Episode 5 marks the half way point in the Torchwood Miracle Day series. It’s at this point that I’ve finally got to grips with the characters. We already know Captain Jack Harness – Usually immortal, but Miracle Day has switched things around – making Jack mortal and the rest of the world immortal. Played by the gorgeous John Barrowman; we also know Gwen Cooper – Jack’s right hand woman, married to Rhys and has a beautiful baby girl. Gwen’s father in Episode 4 was moved to a “over flow” camp. But what about the newbies?
Well we’ve previously met Rhys Williams – Married to Gwen and occasionally helps out on Torchwood missions, albeit reluctantly. As for the new American cast, we have:
- Rex Matheson – A CIA agent who should have died in a car accident but Miracle Day is keeping him alive. He joined Captain Jack and Gwen after those behind Miracle Day instructed agents in the CIA to take out Jack.
- Esther Drummond – A CIA intelligence analyst and friend of Rex. She joins the Torchwood team after being set up by those behind Miracle Day to look like she’s been taking bribes to disclose information. She has a sister who can’t cope well with the outside world and is reliant on Esther to look after her.
- Vera Juarez – A doctor who has been involved in dealing with Miracle Day. She’s treated Rex after his accident on Miracle Day and been his pain killer dealer of sorts. She has been intimate with him since.
- Oswald Danes – Is the openly admitted and found guilty paedophile and murder. Backed by Phi Cop a pharmaceutical company who Torchwood suspect caused Miracle Day.
- Jilly Kitzinger – The PR Agent whose managing Oswald and has a connection with Phi Cop, but it hasn’t been revealed what exactly the connection is yet.
So what happened in this episode then? Firstly Gwen goes back to Wales (using a fake identity) to rescue her dad from an over flow camp. Meanwhile Esther discovers that the plans stolen from Phi Cop’s server have a module that’s not on the official plans or maps online. A secret module, Torchwood need to find out what’s going on in these secret modules. So Rex uses his accident to get put into a camp, with Esther going in as a Administration Assistant and Dr. Vera going in as an inspector. Phi Cop get the world to agree to categories of life. Category 1 is most serious and is how you end up in the secret modules, whereas Category 2 is for those injured but still concious and aware. Category 3 is for those healthy and uninjured.
Meanwhile Gwen and Rhys manage to infiltrate a camp in Wales and rescue her dad, only for him to suffer another heart attack and end up being recategorised from Category 2 to Category 1.
Rex get’s Esther to recategorise him as Category 1 so that he can find out and film what happens in the secret module. Dr. Vera comes in under the guise of an inspector and is shown around. Whilst being shown around she finds standards are less than satisfactory (to say the least) and says she’s going to report the man running the camp. He goes mad and shoots her.
Rather than getting her treatment he takes her to the secret module and that’s when you realise something’s not right. The secret modules are tiny imcomparison to the rest of the camp, yet there are probably as many (if not more) people in Category 1 as in Category 2. It’s revealed that the secret module contains incinerators and that they are incinerating Category 1 people.
Meanwhile Captain Jack finds Oswald whose about to make a big speech to the entire American nation and tries to encourage him to tell the truth about what’s going on, giving him a speech. Jilly (the PR Agent) tells Oswald that he needs to go on stage and read a speech ending in “reveal” to show a big Phi Cop logo on a screen behind him. Oswald stutters and stumbles on stage dropping both speeches. Both Jack and Jilly watch nervously as Oswald beings talking, reading neither of their speeches. Oswald says that we were once animals, then evolved to human beings and now we’ve evolved again to Angels. He finishes his speech by saying “reveal.”
Rex finds Dr. Vera as the man guy running the camp is about to incinerate her and that is where the episode ends for this week.
You can read previous Episode Reviews here:
Already looking forward to Episode 6,
Antony
