They already did - in one of the Who episodes with Jack, back with the Tenth Doctor, he noted that he was showing signs of age. Jack may not be allowed to die and stay dead, but he certainly can change.
That was was also the scene where they dropped the large hint he becomes the Face of Bo - and if so that is one hell of a change, and it makes normal aging look pretty insignificant.
Vera acted like any doctor in that situation would have. Sure, the taunting was a little extreme but the guy had been sexually harassing her from the second he saw her, the urge to give him one big fuck you would have been too much for anyone.
I watched the episode again and realized Vera said she used her medical board contacts to get authorization to inspect that holding camp. Maloney was expecting Dr. Juarez and knew it was an official camp inspection. I suppose Vera thought that gave her some protection. Prior to Miracle Day, Maloney would never risk attacking an inspector. But, she badly misjudged the chaos of MD. No one on that medical board will ever come looking for her. Maloney knew that.
I still think Vera should have been more cautious. There is a certain irony that Vera wasn’t killed by an assassin hired by PhiCorp. A limp dick, asshole bureaucrat killed her. A guy that usually would be considered very insignificant.
I hate to sound anal-retentive (although I guess I am, ha!) but the inconsistency in the miracle is bugging me.
Prior to this episode, it seemed that the miracle, for the most part, was keeping people conscious. Like Rex when he was first taken to the hospital, or the guy who was blown up and all burned, but still conscious even when his head was detached. I think at one point one of the characters mentions this constant consciousness despite injuries/illness.
Now they seem to be saying that people with severe enough injuries will be brain dead, but technically still alive. What determines whether someone ends up brain dead or not? The blown-up guy, I assume had no way for blood to get to his brain, so he should have been brain dead. And Oswald Danes - even though he wasn’t killed by his lethal injection, shouldn’t it have caused enough damage to put him in Class 1 too?
Up until this point the miracle seemed to ensure that everyone would live forever (at least until the miracle ends). Now it seems like the miracle will just ensure that you live a long time until you become injured enough to be another Terry Schaivo.
As others have mentioned, I will be interested to see if they address whether burnt human ashes are still alive.
One of the first episodes had a woman whose husband kept strangling her until she ended up brain dead. The doctor was complaining to a police officer, who said that they couldn’t do anything since murder was an obsolete concept (although I’d think assault would have flown, but that’s a different argument).
However, the burned guy and backward-head lady walking do seem out of what I’d think of as logical in what they’re showing for most of the MD affect.
And Rex mentioned he’s healing. That puts a new wrinkle in things, too.
Jane Espenson’s blog on the fifth episode. She wrote this episode.
Maloney.
Great episode tonight. Can’t say much without spoiling.
Maloney is one sick S.O.B. It’s going to take awhile to get this scene out of my head.
Glad to see Esther step up and kick butt.
Gwen, is just totally bad ass in this episode.
I wasn’t a big fan of this one. It just seemed to move really slowly. Every time they cut to a shot of Esther calling Vera I wanted to yell at the TV, “Get on with it already!” Gwen was really good though and it was nice to see Jack be his slick self again. Although I have to ask, when did Jack go from bisexual to straight up gay? He used to hit on anything with a pulse, not it seems to be strictly men.
My guess would be sometime around when Steven Moffat lost creative control over the character to Russell T Davies.
I’m looking forward to ep7. It’s supposed to feature only Jack and Gwen as they work out issues in their relationship and (hopefully) learn the secret behind Miracle Day.
I guess people noticed Oswald wasn’t in ep 6. Rex, Esther & Oswald are good characters, but I’m glad we’re finally getting one episode with only the old Torchwood team.
Previews for ep 7 show Gwen betraying Jack and taking him to the big bad dudes. I guess it’s not surprising because Gwen’s baby and husband mean more than her obligations to Jack and Torchwood. I hope this won’t be a permanent split between Gwen and Jack. She betrayed him before at the end of S1 when she opened the rift to save Rhys. Damn near destroying the whole world in the process. Jack forgive that, so I bet he’ll forgive this betrayal too.
Best episode yet. This came closest to the Torchwood I remember. As usual RTD pushes his gay agenda. But, he’s always done that with this show. It’ll take awhile to wash away the image of Jack’s bare arse from my retinas. Still, this installment of the story was worth waiting for. Looks like the series will end on a great note. At least I’m hoping the last three episodes will be really good. 
[SPOILER]I liked the religious metaphor a lot. Jack’s bloody torture while hanging invokes the crucifixion. They even had a great shot of his bloody /crucified feet as Angelo wipes them off. Then the stunning image of the lady collecting the blood in a bottle. It’s such a powerful image of communion.
I’ll speculate now that Jack’s blood has healing and rejuvenating properties. I bet Angelo and those three mob guys used it to stay young and keep alive until Miracle Day happens.
It looked like they drained blood from Jack for a long, long time. They may have gotten gallons of it over several days. Jack would die and come back to life with more, fresh blood. They could have drained him forever.[/SPOILER]
I’m gonna have to say I was very disappointed in the big reveal.
So the entire reason the miracle happened, the entire reason the balance of life and death has been upset and the entire history of the world has been changed, is because Jack stuck his dick in the wrong guy 80 years ago ?
Just ONCE it would be nice to see Torchwood have to solve a problem that it didn’t itself CAUSE.
I’m hoping there’s more to this season’s story than Jack’s rejected gay lover too. That would be a huge disappointment.
FINALLY -
we have the true meaning behind the Eagles ‘Hotel California’ :
‘We stab it with our steely knives, but we just can’t kill the beast’
(not to mention we finally get to who is behind this - and the triangle group is formed)
:rolleyes: Why no talk of RTD pushing his heterosexual agenda with Gwen, Rhys & the baby? And Rex and Vera?
Well, that’s just the cliffhanger. What effect, if any, that has actually had, will be revealed in the next episode.
:rolleyes::rolleyes: Come on. If RTD didn’t have a gay agenda Jack would’ve knocked boots with Esther by now.
I wondered what happened to omnisexual Jack? Especially since the Starz show is introducing Jack to a new audience.
Older fans know Jack will screw anything that moves and has the appropriate orifice. He was always flirting with aliens, men, women and anything else that caught his eye. Better lock up the sheep and the dog too.
The Starz version of Jack is a dramatic change in the character. I miss the old Jack. A lot of the characters humor came from his constant flirting.
I’m sorry, but I just think it’s pure bullshit when people trot out the old “gay agenda” card. What agenda is that anyway? Showing that, like the straight people on the same show, gay people have sex & fall in love?
Again I ask, RTD has written many straight characters. Why aren’t you upset about his straight agenda?
While I agree that the word “agenda” carries more political baggage than is likely intended, I must observe that I have read no one being “upset” over the decision to make Jack exclusively gay and to show such in the same titillating manner that Starz and its like do with heterosexual sex fairly often.
When a producer is doing something that is different than the norm, and something that is a change in what has been the norm for an established character, it is reasonable believe that they are doing it with intent, and reasonable to wonder what that specific intent is without being upset over it. RTD has changed Jack into an exclusively gay character (and changing the essence of a character is always a bit jarring) and is filming very soft core gay love scenes with him for a reason. His reason may be indeed be as cynical as attempting to attract a gay male viewership; gays are a significant percent of our population, and in particular a group that may be a bit more likely to spring for a deluxe cable package that has gays presented in nonstereotypic ways, in modestly intelligent scripts (questionable for Torchwood so far), and with the same soft core treatment that heterosexuality gets. Or he could be out to normalize the treatment of gay romance in the media … which would be an agenda of sorts. And one that many of us, gay and straight alike, can both note and agree with.