'Miracle Day' Part 5: 'The Categories of Life' by Jane Espensen

Arriving at City Hall in Washington, Doctor Vera Juarez finds the place empty, all the medical panels having been disbanded now that they have defined the three official ‘Categories of Life’. Fearful that the authorities have taken control of life and death, Vera phones Rex and tells him that she has decided to join Torchwood’s cause… The news stations report the government’s compulsory categorisation of people under the ‘Emergency MiracleLaw’, as anyone classed as Category One or Two is ordered to transfer to the PhiCorp Overflow Camps; the Act is already in force in the U.K., with thirty-five such camps now in operation... Travelling under the alias of ‘Yvonne Pallister’, Gwen arrives at Cardiff airport to be met by Rhys, now disguised as her chauffer. Together they drive to Gwen’s parent’s home in Swansea Bay, where Mary Cooper has been looking after Anwen and compiling an incident board detailing the Overflow Camp at Cowbridge, where her husband Geraint is being held. The next day, Gwen and Rhys are driven to the camp by the ever-helpful Sergeant Andy Davidson. Finding the place swamped by concerned people demanding to see their interned relatives, Gwen immediately asserts her authority and jumps the queue; but when she tries using her police back-up to pull rank and get her father released, the soldier in charge just threatens to have her arrested. Gwen grudgingly backs down and leaves the compound, vowing to break in later… In Venice Beach, California, Rex introduces Jack and Esther to the newly-arrived Vera. After taking the doctor back to Torchwood’s apartment, Jack welcomes her to the team, and with Gwen and Anwen on video link, he then runs through the information he and his team have collated on morphic fields, PhiCorp, Oswald Danes and Jilly Kitzinger. Together they review the new Categories of Life: Category One is anyone with no brain function, or those who should be dead; Category Three refers to ‘ordinary people’; and Category Two covers everyone in between. Jack is troubled: the government now has the ability to decide who is dead and who is alive – and no-one should have that power. Esther then shows the team a comparison between PhiCorp’s construction plans for the Overflow Camps and aerial photographs of the actual buildings: the plans show a section that has been doctored out of the official pictures, something call ‘The Module’ – could that be where the Category One patients are being held? When Vera decides to use her position on the medical board to visit the nearest Overflow Camp in San Pedro, Rex pulls rank and proposes that he go in as a patient instead. After Rex has staged an accident, Jack arranges for his injured ‘boyfriend’ to be rushed to hospital in an ambulance, with Esther and Vera following closely behind. Left behind in the apartment Jack watches a news report on the ‘Miracle Rally’ to be held in Los Angeles in front of twenty-thousand people; disturbingly, many of the public are now idolising Oswald Danes as a miracle... Pulling up at the stadium in a limousine, Danes basks in the attention from the assembled crowd; however, not everyone is pleased to see him, and Jilly Kitzinger has to deal with some negative publicity caught on a reporter’s camera. Rex is taken to San Pedro Overflow Camp, where he is left in a field station inside one of a dozen tents, and declared a Category Two by an overworked triage nurse. Arriving at the camp, Esther and Vera split up and begin their investigations: Esther gets a desk in the main office, while Vera meets the man in charge, an odious, sexist bureaucrat named Colin Maloney, who takes her on a guided tour of the premises. Esther hacks into the camp’s computer system and reclassifies Rex’s records to Category One; she then goes to see Rex at his bedside, swapping his medical records and handing him a video recorder before instructing a nearby nurse to take him to The Module… At the rally, Jilly gives Danes the script for his speech. Danes notices Jack watching him from nearby, but after being led a merry chase through the stadium, Harkness gives him the slip. Back in Wales, Rhys poses as a truck driver to take ‘Nurse Yvonne Pallister’ to work at Cowbridge Overflow Camp. Gwen begins a frantic search of the many tents, and eventually manages to find her father; however, as she and Rhys attempt to get him into the truck so they can make their escape, Geraint collapses from a heart attack… In San Pedro, Rex is taken to The Module and left on a bunk-bed along with several other Category Ones. Capturing his surroundings on video, Rex notes that all the patients are untreated; finding the door unlocked, he steps outside and discovers that he was in one of three metal cabins sealed off from the rest of the camp… Vera continues her tour of the camp with Maloney, accompanied by an armed guard named Ralph. After voicing her dissatisfaction at the medical staff’s approach to triage, Vera insists on looking inside a storage area; she is appalled to find it full of patients, people without medical insurance who have been left ‘pending’ treatment. Continuing her inspection, Vera is disgusted to find a storeroom full of filthy laundry, and she threatens to have Maloney prosecuted for neglect. But Maloney panics – he grabs Ralph’s gun and shoots Vera in the leg and shoulder. Realising the implications of his actions, the cowardly Maloney orders Ralph to help him cover up the incident; together they bundle Vera into a jeep and then dump her inside one of the Module cabins… At the Miracle Rally, Jilly is approached by a mysterious man in black, who informs her that her good work has been noticed by “the right people”… Asking for news of her father, Gwen is shocked to hear that he is still unconscious – and that he has been reclassified as Category One. At the stadium, Jack offers Danes a deal: if he gives an alternative speech that exposes PhiCorp’s involvement in the Miracle, then Jack will give him the death that he so desperately craves. Seeing Jack talking to her client, Jilly takes a photo of him and then ushers Danes onto the stage, where he is greeted by a mixed reception from the crowd. The cunning ex-convict takes advantage of his situation, ditching both pre-prepared speeches to give an inspiring one of his own: declaring that his past actions have lost him Heaven, Danes announces that he has risen again – just as Man rose from the animals, the Miracle has provided humanity with a new step in evolution: that of Angels. As Jack looks on in disgust - and Jilly watches with glee - Danes proclaims PhiCorp as agents of the angels – and the assembled crowd goes wild… Back at San Pedro, the injured Vera wakes up to find herself lying on the floor of the locked Module cabin. Nearby, Maloney activates a control panel – and to Vera’s shock, rows of gas jets lining the cabin turn on and ignite. Seeing the automatic locks engage on the exterior of one of the cabins, Rex looks through a viewing hatch and sees Vera’s predicament; unable to save his friend and lover, the distraught Rex begins recording the horrific spectacle of Vera being burnt alive…

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), Arlene Tur (Doctor Vera Juarez), William Thomas (Geraint Cooper), Sharon Morgan (Mary Cooper), Tom Price (Sergeant Andy Davidson), Fred Koehler (Ralph Coltrane), Teddy Sears (Blue Eyed Man), Marc Vann (Colin Maloney), Daniel Adegboyega (Guard), Brad Bell (Nurse Chris), Charles Carpenter (News Reporter), Jim Conway (Man), Jonathan Dane (Handsome Man), Teresa Garza (Spanish Newscaster), Brendan Hughes (Pidgeon), Joelle Elizabeth Jacoby (Excited Teenager), Liz Jenkins (Rachel), Ria Jones (Pushy Woman), Masami Kosaka (Japanse Newscaster), Eva Mauro (Maria Candido), Francine Morgan (Stressed Woamn), Stuart Nurse (Thomason), Tracy Pfau (Pale Woman), Caroline Whitney Smith (Paramedic), Vito Viscuso (Angry Man), Randa Walker (Candice)

Directed by Guy Ferland
Produced by Brian Minchin and Kelly A. Manners
Executive Producers Russell T Davies, Julie Gardner, Jane Tranter and Bharat Nalluri
A BBC Cymru Wales, BBC Worldwide and Starz Entertainment production

TX:
US (Starz): 5th August 2011 & 10.00 pm
UK (BBC1 & BBC 1 HD): 11th August 2011 @ 9.00 pm

Notes:
*Featuring Captain Jack Harkness, Gwen Cooper, Agent Rex Matheson, Agent Esther Drummond and Doctor Vera Juarez