Torchwood (TV Series)

Everything Changes (2006)

Eve Myles: Gwen Cooper

Photos 

Quotes 

• Gwen Cooper : So go on then. How the hell did you end up in Cardiff?

  Captain Jack Harkness : This is Torchwood Three. Torchwood One was London, destroyed in the battle. Torchwood Two is an office in Glasgow, very strange man. Torchwood Three, Cardiff. Torchwood Four's kind of gone missing but we'll find it one day.

• Gwen Cooper : The thing is, I just don't understand...

  Captain Jack Harkness : No, I tell you what I don't understand, you're going to rattle on with that "how can this be true" kinda shtick. What's it gonna take for you people? If you want evidence of aliens, how about that great big spaceship hovering over London on Christmas day? What about the battle of Canary Wharf, a Cyberman in every home?

  Gwen Cooper : My boyfriend says it's like a sort of terrorism, that they'd put drugs in the water supplies, psychotropic drugs causing mass hallucinations and stuff.

  Captain Jack Harkness : Yeah, well your boyfriend's stupid.

  Gwen Cooper : Oh, you've met him.

• Gwen Cooper : Owen and Toshiko, you didn't tell them that you were shot in the head and survived.

  Captain Jack Harkness : You didn't tell them either. Followed my lead. Keep doing that, you might just get through this.

  Gwen Cooper : But she killed you!

  Captain Jack Harkness : I can't die.

  Gwen Cooper : Ok!

  Captain Jack Harkness : But I can't. Something happened to me a while back. Long story and far away. But I was killed, and I was brought back to life, and since then, I can't die.

  Gwen Cooper : But how...?

  Captain Jack Harkness : I don't know. One day I'll find a doctor, the right sort of doctor, and maybe he can explain it, but until then...

  Gwen Cooper : Nothing kills you?

  Captain Jack Harkness : Well, it kinda freaks people out. Best if you don't say anything.

• Gwen Cooper : And who are you, then?

  Captain Jack Harkness : Captain Jack Harkness.

  Gwen Cooper : I did some research. And there's only one Captain Jack Harkness on record and he disappeared in 1941.

  Captain Jack Harkness : Well, that couldn't be me... Could it?

• Yvonne : No sign of a Captain Jack Harkness.

  Gwen Cooper : Did you search outside Cardiff?

  Yvonne : No, that never even occurred to me. 'Course I did. I went nationwide. There's about fifteen Jacks and Johns with that surname, none of them's a captain.

  Gwen Cooper : Suppose he could've made it up.

  Yvonne : The only Captain Jack Harkness on record is American.

  Gwen Cooper : That's it, he's American.

  Yvonne : And you forgot to tell me.

  Gwen Cooper : So who is he?

  Yvonne : American volunteer. Royal Air Force. 133 Squadron. Except he disappeared. Vanished off the records, presumed dead.

  Gwen Cooper : When was that?

  Yvonne : 1941, at the height of the Blitz. On the morning of January the 21st, 1941, Captain Jack Harkness failed to report for duty. Never seen again until now. What's going on, Gwen, you seeing ghosts?

• Gwen Cooper : But... but they can see the lift! Why aren't they, I mean... we are right out in the open, they can see everything!

  Captain Jack Harkness : Do they look like they can see us?

  Gwen Cooper : No, but look at us! We couldn't be any more public!

  Captain Jack Harkness : [calling to passers-by]  Hello! Hey, you there, hello!

  [to Gwen] 

  Captain Jack Harkness : It's called the perception filter. He can sort of see us, but we don't quite register, just like something in the corner of your eye. It only works on this exact spot. Step off... hi! Nice night. Ooh, hello we are perceived.

  Gwen Cooper : How does it work?

  Captain Jack Harkness : No idea. We know how to use it, not how it happens, but if I were to guess, I would say that there was once a dimensionally transcendental chameleon circuit placed right on this spot which welded its perception properties to a spacio-temporal rift. But that sounds kinda ridiculous. Invisible lift has got more of a ring to it, don't'cha think?

• Gwen Cooper : So, you catch aliens?

  Captain Jack Harkness : Yep.

  Gwen Cooper : You catch aliens for a living.

  Captain Jack Harkness : Yes, we do.

  Gwen Cooper : You're an alien catcher.

  Captain Jack Harkness : Yes, I am.

  Gwen Cooper : Caught any good aliens?

  Captain Jack Harkness : Tons of them.

  Gwen Cooper : That's a hell of a job.

  Captain Jack Harkness : [chuckling]  Sure is.

• Captain Jack Harkness : How's your drink?

  Gwen Cooper : Have you poisoned me?

  Captain Jack Harkness : Don't be so dramatic. It's an amnesia pill. My own recipe with a touch of denial and a dash of retcon. Wake up tomorrow morning and you'll have forgotten everything about Torchwood. Worse still, you'll have forgotten me. Which is kind of tragic.

• Gwen Cooper : I remember... I remember

• Captain Jack Harkness : We don't just catch aliens. We scavenge the stuff they leave behind, find ways of using it, arming the human race for the future. The 21st century's when it all changes, and you gotta be ready.

  Gwen Cooper : But who's in charge of you? Is it the government, or what?

  Captain Jack Harkness : We're separate from the government, outside the police, beyond the United Nations. Cause if one power got hold of this stuff, they could use it for their own purposes.

• Gwen Cooper : You bastard!

  Captain Jack Harkness : [completely unoffended]  Likely...

• Gwen Cooper : He was murdered.

  Toshiko Sato : Yeah.

  Gwen Cooper : And you covered it up?

  Toshiko Sato : It's my job.

• Gwen Cooper : But those people last night, those people in the car. Who were they? Who's Torchwood?

  PC Andy : Dunno. Special ops.

  Gwen Cooper : Yes, but what does that mean?

• Gwen Cooper : That's good, that's a good mask sort of thing.