4.10: Miracle Day - The Blood Line

[Dave]

At CIA HQ, Charlotte is able to protect her secret by blowing up Shapiro (John de Lancie) and Noah (Paul James). Rex and Esther face a setback when the suitcase containing Jack's blood is blown up by a Family agent in the Buenos Aires military. Jack and Gwen strap Oswald to explosives to gain leverage over the Families, and learn that the miracle was caused when the Blessing — an unexplained rock formation controlling the morphic field — reacted defensively when introduced to Jack's immortal blood. Rex reveals that he secretly transfused himself with Jack's blood to keep it safe, meaning both agents are able to bloodlet into the Blessing at either end at the cost of their lives, thus ending the miracle. Esther is shot, but the group proceed. Gwen shoots Jack, knowing that she is effectively killing her father, him, Rex and Esther. With death restored, Oswald blows himself up along with a senior Family member (Frances Fisher); Gwen's father passes. Jack's immortality is restored; he resurrects and escapes the facility with Gwen. Some time later, Jilly is approached again by a Family agent (Teddy Sears) about assisting with their Plan B. Paramedics manage to revive Rex, but not Esther. At Esther's funeral, Charlotte's duplicity is revealed and she shoots Rex. To everyone's shock, however, Rex displays Jack's special ability, and instantly heals from his mortal wound.

I initially thought it was another, "everyone dies" episode, but it ended up little different. Obviously, "room for a sequel" - what is 'Plan B'?

Interesting, reading your reasons last week why Shanghai and Buenos Aires are not exactly opposite each other, that their own explanation this week was not as convincing.

I didn't find this a great finale, but I enjoyed the series as a whole.

 

[TheEndIsNigh]

Calming down slowly, but...

OK it was bad enough that we had to live through ten episodes of what could actually have been and acceptable three or four part-er, but to end it with the prospect of a rehash probably over another ten was to me frightening.

It goes beyond the realms of fantasy to imagine that they could squeeze anything more out of the stone.

The only saving grace was that at least most of the crap characters were killed of in one way or another and we can only hope that more credible characters are put in place.

As for the ending - Shock horror here we go again.

It's a shame that the BBC has to spend so much to get what IMO can only be described as mediocre, given the long tradition of the BBC to produce quality material such as Out of the Unknown etc.

 

[Lenny]

Rest assured, TEiN, that most of the money came from Starz - the Americans paying their subscriptions are what funded this series!

---

I watched the episode after it was aired last week, and I was disappointed. Indeed, I've been somewhat disappointed with the series as a whole, particularly after such a promising start.

For a show generally about the extraterrestrial side of paranormal, there was nothing to even suggest alien involvement, and the Blessing itself was a total let down.

I was saddened that Esther's character was killed off, as she was my favourite in the end, and I feel sorry for Bill Pullman - he put in a pretty good performance despite the script, his character went out with a satisfactory bang, and yet this won't do anything to help his career.

Now, the major negative comes from Rex. I've not been fantastically keen on him through out the series, and yet now he seems to have become a regular through disgustingly iffy science that doesn't even stand up to what we've seen in Torchwood previously. What makes it even more depressing is that I can make sense of why he is now immortal, even though I wish with all my being that I shouldn't...

After the brilliance of Children of Earth, I'd hoped that Torchwood could only go on to bigger and better things, but it seems, instead, that they should have rebuilt the Hub and stayed in Wales.

Very disappointed.

 

[PTeppic]

And has anyone worked out what in Earth "the blessing" actually is/was?

 

[TheEndIsNigh]

And has anyone worked out what in Earth "the blessing" actually is/was?

"The Blessing" is that the series has ended.

Lenny: All good solid points.

I also thought the Esther character had a future. IMO it should have been Gwen that got it in the neck. I think her character has nowhere left to go. She is a spent force and should get back to being a mother and good little housewife in Wales. All that transatlantic commuting is going to put a big strain on any plot (as it did this time). Plus she is in danger of being 'type cast': she needs to explore the live stage and her RSC career.

As for Rex and his new abilities - I think we can all see what plan B is.

Jack and Rex, spend 10 more episodes being chased by the forces of the three families in order that they can be used as donors. Since all the old CIA mates were killed of in the explosion, Rex will be just another rogue agent; so no help there. Jack will use his now 'magically restored' wrist band to go back and stop Esther being shot (but be unable to prevent the whole sad excuse for a SF series from being made) and the four will be a force for good. The cavalry (in the form of Who) will come charging over the hill (suitably for the series) to save the world from the big bad nasties. Rex^ will go on to star in a remake of Blazing Saddles.

^IMO Rex put in a fairly good performance. The problem was he was doing it in the wrong series.

Bill Pullman, as you say, also put in a good performance (given the material he had to work with - I thought his predatory leer was particularly good). Sadly as you say, he will now be remembered for his role as a child killer in a second rate TV series: totally wiping out his Independence Day performance.

 

[Dave]

Jack and Rex, spend 10 more episodes being chased by the forces of the three families in order that they can be used as donors. Since all the old CIA mates were killed of in the explosion, Rex will be just another rogue agent; so no help there.

That does look probable, and not at all interesting. It was only one room of CIA agents who died though, not the whole of Langley.

And has anyone worked out what in Earth "the blessing" actually is/was?

They said that it wasn't alien; it had always been on Earth in a symbiotic relationship with man. It only started acting differently when the three families began "feeding" it with Jack's blood.

I agree that the whole concept is pants. This 'plan B' has to be something else to do with using it, but since it wasn't explained/ cannot be explained it makes no sense.

Why did the three New York families gain control of it? I assumed they were Mafia, certainly they were gangsters, but contacts in Shanghai and Buenos Aires? Wouldn't there be some more ancient record of this wondrous thing from history? Or have those references been erased like the families themselves?

Still no explanation of how the families could remove all references to themselves. After ten episodes I really expect more exposition in the finale.

And I'm not convinced about the 'Jack's Blood' thing either. I thought he was immortal because of the energy of the eye of harmony of the TARDIS. Nothing has suggested before that his blood was special until that episode set in the 1930's. Now all he needs to do is give transfusions.

As I said before, I enjoyed the ride but not too happy with the destination.

 

[Anne Lyle]

Also, where's the explanation for Jack becoming mortal when everyone else stopped dying? The "recalibrating the lifespan" thing I can just about buy, but Jack's mortality was blatant Plot Device - without it, there would have been no way to reverse the Blessing.

All this goes to show that RTD just doesn't "get" SF - he writes personal drama and wraps it in poorly conceived SF clothing.

 

[Susan Boulton]

The basic plot premise of everlasting life (but not health or limitless youth, ) is a very good one (shades of Death Becomes Her). I loved the ideas surrounding the "dead" and how society would deal with them. In fact this aspect was very well done.

The problem was this premise was put in Torchwood wrapping. It would have made a very good, as Anne said, personal drama. As it was the strong elements of the plot got buried under the Torchwood Tosh.

On a whole the series hung together as badly as a pair of lace knickers with snapped elastic, there was nothing to hold it up.

 

[Ursa major]

Just as well it's September, then: Winter draws on....

*cough*



I'm assuming (okay, I admit to grasping at straws) that Rex's condition is a gift of the Blessing, not merely the result of a blood transfusion. It may be that the Blessing saved Rex (instead of Esther), but it could be that there was still enough of Jack's blood in Rex that the Blessing was confused enough to mistakenly restore him to what it thought he had been.



One good thing: despite the frequent mentions of a morphic field (because Jack was misguided enough to believe that such a field one was needed to explain why things happened simultaneously all around the world), we now have a slightly less dubious explanation for that simultaneity: the bit of the Blessing that's driving the changes is at the centre of the Earth, and so just about equidistant for everywhere on the surface. And if you don't buy that, an effect that may travel at the speed of light (why wouldn't it?) would tend to look simultaneous, particularly as no-one is actually timing difficult to gauge things with a stopwatch.

 

[Anne Lyle]

It's all handwavium in any case - why would such a thing only affect humans? Life isn't some mystical force, it's a complex chemical process that ceases when you throw any kind of spanner in the works.

But then 99% of SF is only a whisker away from fantasy anyway...