Once Upon a Time in America

Torchwood Miracle Day: Immortal Sins

Damn you, Torchwood.

There I was, patiently waiting in line behind my fellow reviewers, ready to administer yet another blow to your already savaged corpse, and what do you do, Torchie? You pull a decent episode out of the bag, that’s what. I can’t even make fun of Bill Pullman’s sphincter-shaped mouth this week, you bastards.

I’m not saying that Immortal Sins is the greatest episode of Torchwood ever made but – finally! – here we have an episode that not only feels like an authentic extension of the show that spawned it, it sheds some much-needed light on what the hell is going on.

I have to admit that I was a little slow on the uptake when the flashbacks began; I initially dismissed Angelo as just another one of Jack’s casual conquests and I wasn’t really paying that much attention when they were going at it like rabbits or discussing gaydar with each other – I was waiting for the plot to kick in – but when their story gradually evolved into Batman and Robin Year One, I found myself enjoying Torchwood for the first time in years. It helps that the story trades off its relationship with Doctor Who (as Jack sits out history, waiting for the Time Lord to show up at the the beginning of Utopia), and it’s great fun watching Jack trying to emulate the Doctor; that he gets it so spectacularly wrong just made me fall in love with the character all over again.

Daniele Favilli was a revelation as the tortured Angelo, a much more interesting and complex character than Ianto ever was (with only a fraction of screen time to boot). John Barrowman, on the other hand, has been a constant source of frustration ever since Miracle Day started. It doesn’t help that he’s been repeatedly sidelined in his own show, and while some of the blame must rest on his MASSSSIVE shoulders, here he shows what he can do when he’s given the right material to work with. It’s no accident that the best episode of of this series so far is Jack-centric and by giving the programme back to its star, the show has, if only temporarily, reclaimed its heart and soul.

Having said that, I did struggle to accept Jack’s reasons for leaving Angelo at the end of the affair; I thought being stabbed to death by a companion was a definite no-no (you’d never catch Jo Grant doing something like that) so when Jack reeled off the old School Reunion speech about the curse of immortality yada yada yada I couldn’t believe my ears. Angelo was a terrible companion! Sure, the sex was fantastic, but he stood by and watched as you were repeatedly hacked to death by zealots! Jack’s parting shot to Angelo should have been a punch in the face; if the cliffhanger is anything to go by, he may end up wishing he’d done just that. But at least Jack’s streak of forgiveness is consistent – he’ll be buried alive for a thousand years soon and he’ll get over that just as quickly.

But if these extended flashbacks were satisfying, the scenes in the car between Gwen and Jack were even more special.

Gwen’s heartfelt declaration that she enjoyed every single moment she was in Torchwood, and she really is a shallow egomaniac after all, was surprising enough but that was nothing compared to what came next. I know I shouldn’t be shocked (he’s been known to sacrifice grandchildren) but Jack’s brutal admission that he’d rip Gwen’s skin from her skull before he gave up his life felt like a punch to the gut. How you square this with Jack’s boundless capacity for forgiveness is problematic but, as Gwen says, we learn more about Jack in that single line of dialogue that we have in the last five years. And It just proves again that no amount of exploding helicopters can compensate for character moments like these. It’s a remarkable scene and I can’t praise Jane Espenson enough for giving us these two characters back again. I almost felt sorry for Gwen, the most unlikable “hero” ever to grace a television series, and that’s no mean feat.

Of course, all this posturing comes to nothing because Esther and Rex actually managed to pull their fingers out this week. I know! I didn’t see that coming either! However, it’s when the Miracle storyline reasserts itself again that the episode rapidly starts to lose its appeal for me.

I had hoped that the nice lady from Deep Space Nine wouldn’t mention Angelo at all; I wanted (and half-expected) the mysterious cabal seen bargaining over Jack’s mutilated body in the cellar to step out of the car instead; they have to be involved somehow; they might be in cahoots with the Trickster’s Brigade (the reality bending adversary from Turn Left and various Sarah Jane Adventures) who were involved with that weird crate in the warehouse (so there’s your reset button right there, if you want it). In short, I think I would have preferred it if Angelo had been the catalyst for this mess instead of an active participant in its aftermath; it’s just a bit too tidy for my liking.

We’ll have to wait and see how it plays out. Miracle Day has three hours left to run. Maybe miracles do happen after all.