“The Gathering” continues the saga of Torchwood’s Miracle Day, with the starting screen of “Two Months Later” as Gwen converts a pharmacy into a drive through, getting medications for her dad. Skipping from Wales to Scotland, Esther tends to a recovering Jack, as they try and figure out what the secret of his blood is.Back at CIA HQ, Rex is back in their good graces, as they go over the major recession which has dragged under insurance companies and “half the rest of the world.” Rex is tracing the roots of the miracle, and he’s found a lead with the Podesta family history, the family that had Jack in their basement back during the Prohibition era. The CIA mole we learned of before looks to be doing her best to lose the evidence as fast as Rex finds it. Elsewhere, Jilly Kitzinger gets a new name and finds she’s going to be traveling to China, which has closed its borders to everyone but these people. Her mysterious contact says she is being taken to the mysterious Blessing that keeps being referred to. Gwen’s home is searched for her “illegal category one” father in a very tense scene, but the Coopers (and Rhys) hide him better than the searchers quest for him. Later, they get a surprise visit from a disguised Oswald Danes, who is looking for Jack. Oswald is bargaining for Jack’s location with “the name of the man who created the Miracle.”

Jack and Esther arrive at Gwen’s to meet with Oswald, after Jack and Gwen take care of whoever has been spying on Gwen. Jilly goes to China, and learns a bit more about the mysterious three families- one each went into finance, politics, and media, and gets told to wait at her hotel until she’s taken to the Blessing, which apparently kills some people. As Jack and the team put the pieces together, the police raid Gwen’s house again, still on the trail of her father. Unfortunately, this time they get him. As has happened before, Rhys and his common sense help solve the riddle, noting that two cities they can’t connect are on opposite sides of the Earth, literally.

Jack, Gwen, and Danes go to Shanghai, while Rex and Esther reunite in Buenos Aires, which is noted by the mole in the CIA, computer worker Charlotte, who calls the families. Jilly gets finally brought to the Blessing’s hiding place and a very creepy blond woman who takes her the rest of the way to it. The Blessing is a huge wall of flesh that apparently runs from Shanghai to Buenos Aires, constantly shifting. Jack’s wound from last episode is not healing, and as Gwen changes the bandage, a drop of Jack’s blood falls to the floor and then moves off in a straight line, on its own, ending the episode.

Ok, so wild theory time. The “Blessing” is a giant wall of flesh that is clearly linked to Jack, and back to when he was held prisoner in that basement. That’s when the families got started in all this, and have been experimenting with it ever since. So what if they unlocked Jack’s regeneration, but no other part of what makes him unique? I think the “Blessing” is part of Jack grown out of control. How that was later tweaked to cause the “Miracle” I’m not sure yet, but I bet that’s what’s going on. Guess we’ll see come Friday. I also am cheered that the next episode is being billed as the “Season Finale,” which to me implies it might be back for more after Miracle Day concludes.

Overall, I think the series is continuing to be great. Bill Pullman, Eve Myles, and John Barrowman are turning in stellar performances, and everyone else is doing quite well. The detail they give to the ramifications of the world changing is spectacular, and very well thought out. I’m enjoying this immensely, and hope they come back for more after this.