What was the point of that? Most of the developments in episode eight of Miracle Day had me asking that question. The momentum from the flashback episode was instantly squandered as Angelo’s involvement with morphic immortality fields proved to be tangential, and the kidnapping of Gwen’s family part of a sideshow.

Torchwood is back with the CIA, who are compromised by infiltrators. What was the point of that?

Newly introduced and reintroduced characters Olivia Colasanto and Brian Friedkin are de-introduced. What what the point of that?

The Danes/Kitzinger story is back, but remains in its rather separate little bubble. And the episode culminates with the depressingly useless Esther wailing “I don’t know what to do”. So what’s new?

There were a few enjoyable tidbits in the episode. Despite the CIA being generally rather useless, its reintroduction brought along Allen Shapiro with his amusing insistence on deporting the “English girl” Gwen. And there was a fabulously touching reference to Ianto. It was written by Ryan Scott with Jane Espenson (the latter apparently having done the most writing on this series); Ryan Scott penned the recent radio play Torchwood: Submission, a very traditional tale with some clunky dialogue and poorly executed radio action but also some captivating imagery. The End of the Road wasn’t a poor episode, it was just that with only a couple of episodes ahead, it seemed strange to be throttling back to idle again. It seems to me that so far Miracle Day could have told with just the first episode, the House-style airborne episode and Categories of Life; with Immortal Sin too good to miss, despite its irrelevance to the story. And some sort of conclusion…

John Fay, the other main writer with RTD on Children of Earth, penned the next one. I’m hoping for something better than satisfactory. Well, I’m an optimist.