines, too. Starkey asks K9 if he can remember Chuckles and Boris. K9 recalls when he was undercover in Crashclub. His crate was opened by two robot clowns, Chuckles and Boris. Chuckles told him refuelling was almost over. K9 said he was supposed to be delivered to the gladiator pens. Chuckles told him that they were in the pens and they were the gladiators. Chuckles said he and Boris used to be clowns but Freddie owned them, so like it or not they were gladiators, as was K9. Gryffen says K9 became Chuckles' friend, just as he became his and Starkey's friend. They're all in this together. Gryffen says K9 has to override the directive from the STM and hooks him back up to it. Starkey fears there's a "but". Gryffen says the but is that he risks losing all his memory and forgetting his friends. He says he has made his choice. K9 must override the directives. The STM is not K9's master. Gryffen puts the STM on full power. Starkey tells K9 to come to him, calling him "good dog". He comes up and says he is a cybernetic construction containing quantum consciousness capable of logical deduction and he is not a dog. Gryffen is relieved to see he's back to normal and tells K9 they may never know how the STM did this to him and it's too dangerous to find out. K9 explains he does not have to risk remembering his past. He may not be a dog, but remembers he is a faithful friend. Starkey and Gryffen agree and smile at him. 
<EOS>
Somewhere in the frozen wastes of Canada, a technician calls a Department inspector. He can't get a piece of machinery open. It won't budge. While the inspector is on his way, the technician reaches through some slime and experiences a strange distortion. He looks up and screams. At Gryffen's house, Gryffen is at the STM when the distortion happens. He asks K9 what's going on. K9 says he's finding it difficult to keep still. He asks if 48 north by 120 means anything to Gryffen. Gryffen says that's where the Fallen Angel crashed. Something is happening there to affect the STM and K9. All this time the ship has been quiet. It's as if something has awakened or some element has been activated. Gryffen decides it is the temporal stabiliser, the missing element and the reason he hasn't mastered the STM. He tries to conquer his agoraphobia. He takes a few steps outside, but when his fingertips let go of the door, he stumbles and rushes back inside. Darius comes and helps him up, shocked he tried to go outside. Gryffen agrees it was ridiculous. Later, Gryffen contacts June and tells her he needs to get to the Fallen Angel. He believes the temporal stabiliser is still there and if he gets it, he can to get the STM working accurately. He was thinking about the travelsuit she once told him about. She says it is still experimental and it's a very hazardous journey. Thorne, who is working behind June, leaves. Later, he tells Lomax about the conversation and is ordered to assist Gryffen in every way possible. Thorne brings Gryffen the virtual reality encasement suit. He says he and June have agreed to assist Gryffen on his trip. The suit will help him with his phobia. He assures Gryffen it's perfectly safe and has passed the highest security tests. K9 is not confident. Gryffen puts on the suit. Thorne will be travelling with him and a small security team. He'll personally see Gryffen is safe and sound. Thorne smiles at K9 and Darius, making Darius suspicious. As they leave the house, Gryffen panics and protests as two CCPCs pull him out. K9 wakes Starkey and the three argue about the matter. June arrives, asking where Gryffen is. She is told the situation. Thorne, Gryffen and the CCPCs arrive at the crash site, where Gryffen admires a piece of wreckage. Back at Gryffen's house, Jorjie has arrived. She asks about Gryffen and Thorne's trip. K9 isn't entirely sure but has an uneasy feeling about it. He decides to travel there. Gryffen finds a helmet. Thorne tells him to get on with his work. Gryffen finds the stabiliser in a puddle of slime. After retrieving the stabiliser, Thorne tells Gryffen to bring it and they'll go back home. As Thorne and the CCPCs leave, Gryffen spots something of interest: empty pods. Thorne says there is nothing in them. Gryffen says the "nothings" have escaped. Whatever they are, they are loose in the tunnels. K9 tells the team he will need them all to operate the STM. Starkey, Darius and Jorjie finish setting all the instruments and powering it up. Starkey tells Jorjie to hold the instrument he's on. He goes downstairs and jumps through the STM portal after K9. They are transported to Canada. K9 says that they only have 2 hours before the portal closes behind them.  Starkey spots the crash site and they move towards it. The CCPCs roughly take Gryffen away from the pods. He drops the stabiliser. As they take Gryffen out, Gryffen demands to know what was in the pods. Thorne says it's not for him to question. He's a scientist, paid to do whatever scientists do. Thorne orders a Canadian CCPC to get a squadron and scour the tunnels. K9 and Starkey arrive at the base. They go through the tunnels, to be met by a Korven. He takes aim, but is shot by K9 before he can fire. Gryffen tells Thorne he doesn't have the stabiliser. He must have dropped it when the CCPCs manhandled him. They meet Starkey and K9, who tell Gryffen about the Korven. Gryffen realises the Korven was in the pods and that the ship and the STM are Korven technology. K9 notes there are over a hundred Korven in the area. Thorne decides they should all leave. Gryffen tells K9 and Starkey they have to go back for the stabiliser. When they return to the site, K9 gives Gryffen and Starkey a diversion by flying around the CCPCs, making animal sounds. Gryffen grabs the stabiliser, but is met by a CCPC. He throws it to Starkey. K9 and Starkey leave as the CCPCs chase Gryffen. He runs down a corridor, where he meets a Korven. It fires at him, but misses. Gryffen spots a door and goes outside. The Korven and the CCPCs start a battle. With only minutes left, Starkey asks K9 where Gryffen is.  K9 says that he went outside, which surprises Starkey. K9 shows Starkey the way out of the tunnels where  they meet Gryffen at the transportation spot and head home.  Thorne asks the CCPC where Gryffen is and is told he is outside.  When Thorne asks about the stabiliser, the CCPC tells him that Starkey had it which causes Thorne to grin knowingly. As Gryffen goes to the STM, K9 strongly advises against activating it with that device. The Korven are more dangerous than the Jixen, more dangerous than any alien he has encountered and could have only come to Earth to further their aggression. They want to rule time and space. If they had the missing piece, they may allow the Korven to enter. Gryffen finds that K9's enhancement code appears on his screen when he brings the stabiliser near his console. Starkey asks what K9's enhancement code is doing in Korven technology. K9 has no answers. Gryffen says that until they find out, the stabiliser is out of operation. The team are happy that K9 is stuck on Earth with them for a long time. 
<EOS>
At Gryffen Manor, Gryffen is preparing a sample of mucus while Darius tells him he's not sure it was a Jixen tailing them. Darius says that it was too fast. Gryffen shows the mucus to K9, who then analyses it, and confirms it has been loaded with enough Jixen pheromones to cover a thirty metre tall Kaldarean bedmite. A news report gets Darius' attention. It tells of another attack on a CCPC in which one unit was held up and another kidnapped. Jorjie notices Darius' shocked reaction when it is announced that a group called the Last Precinct have claimed responsibility. Gryffen tells Darius that if he can't keep his mind on the task at hand, he can rustle up some tea and biscuits. Jorjie asks Darius about his obsession with CCPCs in recent newscasts. K9 tells Starkey it would be too hard to scan Darius for a social conscience. Darius snaps at K9. Starkey tells Darius to calm down but he gets angrier, accusing them of ganging up on him. In the garage, Mariah and Darius chat. Starkey joins them and apologises to Darius for hitting a "raw circuit". Darius regrets snapping at him. He says it's about the Last Precinct but it's old news to him. At the front door, Gryffen finds two CCPCs accusing him of conducting illegal experiments. He tells them they have the wrong house. The head CCPC persists but Gryffen tells them to take it up with June. The CCPC pushes him aside. As they enter, K9 finds something odd about the CCPC's energy signal; it shouldn't be functioning. The CCPC uses a device on K9, knocking him out. Gryffen realises the device is not standard issue and this is not a CCPC. When Jorjie uses her mother's override code, the CCPC doesn't comply. Gryffen tries to protect Jorjie but is restrained by the CCPCs, who declare that they are all under house arrest as Jorjie calls for Darius. The CCPC takes off his mask, revealing a human called Halloran. He tells Jorjie he is human and his comrade is a CCPC with a few minor adjustments. When Gryffen demands they leave, another human police officer with a CCPC says this is their house and always has been; he has come through a secret entrance unknown to Gryffen. He announces that this is the final stand of the Last Precinct. Starkey arrives with Darius, who is shocked to see the officer, just as the officer is to see Darius. Halloran asks Sergeant Pike if he knows Darius. Pike says that Darius is his son. At the Department Mobile HQ, Thorne watches as four CCPCs approach the house. He sees Pike's message to the Department, announcing he has commandeered this police station for the Last Precinct. He makes demands: the immediate deactivation of all CCPC units and the CCPC cloning plant shut down in forty-eight hours. As he makes his third demand, Thorne orders it shut off. The Department Technician protests but Thorne says it's on a loop. When Thorne makes a loop joke he is irritated that the only humorous thing he will say in his life is wasted on the technician. June arrives to ask what is going on. She is glad Jorjie is at the library during this hostage situation. Thorne's face reveals that Jorjie is not at the library. The CCPCs try to enter the mansion but are knocked out by a force field. June orders an override of the mansion's security system. Thorne tells her that they've tried, but the codes have been changed. June tells the technician to get Pike on vid-link communication. In the mansion, the team are pushed together. K9 is still offline. June opens contact with Sergeant Pike after determining he was one of the officers dishonourably discharged two years before, charged with trespassing and resisting arrest. June cuts to the chase and urges Pike to let the children go. Pike asks her which child she would choose. She tells him she'd choose the girl. Pike knows that Jorjie is her daughter. After some squabbling, June stops the communication. Pike is offended by June accusing him of being a fanatic, but Gryffen says he considers him a home invader. Darius reminds Pike that he walked out on him in the middle of the night two years ago. Pike stalks off as Gryffen comforts Darius. K9 reactivates and charges his photon beam, but doesn't fire. K9 explains his living metal antibodies can deal with 99% of terrestrial weaponry, but the weapon used on him is not completely of this Earth or time. Pike claims the Department have been installing extra-terrestrial materials in the latest CCPCs for the past six months and the Last Precinct have been harvesting them for their own use. Gryffen insists that June specifically opposes the use of alien technology in CCPCs. Pike opens up a CCPC and takes out an organic stalk which K9 detects as an alien bio-mechanical component of an unidentified species. Pike explains it's unidentified because it's been altered by the Department, twisted and mutated to serve their purpose. There's one of these in the heart of every Mark II CCPC. K9 secretly informs Starkey his repairs are 60% complete. Pike decides he can play at the Department's game as Halloran was able to use the Department's alien bio-tech, creating weapons for the Last Precinct to use against them. He puts a green chip into the stalk as he explains that Halloran was one of the greatest forensic scientists in the world before he was tossed aside like a shoe. He plans to show the world the CCPCs for what they really are, unreliable alien machines prone to malfunction. As Pike presses a slimy hand print on a CCPC's shoulder, K9 alerts them to an unstable cybernetic bio-agent reaction and a level nine bio-mechanical virus has been incubated. Halloran insists it's not unstable, saying they conducted numerous tests and the virus is gene spliced to override the Department's control and replace it with theirs. K9 says that even though it's their plan, it isn't working. Pike turns to Halloran, who dismisses K9. Pike orders Green Hand to initiate bio-mech transmission protocols. As he infects the other CCPC with the virus, Halloran explains they will be disconnected from the Department's control, unresponsive and utterly useless except to the Last Precinct; it will give the Department no choice but to reinstate humans into the police force. K9 advises everyone to stay far away from the infected CCPC. His scan confirms they are unstable. Pike decides to let them go but keep Gryffen for leverage. He orders Halloran to take Gryffen upstairs and release Green Hand into the CCPC ranks. In Darius' room, the team barricade the door. K9 says his self-repairs are 80% complete. Darius says it doesn't matter where they hide as he came here with his dad all the time. As Halloran and Green Hand move through the tunnels, the CCPC becomes unresponsive. Halloran tries to use his control device, but it is knocked out of his hand by Green Hand, who strangles him, chanting its new objective: to crush all resistance and subjugate all humans. Pike asks June, who is with Thorne, if she has considered his demands, warning her it's her last chance to get out of this with her dignity intact. June tells him the Department doesn't give in to threats and she's just sent an elite squad of fresh CCPC reinforcements, fully shielded against anything he throws at them. The squad of four forms up near the front door, where they are met by Green Hand, who infects them. Pike announces he intends to reveal how useless the CCPCs and their alien technology are, confusing June. She turns to Thorne, who tells her not to listen to him, dismissing Pike as mad. Pike insists Thorne knows more than he says. June orders the CCPCs to advance, but they don't comply. The CCPCs chant the same words as Green Hand and move towards the Department Mobile HQ. The CCPC in the mansion makes his move as the CCPCs outside attack the HQ. Thorne says it wasn't meant to go like this yet, shocking June, who asks what he put in them. Thorne tells the driver to get them out of here, but the CCPCs are attacking the engine. Pike tells Gryffen the truth behind the CCPCs: they are alien-infested cybermenaces, uncontrollable except by him. In the tunnels, Green Hand walks over Halloran, who regains consciousness and gets up. In Darius' room, the kids talk about their parents. Jorjie did not know June was behind the police force becoming robots. Darius says there's a lot they don't know about their parents. Starkey says they're lucky to have parents. Jorjie only has one, while Darius considers himself the same, not counting his father. Jorjie admits that even though she loves her mother, she wants her to change and Darius wishes that his father stayed at home. An infected CCPC moves near the room as K9 observes that parents and children want to change one another but everyone stays the same. The CCPC breaks through the barricades just as K9 completes his repairs and shoots him, explaining that he synthesised the energy signature of the customised weapon. They make their way to the STM room where they are met by Green Hand, who is shot by K9. They escape as he gets up. In the STM room, K9 and the others arrive. He alerts Pike he is no longer in command of the CCPCs. No one is. Green Hand returns. Halloran arrives and warns Pike the CCPCs have gone haywire. Pike uses the weapon and knocks out the two CCPCs. The teams unite upstairs, where Pike asks K9 why they have gone berserk. K9 says the unstable virus has mutated to its own cause. Darius is angry this is why Pike left his mother and him, to go down as a joke. K9 suggests that as an unstable virus has been created from corrupted alien material and the infected CCPCs have developed an immune system. Injecting a pure form of the alien bio-mech could work. Darius tells Pike to untie Gryffen, who can't figure out where to find the material to immunise the CCPC. He spots the STM and tells K9 to use his photon beam to get a component off the machine. Darius tells him he's risking his experiments and finding his family, but Gryffen says that if he doesn't do this he will lose another family. K9 heats the component, which Gryffen removes, then takes a piece of bio-mech from underneath. As only another cybernetic organism can generate enough energy needed for the immunisation, he puts the bio-mech inside K9. As the CCPCs come up the stairs, K9 fires the immunisation at them, shutting them down. K9 moves out of the house and immunises the CCPCs attacking the mobile HQ. June goes outside to thanks K9. K9 advises that the anti-virus patch is relayed as a coded energy pulse through CCPC com-central. Thorne arrives, saying K9 can't be trusted. June tells Thorne that the only person she doesn't trust now is him and they're having a debrief as to what he's done to the CCPCs. K9 and June go in the house, where she prepares to take Pike away. Gryffen asks Darius if he wants to say something to his father. June gives them a moment together. Pike tells Darius he's glad he found him again and apologises that it was this way. Darius says he's glad too. Pike tells Darius he's proud of him and he'll miss him and his mother. They share a tearful hug. Darius hopes that his father gets a proper trial and fair sentence. Thorne arrives and asks Pike what it's like to be taken out of the station by the CCPC again. K9 tells Thorne to treat Pike with the respect he deserves or there will be consequences. Pike and Darius smile at each other as Pike is taken away. The kids talk about parents again, can't live with them and can't live without them. They laugh when K9 notes their usefulness for pocket money. 
<EOS>
Darius is sleeping inside Mariah when Thorne taps on the window, frightening him. Thorne says Darius may want some news about his father. They enter virtual reality, where Darius finds his father in a pure white prison, trembling in fear. Darius speaks to him, but his father can't hear him. This is Harry Pike's world now, white, no corners and no detail to draw the eye or distract the mind. He will endure years of this. Darius asks Thorne what he wants. Thorne wants something from K9. K9 won't give it to him and he must have it. Darius refuses to get it for him. Thorne says he wants a certain circuit from K9. Thorne says that K9 can function perfectly well without it and says it is the cybernetic equivalent of an appendix. Thorne uses his vid-com to transmit a high-pitched sound, putting Pike in agony. Darius gives in and they exit virtual reality. Darius says he will talk to K9 but he can't promise. Thorne assures him he has a deal for K9 too. He has something of K9's he thought lost forever, his memory disc, thought to have been destroyed when K9 came through the STM. As Darius and K9 move through the sewer tunnels, Darius sees no cameras and no cops. K9 calculates the likelihood of a double-cross is 99.99%. Darius admits they've had their differences. K9 says it is because of his tendency to be irritating. Darius says that he appreciates K9 doing this for him and his dad. K9 tells him that he isn't doing this exclusively for Harry. The prospect of having his memory restored is appealing. The chance his memory disc survived is remote, but still more than zero. K9 and Darius are followed by Starkey and Jorjie, who report Gryffen. Starkey says they will be there to help Darius if it is a double-cross and if it's legit, they don't want to stop K9 getting his disc back. Starkey notices some foul-smelling slime on the wall: it's Jixen. Thorne and four CCPCs arrive. Darius asks Thorne why he needs the bodyguards. Thorne says there's not any length K9 wouldn't go to for what he's carrying. K9 spots the memory chip and asks him to return it. Thorne offers it to him, then reminds him of Darius' father. Thorne wants K9's regeneration unit in trade. Starkey and Jorjie interrupt. Starkey refuses to let K9 do it. Thorne asks if he has a deal. Starkey warns K9 that without his regeneration unit he will be as vulnerable as everyone else. Darius agrees. Thorne says he isn't doing it for Darius, but for his poor old dad. K9 agrees reluctantly and they make the trade. K9 accesses the memory disc and starts routing all power to his photon reactor, warning he will self-destruct in twenty seconds. As Thorne and the CCPCs leave, the kids try to get K9 to stop. The countdown is terminated, but K9 warns a destruct sequence has been built into the memory disc. An unknown target will trigger it when he comes in range. In the Department Mobile HQ, the Department Technician informs June the Jixen is coming within range and the stun mines and gas cannisters are ready. June tells him to delay the order. She asks Thorne if the tunnels have been cleared of civilians. June doesn't take Thorne's assurance and orders the technician to hold off the gas. She will supervise its deployment. In the tunnels, Starkey assures the others that Gryffen will know what to do. A hovering stun mine arrives. It knocks Darius to the ground. Starkey hears a Jixen roar. K9 notes the Jixen will trigger his self-destruct. He moves to intercept it. Another stun mine appears. It shocks the Jixen, who takes another route. Darius notices the roar is getting closer. K9 speeds off. He cannot allow the Jixen to get close. His self-destruction will destroy every nearby lifeform. Starkey races off to stop him. Darius follows, but is stopped by yet another stun mine. Starkey tries to find K9 but finds another stun mine. He turns back to see a gas canister. The tunnels are gassed. Starkey collapses and is dragged away. June and four CCPCs are nearby. She orders one to drop the final cannister. The CCPC spots two citizens in the tunnels. June has the CCPCs get them out to discover who they are. They are taken to Department Mobile HQ. Darius warns that Starkey is still in the tunnels. June asks if he has K9 with him and says he should be fine and that the gas is a sleeping agent. His main problem is the Jixen. Darius eyes the exits. Jorjie says she knows about the Jixen and that Starkey could be vaporised by a bomb. Darius fools the CCPCs and races out. Jorjie tries to follow him but is stopped. Thorne contacts June. He wants a comment on reports the operation has stalled. June says it is suspended on her authority and that she doesn't answer to him. Thorne warns her that like him, she answers to those above. When June refuses, she is contacted by Lomax, who asks if the orders are not clear. She tells him that the orders need clarifying in light of new information. Lomax says she doesn't need to understand to obey. Thorne was acting in the best interests of the Department. June wants to argue, but Lomax insists that she perform her duty. At the mansion, Gryffen calls K9 to say he has been trying to get through to him for ages. K9 suggests the stun mines, the Department's attempt to corral the Jixen, have interfered. He is en route to deal with it as part of his new programming imperative. As soon as he is in range of the Jixen, he will initiate self-destruct. Gryffen warns K9 that without his regeneration unit, he will be destroyed. K9 says that as it is his programming imperative, he is destined to self-destruct to destroy the Jixen. K9's sensors indicate the Jixen is in the tunnel. Starkey awakens with his face in a pile of books inside the Jixen's lair. The Jixen moves towards him. Starkey is shocked when the Jixen says his clothes are marked with his scent. The Jixen has been learning English. He becomes frustrated when Starkey corrects his mistakes and warns he may forget his duties as a horse. Darius moves through the tunnels calling out for Starkey. When Starkey spots a book entitled, Land of the Lost, the Jixen says it tells his story, a peaceful emissary from another time protecting an ignorant people from the monster living among them. He was the emissary's guard and he failed to protect him from the machine, his enemy, Starkey's friend, K9. Starkey says the Jixen started smashing up the mansion when they came through the STM, K9 came and protected him, giving his previous life to save his. The Jixen says that he is the one confused as he was protecting the emissary. The Jixen were winning the war against the Meron until new energy weapons cost them their home. The Jixen tells Starkey these weapons were supplied by the Korven. Starkey confirms he knows the name. The Jixen says they were the peaceful emissaries. Humanity was the ignorant people and the Korven were the monsters. The Jixen tells him that the information was lost with the emissary, destroyed by the Korven agent, K9. The Jixen knows the Department has been infiltrated by the Korven and Starkey will lose his home as he lost his. Starkey says that then he needs to get out of here and alert the world. The Jixen shows him the way out. As Darius searches for Starkey, the Jixen becomes increasingly uncertain about Starkey's plan for him to meet K9. Starkey believes K9 and the Jixen should be on the same side, as the both want to save the ignorant humans. The "cybernetic beast" can understand him. They soon bump into Darius. Darius is shocked to find a friendly Jixen. The Jixen assures him he is his alibi and gets angry when Darius says he means ally. Starkey says they need to find K9 and explain to him that the Jixen isn't his enemy. Darius suggests that they do it fast ask K9 has arrived. K9 prepares his self-destruct sequence as the Jixen prepares to protect himself. Starkey stands between them and tells them to stop threatening each other and talk. Starkey says that "Jixey" is a friend. K9 continues his countdown. Darius wants to run, but Starkey says they are going to sort this out. He tells K9 that the program Thorne put in him was Korven tech and he has to fight it. His sensors got it wrong and the Korven are losing him. The Korven wanted the Jixen destroyed because the Jixen came here to warn the humans about them. June arrives with Jorjie and threatens the Jixen. As K9's countdown reaches zero, Starkey shouts stay. K9 reroutes his circuits. He has overwritten the program and is no longer being controlled by the Korven. Back at the mansion, Gryffen takes a look at the chip. June cannot believe the Jixen is an ally of humanity and calls it a remarkable development. Jorjie notes it isn't the only remarkable development. She told Lomax to "stick it". June says she didn't use those exact words. Jorjie is proud June refused to let the gas be dropped in the tunnels. June informs Darius that she has checked on his father. He's safe in a minimum security environment. Darius is pleased that his dad is safe, the Jixen got away and K9 didn't blow up everyone. Gryffen says they haven't quite stopped the Korven plan. K9 agrees with the Professor. A significant part of their plan seems to be for Thorne to get his regeneration unit, which succeeded. Gyrffen asks what he wants it for. As they speak, Thorne is at a Department base. He hands the regeneration unit to an unknown force. 
<EOS>
K9 watches as the STM activates, threatening to bring together a black hole and a white hole. As they come together, Starkey alerts Gryffen to the fact that it is happening again. Meanwhile, in the Department's base at the Millennium Dome, Thorne is excited. Gryffen tells Darius to tell June what's going on. Darius asks why it's dangerous to use his vid-com. Gryffen says they cannot risk the news being intercepted. Darius leaves as K9 advises they watch the STM; if the two objects align, it will mean catastrophe and the destruction of the planet. K9 says he has to go. Jorjie asks why his mission is more important than protecting the world. K9 assures them he should be back in twenty minutes; what he has to do is a matter of life and death. He must regain his regeneration unit. K9 flies to the Millennium Dome and sees a non-functioning device similar to the STM. He is met by Thorne and his army of CCPCs. Thorne says he summoned K9. He wants him to do him a favour. The STM is a gateway and an invasion is about to occur. In Gryffen Manor, Starkey tries to contact K9 on vid-com, but there is no reply. The black and white holes are aligning. If they meet, the world will be destroyed. Thorne tells K9 an invading army is massing on the other side of the galaxy. K9 asks if the Department has a plan to stop them. Thorne tells him that's where he comes in. He needs K9 to stabilise the gateway so they can launch a preemptive strike. K9 says that would require a temporal stabiliser and Gryffen has the only one on the planet locked away. Thorne informs K9 they have created a weapon, a supersoldier with the DNA of every species they've encountered: Jixen, Anubian, Meron, "you name it". K9 assumes it has been implanted with the regeneration unit. K9 asks for it back. Thorne says K9's small contribution will save the planet. K9 insists the weapon cannot work, but Thorne says it is working. The weapon has been in the room all along. K9 tells Thorne he has already detected him. Thorne introduces K9 to project: Trojan, who has decloaked. At the mansion, Starkey tries to convince Gryffen to use the temporal stabiliser. When Jorjie says that they need K9, Gryffen is frustrated. Starkey says they can't wait. Gryffen warns it is too dangerous. K9's location was the Millennium Dome when communications ceased. Starkey and Jorjie go in search of K9 as Gryffen tells them to stay safe and that he is fond of them all. At the dome, K9 confronts Trojan and demands his regeneration unit. At the Department Research Division, Darius finds June, who has been demoted to a constable after disobeying Lomax's orders. Starkey and Jorjie see all the CCPCs heading towards the dome. The deduce that something big is going on. Jorjie guesses K9 is involved. Inside the dome, K9 cannot move. Remote connection is in progress. He is wired to a cryo pod. Thorne says the reprogramming should be kicking in and K9 has taken to the connection very well. The remote connection is complete and space time portal generation commences. At the mansion, Gryffen finds the portal is producing energy. Starkey and Jorjie follow the CCPCs to K9 inside the dome. Jorjie says K9 could be anywhere in the huge dome. Starkey wants to move on, but Jorjie reminds him of what Gryffen said about being fond. They start to kiss but are interrupted and chased away and pursued by CCPCs. K9 tells Thorne he fails to understand why opening a larger portal will prevent an invasion. He says it would allow an invasion instead. This means Thorne is working with the invaders. Thorne confirms this. K9 notes that the transferral system is too unstable. Thorne notes this is where Gryffen comes in. At the mansion, Gryffen tries to contact everyone, but there is no reply. He refuses to let his planet be destroyed and takes the temporal stabiliser out of a safe. At the Research Division, June finds it hard to believe what Darius is saying. The Intelligence division would know about it. Their conversation is interrupted by two CCPCs saying that Department personnel no longer have any authority. June asks on whose orders. The CCPCs say it's classified; they are to subjugate all humans. June grabs a large gun, which she uses to destroy them. June and Darius peek out of her office and escape. The CCPCs are occupied restraining all other humans. At the dome, Starkey and Jorjie find K9 with Thorne waiting for them with the decloaking Trojan. K9 apologises to Starkey. Starkey asks Thorne what he has done to him. Thorne tells him he's been put to good use and that they're about to receive company; if Gryffen doesn't use the stabiliser, the entire planet will disappear in thirty seconds. Gryffen uses the temporal stabiliser and gets a nasty surprise when the STM fluctuates. K9 announces maximum danger as the invaders arrive. They are the Korven. The vanguard of four arrive, claiming the planet in the name of the supreme leader of the pan-dimensional army, Lomax. Thorne informs Lomax the prototype for the supersoldier is ready. Jorjie asks Thorne how he could betray his planet. Thorne says he isn't strictly from this planet. He explains that the Korven implanted Meron DNA in him. Lomax says the Korven were the Meron's allies in the war against the Jixen, just as Jixey told Starkey. He says they needed an ally on Earth to prepare the way for them. Starkey says it must have taken a lot of convincing. Thorne tells him he's always made it a policy to be on the winning side and the Korven are the winning side. At the mansion, Gryffen wonders what he has done, then asks what he's going to do now. As June and Darius run, June starts to the mansion, thinking Jorjie is there. Gryffen records a message against his failure, saying his friends are in danger and he can't reach them. He says he believes he is their only hope of survival and "that of the entire human race: me, an agoraphobic, reclusive shut-in." He says this video means that he didn't just sit in the house as he has for so long. "Alistair Gryffen finally stood up and did something." He leaves his house with determination. Back at the Dome, Lomax decides K9 is not fit for battle. Starkey says he could be free from the pod. Thorne tells him K9 wouldn't hurt a human. He says the Korven couldn't reprogram him to eliminate Jixen and Gryffen. Starkey asks why they'd want to kill Gryffen. Lomax explains that he is the only one that could prevent the invasion; he knows the code to terminate the portal permanently, but it's a voice activated code. He'd have to be here to say it in person and that would never happen just as Gryffen races into the dome. Lomax announces the army's arrival is imminent and orders his guards to prepare. Jorjie and Starkey go to K9. Starkey asks him if he can terminate the program. K9 tells him that the Korven override program is too strong. He says the only possibility is to get a message to Gryffen to use the portal termination code. All communications are down, but K9 is connected to the STM. Starkey tries to contact Gryffen, but he isn't in the mansion. Darius and June arrive in the mansion and hear Starkey transmitting. Thorne says even if he got through, Gryffen would never terminate the STM; without it he'd never see his family. Gryffen reveals himself above the stairs and Thorne taunts him about his family and asks him what their names were.  Gryffen says their names and follows the names with says the Greek letters, "Omega, Sigma, Theta, Ohm". Thorne asks if they were pets. Gryffen says that's the voice-activated termination code. The portal activates in the mansion. Darius pulls June back as K9's remote link is severed. Gryffen tells Starkey and Jorjie to get down. Lomax and the Korven are sucked into the portal and destroyed as it explodes. Thorne warns Gryffen he's meddled for the last time and tells Trojan to kill them all. K9's visual sensors are offline, so he switches to olfactory sensors and fires at Trojan. Thorne orders Trojan to finish K9. K9's power levels are too low for his laser to work. He lets out a wail. Thorne is amused that K9 is crying but he isn't crying, he's shrieking the Jixen battle shriek. Gryffen and Starkey say he's calling the Jixen to do battle against the Meron. Trojan becomes a creature at war with itself as its Jixen and Meron DNA fight each other. Starkey and Jorjie tend to K9 when he doesn't reply. Thorne tells them to not think they've seen the last of him before Trojan collapses on him. Gryffen averts his eyes as Thorne is crushed to death. Back at the mansion, June and Darius regain consciousness. Darius helps her up. June thanks Darius for saving her life. Darius insists it's just what he does but June says there is something more to him than that. If the Department survives, she can use someone like him. Jorjie arrives and June is grateful she is alright. The team stand in the STM room, looking on at K9. Gryffen tells them there's nothing he can do. K9 has exhausted his core energy. Starkey compares it to when he first came here. Gryffen notes the difference is he doesn't have his regeneration unit. Darius insists he can self-repair and has done it before, but Gryffen tells him not this time. Gryffen and June leave the kids in peace with K9. Darius tells K9 that he's the coolest thing that has ever happened to him. Jorjie kneels down to K9 and tells him about all those times she tried to teach him to have fun and how she's had a lot of fun since she met him. Finally, Starkey goes to him and tells him that he's right. He's not a dog. He's Starkey's best friend. He used to think he was brave but K9 made him fearless. Starkey pulls K9's head up and tells him he's going to miss him. K9 remembers Starkey's first words to him and utters his final words, "Yes, young master". Starkey takes off his coat and puts it over K9. As he stands, he finds the regeneration unit materialising in his hand, then disappearing. After a short look for it, they notice a flicker of movement in K9. Starkey calls for K9, who pops out of the coat and affirms, wearing his original dog collar. Gryffen and June walk in, overjoyed with the kids. K9 explains his regeneration unit has homed to him due to its programming. He tells them he feels frisky and flies up as the team watch him, delighted. Starkey asks him if he's back in business. K9 cheerfully replies, "Affirmative". 
<EOS>