Themes in Torchwood - Corruption

Corruption

Starting in episode one, with the character of Suzie Costello and continuing primarily with neophyte employee Gwen Cooper, the theme of corruption is present in the narrative, frequently drawing parallels between Suzie and Gwen. In the aforementioned pilot, Suzie comments on how you cannot go back from working for Torchwood, suggesting it has changed her, after she commits a series of murders and an eventual suicide. Later in the series, Gwen finds herself unable to tell her boyfriend Rhys about her double life, and finds herself drawn into a sexual relationship with teammate Owen in "Countrycide" - as had Suzie before her, revealed in "They Keep Killing Suzie". Gwen laments that as Suzie had said, Torchwood had changed her, and in "Greeks Bearing Gifts", she explained to Toshiko that she knew what she and Owen were doing was wrong, but that she had no intention of stopping.

In "They Keep Killing Suzie", the team is shocked to learn that Gwen is the only person other than Suzie who possesses a sufficient degree of empathy to operate the resurrection gauntlet. A resurrected Suzie explains she would drug people with amnesia pills to tell them about her life - in Combat, Gwen drugs Rhys as she confesses her affair with Owen so she can receive his forgiveness but not have to live with what she's done, echoing Suzie's actions. In the finale, "End of Days", after Rhys is murdered, Gwen fights Jack for the rift manipulator so that she may resurrect him, going as far as to hit Jack and even allow Owen to shoot him. In the episode's conclusion, with the rest of the team, she receives Jack's forgiveness as he understands she had been manipulated by villain, Bilis Manger.

Characters other than Gwen have had their morality tested. "Ghost Machine" depicts Owen filled with rage after experiencing a young woman's rape, capable of murdering her rapist. In Combat, having lost his lover Diane, Owen succumbs to a nihilistic underground belly in which he attempts suicide-by-Weevil. In "Greeks Bearing Gifts" Toshiko, consumed with the loneliness of her job and feeling isolated amongst her peers, accepts a gift from an alien which allows her to read her co-workers' thoughts. Ianto, unable to let his dying girlfriend go, risks the life of his entire team in "Cyberwoman", even threatening to one day betray his future lover, Jack. In "End of Days", Jack berates his entire team for their destructive personal lives, at which point Owen shoots him, answering questions as to whether or not Owen is actually capable of murder.