‘Torchwood: Miracle Day’ End of Season Wrap Up

I started out very excited for this new season of Torchwood, despite the scary move across the pond to Starz, it still had Russel T. Davis at the helm and the incredible Jane Espenson heading out the writing team. My review of “The New World” was quite optimistic, I’m a fan, I wanted to love it. Towards the middle of the season I was beginning to be pretty turned off this new incarnation of my much beloved, very Welsh turned American, Torchwood yet I was still hanging on to hope that it would pull through. I’m dedicated like that.

As we reached “Immortal Sins” and “The End of the Road” I felt that my optimism was beginning to pay off, a bit late in the game but none-the-less interesting ideas and story lines were beginning to be addressed, and there was slightly less Rex to deal with. Then came the finale. I usually try to find a positive angle even in a negative review, and this is going to get nasty. This is your warning, turn back now if you must. I’ll start with the good.

On Gwen Cooper. Gwen was absolutely perfect in this episode, and in this series. She is graceful under pressure, funny, loving, strong, yet human. Not too proud to admit when she’s scared, or feeling out of her depth in battle and difficult decisions. All the credit in the world to Eve Myles for pulling off such a complex character, I think her character was granted the best writing of the series to boot. The role Gwen plays in the Torchwood team has remained consistent from day one. Jack valued her because she was so properly grounded in humanity. She had her life, her friends, Rhys, and now a family. Gwen’s struggle to maintain her humanity and her role in Torchwood throughout, but she has always come back to earth. Gwen and her family has been the best and most consistent part of “Miracle Day” and I am so grateful it was there, to keep the series grounded.

My praise of Gwen isn’t to say she was the only good thing about “Miracle Day”. I love Captain Jack, but he was criminally underused in a series that is based around his character. Gwen is the human side of Torchwood, she is there to counter Captain Jack’s immortality, his alien nature, bring us down to earth.

On Ms. Kitzinger. Lauren Ambrose acted the shit out of Jilly. She’s a complicated woman, successful, driven and powerful. I immediately wanted to know her better. She remained ambiguous for much of the story. We knew she was conflicted in taking on Oswald Danes as a client, then we discover it was all so she could turn him over to be incinerated.

Her ambiguity is what makes her such a great villain. Her drive to succeed and do the right thing in her own eyes makes her interesting. She looked into the blessing and knew she was right.

On Captain Jack Harkness. Jack’s immortality was taken away from him but that’s not what I have a problem with. I’ll avoid going too deeply into this now because I already discussed this at length in my mid-season review, but it’s because he stopped being Captain Jack. For much of the season he was just a victim of the miracle and allowed himself to be pushed aside, willing to defer to Rex for absolutely no explained or rational reason. The Captain Jack we know and love arrived in the season opener then took a backseat until the final few episodes.

Jack’s mortality initially seemed directly tied not only to the miracle, but to the families. So his blood is what started it and the only thing that can stop it. In every other way he is basically irrelevant to the story. No old grudges, no aliens met in lives past. Even the beautiful love story with Angelo felt wasted when it was only a vehicle to get Jack’s blood to the families. When Angelo returned later I would have loved to see him still around, kicking and carrying a personal vendetta, or something compelling rather than a comatose man who held a torch for Jack all these years.

Ugh, Rex. I will only say this once more. Rex is possibly the most insufferable character I have ever encountered on television. Please, I dare you to present someone worse. He was obnoxious, annoying, rude, homophobic and constantly trying to belittle Jack by cracking gay jokes. It went beyond just a flat stereotype of the dumb, loud American. To make matters worse I think we were actually supposed to root for him to be our hero. On top of that Mekhi Phifer’s acting did absolutely nothing to help matters.

On the families. Shrouded in mystery the families had a lot of potential to be interesting villains. This was a case of the less we know the scarier the enemy becomes. When it was revealed that the families were actually the most boring generic villains…ever it was a huge disappointment. They were using the blessing to take over the world, to run the banks, the media, etc. Could you be more cliché? That and the revelation that they weren’t even that bummed when their big plan was foiled because it was only a trial run was a letdown. That’s like challenging someone to a game of poker and after losing your hand declaring it was just a warm up.

On Oswald Danes. He could have been a totally creepy villain but instead he was just a creep that we could find on any episode of Law & Order: SVU. There was absolutely no reason he should have been a spokesperson for PhiCorp or anyone miracle or not. He ended up just being a weird hanger on to the Torchwood crew. Instead of continuing to be a menacing antagonist he was a mere annoyance. His character hardly deserved even the quazi-redemption he was granted in the end.

On Jack’s Immortality. Short and sweet. Jack already made it clear that his immortality has nothing to do with his blood, which actually pretty much invalidates everything. On top of that, absolutely no one needs an immortal Rex. If we were going for the emotional impact of everyone dies in Torchwood, why not make it both Rex and Ester. If that was the case I wouldn’t be so opposed to the thought of another season. Move it back to Wales.

On all the brilliant story-lines that were dropped. A quick list of amazing ideas that I wish had been explored further:

♦ The categories, containment camps and the political machinations that led to this
♦ The new idea of voluntary category ones. Government sanctioned suicide and murder (ability to take your children with you) With that, exploration of Ester’s sister.
♦ The “Soulless” cult of masked people roaming the streets
♦ The lost opportunity to have Jack as the leader of Torchwood, even if it meant him struggling with it.
♦ Who is Torchwood? This was kind of a big thing in the season opener, what happened there? I was all excited for a recurring theme/question thing.
♦ Morphic Fields!
♦ Not exactly a dropped storyline because it was never there: Aliens!

Some more love. I’ll bookend this with some love for Rhys & the Cooper Fam & the neglected little Ester.

“Anwen says Hello”
“No she doesn’t she’s tiny, she hasn’t a clue”

I love how tough and awesome the Coopers are, and how Rhys managed to grow from the hounding, almost too possessive boyfriend to the understanding, caring, supportive husband who brings Gwen back down to Earth when she’s drifting and help her keep the family together.

Ester Drummand was brave and wonderful; with the exception of her terrible flaw of for some reason being strangely attached to Rex she was sort of like the American Gwen.  She was new to the world of Torchwood and madness yet very quick to catch on. I don’t mind losing her because that’s to be expected of Torchwood but I would have liked to see her used more through the season.

On that note: Dear Torchwood/Starz, if we must have another go ‘round let’s drop Rex off at the CIA and bring it back to Wales.

All that being said I still strongly recommend the first two seasons of Torchwood as well as the brilliant 5-part mini-series “Children of Earth”

Agree? Disagree? Did I miss something vital? Let me have it! The comments are open to all.