Miracle Day: Dead of Night

"The future is now endless. And it's terrifying."

Writer: Jane Espenson 

Format: TV

Broadcast: 28th July 2011

Series: Torchwood 4.03

Featuring: Captain Jack, Gwen, Rex, Esther

Synopsis 

Torchwood goes on the run and finds a new enemy, but as they launch a raid on PhiCorp headquarters, Jack must confront the mysterious Oswald Danes...

Verdict 

Miracle Day: Dead of Night was an excellent episode of Torchwood and continued the series story along very nicely! Things are falling into place now with connections between PhiCorp and the Miracle made as well as the first contact between Oswald Danes and Torchwood. With the Torchwood team, or what remained of it, now in America and a new team assembled, the search for the cause of the Miracle was well under way. The new Torchwood team didn't all get along and there was conflict due to the strain and stress of what was going on, but they made a very good team. I really like the concept of the Soulless and their look is really unique. I am sure they'll have a big impact in the episodes ahead, of which there are seven left so the blog will still be focused on Torchwood for another week yet. I really loved the relationship between Gwen and Esther in this story and it brought Gwen's Torchwood story full circle. I saw a lot of Gwen from her early days in Everything Changes and Day One in Esther and it was nice that she was the experienced one comforting the newbie. It was no secret Esther was struggling and that's understandable! Her argument with Rex wasn't nice with the way he belittled her but despite not being the nicest person, there's something that's just likeable about him. Vera certainly seems to think so as well as they got it on in an extremely visual sexual encounter. We saw a lot of Vera which left very little to the imagination and I was surprised that occurred in a story set in the Doctor Who universe. There were no complaints from me but I imagine there were those who didn't approve. I think viewers would have been more put off by the sex scene (not an explicit one) between Jack and another man. I imagine there were a lot of younger fans watching Torchwood because of Captain Jack so to see that must have come as a bit of a shock. It's not something I really wanted to see to be honest. The infiltration of PhiCorp was very good and the revelation that they were prepared for the Miracle was superb. I can't wait to find out how they are involved with the eradication of death. Nobody can die and things initially point to a drugs company wanting to make a big profit. PhiCorp's connection with Oswald Danes is something I can't quite wrap my head around but it seems that the company are going to use him as their face of the company, with all the sympathy he's getting. That disgusts me. He raped a 12 year old girl and after what he said to Jack, I despise the character and that's brilliant. Pullman plays the role perfectly. Jilly's involvement with both him and Vera is intriguing and I'm looking forward to that panning out. The ending though was uncomfortable seeing how much people are falling under the spell of Oswald Danes. Overall, another brilliant episode! Torchwood rarely seems to fail. We even had terrific references to Children of Earth: Day Four and Children of Earth: Day Five.

Rating: 9/10