Torchwood/Recap/S1/E09 Random Shoes

Eugene Jones is having a rough day. He wakes up in the middle of a road, gets up, and walks over the Torchwood crew investigating nearby. He notes they seem to be ignoring him and are busy examining a body. Eugene's body, to be exact. Eugene comes to the realization that he's dead and no one can see him.

Backing up a bit, we go into Eugene's childhood, and learn how, during a math meet, he ended up having a bad day and letting his team down. His father is furious, but one of his professors took pity on him and gave him an object that fell out of the sky near him when he himself was having a bad day at golf. The object appears to be an eye with swirly... things inside. That night, Eugene's dad leaves his family.

In the present day, Eugene has become an alien enthusiast, obsessed with learning if there are really aliens. He attempts to get Gwen's attention to show her his items. Despite being unable to get her attention, he never gave up, right up to his being run over by a car. Although Torchwood brings Eugene's body into the Hub for autopsy (Eugene's "spirit" following closely behind), they then learn that the traffic accident was routine and they leave it.

As Eugene trails Gwen, who can't shake the feeling that there was something more to his death, he finds he may be able to subtly suggest her actions. He says "phone Gary", which she does, for example. Through Eugene's mobile pictures of random shoes, she manages to track down Gary at the place they both worked at. From there, she finds another coworker of his named Linda, who explained that Eugene was going to sell the eye to give Linda money to go on a trip to Australia. Things got interesting when the auction bid ballooned to over 15,000 pounds.

Working off that interest in the eye, Jack tells Gwen that it could be a Dogon Sixth Eye, which there's a market in. Tracking down Gary, Gwen learns from him that he actually inflated the bid himself, at first. Then, when the bid jumped to 15,000, they knew someone else was involved. A few clues and suggestions later led to a restaurant and Eugene's friends, who sniped the 15,000 bid, admitted to the gag, and then revealed that the original big bidder, who is just a regular human, could be coerced into much more. After learning that aliens are not behind it at all, Eugene flips out, swallows the eye -- which, it seems, caused his ghostiness -- and runs off from his friends, which is when he gets accidentally run over.

Still, after this mundane solution to everything, Eugene is able to find peace and closure when his father attends his funeral. The eye had given him a chance to appreciate what he had. At the finale, Gwen is about to get run over by a car, which Eugene saves her from by suddenly turning solid and visible. He and Gwen are able to exchange thanks (and the episode's requisite kiss) beore he passes on for good.

Tropes

 * Danny Freaking Boy: Sung by Eugene's estranged father at his funeral.
 * But Now I Must Go: After a Diving Save and a Smooch of Victory.
 * Collector of the Strange: The big buyer. Just a regular human.
 * Doomed Protagonist: Eugene is dead, and nothing's going to change that.
 * Harsher in Hindsight: We're all happy that Eugene's found peace at all, but if Suzie's claim in the last episode is anything to go by, he's not going anywhere particularly happy.
 * In Medias Res: We begin with Eugene dead, and are revealed in pieces how he came to be that way.
 * Invisible to Normals: Although it seems Eugene can make suggestions to Gwen that she picks up on.
 * You Can See Me?: Spoken verbatim at the end when he somehow becomes tangible.
 * Laser-Guided Amnesia: After his death, Eugene can't remember the last two weeks.
 * Parental Abandonment: Eugene's father leaves the family. Eugene blames himself and his failure at a math meet.
 * Posthumous Character: Complete with Posthumous Narration.
 * Real After All: The eye was really an alien artifact, and it allowed Eugene to linger after his death.
 * Stalker With a Crush: Of course, stalking's easy when you're an invisible spirit, isn't it Eugene?
 * Who Dunnit to Me?: Although this does bug Eugene for a bit, turns out the answer was simple and solved early. What's more pressing is the events that led up to his death.