Adam (Torchwood)


"Adam" is the fifth episode of the second series of British science fiction television series Torchwood, which was broadcast by BBC Two on 13 February 2008.
In the episode, a parasitic alien called Adam Smith arrives in Cardiff and adds false memories of himself into the minds of the alien-hunting team Torchwood. This subsequently causes memories to be lost and resurfaced among the team.

Plot

Torchwood encounter an alien, Adam, who has the ability of memory manipulation. By implanting false memories into each team member, making them believe they have known him for three years, Adam's manipulation changes the team dramatically: Gwen loses all memory of Rhys, Jack is haunted by memories of his lost brother Gray, from whom he was separated as a child on the Boeshane Peninsula, Toshiko has become more confident and believes that she and Adam are in love, and Owen has been manipulated into thinking he is more or less a geek in comparison to his actual self, and madly in love with Toshiko.
After reading his diary, Ianto becomes disturbed when he notices there is no mention of Adam. Adam confronts him and implants false memories into Ianto's mind, leading Ianto to believe he is a serial killer. Jack returns to find Ianto deeply upset but refuses to believe that Ianto is a killer. The pair search Torchwood's files, discovering the truth after seeing footage of Adam implanting the memories into the team. Jack discovers that the team needs to take amnesia pills, to erase their memories of the past forty-eight hours. He gathers the team and asks each person to try to recall who they really are. Each member takes their pill, Owen looking at Tosh and giving a small smile.
As they fall asleep, Jack returns to the cells to find Adam disappearing as a result of the memory erasure. Adam offers Jack the last happy memory of his childhood, before he lost Gray and before his father died. Adam then appears in the memory, threatening that if he dies, Jack will never regain any other memories of his father. Adam reveals that the mysterious box contains Jack's last memories and that if Adam dies, so will they. Jack considers the option before taking the amnesia pill. Adam screams in pain, before fading away into nothingness.
The next day, the team cannot recall the events of the past two days. With everything back to normal, Jack goes to his office. He finds a strange wooden box and opens it. He pours out a handful of sand, and the episode ends.

Continuity

The song "Christiansands" by Tricky plays during the episode.
In John Barrowman's autobiography, he mentions that, during filming of this episode, the kiss between Ianto and Jack continued for more than two minutes before the two of them realised that the crew had intentionally not called 'Cut' as a prank.