Theory:Torchwood television discontinuity and plot holes/The Blood Line

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This page is for discussing the ways in which The Blood Line doesn't fit well with other DWU narratives. You can also talk about the plot holes that render its own, internal narrative confusing.

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• It was stated on many occasions by Jack that his blood was unbale to transfer his immortality but why was Rex Matheson able to heal after being shot?

His blood didn't transfer his immortality—otherwise, Rex would have been healed before they got to the Blessing, and removing his bandage would have had no effect. It was the Blessing that transfered his immortality. It's not made clear how this works, of course, but all the technobabble about the Blessing was about it locking onto blood, configuring itself based on blood, etc. So, the Blessing recognized Rex as Jack, or a member of Jack's otherwise-unique species, or whatever, and applied the immortal morphic field to him accordingly.

Partially... It was also pointed out that the Blessing worked on a sort of duality. The "flaw" in Jack's plan as far as the Family was concerned was that his blood has to hit both sides of the Blessing at the same time for it to activate. Once it reset the morphic field, it would have also reset Jack and an equal on the opposite end.

Jack's blood wouldn't transfer his "immortality" yet, since the whole point of that "plan" was that Jack's "Mortal" blood would be both places. Jack would have "transferred" his "mortal" blood to Rex - and indeed, Rex was looking much more mortal that usual. The idea that Rex wasn't dead after the Miracle ended (like Jack) may or may not have had anything to do with his immortality (were his wounds life-threatening at that time).

I agree with the initial post. You'd think, that if immortality were as easy as transfusing Jack's blood, someone else would have tried that (hoping to become immortal) in Jack's long (tortuous & bloody) history. It looked to me that Jack was as surprised (if not more) to see his immortality transfer as everyone else - no explanation given.

Theoretically, Rex must have had a mix of his own blood and Jack's blood. How could Esther have separated them? Unless she drained Rex completely of blood, before filling him with Jack's blood... Even if she transfused blood in and out at the same time, it would mix within Rex's body. The idea that there was some quantity of someone's (mostly Rex's) blood in the suitcase just helped the ruse that the transfusion hadn't happened. BTW, various websites report that there are 10-12 pints of blood in an average human (each one of those full blood-bags is typically a pint, the amount of a blood donation).

I was thinking that The Blessing gave Rex immortality intentionally, as a final gift; Gwen said, "Why not save one life? Just one?" shortly before Charlotte shot him. But in reading these responses over, I also like the idea of the reset in response 2. Logical and tidy.

• This is a trivial one, and it's probably more of a production error than a discontinuity, but: The CIA has 703 area codes, and always has (unlike most other government agencies in the area, which still have 202 area codes even if they're outside the District). And many CIA employees choose 703 cell phones instead of 202 (or 301) no matter where they live, as a sort of "Company pride" thing—when your phone rings with 202, it's probably that DIA liason you're working with or that Congressional committee flak who keeps bugging you, not a fellow agent who actually matters. So, when that first "2" popped up on the screen, it would have narrowed down the suspects consdierably, and someone probably would have commented on it.

Perhaps, it may have narrowed down the suspects, but why do anything when you'll find out exactly who the mole is in a matter of seconds?

Maybe I was misled by the "tension music" in the soundtrack, but it seemed like they were pretty impatient waiting.

Two possible and related things: 1) It's a spare/special phone like Friedkin's red one. 2) Charlotte as a member of the Family likely would not operate on "CIA pride" outside of what is explicitly necessary.

Surely once the initial numbers were known, it would narrow down the possible combinations. So would other CIA agents have a phone number of which the last digit is the only difference?

Realistically?

If running a mole hunt like this the CIA could come up with a filter list for "dumb" moles. That list would be, at the least, all the phone numbers know or suspected to be within the facility. This could be thinned down to those associated with personnel associated with the compromised ops. But it presumes 1) the mole is using a phone that is registered with the CIA and 2) the mole isn't the agent charged with compiling the filter.

If the phone isn't on the "list", and it is likely that it wasn't, the search wouldn't produce a reliable suspect until it got all 10 digits. Starting a search/round up on 1/10, 1/3, or 2/3 of the number in hand could be seen as warning the mole.

• Also, if he knew there was a mole, why was the CIA agent so forthcoming to Charlotte about the trace? Surely he should have known that no-one could be trusted?

Idiot ball?

Is you're asking why Rex trusted her: It could have been established better, but it seems like we were supposed to get that Charlotte was Esther's closest and most trusted colleague. Rex and Esther would as soon suspect Shapiro as Charlotte.

If you're asking why Shapiro trusted her: If you know or suspect who the mole is, or even if you just know you have a handful of people you can trust, a mole-hunt is easy; if you have a few dozen good people and one mole and no idea which is while, the only thing you can do is get different groups of agents involved in the hunt in different ways. And yes, that's bound to alert the mole, but what alternative is there? He can't do take over the entire department's job himself. If he called in outsiders to hunt the mole, that would be just as likely to tip someone off, and it wouldn't help unless he could be sure there were no moles in the other department he brought in. (And how could he believe that the rest of the CIA was clean when they'd just caught section head Friedkin and then discovered they had another mole?)

• Wouldn't it also make more sense for the Families to give Charlotte a seperate phone to contact them with. One which wasn't linked to her name?

• The Torchwood team spent a long time exposing the camps that were destroying the 'Category One' cases. But by reversing the miracle, they produce the same effect, though by natural means. What logic is there to this?

The "natural means" is the whole point: They took it out of the hands of governments to decide who lives and who dies, and put it back in the hands of nature, where it belongs.

You could take this as a "things man was not meant to achieve" conservatism, but even for someone who wants humanity to ultimately become responsible for their own mortality, letting the Families shape the future of humanity according to their whims was more dangerous than taking away the present immortality. Different characters seemed to have understandings of this—Rex didn't like going against the "natural order", Shapiro and Jack were more worried about the Families controlling mankind's destiny, while Gwen seemed confused and torn and ultimately let her anger or her trust in Jack decide for her.

• Just how did the Three Families get to be so rich and powerful? All they had was some of Jack's blood, and it was decades before they learned how to use it.

They were already rich and powerful in 1927, when they came to get Jack's blood. It's possible that knowing that the secret of immortality was in their grasp made them more driven than other secret societies of the rich and powerful, which is why they managed to consolidate their power for decades rather than squander it after the first generation the way most of them do. But that's not how they became rich and powerful in the first place. (For that, we don't know the answer, except that it probably goes back at least to the British Empire days in China.)

If Torchwood and Doctor who are still in the same universe, how come no one in Doctor Who mentions the events of miracle day despite them being on earth at the time.

Personally, I theorise that the canon of Doctor Who and Torchwood have 'split' since the DW-Series 5 finale. Torchwood is taking place in the original Who-universe, and Doctor Who (from series 5, ep 13 onwards) is taking place in the Second Whoniverse after the Big Bang 2. The two universes are identical for the most part, except in the Second Whoniverse, the CyberKing incident, the 2009 Dalek Invasion and, of course, "Miracle Day" did not happen. This is just my own speculation however, to me it makes sense, but it would be nice if RTD and Steven Moffat collaborated on a script or at least acknowledged "Miracle Day" as occurring in Doctor Who-world as well to affirm they are taking place in the same universe.

The entire point of series 5 was that the original Whoniverse was being erased. The canon doesn't just split off. This required the reboot that took place in the season 5 finale. Then you have Miracle Day, which took place after series 5, and therefore could not have been in the original Whoniverse that you speak of, since that universe was erased before Miracle Day could take place, which meant it had to be in the second Whoniverse, the rebooted version. As for why Miracle Day was not mentioned anywhere else, I do not know for sure. In series 5 of SJA, the Miracle simply was not the focus of any of the episodes. The entirety of series 5 takes place before all of society falls, which we see in The Gathering. DW Series 6 part 1 takes place a month after the beginning of the Miracle, long before society fell, so the effects were not that huge. In the second part of Series 6, the first episode, which takes after the fall of society, starts with Melody's theft of a sports car. However, yes, the Miracle is still not mentioned. Again, it's simply not the focus of the series. Could the Doctor have intervened? Like, actually, could he? Normally, yes, but big events like the Miracle or the CoE series, which affect the whole world, seem to be fixed points in time which we all the Doctor cannot change, even if he wanted to. *Cough* Time Lord Victorious *Cough* That's just my theory.

• I found kind of a bug in the writing. I don't know where to put it but I've recorded it and put it on YouTube (this falls under fair use).

• Ultimately, it doesn't make any difference to the narrative, but you'd think that someone would have realized that they could have dropped Jack's blood in two (or more) distant places in each city and used that to triangulate the locations of the Blessing rather than, in the case of Shanghai, Gwen walking potentially 20 miles, and, in the case of Buenos Aires, guessing about the location.