Season 4

1. The New World

Earth is facing a phenomenon known as "Miracle Day", where for over 24 hours nobody dies, and the world within four months will become unsustainable through its soaring population. Every United States Government agency receives a tip on Torchwood, only to later find every trace of the word deleted by the newly returned Jack Harkness, who discovers that he is now mortal. Separately, he and CIA agent Rex Matheson — who has suffered a 'fatal' accident but cannot die — travel to South Wales to find Gwen Cooper, who is living in exile with husband Rhys and infant daughter Anwen. Jack, Rhys and Gwen find themselves under attack by unknown assailants in a helicopter. After Rex arrives, Jack saves them. Then Rex has Jack and Gwen extradited to the United States.

2. Rendition

As Rex brings the Torchwood team to America, problems arise on the plane: CIA operatives are plotting to remove them, and poison Jack, who is now the only mortal man on the planet. Gwen and Rex, with the help of Doctor Vera Juarez, create an antidote. Meanwhile, Oswald Danes begins appearing on talk shows, generating buzz in the press and online after seemingly apologizing on national television. Upon landing, Rex and his colleague Esther find that they have been framed as traitors by an unknown party. Realising that they are being hunted, Rex and Esther join Jack and Gwen and go on the run.

3. Dead of Night

Rex (Mekhi Phifer) and Esther (Alexa Havins) have joined Torchwood out of necessity. The team successfully acquire the phone from CIA director Friedkin (Wayne Knight), through which Friedkin received mysterious orders to exterminate Torchwood. The team follow leads and uncover a stockpile of painkillers at the pharmaceutical corporation PhiCorp, indicating they knew the Miracle was going to happen. At a loose end, Jack (John Barrowman) takes the night off and picks up a man in a bar, and Rex seeks solace in his surgeon, Vera Juarez (Arlene Tur). Juarez tells Rex that PhiCorp representative Jilly Kitzinger (Lauren Ambrose) has invited her along to an important meeting tomorrow; Rex recruits Juarez to listen in for Torchwood, while Gwen (Eve Myles) goes on a mission with the special Torchwood contact lenses and steals information from Kitzinger's computer.

The meeting turns out to be a seminar, where Congressman Morganthall announces plans to make painkillers legal to purchase without prescription. At Torchwood HQ, Rex and Esther receive a mysterious phone call from Friedkin's anonymous superiors and figuring their base has been compromised, realise that Torchwood must now leave D.C.

Released murderer Oswald Danes (Bill Pullman) struggles to fit into the real world, and after being assaulted by police officers accepts Kitzinger's earlier offer of representation. He attends a select board meeting at PhiCorp. PhiCorp award him personal security on the condition he promotes their new painkiller legislation on national television to his growing following. Suspicious of Danes, Jack confronts him at the TV station. Jack gets Danes to admit that he does not feel forgiveness, but also that he enjoyed the rape and murder of his 12-year-old victim; Jack realises from this speech that Danes has a death wish that is being denied him. Danes' security assaults Jack and releases him onto the streets just as Danes tells the world about the need for PhiCorp's painkiller legislation.

4. Escape to L.A.

The Torchwood team relocates to California in order to better investigate PhiCorp. However, after Esther makes the mistake of trying to help her sister ( Candace Brown ), an assassin ( C. Thomas Howell ) is able to track Torchwood there. Torchwood manages to recover important servers out of PhiCorp's HQ, and discovers plans for concentration camp facilities all over the world. Before his throat is shot, the assassin reveals that 'the Families' are behind the Miracle. Subsequently, Rhys calls and informs Gwen that her father has been put in a camp. Meanwhile, Oswald and Jilly find themselves with a politician ( Mare Winningham ) leading an anti-undying segregation campaign called "Dead is Dead" that threatens PhiCorp's plans.

5. The Categories of Life

Vera, Rex and Esther go undercover into the overflow camps where they find a shocking revelation to those marked Categories 1 or 2. Meanwhile, Captain Jack attempts to convince Oswald Danes to expose PhiCorp's advanced knowledge of the Miracle in front of a televised audience. Gwen returns to Wales to set her dad free, but so far only manages to make his condition worse. When Vera challenges the camp's unethical practices, director Colin Maloney ( Marc Vann ) shoots her and has her incinerated. Rex finds Vera, but unable to free her, is forced to video the incident for posterity.

6. The Middle Men

At San Pedro, Esther and Rex stumble into — and eventually, free from, a confrontation with Vera's murderer. Jack is able to reach PhiCorp COO Stuart Owens ( Ernie Hudson ), only to learn that PhiCorp are pawns of the Miracle's real conspirators too; Owens does reveal, however, that something called "the Blessing" is connected to the Miracle. Owens' agent in Shanghai ( Eric Steinberg ) made himself a category 1 after witnessing something awful there. In Wales, Gwen manages to smuggle her father out in Rhys's van, and destroys the Module where people are burnt. This is broadcast along with Rex's video of Vera's incineration online, but to little effect. Returning to LAX, Gwen receives a message from someone through her Torchwood contact lenses: if she ever wants to see her husband, daughter, or mother again, she must deliver Jack to them.

7. Immortal Sins

In the present day, Gwen takes Jack hostage to free her kidnapped family; the two have an intense and brutally honest conversation. Flashbacks show Jack on-mission in 1927 and 1928 New York and falling in love with an Italian immigrant named Angelo (Daniele Favilli), but Jack's immortality soon causes him to be viewed with fear and suspicion by the religious community of Little Italy; his torture and bloodletting provide "the blessing" at the heart of the Miracle today. With some intervention from Esther and Rex, Gwen's family are saved by PC Andy and Jack and Gwen are saved from the kidnapper ( Nana Visitor ), who then persuades Jack to come along with her by telling him one man is still waiting for him: Angelo.

8. End of the Road

Taken to confront Angelo as the stock market begins to collapse following the failure of the pension scheme, Jack is shaken to learn that his former lover has actually lived his way to the present through relatively natural means, having aged normally all this time. His granddaughter reveals that the Miracle was caused by the three families of the men who 'bought' Jack in 1928 using samples of Jack's blood and 'the Blessing' that they discovered in 1998. Although the CIA attempt to take control, matters become complicated when Angelo dies—the first true death since the Miracle began—revealing that his bed is over a device generating a null field. With Gwen having been deported, Jack and Esther are forced to flee with a vital component of the field after Jack is shot. Rex and Esther's colleague Charlotte ( Marina Benedict ) is also revealed to be a mole for the Families.

9. The Gathering

Two months later, and global recession has become global Depression. Esther nursed Jack to health and has been collecting blood samples from him in Scotland; Gwen continues to hide her father from police raids, while also selling stolen painkillers; and Rex is back working at the CIA; Jilly Kitzinger moves to Shanghai to work for the Families. Oswald Danes finds Gwen through the men who smuggled Jack into Scotland, forcing Esther and Jack to come to Swansea, where what Danes knows of Kitzinger's activities leads them to conclude the Blessing is located in both Buenos Aires and Shanghai.

Rex's attempts to locate a descendant of a witness to Jack's repeated murders in Little Italy are foiled by Charlotte at the CIA. The police raid the house and locate Geraint with thermal imaging, and take him away. Gwen is forced to take Oswald with them as she and Jack smuggle their way into Shanghai, where Jack's blood is being physically pulled to the location of the Blessing. Esther meets up with Rex in Buenos Aires for their half of the mission, but they are being tracked by Charlotte.

10. The Blood Line

At CIA HQ, Charlotte is able to protect her secret by blowing up Shapiro ( John de Lancie ) and Noah ( Paul James ). Rex and Esther face a setback when the suitcase containing Jack's blood is blown up by a Families agent in the Buenos Aires military. Jack and Gwen strap Oswald to explosives to gain leverage over the Families, and learn that the miracle was caused when the Blessing — an unexplained rock formation controlling the morphic field — reacted defensively when introduced to Jack's immortal blood. Rex reveals that he secretly transfused himself with Jack's blood to keep it safe, meaning both agents are able to bloodlet into the Blessing at either end at the cost of their lives, thus ending the miracle.

Esther is shot, but the group proceeds. Gwen shoots Jack, knowing that she is effectively killing her father, him, Rex and Esther. With death restored, Oswald blows himself up along with a senior Family member ( Frances Fisher ); Gwen's father dies. Jack's immortality is restored; he resurrects and escapes the facility with Gwen and Jilly. Several months later, Jilly is approached again by a Family agent ( Teddy Sears ) about assisting with their Plan B. Paramedics manage to revive Rex, but not Esther. At Esther's funeral, Charlotte's duplicity is revealed; she shoots Rex and is shot. To everyone's shock, however, Rex displays Jack's special ability, and instantly heals from his mortal wound.