Esther Drummond Esther Drummond was a CIA analyst in the 21st century and a member of Torchwood upon its reformation in 2011 . She was a good friend of fellow CIA agent , Rex Matheson . Esther sought to bring about the greater good , even at the cost of her own life . She did so by encouraging Rex and Jack to reverse the Miracle , after being shot . Early life . She had an elder sister named Sarah , who had two children , Melanie , and Alice . ( TV : " Dead of Night " ) Their mother died in 2003 . ( TV : " The Categories of Life " ) Miracle Day . After discovering the data which the Torchwood virus had removed from the CIA database , Esther decided to investigate , as she felt responsible for the injuries her colleague , Rex Matheson , had suffered . Esther found information about the Torchwood Institute , Captain Jack Harkness , and Gwen Cooper , just as Jack Harkness found her . They jumped from a window to escape a suicide bomber . Jack Harkness told her all about Torchwood before drugging her with retcon . ( TV : " The New World " ) However , Esther continued to research Torchwood , and discovered Rex ' s office was being thoroughly searched . She informed her superior about her continuing research and found her computer account deactivated and a substantial amount of money deposited to her bank account . Understanding she was about to be removed from the CIA , she barely escaped . Esther tried to tell Rex about their situation , but only contacted him just as he had landed and met his CIA colleagues . She met him , Jack Harkness and Gwen Cooper at the airport , and helped them escape after a brief run - in with Lyn Peterfield . ( TV : " Rendition " ) Forced to go on the run with Rex , Esther joined Torchwood to form a new team . She helped Gwen learn American terms and food to avoid sticking out . Sneaking back into the C . I . A . , they found the director ' s phone , which had been giving the orders to kill Torchwood ' s last members along with Rex and herself . She accompanied the team to a warehouse owned by PhiCorp . Inside were a large stockpile of painkillers . This led the team to believe that PhiCorp had foreknowledge of Miracle Day and might have had a hand in bringing it about . ( TV : " Dead of Night " ) The team escaped to LA to infiltrate PhiCorp ' s facilities there . Esther decided to say good bye to her sister . However , when Esther arrived at her sister ' s house , she found it boarded up , and Sarah refused to let Esther come inside or see her nieces . Esther called child services to report her sister . She went to meet the rest of Torchwood , but was followed by an assassin . The Torchwood team went to LA , where they began planning to infiltrate PhiCorp . Gwen and Jack broke into the building , followed by the assassin . Meanwhile , Esther called child services and found her sister ' s daughters had been removed . After the assassin threatened to kill Jack and hurt Gwen , Rex saved them , and shouted at Esther for endangering the mission . ( TV : " Escape to LA " ) Investigating the camps . After the new categories of life were introduced , and the overflow camp s were reopened , Esther realised the module s were on the camps ' plans but had been removed from the photos . The team decided to find out what was in them , so Esther got an office job in the camp , Rex was admitted into the camp for his injury , and new Torchwood member Dr Vera Juarez used her position on the medical panels to gain access . Inside the camp , Esther reassigned Rex to category one so that he would be moved to the module . Esther also saw Vera arriving at the camp , and Colin Maloney leave with her for a tour of the camp . When Esther worried that Vera had not returned , she phoned her , but the call failed . ( TV : " The Categories of Life " ) When Colin Maloney returned , Esther asked him where Dr Juarez was . Colin claimed she had gone home , and had praised his leadership of the camp . Esther tried to eavesdrop on Colin speaking with Ralph Coltrane but heard nothing . Esther later overheard Colin being told Rex had been captured . She tried to follow Colin as he went to interrogate him . However , the camp had been put in lock down mode , and Esther could not . Later , Esther found Colin and Rex , ignoring the lock down rules . Esther told Colin he had received a phone call and that she could watch the prisoner for him . When Colin asked who was on the phone , Esther said it was Dr Juarez . Unfortunately , Colin had murdered Dr Juarez . He knew Esther was lying . Rex shouted at Esther to run , but Colin attacked her . Esther strangled him to unconsciousness ; Rex had to comfort her afterwards as she considered this to be her first kill , even though Rex reminded her there was no longer any such thing as killing . Esther took the keys out of Colin ' s pocket , but Colin was apparently still in either category two or three and attacked . Colin started to strangle Esther , but was shot by Ralph . Esther freed Rex , and the two of them escaped . ( TV : " The Middle Men " ) Colasanto . When they returned to their base , Esther tried to comfort Rex about Vera ' s death , and asked if he had tried to contact her family . Rex pointed out that he hardly knew Vera and asked Esther to drop the subject . Soon afterwards , Esther noticed that the eye - 5 contact lenses had been activated . Esther looked through the text messages that had been sent to the lenses , and realised that Gwen ' s family had been kidnapped and that she had been forced to take Jack to the kidnappers . Esther and Rex followed Gwen and Jack until they arrived at their meeting place with Olivia Colasanto in addition to contacting Andy Davidson and asking him to help Gwen ' s family . Esther and Rex both pointed guns at Colasanto and her men , and forced them to surrender . However , they were persuaded to go with her anyway as she was taking them to the one man who knew the true nature of the miracle . ( TV : " Immortal Sins " ) Olivia took them to Angelo Colasanto ' s house . Upon arriving there , Rex asked Esther to stay outside and to keep an open cell phone line . While everyone else went inside , Esther researched the families and was surprised to find that nobody existed with any of their last names . While she was waiting outside , Brian Friedkin arrived and pointed a gun at her . Fiedkin , along with several other CIA agents , brought Esther inside and arrested all members of the Torchwood team , and everyone who was working for the Colasanto family . Friedkin then took Rex out of the room , and before long the eye - 5 system was activated to show Friedkin admitting that the families owned him . Allen Shapiro soon arrived and arrested Friedkin and everyone working with him , as well as Olivia Colasanto . Shapiro took over operations at the Colasanto house , and put the CIA in charge . Esther was then able to webchat with her CIA colleagues , and was informed by Charlotte Wills that her sister had been committed . Esther spoke to her sister on the phone , and found out that she was planning to transfer to category one . Esther tried to talk Sarah out of this , but she wouldn ' t listen , as she believed that her body no longer contained a soul . Esther decided that the best way to help her sister was to try to end the miracle . Shapiro became more interested in the Colasanto ' s when Angelo became the first person to die since Miracle Day . The CIA ' s priority then became to discover how Angelo had died . Esther then realised that there was something under the floor where Angelo ' s bed had been . After Gwen was deported , Jack admitted that it was a null field generator , which had cancelled out the morphic field that was preventing death . Jack persuaded Esther and Rex that it would be dangerous to allow the CIA to obtain the null field generator , and convinced them to help him escape . Esther was planning to stay with Rex and the CIA after they helped Jack escape , but Jack was shot so Esther was forced to go with him . Unfortunately , Esther had no idea how to help him . ( TV : " End of the Road " ) Finding the Blessing . Esther spent the next two months helping Jack recover , and the two eventually ended up in Scotland . Esther collected Jack ' s blood , as she assumed that it must be somehow relevant to the miracle . Eventually Gwen contacted the two and informed them that Oswald Danes was at her house , and wanted to speak to Jack . Esther and Jack went to Wales , and met with Oswald . Oswald informed them that he had stolen Jilly Kitzinger ' s laptop , and that she was working for a man named Harry Bosco . Esther laughed , and explained that Harry Bosco was a process rather than a person , and that Jilly ' s job was to mistranslate things for the families . Torchwood managed to find some of the reports that Jilly had mistranslated , but as none of them spoke Chinese , Esther sent them to Rex to have the CIA translate . Torchwood then determined that the Blessing was in Shanghai and Buenos Aires . Esther then went to Buenos Aires , where she met up with Rex . ( TV : " The Gathering " ) Esther and Rex secretly switched Rex ' s blood for Jack ' s and called for army support . Rex ' s wound started to bother him due to the transfusion . Esther was climbing into a truck that was to take her and Rex to the Blessing , and handed the case with Jack ' s blood to a soldier . Esther then went to help Rex with his wound , and one of the soldiers blew up the truck . Esther and Rex pretended to have become category ones in the explosion to trick the Families , and proceeded to infiltrate the blessing . Unfortunately they were captured upon entering the Blessing . The Family members at the Buenos Aires side of the Blessing took Rex and Esther to see the Blessing , where they were allowed to talk to Jack , Gwen and Oswald who were at the Shanghai end . Jack decided to reverse the Blessing by feeding it his mortal blood , but was informed that his blood would have to be put into both ends of the Blessing . Rex then revealed that he had Jack ' s blood in him and he and Jack decided to sacrifice themselves to end the Miracle . The leader of the Families in Buenos Aries , The Cousin , shot Esther to try to force them not to , as ending the Miracle would mean allowing her to die . However both men , encouraged by Gwen and Esther , decided to go ahead and successfully end the Miracle . Rex killed the leader and they were rescued by the army . However , while Rex survived , Esther did not . Unlike many people , Esther received a full funeral . ( TV : " The Blood Line " ) Legacy . When leaving Torchwood , Gwen mentioned how she loved Owen , Tosh and Esther . ( AUDIO : " Herald of the Dawn " ) Behind the scenes . During pre - production of " " , this character ' s name was reported as " Esther Katusi " . This was due to the original profile of the character as a non - Caucasian ; the casting of Alexa Havins resulted in the character being renamed . When Havins was announced on 6 January 2011 , BBC publicity still referred to the character as Katusi . ( DWM 427 )