Tosh finally gets a date — unfortunately, he’s from 1918 and doomed to die saving the future. Typical Torchwood romance.
Short Synopsis
When the Rift releases a soldier from World War I named Tommy, Torchwood discovers he’s the key to stopping a time fracture that threatens to rip Cardiff (and possibly history itself) apart. As Tosh falls for him, she must face the awful truth: to save the world, she has to send him back to his death.
Extended Storyline
It’s 1918. The Great War is in full swing, and Torchwood is already meddling with time — because apparently, bureaucracy and bad decisions are timeless. Two Torchwood agents from that era seal a young soldier named Tommy Brockless in cryogenic storage, with instructions to wake him once a year for medical checks and, one day, to send him back to avert a temporal disaster.
Fast-forward to 2008, where Jack and the modern Torchwood crew thaw Tommy for his annual check-up — which, for reasons never adequately explained, includes letting him wander around Cardiff for the day. Jack treats it like a holiday; Ianto probably makes him tea; and Tosh… well, Tosh falls in love before the kettle’s even boiled.
Tommy is instantly bewildered by modern life — mobile phones, women wearing trousers, Owen being tolerated in polite society — but he’s charming, polite, and full of gentle wonder. Tosh, who usually spends her evenings surrounded by technobabble and emotional neglect, is smitten. The chemistry between them is sweet, awkward, and heartbreakingly doomed from the start.
But this being Torchwood, there’s no time for a proper date. The Rift is showing signs of temporal instability: fragments of 1918 bleeding into present-day Cardiff. Nurses flicker in and out of existence, old radio broadcasts interrupt the news, and the local weather forecast briefly predicts mustard gas.
Tosh and Jack realize Tommy isn’t just a frozen relic — he’s the key to repairing the Rift. The same energy that brought him through time must send him back to seal it, using a Rift manipulator synchronized to his personal timeline. The problem? Doing so means returning him to 1918, where he’ll be immediately executed for shell shock.
Ouch.
Jack, ever the pragmatist, insists it’s the only way. Tosh, ever the heart, insists it’s not fair. She spends her final night with Tommy trying to give him one perfect day — a walk through the city, a kiss by the bay, a little bit of peace before the inevitable. It’s tender and deeply human, which of course means it’s about to end in heartbreak.
The next morning, the time fracture begins to widen, pulling Cardiff into a paradoxical loop. The team scrambles to coordinate the timeline while Tosh and Tommy head for the Rift chamber. He’s terrified but brave, clutching the Rift key as Tosh guides him through the final steps.
Just before he vanishes, she tells him she loves him — the first time Tosh has ever said it to anyone who might have deserved it. Tommy smiles, tells her he’ll remember her “for tomorrow,” and steps back into 1918.
Moments later, the Rift stabilizes. Cardiff is safe. And in a haunting final scene, Tommy’s last memory flickers — a brief vision of Tosh’s face before he’s led to his execution.
Tosh stares at the empty cryo-pod, tears in her eyes, the soft hum of the Rift filling the silence. Torchwood saved the world again… but it never feels like winning.