Torchwood: Miracle Day ends up biting off more than it can handle, but tells an ahead of it’s time story of the world collapsing amid a medical crisis.
The Review
Here’s the scores for the stories:
Escape to L.A.: 10/10
TheCategories of Life: 9.5/10
The Middle Men: 9.5/10
Immortal Sins: 9/10
Rendition: 8.5/10
The Gathering: 8.5/10
The New World: 8/10
The Blood Line: 8/10
End of the Road: 7.75/10
Dead of Night: 7/10
The criticisms are clear, Torchwood strayed from the UK to make a thriller with the CIA prominently featuring, and what’s worse: there weren’t any aliens involved. This one was all on us. In the final episode, Gwen says that the Blessing and the Miracle might be the most terrestrial thing of all. RTD once again swung for the fences: a plague where no human can die, no matter how hard they try. I think Torchwood actually works better without tracking down aliens, as it allows RTD to cast judgement on the worst of human society as he often so expertly does. Rex and Esther were good additions to the team, but the power of Jack and Gwen again carried the day. It did not all work, the villains essentially being three mysterious families isn’t too interesting and it doesn’t nail the landing. Still, I will always think about those haunting middle episodes as we saw just how far humanity was willing to go to protect the powerful.
Miracle Day ruminates on what it means to die, and what it means to live, in a final episode that hits the right character notes even if the plot is a bit convenient.
The Review
Gwen prepares to bring back death
The final televised episode of Torchwood begins with Gwen talking about her dear father, and how she now prepares to kill him. Really, it’s a melancholy episode, which makes sense considering the subject matter. The Families aren’t too interesting villains, planning to remake and control the world and all that. Much is still unrevealed about them, clearly intended for a Miracle Day sequel that unfortunately never came to pass. The Blessing, the giant thing holding the Earth together has no explanation, and is the better for it, it simply exists almost as the heart of the whole of the human race. The why, we don’t know. It’s a good thing the plot isn’t too relevant, because the season comes down to making the hard choices. Torchwood has to bring back death to Earth to save everyone on it. Facing the Blessing, everyone seems to come to grips with it.
Jack ready to die
Rex and Esther narrowly escape being blown up, but their genius plan to pump Jack’s blood into Rex pays dividends. The Miracle started by feeding both ends of the Blessing immortal blood, which was then copied out to everyone. Jack got the reverse effect and now has the only mortal blood, and was the only man who could shut it down. Esther is shot, and Rex decides to go through with it knowing she will die. Gwen expects Jack to die, but still shoots him allowing his blood to flow. Oswald, well, he takes the Families to hell, going out with a darkly horrifying monologue saying he’d terrorize little girls in hell. No redemption for the most evil character in Doctor Who. Charlotte kills everyone we care about at the CIA with a bomb, but Rex finally finds her out and she is gunned down. Now though…Rex is immortal just like Jack!
Shock at Rex’s new immortality
So, what to make of this capper? It’s nothing special, but it thematically ties everything up with a nice little bow. How exactly the world normalizes we don’t get to see, but this whole season was about coming to terms with what it means to be human. For Jack, although in an omission never mentioning Angelo, I think seeing so many people die has made him think that it is time enough. The true crux turns out not to be Jack, but to be Gwen. Gwen is the woman who makes all of the hard choices, and although it’s not as personal as Jack killing his grandson last season, she still feels like she killed Esther, her dad, everyone on the planet on her shoulders. Gwen still does it, because she knows this was what she had to do. After four seasons, seeing Gwen’s development has been a true treat.
Miracle Day has a perfectly fine finale, thank goodness Charlotte got what’s coming to her. Kitzinger rides off into the sunset with the Families for ‘Plan B’ though. My cliffhanger resolutions: Plan B is decades away, and Rex is only temporarily immortal until all the blood gets out of him. Case closed!
8/10 Bill Pullman was amazing as Oswald, now that bastard can rot
The funeral for Esther, and that bastard Charlotte is there
The mysteries grow deeper as Miracle Day barrels towards its conclusion with a daring mission on opposite ends of the world.
The Review
The grossest man alive is back
In a shocking twist, with the show leaving the world on the brink of a Great Depression, we jump two months ahead with it in full force. As the CIA chief says, the world is becoming a dictatorship: and no one even knows who the dictators are. It’s a bleak future, resistance to Category 1s being burned in furnaces has dissipated in the face of the bleak new reality. A major subplot is the British authorities finding Gwen’s dad in hiding, and taking him away to be killed. On top of it all, Oswald shows up saying he knows who’s behind the Miracle: ‘Harry Bosco’. Turns out, that’s a CIA process for altering translations, but it does allow for videos referencing the Blessing from Shanghai and Buenos Aires to be uncovered. The whole cast was in a room save Rex who was at the CIA, the highlight of the titular gathering being Rhys determined to tear Oswald limb from limb. At any rate, it was good to see the gang together.
The Blessing!
Rex is convinced there’s a mole after finding an insanely deep connection but gets stymied by, uh, Charlotte, our resident Family member and mole. Despite Rex’s best efforts, she discovers him and Esther in Buenos Aires anyway. Jack, Gwen, and Oswald are smuggled to Shanghai because it turns out the Blessing is a giant underground thing connecting the two cities through the world. Apparently, it kills some people, and reveals things about them to themselves. It just looks like a giant pink fleshy thing that wind rushes through, and Kitzinger (who is delightful to follow through this episode) is enchanted by it. We finally meet two high ranking Family members, an awkward tech bro and an evil older woman. Most curiously, Jack’s blood is being drawn toward it. I don’t know what’s going to happen, I’m not sure there’ll stick the landing, but points for a bleak episode.
Miracle Day hits harder after nearly two years of the covid pandemic. There’s nothing revolutionary here, but it’s exciting to see things unfolding. I also think I kind of love Esther.
8.5/10 Enjoyable enough episode, nothing that sticks with you except for Rhys and Kitzinger stealing the show
The CIA gets involved back in Torchwood, and the quality of the season takes a dip accordingly.
The Review
The founders of the three families
It’s unsurprising, but after the great episodes showing the Miracle causing chaos on Earth we now have to meet its maker and their connection to Jack. This episode is the first in a while to feel it doesn’t earn its runtime, the CIA arrives at the Colasanto residence and after evil Wayne Knight commits suicide it’s a legit operation. Here, the story bogs down again, I wasn’t particularly looking forward to seeing Esther’s CIA desk-mates again. Angelo, now over 100 and unconscious, apparently was always keeping tabs on Jack, to the point of salvaging material from the hub in Cardiff. Oh, and after Jack kisses him, he becomes the first person to actually die in weeks. Jack’s continued evasiveness with Gwen and company is frustrating, especially that Gwen gets deported to the UK. Overall, too much standing around and talking in this one.
The new head CIA guy on station
I’m disappointed in the villains so far, as it turns out they’re basically three families of mobsters (hence the triangle logo). The blue-eyed man that recruits Kitzinger is suitably creepy and mysterious, but it’s not quite believable that the mob has been playing the world for decades. We finally see Oswald again, who attempts adult conversation with a redhead prostitute (clearly thinking of Kitzinger) and gets rightfully raked through the coals. There’s also a very 24-esque twist where Esther’s best CIA friend turns out to be a member of the Families. It’s fun, but I’d care more if we knew anything about her. Though the global economy is about to completely collapse, it seems we’ve already seen what there is to know about how society would respond to the Miracle. Now, we’re just going to be mining Jack’s past to see what we can find.
The Angelo/Jack reunion is kind of a dud, and we spend a lot of time awkwardly standing around the CIA.
7.75/10 Deporting Gwen? Seriously? She and Jack better get on screen one last time
We dive deep into a part of Jack’s past to reveal the mastermind by the Miracle in another engrossing episode of Torchwood.
The Review
Jack being drained for his blood
Through six episodes, we really got no clues as to who was behind the Miracle. Now, we get basically all of them at once. I have not cared too much, because the storyline of seeing how horrible humanity would respond to the Miracle has hooked me. Really, this is a character study about Jack, with a little Gwen on the side. Jack doesn’t come out look especially well, but you understand his motivations. In 1927 he falls in love with Angelo, an Italian immigrant who tried to steal his visa at Ellis Island. When it’s time to do his Torchwood mission, Jack tries to protect Angelo but Angelo agrees to come with him. Only, Jack gets gunned down by police and Angelo is locked up for a year. Angelo’s deep Catholic faith has him initially think of Jack as the devil, and it spirals where numerous people get vials of Jack’s blood seeing him come to life again and again. Angelo apologizes but is ready to be Jack’s companion, like the Doctor (who is name-dropped) but Jack can’t bear to live forever while Angelo withers away.
Gwen and Jack at the end of the line
It’s an extended gay love story, the longest Torchwood has done (well, not counting Ianto’s subplot) and it’s great that to see that depicted on screen. Angelo is apparently behind the Miracle, we didn’t even know him until this episode but knowing about him earlier would’ve made it extremely obvious. Gwen swears to Jack she will see him killed to save her daughter, and we’re reminded of Jack killing his grandson to save the world last season. Jack is clearly a good man, always fighting for the right side, but the ugliness is there. He lies he can use his vortex manipulator to save Gwen’s daughter, and admits that even with his millennia of life: it still isn’t enough for him. Despite seeing the ugly side of Jack, you can’t help but root for him especially in the face of the ugly challenges as well as John Barrowman’s limitless charm. Let’s just hope it pays off.
Jack’s old flame is revealed, in the most personal episode of the season to date. I am still impressed with how consistently the show juggles time zones in a sensible way.
9/10 The great ride continues as we get some more Jack backstory (well, literally too)
Miracle Day‘s hot streak continues as Torchwood continues to fight governmental horror.
The Review
No death, not anymore
The first two seasons of Torchwood were all about defending the Earth from aliens. It turns out the show is at its best when it’s defending Earth from itself. There have been no aliens, because the horrors here on Earth are bad enough. Rex and Esther barely escape the camp in California with their lives, the sniveling bureaucrat Colin Maloney trying to kill them both, muttering that he was just the guy in charge of setting everything up. Meanwhile, in Wales, Gwen tries to break her father out but gets a vicious scene early on confronting a doctor who knew full well that the Category 1 patients were being incinerated. If she couldn’t stop it, she could’ve at least not participated. Rhys heroically tries to break her father out, but when Gwen lands back in Los Angeles is told it was for nothing.
Jack flirting while working (duh)
We get a break from Oswald, and instead are treated to Jack chasing down Phicorp’s COO through his young mistress. The message he has is that whoever is behind the Miracle goes far beyond Phicorp. The first scene is him asking an operating in Singapore to check in on a Phicorp property, and that operative promptly jumping off a building. The message here is that authoritarianism and governmental horror come through a string of the titular middle men, paper pushers who refuse to take a stand. Gwen takes a stand by setting off a massive explosion in Wales, and helping to broadcast the truth. Still, the White House Press Secretary defends the move, saying it’s what they’d do in the case of a pandemic. Yeah, it’s all hitting closer to home.
Miracle Day keeps finding ways to make the whole situation uglier and uglier, and revealing just how fucked up we all are.
9.5/10 I find myself continually captivated by Miracle Day. I’m starting to think RTD was rather ahead of its time.
Things get even darker than before as a new three-category system for all of humanity is rolled out across America and Europe.
The Review
The guy on the right is a piece of shit
This episode does something shocking that I hope won’t tank the season: they kill off Dr. Juarez. She is part of a team with Rex and Esther getting access to an overflow camp to see what’s going on. It’s a mess, Juarez is outraged when she sees a room where people have been dumped, the people ‘without insurance’. It’s sickening, but not as sickening as what happens to ‘Category 1’ patients, those people permanently unconscious or braindead. They’re incinerated. Maloney, the pathetic piece of shit that is the head of the San Pedro camp shoots Dr. Juarez after she threaten to have him prosecuted and incinerates her. I can’t imagine what it would feel like to be ash and still alive, but it can’t be good. I’m shattered to lose such a strong character who was in many ways the moral center of the show. I hope it doesn’t go off the rails without her.
The ‘revelation’ speech
Bill Pullman continues to steal the show as the sickening piece of shit Oswald Danes. Conflicted over whether to read the boilerplate speech given by PhiCorp, Jack gives him a chance to expose that they knew the Miracle was coming before it happened. Does he take it? In an incredibly tense moment, Oswald admits that he knows he is a revolting human but says that all of humanity has been turned into angels and doesn’t rat out PhiCorp. His whole movements, they’re so gross. The only thing keeping this episode from another 10/10 is that Gwen is back in Wales trying to break her father out of an overflow camp but he has a second heart attack. Keeping Gwen a continent and ocean away from the rest of the crew: doesn’t really work out. Everything else though, is just the kind of stomach-churning, all-too-plausible horror Torchwood provides.
To show us the horror of this new world, one of Miracle Day‘s greatest assets is killed off. It elevates this episode, but I worry for what’s to come.
9.5/10 What makes RTD’s ideas so great and sickening is he knows exactly how Britain, and America, would react to this scenarios
Esther gets a level in confidence in this episode!
Torchwood: Miracle Day finally starts getting good with an intense episode taking us across every plot thread.
The Review
Look behind you Gwen!
Now, this is morel like it! The Torchwood team arrives in Los Angeles, home of Phicorp’s headquarters to stage a raid on their data servers. Gwen is trying to get Rhys to get her dad out of the hospital, but he ends up getting sent to a Phicorp camp. Esther started out visiting her sister and ends up reporting her to child protective services, a man was waiting at her house and tails Torchwood all the way to LA. Rex is feeling glum about the new ‘Dead is Dead’ slogan and visits his anti-government Dad who lives in a ramshackle apartment. The raid on Phicorp is tightly constructed with Gwen in a hilarious dress and hairstyle named ‘Yvonne’ and Jack as a delivery man. The two are caught by the assassin sent by the Families/Triangle and are saved by Rex who staggers up 33 flights of stairs. In classic Gwen fashion, she’s pissed because he shot the assassin just as he was going to reveal some juicy info.
Bill Pullman has been perfectly sickening as Oswald
We get some more Dr. Juarez at an overflow hospital, and this is where the Oswald Danes story takes off. Ellis Hartley Monroe, a Tea Party mayor, starts a ‘Dead is Dead’ campaign to ostracize people who should have died. Oswald calls her bullshit by picking up an abandoned baby and becomes a voice of the people. Once again, Oswald is a truly horrible reprehensible man, even the horrible PR woman Kitzinger says she absolutely detests him but loves the publicity he brings. Overall, this is a long episode, but one that kept me hooked showing the Miracle continuing to spiral out of control with a tense heist sequence.
After a largely filler episode three, Miracle Day gets on track with one of the best episodes of the show, non-Children of Earth category.
10/10 There are lots of moving characters and plot, and for now, all are believable!
In a muddling episode of Torchwood, we get closer to unraveling the plot behind a world without death.
The Review
Literally everyone knows she’s up to no good
I’ll be honest, when thinking of the premise of a world without death, I didn’t think about the enormous profits generated by pharmaceutical companies selling painkillers. Infections and colds will stick with people long past when they should’ve died, meaning people with painkillers are in the perfect position to profit. The good parts of this episode revolve around Phicorp, finding that they have a large stockpile of drugs, and seemingly were prepared for the Miracle. Gwen infiltrates the office of Jillian, the obviously up to no good seemingly sweet PR woman for Phicorp. Then, I really shouldn’t have trusted RTD, we learn that Oswald truly has zero remorse and calls the moment he murdered Susie the best moment of his life in a chilling final scene. Jack is horrified to find people are now worshipping him as some sort of Messianic figure. All this stuff works. Too bad a lot doesn’t.
Never have sex then ask your partner to run an undercover op for you
After an opening sting getting a mysterious cellphone from evil Wayne Knight, the team briefly breaks up for no discernible reason. Rex gets frustrated not being in charge, but really just has sex with Dr. Juarez to pressure her into helping their OP. Completely out of character, in the middle of a crisis, Jack goes to a gay bar and sleeps with the bartender. Oh, and Esther has a scene with Gwen saying she’s not used to all this that comes off as sort of pathetic instead of sweet. Oswald also gets beaten up, which is good to see, but also a waste of our time. The whole middle of the episode is a complete mess. At least we get to see Gwen talking to Rhys and her daughter on a video call (how common were video calls in 2011?). Overall: a muddled third episode
The sex was unnecessary, and Gwen is clearly the most capable character so far along with Dr. Juarez. I’m also not sure Pharma companies is the most interesting route for a world without death.
7/10 All the silliness at the beginning about differences between the UK and the US…didn’t quite land
The plane ride from London to Washington ends up being anything but smooth in an improved episode of Torchwood.
The Review
Lyn, the bad guy
The A-plot of this episode takes place on a nearly empty flight. It takes a while to get going, but the CIA orders Lyn, an agent who hopped on to poison and kill Jack. With Jack now in the opposite position as the only mortal human, this causes a problem and leads to a fun sequence as they cobble together a cure with help from scientists led by City General Hospital’s Dr. Juarez. It’s a fun sequence with Eve Myles getting a lot to do as Gwen, going from being upset at Rex leaving Rhys behind to admitting she missed Jack and the chaos of Torchwood. When they land, Esther calls Rex to tell him about the plot facing them, and he snaps Lyn’s neck 180 degrees. It’s one of the best visual moments in show history when Lyn still tries to apprehend them, staggering with her head on backwards.
Oswald saying he’s sorry
Dr. Juarez I didn’t mention after last episode, but I really like Arlene Tur’s performance. She adds a lot of realism and helps to underscore the horror of a world no one dies in. Oswald gates his chance for a television interview where he acts aloof before finally breaking down and saying he’s sorry. I think it is genuine, and as someone anti-death penalty, it’s an emotional watch. Still, the fact that he has only served six years in prison so far for his heinous crime makes it still a bit chilling that now Oprah wants him on her show. I’ve gone from thinking Oswald didn’t make sense on the show, to me thinking it might be better than the mix/match of Torchwood with a generic American CIA show.
Rendition is a step up thanks to Bill Pullman and the frenetic plane sequence, but Gwen especially still isn’t jelling with the Americans. Jack’s American accent helps, but Gwen is so proudly Welsh she just doesn’t quite fit.
8.5/10 Bonus points for featuring a Colorado flag in DC City Hall
Eve Myles has the best accent in the ‘Whoniverse’, bar none
Reviewing Doctor Who from Start to Finish 