Torchwood Season 1 Episode 4 Meat

Torchwood Meat 4/13

Rhys Williams is out driving when he is telephoned by a work mate to inform him that one of their firm's lorries has crashed. He drives to the site of the crash and see that one of his employees and friend has died. Torchwood appears on the scene and Rhys spots Gwen amongst them.

The Torchwood team confiscates the meat that the lorry was transporting when they suspect it of being alien. Gwen recognises the lorry as one from Rhys' firm. Back at the Hub, Toshiko rings Rhys' office for information pretending to be the police.

At home Rhys texts Gwen asking for her to come home. He attempts to get her to confess to being at the crash site but she is evasive.

He sees Gwen meeting up with Jack near the invisible lift in Roald Dahl Plass and follows her to a factory. While there he is captured by a group of men and taken into the factory. Jack and Gwen see this and mistake his actions for collabaration. The men show Rhys that they have captured a live "space whale" (nicknamed the "cash cow" by its captors) which is the source of the meat and which continues to grow despite them cutting chunks of its flesh away while it is still alive. In an act self-preservation, Rhys agrees to replace his dead employee for the men.

Back at their flat, Rhys and Gwen argue over her being at the crash and Gwen admits to the nature of her work for Torchwood. Rhys is disbelieving until she shows him around the Hub. With Rhys' help the team manages to inflitrate the factory so they can free the alien creature. The team hides in one of Rhys' vans and Rhys drives them to the factory where the team sneaks in.

They locate the creature and plan to stun gun the men and sedate it so they can move it back to the Hub until the Cardiff spacetime Rift reopens. They confirm that the creature is sentient, but the men discover them and in the fights Rhys is shot. The creature becomes distressed and Owen can see no other option but to euthanise it when it poses a threat to them by struggling. They are able to stun the men and feed them amnesia pills.

Back at the Hub, Owen patches up Rhys' wound and Jack orders Gwen to give Rhys a pill too. She finds that she cannot bring herself to do so and Jack relents, disappointed about this but is unwilling to fire Gwen and face losing her from the team.