TORCHWOOD: MIRACLE DAY Finale Preview: Looking for Answers about Blessings, Families, and Miracles

Time flies! The season finale of TORCHWOOD: MIRACLE DAY is this Friday, and while I’ll withhold judgment until the last episode airs, there are a lot of loose ends left to be tied up.

So in preparation for Friday, let’s take a look back at the first nine weeks of global immortality and see what’s left to answer…

What is the origin of the Blessing, what is its relation to the Miracle, and how is Torchwood going to fix it?
Last week, we got our first glimpse at the Blessing, an antipodal hole through the center of the earth, seemingly imbued with power. Okay, so we know what it is, and we know that it “communicates” with individuals, but what does it do on a global scale? As it stands, there are two clear problems that need solving in the finale: (1) the hole in our planet that is making people nuts and (2) no one is dying. I don’t think it’s wrong to expect those two problems (and their respective solutions) to be related, but it’s hard to guess what the fix will be.

How, if at all, do morphic fields fit into the origin and persistence of the Miracle? What about that weird “null field” thing?
Perhaps the Blessing, in addition to showing your soul to yourself (or whatever), also created a giant morphic field that eliminated death. It seems like some kind of worldwide resonance created this death-defying situation. Here’s a theory: what if it IS aliens, and the aliens are communicating with the human race through the Blessing? Perhaps they’ve offered a deal, brokered by the Family: global immortality in exchange for Jack Harkness. One dude in exchange for all that? Sounds like a fair exchange, right? WRONG. Aliens can’t be trusted and global immortality kind of sucks. As for that whole null field concept, I’ve got nothing. Actually, I wouldn’t be surprised if that was ignored in the finale. It sure made for a cool secret conversation, though.

What are the Family’s motives?
We don’t know yet if the Blessing was created by the Family, or if the Family just controls it or harnesses its power for evildoing. All we really know is that the Family is comprised of the descendants of the three men who made a deal over Jack’s immortal blood. Jack swears up and down that his blood couldn’t have been used to create the Miracle, but it seems like there has to be a logical chain of events between Murder Night and Miracle Day — and that chain must go through Jack’s blood and the Family.

Even if we could explain the chain, the question remains: why? What possible motive does the Family have for reversing death? At this point, it seems unlikely to be related to global finances, which have universally tanked since the Miracle started, and it also seems a little too elaborate to be related exclusively to killing Jack. (If you’re so scared of him, just trap him under something heavy, Arvin Sloane-style.)

Remember that weird alien parasite Jack and Angelo found? Yeah, what was up with that?
There was an off-handed remark last week that the parasite led Jack to think that the Blessing was in Shanghai. I don’t remember the exact logic there, but I really hope that wasn’t the only reason we got that detailed explanation about the parasite’s origin.

If (when?) the Miracle is reversed, what will happen to should-have-dieds, particularly Rex and Oswald Danes?
I think Rex will be a casualty of TORCHWOOD. He’s expendable, he became less of a jackass over the course of the season (kind of, I guess), and it will be sad. I expect it to be juxtaposed against Oswald Danes’s similar post-Miracle death, which will just be creepy and much-deserved. I also wonder if they will make something up like that Esther got her finger pricked during her initial escape from the CIA, and it turns out she’s had tetanus this whole time and now she has lockjaw and is dead. (Wishful thinking?) It’s also possible that anyone who recovered from their initial injuries basically got a get out of jail free pass, and is good to go until the next time rebar punctures their heart.

Will Gwen have to jailbreak her father from the overflow camp again, or should we assume he’s been torched already?
I bet Gwen’s dad is a goner, and frankly, I don’t want to see another overflow camp raid.

Will Jack’s mortality become immortality again?
Yes. Of course.

While we probably shouldn’t hold our breath for satisfying answers to all of these questions, I’ve got my fingers crossed for a solid conclusion to this story. If it all ties together relatively neatly — and as long as Gwen’s immediate family survives — I’ll consider it a successful finale.

Make sure to check back for more TORCHWOOD thoughts on Saturday!

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