Fragments ( TV story ) Fragments was the twelfth episode in the second series of " Torchwood " . Composed largely of flashbacks , it established how each of the main Torchwood Three members , save Gwen , had come to work for Torchwood . Gwen ' s origin story with Torchwood Three was previously shown in the episode " Everything Changes " . The episode also featured a brief re - appearance of Captain John Hart , alongside the first appearance of Gray as an adult , both of which transpired over a hologram communication . Synopsis . A booby - trapped building explodes and knocks the Torchwood team unconscious . Each team member ' s life flashes before his eyes . There is a series of flashbacks for all of the main characters except Gwen . Captain Jack was initiated into a Victorian Torchwood in 1899 ; Toshiko went on a mission to trade alien technology for her mother ' s life ; Ianto wooed Jack with coffee and a flair for alien - catching ; and Owen lost his normal life to an alien in his fiancée ' s brain . Plot . 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 Harkness ( 1 , 392 deaths earlier ) . 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 murder ed 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 Sato ( 5 years earlier ) . 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 Jones ( 21 months earlier ) . 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 Harper ( 4 years earlier ) . Owen meets Jack when he bursts into a hospital room after brain surgery on Owen ' s ailing fiancée 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 human s 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 .