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With each new episode of Torchwood, the revelations become grimmer and more disturbing. Last week, the team discovered the true purpose of the overflow camps: to burn living bodies in giant ovens. This, Torchwood decided (with much jaw-dropping and horrified gasping) was very definitely Not Good. So why are the citizens of Earth willing to let it happen? ‘The Middle Men’ does what it says on the bleak, dark, cynical tin...
Our first middleman is Colin Maloney, director of the San Pedro overflow camp. With Dr Vera now burnt to a crisp, Rex and Esther are trapped inside the camp, but still separated. However, it’s not long before Rex is captured and comes face to face with the drastically unhinged director, and once again, I'm forced to question Rex’s previous career. “I’ve got soooo much evidence on this video camera!” the ex-CIA agent practically chirrups, intent on antagonising his captor further. Maybe it’s CIA tactics to appear as though you’ve taken stupid pills, I don’t know, but Maloney isn’t persuaded to change his ways, especially when he’s the one holding the weapon. He pulls out a pen and promptly stabs Rex where it hurts (the chest wound, that is). Fortunately, Esther comes to the rescue and promptly knees Maloney where it hurts (most certainly not a chest wound). Then she pokes his eyes a bit. Then strangles him a bit. Aw, Gwen would be proud.
Esther changes vastly in this episode, proving she’s willing to fight and kill for survival instead of wallowing on the sidelines. Alright, so she has a bit of a sob in the car afterwards, having realized that she’s given away her identity in the camp by using her real name (again, stupid pills), but she’s probably the most realistic character in the whole show. Similarly, Maloney’s minion Ralph (Fred Koehler) finally grows a backbone and kicks some Maloney ass himself. Maybe not all middlemen are that bad?
But back in Wales, Gwen’s middleman takes the form of Dr Patel, who is just “following orders.” Despite the former’s howls of rage, Dr Patel refuses to reclassify Mr Cooper Senior as a Category 2, leaving Gwen and her sidekick/husband to get him out. But Gwen can’t settle for a simple escape plan, oh no – she has to blow up Cardiff’s modules, broadcast the truth to the world, and then speed away dramatically on a motorbike too. That’s female multitasking for you (and an obvious attempt to inject some excitement into a fairly bland episode).
The switch between Wales and the US works well now, and there’s a realistic contrast between the two, but poor old America really has been left with the boring bits. A dialogue-heavy sequence between Jack – sorry, Captain Jack – and Phicorp middleman Stuart Owens (Ernie Hudson) was dull, even with a hasty blackmailing subplot. And yet, after all this faffing about, it turns out Phicorp actually have little to do with Miracle Day anyway. Oh.
Like ‘Children of Earth,’ in which we saw government ministers ordering children to be packed off to stoned aliens, ‘Miracle Day’ pokes and prods humanity to see how bloomin’ evil it actually is. But episodes like this, though insightful, still feel like they’re padding out the main story, which seems to have gone missing. Who is responsible for Miracle Day? And will we find out before I’ve kicked in my TV with frustration?
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