Resurrection gauntlet The resurrection gauntlet — also known as the resurrection glove or just the glove , and , jokingly , the risen mitten — was a metal gauntlet that had the ability to revive the dead for a limited time , though with unfortunate and usually deadly consequences . There were two known gauntlets , both of which were destroyed by Torchwood Three . History . Right - hand gauntlet . The right - hand gauntlet fell out of the Cardiff Space - Time Rift circa 1967 . ( TV : " They Keep Killing Suzie " ) It was recovered from Cardiff Bay by Torchwood Three in 2007 . ( TV : " Dead Man Walking " ) It had a strange but unspecified connection to the " Life knife " , as named by Ianto Jones , an alien artefact made of the same type of metal . Jack Harkness suspected the glove was not lost like most things that fell through the rift , but was disposed of , guessing the original owner wanted to be rid of it . He also could not blame them either for wanting to be rid of it . ( TV : " They Keep Killing Suzie " ) The right hand gauntlet could revive the dead , though only for a few minutes before their second , permanent death . The length of time someone came back depended on the user ' s empathy , in other words someone like Gwen Cooper could bring a person back for a few minutes but someone like Owen Harper would not even " get a twitch " out of a corpse . Jack put Suzie Costello in charge of testing the glove . Costello became obsessed with the possibility of being able to bring people back to life , though only for minutes at a time . The gauntlet was more effective on recent , violent trauma victims . Suzie Costello began to murder residents of Cardiff with the Life Knife in order to improve her proficiency in using the glove . ( TV : " Everything Changes " ) She conceived an elaborate plan to use the Life Knife and the gauntlet to bring herself back from the dead , permanently . ( TV : " They Keep Killing Suzie " ) Following the exposure of Costello as a murderer , she shot herself in the head , killing herself . The Glove was placed in Jack ' s safe and sealed with a " DO NOT USE " tag . ( TV : " Everything Changes " ) Costello had already set into motion murders committed on her behalf so that Harkness would revive her , enabling her to come back to life , permanently . Gwen Cooper was the only Torchwood Three team member at that time with the degree of empathy required to operate the glove without Suzie . When the glove was used on Suzie , Gwen ' s life force was slowly drained from her into Suzie and she even began developing the same wound as Suzie in the back of her head where Suzie ' s was . Toshiko Sato destroyed the gauntlet to break the connection , saving Gwen and killing Suzie again . ( TV : " They Keep Killing Suzie " ) Left - hand gauntlet . The left - hand gauntlet appeared in the village of Cardiff at the time when the Bubonic plague appeared in Wales , and the local people built St Mary ' s Church around the glove ' s location when they learnt of its resurrecting ability . When a little girl , Faith , died , the local priest used the resurrection gauntlet to bring Faith back . However , Duroc subsequently used Faith as a gateway into the universe , but was sent back into the darkness before he could collect enough souls to permanently manifest . Afterwards , the glove was left locked in a box in the church . In the early 21st century , after the death of Owen Harper , Jack used the help of a psychic to locate the left glove in order to resurrect Owen for the standard of two minutes so the team could say their goodbyes , as well as to retrieve some important Torchwood information that he possessed . However , Owen did not die after two minutes . Unlike Suzie , Owen remained clinically dead , showing no signs of life , but remained fully animate and cognitive and he was also not drawing power from Jack ( the person who revived him ) . The team soon discovered that a strange energy was slowly transforming Owen ' s cell structure . After the team learnt of the left gauntlet ' s connection with Duroc , they tried to stop Owen ' s transformation by injecting embalming fluid into his body . But the glove became animate and stopped them by attacking Martha Jones and draining her life away ; leaving her at the physical age of 80 . The gauntlet was then destroyed by Owen with a gunshot that reduced it to powder . ( TV : " Dead Man Walking " ) Characteristics . Suzie ' s research showed that the right hand gauntlet was slightly radioactive and that the glove possessed " low psych levels " which allowed it to directly respond to brain activity . It was later established that it had an empathic link in the form of energy with its wearer , which showed up on video cameras like " a rope from [ the ] heart to the glove " and that it transferred the life force of the wearer into the subject to keep the latter alive . This transfer caused the glove ' s user to get weaker , and the subject to become stronger , until eventually the user died . The life transfer also kept the subject from dying of fatal causes such as gunshots , and the only known way to break the connection was to destroy the gauntlet ; which would save the user and kill the subject again . ( TV : " They Keep Killing Suzie " ) The left hand glove turned out to be fundamentally different from the first . Instead of using the " life force " of the wearer to resurrect the dead , it tapped into the power of Duroc from the afterlife to reanimate the subject . The second glove itself also seemed to be far more sinister in nature , was able to move under its own power , and possessed a limited amount of intelligence ( as shown in its attack on the team when they tried to stop Duroc entering the universe ) ; however , this may have been Duroc , from which the glove drew its power , manipulating it . ( TV : " Dead Man Walking " ) Owen Harper was resurrected by this glove , but his " living undead " state , rather than being temporary ( in terms of time , or until the gauntlet was destroyed ) ended up being long - term . ( TV : " Exit Wounds " ) Behind the scenes . Torchwood website . The series 1 version of the Torchwood website showed Suzie experimenting on deceased fish with the resurrection gauntlet and the Life Knife . She noted , " Do you have any idea how hard it is cutting a tiny fish with a knife that big ? "