Rex Matheson Rex Matheson was a CIA agent in the 21st century and a member of Torchwood in the year 2011 . On Miracle Day , Matheson was saved from a lethal injury by the phenomenon . He played a critical role in identifying the cause of the Miracle and eventually stopping it . During the investigation , Matheson became close friends with Esther Drummond , and had a brief romantic relationship with his doctor , Vera Juarez . After the Miracle , Matheson seemed to have gained a resurrection ability that was identical to the immortality of Jack Harkness . Biography . Early life . Matheson was raised in the Los Angeles area by a father who had been experiencing severe personal and financial problems since 1996 . After growing up and joining the CIA , Matheson remained out of contact with his father and told acquaintances that he was from the east coast of the United States . ( TV : " Escape to LA " ) At some point , he and Lyn Peterfield had a romantic relationship . However , as they irritated one another , they ended it . ( TV : " Rendition " ) According to Allen Shapiro , " any " woman Matheson slept with ended up bitter . ( TV : " End of the Road " ) Stolen Torchwood cargo . When the British government sold the American government alien weapons salvaged from the ruins of the Torchwood Hub , the American middle men involved went rogue and decided to keep the weapons for themselves . Teaming up with a former member of the group , Matheson tracked the rogue group from South America to Colorado to Washington DC . Along the way , the group caused destruction in South America and in Colorado , seriously jeopardising Matheson ' s position and reputation in the CIA . However , the pair continued the search without CIA support . A mysterious man named Mr Wintyr , using an Ytraxorian Reality Rifle to travel through time , rewrote history so that Matheson and the former member of the group prevented the assassination of the American president and the destruction of the White House . Mr Wintyr destroyed all the weapons except for the Ytraxorian rifle , which he kept . Mr Wintyr called Matheson , informing him that he would leave him alive because he admired the spark of idealism he saw in Matheson ; but that he would have to kill him if he ever saw him again . Mr Wintyr then pulled a few strings to restore Matheson ' s reputation in the CIA , allowing him to continue as a CIA operative . ( PROSE : " The Men Who Sold the World " ) Miracle Day . Matheson was in the middle of a mobile phone conversation with his colleague , Esther Drummond , when a lorry in front of his car stopped suddenly and sent several poles through his windscreen , impaling him . Matheson awoke in a hospital and learnt that one of the poles had struck his heart and should have killed him , but did not : the Miracle Day event , which prevented all human s on Earth from dying , ensured his survival . Matheson began to investigate the phenomenon . His hunt for answers led him to Wales , where he sought out Gwen Cooper , a known member of the Torchwood Institute . When he found her , he collapsed from his injuries and was taken prisoner . Matheson freed himself and escaped from an armed helicopter with Cooper , her husband Rhys Williams and their child , and Jack Harkness . After making their way to Cardiff , Matheson informed the police of their whereabouts and ordered the others be taken to the US , under special protocols allowing their rendition . ( TV : " The New World " ) At Heathrow Airport , Matheson ordered Harkness and Gwen Cooper taken aboard a plane commandeered for the rendition , but to return Cooper ' s husband and baby to Wales . In flight , Matheson discovered that he had underestimated Torchwood , acknowledging that Harkness ' suggestions of possible causes of the Miracle were better than any he had heard . Matheson realised that one of his fellow agents , Lyn Peterfield , had poison ed Harkness without his orders . Matheson , Gwen and the flight attendants synthesised an antidote , whilst consulting Doctor Vera Juarez by phone for instructions . On landing in the US , Matheson was called by Esther Drummond , who informed him that the CIA had cleared out his office and turned on him . Understanding his situation , Matheson attacked Peterfield and the corrupt CIA agents escorting them and freed Harkness and Gwen . In escaping with Drummond and the Torchwood prisoners , Matheson effectively became one of the Torchwood team himself . ( TV : " Rendition " ) He quickly suspected that his superior , Brian Friedkin , had betrayed them . He broke into Friedkin ' s home in the middle of the night to confront him at gunpoint . He learned only that Friedkin was under the command of unknown forces more powerful than the CIA . Before leaving , Matheson temporarily deafened Friedkin by firing his gun next to Friedkin ' s ear . The four began investigating Miracle Day from hiding . Matheson at first insisted on trying to work within the system , but he was immediately betrayed by his CIA mentor , proving that they were on their own . He struggled against his frustration and with his own damaged heart , which was healing slowly but caused him frequent pain . Looking for support , Matheson broke into Dr Juarez ' s home for medical treatment , a meeting which led to a sexual encounter . ( TV : " Dead of Night " ) Working with the other team members was productive . Matheson helped to find PhiCorp ' s massive stockpile of painkillers prepared in advance of Miracle Day . He devised a plan to penetrate PhiCorp ' s Los Angeles headquarters and steal sensitive computer equipment , and rescued Harkness and Cooper when they were bound and threatened with torture . However , the relationship was also tense . Matheson berated Cooper and Drummond for keeping in contact with family and jeopardising their safety , even though he visited his destitute and antagonistic father . He also fought regularly with Jack Harkness over who should lead the group , and he expressed discomfort with Harkness ' s homosexual tendencies . ( TV : " Dead of Night " , " Escape to LA " ) Investigating the camps . After the categories of life were announced and overflow camp s were established , Dr Juarez told Matheson she wanted to join the investigation . Juarez suggested that she could use her position on the medical panels to infiltrate a camp , but Matheson pulled rank and decided he would use his injury to gain access . With Drummond ' s assistance , Matheson made a video recording of human bodies stacked in a camp module . When he returned to the module a short time later , he found Jaurez — who had ignored his order and entered the camp — locked inside . He tried to free her , but the module was activated and Juarez was incinerated alive . Matheson recorded the incident as evidence of crimes against humanity . ( TV : " The Categories of Life " ) Matheson tried to escape the camp , but was detained and placed in chains . He was given permission to speak with Colin Maloney , the camp ' s director . Unaware of Maloney ' s role in the killing , Matheson told him about the modules and Juarez ' s murder , and tried to persuade the director that he would be a hero if he freed him and exposed the government ' s crimes . In response , Maloney drove a pen into Matheson ' s open wound until he passed out from the pain . Drummond and a camp soldier named Ralph Coltrane eventually arrived and freed Matheson . ( TV : " The Middle Men " ) . Matheson released his video of the overflow camps to the World Wide Web , but he was disappointed at the muted response from governments and the public alike , and he rebuffed any attempt to talk about Juarez . ( TV : " Immortal Sins " ) Colasanto . Shortly after returning to their Los Angeles base , Matheson and Drummond watched as Gwen Cooper borrowed a stun gun and left without explanation . The pair eventually realised that Cooper ' s family had been taken hostage and that she had been forced to kidnap Jack Harkness . While they followed Cooper , Matheson made a phone call to police Sergeant Andy Davidson for help in saving Cooper ' s family , and another to Juarez ' s brother . At Cooper ' s rendezvous point , Matheson used a sniper rifle to free her and Harkness and force Olivia Colasanto and her men to surrender . Matheson and the others were persuaded by Colasanto to come to her family ' s residence to meet someone who knew the true nature of the Miracle : her grandfather , Angelo Colasanto . ( TV : " Immortal Sins " ) Matheson ' s phone call to Juarez ' s brother had been intercepted , and the Torchwood team was tracked down and captured by Brian Friedkin and loyal CIA operatives at the Colasanto house . Matheson was threatened by Friedkin in the same way Matheson had confronted him months earlier . However , he manipulated Friedkin into admitting that the Families had been paying him and essentially " owned " him . This confession that was recorded and broadcast by the eye - 5 contact lenses Matheson was wearing . Moments later , the Torchwood members were freed by a legitimate CIA team . Matheson told the team leader , Allen Shapiro , that the phone call was intended to draw the CIA ' s attention and to prove their innocence . Enough evidence was found for Matheson and Drummond to regain their former positions . Before leaving the Colasanto residence , Angelo Colasanto died , the first person to die of natural causes since Miracle Day . Matheson remained with the CIA team to determine how it happened . He learned from Harkness that a piece of alien technology hidden under Angelo ' s bed cancelled out the morphic field that was preventing death . Matheson agreed with Harkness ' assessment that the technology was too dangerous to be given to any government . He helped Harkness to escape with a component from the generator , but stayed behind to continue the investigation with the CIA . ( TV : " End of the Road " ) Endgame . Matheson spent the next two months investigating the Miracle and the Three Families . He and the CIA made little progress for most of that time , as the Families had spent the better part of a century covering their tracks , and had ordered Charlotte Wills , an operative of the Families working inside the CIA , to impede the investigation . Eventually , Matheson found a short story that shared many similarities with the events of Harkness ' s imprisonment in 1928 , but the author disappeared from records soon after . This led Matheson to believe that a relative of the story ' s author had married into the Three Families . Following increasingly subtle clues , it was discovered that another relative had been murdered and the murder weapon was in CIA storage . Inspired , Matheson ordered that the weapon be analysed for DNA traces . However , Wills was assigned to run the DNA test , and lied about the results . In time , the Torchwood team speculated that the cause of the Miracle , the Blessing , was located at opposite sides of the planet , and Matheson travelled to meet Drummond in Buenos Aires , while Harkness and Gwen went to Shanghai . ( TV : " The Gathering " ) In Buenos Aires , Matheson and Drummond secretly performed a blood transfusion , replacing Matheson ' s own blood with blood taken from Harkness . While they worked with an Argentine army squad , a soldier secretly serving the Families detonated a suicide bomb , destroying most of the squad and a briefcase believed to hold Harkness ' blood . Matheson ordered the surviving army captain to pretend that he and Drummond had become category ones to throw off the Families . Matheson and Drummond made their way to the Blessing , and were taken prisoner . While communicating with members of the Families and the rest of the Torchwood team in Shanghai , Matheson revealed that he had Harkness ' s blood in his body . In order to end the Miracle , Matheson and Harkness agreed to sacrifice their lives at the same time by feeding mortal blood to both ends of the Blessing . The leader of the Families in Buenos Aires responded by shooting Drummond , forcing Matheson to choose : stop the Miracle or save Drummond ' s life . After a moment , Matheson reluctantly agreed to proceed . He removed the bandage from his chest , allowing the Blessing to pull large quantities of blood from his wound . As the Blessing shook violently and the Miracle ended , Matheson rose to his feet and threw the Families leader to his death before collapsing . He was eventually rescued by army reinforcements , but not before Drummond succumbed to her wound . Post - Miracle . Matheson attended Esther Drummond ' s funeral with the remaining Torchwood members , Rhys Williams , and Charlotte Wills . He struggled visibly with his own grief during the service . Afterwards , he learned the truth of Wills ' s duplicity . He tried to stop her , but Wills killed him before she herself was taken down . To everyone ' s shock , Matheson ' s wound healed and he resurrected a moment later , indicating that he had gained some measure of Harkness ' s immortality . Matheson was mortified by what he had become . ( TV : " The Blood Line " ) After the Miracle , Matheson worked for the CIA again as an agent . He received a phone call from Lucas Avery and told him about all the good things that Gwen Cooper had done . ( AUDIO : " Army of One " ) He was later appointed as Deputy Director of the CIA . He was leading an investigation into Olivares Donoso ' s links to the Three Families in Peru when it was interrupted by Jack . ( PROSE : " Exodus Code " ) Personality . Matheson was a determined , persevering , and competently serious man who had a no - nonsense attitude , but also a deep amount of compassion , albeit peppered with a dry wit . He was capable of great kindness and love for those he held close , including romantic and sexual relationships . In this respect , he was deeply hurt by the loss of his lover , Vera Juarez . ( TV : " The Categories of Life " ) Matheson also had a deeply ingrained attitude , and would frequently say " what the hell " or " shit " when frustrated . ( TV : " The New World " , et al . ) He preferred CIA professionalism over the haphazard operations of Torchwood , and valued the principles he was taught to follow . When he extradited Torchwood to the U . S . , they had a passive - aggressive relationship with one another , especially Gwen Cooper , after Matheson separated her from her child . He justified this by telling Cooper that it would be unwise to let her baby get caught up in the violence connected to the investigation of the Miracle . ( TV : " The Gathering " ) Jack Harkness tended to agitate him with his tendency to make jokes instead of maintaining a professional work ethic . The flippant gay jokes he made were not a pet peeve , but Matheson did not like being the butt of them . To this extent , Rex thought of him as a man in his forties acting like a twenty - year - old , and nicknamed him " World War II " for his flying ace period dress . Despite the rocky start , Rex eventually reached friendly terms with Harkness and Cooper until he was at last considered one of the team . ( TV : " The Categories of Life " ) Quite protective , Matheson kept close watch on the secret operations he undertook , and if he noticed even the slightest risk of a breach , he would quickly put an end to it . His experience , however , made him initially unfair on the rather green Esther Drummond , who made a few mistakes because she was not fully acclimated to the atmosphere of clandestine operations . ( TV : " Dead of Night " ) When she nearly instigated the demise of Torchwood by visiting her distraught sister out in the open , he gave her a final warning not to risk blowing their cover again . Matheson warmed up to Esther as she grew more comfortable with her undercover duties . ( TV : " Escape to LA " ) Although he had been hard on her at first , Rex gave her kindness and sympathy when she needed it . He encouraged her with the occasional kiss on the forehead , and reacted strongly after she was murdered by The Cousin . He was still in deep sorrow at the time of her funeral . ( TV : " The Blood Line " ) As a trained CIA agent , Matheson was trained to kill if necessary by administering neck snaps or lethal gunshot wounds . ( TV : " Rendition " ) He would take lives in hot - blooded self - defence , with the exception of personal injustice to himself or his teammates , leading him to kill for revenge . ( TV : " The Blood Line " ) However , his survival instincts were so overwhelming under duress that he would resort to deadly force first , without thinking a culprit might have vital information to divulge . As such , he shot a trained assassin in the throat under the impression he would shoot Cooper , which left him unable to get a lead on The Three Families . ( TV : " Escape to LA " ) Skills and abilities . Having been trained by the CIA , he was skilled with several firearms , ranging from handguns to assault rifles , ( TV : " The New World " ) even a double barrelled shotgun . ( TV : " Escape to LA " ) He could also use a sniper rifle , maintaining his aim directly at a target ' s head although he never needed to fire . ( TV : " Immortal Sins " ) Rex was also , in Esther ' s own words , the " best strategist of [ the group ] " , proven when he orchestrated the plan to get Nicholas Frumkin ' s biometrics and knew how to gain entry in to Phicorp ' s headquarters . He was also very serious during the missions , viewing saying " good luck " as " kid ' s stuff " as well as the use of mobile phones to contact people while undercover as " dangerous " . ( TV : " Escape to LA " ) Rex was also skilled in fisticuffs , displayed when he overpowered a CIA body guard without assistance , managed to break a women ' s neck despite her initially having the upper - hand ( TV : " Rendition " ) and knocked out a U . S . Ranger with a single punch to the jaw . ( TV : " The Middle Men " ) He also disarmed his father of his shotgun in seconds ( TV : " Escape to LA " ) and managed to toss the Cousin over a set of rails despite his chest wound weakening him . ( TV : " The Bloodline " ) He was also quite stealthy , sneaking up on a CIA agent and knocked them out with a blow to the back of their head . ( TV : " End of the Road " ) During the " Miracle day " phenomenon , he couldn ' t die , proven when he was impaled through the chest by a metal rod yet survived long enough to be treated . ( TV : " The New World " ) This is later persisted when he should have died when stabbed through his ruptured chest with a pen but did not die from the blood loss or trauma . . ( TV : " The Middle Men " ) For the first few days after his death , Rex struggled to even move , but his resilience improved ; managing to walk , drive and eventually run despite the damage to his chest and leg . ( TV : " The New World " ) Rex even managed to run up thirty flights of stairs despite the extreme strain it imposed on his body . ( TV : " Escape to LA " ) He didn ' t always maintain this pain tolerance , however , screaming in agony when stabbed . ( TV : " The Middle Men " ) After receiving a transfusion of Jack Harkness ' s mortal blood and feeding it to the Blessing , Matheson resurrected in a manner similar to Harkness ' s immortality . However , the extent of his ability to resurrect was unknown , and it was unclear if he was a fixed point in time like Harkness . ( TV : " The Blood Line " ) Deaths . Matheson recovered or was resurrected from the following fatal injuries :