Torchwood/Recap/S2/E04 Meat
The team investigates a meat company whose product seems to be extraterrestrial in origin. Jack makes the requisit bad innuendo puns about "eating alien meat". By complete coincidence, the meat is transported by... Rhys' company. Gwen doesn't like that at all, because inevitably, Rhys follows them and finally learns what Gwen does for a living.
The meat comes from a giant sentient Space Whale that regenerates infinitely. Sort of like Jack, only half asleep, immobile and very large. ... So, sort of like Jack near the end of his life, really. Jack feels strong empathy for the beast and vows to save it. He also merrily flirts with Rhys' homely secretary, who looks like she hadn't been flirted with in years.
The gang, including Rhys, inflitrate the bad guys' lair, but they all get caught. Rhys takes a bullet for Gwen. The villains are defeated and given amnesia drugs, but Owen has to put the Space Whale down.
Gwen refuses to make Rhys take an amnesia pill. Jack reluctantly agrees.
- Action Survivor: Rhys
- Put Down Your Gun and Step Away: When Rhys gets taken hostage Gwen immediately complies with the order. Later Jack and Tosh do the same when Ianto gets a gun to his head too.
- Space Whale Aesop: Kids, don't capture an extraterrestrial being and chop it up for meat!
- It also has a more relatable moral: Don't take an exotic animal, exploit/torture it, then try to justify yourself as anything other a greedy, amoral opportunist, especially if you try to ignore its suffering.
- The Unmasking: Gwen reveals the truth about her job to Rhys. It sticks.