Immortal Sins (TV story)

Immortal Sins
Main character(s):	Jack, Gwen
Featuring:	Rex, Esther, Rhys, Mary, Anwen, Andy
Main enemy:	Angelo Colasanto
Main setting:	New York City, 1927 and 1928 Swansea Bay and Los Angeles, 2011
Key crew
Writer:	Jane Espenson
Director:	Gwyneth Horder-Payton
Producer:	Kelly A Manners
Release details
Premiere broadcast:	19 August 2011
Premiere network:	Starz
Format:	1x55-minute episode Part 7 of 10
Torchwood
← Previous	The Middle Men
Next →	End of the Road

Immortal Sins was the seventh episode of Series 4 of Torchwood. It was written by Jane Espenson, directed by Gwyneth Horder-Payton and featured Rex Matheson and Esther Drummond resigned to cameo roles. For the most part, it consisted of a flashback in pre-Depression era New York City, which introduced the character of Angelo Colasanto, a lover that Jack Harkness met while standing in line at Ellis Island.

From a continuity standpoint, it was clearly the single episode of Miracle Day which made the most references to the broader DWU, even referencing the The Sarah Jane Adventures character the Trickster. Narratively speaking, it was the only episode in the Miracle Day arc to feature the appearance of an alien.

Synopsis

Gwen must fight to protect her family. She takes a terrifying journey covering miles and decades with Jack as the long history of the Miracle is partially revealed.

Plot

Gwen drives Jack through California to bring him to the people holding her family.

Flashbacks are seen of Jack's past. In 1920s New York City, he awaits his visa at Ellis Island. Angelo Colasanto steals it. Jack confronts him, retrieves his visa and visits Angelo in his cell. They talk, and Jack uses technology to create a visa for Angelo.

Angelo is freed and enters a relationship with Jack. At one point, they are retrieving an alien from a base when Jack is shot dead. Angelo is captured and imprisoned. Jack returns to America after Angelo's release. Angelo is terrified by Jack's immortality.

Angelo takes Jack to the butcher shop beneath their room. There are people terrified of Jack. They sadistically attack him with knives, guns and meat hooks to kill him and collect his blood. Three men visit Jack. They seem to know something about his immortality. Angelo, overwhelmed with horror and guilt, eventually lets Jack go. Jack quickly recovers and flees with Angelo to a rooftop, where he explains his immortality before jumping off to his "death". When Angelo reaches the ground, Jack is gone.

As Gwen and Jack arrive, Rex and Esther have contacted Andy Davidson in Wales. He has freed Gwen's family. They train snipers on the three people who want to capture Jack. Jack says he has won, but they say that Jack will come with them anyway because they have the information about the Miracle that he wants to know. Angelo is still alive. He has something to do with the Miracle.

Cast

• Jack Harkness - John Barrowman
• Gwen Cooper - Eve Myles
• Rex Matheson - Mekhi Phifer
• Esther Drummond - Alexa Havins
• Rhys Williams - Kai Owen
• Mary Cooper - Sharon Morgan
• Olivia Colasanto - Nana Visitor
• Andy Davidson - Tom Price
• Angelo Colasanto - Daniele Favilli
• Inspector - Pat Asanti
• SWAT Member - Michael Chomiak
• Salvatore Maranzano - Cris D'Annunzio
• Young Priest - Will Green
• Costerdane - Paul Hayes
• Ablemarch - Everton Lawrence
• Young Man - Griffin Matthews
• Mr. Giardano - Frank Medrano
• Girl in Crowd - Angelica Montesano
• Frines - Shawn Parsons
• Elderly Woman - Vanna Salviati
• Mrs. Giardano - Jayne Taini
• SWAT Leader - Darren Dupree Washington

Crew

Created by Russell T Davies

Executive Producers   Russell T Davies, Julie Gardner and Jane Tranter

Co-executive producers   Jane Espenson and Vlad Wolynetz

Written by Jane Espenson	Produced by Kelly A Manners	Directed by Gwyneth Horder-Payton	Director of Photography Nate Goodman	Production Designer Gregory Melton	Visual Effects Lion Visual Effects, Inc.
Key Make-up Artist Todd McIntosh	Casting by John Frank Levey, CSA and Melanie Burgess	Score Murray Gold assistant composer Stu Kennedy	Costume Designer Shawna Trpcic	Edited by Hunter M. Via, A.C.E.	Key Hair Stylist Susan Boyd
Science Advisor - John Sotos, M.D.

General production staff Production Executive - Shelley Stevens Associate Producer - Skip Schoolnik Location Manager - Brad Bemis Unit Production Manager - Robert D. Nellans Production Accountant - Vince Robinette Transportation Coordinator - Heath Culp Camera and lighting department 1st Assistant Director - Jefferson Kibbee 2nd Assistant Director - Matt Buckler Script Supervisor - Anne Melville Camera Operator - Jeff Greeley Key Grip - Isaac Chee Chief Lighting Technician - Don Mosley	Art department Set Decorator - Natali Pope Set Designer - Arthur Chadwick Property Master - Eric Bates Construction Coordinator - Chris Forster Computer Graphics - Twisted Media	Make-up and prosthetics Special Make-up Effects - Greg Nicotero and Howard Berger General post-production staff Post-production Supervisor - Peter M. Tassler High Definition Post-Production - Modern Videofilm, Inc. Special and visual effects Visual FX Supervisor - Michael D. Leone Sound Production Sound Mixer - Julian Howarth Supervising Sound Editor - Walt Newman Co-supervisor - Ken Young Music Editor - Tom Trafalski Re-recording Mixers - Dan Hiland, Gary Rogers Post-Production Sound - Warner Bros.

Not every person who worked on this adventure was credited. The absence of a credit for a position doesn't necessarily mean the job wasn't required. The information above is based solely on observations of the actual end credits of the episodes as broadcast, and does not relay information from IMDB or other sources.
The Starz broadcast carried a final credit of "Originally Developed and Produced by BBC Cymru Wales". The BBC One broadcast says, instead, "BBC Worldwide Productions for BBC Cymru Wales and STARZ Originals".

Worldbuilding

Language

• "Grazie" means "thank you" in Italian.

Locations

• Jack says that the British consulate arranged his travel through the embassy in Rome.
• Jack waits for a boat to Manhattan, while Angelo is imprisoned and waiting for a boat back to Italy.
• Vera was from San Antonio.
• Angelo comes from a tiny village on the Amalfi Coast, right on the edge of a clifftop. The village contained around 200 people.
• Jack and Angelo have a room in Little Italy in 1927.
• In 1927, Jack and Angelo visit Blessed Saints' Cathedral.
• A mysterious box is located at Gallaco Wharf in Bay Five.
• Someone above Maranzano found a weapon and told him to hold it until after the state election and then ship it to Albany.
• Sing Sing Prison was founded in 1826.
• Gwen and Jack travel to Mesa, California.

Individuals

• Jack questions whether he looks like a bureaucrat. Angelo replies that he looks like a soldier.
• Angelo had a schoolmaster in his village who taught him English.
• Random people are setting up memorial services for Vera Juarez.
• Gwen says that she wants to show Jack souvenirs from back home. She then tasers him.
• Angelo has scars.
• Jack confesses to having sex with triplets.
• Jack is sent to the church by Father Timothy.
• Maranzano calls Jack and Angelo a pair of finocchi.
• Angelo ask if Jack is working for the English government.
• Jack and Angelo are working as bootleggers.
• Franklin Delano Roosevelt is due to be elected Governor of New York in November 1927.
• While in the Giardano's Butchers Shop, Jack is shot and slashed with various knives and meat hooks.
• Giardano is asking for $10,000 for Jack.

Technology

• Jack uses his vortex manipulator to change the name on the visa.
• Jack states that magic and technology can sometimes appear indistinguishable. This is known as Clarke's Law.

The Miracle

• The overflow camps have been paused following Vera's death. The politicians are denying everything.

Culture

• A girl is seen smoking a cigarette.
• It is the Fourth of July when Jack and Angelo become lovers. Angelo initially thinks that the fireworks are bombs.

Religion

• Angelo is a Christian.
• Jack says he hears Angelo's beads clicking at night.
• Angelo and Mr Giardano believe Jack to be "il diavolo" after he learns Jack can resurrect and by how he "seduces with confidence".

Law

• The Volstead Act is mentioned.

Substances

• Ammonia refrigeration is being practised in 1927.

Species

• Jack calls the parasite a species of Brainspawn which tastes like oysters. The head of the parasite drills into the brain of the host and deposits larvae, turning the host insane.
• A Firebird is a bird made of fire.

History

• Had the Trickster's Brigade succeeded, they would have had America pulling out of World War II and the triumph of Germany and the Third Reich.

Story notes

• Writer Jane Espenson cites Immortal Sins as her favourite work as a writer.
• Jack explains that the brain parasite would rewrite history by enabling the Third Reich to win the Second World War. One week and a day after this episode was broadcast in the US and only two days after it was broadcast in the UK, the Doctor Who episode Let's Kill Hitler featured Adolf Hitler in a cameo role and was set in Nazi Germany in 1938.
• This is the first time that Jack is killed onscreen during Series 4. He is killed at least seven times in this episode, including being shot, being stabbed, being disemboweled, having his throat slashed, and falling from a great height.

Ratings

• UK: 4.48 million (Final BARB ratings)
• US: 0.92 million

Filming locations

to be added

Broadcasts

Date	Time	Channel	Notes
Thursday 25 August 2011	21:00	BBC One	First broadcast.
Tuesday 30 August 2011	00:40	BBC HD & BBC Two except Scotland
Tuesday 30 August 2011	01:05	BBC Two Scotland

Production errors

If you'd like to talk about narrative problems with this story — like plot holes and things that seem to contradict other stories — please go to this episode's discontinuity discussion.

• After Gwen receives the message "Bring us Jack", the next thing she sees is "Keep the lenses in. We'll be watching". But later on when Esther looks at the message history of the lenses, the last one sent was "Bring us Jack."

Continuity

• Esther watches the video clip Rex recorded of Vera Juarez's demise to see its viewing figures; her death occurred in TV: The Categories of Life ^[+]Loading...["The Categories of Life (TV story)"].
• Gwen talks about when she first joined Torchwood, and her first day on the job, shown in TV: Everything Changes ^[+]Loading...["Everything Changes (TV story)"] and Day One ^[+]Loading...["Day One (TV story)"] respectively.
• Jack told Angelo that something happened to him, alluding to his resurrection by Rose Tyler in TV: The Parting of the Ways ^[+]Loading...["The Parting of the Ways (TV story)"] and that he is a fixed point in time, as the Tenth Doctor surmised in TV: Utopia ^[+]Loading...["Utopia (TV story)"].
• Jack advises Angelo to start saving money, alluding to the Great Depression that will occur with the 1930s, depicted in TV: Daleks in Manhattan ^[+]Loading...["Daleks in Manhattan (TV story)"] and also World War II, which Jack experienced, as displayed in TV: The Empty Child ^[+]Loading...["The Empty Child (TV story)"].
• Jack and Angelo encounter an alien associated with the Trickster's Brigade. The Trickster's minions have previously tried to change history, notably with Sarah Jane Smith, as shown in TV: Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane? ^[+]Loading...["Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane? (TV story)"] and The Temptation of Sarah Jane Smith ^[+]Loading...["The Temptation of Sarah Jane Smith (TV story)"], and Donna Noble as displayed in TV: Turn Left ^[+]Loading...["Turn Left (TV story)"].
• When Esther opens the Eye-5 computer programme, past dialogue can be found, which was recorded during the events of TV: Escape to LA ^[+]Loading...["Escape to LA (TV story)"] and The Middle Men ^[+]Loading...["The Middle Men (TV story)"].

Home video releases

• This episode was released worldwide in a box set containing all ten episodes of Torchwood: Miracle Day. In the United Kingdom, it was released on Region 2 DVD and Region Free Blu-ray on 14 November 2011. In Australia, it was released in Region 4 DVD and Region B Blu-Ray on 1 December 2011. In New Zealand, the same sets were released on 7 December 2011. In North America, it was released on Region 1 DVD and Region Free Blu-Ray on 3 April 2012.
• It was also released in the Series 1-4 boxset (Region 2 release: 14 November 2011.)