Meet Adam: the friendly new guy at Torchwood that no one remembers hiring… yet everyone swears they’ve known for years. What could possibly go wrong when your memories aren’t yours?
Short Synopsis
A mysterious man named Adam suddenly appears in Torchwood, claiming to be a long-time member of the team. The catch? He’s not. He’s a memory-altering alien who feeds off the emotional chaos he creates. Soon, everyone’s past, personality, and love life are scrambled like Owen’s breakfast.
Extended Storyline
We open on an ordinary day at the Hub—or at least what passes for “ordinary” in a secret alien-fighting organization run by a 51st-century flirt. Everyone’s chatting with a guy named Adam, who’s apparently been part of the team for years. Except… he wasn’t there yesterday.
Jack, Gwen, Tosh, Owen, and Ianto all vividly “remember” working with Adam for ages, sharing in-jokes, missions, and emotional trauma. Adam’s ability? He manipulates memories, implanting himself into people’s pasts so completely that they feel genuine attachment to him. It’s like gaslighting, but with telepathy and a better résumé.
At first, things seem oddly warm and fuzzy. Adam compliments Tosh, encourages her confidence, and apparently helped her through some tough times. She beams like she’s found her emotional support coworker. Gwen, on the other hand, starts losing her memory of Rhys entirely—she can’t recall her fiancé’s face, which makes dinner conversation somewhat awkward.
Meanwhile, Owen suddenly believes he’s always been kind, gentle, and emotionally available (so clearly we’re in an alternate timeline). Jack gets hit hardest: Adam forces him to relive forgotten memories of his family on the Boeshane Peninsula—his little brother Gray, in particular. The pain of losing him resurfaces with brutal clarity, stirring up feelings Jack’s buried deeper than Torchwood’s HR handbook.
As Adam’s influence grows, the team becomes increasingly unstable. Tosh develops a crush on her imaginary mentor, Gwen panics over her fading life, and Ianto—poor Ianto—starts believing he’s a serial killer. (Which, to be fair, is one way to ruin someone’s week.)
Jack eventually grows suspicious—mainly because he knows every one of his team’s psychological hang-ups by heart, and Adam’s been pressing them like elevator buttons. After confronting him, Jack uncovers Adam’s true nature: a parasitic being that feeds on the emotional energy created by his memory manipulation.
Realizing the only way to defeat Adam is to erase every memory of him, Jack doses the team with amnesia pills (Torchwood’s favorite cure-all). They wake up with no recollection of Adam, no weird alternate backstories, and no idea why everyone’s suddenly hungover and irritable. Jack takes one last look at a photograph showing Adam standing with the team—then watches as the image fades away.