Torchwood: S04E08 - End of the Road

I must confess myself rather disappointed by the latest Torchwood episode as it felt more towards yet another filler episode, with hardly any story bar the introduction of Category Zero, Angelo’s Null Field and of course more towards the three men, now expanded into ‘Three Families’ – an ominous title indeed to start with. Now don’t get me wrong, personal character developments such as Esther’s sister and her children, the revelation towards Esther’s CIA friend, Charlotte and her true identity towards the Miracle and of course Angelo’s actual death were pretty well done but on the whole the episode itself felt rather bland and seemingless.

Not only that but it seemed very obvious that the only reason Gwen was brought back to the U.S. was to have the introduction of Angelo, which personally could have been done a lot better. In fact, the entire Miracle Day story seems to be made of additions, such as the brilliant idea of no one dying and the producers (yes, Russell T Davies and co.) having to come up with a million ideas and instead of running past them and developing the ideas, all that seems to have been done is the ideas portrayed out one after the other – we’ve had the CIA, PhiCorp, the Categories and associated camps, the three men and then of course the Three Families. All must be linked somehow of course, but as a viewer it all seems haphazardly placed together.

Moving on and assessing what I can, however, I must first point out on Drummond family. Poor Esther, finally able to get in contact with her sister only to find out that yes, Sarah (sister) managed to get her children back but sadly, through her illness and suffering had unwittingly volunteered herself AND her children into the horrors of Category One – something that forces Esther into hysterics and slightly ruins Jack’s personal plans upon Angelo’s actual death for he had realised how Angelo had died and that introduces us nicely into yet another never-before-seen-or-mentioned Torchwood tech: The Mute Field… thing

A clever device though it is, the Mute Field definitely feels like yet another unneeded sub-story to a plot that seems hardly existent in a story that’s been stretched beyond capacity. Sad though that summery is, it definitely feels true along with many stories since Vera’s death – it seemed that for me, Doctor Suarez was holding the story together. Well, Vera and Jilly – who’s introduction to the Family next episode seems to be intriguing, yet the sudden departure from PhiCorp becomes overly suspicious now under the circumstances of her departure. One can’t help but feel that PhiCorp, although unexplained with all the drugs, seems they’ve fallen in shadow… Also a new ‘thing’ introduced: Category Zero – the new Death Sentence for criminals, especially since now that no-one can die; prisons will become overrun, as well as the Earth in general so one can see where the idea came from.

What else can I mention? Oh yes! Q from Star Trek! Fantastic character, taking control at the – dare I say it? – snap of his fingers! Jack and Gwen suddenly, temporarily, assigned into the CIA only to have Gwen shipped off when Jack doesn’t cooperate – it could be worse; he could have injured/seriously harmed Gwen. Also, very clever of Rex to be wearing the other contact lens, to get the confession out of the reintroduced-but-soon-deceased Brain Friedkin, but those Contact Lenses just seem to keep having technology introduced – as I said a few weeks ago: The Torchwood equivalent to the Doctor’s Sonic Screwdriver.

Anyway, as there doesn’t seem anything else to be worth mentioning, it’s time to move to the usual…

• Jack = 9/10 – Still a brilliant character, just a shame about the story of the episode.
• Gwen = 9/10 – When she gets angry, she gets angry! Raging a storm in the house when she was being forced out was brilliant to see, although like I said; her coming back to the U.S. was completely pointless if the story could have been written a little differently.
• Esther = 10/10 – An emotional rollercoaster for her this time, one has to wonder: will she EVER be given something to smile at? First her sister and her terrible troubles, then having to drive Jack to places unknown while the man dies in the back seat.
• Rex = 9/10 – Still the now lovable badass, the voice of the common people, unwilling to believe the alien in his new position but having to get used to it quickly. The question now hovering above his head though is, now the series is drawing to a close, is he going to perish when the Miracle inevitably lifts?

Episodic Rating: A disappointing 6 out of 10; a few good bits here and there, more introductions of other pointless elements but overall not that good – you can tell due to the half-heartedness of this review in fact! Now I’ve said it before and I’ll mention it again: Miracle Day would have been good as a five-part series, a 10-part 30 minute series or even with TWO parts of plot (the Miracle and THEN something else) but not as it is now, definitely not….