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.