Review: Torchwood 4.8: End of the Road

Shapiro looks over operations.

I certainly enjoyed this week's episode of Torchwood more than previously, although I could sense from my family that they were incredibly bored by the affair. End of the Road (a title that's been exploited by a lot of the series' cynical reviewers} was more about ideas than anything else, and it soon became incredibly convoluted as several weeks' worth of exposition was shoved into an hour-long period. There was a lot more to chew on, but on a base level it wasn't very entertaining.
     Taken to the house of Jack's former lover Angelo, his granddaughter Olivia revealed that her grandfather remained alive via normal means, and also exposits that the series' villains are three families who all have "The Blessing", providing them with immortality. Soon rogue-CIA agent Friedkin arrives to sort them out, being the Families' representative, but through some trickery that didn't make much sense, Rex managed to get Friedkin to confess his crimes in front of proper CIA agent Shapiro (Star Trek's John de Lancie}. After that little sojurn is taken care of, Jack says goodbye to the older Angelo who then dies without warning - the only corpse in the world. Jack finds the solution to be a panel under his bed that nulls the morphic field sustaining the human race. Jack decides that he needs to escape for some reason and so attempts to get away from the house, but he's shot in the process and Esther is left to drive him away.
     Oswald and Jilly, meanwhile, returned on the scene but were in fact less interesting than before. Oswald, keen to further confuse his character, ordered Jilly to get him a whore. When she arrives he unintentionally reveals that he wants her to be his first date, and she then laughs at him because he's going to become a Category Zero - people previously sentenced to death get put into the Modules. Oswald is pissed, and after fighting with Jilly he runs off, and she is invited by her contact to be granted "the Blessing."

Esther makes a personal call.

     The return of Oswald and Jilly only served to highlight their inconsistancies. Now Oswald is somehow a shy and lonely individual frightened for his life, and then moments later he's beating Jilly like there's no tomorrow. I don't really see why they were here, as apart from a bit of exposition to do with a new category, not much happened. The episode's other guests were a lot better. John de Lancie is an excellent character actor, and his appearance in the main story improved things immedately - his fast-paced snark and wit meant that he had a lot more life than the rest of the characters. Nana Visitor's Olivia Colasanto was also interesting to watch, despite the fact that she was burdoned by most of the exposition before being offed quite nastily.
     And finally we got something close to Torchwood's premise. The panel under the bed is the first plot-relevant piece of alien tech in Miracle Day, and the fact that it's taken eight hours to get here is irritating. Some people are calling Miracle Day a "mystery" series and that like a good mystery novel it should hold its cards to its chest for the viewer to work out the answers. The problem with that theory is twofold; A.} There haven't been any "clues" to pin together, and B.} I don't watch Torchwood for mystery. I watch Torchwood for well-made sci-fi.
     It's obvious that Torchwood is gearing up for it's big finale, but at this rate it's more likely to go out with a whimper than a bang. Despite some good guest characters, it's a little belated and the episode was still bogged down with everything that afflicts Miracle Day - inconsistant character motivations, misplaced political commentary and a pace so slow as to put the majority of viewers off.

Thanks.