Torchwood: S04E10 - The Blood Line

For the final episode of Torchwood’s Miracle Day saga, it can be said that Russell T Davies can definitely write a conclusion! The execution of the episode was absolutely fantastic; keeping the audience with the programme from the moment of the pre-credits opening started to the moment, or maybe just before, Rex woke after being shot. That said of course, proof goes that plot-wise, the finale was full of unavoidable holes and questions with answers that simply will never truly explain anything; an example of this is the final moments where Rex is suddenly immortal – Rose didn’t save him too Russell! And don’t get me started on Rex’s blood transfusion…

Continuing down the plot-hole road, several other things were noticeable for, not only this episode, but the entire series, one of which has to be Jilly’s old employers, PhiCorp. A pharmaceutical obviously linked to the Families, yet never truly explored as they had been notified of the Miracle from the Families (something else put into question now) and stocked up on medications such as painkiller in preparation to make millions, but on the show, when push came to shove, they were rather unceremoniously shoved into a corner to be left to rot, even moving Jilly out and into the belly of the Families without so much as an explanation as the link between PhiCorp and the Families – the simplest explanation to all this can be that the Families owned PhiCorp, which is most likely THE explanation, but it’s still not right to completely ignore the company considering they had just under TEN hours of programme to explore with. Also, the Families make it clear to the Torchwood Team that the Miracle was done so the strongest rose to the top, which leads to the question of ‘Why…?’ Why did they even bother stock up so much, just to make money they could have easily gained via other means, when after all that  they only wanted the strongest to survive?

The Blessing itself is another thing to put to question, the main one being the inevitable ‘how…?’ How did that... crack get to where it was in the Earth and how could it possibly lead directly through the center of the planet? For a start the cracks face horizontally to a vertical decent (as dictated on screen) on complete opposites to one another, with the only possible explanation to a direct link between the two being that of a spiraling decent through, or around, the Earth’s core. Not only that but, taking into account that it’s believable that whole morphic-field-directly-linked-to-the-blessing thing makes sense, we’re told to believe that it gave everyone on Earth Jack’s ‘immortality’ but took it away from the originator and the only way to reverse the effects would be to feed the blood back to it? I know Torchwood can be farfetched at times, but come on!

Don’t get me wrong though, there were bits within ‘The Blood Lune’ that I rather liked, whether for the script or the acting, and it has to be said that the acting of Bill Pullman before Oswald dies was incredible (and just slightly drawn out), the man suddenly becoming demented, calling for the girl he murdered to run once more – a simply chilling performance! Of course from the script itself I can happily mention my approval for the Racnoss reference, their ship being the core of the planet as seen in Doctor Who’s ‘The Runaway Bride’ back in Christmas of ‘06! Also the ‘breath’ over the planet, as seen from Gwen’s voice over was so fantastically done – Kai Owens’ emotional performance as he sat by Geraint’s bedside as he was allowed to die was really simply heart-melting and heartbreaking at the same time!

But let us not get sidetracked from some of the more convenient parts of the final episode though: Rex’s impossible transfusion of Jack’s own blood and his subsequent impossible immortality as a consequence, all of course leading to Esther’s rather pointless death – I mean after all she’d been put through in the series, they simply couldn’t allow the new Torchwood team a break as they’d already killed off the fantastic Vera to prove a point, I mean really! But that’s not all, no, Jilly survival and the mention of another ‘Family plan’ was another useful grip into the potentiality of a new series, to which, even though I do love Lauren Ambrose, I do NOT want to see happen now – but something that must be pointed out towards Jilly herself; she must be wanted felon to be associated with the Families, unable to get a job and yet no one notices the same red-haired beaut on the same bench in the same part of the city for, what was it, two month?! Come on now!

Disappointment fills my mind towards the entirety of the fourth series, and my hopes of watching a fifth series, should it be commissioned, are at a very mere minimum, lest Russell actually PLAN the thing out. It can’t be helped but feel that the Executive Producer didn’t put his heart into the project, to which he probably didn’t, wanting to move onto more American projects to which he rightfully should do. With that thought, the Miracle Day series would have worked better had the whole thing been shrunk into five or so episode, with the potential fifth series as part of the Miracle Day tale, with a different title maybe. You see, I see that as this…

Miracle Day should have been split, like Doctor Who, in two but only two parts of five instead of seven and six. The first half should have kept the title ‘Miracle Day’ with the first three episode condensed easily into two, the third as the camps, but with Vera dying at the end of episode three, Rex and Esther’s escape as part of the fourth episode, minus anything to do with Angelo but maybe as prequel to episode one being Jack’s ‘blood’ being collected, and with the ending of episode four the same as the ninth and the fifth episode exactly the same but ending with the breath, just before Esther’s funeral – a fantastic cliffhanger with months to wait in between; will Esther survive? The sixth episode would start with the funeral, the discovery of Charlotte as traitor by Rex but with her getting away and Rex having discovered his Jack-ness and the concluding episodes could continue on with that, discovering the Families, tying knots that the actual ten episodes completely failed to achieve and discovering the why’s to Rex’s immortality.

• Jack = 10/10 – A very emotional performance from Mr. Barrowman, which he always pulls off, but he definitely put in his all for this final performance as Jack Harkness.
• Gwen = 10/10 – Absolutely fantastic! Eve Myles is an amazing actress and she’s really perfected Gwen over the past four series, and that definitely shows – anyone else want to see her and Jack as the Doctor’s companions sometime, or is it just me…?
• Rex = 10/10 – Another one who puts in his all to the performance of a lifetime, although those with an eye would have seen Rex’s sudden immortality when he survived having all of Jack’s blood pumped from him via the Blessing, and NOT the bit where he came back from death after being shot.
• Esther = 10/10 – They keep on killing the good ones off! Her death was definitely foretold prior to facing the Blessing, the most noticeable being her informing the rest of the team that she’d see them ‘when it’s all over’ – heartbreaking really.
• Oswald = 10/10 – I’ve mentioned what I needed to; Oswald’s final chilling performance. Although I have to say here and how, how fantastic is it, not only to have such a Hollywood actor as Bill Pullman in little old Torchwood, but also how fantastic IS he?! You’ve really got to love him.
• Jilly = 10/10 – Heck, I’ll give everyone a ten! Although her character hadn’t exactly evolved throughout the series, Jilly is just one of those characters you love to hate, hate to love and just adore in the meantime.

Episodic Rating: 6 out of 10. Don’t get me wrong it WAS a fantastic watch, but the plot was just ridiculous!

Overall series rating: 5 out of 10 – It was very brave of Starz to resurrect a show the BBC let die, but in general it was a terrible resurrection on the whole. The best characters were killed off, while the mediocre were left to survive and as for the plot, well as I’ve gone through this over the last ten weeks and they really needed to actually figure out links that are expressed on screen without plowing through with crossed fingers – and if they want to fund a fifth series, it’s something they immediately need to discuss and then, only then, would I consider watching it. For the moment though, I shall happily watch the last Sarah Jane Adventures, then stick heartedly and singularly to Doctor Who.