Yeah, I just couldn't even force myself to watch another episode yesterday so I took the day off. But this morning I was back on the treadmill as usual, so here we go.

Miracle Day: Immortal Sins

(TARDIS Data Core recap)

Seven episodes in, and we get essentially a flashback story book ended by a present day sequence with Jack and Gwen in a car. But it actually works.

In the present day timeline, Gwen has arrived back in Los Angeles from Wales after rescuing her father from the death camps. Unfortunately, during her flight the bad guys kidnapped Rhys, their daughter Anwyn, and Gwen's mother (no word on where her invalid father is hiding away). Gwen discovers this when she puts on the WhateverTechnology contact lenses and gets a message from the bad guys: bring Jack to them, or else they will kill her family. So she does. She tasers him, trusses him up, and has a heart-to-heart with him on the drive, basically recognizing that Jack is a lying bastard and that whatever is going on is totally his fault.

As for the flashback, a pre-Depression era Jack comes to Manhattan on a secret mission for Torchwood (which ultimately turns out to be a box of alien worm things that were going to infect FDR early on in his political career in order to alter the course of the Second World War). Jack, being Jack, picks up an Italian twink on Ellis Island and shacks up with him in Little Italy. John Barrowman shows off his naked butt again, a couple of times, and there is actually a fairly nifty little love story going on.

Ultimately, though, Jack gets shot in the head right in front of ItalianTwink, who then goes on to serve a year in Sing Sing in the fallout from the Torchwood mission. When he is released from prison Jack is waiting there for him, and he kind a freaks out a little bit. By "a little bit", I mean that he kind of accidentally stabs Jack to death because he things he is a demon. And then Jack comes back to life, as he is wont to do, so ItalianTwink kills him again. And then Jack is strung up in the building basement and a growing crowd of terrified immigrants murder Jack over and over again in various ways. At some point a mysterious trio of men purchase Jack from the terrified immigrants. Although ultimately ItalianTwink helps Jack escape, it is not before a full bottle of his blood is taken - with the clear implication that said blood would become key in triggering the titular Miracle.

ItalianTwink wants to kiss and make up, he didn't really mean to murder Jack those two times, plus facilitate a few dozen subsequent murders, but for some reason Jack isn't really gung ho about jumping back into the sack with him. Funny, that. But apparently ItalianTwink carries a grudge, because the final payoff at the end of the present day sequence is that ItalianTwink is still alive and is the Man Behind the Miracle.

Oops.

Jack really needs to pick better boyfriends.

This one was written by Jane Espenson, whom I mostly know for her work on Buffy, Angel, and Galactica. I may joke, but this was actually a pretty decent episode. It was all about character, laying bare Gwen's complicated feelings about being a part of Torchwood Three and also exploring the difficulties of a gay relationship in the 1920's. I think if Miracle Day had only been five episodes like Children of Earth, and if this had been the middle episode designed to shift the overall story into the final confrontation, it would have been a much better show.  Sadly, it is what it is. Instead of two more episodes to go there are three, so I fully expect tomorrow to be a bunch more padding. 

STATS:

Featuring: Captain Jack Harkness, Gwen Cooper, Rex Matheson, Esther Drummond
Episode(s): Miracle Day: Immortal Sins
Steps Walked: 7,654 today, 3,998,427 total
Distance Walked: 4.12 miles today, 2,093.30 miles total
Push-ups Completed: 66 today, 8,226 total
Sit-ups Completed: 0 today, 1,161 total
Weight: 259.62 lbs (five day moving average), net change -47.98 lbs