Gwen Cooper Gwen Elizabeth Cooper was a Cardiff police constable who was recruited by Torchwood Three . She eventually rose to second - in - command and , for a short while , commander of the unit . By 2009 , Gwen was the only surviving member beyond the immortal Jack Harkness after Torchwood Three was declared an enemy of the British government . In 2011 , she had severed her ties with Torchwood and begun a relatively peaceful life with her husband , Rhys Williams , and their newborn daughter , Anwen Williams . She remained prepared to fight for survival if the government came after her and resumed operations with Jack during the events of the Miracle . Afterwards , she rebuilt Torchwood , but ultimately left to start again with Rhys and Anwen . Biography . Early life . Gwen ' s family was established in Cardiff by the 19th century . The Tenth Doctor believed that this , coupled with the influence of the space - time rift in Cardiff , might explain her physical resemblance to a funeral home employee named Gwyneth , who died on 24 December 1869 in one of the earliest known effects involving the rift . ( TV : " Journey ' s End " , " The Unquiet Dead " ) Gwen Cooper was born in Swansea on either 5 May or 16 August 1978 to Geraint and Mary Cooper . ( TV : " Children of Earth " , " Something Borrowed " , " The New World " ) When Gwen was a girl , her father came home one day and she eavesdropped on a conversation Geraint and her mother had . She discovered that someone at Geraint ' s workplace had been stealing money and Geraint had been falsely accused of the thefts . She ran up the stairs and came back to Geraint with about £2 . 50 , to which her father replied , " It ' s not about the money . It ' s just that I can ' t stand anyone thinking I ' m dishonest . " As Gwen and Geraint played that night , Gwen thought that he was the most honest man she ' d ever meet . She later told this story to Jack and Oswald Danes . ( TV : " The Blood Line " ) She did a school project on the Cottingley fairy photos as a child . ( TV : " Small Worlds " ) Gwen had a friend named Janice . Her brother had a pet rat called Fang . ( AUDIO : " Love Rat " ) Before dating Rhys Williams , whom she had met in college , Gwen fought off the romantic attention of police partner Andy Davidson ( TV : " Adrift " ) and had a boyfriend named Bruce . Rhys fancied her as soon as he saw her because of her nice personality and her good looks . Rhys often made jokes during the stupidest times . Gwen referred to this as " Rhysing around " . ( TV : " Adam " ) For their first date , Rhys took Gwen for a picnic on the beach , though little did he know that the beach was a nudist beach . ( AUDIO : " The Sin Eaters " ) Rhys and Gwen came to live together , and while Gwen ' s work in Torchwood occasionally brought alien phenomena to Rhys ' s attention , Rhys did not initially believe in alien s , instead concluding terrorists had caused hallucinations by putting psychotropics in the water supply . ( TV : " Everything Changes " ) As a police officer . By March 2005 , Gwen and Andy were partners . ( AUDIO : " One Rule " ) In 2007 , Gwen was a uniformed police constable called in on John Tucker ' s murder scene , only to encounter a mysterious team of people referred to as " Torchwood " . At a distance , she saw the team , who had called away the police from the crime scene , resurrecting the victim to test their resurrection gauntlet . After recovering from an attack inside a pub at a hospital , she saw Torchwood capture a Weevil that killed a hospital porter . Gwen tracked down Torchwood . Captain Jack Harkness took her on a tour of the Torchwood Hub , then dosed her with retcon , a drug that induced selective amnesia . Gwen partially remembered by connecting a reconstruction of the murder weapon to a knife seen in the Hub and returned to Roald Dahl Plass . She encountered Suzie Costello , who had secretly murdered several people so that the resurrection gauntlet could be tested . Failing to escape capture , Suzie shot Jack and then committed suicide . Gwen ' s memories fully returned . Seeing him come back to life after being shot , Gwen became the only person for a time to know of Jack ' s immortality . With a spot at Torchwood vacant , she joined Torchwood at Jack ' s invitation , who valued her empathetic nature and ability to see beyond the facts . ( TV : " Everything Changes " ) Life in Torchwood . Early career . On her first day on the job , Gwen accidentally released a sex gas creature from an alien meteor , which entered Carys Fletcher to feed on the human male orgasm . Gwen tried empathising with Carys and looked into her history to help her fight the creature , as she felt the rest of Torchwood had lost what it meant to be human . When Carys escaped imprisonment in the Torchwood Hub , Gwen willingly offered herself to it , as she thought she could fight it better than Carys . Jack tricked it into entering the portable prison cell , and the creature was poisoned by Earth ' s atmosphere . ( TV : " Day One " ) Gwen retrieved a quantum transducer from Bernie Harris , which made her see echoes of Cardiff ' s past . ( TV : " Ghost Machine " ) Gwen was taught to use guns by Jack , as she was a " beat cop " rather than a firearms officer . ( TV : " Day One " , " Ghost Machine " ) There appeared to be some sexual tension between the two . Any developing feelings were apparently ended when she returned home and the transducer showed her memories of her relationship with Rhys . When Bernie later handed over the second half , she saw her future self ' s hands covered in blood saying the name " Owen " . Later , she stopped her teammate Owen Harper from killing Ed Morgan , but Ed impaled himself on the knife she confiscated . ( TV : " Ghost Machine " ) Ianto Jones had helped awaken the partially cyber - converted Lisa Hallett from beneath the Hub . Gwen and Owen kiss ed passionately whilst hiding from Lisa as she tried to take over the Hub . The team escaped , but Ianto ran back to her . After Lisa had put her mind in the body of Annie , Ianto saw Gwen and the others shoot her . ( TV : " Cyberwoman " ) Gwen felt unsafe when fairies attacked her home . As the fairies attacked the anniversary of Lynn Pierce and Roy , Gwen tried and failed to stop Jack from handing Lynn ' s daughter Jasmine to the fairies as their " Chosen One " . ( TV : " Small Worlds " ) The Torchwood team travelled to the Welsh countryside to investigate a series of gruesome murders . The Torchwood SUV was stolen by a group of cannibals that harvested travellers once every ten years . The team followed the cannibals to their village . Right as his team were captured , Jack stepped in and incapacitated the cannibals . Gwen asked one of the cannibals why he did this . He responded that he felt happy . The cannibals were arrested by the police . ( TV : " Countrycide " ) Following this , Owen seduced Gwen and embarked upon an affair with her , largely because she couldn ' t share her supernatural and extraterrestrial experiences with her boyfriend , Rhys . ( TV : " Countrycide " , " Greeks Bearing Gifts " ) Gwen , connecting Suzie with a series of murders committed by a member of Pilgrim , brought Suzie back to life with the resurrection gauntlet . Instead of keeping her alive for a minute for a brief interrogation , the link was maintained . After Max Tresilian was captured , Gwen and Suzie later went on a road trip . On this trip , Gwen started to slowly lose her life energy , growing the gunshot wounds Suzie had . Suzie was killed when fellow team member Toshiko Sato destroyed the resurrection gauntlet , breaking the link and saving Gwen ' s life . ( TV : " They Keep Killing Suzie " ) Gwen was the only one to hear the ghost of Eugene Jones , although she didn ' t know that it was him at the time . With his help , she found out why he died . After Eugene ' s funeral , she had the Dogon sixth eye removed from his body . Eugene ' s final act was saving Gwen by pushing her out of the way of an oncoming car . ( TV : " Random Shoes " ) Gwen saw John Ellis , Emma - Louise Cowell and Diane Holmes come through the Rift from 1953 Earth . Gwen had to explain to her the differences in sexual norms in the 21st century and briefly had Emma live at her house in the guise of her cousin . When Emma found a new job in London , Gwen was forced to say her goodbyes . ( TV : " Out of Time " ) Gwen called off her affair to Owen . She confessed it to Rhys , but gave him retcon so he wouldn ' t remember . Inside the Hub , she found the mobile phone of the deceased Dan Hodges received a message containing the location of the Weevil Fight Club Dan had been killed at . Gwen helped shut down the club and free the captive Weevil . ( TV : " Combat " ) Jack and Tosh went missing inside the Ritz . Gwen discovered Tosh ' s half of the equation to the Rift hidden inside once they had been trapped in 1941 . She relayed this information to Owen and Ianto , and they opened the Rift up , sending Jack and Tosh back . ( TV : " Captain Jack Harkness " ) Jack and Gwen investigated A Stitch in Time , a shop owned by Bilis Manger , the Ritz ' caretaker . Gwen received a precognitive vision from Bilis of Rhys ' death by stabbing . She rendered Rhys unconscious with a stun gun and locked him up in the confinement area beneath the Hub . This was to no avail , as Bilis simply teleported in and stabbed him to death there . She took part in a coup with Owen to overthrow Jack and open the Rift , believing it would resurrect Rhys . The damage caused by the Rift reversed and she was ecstatic when Rhys returned to life , the previous event having apparently " un - happened " . When Jack battled with Abaddon , whom the Rift had also released , and remained dead for days , Gwen stayed by his side , unwavering in her belief in him , kissing his dead lips before he was finally resurrected . ( TV : " End of Days " ) Soon after his recovery , Jack vanished . He left the team behind to chase after the Doctor ' s TARDIS . ( TV : " End of Days " , " Utopia " ) Jack ' s disappearance . After Jack ' s disappearance , Gwen , along with the rest of the team ( Ianto , Tosh and Owen ) , was dispatched on a " wild goose chase " mission to the Himalayas by Harold Saxon . ( TV : " The Sound of Drums " ) With Jack still missing , and despite being the junior employee , Gwen nonetheless took over as Torchwood Three team leader . Rhys proposed marriage to her and Gwen accepted . Gwen continued to operate Torchwood Three as Jack had done . ( TV : " Kiss Kiss , Bang Bang " ) Reunion . While chasing a Blowfish alien through Cardiff , Jack saved a family ' s life and quickly took over Torchwood again . Torchwood met an old lover of Jack ' s , Captain John Hart , who had came through the Rift searching for some canisters that had also come through . He told Torchwood that they contained radioactive bombs . John poisoned Gwen with his paralysing lip gloss but was saved . Gwen caught up with John , but the contents of the canisters were actually components of a bomb that latched onto the DNA of the owner of the canisters ' murderer . After John handcuffed her , Gwen attempted to sacrifice them to stop the bomb hitting Cardiff . She was saved at the last second when Jack and Owen found a way to confuse the bomb and safely dispose of it . John forcibly left 21st century Cardiff . ( TV : " Kiss Kiss , Bang Bang " ) Gwen questioned a burglar about who had pushed him out of Beth Halloran and Mike Lyndon . In his dying breath , he said it was Beth . Torchwood then took Beth in for questioning . A mind probe revealed her as the sleeper agent Keryehla Janees of Cell 114 . When Tosh removed her connection to the cell , three advance guard agents awoke . Two of them died in their attacks , and Jack and Gwen stopped a third , David before he could set off warheads stored in an abandoned coal mine . Before David committed suicide , he told Jack the rest of Cell 114 had already arrived on Earth and factored Torchwood into their plans . Rather than let her sleeper agent form take over , Beth pretended to threaten Gwen and Torchwood killed her . ( TV : " Sleeper " ) Gwen saw Tommy Brockless awakened each year for a day , to check if he would be ready to fix the time shift s occurring between 1918 and some undefined point in the future . When Gwen saw ghosts appear in St Teilo ' s , the military hospital Tommy came from , she realised Tommy had to return to 1918 and close the time shifts . With Tosh ' s help , he did so . ( TV : " To the Last Man " ) Torchwood confiscated alien meat from Leighton Reynolds , who worked for Harwood ' s Haulage , Rhys ' transport firm . After Rhys spotted Gwen , she came clean about the true nature of her work for Torchwood . Rhys helped Torchwood infiltrate an abattoir run by Harries & Harries . Owen was forced to mercy kill an alien creature the company was mutilating to sell its meat . The workers were retconned and Jack offered Gwen to do the same to Rhys . She refused . ( TV : " Meat " ) When Adam Smith arrived at Torchwood , he inserted himself into Gwen ' s memory and she forgot about Rhys . When she came home , he was in the flat and she called Jack thinking he was a mad man who had broken into her flat . She began to remember him after he refreshed her memory of how they had met and fully gained her memories back after removing the previous 48 hours of her memory , killing Adam . ( TV : " Adam " ) Martha Jones arrived at Torchwood to help them investigate a series of clinical killings akin to assassination s . Gwen and Ianto captured Billy Davis , the hitman hired by the Pharm that assassinated people taking their dangerous drug Reset . She infiltrated the Pharm and saw aliens being mistreated for experimental purposes . Toshiko shut down the Pharm , but the Pharm ' s head Professor Aaron Copley killed Owen . ( TV : " Reset " ) Jack found a second resurrection gauntlet to revive Owen , making him undead . Instead of drawing energy , he started bringing through the entity Duroc . Gwen discovered a similar incident involving the glove and the Grim Reaper happening in 15th century Cardiff . Duroc manifested inside a hospital and Gwen saw Owen fight it off . ( TV : " Dead Man Walking " ) Gwen investigated alien artefact collector Henry Parker ' s house to see if the energy spike forming were dangerous . ( TV : " A Day in the Death " ) Torchwood found the half - alive bodies of the Night Travellers ' victims near Hope Street . They learnt the Travellers had escaped from a reel of film and put the . Jack captured the Travellers on film and destroyed them , but only one of the victims could be saved . ( TV : " From Out of the Rain " ) As Gwen was preparing for her marriage to Rhys , she was bitten by a Nostrovite , which transferred the egg of its young into her body , causing her to wake up pregnant on her wedding day . Rhys eventually saved her by using the singularity scalpel to remove the egg from her , while Jack destroyed the mother Nostrovite . She and Rhys were married , though the guests ' memories were retconned to forget the alien involvement . ( TV : " Something Borrowed " ) Though she and Rhys were now married , she chose to keep her maiden name . ( PROSE : " SkyPoint " , TV : " Journey ' s End " , TV : " The Gathering " ) Gwen was upset when Andy Davidson , her former police partner , told her she had become distant since she joined Torchwood . Angry at this , she investigated why so many people had been disappearing from Cardiff . Against Jack ' s wishes , Gwen cross - referenced the disappearances with negative rift spikes . Ianto gave Gwen a satnav leading to Flat Holm , where Jonah Bevan was committed to once the Rift had taken him away and returned him to the Cardiff area . Gwen showed his mother Nikki her ill son and the two heard Jonah ' s primal scream as a result of Jonah looking into a dark star . Nikki asked Gwen not to subject any other family to this . ( TV : " Adrift " ) When signs of an unidentified life - signs were detected from a warehouse , the rest of the team went to investigate , while Gwen got delayed and avoided an explosion that trapped the others . Together with Rhys , who had given her a lift , she managed to rescue the others and discovered that Captain John Hart was responsible . ( TV : " Fragments " ) With Rift activity being detected in three locations in Cardiff , Gwen went to police headquarters , where she discovered that the Weevils had killed four of the senior police officers . Later , Gwen witnessed the detonation of fifteen bombs , planted by John and Gray , Jack ' s brother , at strategic locations around Cardiff , causing mayhem . She took command of the confused police officers and helps to subdue the Weevils before making her way to the Hub . She was trapped in the Weevil cage by Gray but rescued by Jack and returned to the control room , though too late to help Tosh , who was shot and killed by Gray . ( TV : " Exit Wounds " ) After the loss . The deaths of Toshiko and Owen had a profound impact on Gwen , to the point where she questioned whether it was worth Torchwood continuing . ( TV : " Exit Wounds " ) She was still emotionally unsteady regarding the loss several months later . ( AUDIO : " Lost Souls " ) Perhaps , to help her cope , she took to placing a photograph of Owen and Tosh next to her workstation in the Hub . ( TV : " " ) The Medusa Cascade incident . Gwen was present at the Hub when Earth was moved to the Medusa Cascade and invaded by the Dalek s and helped out with contacting the Tenth Doctor . Upon first seeing the Doctor , she said , " Ooh , he ' s a bit nice . I thought he ' d be older . " After Jack left to help the Doctor , Ianto and Gwen tried to hold off a Dalek invading the Hub with conventional weaponry , even though she knew they wouldn ' t work , telling Ianto , " I ' m going down fighting , like Owen , like Tosh . How about you ? " ( TV : " The Stolen Earth " ) They survived thanks to Tosh ' s time lock defence system , which froze the Dalek in time before it could get beyond the threshold of the Hub ' s entrance , although this also trapped Ianto and Gwen inside . She was able to help the Doctor use the Rift to return the Earth to its original position ; she and Ianto opened up the Rift Manipulator to allow the Doctor to use it as a " towrope " to move Earth back to its proper place . During the incident , she experienced a moment of puzzlement when the Doctor and Rose Tyler shared an in - joke at her resemblance to someone from the 19th century . ( TV : " Journey ' s End " ) The 456 incident . In September 2009 , Gwen discovered a man called Clement McDonald in an East Grinstead Psychiatric Hospital who displayed the same signs as the children that were possessed by the 456 . When she met him , he said he could smell that she was pregnant , which was confirmed by the Hub ' s medical scanner . Jack ran in and after seeing this placed his hand on her , which was still on the Hub ' s medical scanner . The picture then switched to reveal the bomb hidden inside Jack ' s body , forcing Ianto and Gwen to abandon the Hub as it was destroyed . ( TV : " " ) After escaping the explosion , Gwen was attacked by two government agents masquerading as paramedics but managed to fight them off with a fire extinguisher , steal their weapons and then flee the scene . She returned home to collect Rhys , realising that if someone was trying to kill her then her husband was next on the list . They were able to escape when Gwen delayed the government hit squad by shooting their tyres out . The two fled to London where they made contact with Lois Habiba , who informed them of the government ' s plans and eventually became a spy for them . Lois told them the location of the captured Jack and told them they needed to disguise themselves as funeral workers in order to gain access . Gwen and Rhys sneaked into the base but were cornered by Johnson outside Jack ' s cell . They were saved by Ianto , who created a path using a forklift and the group , Jack included , escaped . ( TV : " " ) The team relocated to an old Torchwood One storage facility and witnessed the return of the 456 . Gwen went to visit Lois again and convinced her to take a pair of Eye - 5 contact lenses that would allow Torchwood to monitor the situation inside Thames House . Later on , Gwen convinced Andy Davidson to allow Clem to be released from prison and took him back to the storage base for his safety . She later witnessed the 456 demand one - tenth of the Earth ' s children and convinced Lois to stand up to the government , who were planning to give them the children , and blackmail them to allow Jack and Ianto access to talk to the 456 . ( TV : " " , " " ) With Rhys in a hidden location with the recordings that could destroy the government , Gwen purposefully led Johnson and her team to the base and revealed to them what the government were doing , gaining their support . While talking with Johnson , the 456 became angry while dealing with Jack and killed Clem , along with many MI5 staff when it flooded the building with a virus , leading to Ianto ' s death . Gwen rushed to the building once it was safe and wept by the body of her friend while Jack was reborn again . ( TV : " " ) Having failed to stop the government from activating the plan to take the bottom ten percent of school children , Gwen , along with Rhys and Andy , went to fulfil a promise to Jack — protect Ianto ' s niece and nephew . En route , Gwen , upset over Ianto ' s death , strongly implied to Rhys that she was considering aborting the pregnancy , due to the dangerous world they now lived in . She later recanted her statement and told Rhys she never seriously considered the option . Arriving just as the army did to take the children , the group gathered as many children as they could and ran , along with Ianto ' s sister and her husband , to a nearby disused building , but were soon discovered . Running from the army proved fruitless and soon only Gwen and a single child were left uncaptured and running , but she was saved when Jack destroyed the 456 and she happily embraced the children . ( TV : " " ) Gwen was declared dead as a result of the 456 Regulation . ( TV : " The New World " ) Aftermath . In March 2010 , Gwen and Rhys went to meet Jack on a hill , seeing him for the first time since he left to travel the world in the wake of the death of his grandson . Now heavily pregnant , Gwen tried to convince Jack not to leave her and Torchwood , but he left , teleporting into space . Gwen was left sobbing in Rhys ' s arms . With Jack gone , the other members dead and Gwen heavily pregnant , the future of Torchwood Three was left in limbo . ( TV : " " ) She later gave birth to a healthy baby , Anwen Williams . ( COMIC : " Shrouded " ) Gwen , Rhys , and Anwen then went into hiding for the next year . ( TV : " The New World " ) Miracle Day . On Miracle Day , Gwen ' s father Geraint was brought to the hospital , so Gwen and her family were forced to return to Cardiff . Upon arriving there , Andy informed Gwen of the Miracle , and the two of them began investigating online . Shortly after they returned home , Rex Matheson arrived at their secret home , which was shortly attacked by helicopter . With Jack ' s help they escaped to Roald Dahl Plass , where Matheson extradited them all to America . ( TV : " The New World " ) While her husband and child were sent back home , Gwen was still forced to board the America - bound plane . Onboard , Gwen was handcuffed to her seat next to Jack . She spent her time making fun of one of the workers and Rex repeatedly ignored her . Rex was focused on being professional about his job , prompting Gwen to give a harsh remark about his attitude . During this time , Gwen learnt that Jack lost his ability to keep coming back to life . Jack was poisoned by the other CIA agent onboard , Lyn Peterfield and Gwen freed herself to keep Lyn at bay while Rex put together an antidote for Jack using tips from Dr Vera Juarez over the phone . Upon having her ancestry insulted by Lyn , Gwen knocked her out and handcuffs her before being returned to her seat by Rex with a recovered Jack . Upon landing in America , Gwen was freed by Rex as the CIA turned on him . Gwen boarded Rex ' s fellow ex - CIA colleague Esther Drummond ' s car and fled . ( TV : " Rendition " ) Along with Jack , Gwen took charge of the ex - CIA agents to form a new Torchwood team while stealing supplies ( yet again ) to make a suitable base of operations . The team soon acquired the phone of the CIA ' s director Brian Friedkin , who had given out orders to kill her and Jack to keep Torchwood disbanded . Later , Gwen accompanied the rest of the team to a warehouse owned by a pharmaceutical company known as PhiCorp , which stockpiled a large amount of painkillers . This led them to believe that PhiCorp may have had a hand in " Miracle Day " occurring . ( TV : " Dead of Night " ) Gwen , along with the rest of the new Torchwood team , went to Los Angeles to infiltrate a PhiCorp installation there . Unknown to her , they were followed by an assassin . While in LA , Gwen called Rhys and asked him to take her father out of the hospital . Gwen tricked Nicolas Frumkin into giving her his voice print , palm print , and retinal print , which she needed to access PhiCorp . Jack and Gwen both broke into the PhiCorp building , and were followed by the assassin . The assassin tied up both Jack and Gwen , putting a knife to Gwen ' s throat . He threatened to cut Gwen ' s throat if Jack refused to answer his questions . Gwen persuaded the assassin to tell her who he was working for , but before the assassin had a chance to speak , Rex arrived and shot him in the throat . The three stole the information they needed from PhiCorp and escaped the building . Gwen then received a phone call from Rhys , and was informed that her father had been taken to one of PhiCorp ' s overflow camp s . ( TV : " Escape to LA " ) Using the alias Yvonne Pallister , Gwen returned to Wales . She was reunited with her husband , daughter , and mother , and began planning to take her father out of the Cowbridge Overflow Camp . She went to the camp with Rhys and Andy Davidson , and tried to persuade the employees at the camp to let her see her father . Unfortunately , no visitors were allowed , and even Andy ' s position as a police officer did not persuade them to change their minds . Gwen and Rhys decided to break into the camp to free Geraint . Gwen went undercover as a nurse , and Rhys brought Gwen into the camp in his truck . Gwen found Geraint , and she and Rhys tried to bring him to the truck . Geraint had another heart attack and became unconscious . He was then reclassified as category one . After Rhys informed Gwen that the module s were for " burn victims " , Gwen realised that the true purpose of the modules were to cremate category one individuals . ( TV : " The Categories of Life " ) Gwen then attempted to persuade a doctor at the camp that her father was actually in category 2 . However , the doctor refused to reexamine Geraint , as that would mean she would be obligated to reexamine all category 1s . Gwen and Rhys decided to try to break Geraint out of the camp again , and succeeded . Rhys took Geraint out of the camp in his truck , while Gwen used the Eye - 5 contact lenses to contact Captain Jack . Jack then recorded Gwen blowing up the modules . Gwen returned to America , and received a phone call at the airport , saying simply " lenses . " Gwen went to the bathroom and put the contact lenses on , where she received text messages saying , " We have your mother , " " We have your husband , " and " We have your child . " Gwen asked them what they wanted , and the text responded , " Bring us Jack . " ( TV : " The Middle Men " ) Gwen then returned to Torchwood ' s base in LA , stunning Jack and tying him up in the car . She told Jack that her family had been kidnapped and that she had to trade Jack for them . Gwen ignored Jack ' s attempts to trick her into letting him go , and brought him where her contact lenses told them to . She even admitted to Jack that in a sickening way she was glad the other members of the old team were dead because now that so few knew the truth it made her feel more important . During their journey , she and Jack learned more about each other . After Gwen stated that she could see Jack killed in front of her to save her daughter , Jack responded by saying that he would rip the skin from her skull before he let Gwen take his life . Despite their hostilities , Gwen began to feel guilty for driving her best friend to his death , and asked him to tell her about his life . When they arrived Olivia Colasanto and her men were there waiting for them . Rex and Esther followed them and threatened to shoot Colasanto ' s people . Andy simultaneously managed to free Gwen ' s family . ( TV : " Immortal Sins " ) Torchwood then agreed to go with Olivia to see her grandfather Angelo Colasanto who knew what had caused the Miracle . Upon arriving at the Colasanto residence , Olivia explained that Angelo had been kept alive on life support , and that the Three Families were responsible for the Miracle . Before long , Friedkin arrived , and captured Torchwood , Olivia , and her employees . Friedkin then took Rex to another room in order to take revenge on him , but Rex recorded him admitting that he worked for the families with the Torchwood contact lenses . Allen Shapiro soon arrived and arrested Friedkin and Olivia . After Angelo became the first person to die since Miracle Day , Gwen spoke with Rhys on the phone while Jack was sulking . Esther then found a null field generator under the floor , Gwen was deported back to Wales when Jack refused to explain to Shapiro what it was . ( TV : " End of the Road " ) Gwen spent the next two months at home with her family , robbing pharmacies in order to obtain medicine for her father . Geraint was forced to live in the basement , as he would be sent back to an overflow camp to be burned if he was found . Gwen ' s house had been searched , but the police did not find Geraint . Meanwhile , Gwen ' s house was being watched by a man who was likely working for the Families . His goal seemed to be to find Jack Harkness , and he seemed to be hoping that Jack would try to come meet with Gwen . Gwen ' s family had their groceries delivered to them , and one day the delivery man happened to be convicted paedophile Oswald Danes . Upon entering Gwen ' s house , Oswald picked up Anwen , which Gwen was not happy about . Gwen and Rhys proceeded to beat up Oswald , until he explained that he had information about the Miracle and wanted to speak to Jack . Gwen asked Jack to returnn to Wales , and Jack arrived at Gwen ' s house , after he retcon ned the man who was watching Gwen ' s house . Using the leads that Oswald had given them , Torchwood realised that the Blessing was at antipodes in Shanghai and Buenos Aires . The police soon returned to Gwen ' s house , and used a new app to find Gwen ' s father . Gwen begged them not to take Geraint , pointing out that he was still warm . The man who was taking him comforted Gwen by pointing out that he was about to get a lot warmer where he was going . Gwen then went to Shanghai with Jack and Oswald in an attempt to find the Blessing , while Rex and Esther went to Buenos Aires . Upon arriving in Shanghai , Jack ' s gunshot wound began to hurt him again , so Gwen helped him with this bandage . However , drops of Jack ' s blood then began to move towards the Blessing . ( TV : " The Gathering " ) Based on the direction in which Jack ' s blood was moving , Gwen was able to locate the Shanghai end of the Blessing . Upon finding it , Gwen called Jack and Oswald and asked them to come , and then spoke to Rhys who was planning to visit her father in the overflow camp with Andy . Gwen told Rhys that she wasn ' t sure if she wanted to end the Miracle since it would mean her father ' s death , but Rhys told her that she should just let him die if necessary . When Jack and Oswald arrived , the three broke into the facility that housed the Blessing . They found some explosives inside which they strapped to Oswald . Oswald threatened to blow himself and the facility up if the families tried to stop them . A family member revealed that in order to end the Miracle , mortal blood would have to be put into both sides of the Blessing . Rex had transfused Jack ' s blood into himself , and he was at the Buenos Aires end . Gwen decided that she would shoot Jack as she didn ' t want him to have to kill himself . One of the family members in Buenos Aires then shot Esther , so that ending the Miracle would mean allowing Esther to die . Jack and Rex were unsure of what to do , but Gwen , having already accepted that ending the Miracle would mean killing her father , decided that it would be better to end the Miracle and let Esther die . Gwen shot Jack while Rex removed his bandage , and both of their blood was sucked into the Blessing , ending the Miracle . Gwen attempted to escape in a lift with Jilly Kitzinger while Oswald blew up the facility and a family member , but Jack soon came back to life as his immortality was restored when the Miracle ended . Gwen attempted to bring Jack into the lift with them , but Jilly was not willing to wait to escape , so the two of them got into a physical fight . Upon beating Jilly up , Gwen helped Jack into the lift and the three escaped . Jack , Gwen and Rex returned to America where they attended Esther ' s funeral . After the funeral , Gwen watched as Rex was shot by Charlotte Wills , and was shocked when he , having somehow gained Jack ' s immortality , came back to life . ( TV : " The Blood Line " ) Rebuilding Torchwood . Gwen and Rhys spent a brief period following the Miracle based in Washington DC . ( AUDIO : " Army of One " , " Fallout " ) By 2012 they had returned to Wales with their daughter Anwen . Gwen began to miss her life with Torchwood and , unbeknownst to her , the Helix Intelligence within the Earth was amplifying these feelings , causing her to develop a psychosis . Jack returned to deal with the crisis , and took Gwen aboard the " Ice Maiden " . Gwen refused to be left out of the mission , and accompanied Jack to a mountain in Peru where he planned to sacrifice himself to heal the Helix Intelligence . Gwen took his place , and was pulled into the mountain . Gwen was on board the " Ice Maiden " two weeks later where she was reunited with Jack . ( PROSE : " Exodus Code " ) By 2017 , Gwen returned to service as part of Torchwood in order to deal with temporary holes in space - time which brought through new alien phenomena in Cardiff despite the apparent closing of the Rift years prior , which they weren ' t sure was a sign of the Rift reopening or simply the position in Cardiff being vulnerable , with assistance from PC Andy while Rhys looked after Anwen . Gwen approached Roger Pugh , Planning Officer for Cardiff City Council , in order to establish a new Torchwood Cardiff facility which would replace the long - gone Hub . After Gwen showed Roger a day of her work first hand , he gave her his support . ( AUDIO : " More Than This " ) Gwen travelled to Talmouth after no one had heard from the town , suspecting alien involvement . ( AUDIO : " Made You Look " ) Gwen became the acting head of Torchwood Cardiff . She and Rhys planned a weekend away in Newport , staying in a caravan . On the beach Gwen was reunited with Hollis , who had travelled from the " Ice Maiden " to bring her to Jack . On the boat taking them to the " Ice Maiden " , Gwen and Hollis came under attack from ninjas on jet - skis . ( COMIC : " World Without End " ) Possession . Jack was dumped by the " Ice Maiden " and St John Colchester joined Torchwood . ( AUDIO : " Changes Everything " ) At some point , Gwen was possessed . When Mary noticed that something was off with her , the possessor shot her . ( AUDIO : " Aliens & Sex & Chips & Gravy " ) Rhys was concerned by Gwen ’ s lack of mourning . ( AUDIO : " Orr " ) After splitting from Ng , Gwen decided to leave Torchwood and start a new life with Rhys and Anwen . ( AUDIO : " Herald of the Dawn " ) Alternate realities . Donna ' s World . In an alternate reality , Gwen and Ianto , working as a part of the Torchwood team , sacrificed their lives to save the Earth from the Sontaran s ' plan involving ATMOS . ( TV : " Turn Left " ) Personality . As a Torchwood operative she provided an essential foil to Captain Jack , although her personal agenda sometimes interfered with her duties . Her actions and decisions were sometimes guided by her desire to protect her live - in boyfriend , and later husband , Rhys . She had a brief , disruptive affair with another operative , Owen Harper , and according to him was capable of sexual techniques which at first caused him extreme pleasure , but later bored him . ( TV : " Countrycide " , " Combat " ) She also shared sexual tension with Jack , but in the end remained true to Rhys . ( TV : " Something Borrowed " ) Gwen had a strong will - she suffered an awful lot during the events of Miracle Day , the most obvious being her father falling into a vegetative state and kept alive only by the Miracle , but despite this she remained determined to bring death back to the world . Her will was especially shown when , after Esther was shot , she remained unflinching and still ended the Miracle , having already accepted that her father would die . However , she was clearly saddened by Esther ' s death , judging by the fact that she attended her funeral . ( TV : " The Categories of Life " , " The Blood Line " ) She was also fiercely proud of her Welsh heritage ; when a CIA agent insulted her for being English , she retorted that she was Welsh and punched her out cold . ( TV : " Rendition " ) She was always friendly and related well to people , a trait that she had picked up as a police officer , and the one that caused Jack Harkness to recruit her to Torchwood . ( TV : " Everything Changes " ) Gwen was fond of lasagne ( AUDIO : " Everyone Says Hello " ) but hated the taste of peach es ( PROSE : " Exodus Code " ) . Gwen believed that flying was two moments of terror and hours of boredom . ( AUDIO : " Fall to Earth " ) She had poor knowledge of the Welsh language . ( AUDIO : " Forgotten Lives " )