'Miracle Day' Part 7: 'Immortal Sins' by Jane Espenson

Ellis Island, 1927: a man signs in at Immigration Control under the name of Jack Harkness – and then the real Jack bursts in and wrestles him to the floor. As the authorities step in, Jack confirms his identity and reports how his visa was stolen; guards take hold of the imposter and lead him away for deportation back to Italy. However, Jack is intrigued by the thief, Angelo Colasanto, and pays him a visit in his cell; sensing a comrade spirit, Jack uses his wrist device to alter his visa to show Angelo’s identity, and, having arranged for his freedom, proposes that they go to Manhattan together…

The present: under orders to bring Jack to those holding her family hostage, Gwen storms back to Torchwood’s hideout in Venice Beach, where she tricks her colleague into leaving Esther and Rex to come and see something important with her. But as Jack climbs into the back of their car, Gwen tasers him into unconsciousness and then follows the directions now appearing on her contact lenses…

Little Italy, 1927: Jack and Angelo rent a room above a family butchers. The two men are obviously attracted to each other, and after some dancing around the subject, they end up in bed together. Afterwards, Angelo is surprised when Jack asks him to stay with him. Outside, fireworks light up the sky in celebration of 4th July…

The present: Jack wakes to find himself tied hand and foot in the back of the car, as a frantic Gwen drives them to an unknown destination. Gwen warns Jack that their every move is being watched by PhiCorp’s masters, who have instructed her to exchange him for her mother, husband and baby daughter. Jack attempts to reason with their unseen manipulators by addressing the reflection of Gwen’s eyes in the rear-view mirror, but they refuse to answer him. Gwen holds Jack responsible for the abduction of her family, believing it was due to something he did in his past…

Blessed Saints Cathedral, 1927: Jack leaves Angelo in a pew while he enters a confessional and makes contact with a priest. The priest then leads Jack and Angelo to a back room, where he hands over bottles of sacramental wine to be sold to get money for the needy. However, as Jack and Angelo leave with their goods, they are grabbed by a gang of heavies…

The present: Jack tells Gwen that he can reprogram his wrist strap device with a sample of her blood, using her DNA as a tracker to find Anwen; Gwen agrees, and is about to stop the car and untie him when she realises he is lying. A message appears on her retinas agrees: “He always lies”…

1927: The heavies take Jack and Angelo to their boss, a black marketer named Sal Maranzano who is unhappy with their unwelcome competition. He is about to have them both killed when Jack offers to combine their resources; when Sal decides to give Jack one chance to prove himself, by transporting a box between warehouses, Jack readily agrees, accepting the condition that he doesn’t look inside. Returning to their room, Jack begins packing Angelo’s things into a suitcase and orders him to go. Realising that Jack planned their capture just so he could get to Maranzano, Angelo vehemently objects to leaving. Jack then has a change of mind: his friend the Doctor always had a companion, so he can too… Later that night, the two men break into the warehouse and find the wooden crate they are after. Opening the container, Jack shows Angelo a huge, worm-like creature: an alien parasitic brain-spawn. Jack explains that he has been sent by the British Government to destroy the creature, which is to be used against future-president Franklin Roosevelt in a bid to destabilise the U.S. government, thereby allowing Germany to take over the world – a change to established history orchestrated by beings known as the Trickster’s Brigade. Jack promptly shoots the creature and then pours acid over its corpse; then after sealing the crate, he urges Angelo to run – just as an alarm blares out. As the two men race outside a squad of armed guards appear and open fire – Jack is killed by a shot to the head, while Angelo is captured by the police and bundled into a waiting van. Seconds later, Jack comes back to life, and he makes a hasty exit…

The present: continuing her journey with her prisoner, Gwen becomes guilt-ridden over her situation, blaming her love of working for Torchwood. When she tells Jack that she will hand him over no matter what if it means she will get Anwen back, Jack responds that now that he is mortal, he is equally adamant that he is not going to die…

1928, Sing Sing Prison: having carried out his sentence, Angelo is released from incarceration; leaving the prison, he is astonished at being met by Jack, still very much alive, despite dying before Angelo’s eyes. Jack takes his friend back to their old room, which he has rented once more; together they enjoy a passionate kiss – but then Angelo stabs Jack with a knife, now believing him to be the devil attempting to seduce him. Jack dies again… and when he comes back, he finds that Angelo has been joined by the butcher and his wife; they are as superstitious as Angelo, and equally as shocked at Jack’s return from the dead – and so they kill him too… Returning to life once more, Jack then finds himself hanging from a hook in the butcher’s meat locker, in front of a crowd of locals from the neighbourhood. To his horror, they each take it in turns to kill him – again and again and again… In the carnage, an old woman scoops up some of Jack’s blood into a bottle… Sometime later, after his ordeal has ended, Jack wakes to discover that Angelo has decided to sell him to three mysterious men; agreeing to purchase Jack in a partnership, the men grip each other’s hands in a strange, triangular handshake…

The present, 5 am: having arrived at Mesa, California, Gwen and Jack wait for their mysterious contacts to arrive…

1928: Realising his mistake, Angelo frees Jack from the meat locker and helps him to escape. After admitting that he has no idea who the three men were, Angelo tells Jack that he wants them both to run away to L.A. together. After making a detour to the roof to collect his greatcoat and gun from a hiding place in an air vent, Jack tells Angelo that he cannot join him; when Angelo refuses to let him go, Jack throws himself off the building, falling to his death on the ground below. But when Angelo rushes down to the street, Jack’s body has vanished…

The present, dawn: Gwen and Jack watch as a car drives up, bringing two men in black and a well-dressed woman named Olivia. But as Jack makes to join them, a red spot from a laser-gunsight appears on each of the new arrivals and a warning shot rings out: Rex and Esther have arrived! It seems that after Gwen left with Jack, Esther intercepted the cached messages on her contact lenses via her laptop, and she and Rex have been tracking their friends ever since. With the tables turned, Gwen releases Jack and together they disarm their would-be attackers. From her vantage point with Rex, Esther phones Sergeant Andy and gives him the go-ahead: Andy immediately leads a police S.W.A.T. team to storm the Coopers’ house, gunning down the man holding Mary, Rhys and Anwen hostage. Gwen and Jack are overjoyed to see Rex and Esther – but Olivia is undaunted; as far as she is concerned she still wants to take Jack to see the one man who knows how the Miracle started: Angelo Colasanto…

John Barrowman (Captain Jack Harkness), Eve Myles (Gwen Cooper), Mekhi Phifer (Rex Matheson), Alexa Havins (Esther Drummond), Kai Owen (Rhys Williams), Sharon Morgan (Mary Cooper), Nana Visitor (Olivia Colasanto), Tom Price (Sergeant Andy Davidson), Daniele Favilli (Angelo Colasanto), Pat Asanti (Inspector), Michael Chomiak (SWAT Member), Chris D’Annunzio (Salvatore Maranzano), Will Green (Young Priest), Paul Hayes (Costerdane), Everton Lawrence (Ablemarch), Griffin Matthews (Young Man), Frank Medrano (Mr Giardano), Angelica Montesano (Girl in Crowd), Shawn Parsons (Frines), Vanna Salviati (Elderly Woman), Jayne Taini (Mrs Giardano), Darren Dupree Washington (SWAT Leader)

Directed by Gwyneth Horder-Payton
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): 19th August 2011 & 10.00 pm
UK (BBC1 & BBC 1 HD): 25th August 2011 @ 9.00 pm

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

*Censorship: the sex scene between Jack and Angelo was slightly cut for the U.K. transmission