Torchwood – Is PhiCorp behind the Miracle?

One of the cooler experiences I had at Comic-Con was the Thursday night preview screening of Friday night’s Torchwood: Miracle Day. I hadn’t actually planned on going, as we already had plans, and there wasn’t much point in seeing an episode a day early, when I couldn’t review it anyways. Then I heard the cast would be on-hand just to introduce the episode, so I decided to check it out. It was worth it, if for no other reason to hear John Barrowman introduce Eve Myles as “My bitch with the guns.” I knew I made the right call. Plus, watching this hour with 500 or so Torchwood fanatics made for a great experience.

On top of that, the episode was pretty damn good. The now embiggened Torchwood team needed to stop for a second to examine where things stand (though, they proved that, in true Torchwood form, that when they “stop to figure things out,” they’re still going balls to the wall). Now that they know that that there is some shadowy organization that had been planning for the Miracle, it means that they have something to fight.

Oswald Danes is a character that I might finally be getting interested in, though it is basically because of a connection that he and Jack Harkness have. It is a connection I didn’t realize until John Barrowman pointed it out while we were talking to him in the Torchwood press room: both Danes and Jack have killed children. Jack obviously had regrets; he had to sacrifice his own grandchild to save everyone on the planet. Danes’ act was much more malicious. Jack was put off by Danes’ claim of feeling forgiven, almost yearning for that same feeling. Why that connection matters enough for Barrowman to mention it has got me very interested. Plus, Bill Pullman is incredibly good at playing a sociopath.

So, who is behind the Miracle? Was it something engineered by PhiCorp so that they could make tons of money in drugs sales? Or are they just trying to cash in on something that they discovered was going to happen? I tend to lean towards the latter. If money was the only motivation, it is a pretty poor plan. As we learned a couple of weeks ago, it is only a matter of time before basic human services breakdown, making money an outdated concept. But if PhiCorp did not cause the Miracle, who did?

• I loved all of the little “translation” problems that Gwen had
• “[Gwen knocks the security guard out] You’ve done that before?” – Esther
  “So many times….” – Gwen
• “Yeah, I was a Catholic too, once. I got better.” – Vera
• “City is going crazy.” – Esther
  “They’re all out drinking. Nobody knows if its a party or a wake.” – Gwen
• “Sorry I can’t add to your collection … unless you want a button.” – Jack
  “You damage that coat, I’m jumping over this bar to protect it.” – Bartender
• One thing not shown in the Comic-Con screening was either of the sex scenes, which did lead to a very funny outburst of applause when we found the bartender in bed with Jack several scenes later
• “You weren’t impaled.” – Rex
  “You should have seen the other guy.” – Jack
• I’m pretty sure it is the Lasker Award, not the Lasker Prize
• Danes’ transition from demon to hero, in the eyes of the public, seemed pretty darn fast, no?

Clacked by Ivey West
on Jul 27, 2011 @ 02:30 EST5EDT