*** Spoiler Warning ***
What follows is a review of Torchwood: Children of Earth Day Two. It contains spoilers about the Day Two episode so only proceed if you want to know what happened.
Torchwood: Children of Earth – Day Two
By Kevin Bachelder
The great thing about this being a nightly mini-series is that we didn’t have to wait too long to find out that Gwen and Ianto were okay after the blast. Now, that doesn’t mean they’re safe but at least they are each in one piece. That’s more than we can say about Jack. Johnson’s military group finds just a few of Jack’s body parts in the rubble of the blast. However, Johnson puts it very well later in the episode when she comments about his “Lazarus qualities”. Those qualities will eventually allow him to regenerate. For the time being Gwen and Ianto need to get away from the hub explosion scene as quickly as possible since everyone in a uniform seems to be trying to kill them. Meanwhile Jack, well more specifically some of Jack’s body parts, is taken back to a secure facility by Johnson’s team.
This episode is where we get to find out what roles each of the characters will be playing in relation to each other. Johnson is the female leader of the military group and she’s often in touch with Mr. Frobisher about the status of their ‘clean up’ efforts. We get to see Police Constable Andy. Regular Torchwood fans will recall that Andy worked with Gwen when she was still on the police force before joining Torchwood. He also gets the funniest line of the episode. When he first sees Johnson barking out orders at the hub explosion site he says to his partner “If she’s anti-terrorist I wouldn’t mind being uncle terrorist”. Mr. Frobisher also spends some time with Prime Minister Brian Green and we get a great example as to why we probably won’t like the Prime Minister very much when he tells Mr. Frobisher that “he’s put him on the front line which is the first to fall”. That line is sure to inspire loyalty! Most of us can identify with our favorite temp Lois because she’s starting to wonder what’s really going on here. Her snooping while using Mr. Frobisher’s assistant’s computer password is what’s giving her some insight into who’s who in all of this. She even speaks up at one point to let Mr. Frobisher know that Jack had called him the other day so maybe he could help in all of this. Naturally, Mr. Frobisher tells her otherwise. This works out well since later on Gwen calls Mr. Frobisher but luckily enough Lois takes that call. Gwen is trying to setup a meeting with Mr. Frobisher to talk about all of this but Lois is smart enough to show up at the meeting instead and this is when the big plan to retrieve Jack is hatched. After Lois gives Gwen and Rhys an incredible amount of inside information on how to get Jack out Gwen tells her “when this is all over and you want a job see me”. So maybe Lois is Torchwood material after all?
On the alien front we have Mr. Dekker telling Mr. Frobisher that the 456 need to have something built on the top floor of the Thames building. The children are now saying “we are coming back” so there’s sure to be suspicion about when they were here before. The one adult who also speaks in unison with the children, Clem MacDonald, is making quite the impression at the pub by telling the locals that he can smell the aliens. Clem has obviously got a major role to play in all of this.
The big jail break scene to get Jack out is a fun adventure for our team. However, you’ll really need to put on some ‘plot blinders’ in order to enjoy the scene. It’s quite a bit far-fetched but it was done well enough that I’m good with it. The important thing is that the Torchwood team is back together again.
The most recent chant from the children tells us that “we are coming…tomorrow” so it seems Day Three is when Dekker’s new alien guest box will be put to the test and the big question is…
With no base of operations will Jack and the team be ready for their arrival?
Be sure to check out our Torchwood bonus discussion podcasts being released each night after the Torchwood: Children of Earth episode airs on BBC America. You can find our Day Two discussion here.