S04E10 - Miracle Day: "The Blood Line" *Season Finale*

[Tropicana]

​

Synopsis:

As the Torchwood team launch a final, desperate mission against the seemingly undefeatable Three Families, they realize it may come down to the ultimate sacrifice.

Preview:

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xkuwdi_torchwood-miracle-day-1-10-the-blood-line-preview_shortfilms


Airdates:

US: Starz Channel, Friday 09 September 2011, 10PM ET
CAN: Space Channel, Saturday 10 September, 9:10PM ET
UK: BBC One, Thursday 15 September 2011, 9PM

 

[Joelist]

Well if they have Jack die then they are in direct contradiction of Jack's Doctor Who storyline. In there he dies millions of years in the future saving the population of New New York (Jack at some point in time becomes The Face of Boe).

 

[Tropicana]

We'll see if he will die. I think there will be a threat of him dying but I don't think he will die. Or maybe he will die but an external power being will revive him again or something. we'll see. I'm still unsure what I was staring at at the end of the previous episode at the end.

 

[Joelist]

Well, either way this thing will finally end. Massive letdown.

If by some miracle they do another series of it they need to go back to the BBC production crew and put it back in Britain. This pseudo-americanized Torchwood lacked any real depth or feel.

 

[Bluce Ree]

What we know so far:

- nobody dies but Jack is mortal
- people considered category 1 are cooked in giant ovens
- Jack's old boyfriend had an elaborate alien contraption built into his floor just to help him die
- now there are three families that have something to do with some other thing we know nothing about

I have a feeling this finale will reveal a whole lot of nothing much.

 

[Joelist]

And your point #1 directly contradicts the entire Jack Harkness prior storyline. That's why I said the writers needed to go watch Utopia and Parting of the Ways and also Gridlock. Jack becomes The Face of Boe and does not die until millions of years in the future. It is also clear that Jack's "fixed point" status cannot be passed on by any means to others - not by his blood certainly. This type of illogical plotting reminds me more of SGU than British SciFi.

 

[Bluce Ree]

And your point #1 directly contradicts the entire Jack Harkness prior storyline. That's why I said the writers needed to go watch Utopia and Parting of the Ways and also Gridlock. Jack becomes The Face of Boe and does not die until millions of years in the future. It is also clear that Jack's "fixed point" status cannot be passed on by any means to others - not by his blood certainly. This type of illogical plotting reminds me more of SGU than British SciFi.

Russell T. Davies has never explicitly confirmed or denied whether the Face of Boe was Jack. He's refused to link to the two explicitly.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Face_of_Boe

[...] He tells the Doctor and Martha Jones that it's a matter of vanity, because he "used to be a poster boy when [he] was a kid in the Boeshane Peninsula", as "the first one ever to be signed up for the Time Agency," earning him the name "the Face of Boe". This astonishes Martha and the skeptical Doctor. [...]

That could be nothing more than an inside joke.

Regarding Jack's "fixed-point" status, being as he is fixed in time, why is he aging? He shouldn't be aging. And, if he is, indeed, the Face of Boe, how does he age into a giant head and what happened to his body?

 

[Tropicana]

He probably does age and evolve, so through the millions of years, his head gets balder and bigger and in time, has no use for the body.

 

[Joelist]

No doubt. Also we know Jack is the Face because that is how he knew the information he told the Doctor in Gridlock.

 

[Bluce Ree]

No doubt. Also we know Jack is the Face because that is how he knew the information he told the Doctor in Gridlock.

I want to agree with you but if RTD hasn't himself made up his mind about whether Jack is or isn't leaves me sitting on the wall about it.

 

[Joelist]

I suspect that is just RTD playing games. If Jack is not the face then the plots of multiple episodes suddenly become completely illogical, as the only way the story could develop in the manner it did was for the Face to have knowledge only Jack possessed.

 

[shavedape]

Okay, no spoilers but I felt the finale was rather flat. The entire "season" was disjointed and each episode seemed to have been written by a different person. They focused on certain people (Nick Colesandro or however you spell it) and then sort of let that plot point just disappear. The ending was just "meh" for me. I'm not sure if they're getting another season but if they do I hope the writing is tighter and more concise and the story is more thrilling. And I can't believe I'm saying this but 10 episodes was way too long for this story. It could easily have been done is 6 or less.

Couple more things: What was the point of Bill Pullman's character? He added nothing to the story, not even metaphorical depth. Was he supposed to be symbolic of something? If so, what?

Lauren Ambrose did a damn good job though. Her character of "Jilly" was a hoot! I definitely believed the character and never once thought I was seeing an actor simply reading lines. She's good.

 

[YoshiKart64]

Ok spoilers ahoy
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Seriously you've been warned and stuff
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Ok if you came this far and still haven't seen it your just stupid
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Yeh I agree that this entire series could have been 6 episodes and worked out much better. There was a lot of good stuff but it was just way to dragged out, it became a case of exploring the effects of the miracle at the expense of pace.
Having said that I fully want the show to continue; I expect RTD will take the pace issue on board. If that's fixed the show has a pretty good chance of being brilliant again.

I rather enjoyed the finale though, despite the fact that nothing was really explained. The death of Esther was sad, the sacrifice of Jack and Rex was pretty awesome and Gwen being the one willing to go through with it was emotional. That for me was what made COE as good as it was. On DW you just wouldn't see a companion wouldn't get brutally murdered with the heroes refusing to help. I was a little disappointed to see John de Lancie's character die as he would have made a fantastic recurring character, the actor bringing gravitas to scenes that could have fallen flat. His final words were hilarious though. As for Oswald Danes, I'm in two minds. On the one hand his character was compelling, and Bill Pullman did a great job, but I really don't understand why the producers didn't integrate the character better. You get a respected movie star, you write him a unique and compelling character but then forget to make said character relevant beyond episode 3...really? The ending revealed that Rex is now immortal - that's some crazy shit right there and I have no idea where they are going with that. Hopefully thats a good thing.

Final thoughts - next season (if there is one) needs to do something different. A similar layout with 'Plan B' just won't cut it; we need the enemy to become more interesting, we need the plot to be tighter and we need the show to go somewhere it hasn't gone before. Also aliens.

 

[OMNI]

i liked this episode!


imortal rex was a kinda WTF moment tho...

 

[Bluce Ree]

i liked this episode!


imortal rex was a kinda WTF moment tho...

They went on and on how Jack's blood is no different than anyone else's blood and it contained nothing to distinguish his immortal traits. The only thing I can guess is that the Blessing switched everything carrying mortal blood to immortal and vice-versa.

 

[OMNI]

They went on and on how Jack's blood is no different than anyone else's blood and it contained nothing to distinguish his immortal traits. The only thing I can guess is that the Blessing switched everything carrying mortal blood to immortal and vice-versa.

aye, still tho nice idea with another immortal around..

and even tho this season was painfully slow and i skipped eps 5-9 bc of that i do kinda want too see another season... just not THIS fricking slow boring and dragged out so instead of 10 eps make 4 or 5.

 

[Bluce Ree]

aye, still tho nice idea with another immortal around..

and even tho this season was painfully slow and i skipped eps 5-9 bc of that i do kinda want too see another season... just not THIS fricking slow boring and dragged out so instead of 10 eps make 4 or 5.

I'm really disappointed they didn't reveal anything of value until the very last episode. It stinks of "B" movie strategy, like a monster movie where they don't reveal the actual monster until the last 10 minutes.

 

[shavedape]

Again, what was the point of Bill Pullman's character?

And the overwrought emotional scenes where Gwen has to choose to do something horrific and/or someone has to sacrifice themselves as the music reaches a sappy crescendo is more than played out. I know Jack will never die -- ever, so they need to stop with that crap. The viewers aren't that dumb. Even killing off a new character from this season fell flat. It just didn't come off as the shocking twist that they were hoping for.

 

[OMNI]

I'm really disappointed they didn't reveal anything of value until the very last episode. It stinks of "B" movie strategy, like a monster movie where they don't reveal the actual monster until the last 10 minutes.

agree hence if they make another season let it sit at 4-5 eps that way i can stand it.

 

[Bluce Ree]

Again, what was the point of Bill Pullman's character?

I thought about that as I watched the last episode. Pullman's character was nothing more than useless backdrop. As you said, he brought nothing to the story. I suppose they just wanted to have a token character that nobody would care about to sacrifice himself at the end without viewer remorse.

And the overwrought emotional scenes where Gwen has to choose to do something horrific and/or someone has to sacrifice themselves as the music reaches a sappy crescendo is more than played out. I know Jack will never die -- ever, so they need to stop with that crap. The viewers aren't that dumb. Even killing off a new character from this season fell flat. It just didn't come off as the shocking twist that they were hoping for.

The execution of the entire run was annoying to me. They could have told this whole story in 2 hours. I hope they hand the reigns back to the Brits, if they have a new season.