[[quoteright:348:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/torchwood_jack_third_death_8956.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:348:Yep. There's some fragments in this story, alright. ''[[GrievousBottleyHarm Bottle]]'' [[BarBrawl fragments.]]]]

->'''Owen''': If you're not a figment of my imagination, then I don't know what's happening anymore. Maybe this is what a mental breakdown feels like.
->'''Jack''': You're fine. It's the rest of the world that's delusional.
-->-- '''Owen Harper''' getting acquainted with '''Captain Jack Harkness''' before joining Torchwood

A series of bombs make a building collapse on top of the gang (minus Gwen, who slept in). Buried in rubble, they have flashbacks...

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After Jack [[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E13ThePartingOfTheWays was left behind by the Doctor]], he travelled to the 19th century and got stuck there. When he found out that he was immortal several decades later, his first few weeks of eternal life were spent alternately drinking and dying a lot while yelling about the Doctor. Torchwood Cardiff (consisting, true to form, of two beautiful women in a lesbian relationship) noticed him, dragged him off the streets and into the Hub, and killed him a few times over again for science. They convinced him to become a freelance agent. The Cardiff [[Recap/TorchwoodS2E7DeadManWalking tarot-card girl]] told him that he'd have to wait over a century for the Doctor to show up, and Torchwood reminded him that the organisation ''exists'' [[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E2ToothAndClaw to stop the Doctor]] in the first place, so Jack decided to stay on and reform Torchwood with his knowledge and expertise.

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When Tosh' mother was kidnapped by terrorists, she was forced to become a corporate spy inside the Ministry of Defense. She stole alien weapon blueprints and made a sonic gun for the terrorists. UNIT captured her, convicted her of military espionage and stripped her of all her human rights. After she spent months in bare-bones solitary confinement, Jack realized that Tosh was a genius: she was able to make the weapon even though the blueprint was ''wrong''. He pulled some strings with UNIT and got Tosh to join Torchwood, but she could never see her mother again.

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When [[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E13Doomsday Torchwood London was destroyed]] and [[Recap/TorchwoodS1E4Cyberwoman Lisa was nearly converted to a Cyberman]], Ianto began stalking Jack and trying to get a job with Torchwood Cardiff. Jack refused. One Weevil hunt, one very good cup of coffee and one captured pterodactyl later, Jack and Ianto had developed some serious {{UST}}, and Ianto had a job.

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When Owen was still a nice, normal, functioning member of society, his fiancee developed early-onset Alzheimer's. The Alzheimer's turned out to be brain cancer. The brain cancer turned out to be an alien tentacle monster that lethally gassed everyone in the operating room. Jack was the one to show him the corpse, let Owen punch him in the face a few times, and offered him a job.

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The bomb was planted by [[Recap/TorchwoodS2E1KissKissBangBang Captain John Hart]], but everyone survives. John has found [[Recap/TorchwoodS2E5Adam Gray, Jack's brother]]. Oh, and he stole their car.

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!!Tropes:

* ArmiesAreEvil: Military Organisation UNIT is portrayed in a much less flattering light than usual, withdrawing Tosh's rights and throwing her in prison indefinitely without right of appeal or contact with the outside, all because she leaked important information in a bid to save her mother from terrorists.
* DrivenToSuicide: Alex Hopkins kills himself and almost all of the members of Torchwood 3 in 2000 after viewing a piece of alien technology and concluding that him and his team would be better off dying now rather than meeting more grisly fates later on.
* GrievousBottleyHarm: Jack's flashback starts with him reviving while having a broken bottle stuck in his gut. He then proceeds to pull it out and throw it away and is killed again a minute later.
* MurderSuicide: Alex kills almost all of the members of his team before turning the gun on himself, believing it to be a MercyKill from whatever horrors he believes await them in the 21st century.
* NewYearHasCome: Part of Jack's flashback takes place on New Year's Eve 1999. Considering the fact that it involved his leader killing his entire team before turning the bullet on himself, it was not a pleasant way to bring in the new millenium.
* SoleSurvivor: Jack served with Torchwood 3 for decades before becoming its only member on New Year's Eve 1999 (which places the events of this flashback parallel to the [[Recap/DoctorWhoTVMTheTVMovie 1996 TV movie]], meaning that Jack was suffering while the Eighth Doctor was living it up with Grace and battling the Master). The cell leader crosses the DespairEventHorizon after gaining knowledge of the future, murdering the other members before killing himself.
* StalkerWithoutACrush: Ianto's flashback has him stalk Jack to get a job at Torchwood Three.
* WholeEpisodeFlashback: Almost all of the episode is dedicated to learning through {{Flashback}} how the members of Torchwood came to join the organization.
* YouAreInCommandNow: Alex Hopkins turns over leadership of Torchwood Three to Jack before killing himself, as he is unable to give Jack the MercyKill that he feels is neccessary and which he has applied to the rest of his team.
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->''"[[WhamLine Here's what's going to happen: everything you love, everything you treasure, will die. I'm gonna tear your world apart, Captain Jack Harkness, piece by piece. Starting now.]]"''