Escape to LA (TV story)

 was the fourth episode of Torchwood: Miracle Day.

Synopsis
Torchwood follow PhiCorp to California to continue the fight and walk straight into a trap. Elsewhere, Oswald Danes, and Jilly Kitzinger face off against their own adversaries.

Plot
Esther visits her sister, Sarah Drummond. She sees the house boarded up and tells Sarah why she's going to stop the miracle. She asks to see Alice and Melanie Drummond before she goes. Sarah refuses because of her mental condition, thinking the miracle is a poison, and shuts the door. In her car, Esther phones Social Services and reports the girls are in danger, but refuses to give her name. She drives off and a man in a black car with the strange GPS triangle icon reports, "Esther Drummond located". A voice orders him to follow Esther to lead him to Torchwood.

The team arrive in California and rent a shack to plan the assault. A woman gives Rex a Dead is Dead campaign flyer. Rex phones Dr. Vera Juarez. She tells him it's a campaign run by Ellis Hartley Monroe. Gwen gets a call from Rhys and asks about her father and daughter. Rhys says they are fine and jokes about why she is in LA. As Gwen talks, the man who stalks them takes photos of her.

Jilly Kitzinger is now Oswald Danes' personal manager under orders from PhiCorp. Jilly tells Oswald his crimes disgust her and Oswald is becoming old news. Ellis Hartley Monroe is taking the spotlight.

During a conversation with Rex, Esther reveals that he has family in California, but Rex denies all knowledge of it. Later, he sneaks out to visit his father, who resents his presence and threatens him with a shotgun, claiming that Rex hasn't cared about him for fifteen years.

The team plans a raid on PhiCorp to steal server hard drives. Esther reveals they have a bio-metric security system; in order to bypass it they need a voice recording, a palm print, and a retina scan from a man called Nicolas Frumkin. Using a great deal of skill (recording him say his name, taking fingerprints from a flask Gwen makes him hold, and getting a picture of his eyes), they begin their raid.

Meanwhile the hitman finds Frumkin, records his voice, cuts off the palm of his hands and removes one of his eyes. Gwen gets into the building with help from Esther hacking the phone system. Jack delivers a package to PhiCorp, but inside is an exact copy of the PhiCorp server, designed to look like it suffered fire damage.

Jack and Gwen activate the alarm and remove the hard drives. However, when Jack leaves to get them out of the building, Gwen is ambushed by the hitman. When Jack finds one of the delivery staff hanged, yet still alive, he rushes back to help Gwen. He too is knocked out. Rex rushes in to save them, climbing sixty-six flights of stairs and suffering heavy bleeding.

The hitman knows Jack is mortal, and wants to guarantee his place in a "New World Order" by bringing him to "Them". He plans to shoot Gwen, who almost tricks him into revealing whom he works for, but Rex bursts in and shoots the man several times. They search the hard drives and learn of "Overflow Camps".

Gwen gets a call from Rhys and asks if he was able to get her dad out of the hospital. Rhys claims the NHS have set up a multi-million health system, but Gwen realises that PhiCorp now has her dad. Meanwhile Oswald delivers a speech at the hospital, wanting to speak for those who are dying, ruining Ellis Hartley Monroe's campaign. As she leaves the hospital, she is knocked out by a sedative. She wakes up in a car-crushing junkyard, where she is told "The Families will rise". The car is crushed, and she becomes trapped.

Cast

 * Captain Jack Harkness - John Barrowman
 * Gwen Cooper - Eve Myles
 * Rex Matheson - Mekhi Phifer
 * Esther Drummond - Alexa Havins
 * Rhys Williams - Kai Owen
 * Oswald Danes - Bill Pullman
 * Dr. Vera Juarez - Arlene Tur
 * Mr Peterssen - Brian Guest
 * Dr. Vera Juarez - Arlene Tur
 * Ellis Hartley Monroe - Mare Winningham
 * Bisme Katusi - Juanita Jennings
 * Sarah Drummond - Candace Brown
 * Nicolas Frumkin - Kelvin Yu
 * Male Nurse - Desean Terry
 * Thin Old Man - Roger Vernon Burton
 * Voice of The Cousin - Chris Butler
 * Woman - Katsy Chappell
 * Young Mother - April Clark
 * Lobby Guard - Anthony Dilio
 * Burly Guard - David Fofi
 * The Gentleman - C Thomas Howell
 * Spanish Newscaster - Teresa Garza
 * Jilly Kitzinger - Lauren Ambrose
 * Maurice - Roy Lee Jones
 * Veronica - JoKnell Kennedy
 * Japanese Newscaster - Masami Kosaka
 * Simran - Ronobir Lahiri
 * Sick Man - Michael D Nye
 * Scared Old Woman - Barbara Mallory
 * Landlord Brian - Keith Russell
 * Chauffeur - Christian Svensson
 * Candice - Randa Walker
 * Male Newscaster - David Grant Wright

Story notes

 * A supporting character in this episode has the last name Katusi. This was going to be Esther's last name before Alexa Havins was cast.

Ratings

 * UK: 5.19 million

Myths
to be added

Filming locations

 * It appears that the beach locations were shot in Venice Beach, CA. (e.g., when Gwen is on the phone with Rhys.)

Production errors
to be added

Continuity

 * Jack introduces himself as John Smith, the alias often employed by the Doctor. (DW: The Moonbase)
 * When Gwen attempts an American accent, Jack tells her she should never try it again, similar to what the Tenth Doctor tells his companions. (DW: Tooth and Claw, The Shakespeare Code, The Unicorn and the Wasp)
 * When Ellis Hartley Monroe takes centre stage at the hospital instead of Danes, Jilly describes it as a "timing malfunction". This was also the term used when The Master took control of the TARDIS before landing in 1999 San Francisco. (DW: Doctor Who)

Home video releases
This episode will be released on DVD and Blu-ray on 14 November 2011, alongside the other nine episodes.