Torchwood: Miracle Day:- The final episode, My Review.

Please don’t read if you have not seen final episode of Torchwood: Miracle day yet….Spoiler alert.

At end of last weeks episode Jack, Gwen and Oswald Danes were in Shanghai following a trail from Jack’s blood, which seems to be homing in on the Blessing. Meantime, Rex  and Esther, were in Buenos Ares trying to track down the other side of the Blessing.

Anyway, Gwen goes off and locates the Blessing. While getting ready to leave to meet up with Gwen, Oswald asks Jack who he is. Jack reveals he’s from the future. Oswald wants to know if they survive the day, but Jack says the future can change.

In the meantime Gwen checks in with Rhys, who has a way into the camp, where her dad is located, thanks to Andy. Gwen’s torn because if the miracle ends, her father dies, but Rhys just wants her to come back alive.  Anyway, he’s able to get into the camp where Gwen’s dad is located pretty easily. He has some last words for the old man (who is still unconscious), before he dies.

In Argentina, Rex and Esther are all ready to launch an assault on the building where the Blessing is located. The Families, of course, have their mole in the CIA and she knows someone who is apparently willing to die and kill a lot of other people in order to prevent Rex and Esther from reaching the Blessing. Santos (from the army) has arrived with some soldiers to help Rex and Esther. Charlotte takes out her phone as they prepare to move in.  They load up a truck, and Esther goes to Rex’s side when he’s obviously in pain. But one of the soldiers opens the briefcase with the blood before pulling out a detonator. Another soldier shoots him, and the truck blows up. Rex and Esther have to make everyone think they died in the explosion.

Shapiro knows someone betrayed them and tells Noah to run the trace.  Charlotte takes her bag and walks into an office, pulling something out of a file cabinet. Once it’s inside her bag, she returns to the others and sets her bag on the desk before walking away. That’s when they realize Charlotte’s the mole, too late! as her bag explodes.

Jack and Oswald join Gwen, who has found out about the Buenos Aires explosion. The only blood they have left is in Jack, and he could die. On both sides of the Earth, they break into the areas of the blessing.

Jack and company have a merry time going through the building where that end of the Blessing is, cheerfully snapping many necks along the way until Danes points out that isn’t exactly a moral way to do things :).

Jack recognizes lettering on a box and tells Oswald he’s glad he’s there. The woman and Jilly see Jack and the others on their monitors, and she says they’re about to meet the creator. They go to meet them at the elevator. Oswald steps forward and reveals they’ve strapped bombs to him. His plan is to make sure the woman’s still inside when the place explodes. However, the Families have the advantage still because Buenos Aires has Rex and Esther in custody.

Jack explains he has the most powerful thing of all and walks over to the blessing. He cuts his finger and his blood is sucked forward to the blessing. The blessing wants him because he has mortal blood. The woman asks them what they see, and Gwen says she sees guilt. Jack sees all the lives he’s lived and it’s not so bad. Oswald says it feels like sin.

Jack says the blessing is the gap in between, the nothingness, the space, mentions something the doctor said but finally concedes that he doesn’t know what it is. Gwen can feel it’s been there since the Earth began.

In Buenos Aires, the man explains the blessing transmits a morphic field  around the planet, binding them together. It turns out they fed it immortal blood. The blessing absorbed the blood and copied it, changing its setting. Jack thinks they hurt it so it made it into a gift. They’re preparing for a new world  where only the strong and rich survive. They’ll be able to decide who lives and for how long.  Jilly says the Families want to make the worlds more disciplined and she likes the sound of it. Jack has the only mortal blood on the planet and he thinks if it gets into the blessing, life switches back. That’s not going to work, as he would need to introduce it in Shanghai and Buenos Aires at the same
time.

However, that’s when Rex reveals that he has Jack’s blood running through his veins, they transfused his blood when they got to Buenos Aires (what a surprise). They now have blood on both sides of the world, but they’ll both die. Gwen’s not going to let Jack commit suicide and pulls her gun. A men shoots Esther to stop Rex, and says that she will die if the miracle dies.  Then Gwen shoots Jack, while Rex takes off his chest bandage, and their blood goes into the blessing. Death is bought back around the world, and everybody who should die (including Esther and Gwen’s father) dies.  It is described as the last breath.

Rex collapses in Buenos Aires, as do both places.  Gwen joins Jilly on the elevator as Jack comes back to life who is immortal again. Rex gets up and throws the man over the edge in Buenos Aires before collapsing again.  Jilly wants to leave Jack there, but Gwen fights for control of the elevator knocks Jilly out, blows the hair out of her face (pure class) and returns for Jack.

Oswald tells them to run, as he’s taking the place and the woman with him. Jack, Gwen and Jilly get outside just as the place explodes. At the same time the army arrives (better late than never) to rescue Esther and Rex.

Suffice to say everything returns back to normal as if nothing had happened.

Sometime later, after all the dust has settled, Jilly is sat on a park bench as she is joined by the man (a representative of the families). She’s been waiting for him.  She has lost everything and doesn’t know what to do. He tells her to start again with them because they nearly succeeded. The trial run for Plan B was good. He asks if she’s interested before walking away. She runs after him.

In the meantime Rhys, Gwen, Jack, Charlotte, and Rex attend Esther’s funeral.

Charlotte offers her condolences before walking away. Rex asks what’s going to happen next for Jack and Gwen. Is Jack staying? When Rex learns Charlotte was the mole, he calls out to Charlotte, who turns and shoots him before being taken down herself. Jack says there’s nothing they can do for Rex. However, that’s when he comes back to life with a gasp and heals. It was Jack’s blood (did anybody see that coming? I did to be honest).

Anyway, I thought on the whole this episode was actually pretty good. It answered a lot of questions and left the opportunity for Torchwood to return.  But it didn’t answer the question of who the families actually were.  But overall I was satisfied.  It was action packed, emotional and fast paced.

But what did I think of this series of Torchwood? Well to be honest It has been good in places, but painfully slow.  Oswald, Jilly, Gwen and Jack have been excellent characters.  Rex, I didn’t see the point of and has been a waste of time in my opinion. And I hated the fact that he has become immortal too. In addition, there should have been more of Shapiro, who was also a great character and under used. But the main problem, in my humble opinion, is that it should have been only 4 or 5 episodes involving the miracle, not the 10. It has been way too slow. some episodes were irreverent, some characters and story lines were irreverent too.

Therefor I do not think a joint production (BBC and STARZ) works as it looks as though were trying to please too many TV executives and trying to put too much stuff (most of it pointless in my opinion) in the series which dilutes the story and it plainly doesn’t work. In addition I don’t think having it set both in Wales and the USA works either. The best bits were when it was set in Wales.  This to me shows that the American setting just doesn’t work for Torchwood.

If there is a future in Torchwood I personally think it should be a BBC only production and set in the UK, but that’s my opinion.  What did you think?

If you want to purchase second hand Comics and books please look at the science fiction and horror online shop. And for news and reviews of upcoming science fiction and horror films please look at the free Science fiction and horror monthly Newsletter.