Theory:Torchwood television discontinuity and plot holes/Rendition


 * Colorado state flag et al. While DC is ultimately under the control of Congress, it does have a limited municipal government (yes housed in the John A. Wilson Building). It may ave to be chalked up to lazy writing that the characters refer to it as "city hall". May, I've got little clue as to what term is commonly used in DC for the building in reference to governance, the mayor, or council. It would also be usefull to actually know how the building is decorated as it is not beyond reason that it may have representations, including flags, of the 50 states.


 * It's somewhat inaccurate, but not at all uncommon, to refer to the Wilson Building as "City Hall". Both locals (look up some of Marion Barry's old campaign speeches) and the national media do it all the time. Or, less inaccurately, some people refer to the function, rather than the building, as City Hall. For example, in 2001, Mayor Anthony Williams talked a lot about moving City Hall back to the Wilson Building (when the government was temporarily convening at One Judiciary Square during remodeling). I haven't seen it since the remodel, but in the late 90s (when DC government only took up about a third of the building, and various federal subagencies took up most of the rest), the lobby had a large Seal of the District in front of the flags of the 50 states.


 * That does bring into question two of the "Production errors" listed in the article.
 * Just because there is (or used to be?) a semicircle of state flags in the lobby of the building doesn't mean that there are also state flags randomly scattered around the building where you'd expect to see the District (or maybe US) flag instead, so that one really is a production error.
 * In fairness, I think it's reasonable to call it a production error unless the production staff made a conscious choice (given the real-world precedence) to imply that various state flags were indeed present in this building.


 * Why isn't there a greater attempt to question or follow agent Peterfield given that she seems to be aware of either: a) Jack is mortal? or b) Arsenic still kills post-miracle? Given that Oswald Danes doesn't die from Lethal Injection, are there catagories of poisions that still work? Perhaps Jack still is slightly immortal - and this explains why he wasn't killed after being injected with boiled degreaser.


 * No, if there were categories of poisons that still worked, then we wouldn't be hearing that everyone who's attempted suicide has failed. Either (a) she knows Jack is mortal, or (c) she doesn't know that arsenic no longer works, but your option (b) is impossible. And either way, she definitely knows Jack is mortal now, because he and Gwen openly talked about it while she was there.


 * So you're saying that either a) She is their first lead that actually knows exceptions to the Miracle (highly desirable for questioning, even on the plane). or c) Peterfield received orders (forwarded from the triangle people) without any instruction on how they may be accomplished - although she didn't seem to be guessing since she didn't give Jack cyanide (instead of, or in addition to arsenic).
 * Reflecting on Peterfield, her reluctance to take the "Poison", even when it means blowing her cover, suggests that "c" she expected arsenic to work (on herself)(she thought "b" was true)... Unless she felt that the discomfort of metabolizing arsenic wouldn't be worth keeping her double-agent secret (which suggests that she'd be easy to interrogate)...  and "c" (still) that her bosses (the triangle people) knew that they were giving her an order ("Remove" "JH") that she wouldn't have a clue about - unless "a" were true and "b" is false (and she's a wimp)...  What was her motivation again, and why doesn't Torchwood care?
 * If we assume that she wasn't a Triangle insider, and learned that Jack was mortal on the plane, and she happens to carry poison routinely... She must have been surprised that the Triangles seemed to know that Jack could be killed already (since they wanted him "removed")...  She must also have felt that enduring the temporary pain (?) of swallowing poison wouldn't be worth keeping her cover and method of assassination secret - even though revealing herself would mean that Rex and Torchwood may be upset at her (different pain) and that she'd have identified the thing that's killing Jack (she probably didn't expect them to make an antidote).


 * As for why they didn't try to question or follow her, well, they were being chased by the CIA.


 * The team had practically escaped already, to the point where they came to a stop in front of Peterfield (and looked awkwardly at each other) before driving around her. Perhaps they felt their car was already overcrowded (it wasn't an SUV), and they could always find her again for questioning (since they know she's CIA).


 * Finally, Jack wasn't injected with boiled degreaser; he was injected with EDTA, which people are routinely injected to cure heavy metal poisonings and don't die from. (Of course the way it was made wasn't entirely realistic, but that's just dramatic license; the actual ingredients mentioned were correct.)


 * Also, it's made pretty clear, both on-camera and off, that Jack is supposed to be just a normal mortal now.