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Wow, haat diggity, that episode was totally awwwhhsum, for sure! Hm? Why, yes, I’m taking lessons in how to speak American from Gwen Cooper – pretty convincing, huh? Gwen’s been using her super great linguistic skills to go undercover, continuing the search for answers to Miracle Day, don'cha know. The trail is currently leading Torchwood to the drugs company PhiCorp, who we discovered last episode had known about ‘Miracle Day’ long before it actually happened. Totally super freaky, yeah?
This week, the team is in sunny California, where PhiCorp Headquarters are based (and you thought it was just an excuse for the filming crew to spend a day at the beach – don’t be so cynical!). After frantically snatching some files from Jilly Kitzinger’s computer last episode, Torchwood can now plan to infiltrate the company’s headquarters and… yes, steal some more files! Aargh. The plot development here is infuriatingly slow, but on the upside, we get to see more of the team’s personal lives: Esther visits her ill sister and Rex visits his shotgun-wielding father. All well and good, but given that these two ex-agents are meant to be in hiding, not entirely sensible; you’re all being tracked, so stop using your mobiles! Except you, Gwen, because we like to see how Rhys is getting on.
Oswald Danes is still proving to be the most interesting character, and full credit to Bill Pullman for such an intensely disturbing performance. Danes is a man who likes to be in control, but now he’s got a rival in the form of Ellis Hartley Monroe (Mare Winningham), with her “Dead is Dead” campaign. She garbles on about segregating the living from the ‘dead,’ stealing Danes’ television exposure. Having revealed that he enjoyed taking the life from his victim, it’s sickly ironic that Danes has to fight for the rights of the ‘dead’ in order to get one over on her. As a viewer, I’m forced to choose which villain to support: the nutty right-wing mum, or the convicted murderer… ooh, choices choices.
The mask is also beginning to slip from Kitzinger, who seems almost human when she reveals her dislike for Danes, as well as a deep fear of her employers, whoever they are. I wish we could see the same depth in the character of Dr Vera, who is about as likeable as those relentless news bulletins. She whines at the prospect of ‘overflow camps’ – basically massive storage cupboards for the ‘dead’ – but doesn’t really do anything useful about it. A shame, because Gwen’s father is being packed off to one of these camps back in Wales.
So despite barely getting any nearer to the truth, Torchwood still moves at a slick and reasonable pace, and ‘Escape to L.A.’ provides some much needed empathy with the main characters. The novelty of ‘Miracle Day’ is starting to wear thin, though, so it needs to get a move on. For now, Torchwood is still best at its most ridiculous - Morbid Moment of the Week: Monroe is compacted inside a car-crushing machine. As the camera zooms inside the network of mangled machinery to reveal a solitary, blinking eye, I can’t help laughing.
Read last week's blog entry here
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