Torchwood “Miracle Day:” End of the Road Review

Captain Jack and the Torchwood team try to discover what lies behind the Miracle, but get sidetracked when Jack’s past rears its head.

Torchwood “Miracle Day”: End of the Road

Torchwood reaches “The End of the Road,” as they meet up with Angelo from the previous episode in the modern era. Angelo’s granddaughter (played by Nana Visitor of Deep Space Nine fame), brings them to the very old Angelo. We see that Angelo has been watching Jack for decades, documented by pictures, although Jack never knew.

After a good bit of macho posturing, the CIA and Torchwood agree to work together to investigate the Miracle. Jack goes to take his leave of Angelo, and then is stunned when Angelo actually dies, supposedly impossible in this post-Miracle world. Oswald Danes and Jilly Kitzinger reappear after being off screen last episode, continuing their media blitz. Esther talks to her sister and learns of yet another new and disturbing movement, people are “volunteering” to be listed as Category One- officially dead and liable to be burned.

Esther finds something off about Angelo’s room, and is shushed by Jack, who’s clearly ahead of her. Esther ignores Jack and tells her boss, the floor is opened up, and they find some weird metal device beneath it. After many threats, Jack reveals that the item is a transmitter that cancels the morphic field that created the Miracle. Danes has a very odd scene with a prostitute (who refuses him) and storms off after hinting at a new wrinkle- Category Zero, which is people who will be burned in the ovens for their crimes. He confronts Jilly about this, who taunts him and he attacks her and flees.

The null field that Angelo had beneath his bed is salvaged from the Torchwood hub, technology that Jack says can change the world, and not for the better. Jack begs Rex and Esther to get him out with a crucial piece of the null field. Jack is shot during the escape attempt, and it looks bad for him. Elsewhere, Jilly is offered a promotion into a “family business” as Gwen is deported by the CIA. Cliffhangers all around to await us for next episode.

What I liked and what I didn’t:

This showed Jack a lot more as he usually is- in charge, knowing things others do not, and keeping secrets. Unfortunately, his current allies aren’t up to Torchwood standards, but that works for where he finds himself, and Esther blowing things makes perfect sense for her character. Danes continues to be remarkably creepy. Angelo’s null field is an interesting twist on things. I think one of the best touches was Esther asking Angelo’s granddaughter to spell the names of the families so she could look them up.

They keep putting off actually telling us about the Miracle, or the families, and it is starting to get a bit old. Some kind of clues by now would be a bit nice. At the risk of being “that guy” about continuity, this is the second time we’ve heard about a powerful organization scavenging from Torchwood’s ruins, and I don’t see how both of them missed each other (the other was during the end of David Tenant’s run as Doctor Who).

All in all, a decent episode, but this felt a bit like they were padding it out at times to make it to ten episodes.

Tags: Comic Book TV Torchwood