April 5: Children of Earth: "Day Two" (TW)

After all the crazy stuff going on in "Day One", "Day Two" is in something of a holding pattern.  We don't learn too much more about the 456, other than that they sent instructions to have something specific built for them, and that they seemingly only sent these instructions to Britain.  Oh, and that "we are coming tomorrow".  So it seems we'll have to wait until tomorrow for more on that front.

No, what "Day Two" does is focus squarely on the aftereffects of the Government's attempt to take out Torchwood.  So there's a huge smoking hole in Roald Dahl Plass, which is apparently being blamed as a terrorist attack perpetrated by Gwen, Ianto, and Jack.  It's an interesting move to put these three on the run, as it increases the tension and paranoia as they try to work out what's going on and why the government wants them dead.  And man did they do a great casting job with the main officer, Johnson -- Liz May Brice looks so hard and angry in every scene she's in that you can't help but root against her, and that's exactly what you want.

So we get a bunch of scenes of Gwen and Rhys on the run, just barely outrunning Johnson and her soldiers as they head to London, while Ianto sticks around near Cardiff to work out where they've taken Jack's remains.  He's evidently quite good at staying under the radar, as he's able to watch the bomb site while Johnson and her men are excavating it, and he's able to contact his sister and then use her laptop and car to find out where Jack is being held and to head there.  He's very resourceful, is what I'm saying.  I also like how Gwen and Rhys go through an elaborate scheme to rescue Jack that goes awry, only for Ianto to crash in with a large sort of backhoe that completely removes Jack's cell; it's a nice touch.

John Frobisher, Bridget Spears, and Mr. Dekker regard the
structure the 456 have ordered them to build. (Children of Earth:
"Day Two") ©BBC

It's also interesting how Gwen and Rhys got their information from a woman named Lois Habiba, who just started in Frobisher's office and read up on Torchwood (illicitly) and can't work out why Frobisher wants them killed.  She figures that, since they're the alien experts, they should be able to help.  (Lois doesn't realize that the government is trying to cover up knowledge of the 456's last visit, and that Jack was apparently involved somehow -- "If he talks, we're in deep, deep shit," Frobisher tells Johnson after he learns that Jack has escaped.)  So she's willing to risk her career and possibly her life to help Torchwood.  "If you're the bad guys, why doesn't it say that on your file?" Lois asks Gwen.  "And if you're the good guys, who am I working for, and why do they want you dead?"

But yes, as I said, this is mainly a staging episode: we've established that the government wants Torchwood dead, and by the end we've seen both how far the government is willing to go and that Torchwood is able to regroup after rescuing Jack.  (Jack's slow healing after the bomb blast, from a bag of body parts to half a corpse to a screaming bloody body to his old self, really is quite gruesome, by the way.  Is there anything he couldn't ultimately walk away from?)  But it's a really well done staging episode; new-to-the-franchise writer John Fay does a good job of balancing all the plotlines while keeping them interesting, and Euros Lyn continues to keep things tense and compelling.  By the end of "Day Two", the gang is back together again.  And just in time; the 456 are coming tomorrow (presumably to the top of Thames House, the MI5 building), and it seems like Torchwood should maybe be ready -- if they can stay out of the reach of the government, that is...