[6] Rhys is murdered by Bilis Manger (Murray Melvin) in "End of Days", but this event is erased from history after the Torchwood team reset time by opening the space-time rift located in Cardiff.

[11] During the events of "Fragments" and series finale "Exit Wounds", Rhys plays a particular role in the team's campaign against the returned Captain John Hart (James Marsters) and the insane Gray (Lachlan Nieboer), helping Gwen rescue the others after they are caught in an exploding building and subsequently working with Gwen's former colleague Andy Davidson (Tom Price) to help keep the attacking alien Weevils out of the police station.

His rural idyll is shattered when CIA agent Rex Matheson (Mekhi Phifer) extradites Jack and Gwen to America—believing them to be connected to a phenomenon where humans can no longer die—whilst forcing Rhys to stay in Wales.

Rhys subsequently has Geraint sent to an "overflow camp",[23] unaware that it contains a facility for burning the severely injured alive, and in "The Categories of Life" and "The Middle Men" has to go undercover to help rescue his father-in-law.

Because of Rhys' violent disposition towards murderer-paedophile Oswald Danes (Bill Pullman), Gwen fears that he may enact vigilante justice and so takes the latter to Shanghai to protect her husband.

[26] In the series finale, Rhys gains entry to the overflow camp where Geraint has been recaptured in order to sit by his side as "Miracle Day" ends and death is restored.

These novels expand on the difficult period in Gwen and Rhys' relationship — whilst his appearances in Another Life,[28] and Border Princes,[29] are relatively minor, he has a more significant role in Slow Decay, where he unwittingly brings himself into danger by taking an alien diet pill.

In part three of the serialised ten-part comic Rift War he aids Gwen in her Torchwood duties by helping care for an infant alien left stranded in Cardiff.

[45] Rhys also appears in "The Devil and Miss Carew" (2011), one of three additional radio plays set between "Exit Wounds" and Children of Earth, which shows his reaction to the death of his elderly Uncle Bryn.

[49] At the start of the series he believes alien interference to be a result of hallucinations induced by psychotropic drugs in the water supply and that his girlfriend's job is nothing more unusual than generic "special ops".

[1][2] Writer Stephen James Walker feels that Rhys "originally didn't look to have much to him initially but really came into his own as Series One progressed", attributing this to the "spot-on performance of the perfectly cast Kai Owen.

[52] After reprisal from death, Davies felt further development was necessary for the character to continue as part of the drama; one of the first decisions the production team made was that "we can't make this guy look like a sap any longer.

Both Stephen James Walker and episode writer Catherine Tregenna felt that "the triangle of relationships between Rhys, Gwen and Jack" comprise "the most interesting narrative territory explored in 'Meat'".

In her critical essay Gwen's Evil Stepmother: Concerning Gloves and Magic Slippers, Valerie Estelle Frankel compares Rhys to Jack, likening the former to a "sweet, kind handsome prince" and the latter to a "compelling trickster.

[56] The plot of Children of Earth results in Rhys becoming more directly involved with the Torchwood team's activities, and actor Kai Owen also receives star billing for the first time.

[57] Whilst Gwen by the third series has become a more militant character,[49] Rhys retains his everyman status and takes on the role of audience surrogate; press material describes him as "the ordinary guy in the street" and "the normal person's eyes and ears" who "says what he thinks about the situations Torchwood find themselves in, bringing the reality back to them".

He praised the verisimilitude of Rhys' relationship with Gwen, describing their domestic argument as "a unique spin on the kitchen sink melodrama usually seen in EastEnders" which delivers "a real impact and emotional honesty due to the wonderfully earnest performances from Kai Owen and Eve Myles".

[66] TV Squad's Jason Hughes feels that the character's marriage to Gwen is "handled in a painfully honest way" and serves as "a true definition of "love" written with subtlety and perfection".

[67] Alan Stanley Blair enjoyed the rapport between Owen and Price (PC Andy) in the episode "Exit Wounds" stating, that it "was also an interesting dynamic" and that the two "could potentially carry their own sitcom",[68] a view corroborated by AfterElton's Steven Frank.

[72] The Chicago Tribune's Maureen Ryan feels that the initiated Rhys is key to the show, and is a "very enjoyable character", describing his appeal to government PA Lois Habiba to pay for his and Gwen's dinner as "priceless".