4.8 Miracle Day: End of the Road

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Story by Ryan Scott. Teleplay by Ryan Scott and Jane Espenson.

SPOILER: Click to show

Glad that after her brief appearance at the end of the previous episode Immortal Sins that Nana Visitor got more to do here in this episode. Someone at the Trek Today message board speculated that she was playing Angelo’s granddaughter and this person has been proven correct.
There are two Star Trek alums here with John De Lancie finally making his appearance on Miracle Day.
This is not the first time that Nana Visitor and John De Lancie has been in the same TV episode as De Lancie guest starred as Q in the Deep Space Nine episode Q-Less but I don’t remember whether he and Nana had any scenes together there like they do here in End of the Road.
There is a revolving door with the Star Trek alums because not long after John De Lancie comes in as Shapiro , Jane Espenson gets to do what she was not able to do when she wrote on DS9 and that is to kill off a character played by Nana Visitor. Poor Nana. Angelo’s granddaughter Olivia didn’t deserve it. I certainly cannot say the same for Friedkin.
Oswald and Jilly are back but after being absent in the previous two episodes it felt they did not appear as much as their previous episodes as they were barely in half of this one.
This is where Oswald and Jilly part ways with them ending things violently. If they were married they would have made a good match for a loveless marriage.
In hindsight Shawnee was not going last very long and surprised about the mole at the CIA. Then again the Families are very rich and with their stakes on the Miracle it made sense they would have someone inside the CIA to keep them up to date of things there.

Next Time trailer for The Gathering: This is the one in which Frances Fisher finally appears on Miracle Day.

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End of the Road revealed that Charlotte was the mole in the CIA. It seems the first hint of the nature of her character was in Rendition when she told Esther that she (Esther) being in the CIA had to take sides and not watch things from the sidelines. Charlotte said that to Esther as someone who has already taken a side that of the Families.

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The Miracle with no one dying has had a great impact on the world economy with Charlotte mentioning some European countries going under financially.
This episode is prophetic to the financial crisis in Europe in particular Greece which this year 2012 saw the country having two elections in order to determine the makeup of the government that would handle and solve the country’s financial woes. Like the impact of the Miracle, the elections reflects the financial volatility of Greece with the second election having been called as no parties could agree on what was best for the country’s economy.

For the DVD audio description the episode had reverted back to the usual script of reading out only the names of the regular cast members in contrast to the previous episode Immortal Sins having made a deviation when its descriptor also reading out the guest stars, series creator Russell T Davies and that episode’s writer Jane Espenson who also co-wrote the teleplay for End of the Road.
The audio descriptors it seems to me has always read the descriptions in quite a formal manner. However for End of the Road, the descriptor says “forensic guys” and “guys” is hardly a formal word for anything.