This week’s Torchwood episode gave us more buzz words than we could handle, a geographical impossibility in the shape of a cliffhanger and lastly, a very annoying Rhys. This was what RTD had to offer as the penultimate episode of this 10 episode story arc. And judging by the looks of it, the series finale should be jampacked like a Tokyo subway, as there’s a hell lotta stuff ;eft to be resolved. Episode 9 – The Gathering, was also about more new characters (and we thought we already had enough of them). There’s the family heads, who look as cold as Arnie’s Mr. Freeze, and speak in idioms. Then there’s the annoying Category 1 collecting man, who is hell-bent on collecting Geraint Cooper, even when Overflow Camps are filled to the brim. And oh, I forgot to mention, this is now set 2 months after Episode 8. So, we are no longer in a world where people are dealing with the miracle, and its multi-faceted consequences. Instead, this is a world where recession has transformed into depression, China has closed down its borders and US is considering to do the same, insurance companies have gone bust, CIA rations fuel and the world has just accepted its fucked up state. Quite a bold move no doubt, but does the rest of the episode take advantage of this move? Let’s found out on the other side of the jump.

Join the discussion and we have a long list of speculations about the finalé ; SPOILERS

1. Back in Britain:

Esther and Jack were on the run, and turns out they chose cold and discreet Scotland as their hideout. Gwen, being sent back home, is trying hard to make ends meet by putting on her Ninja gear and looting drugs store. She’s just not doing it all for her dad, but she’s also selling them to the needy. There are power cuts, and Rhys wants to do the naughty. Go on then, add to the exploding population of the world. And oh, the Coopers have a secret basement, where there’s no good heating presumably, coz Papa Cooper looks all cold. There’s an unnecessary “thrilling” scenes involving an annoying patrol officer who wants to collect all Category 1 people. And there’s another one, which involves a heat sensing iPhone app. Pfft. So, I guess Apple is still making a profit!!

And then, Oswald Danes shows up. Remember? He punched Jilly Kitzinger in the face and buggered off. So he made it to Britain without getting caught, even after having the most recognisable face on the planet (Jilly’s words, not mine). And he turns up at the Cooper’s residence, dressed as a grocery delivery guy.

Now, does that mean ASDA, Tesco and the like still exist ? Also, since everyone is talking on the phone and having power / power cuts, so power-stations and telecom operators are still operating. Just needed to point that out.

Back to Oswald; he says that he can tell who’s behind the miracle if he gets Jack. Quite conveniently, Jack is called in, and we get to know that Esther has been siphoning his blood all this while. There’s plenty of blood bags in the fridge and the suitcase. All that hints how important Jack’s blood is going to be in the season finalé, even though Jack keeps shouting that there’s nothing special about his blood. That bugger, what does he know?

2. CIA HQ:

So, by the end of the last episode, we got to know about that Charlotte girl in the CIA being a “Family” insider. Now she’s been doing all kinda shit to prevent Rex’s investigations to reach at anything substantial. That bitch is surely gonna get it in the final episode. She even gets to show the finger to Rex. On the other hand, Rex and his boss have been scraping through every single evidence to track down the Families. The explosion in Episode 1 in the library in DC was to destroy all evidence, and they also destroyed the Manhattan Central Repository. With every move they make, they find themselves at a dead end. Rex suspects the involvement of a mole in their team, and hence, wants to keep matters between the two of them. Fucking Sherlock stuff mate!

3. Harry Bosco:

Finally, Bill Pullman’s paycheck translates into meaningful screentime. Oswald Danes, on the surface is a pedo and a monster, but he knows his stuff well. How on earth he managed to escape the US borders and enter Wales; the man can pull it off. He steals Jilly’s laptop and keeps following her online (so he must be some techie guru too). Also, he reveals about “Harry Bosco”, an old intelligence term which is used to censor / manipulate news by means of mistranslating foreign sources. He also reveals about Jilly Kitzinger disappearing from the face of the internet. And in between, he gets smashed in his own face by Gwen , and then some more by Rhys. Was it just me or did you guys find Rhys totally obnoxious as well?

Esther comes in handy by elaborating on “Harry Bosco” and also tries to link two bomb blasts which happened just before the miracle started – both in blood banks, one in Buenos Aires, and the other in Shanghai. And then Rhys, being the Watson that he is, points out that these are antipodes , one point exactly opposite to the other on the Earth’s diameter. And all this while, it has been staring right into our face in the form of the Phicorp logo.

Now did I feel like tearing my hair apart coz I couldn’t figure it out before? No, not exactly, coz that whole concept of explosions in Buenos Aires and Shanghai came just 10 minutes earlier. Frankly, I am a bit tired with the last minute revelations, rather than placing clues from Episode 1 onwards. Ok, Phicorp Logo, I’ll give THAT to RTD.

3. Jilly meets The Family:

The family are a weird bunch. The suited dude ships Jilly to Shanghai, and instructs her that her identity has been changed to Lucy Statten Meredith (ooh, a middle name, must be legit). And then, he says something funny – “We won’t meet again”. This phrase is repeated by the other dude that Jilly, excuse me – Lucy meets in Shanghai. This bloke seems like a programmer (stereotypically, we’ll call him the geeky hipster dude), who cannot live without his touchscreen tablet, and spends at least 4 hours on tumblr and reddit. The geeky hipster dude also answers why Jilly was chosen in the first place. She is a story teller (that’s what people in PR do innit), and they want her to write history.

Judging by those lines, whatever the Families have planned, is going to be something big that they want the world to remember. Yeah, I deduced that 😛 And Jilly is then taken to meet the Family, where apparently she’ll be given the “Blessing”.

5. Houston, we’ve got a problem – The Blessing, its a big Muthaf***in’ planet Vag!

So what’s the Blessing. As the Phicorp logo shows, it is a hole that runs through the diameter of the planet – from Shanghai to Buenos Aires. Seems like a Or at least, that’s what we think the Blessing to be. Jilly is made to stare at this giant red thing, and she murmurs – I see, that I am right. What does that mean? Is the Blessing supposed to show what you are? And that earlier footage of the Chinese person getting burnt when he blew up the blood bank, he was shouting – The Blessing saved me. How does this Blessing fit into the worldwide immortality theory? By the looks of it, the Blessing is not just something deep underground, but it is something alive, which communicates with anyone who looks at it. But again, what does the blood bank explosion link to this?

6. Loose ends and Final Speculations:

There are way too many that I can think of, and I’ll try to list them down here.

a) The Chinese liaison of Phicorp’s CEO, who committed suicide – why did he do so? Did he see the Blessing, I mean the deep underground?

b) What does Jack’s blood got to do with it? He is just a fixed point in time and space, and that is how is immortal. So, what’s in his blood?

c) Even though Jack denies it, the final episode is called “The Blood Line”, and there has to be something about the blood. There’s the two blood bank explosions as well.

d) What happened to the nullifying Alpha plate that was the main part of the morphic field? Seriously, wtf happened to it?

e) Jilly arranged the Miracle Day rally, and the whole “Revelation” speech was all organised to publicise Phicorp. Then why did she deny from working for Phicorp in one of the early episodes ?

f) Does the alien that Jack and Angelo killed in episode 7 have a more major role to play? Maybe its back to life again and its pissed.

g) Gwen, as well as the guy in the datacenter (Rex shot him in the throat), kept on asking Jack about what did he give them in the past. Exactly, what?

h) No answers yet about how Angelo hacked into Torchwood tech, the lenses etc. Will we get any info on that?

i) So the Blessing goes right through the Earth’s core, from one end to the other. Since that is geographically not possible, there must be some Alien tech involved. Has to be! My question is, why is all left for Episode 10?

j) I still don’t get why Oswald Danes is treated so specially, other than the fact that it is Bill Pullman portraying the role. He could’ve easily given a dose of RETCON and done with. Just leave him on the streets, he’s a fucking Category Zero.

k)When the miracle gets resolved (in some way, I’m hoping it does), will Rex die?

l) As I pointed out earlier, Miracle Day is at this point, with only one episode to spare. I really hope that RTD has played his cards right, and the final episode melts my face with all the awesome answers. And I certainly, don’t hope that it is left hanging out with a cliffhanger of Jack dying. Ugh! that would stink!

That’s plenty of questions I think for the mo. We’ll see if our questions are answered, and if yes, how. Our eyes are almost dry with anticipation. Episode 10.. here we come.

9E3K rating for Episode 9: 4.5 Frying Pan Smashes out of 5!