Torchwood: Miracle Day - The Blood Line

So, oops. In case you're wondering, I didn't actually go a month in between watching the penultimate and final episodes of Miracle Day, or even writing about it - just posting about it on this particular blog. So without further ado, I present my final Torchwood review (unless I get into the books and audios, but let's not go there for the time being.

(Originally written 30/3/14, modified 21/4/14)

So here we are. Eight months after I started my Torchwood journey, I come to the final episode of the show as a whole, the final episode of Miracle Day, and the final episode of those annoying DVD introductions. John Barrowman starts off by saying he isn’t going to spoil the episode because it’s so good, before promptly revealing that there is a death. Off to a good start.

I’ve said in the past that I used to think Miracle Day was about two episodes too long, but this time around I’ve been kept interested throughout. However, I did think the sub-plot with Gwen’s dad had overstayed its welcome by this episode. Couldn’t Gwen’s family just have a little bit of tragedy with him getting ripped away from them? But no – he survived just long enough for Rhys and Andy to come visit, before the Miracle ended and he died peacefully. At least this scene also had Andy holding the hand of the woman no one knew, which was adorable.

A more unexpected death was Esther’s, for those who hadn’t seen the episode already (although it was still a shock when she was shot out of nowhere). She definitely annoyed me less this time around, so her death was unfortunate. But what I find more unfortunate is that she didn’t have a say in it. Jack and Rex decided together that they would reverse the Miracle, knowing they’ll kill Esther. But surely Esther could have managed some last words where she gave her consent to die? At least it would have felt like she played some sort of a part in the resolution, then.

Now let’s get onto Rex, who asks early on in the episode for Gwen to act like a professional, not like Torchwood (so the show’s recognising that Torchwood are a bunch of amateurs!). Of course, the big twist this episode is that Rex has been pumped full of Jack’s blood, and that blood goes on to make him immortal. I was keeping an eye out for hints of this, and they were definitely there. Just as Jack squirms from his proximity to the Blessing, so too does Rex, who we all assume is in pain due to his wound. I also thought it was pretty obvious when both Jack and Rex collapsed after feeding the Blessing, apparently dead, but Jack did his resurrection act and Rex too recovered. But maybe I’m wrong, because it’s only after being shot by Charlotte (and coming back to life) that his old scars heal, so he can’t have been resurrected before.

Ah yes, Charlotte. She does quite a bit of sitting around doing little other than looking shifty, before first calling the Argentinean suicide bomber and later planting a bomb herself. Unfortunately, I think these were a little too close in proximity for me to think of her actions as truly cool, especially following Freakin’s bombing as well. Okay, the Families like bombs. But don’t they have any other methods?

And please, for the love of God, what is their Plan B??? Another series, with Jilly as a more obvious villain, would be amazing. I think there’s a lot more we could learn about the character – it was interesting in this episode to find that she believes the world was broken and disapproves of colonialism. Once again, she shows that she has her own set of ethics, so it would be fascinating to explore more of how she sees the world. The only problem, I suppose, is that any mystery would have to come from something other than who the villains were.

Really though, if Torchwood came back I would watch in a heartbeat. I’ve enjoyed this experiment a lot more than I thought I would, and I honestly cannot fathom why Miracle Day wasn’t received favourably. Was it like the Doctor Who TV movie all over again - failing to catch on with an American audience, while the rest of the world complains that it's too American? While I very much enjoy the TV movie, I suppose I can see how it may not be taken seriously – it’s a fun 90 minutes of television, but nothing ground-breaking. Miracle Day, however, provided an interesting concept, which it explored from various angles. It gave you ten episodes in which to get to know the characters and get invested in the plot. I understand that the Earth’s vagina thing wasn’t something which any viewer could have guessed, but I’m sure stranger things have happened.

At the end of it all, I’m just grateful for the four seasons of Torchwood we ended up with.

Torchwood: Miracle Day - The Gathering

After getting over my excitement at hearing RTD’s voice on the radio, this episode kicks off with Gwen stealing pharmaceuticals for her family and friends. It’s a great way for her to make a difference in a kickass way while she’s stuck in Wales. It also reminds me a bit of Rhiannon and Johnny taking in the kids in Children of Earth, right down to the fact that Gwen and her family are taking payment for their services.

They are then joined by Oswald Danes, who seems to be going a tad overboard with the weird voice thing. Luckily, he eventually shows us his cleverness once again, demonstrating those computer skills he previously mentioned in Escape to L.A. and how he used them to track Jilly. I definitely enjoy Oswald the most when he gives us these hints of how he lives his day to day life, showing that there’s a mind at work behind the body which has done such terrible things.

Yet Gwen is utterly convinced that Oswald is a monster. Strangely, she doesn’t compare him to the aliens she faced working in Torchwood, but to the paedophiles and murderers she met when she was with the police. I have to admit that this doesn’t quite sound like the Gwen we met in Everything Changes and afterwards, who took a long time to get used to the horrors she saw and seemed like she was quite low down in the force. So maybe this was a bit of retconning.

Oswald isn’t the only person the Coopers shouldn’t have in their house, as Gwen’s dad is still being hidden from the police. It occurred to me during the initial search that perhaps Gwen and Rhys should have made more noise, rather than potentially allowing the cop to hear Gwen’s parents breathing. Sadly though, it wouldn’t have made a difference when the cope came back the second time. And I just find it so weird that he managed to find Gwen’s dad not with a sophisticated piece of police technology, but with an app.

Back in the US, Rex is heading up a CIA investigation into the Miracle. He really gets to show off his smarts, proving that he’s not just an action man there to make quips and be heterosexual. And unlike last week, his boss is actually being cooperative, approving his actions and keeping things secret.

Our team will encounter The Blessing next episode, but Jilly got in early this time. And I have to wonder – exactly why did the Families want to take her to it? What was that meant to achieve? She’s already been working for them for two months without having seen it, and they never hide the fact that she may get the urge to commit suicide afterwards. What would they have done if they lost their prize PR person?

We’ll see how many questions get answered next time.

Torchwood: Miracle Day - End of the Road

This is the first episode of Miracle Day which I’ve found to be a little slow. It didn’t help that it pretty much retconned the kidnapping plot, revealing that the Colasanto family didn’t want to hurt anyone at all. So was it really necessary to take Gwen’s family hostage? Anyway, in this episode there was a lot of talking, and the focus did move to a few different characters, but ultimately it felt like little was accomplished.

Oswald’s been out of the frame for a while, and it seems things have been changing around him. It’s interesting to see him on the edge, driven there by the prostitute who refused to treat him like a human being. We get possible hints about his past and what may have driven him to do what he did, but as Oswald says, “Don’t presume”. Jilly finally loses her cool, but then regains it when she’s contacted by a member of the Families. Her ambition really shows in this scene, after she’s most recently just been running after Oswald.

While Angelo and Jack’s parting last episode was heartbreaking, and I believed Angelo’s willingness to reunite, I find it a little difficult to comprehend how that sweet, young, religious man would devote the rest of his life to... well, life. Didn’t he hear Jack’s speech last episode about how immortality means you can never properly settle down with those you love? Of course Angelo’s ‘immortality’ was a little different, but exactly what did he hope to gain out of it? To spend as long as possible watching Jack? That’s sweet, but also tragic and a bit unsettling that he spent most of his life watching a man he was in a relationship with for, what, a few months?

I will say that Jack’s goodbye to Angelo this episode was beautiful and it made me cry. But I wasn’t sure how to feel when Angelo started dying. Did Jack kill him by removing his respirator for those few seconds? ‘Cos it sure looked like it. And then it all turned into a bit of a comedy routine with Jack unplugging the machine because it wouldn’t shut up, and then it actually turns serious when he realises that Angelo is actually dying, but I couldn’t feel properly sad. Maybe it’s because the focus was turned to the mystery of how Angelo died, rather than remembering the person who Jack (and I) fell in love with last episode.

So Angelo is gone and the focus shifts to the CIA. I was so happy when Rex finally wore the contact lenses, and used them to expose Freakin. But then, just before Freakin suicide-bombed, he revealed that he only did it because his family had been threatened. It’s a small moment, but it provides just a little bit of insight into his character; that he’s not just an evil minion of the Families.

Speaking of families, we catch up with Esther’s sister and find out that she’s made the equivalent of a suicide pact for herself and her children. This was pretty confronting to watch, and now I think about it, I can’t remember what ends up happening to Sarah – but I do remember what happens to Esther, and I wonder how that will affect things. It is interesting that Esther described Sarah in the past as being unable to cope, yet in this episode, Esther all but cracks. As she drives away with Jack, she cries that she doesn’t know where she’s going or what she’s doing. If this was meant to convey the situation as being hopeless, it didn’t really succeed – for me, it just conveyed Esther as hopeless.

An okay episode, but one of my least favourite of the season.

Torchwood: Miracle Day - Immortal Sins

(Originally written 2/3/14)

Just a few minutes in, this episode is doing everything it can to make me ship Jack and Angelo. The strings that accompany Angelo every time he speaks are just beautiful, and perfectly match the poetic way he describes his village and his dreams. Then after sleeping with Jack, Angelo’s like a nervous schoolgirl, explaining that while he has had sex before, he’s never laid and talked afterwards. I just wanted to give him a cuddle and tell him how adorable he is.

Then he takes on the role of Jack’s “companion” when they're investigating the parasite from the Trickster’s Brigade. I appreciated Jack’s mention of the Doctor and how he used this to justify himself having a companion. But once Jack started talking about other planets and aliens and things, I thought Angelo should have been a bit more surprised, especially as a Catholic who probably thinks God created the Earth. In fact, it seemed to me there was a prime opportunity here where Jack could have compared the apparent impossibility of alien life with the impossibility of homosexual love, yet nothing was done with this.

It all ends in heartbreak when Angelo, confronted with a resurrected Jack, turns him in to the Little Italy community of Catholics, whose response when confronted with an immortal man is to continually kill him. This was so painful to watch, but at least Angelo was redeemed when he rescued Jack after it was all over (resulting in some not-so-subtle Christian imagery when he cleans Jack’s feet).

But it’s all over again when Jack decides to leave and refuses to take Angelo with him. I think Jack probably forgave him, but he’s just been very much confronted with his immortality and couldn’t put that behind him during the relationship. It doesn’t make it any less hard though – Angelo is truly sorry for the way he treated Jack and desperately wants to be with him again, so it’s hard to watch Jack turn him down.

This leads us to the present day, where Eve Myles is rivalling the boys’ acting with her own. Way back in Everything Changes, I mentioned that Gwen must be nuts to join Torchwood after seeing what happened with Suzie. In this episode, she finally acknowledges it! She says she knew Torchwood was toxic from the very first day, but she joined anyway, and she loved it, and she thought it made her special. Everything I hated about Gwen in Series 1, Gwen is finally realising. And she puts on some pretty impressive waterworks while doing so.

And Rex and Esther aren’t totally left out of this one, appearing at the last minute to save the day. I don’t think this is too much of a deus ex machine, as I’d think they were pretty useless if they DIDN’T investigate what happened to Jack and Gwen.

But really, obviously, this episode tells us a whole lot about Jack. His ignorance of Gwen’s mother’s name shows that he tries to care for other people, but can’t quite always manage it. And there was a very telling line when, after telling Angelo how he has the option to hide his sexuality, he says “I don’t care what other people know”. The hypocrisy in this statement is extraordinary – while Jack is willing to share his sex life with anyone within earshot, that’s about the only thing he will share. And sometimes, like in this episode, keeping secrets is what gets him and other people hurt.


I am pleased to announce that I have finally caught up with myself! I have seen no more episodes in my marathon past this one, so from now on, this blog will be completed in real time. I aim to make updates around once a week; hopefully I won't fall as far behind as I did the first time.

Torchwood: Miracle Day - The Middle Men

(Originally written 22/2/14)

This episode has a clear theme throughout: Say No. Gwen is disgusted with Dr Patel because she keeps working for the overflow camps despite knowing what goes on. Now Gwen obviously has a point in that blindly obeying orders is not a good thing, but I couldn’t help finding her a little harsh. I guess it’s because Dr Patel comes across as a generally nice person - she’s a doctor trying to treat her patients, and doesn’t have any say in what happens to the Categories 1s. Of course Gwen demonstrated the power of one person when she blew up the overflow camp, but we can’t all be terrorists.

 
On the other side of the Atlantic, Rex is having the same conversation with Moloney, who is in a slightly different position as he’s the director of the facility. And I am so conflicted as to how I should feel about him. Last episode I was mostly convinced that he was a total creep, but now I’m not so sure. He said he didn’t want to use the modules as ovens... but that didn’t stop him from doing so. He felt truly awful about Vera’s fate, crying as he watched Rex’s tape... but that didn’t stop him from stabbing Rex right in his chest wound. (For me, this has been the most squeamish scene of Miracle Day so far, resulting in me crying out in discomfort and looking away from the scream.) It’s impressive how they manage to show his shades of grey.

Then Esther comes to save the day, and she’s so naive, claiming Vera was on the phone as she still hadn’t figured out how dodgy the whole situation was. So typically, she becomes the damsel in distress as Moloney attacks her. Then she actually overpowers him, which I was quite impressed by! Then when she goes back to his supposedly dead body (REMEMBER THE MIRACLE, ESTHER???), she becomes a damsel again, and is only saved when Ralph comes along, because Ralph’s the only person NOT in Torchwood who’s willing to say no.

The other heroics come from Rhys and his rescuing of Gwen’s dad. When questioned about where his orders came from, he doesn’t try to make up an elaborate story. Instead, he tells a fractured version of the truth, saying he’s working for Captain Jack Harkness, who might have a thing for him, “not that there’s anything wrong with that”. Then he crashes down the gate in a big truck. He is basically Mickey.

We find out this episode that Gwen had the contact lenses on her (even though she didn’t really need them much). I still think they would have been much more useful with Rex, but that would have left two problems – Rex couldn’t have shown Moloney the footage, and there wouldn’t have been that awesome twist at the end where Gwen is informed of her family’s kidnapping. That just came out of left field, and was so well shot, seeing Gwen’s reactions in the mirror. JUST as Torchwood manages to get out of trouble, this happens. What a cliffhanger.

Torchwood: Miracle Day - The Categories of Life

(Originally written 17/2/14)

This episode alternates between fun and horrible in a way that only Torchwood can pull off.

The fun begins when Gwen arrives back in Wales (I’d forgotten that she goes back so soon!) and we get to spend some time with her family. She gets annoyed with her mother for dressing Anwen in pink, but her mum’s no pushover, having obtained a map of the overflow camp and the determination to get her husband back.

 
Jack has a little fun with Rex, telling the paramedics he’s his boyfriend, and receiving the finger in return. I still like the interplay between them, and this scene in fact goes beyond that. When Jack returns, Vera and Esther announce that they’re going off undercover too, despite his instructions, leaving him alone. The team is so close that they know how to push everyone else’s buttons.

But then everything falls apart as Vera goes on her tour of the overflow camps, led by one of the creepiest characters in the Whoniverse. Colin Moloney sports a Southern accent similar to that other creepy guy from Doctor Who: Day of the Moon, and apparently Southern values as well, surprised as he is that the female Vera could be a doctor and thinking it appropriate to flirt with her. I do have to admit that I felt the slightest bit of sympathy for him when he admitted that he was just trying to do the best he could, having been put in charge of the situation, while Vera turned hysterical. But then he seemed a little too happy about being able to get away with her murder, and he reverts to being a horrible person.

Vera’s fate is soon to be witnessed by Rex, who’s wandering around with a video camera. I couldn’t help wondering why he couldn’t wear the contact lenses (they could drop that crap about them being isomorphic for Gwen) – surely they’d be less conspicuous? Maybe it was because Rex needed to narrate what was happening. In any case, his face as he watched Vera dying was heartbreaking. She was so desperate to get out, and he so desperate to get in, and neither of them could do a thing about it. I’d forgotten that it only takes five episodes for Vera to die, given how wonderful Arlene Tur is in the role.

Of course, even if Rex had used the contacts, there wouldn’t be anyone back at base to watch, as Jack goes on a somewhat pointless mission to get Oswald to reveal Phicorp’s prior knowledge of the Miracle. The most unsettling thing about this is where Jack promises Oswald that he will help him die, because he knows that’s what he wants. Even if that’s true, it’s unlike Jack to encourage someone to die – early Jack, at least. I’m thinking Out of Time, where it took John much convincing before Jack would let him commit suicide. And while Oswald may know that he’s a monster, he doesn’t seem that bad compared to Moloney.

I end this review with a point of confusion. When Vera asks whether Torchwood are investigators, Jack replies that they’re more like freedom fighters. No... I’m pretty sure you’re investigators. You only became freedom fighters when the last thing you investigated corrupted the government into handing over the world’s children. And then you ceased to exist. And you came back when the Miracle needed investigating – you didn’t start fighting for freedom until you realised people were using the Miracle for awful reasons. So if they really wanted to keep that line in, if they wanted to draw the parallel with terrorists, they could have at least expanded it a bit.

Torchwood: Miracle Day - Escape to L.A.

(Originally written 3/2/14, modified 2/3/14)

The DVD intro for this episode talks about how there’s some classic spy stuff going on, and it’s not wrong. I couldn’t help but grin at Jack and Gwen’s ruse to obtain Nicholas Frumkin’s biometrics. I always enjoy stuff like that.

Yet this small scene gave me a look into Frumkin’s character – plus the fact that he has a wife and baby – so when he was attacked later on, I really felt for him. Indeed, this whole episode is packed with character moments. Even something as small as Gwen’s rejection of high heels shows she’s not interesting in being glamorous – just practical. Esther could learn a thing or two from her.

When Esther is alone with Rex, their contrast is just so apparent, especially after their respective family dramas. I can’t help wondering if they’re meant to be an American version of Jack and Gwen, especially since both Esther and Gwen jeopardised operations by contacting their families. I have to admit that I wondered what Esther was thinking calling child services – did she really think, with the world in a state of panic, that the authorities would be patient enough to deal with her sister?

Meanwhile, Rex’s trouble is with his dad, who no doubt has had some influence on him growing up to be such a hard man. But was his dad always hard himself, or has he just grown that way over the years? What more went on in their history? I’m intrigued.

Another notable partnership is that of Oswald and Jilly. I admired Jilly’s frankness when she admitted her dislike for Oswald due to his crimes. I personally think Jilly is not totally amoral (she knows what's right and wrong), but her morals are outweighed by her opportunistic side. She sees the chaos created by the Miracle and thrives on the PR opportunities created by it. Of course that's not a good thing, but to me it's more interesting, and more ambiguous, than a character who's just plain evil.

At the same time, Oswald was able to show his resourcefulness, attempting to track down the people behind Phicorp using the skills he learned as a criminal. And when he makes his speech to the undead, it seems he’s really picked up on Jilly’s PR tips. At that moment, I understood why the people of this world would find him inspirational.

With all the social and ethical issues this story is dealing with, it was perhaps inevitable to introduce the Tea Party and their perspective on the situation. I liked that this was brought up but perhaps would have liked to see Ellis Munroe last a bit longer, to see how she copes in this world, as opposed to only lasting one episode. I suppose since the introduction of the overflow camps will have everyone leaning to the right anyway, she wouldn’t really have much more to do.

I look forward to seeing more on the overflow camps next time. Pity about the trailer which just copied Children of Earth, though.