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.