Random Shoes

09 – "Random Shoes"
Torchwood episode
Cast
Starring John Barrowman – Captain Jack Harkness Eve Myles – Gwen Cooper Burn Gorman – Owen Harper Naoko Mori – Toshiko Sato Gareth David-Lloyd – Ianto Jones
Others Paul Chequer – Eugene Luke Bromley – Young Eugene Nicola Duffett – Bronwen Jones Roger Ashton-Griffiths – Mr Garret Steven Meo – Josh Celyn Jones – Gary Robyn Isaac – Linda Gareth Potter – Shaun Jones Joshua Hughes – Terry Jones Amy Starling – Waitress Leroy Liburd – Café owner Ryan Chappell – Pete
Production
Directed by	James Erskine
Written by	Jacquetta May
Script editor	Brian Minchin
Produced by	Richard Stokes Sophie Fante Chris Chibnall (co-producer)
Executive producer(s)	Russell T Davies Julie Gardner
Production code	1.9
Series	Series 1
Length	49 mins
Originally broadcast	10 December 2006
Chronology
← Preceded by Followed by → "They Keep Killing Suzie" "Out of Time"

"Random Shoes" is an episode in the British science fiction television series Torchwood, which was broadcast on 10 December 2006. It is the ninth episode of the first series.

A young man named Eugene Jones wakes up to find that he appears to be ethereal; his body lies dead on the ground after a hit-and-run accident, but his memory of how he got there is missing. He recognizes the Torchwood team as they are brought in to investigate the accident; the team had several run-ins with Eugene before, but had written him off as a crank. Eugene's mobile phone goes off, and Gwen answers it, and explains to the caller, Eugene's mother, that her son is dead. Upon examining the phone, she finds pictures of random shoes, and becomes intrigued enough to investigate the matter further.

Much of the rest of the episode is presented as a mix of flashbacks to Eugene's past along with Gwen's investigation in the present, with Eugene following her around as memories come back to him. Eugene was an excellent student in maths, but blanked on an inter-school competition, losing it for his school and disappointing his father; his father left that same night, and Eugene felt he was the cause, though he believed his father to be happy with a new job in America. His science teacher tried to cheer him up by giving him an eye-like object, claiming that it had fallen from the sky. This piqued Eugene's interest in extraterrestrial life, and he began studying and collecting such alien artefacts. He approached Torchwood several times but was always rebuffed.

The string of events leading to Eugene's death occurred when Eugene decided to try to sell the "eye" on eBay in order to raise enough money to buy tickets to Australia for his co-worker, Linda. Initially, there were no bids, but the bids started to rise up to a few hundred pounds. A surprise bid of £15,000.00 was made near the end of the auction, and Eugene surmised it must have been the alien that had lost the eye, but was beaten by the final highest bid of £15,005.50. Eugene contacted the buyers and arranged to meet at the Happy Cook, a restaurant near where he later died. Arriving there, he found that Gary, a co-worker, and Josh, a DVD store clerk, were the winning bidders. They had raised the price initially to get Eugene's hopes up, but, when the first large bid came in from a collector, they realised that, if they could get the eye, they could resell it for more. Eugene, realising he has been set up, took photos of Gary, Josh, and the waitress's shoes in case he needed the evidence for later, then swallowed the eye and fled the restaurant. He escaped from Gary and Josh, but unwittingly walked right into traffic, causing the hit-and-run accident that killed him. Gwen is able to follow Eugene's footsteps, and learns the truth from his mother, Linda, Gary, and Josh.

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