There’s two more episodes to go until we get this “miracle” fixed. With so much less space left, we are still being introduced to newer characters, whilst we constantly get rid of those whose purpose has been fulfilled. I guess, RTD knows best, and in him, we trust. So, what really happened in Episode 8 was this ; We find out Angelo is an old man who’s been stalking Jack all these years, and also been trying to find a formula for immortality. We finally get the family names of the Triangle dudes, and the Triangle gets a new name, conveniently referred to as “The Families”, and presumably they own Phicorp. Alien technology takes centre stage, and we also get reaffirmation that when it comes to alien shit like this, Captain Jack knows best, and his theory of Morphic Fields is valid. The world is going into a recession, and Jilly Kitzinger gets saved by the Families, whereas Oswald Danes gets demoted to Category 0. All that and more happened on this week’s episode of Torchwood Miracle Day – End of The Road. So join the discussion after the jump, where you’ll find plenty of SPOILERS to play with.

1. Why is Angelo alive / dead?

Angelo is no longer the handsome young Italian dude of the 20’s. He now resembles the serial killer from Saw, is tied to his bed and connected to many monitors. Considering he was say in his mid 20s in 1927, and the current time is 2011, he must be around 100+ years old. So clearly, he has been dodging death with some kind of secret method that he discovered. His granddaughter Olivia (who we met in the last episode) revealed that “The Families” discovered the secret behind immortality, aka “the Blessing”, and Angelo would have liked to be included in the family’s matters, but they outcasted him because of his homosexuality. Olivia reveals the secret behind Angelo’s longevity – so, he’s been alive because he has been very disciplined with his diet and all. But then, Angelo dies when Jack kisses him. First question – How is that possible in a world when no one dies? Is it just a kiss which killed him? Well, it is a bit more than that, I think and here is my theory.

Angelo had been sleeping above a structure which is like a broadcasting dish – aka the Morphic Field which Captain Jack has been postulating for so long. This alien structure creates a sort of ‘nullifying field’ which works probably similar to “the Blessing” of immortality. Now, I might be wrong, but this could have reversed his condition from being immortal to a dying mortal, when the miracle happened. This could all have been to prove a point to Jack – which is that immortality can be stopped, perhaps. As Olivia pointed out, he had been after the secret of immortality all his life, and possibly he picked up that Alpha plate from the debris left behind when The Hub exploded (in the first episode of Children of Men. So, is it really John Frobisher’s fault? )

2. Morphic Field / Alpha Plate :

This morphic field allowed Angelo to remain alive for so long, and as soon as Jack entered the zone, Angelo’s mortality got triggered (or something like that). Jack says that since the miracle has a global reach, a morphic field of the size of the world would be the only way to reverse the miracle. Hmm, but then as we all know, Jack lies! He wants Esther and Rex to get him out of the CIA captivity, and he even convinces them that he should take the main piece of the structure – the Alpha Plate.

A few questions here –

i) If a nullified field was created around Angelo, did Jack start healing and possibly get back to normal once he was in the zone?

ii) Jack is shot by the CIA, and Esther escapes with Jack. But Jack has the alpha plate in his pocket. So that means he should be fine, right?

iii) Does Jack know anything at all about all this shit , or is he just lost and confused as everybody else?

3. We are FAMILY:

We get to know the last names of the Triangle dudes – Ablemarch, Costerdane and Frines. Angelo wasn’t the one who caused the miracle, it was these three dudes and their families. They paid a price to get Jack’s resurrection powers, and all that blood collection wasn’t some religious ceremony, but samples of Jack’s DNA. And from Esther’s background search, seems like the Families don’t exist. Any records of the three surnames has been carefully evaporated from any visible web source. And there is a credible explanation to that. Ex-CIA chief Friedkin worked for the Families, and so does Esther’s work mate. They could easily hide all of that information, can’t they? Jack believes that nothing could’ve been achieved from his blood samples. The only lead they get from this ‘Families story’ is that Angelo intercepted a message in 1998 – keyword: Blessing. Duh!

So, they received the blessing in 1998, and in 2011, spread it on a global scale, and one of their objectives is to crash the world stock market and make the world go into recession. Doesn’t really add up, does it? And oh, the first recession of 2008-09 was a trial run of sorts.

4. Let’s get rid of – Olivia Colasanto / That CIA agent/ Brian Friedkin :

One of the most annoying things on this series of Torchwood, is the annoying and unnecessary additions of characters and their almost instantaneous deletion from the plot. I am not sure if that, in any way, adds any sort of value to the overall narrative. Angelo’s granddaughter meets her death alongside that CIA agent, at the hands of Brian Friedkin. Friedkin has been after Rex, but unaware of Rex’s setup (which inlcudes some clever swapping of Torchwood lenses), falls for the trap. But then, it turns out he had a bomb tied to himself. They should’ve checked his sleeve. Too late for the two girls.

So with the death of Olivia Colasanto, we hardly get to know anything more about the findings of Angelo. She could only relate Angelo’s longevity with some comparisons with regenerative skills of jellyfishes. No secrets are revealed about how Angelo hacked into the Torchwood lenses etc. Dammit!

5. We are CIA, so we’re gonna yell at ya, and save the world – Fuck yea!

Do you think this was added for a laugh? The CIA just sweeps in and orders around like the HBIC? Although I love the fact that they made the effort of casting John de Lancié for the role of Allan Shapiro, his character is a bigger knobhead than Rex. Probably that’s where Rex gets it from. He decommisions Torchwood, sends Gwen back to Wales and puts Jack in a house-arrest. The only thing left on his agenda is probably saving the miracle. Go on, do that if you can!

6. Hi, I’m Gwen. I’m Welsh and for this episode, I’m useless and naggy.

I am a Gwen fan. But this episode did nothing to make me feel for her. You know the writing has got sloppy, when your loved characters turn into lazy additions. She just kept being thrown in and out, angry and frustrated. I just don’t get how one of the series’ biggest cliffhangers – Gwen’s family being captured, had such a lazy reason behind it. Olivia Colasanto did pretty much nothing about the whole capturing the Coopers.

7. Other thoughts:

So, with two episodes to go, we know that the miracle was caused by the Families, but why did they do it is still to be answered. How are they profiting from this, is another question altogether.

Oswald Danes is now being treated as Category 0, which means he’ll be incinerated at the end of his mission (of spreading the Phicorp message of Angels ). And Jilly Kitzinger gets saved by the Family from being tailed by the CIA. And Esther’s sister volunteers to be Category 1 (I don’t really care about this).

And with Angelo’s death, I presume, that his character wasn’t worth more than 2 episodes.

Also, we finally get to hear about Geraint Cooper, Gwen’s dad. So he’s not behind all of this.

Its a shame that Rhys and Anwen do not get to play a major role in this series.

And silly ol’ Esther gets her fair share of tears, yet again.

8. Next Week.

By the looks of the trailer for next week, I am really not interested to watch Episode 9 (But then I will be watching it anyway). Here’s the gist –

Someone looks overtly keen on taking Gwen’s dad into the Category 1 camp. And there’s some spine-chilling suspense scene built around it.

There’s a car crash, a black masked driver who shoots the CCTV.

And Jilly Kitzinger is being taken to Shanghai to get a “Blessing”. And the old lady (possibly a Family member) says – Your skin’s a little too tight. Something’s just out of the corner of your eye, and you can’t quite see. WTF does that mean? Anything to do with perception filters?

9. Winding up.

To be honest, as much as I love Torchwood, and with the enthusiasm and energy I put in to watch every episode, trying hard to find clues and come up with speculations, it is getting harder to keep going. I really, really hope that by the end of it, it is all well worth it. So far, all we have got is one big ball of confusing sideplots and thrown in the mix are buzzwords such as – Miracle, Blessing, Angels, Family, Category etc. And Captain Jack seems to have no clue whatsoever. And if he does, he’s doing some awesome job in trying to hide this information. But if he was indeed hiding, what could be the reason behind it?

Well, all my theories and speculations are valid only until this Friday night.

9E3K rating: 3.5 Alpha Plates out of 5.