Torchwood: Miracle Day #10 SPOILERS

[Alidar Jarok]

As for how Jack returned to Earth...it was kind of brought up but he didn't explain the full story. I'm guessing the original wiping of the Torchwood database or the virus upload was enough to get his attention. It is possible that after his little tryst with Alonso that was enough to bring him back to Earth. I got the impression from his initial conversations from Esther he'd been back to our time and the planet for a few months (working with the water memory stuff).

I thought he said he wiped Torchwood from the records. In other words, the three families had Torchwood pop up and he returned to wipe it clean again. Am I misremembering?

 

[David cgc]

It's pretty impressive if he had a system set up to keep tabs on Earth and could get back within twelve hours from God only knows where if something went down... but it's also not impossible. Heck, it wouldn't even be worth the trouble to speculate about if the Doctor didn't keep breaking his wrist strap (you notice he never does that to River? Sucker for a pretty face).

 

[Worf2DS9]

Esther was my favorite new character, so I am bummed that she was killed. She had a nice, real level of earnestness-- smart yet naive-- and I was looking forward to her being on the team for reals.

Yeah, after teasing us with the possibility that she might actually survive after being shot, revealling that she'd died after all was mean. I'd grown to like her to, but I guess they had to show that sometimes even likable good guys die too.

I laughed so hard when Rex took his deep breath. That was an awesome way to end.

I didn't laugh, but it sure was a surprise and made the prospect of another season actually palatable. Hopefully Rex will work on his people skills by the time we see him.

I am looking forward to a potential 5th season, but I hope they go back to standalones or figure out how to plot a megastory.

I wouldn't mind another season down the line, but dropping the "Plan B" thing does not auger well. I'd sooner see them just ignore this whole story and do something new.

 

[The Wormhole]

you notice he never does that to River? Sucker for a pretty face

More importantly, why doesn't Stormcage ever return River's vortex manipulator to the Time Agency?

 

[Technobuilder]

Probably for the same reason they let her leave and come back whenever she wants to.

They can't stop her in the end, so why not just play along.

She's a TimeLady, they do what they want.

 

[Admiral_Young]

Plus Jack and the Doctor have had a much different dynamic than River and the Doctor do...and the Doctor didn't go jump over the bar table and disable his Vortex Manipulator in "The End of Time Part II" did he? No I think Jack has earned the Doctor's respect since their early encounters. I especially think after their ordeal on the Valiant during the Year That Never Happened really changed around their relationship a bit. This is why I'm hoping for a crossover with Doctor Who next year. I really want to see how Jack reacts and interacts with the Eleventh Doctor who is a much different Doctor than the previous two he's encountered.

 

[Apogeal Alpha01]

Jack's blood should also be a fixed point in time, yes?

I think that the Blessing made Rex a fixed point because it thought that because Jack's fixed point blood was coming from Rex as well, Rex was also a fixed point.

Well said, better than I could at the moment. If the entire morphic field of the earth could be changed by the blessing by feeding Jack's blood at the polls, then the source at the polls would be be effected in reversing the morphic field. Transfusions don't literally sit in pockets in blood vessels, ya know?

Anyway, I thought that though it was all a rather brilliant twist, it sucked that Esther had to die.

 

[Apogeal Alpha01]

Esther was my favorite new character, so I am bummed that she was killed. She had a nice, real level of earnestness-- smart yet naive-- and I was looking forward to her being on the team for reals.

Yeah, after teasing us with the possibility that she might actually survive after being shot, revealling that she'd died after all was mean. I'd grown to like her to, but I guess they had to show that sometimes even likable good guys die too.

I laughed so hard when Rex took his deep breath. That was an awesome way to end.

I didn't laugh, but it sure was a surprise and made the prospect of another season actually palatable. Hopefully Rex will work on his people skills by the time we see him.

I am looking forward to a potential 5th season, but I hope they go back to standalones or figure out how to plot a megastory.

I wouldn't mind another season down the line, but dropping the "Plan B" thing does not auger well. I'd sooner see them just ignore this whole story and do something new.

Looking at that scene again, they could have been a lot more surprised. Maybe, they were holding back some amusement at Rex's performance? "What?!"

 

[Saul]

They knew the three families took Jack's blood in the past. They knew all blood banks had their reserves destroyed post-miracle. They put two and two together and figured out either Jack's blood or, at a minimum, mortal blood, was important.

Eh really? I don't remember the blood bank thing for some reason or either didn't think it significant. I still don't see it. Episode 8 we are shown some device that can make you mortal and it seems to be running along those lines, in episode 9 we cut to two months later and jacks blood is bagged. I feel as if i missed out on an episode.

Do you remember Esther taking Jack's blood, Jack calling her a Vampire, and the conversation taking place before that, and Esther putting the new bag of blood into the refrigerator along with the existing collection of his blood already there?

I remember that scene but didn't know the reason why she was doing that.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

They said a couple times they knew Jack's blood was important because of actions taken by the families. They just didn't know how until they found the Blessing.

 

[Iamnotspock]

Since there didn't end up being any use made out of Esther's stupid decision to use her real name in the overflow camp (and her subsequent mini-breakdown over that idiocy once she and Rex were leaving), Tosh could've been name-dropped in the same way Owen was - Jack could have suggested she use Tosh's name for her cover.

I'm not sure "Toshiko Sato" would have been an effective cover name for a white, blonde American woman.

 

[The Wormhole]

Since there didn't end up being any use made out of Esther's stupid decision to use her real name in the overflow camp (and her subsequent mini-breakdown over that idiocy once she and Rex were leaving), Tosh could've been name-dropped in the same way Owen was - Jack could have suggested she use Tosh's name for her cover.

I'm not sure "Toshiko Sato" would have been an effective cover name for a white, blonde American woman.

It's not as though Rex Matheson is an ordianry, everyday American name.

 

[PsychoPere]

I'm not sure "Toshiko Sato" would have been an effective cover name for a white, blonde American woman.

Hm, yes, bad example.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

Since there didn't end up being any use made out of Esther's stupid decision to use her real name in the overflow camp (and her subsequent mini-breakdown over that idiocy once she and Rex were leaving), Tosh could've been name-dropped in the same way Owen was - Jack could have suggested she use Tosh's name for her cover.

I'm not sure "Toshiko Sato" would have been an effective cover name for a white, blonde American woman.

It's not as though Rex Matheson is an ordianry, everyday American name.

It wouldn't raise eyebrows.

 

[Vendikarr]

What was odd was that Rex's original chest wound didn't magically heal until after Charlotte shot him at the funeral, where it healed along with his bullet wound. So, if he was immortal since the transfusion, or at least since they reset the blessing, how come it hadn't healed already?

Rex has to die for the healing to kick in?

 

[Servo]

What was odd was that Rex's original chest wound didn't magically heal until after Charlotte shot him at the funeral, where it healed along with his bullet wound. So, if he was immortal since the transfusion, or at least since they reset the blessing, how come it hadn't healed already?

Rex has to die for the healing to kick in?

But that isn't the case with Jack. He heals whether he dies or not, so it would follow that if Rex's immortality is taken from Jack's, he'd be subject to the same rules.

It kinda struck me as his immortality hadn't fully kicked in until he died from the gunshot wound. Sort of like how Windows updates don't take effect until you restart the system.

 

[Iamnotspock]

It's not as though Rex Matheson is an ordianry, everyday American name.

That's beside the point.

It wouldn't raise eyebrows.

Indeed.

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

I've seen gratuitous nudity and gratuitous violence but I think that might be the first time I've thought of an entire series itself as being gratuitous.

Phase 1. Induce immortality
Phase 2. ???
Phase 3. Profit

Amen. This episode did exactly the thing I was praying to god it would never do: Reveal that this massively fucked up change of the human condition was all due to some shadowy "EVIL CAPITALISTS" (TM). If the families are really that powerful, I don't see why they need to make everyone immortal to make a profit and control the world.

Of course, we don't even know if the families are really human. That's one of the things that really pissed me off. "Children of Earth" gave us a definitive ending. "Miracle Day" didn't. We know as little about the families now as we did when they were first introduced back in "Immortal Sins."

So now they have two immortals? Hmm. Could be interesting if they do a season 5. I imagine we'll be seeing Rex and Kitzenger and the 'Plan B' guys in black next time. Now we have two vampires with a soul (to use an Angel analogy). Rex is Spike! :P Which would be amusing if John Hart shows up!

A couple Angel references crossed my mind during the episode.
1. Jack was in Shanghai during the Boxer Rebellion. So were Angel, Spike, Darla, & Drusilla.
2. I wonder if the Blessing ever crosses paths with the Deeper Well where Illyria and a bunch of the other Old Ones were buried in "A Hole in the World"?

I think the defining characteristic of this show was lack of payoff. The Blessing had all the purpose and functionality of a godlike toaster oven. It's activated by Jack's blood and that's all we need to know about it apparently. I kept expecting Jilly to develop into a character with some important relation to the Families, but it turns out they were just fans of her mad PR skillz. What exactly was the point of that character and why was she a main cast member instead of just some occasional guest star who instead assisted Oswald Danes, who should have had the importance to the Families that she did in order to justify his initial elevation to super-stardom by them? Instead, he has no relation or importance to them whatsoever. Jack's lover is introduced with a full episode focusing on him, and then is casually discarded in the next without so much as a line of dialogue. Why not make him the head of the Families? Saving the Families for a followup is probably going to wind up biting them in the ass as well, because I don't think people are going to tolerate another ten episodes of mysteries about them without knowing if there will be a payoff to their story. They should have just wrapped it up here instead of going for Plan B.

I wouldn't have minded a brief little cliffhanger with Jilly & that other guy talking about Plan B if there had been more resolution & revelations in this episode. Instead, it felt like the whole thing only existed to promote another endless series of dull mysteries in Season 5. This kind of stringing along is exactly the reason why I grew annoyed with The X-Files. But at least I can kinda forgive The X-Files because jerking us around was all that that show ever could do. I hold Torchwood to a higher standard because at least "Children of Earth" gave us an ending.

Yeah. For a minute there I thought the CIA traitor was going to join Jack, Gwwn, and Rex as the new "Torchwood"

That would have made me more interested in a 5th season than immortal Rex does.

I'd kind of like if Torchwood went back to a more conventional structure, myself. Season 2 hit their stride with a balance between being deadly serious and yet not taking themselves that seriously. I mean, for just compare "Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang" to "Day One." "Day One" was just a complete mess. Sex gas! It should've been a crazy romp, but they just had to be so freaking grim about it, it was just weird. Now, "Kiss Kiss," from the beginning with the joyriding blowfish, the barfight, and Captain John wanting to nail a stray dog was appropriately over-the-top and self-aware. Even an episode like "Sleepers" which was some freaky, disturbing shit had one of the funniest bits in the show with Ianto's reaction to Owen not being able to understand what "the phones are down" means.

"Children of Earth" was season-one grim, but it was grim about things that should've been grim, so it worked. "Miracle Day" started to get some of the season two spirit back into it, which is probably most of the reason I'm going easier on it than I should be.

A season 5 of standalones, or mini-arcs, or even a more subtle, Doctor-Who-style season-long plot would be a much more enjoyable Torchwood for me, I wager, and it'd be easier to produce for a longer run of episodes than trying to keep everything tight for what should've ended up being a ten-hour movie but wasn't.

Agreed. A return to a more stand-alone-ish structure is the only way I can imagine getting back into this show. And even then, I'm iffy on that. "Children of Earth," while amazing, was never fun. "Miracle Day" was just total shite. And no matter what they do, I'm not sure I'll ever be able to get over the fact that it's just not the same without Owen, Tosh, & Ianto.

The rules for immortality changed practically every episode. Even if they said you could heal from massive injuries, it wouldn't matter as they'd likely change it a couple of episodes later.

Yeah. It would have been more consistent had they not had Sierra walking around with her head on backwards in episode 2.

you notice he never does that to River? Sucker for a pretty face

More importantly, why doesn't Stormcage ever return River's vortex manipulator to the Time Agency?

Maybe the Time Agency doesn't exist during the era during which River is imprisoned, so there's no one to return it to? Or maybe the Time Agency during this time is considered by the Stormcage people to be even more rogue & untrustworthy than River is.

 

[Professor Zoom]

I've seen gratuitous nudity and gratuitous violence but I think that might be the first time I've thought of an entire series itself as being gratuitous.

Phase 1. Induce immortality
Phase 2. ???
Phase 3. Profit

Amen. This episode did exactly the thing I was praying to god it would never do: Reveal that this massively fucked up change of the human condition was all due to some shadowy "EVIL CAPITALISTS" (TM). If the families are really that powerful, I don't see why they need to make everyone immortal to make a profit and control the world.

AND, the thing is: THEY ALREADY CONTROL THE WORLD. That's what it seemed like. They seemed all powerful and very wealthy.

 

[TyberiusDeAngelo]

I went in with high hopes for this season and came away sorely disappointed. The ten episodes did not seem to flow very well together and the quality seemed to vary from week to week. Overall, I just don't think it was a good story.