Torchwood/Recap/S1/E04 Cyberwoman

• Main
• Characters
• Laconic
• Recap
  • S1
    • E01 Everything Changes
    • E02 Day One
    • E03 Ghost Machine
    • E04 Cyberwoman
    • E05 Small Worlds
    • E06 Countrycide
    • E07 Greeks Bearing Gifts
    • E08 They Keep Killing Suzie
    • E09 Random Shoes
    • E10 Out of Time
    • E11 Combat
    • E12 Captain Jack Harkness
    • E13 End of Days
  • S2
    • E01 Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
    • E02 Sleeper
    • E03 To the Last Man
    • E04 Meat
    • E05 Adam
    • E06 Reset
    • E07 Dead Man Walking
    • E08 A Day in the Death
    • E09 Something Borrowed
    • E10 From Out of the Rain
    • E11 Adrift
    • E12 Fragments
    • E13 Exit Wounds
  • S3
    • E01 Day One
    • E02 Day Two
    • E03 Day Three
    • E04 Day Four
    • E05 Day Five
  • S3 E1 Children Earth Day One
  • S3 MS Children of Earth
  • S4
    • E01 The New World
      • YMMV
    • E02 Rendition
      • YMMV
    • E03 Dead of Night
    • E04 Escape to L.A.
      • YMMV
    • E05 The Categories of Life
    • E06 The Middle Men
    • E07 Immortal Sins
    • E08 End of the Road
    • E09 The Gathering
    • E10 The Blood Line
  • S4 MS Miracle Day
• Trivia
• YMMV
• Fridge
• Fanfic Recs
• Haiku
• Headscratchers
• Quotes
• WMG
• Crowners
  • Awesome
  • Funny
  • Heartwarming
  • Nightmare Fuel
  • Tear Jerker
• Wikipedia
• All Subpages
  • Drinking Game
  • S 4 MS Miracle Day
    • Fridge
• Create New

Torchwood receptionist Ianto Jones has a deep dark dirty secret. No, not the fact that he despises being Torchwood's coffee boy or that he's not invited to their impromptu basketball sessions, or that's he's left behind when they all go out for drinks. No, turns out that everyone else leaving is his perfect opportunity.

After the others leave, Ianto invites an old Japanese man named Tanizaki into Torchwood's inner sanctum and leads him to a disused area of the Hub. There, we find the source of the secret: Ianto has been keeping the titular Cyberwoman hidden from everyone else. This is (or was) Lisa of Torchwood One in London, a casualty of the Battle of Canary Wharf and Ianto's lover. It turns out that when the Cybermen started losing that battle, they started desperately converting new troops out of humans wholesale, without transplanting their brains at all. Having only received a partial conversion, Lisa is only partially covered in cybernetics. Tanizaki, being the world's foremost expert of cybernetics, has been called in to see if he can reverse the cybering process. Unfortunately, before the examination can begin properly, the rest of Torchwood gets called back on a routine UFO sighting, so Ianto has to leave Tanizaki with Lisa. Uh oh.

Tosh notices rather odd power drains. Ianto explains this as a generator problem and promises to take care of it. Returning to Lisa, he finds Tanizaki dead, his "upgrade" not having taken. Ianto is horrified by this but still holds out hope that Lisa can be restored. While he goes to dispose of Tanizaki, the rest of Torchwood note further power drains and come to the conclusion that they're under attack. They arm themselves and investigate. Finding the cyber conversion unit that Ianto was using to keep Lisa alive, Jack deduces the nature of the power drains. Lisa then attacks and slaps Gwen into the conversion unit. Jack stays behind to get killed a few times over and has Tosh cut off the power, sealing everyone inside the facility. Owen and Gwen duck into a tight hiding spot and have an impromptu makeout session. Ianto is knocked unconscious and saved by Jack with some extremely effective CPR consisting of a snog. Ianto explains everything to a disapproving Jack and holds out hope that she can still be human. His pleas towards Lisa only seem to confuse her about the nature of love.

A bit of a chase ensues around the Hub as Tosh struggles to get power restored and everyone else simply tries to stay alive. A rather lucky screwdriver stab by Owen weakens Lisa, then Jack uses "barbecue sauce" to summon their pet pterodactyl. Lisa thus distracted, the crew manage to escape to the surface. Meanwhile, the pizza that Ianto ordered finally shows up, and the delivery girl blunders her way into the Hub.

Jack gives Ianto an ultimatum: head back down there and finish Lisa within ten minutes, or he comes in and takes them both out. Ianto heads back in and finds Lisa's body. He breaks down until the pizza delivery girl walks in and identifies herself as Lisa. Having believed she understands "love", Lisa transferred her brain into the delivery girl, making her "human". She offers that she and Ianto be upgraded together. Ianto is unable to shoot her, so the rest of Torchwood finish the job. Ianto resumes his duties, apparently forgiven, but just a bit broken.

Tropes

• Alone With The Cy-cho: Ianto leaves Tanizaki with the completely harmless partially converted Cyberwoman. Doesn't end well for him.
• Bare Your Midriff: Lisa, rather uncharacteristically for a Cyber.
• Chainmail Bikini: Apparently, partial conversion mostly covers the naughty bits.
• Chekhov's Gun: Turns out that pterodactyl Torchwood has been keeping comes in handy in defending the homefront.
• Chekhov's Gunman: Ianto ordered pizza earlier that night. Guess who shows up at the end?
• Closed Circle: Tosh shutting down the power after Lisa starts running amok gives us this, as the doors automatically seal with a power failure.
• Cut the Juice: The only way to stop the cyber conversion unit from killing Gwen. Of course, this results in the aforementioned Closed Circle.
• Downer Ending: With Ianto now properly girlfriend-less and a bit broken.
• Hand Wave: Normally, Cybermen just take the human's brain and dump it in the metal body. Apparently, with the war not going in their favor, the Cybermen were going for quick upgrades that simply slapped cybernetics straight onto humans. The efficiency of this (or lack thereof) is not really elaborated upon.
• Kiss of Life: Jack administers this to Ianto not long after the Cyberwoman drops him.
• No Hero to His Valet: Ianto takes this particular opportunity to call out Jack on his heartlessness.
• Now or Never Kiss: While hiding in a cupboard, Gwen and Owen get their make out on.
• Something Only They Would Say: How Lisa-in-delivery-girl proves that it's her.
• Tertiary Sexual Characteristics: Okay, we can buy the breast and naughty bit coverings as being part of a rush job, but what kind of Cyberman has heels?
• Ultimate Job Security: Of course you're forgiven for the deaths of two people, nearly releasing a very real threat on the entire planet, and directly threatening your leader, Ianto! Now, go back to picking up our trash and making us coffee.
• What Is This Thing You Call Love?: It seems to be the means by which they finally defeat the Cyberwoman. Lisa, thinking Ianto will love her, transfers her brain into the fully human pizza delivery girl. This makes her quite vulnerable to bullets.