An Hour of Who a Day: May 31: "Escape to L.A." (TW)

Hmm. Torchwood: Miracle Day seems to have slowed its story down rather, as this is another episode that's largely concerned with setup. However, the events of "Escape to L.A." largely play out as a consequence of Esther's actions at the beginning, as she goes to visit her sister, who "can't cope", in her words. And because she does so, Torchwood is followed, from Washington D.C. to the west coast of the United States.

But for most of the episode, the primary concern is the rising concerns of what to do with the people who should be dead but aren't. There's a rather awful woman named Ellis Hartley Monroe -- described as "the darling of the Tea Party" -- who advocates segregation of those who should be dead with her "Dead is Dead" campaign. She seems to be in this episode for two reasons: first, to act as a spokesperson for the less compassionate point of view that would likely arise in such a situation, but more importantly, to act as a foil for Oswald Danes, a counterpoint to him as he continues his rise. We're meant to see how his message of acceptance is more powerful than Hartley's more hateful message, and that's ironic, given Danes's past and the conversation he had with Jack at the end of the previous episode. It's a child murderer who Phicorp are using to get their message across, a message of acceptance that will of course also lead to more sales of pain meds for Phicorp.

But of course Torchwood is working against Phicorp, trying to work out what they're up to, and slowly but surely they're making progress. Now they know that they have to steal a server out of Phicorp, which is what the second half of this episode is about, and this is the part where the person hired by the Delta group (my term for them, since they seem to contact people with a direct line that has a capital Greek letter delta on the display) starts to take out Torchwood. "This is all your fault!" Rex yells at Esther after she reveals she went to visit her sister -- and it's true that three people nearly...well, not die, because the Miracle, but end up in really poor shape (and, of course, Jack could die). It's here that we also get a hint that Jack's connected to this, thanks to an event in his past. "What did you give them so long ago?" the assassin asks Jack, but Jack doesn't know, and before the assassin can give some names to help jar Jack's memory Rex shoots the assassin through the throat. But at least they know something.

It's an exciting sequence, but it does start to feel like Miracle Day is starting to just spin its wheels as it concentrates on filling out its ten episodes. As with the previous episode, "Escape to L.A." isn't bad (and it looks like Esther learned an important lesson), but I hope they start things moving soon.