"Bilis Manger. At Your Service."
Ritz Towers is a luxury tower block so exclusive not even aliens can get a place there. Mr Colchester has somehow secured a flat at the Ritz. With the streets increasingly troubled, his husband feels safe there. The problem is that Ritz Towers is anything but safe.
For a start, the building has more tenants than it has flats. Then there are the endless dinner parties. The whole new definition of upwardly mobile. And finally, there is the very mysterious caretaker.
Tropes:
- Affably Evil: Although Colin finds him creepy, Bilis is initially perceived as the perfect caretaker, wonderfully polite.
- Apartment Complex of Horrors: The Ritz Tower seems like a typical luxury apartment block, but in reality, they were designed by Bilis to harness The Power of Hate and are host to endless lethal dinner parties, with the winner getting a better apartment.
- Ascended Extra: Initially given two lines (from Orr's mouth no less), Ramon Tikaram as Colin Colchester-Price gets a larger role than even main cast members like Jack or Orr.
- The Bad Guy Wins: Bilis gets what he wants. It may end up actually being good for Torchwood in the long run, but he still emerges unscathed.
- Bury Your Gays: Colchester and Colin survive, but Sandra and Andrea both kick the bucket.
- The Bus Came Back: Bilis Manger makes a reappearance 11 years after his last appearance in "End of Days".
- Combat Pragmatist: Colchester has to get creative to save Colin in this story.
- Continuity Nod:
- Ritz Tower is situated on the same street that the Ritz Dance Hall, from "Captain Jack Harkness", was. When Jack learns about this, he remarks on how he got his heart broken there, referencing his brief romance with the man he took his name from in the same episode.
- Jack mentions a wave of bubonic plague and a giant death demon in Cardiff in 2007, and Rhys asks Bilis if they met, referencing the events of "End of Days".
- Crusty Caretaker: Bilis acts as the caretaker for Ritz Tower and is unnervingly polite, to the point that Colin thinks he's creepy. It later turns out that he's behind the lethal dinner parties.
- Dinner and a Show: Endless dinner parties are held at the Ritz Tower. In reality, they're fights to the death, with the winner getting the better apartment.
- Disney Villain Death: Sandra, one of Bilis' top hunters and with a lengthy kill count, is thrown down the Ritz Tower by Colchester and killed.
- The Dragon:
- Andrea and Sandra, who serve as Bilis' top hunters.
- Bilis is shown to be working for a higher power, opening up the Rift to inform them of the location of Earth.
- Enemy Mine: Bilis's relationship with the Committee retroactively result in the events of this audio.
- Evil Plan: When Bilis is around, a given. This one involves repeated deaths in an apartment building to summon God.
- Have We Met?: Rhys asks Bilis if they met. In truth, they did back in "End of Days", which involved Bilis killing Rhys, but their encounter was erased when time rewound after Abaddon's defeat.
- Neck Snap: Colchester kills Andrea by snapping her neck.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero!: By the end of the episode, Colchester seems to have caused Bilis to win and two people to die, and is deservedly distraught.
- The Power of Hate: Bilis needs to harness the power of aggression to open up the Rift, which he manages with endless dinner parties to the death. Colchester killing two people provides enough aggression to open up the Rift.
- Properly Paranoid: Colin is so petrified of the racism that is going around Cardiff, he refuses to leave his apartment building. Unfortunately, he's far from safe there either.
- Psycho Lesbian: Sandra and Andrea are a married lesbian couple who have been killing people through dinner parties with the aim of getting the perfect apartment.
- Put on a Bus: Funnily, after Bilis returns after 11 years, he never shows up in Alien Among Us or God Among Us again.
- Safe Word: Colin and Colchester agree upon a safe word for when they want to leave a dinner party, joking on how they're using it in a non-sexual situation. The agreed upon word is "St John", Colchester's not overly used first name. Colchester later uses the word to get Colin out of a would-be fatal party.
- Sequel Hook: The Rift opens, and Bilis has sent a message to whoever the Sorvix is running from.
- Small Role, Big Impact: Bilis only appears in this story and doesn't appear for the rest of Aliens Among Us, but his opening of the Rift is important to the plot of God Among Us as it sends the location of Earth to God.
- Would Hit a Girl: Colchester is shown to be perfectly willing to kill a pair of lesbians with knives.
- Written-In Absence: Thanks to the events of "Love Rat", Ng is purposefully avoiding Jack, and doesn't appear.