'Miracle Day' Part 10: 'The Blood Line' by Russell T Davies Jane Espenson

In Shanghai, China, Jack and Danes watch as Gwen resolves to end the Miracle, even though it means killing her father. In Buenos Ares, Argentina, Rex and Esther follow their comrades’ instructions and watch as a drop of Jack’s blood taken from their supplies moves across the floor, pulled towards the Blessing. In the Families’ Shanghai base, the Mother Colasanto orders her soldiers to begin planting explosives around the building. The woman tells Jilly Kitzinger that the Families have had to advance their plans: by blowing up the base and burying the Blessing, they can ensure that the Miracle becomes never-ending. After wishing Jack and Gwen luck, Rex calls in the C.I.A., contacting Agent Allan Shapiro at Langley headquarters and informing him of the Families’ plans. As Shapiro mobilises his operations team, Charlotte Wills looks very worried… The Mother Colasanto contacts the Buenos Ares base, where her cousin’s team are also in the process of planting explosive charges. When Jilly asks about the Blessing, the Mother explains that the timing for the Miracle had to be perfect: the Families had to wait until the ‘Information Age’ in order to be able to calculate the exact time when the life expectancy of anyone living within a two-mile radius of the Blessing in Shanghai was equal to the average life expectancy for the world: sixty-six years, five months and thirty-three days. It was as if the Blessing was deliberately calibrating the matrix of the planet – and this is just Phase One of the Families’ plans… Having informed Rex to expect help from Captain Santos of the Argentinian Army, Shapiro orders Noah to begin a backwards trace on a phone call made to the Family; this will enable them to find the mole in the C.I.A. – the net is closing in around Charlotte… In Shanghai, Gwen follows the bearing that Jack’s blood has provided, ignoring anything in her path – until she walks straight through a restaurant and reaches a locked door. When the owner refuses to unlock the door, fearful of the “ghosts” that lie beyond, Gwen bribes the woman with money; however, when Gwen steps through the door and into the alleyway beyond, she finds herself involuntarily brought to a halt – something bad lies ahead of her. Backing into the restaurant, Gwen phones Jack… While Rex and Gwen meet Captain Santos and his men, Shapiro reviews the findings of Sandra Morales, an Argentinian operative brought in to work with the Ops team: learning that Sandra has found a lead to an alleyway with no name in Buenos Ares, Shapiro gives the order to investigate; nearby, Charlotte surreptitiously contacts the Families… As Jack prepares to join Gwen, Danes begins to have second thoughts about dying; when Jack reveals that he is from the future, Oswald asks if he knows if they make it through the day – but Jack just tells him that time can be rewritten… Waiting at the door to the alley, Gwen calls her husband and learns that with some help from Sergeant Andy, he is going to visit Gwen’s father in the Cowbridge Overflow Camp. Although she is pleased that Rhys can pass on a proper goodbye, Gwen knows that if she ends the Miracle, her father will die; Rhys’ response is heartfelt: Geraint has suffered enough, and should be allowed to die… In Buenos Ares, Rex discusses the mission with Santos while Esther prepares to join the soldiers waiting on board a nearby truck; passing them the case of Jack’s blood, Esther makes to climb aboard, but then Rex cries out in pain from his chest wound, so she goes back to help him instead. Aboard the truck, one of the soldiers opens the case, and, satisfied that it contains the packs of blood, he activates the hidden explosives strapped to his chest – blowing up the truck everyone on board. Realising that the Families are one step ahead of them, Rex stops Santos from contacting Shapiro – if everyone thinks they are dead, Rex and Esther can now operate freely. Learning of the explosion, Shapiro is enraged by the loss of his comrades, and he orders Noah to run the trace and locate the traitor. Overhearing this turn of events, Charlotte calmly enters the director’s office and retrieves a package hidden in a filing cabinet; tucking the object into her handbag, she returns to the Ops room, where she leaves her bag on the desk next to Noah and then makes an excuse to leave; passing Sandra in the hallway, Charlotte sends the woman to the Ops Room and then quickens her pace. As Sandra joins Shapiro, the trace completes – and to Noah and Shapiro’s astonishment, it displays the number of the phone registered to Charlotte. But the information comes too late: Charlotte’s bag explodes, completely destroying the Operations Room… Unable to contact Rex and Esther, Gwen and Jack learn of the explosion in Buenos Ares; believing their friends to be dead, Gwen notes that they have lost half of their weapon: the only blood they have left is inside Jack… Still very much alive, Rex and Ester sneak into the Family base and arrive just as a team of soldiers carry boxes of explosives into a lift. Meanwhile, Jack, Gwen and Danes break into the Shanghai facility. As Oswald starts to panic under the stress, Gwen receives a call from Rhys: he and Andy are at the Overflow Camp, and have found Geraint lying in one of dozens of makeshift beds, all filled with Category Ones awaiting their journey to the ovens. In the control chamber, the Mother Colasanto watches a CCTV monitor showing Jack, Gwen and Danes entering the lift; when the trio arrive, they find themselves facing a team of armed soldiers. As the Mother Colasanto begins addressing “The Creator”, Jack, Danes steps forward and interrupts; after acknowledging his former P.A. and her “vampire” boss, Danes pulls back his coat to expose the packs of demolition explosives now strapped to his chest. Jack believes Torchwood has the advantage – until the Cousin’s voice is heard over a speaker: he has Rex and Esther hostage, and is holding a gun at Esther’s head. It looks like a stand-off – until Jack pulls out a knife and cuts open his finger: his blood is immediately pulled through the air and into the Blessing. The effect of the only mortal blood in the world is startling: the Blessing reflects Gwen’s self back at her, showing all her guilt; Jack sees all the lives he has ever lived; and Danes is sickened by his sin – which makes him want to activate the bomb. Jack stops him just in time, and the murderer manages to pull himself together. When Gwen asks Jack what the Blessing is, he tries to give an explanation as clever as the Doctor would; but Gwen sees through him with a smile – Jack doesn’t have any idea either! The Blessing may be as old as the Earth, and may be the most terrestrial thing Torchwood has ever encountered. The Cousin and the Mother explain to the Torchwood teams that the Blessing transmits a morphic field over the entire planet, protecting it; when they fed the Blessing Jack’s blood, it copied it to create the Miracle. Jack realises that this caused the Blessing to change its ‘setting’: it thought it was being attacked, and so it tried to protect itself and its population with an act of kindness, by stopping all death. The Mother continues: after the planet tears itself down, the Families’ plan is to step in and take control of the banks, then the government and then the people, to create a new world; the only threat to their plan was Jack, so they sent the email referring to Torchwood in order to draw him out. When Jack replies that he can make the world mortal again with his blood, switching everything back as it was, the Cousin and the Mother just laugh: the only way Jack could do that would be to introduce his blood at both ends of the Blessing at the same time, exactly the way the families did, but he can’t do that, as Rex and Esther have lost the blood they were carrying. As the soldiers guarding Jack raise their weapons, Danes threatens to blow everyone up, but the Mother no longer cares. However, Rex and Esther have heard everything – and they have another option: Rex takes a pocketknife and cuts his finger too – and as his blood flies into the Blessing, the whole planet convulses. With a grin Rex explains that he has Jack’s blood inside him: Esther helped him to transfuse Jack’s blood into himself, swapping the contents of the case with Rex’s blood. The Mother Colasanto is shocked, even more so when she hears that both Jack and Rex are prepared to die if it means ending the Miracle and stopping the Families. Knowing that Jack cannot actually bring himself to commit suicide, Gwen offers to shoot her friend – but before she can, a shot rings out: the Cousin has shot Esther point-blank. Rex is torn: should he save his friend, or save the world? Gwen tells him that they have no choice: no one should have power over life and death – not the Families on a global-scale, or Danes as a child-killer. Taking the one last chance to end it all, Gwen checks that Jack is ready and then shoots him in the chest, sending her friend’s blood spraying into the Blessing. At the same moment, Rex tears off the dressing covering his heart and opens the wound – his blood also pours into the Blessing, triggering an earthquake. All across the world, the Miracle ends and death finally returns: everyone who should have died months ago finally passes on – including Geraint, who dies before Rhys’ eyes. Checking that Jack is dead, Gwen rushes after Jilly as she gets into the lift; the Mother Colasanto makes to follow them, but is grabbed by Danes, who has every intention of taking her with him when he sends the base to hell. However, as the building falls apart and the lift rises, Gwen is astonished to see Jack suddenly come back to life; she immediately reverses the lift, punching out Jilly when she tries to stop her. As Jack, Gwen and Jilly reach ground level and race outside, Danes activates the bomb, sending a massive explosion ripping through the base – Jack and Gwen manage to get clear of the inferno, but Jilly isn’t so lucky… In Buenos Ares, Rex throws the Cousin into the Blessing abyss and then collapses to the ground next to Esther; as Captain Santos, his soldiers and medics rush in to their rescue, everything goes black… Weeks later, a memorial service for Esther is held at the Chapel of the Gardens; in attendance are Rex, Gwen, Rhys and Jack, as well as Esther’s sister and nieces – and Charlotte Wills. Elsewhere, after weeks of waiting, a down-and-out Jilly Kitzenger finally makes contact with the Blue-Eyed Man; when he informs her that the Families have a ‘Plan B’, Jilly eagerly follows him… Back that the chapel, the surviving members of Torchwood bid goodbye to Charlotte and then ponder their next move, now that U.N.I.T. have sealed up the Blessing sites. Then Rex receives a call from headquarters: Noah’s software has been re-run, and it has identified the phone number of the traitor. Seeing the name on the screen, Rex rushes after Charlotte – but she instantly pulls out a gun and shoots Rex in the chest. As C.I.A. agents gun down Charlotte, Jack and Gwen rush to Rex’s side – but they are too late: Rex is dead. However, as Jack and Gwen stand up from their friend’s corpse they get another shock: Rex suddenly comes back to life, just like Jack – it seems he is now immortal too…

John Barrowman (Captain Jack Harkness), Eve Myles (Gwen Cooper), Mekhi Phifer (Rex Matheson), Alexa Havins (Esther Drummond), Kai Owen (Rhys Williams), Bill Pullman (Oswald Danes), Lauren Ambrose (Jilly Kitzinger), Candace Brown (Sarah), Sharon Morgan (Mary Cooper ), William Thomas (Geraint Cooper), Marina Benedict (Charlotte Wills), Paul James (Noah Miller), John de Lancie (Allan Shapiro), Tom Price (Sergeant Andy Davidson), Teddy Sears (Blue-Eyed Man), Frances Fisher (The Mother Colasanto), Benito Fisher (Captain Frederico Santos), Chris Butler (The Cousin), McKenzie Applegate (Girl), Veronica Diaz (Female Soldier), Noemi Del Rio (Sandra Morales), Fernando Fernandez (Young Male Soldier), Cici Lau (Chinese Woman), Laura Waddell (Cat One Nurse)

Directed by Billy Gierhart
Produced by Peter Bennett and Kelly A. Manners
Executive Producers Russell T. Davies and Julie Gardner
A BBC Cymru Wales, BBC Worldwide and Starz Entertainment production

TX:
US (Starz): 9th September 2011 & 10.00 pm
UK (BBC1 & BBC 1 HD): 15th September 2011 @ 9.00 pm

Notes:
*Featuring Captain Jack Harkness, Gwen Cooper, Rex Matheson and Esther Drummond