The Categories of Life (TV story)

The Categories of Life was the fifth episode of Series 4 of Torchwood. It was written by Jane Espenson, directed by Guy Ferland and featured John Barrowman as Jack Harkness, Eve Myles as Gwen Cooper, Kai Owen as Rhys Williams, Mekhi Phifer as Rex Matheson, Alexa Havins as Esther Drummond and Bill Pullman as Oswald Danes.

It saw the creation of the Categories of Life to work around the loss of death. However, a dark truth awaited Torchwood when they learned the true fate prepared for those who were billed Category 1. The episode also saw the introduction of Colin Maloney, who would quickly turn venomous toward Vera Juarez as she backed him into a corner, eventually growing so paranoid about incarceration that he would instigate her tragic demise.

Elsewhere, Gwen Cooper would attempt to liberate her father Geraint from the overflow camp in Wales after being removed from the hospital, only to compound his condition and set off another heart attack. PhiCorp would also rise to the forefront using Oswald Danes as their mouthpiece before a massive audience, with Jack Harkness desperate to derail their plans. Lastly, Jilly Kitzinger would encounter the a member of the shadow organisation that took down Ellis Hartley Monroe, which was watching with approval.

Synopsis
to be added

Plot
In City Hall, Washington D.C., Vera Juarez is told the medical panels are over and a report was submitted by the Health and Human Services Secretary directly to Congress. The categories of life have been unanimously approved for enactment. There are three categories for the living, since no one dies. Horrified at what the legislation may mandate, Vera calls Rex Matheson to join the covert investigation Torchwood and he are making.

Gwen Cooper returns to the United Kingdom under her alias of Yvonne Pallister. She finds her father has been taken to an overflow camp. Rhys Williams meets her, disguised as her driver. Her mother has prepared for Gwen's arrival and found her father at the Cowbridge Camp, a formerly derelict army barracks closed down in 1996 — now an overflow camp for patients in South Wales. The next day Gwen travels with Andy Davidson to Cowbridge. Andy remarks that though the system is "bloody chaos, at least it works", relieving the pressure on geriatrics and other hospital departments. Gwen asks, "Who's paying for all this? PhiCorp. You got health care being run by private business and believe me, that's just the start of your problems."

Gwen heads to admin, demanding the release of her father. A military officer suggests she fill in a claims form. Andy supports her by fabricating a story about her father being removed under police authority. Told the camp is not under the Welsh police, she is handed a package titled "Overflow Camp Health Care Provider Framework". Gwen turns this over to see PhiCorp's logo. Under threat of arrest, Gwen, Andy, and Rhys leave Cowbridge. Gwen, infuriated at the red tape stopping her after everything she's done with Torchwood Three, tells Rhys, "We're gonna break in here, we're gonna find my father and we're gonna get him out — tonight."

In Venice Beach, California, Esther Drummond confides in Jack Harkness about her insecurities at being "useless" to the team. She mentions the death of her mom in 2003 and asks Jack about his mom. He replies vaguely. As Esther asks Jack where he's from, they receive text messages from Rex. They meet Rex and are introduced to Vera. Vera mentions she was lucky to catch a flight because most of them were full. There's a Miracle Rally later that night.

Back at the makeshift Torchwood "hub", Vera tells off Rex and explains she flew across the country to support her patients who are now being held against their will in the overflow camps. They smile and kiss.

Reconvening with Jack and Esther, Vera asks, "Am I Torchwood now?". Jack replies, "Welcome aboard". The group, including Gwen via video conference, clarify how the categories of life work. Category one is anyone without brain function or who would have ordinarily died; category three is people with no injuries; category two is everyone in between — people alive and functioning with an illness/injury that will persist, but won't die. Rex notes the categories are arbitrary — he himself was a category "one", but has become a "two".

They discuss who is behind PhiCorp. Rex thinks there is more going on behind the pharmaceutical company. Esther points out the consistent presence of modules at every overflow camp based on building specs she collected from Jilly Kitzinger's desktop. These modules are buildings seen in all the camp plans, but they are sealed off and hidden from view — only revealed in undoctored satellite photographs. Esther lets Gwen know that these modules also exist overseas in the overflow camp in Wales.

Gwen and Vera wonder if these modules are for vivisection. Esther thinks this would explain the rush to strip category ones of their rights. Jack and the team agree they need to infiltrate the camps and find out. Gwen will go on a night shift at Cowbridge as "Nurse Pallister". Esther will join the clerical staff and do paperwork on the module at San Pedro. Vera will join Esther at San Pedro as a medical inspector. Rex argues he will get to the heart of the module due to his sustained injury from a pole running through his chest, which allows him to be taken to San Pedro posing as a patient. Jack (a fragile mortal man according to Esther) is left behind. Jack decides to go to the Miracle Rally in Los Angeles.

Nurse Pallister and Rhys enter Cowbridge. Gwen finds her father, Geraint. She explains it's not safe for him to stay. He needs to get out as quickly as possible. Just as they reach Rhys' truck, he collapses from what appears to be another heart attack. Gwen calls for help. She is horrified to find out that he is now being labelled a category one because he went unconscious.

In San Pedro, Esther recategorises Rex as a category one in the computer system. She gives Rex a video camera to record footage of what he sees while he is moved to the module where category one patients are kept. Vera is taken to camp supervisor Colin Maloney. Vera insists she be taken to the module. Maloney decides to bring her to see patients first. At first, Vera is impressed by category twos being seen every hour.

Rex is taken to the module. Inside, he gets up in the dark. Patients sit on racks like objects. Rex feels the walls and thinks they may be ceramic. He finds it strange, cold, and similar to a refrigeration unit. He steps outside.

Vera gets off Maloney's golf cart tour to check out a building. Maloney tries to stop her. She sees patients without insurance left unattended, in filth, some labelled category one when they are still perfectly conscious. Vera, in a rage, says the system will never work because of men like Maloney who see healthcare as a business and she will prosecute him. The situation escalates and in a panic Maloney disarms a military officer and shoots Vera twice. Maloney drives Vera to the module and puts her in one of the cold units where Rex was previously dropped off. At the same time Rex notices that the module is small — only three units. There is no way all category one patients could be accommodated. As Vera begins crying over her injuries, left in the dark, Maloney is shown switching "on" the module she is in — releasing gas and flames inside. He trembles and sobs with remorse.

In Cowbridge, Rhys finishes his undercover "job" driving "burn victims" to the module. It registers with Gwen that the module houses ovens to burn category ones. She sees smoke piping up from one of the units. In San Pedro, Rex catches sight of Vera inside one of the modules as the interior is engulfed by flames and he desperately shouts her name, trying to open the door. Rex cries as he films the fire, while Esther's call to Vera fails as her phone is destroyed in the oven. Gwen notices the modules in the Wales camp with terror, now aware that the black smoke billowing out of its smokestacks is being cast off from the murdered. And Oswald Danes is being hailed with rapturous cheers.

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
 * Ralph - Fred Koehler
 * Blue Eyed Man - Teddy Sears
 * Colin Maloney - Marc Vann
 * Guard - Daniel Adegboyega
 * Nurse Chris - Brad Bell
 * News Reporter - Charles Carpenter
 * Man - Jim Conway
 * Handsome Man - Jonathan Dane
 * Spanish Newscaster - Teresa Garza
 * Pidgeon - Brendan Hughes
 * Excited Teenager - Joelle Elizabeth Jacoby
 * Rachel - Liz Jenkins
 * Pushy Woman - Ria Jones
 * Japanese Newscaster - Masami Kosaka
 * Maria Candido - Eve Mauro
 * Stressed Woman - Francine Morgan
 * Thomason - Stuart Nurse
 * Pale Woman - Tracy Pfau
 * Paramedic - Caroline Whitney Smith
 * Angry Man - Vito Viscuso
 * Candice - Randa Walker

Uncredited

 * Dr. Vera Juarez - Arlene Tur
 * Andy Davidson - Tom Price
 * Geraint Cooper - William Thomas
 * Mary Cooper - Sharon Morgan
 * Jilly Kitzinger - Lauren Ambrose

Politics

 * A report on the findings of the panels has been sent to Congress. The HHS Secretary took it directly to the President.
 * Three categories of life have been determined. They are being rolled out across America and Europe.
 * The United Nations sanctions the new category system.
 * The US President declares that categorisation is compulsory.
 * Overflow camps have been set up for Category Ones and Category Twos.
 * The category scheme is also underway in the United Kingdom, where the Prime Minister declares it a new age of care and compassion.
 * According to Gwen, in America you can legally divorce your own mother.
 * A newspaper article on Mary's wall says that Welsh MPs could be told they can't vote for England.
 * Esther gets in-doctored photos of the San Pedro Camp from NORAD.
 * At the Miracle Rally, the Vice President will introduce the President who will speak live from the Oval Office.

Individuals

 * Vera Juarez joins Torchwood.
 * Gwen continues to use the alias "Yvonne Pallister", using her fake passport at UK Border Control.
 * Rhys, dressed a chauffeur, is given the alias "Mr Sloane".
 * Mary Cooper, Gwen's mother, is actively assisting Torchwood to help secure the release of her husband from the overflow camps.
 * Gwen's father's full name is Geraint Wyn Cooper.
 * Esther's mother died in 2003.
 * In jest, Jack refers to Esther as "Useless Esther".
 * Jack refers to Gwen as "Agent Cooper".
 * Jack refers to the Torchwood team as "freedom fighters".
 * Rhys signs up as a driver and, as "Yvonne", Gwen becomes a nurse.
 * Vera phones Washington and gets overflow camp observer status.
 * Esther refers to Jack as "Category Jack" and "Mortal Man".
 * Jessica MacCauley arrived early from Redlands to attend the Miracle Rally.
 * Oswald is fourth in the Miracle Rally running order and 90 minutes before the President, with the keyword being "Revelation". He was later cut down to 90 seconds.
 * Jilly asks Eugene to confirm Oswald Danes is arriving at gate six.
 * Rachel questions Esther as to what happened to Rosanna.
 * On the phone, Jilly shows anger at Steve who keeps trying to charge her.
 * Maloney says he has a line on Hilary Duff which he feels good about.
 * Geraint Cooper suffers another heart attack by being moved too soon from his bed and enters a deep coma, warranting his reclassification from Category 2 to Category 1.
 * Vera Juarez confronts Colin Maloney with the threat of prosecution for improperly caring for all the sick. Maloney panics, steals a gun from his enlisted associate Ralph Coltrane, and shoots her twice. He covers his tracks by saying the gunshots were the sound of a door slamming. Maloney and Cornish carry her off to an incineration module to be burned alive. Rex Matheson finds Vera locked inside as its burners kick on. He cannot unlock the module and witnesses her death, recording it as evidence to be waged against the government.
 * Colin Maloney can be seen crying when he murders Vera. He evidently chose to kill her to forbid anyone else from exposing the contemptible conditions of his overflow camp, which would warrant permanent imprisonment for his exemplary crimes.
 * Jilly refers to Jack as "Soldier".

Locations

 * Gwen flies into Cardiff Airport.
 * Mary has written on a post-it that the Bristol Channel is protected and all camps have the PhiCorp logo.
 * Beyond the Bristol Channel, Carmarthen Bay and Barnstaple Bay are mentioned. Bideford Bay is another name for Barnstaple Bay.
 * Other prominent locations on Mary's map include Llanelli, Ammanford, Neath, Maesteg, Port Talbot, Pyle, Porthcawl, Rhondda, Aberdare, Mountain Ash, Merthyr Tydfil, Barry, Abertillery, Pontypool, Abergavenny, Chipping Sodbury, Gloucester, Ilfracombe, Exmoor, Barnstaple and Bridgwater.
 * Everyone's flying into Los Angeles for the Miracle Rally.
 * While in Venice, California, the Torchwood team are staying at Waldorf Apartments.

Overflow camps

 * According to information compiled by Mary, there were overflow camps in Liverpool, Cowbridge, High Wycombe, Plymouth and one in Ireland.
 * Cowbridge Overflow Camp is two miles outside Cowbridge, off the A48. The camp takes patients from the whole of South Wales, as well as Bristol. It was formerly an army barracks which closed down in 1996.
 * There are 35 camps nationwide in Britain alone.
 * Cowbridge Camp is on lockdown due to outbreaks of cholera, dysentery and swine flu.
 * The camps are guarded by barbed wire fences.
 * France and Germany have started overflow camps, with the rest of Europe soon to follow.
 * China says no to the camps, but the Pan-African Summit says yes.
 * The Categories of Life are a set of 3 judgments made about one's health. Category 3 is designated white, and denotes a person with good health and no injury. Category 2 is designated blue, and denotes a person who has sustained serious injury but continues to remain conscious without healing. Category 1 is essentially a death sentence, those who have little to no brain function, remain comatose, or have suffered excessive mutilation that would cause them to die without the Miracle sustaining them. Category 2s are placed in overflow camps to be classified and kept under watch with care, while the ill and lame-bodied Category 1s are cremated in modules to expunge disease. Patients are given coloured pegs to denote category.
 * All of the camps have modules hidden from public view, the walls of which are cold - possibly made from brick or ceramic.
 * According to Esther, half of overflow camps are just converted old army camps.
 * The Miracle Rally is raising money for the overflow camps.
 * San Pedro Overflow Camp is US Medical Lot 338.

Health

 * Hospitals are closing across the south-west of Great Britain due to MRSA.
 * Andy thinks the NHS is going to go bust by the end of the week due to the number of geriatrics and maternity.
 * PhiCorp is paying for the camps, rather than the NHS.
 * The dissection of a living person is referred to as a vivisection.
 * Vera thinks that Category One patients might be being used like petri dishes.
 * Though the Miracle makes death impossible by lethal wounds, illness, or natural cause, the complete destruction of a human body to the point where absolutely nothing remains ensures death. (TV: The New World et all)

Technology

 * Torchwood have chases tapping into WikiLeaks, the CIA and the FBI.
 * Maloney as a personalised Golf cart, which has a Dixie horn.
 * Rex documents the camp using a camera.
 * Jilly takes a photograph of Jack on her phone.

Broadcasters

 * The Prime-time News Channel reports live from the Miracle Rally.

Religion

 * Oswald Danes claims Miracle Day has made humanity transcend into angels. He also believes that the Miracle has forever denied him entry into Heaven by abolishing death and release.

Story notes

 * Owen's Theme is heard at the beginning of the episode.
 * When talking with Esther, Jack mentions his mother, but notes he has no idea what has happened to her. This suggests she was still alive when Jack was last in the fifty-first century.
 * Vera's death in this episode is very similar to that of previous Torchwood medic Owen Harper's death two years before. Both Owen and Vera were trapped in a state of "immortality", Owen being undead and Vera undying. Both had bullet wounds in their upper torsos. Both were vaporised trying to save other people: Owen was killed by coolant while trying to stop a nuclear meltdown, and Vera by an incinerator while trying to save category one patients. Each had a love interest, also suffering from mortal wounds to the chest, witness their deaths through an electronic device. Toshiko Sato, Owen's unconfessed lover, was suffering from a bullet wound to the abdomen and saw the room Owen was in flooded with coolant on a computer monitor, while Rex had a hole in his chest and saw Vera burn through the glass in the door and through his video camera. However, whereas Rex survived his deadly wounds, Toshiko would not, nor was she physically present to see Owen die.

Ratings

 * UK: 5.17 million

Filming locations
to be added

Production errors

 * When Rex starts recording what is happening to the category one patients, the camcorder says it has 54 minutes of recording left and has recorded 83 minutes worth of film. Several minutes later, when Rex is outside the module, he starts filming again. The camcorder has the same amount of film recorded and film left to record.

Continuity

 * When Vera calls Rex, he triumphantly says he knew she would. (TV: Escape to LA)
 * MRSA staph infections are referenced again. (TV: Escape to LA)
 * When Rex introduces Vera to Jack, Rex expresses his doubt that he is really "Captain Jack Harkness". (TV: Captain Jack Harkness)
 * Jack and Esther mention Jack's mother. (TV: Exit Wounds)

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.