Miracle Day: Escape to L.A.

"Dead is dead. We are surrounded by people who should have died."

Writers: Jim Gray & John Shiban

Format: TV

Broadcast: 29th July 2011

Series: Torchwood 4.04

Featuring: Captain Jack, Gwen, Rex, Esther

Synopsis 

Torchwood follow PhiCorp to California to continue the fight and attempt to discover the truth behind the Miracle. Elsewhere, Oswald Danes and Jilly Kitzinger face off against their own adversaries...

Verdict 

Miracle Day: Escape to L.A. was simply outstanding and is thus far my favourite episode of the fourth series of Torchwood! It was just magnificent. There was excellent character development, story advancement and also some fantastic action. I really like that Torchwood are back on the run after Dead of Night but Esther is still showing her infancy when it comes to being a part of the Torchwood team. She went to visit her sister before leaving for Los Angeles, or more specifically Venice Beach, but was not allowed to see her nieces due to Sarah's paranoia about the disease that he Miracle had brought to humanity. This caused Esther to call in social services but she did want what happened to occur. Sarah was put into psychiatric therapy whilst her two children were soon to be given foster parents. Esther was feeling very sad about the fact that she was the one who called them in and Rex was giving her a hard time about going in person. He knew she could have been followed and that was precisely what happened with the mysterious assassin known only as 'The Gentleman'. He was following the Torchwood team for most of the episode and once he finally had Gwen and Jack captured, he revealed quite a lot about the Miracle. He was hired to kill Jack but that only intrigued him. He wanted to know why and also how Jack wasn't immortal. This episode pretty much confirmed that there is a direct connection between Jack and the Miracle and it seems that somebody in a high position at PhiCorp wants him dead. The connection is something that happened long ago in Jack's past and the mention of families being involved really intrigued me. This Miracle has been planned for many years and it somehow involves geography. What that means, I'm not entirely sure but I can't wait to find out. Jack was just as confused by that particular connection with the Miracle. It appeared that the Gentleman was going to reveal all about those who hired him but after an epic struggle of climbing 33 flights of stairs, Rex shot him as close to dead as he could get. The role of Oswald Danes in events is becoming clearer and the way he took back the spotlight from Ellis Hartley Monroe and the Dead is Dead campaign was superb. Brian Pullman really is a brilliant actor and he's playing his role so well. The way Jack and Gwen acquired the biometrics of Nicolas Frumkin was hilarious as Gwen looked and sounded utterly stupid. Her attire was bad enough but that accent was embarrassing awful! I'm glad that she was mortified. She looked a great deal better when they infiltrated PhiCorp. The way they got in was terrific with Esther showing that she's a valuable member of the Torchwood team by intercepting the calls and getting the building schematics up brilliantly. I'm loving the continued use of the Torchwood contact lenses and they really are a superb tool! Jack using the alias of John Smith was a great homage to the Doctor and it reminded us of the Torchwood connection with Doctor Who. The creation of overflow camps sounded horrific and very Nazi-like and things were made even more complicated with Rhys calling to say he'd gotten Gwen's Dad on the scheme. That was a good ending to what was a simply brilliant episode. The best of the series yet! Once again, Torchwood very rarely fails to impress.

Rating: 10/10