Torchwood: Children of Earth Day Two Recap

Captain Jack Harkness (John Barrowman) brings the pretty and the pain in tonight's episode of Torchwood: Children of Earth. When we last left our Torchwood team, Ianto and Gwen were fleeing the Hub as a bomb ticked away inside of Captain Jack's belly.

Torchwood: Children of Earth -- Out of the Rubble

*SPOILER ALERT* The danger's not over yet, as Gwen (Eve Myles) stumbles out of the rubble of the Torchwood Hub into the waiting arms of two paramedics--paramedics who are reporting "no survivors". With super cop skills, Gwen dodges the needle they're ready to inject her with and knocks the two paramedics unconscious. Using the guns she pulls off her attackers to return fire from a sniper, Gwen peels away from the scene in the ambulance.

Ianto (Gareth David-Lloyd), meanwhile, pulls himself out of a giant pile of rocks at the center of the Torchwood explosion. I have to believe that Ianto's location would mean that he'd be injured a lot more than just a cut on his cheek and a little dirt, but perhaps the structure of the Torchwood Hub protected him. He did, after all, make sure he locked the Hub down with blast doors before his departure.

Ianto dodges the same sniper that tried to hit Gwen, and takes off on foot, unable to stop and look for Jack or Gwen.

Torchwood: Children of Earth -- Bond Only Lived Twice

You just can't keep a good man down. Under the watchful eye of Johnson (Liz May Brice), the female commander who killed Jack and Patanjali, rescue workers find a few scattered remains of Captain Jack Harkness at the Torchwood Hub. Johnson orders them bagged up and taken with her to a secure facility. Ianto sneaks back to the scene in time to get the license plate of the vehicle taking the remains away.

At this point I'm wondering if Ianto's going to have to dig up the rest of Jack's body from the Torchwood Hub, to put him back together Frankenstein style, but it turns out Jack's even better than that. As Johnson and her team discover, the few bits of Jack that are left start regenerating. It's an agonizing process as bones become slowly covered in blood and raw tissue, but eventually Captain Jack is back.

Torchwood: Children of Earth -- Family

Once Gwen knows she's on somebody's Torchwood hit list, she rushes back to get her fiancé Rhys (Kai Owen). She hustles Rhys out of bed, packs a bag, and sends him out to the car. Ianto phones, but there's no time to figure out a coded meeting place before Johnson and her crew show up. Gwen rushes out to the car and opens fire on Johnson's SUV, taking out all four tires before speeding off with Rhys.

Ianto's sister Rhiannon and her family get raided by soldiers who are looking for Ianto. The next day her husband sees men sitting in a car outside, watching them. He picks up the paper, and his young son sagely tells him the card inside will be from Ianto, and that the house is probably bugged.

Rhiannon's scared, but her husband tells her that they're Ianto's only family. He and the neighborhood kids distract the spies outside, while she slips away to meet Ianto. He lets her know that the explosion the night before was meant for him and his Torchwood coworkers.

While they're together, the children all stop moving again--this time to announce "We are coming--tomorrow." Ianto tells Rhiannon that what's happening with the children is the sort of thing his people handle, though he doesn't explicitly mention Torchwood. Rhiannon gives him the laptop he asked for and the keys to her car, telling him to do what he has to, and to take care of himself.

Meanwhile, seeing the explosion on the news, Alice phones Jack over and over, trying to reach him in vain.

Torchwood: Children of Earth -- Beauty and the Beast

Captain Jack graces us with a full frontal, seen through the camera aimed into his prison cell, but the grainy film and strategically placed digital recording numbers keep it from being too explicit. Coolly displaying the ice in her veins, Johnson peers down at the chained-up Jack through a hole in the ceiling. She tells him that if she can't kill him, she can "contain" him. In a horrifying scene, we watch from Jack's perspective as concrete pours down on him from above.

Ianto watches this all from a distance, having tracked the vehicle to the army stronghold location. He can only wait, listening to Jack's screams, knowing there's nothing he can do.

Torchwood: Children of Earth -- On the Front Lines

In another meeting between Prime Minister Green (Nicholas Farrell) and Home Office man Frobisher (Peter Capaldi), we learn that the transmission from the "4-5-6" has been translated. It is apparently instructions to build something, but they're not yet sure what it is. Frobisher nervously thanks the PM for trusting him with so much responsibility. Green lets him know that he's been merely placed on the front line-- "the first to fall". I'm not exactly sure how motivating that's supposed to be for Frobisher.

Torchwood: Children of Earth -- Treason or Reason?

Lois (Cush Jumbo), the new girl at the Home Office, continues her furtive spying on her boss Frobisher and his assistant Bridget Spears (Susan Brown). She reads up on Torchwood, and gets a peek into whatever they're building on top of the MI-5 tower. She attempts to question Frobisher and Spears about Captain Jack and Torchwood, but basically gets told that she's above her pay grade.

When Lois gets a call from Torchwood's own Gwen Cooper, who wants a meeting with Frobisher, she's not sure what to do. She arranges the meet, but then shows up herself. When Gwen demands to know why Lois is there and not Frobisher, Lois tells her that if it had been Frobisher, she'd be dead right now.

Lois is afraid that she's committing treason, but she didn't sign on to kill the good guys. She's unable to give Gwen any reasons why Torchwood has been targeted, but she tells Gwen and Rhys that Jack was on the list. Gwen doesn't recognize the names of the other people who'd been murdered. With impressive planning skills, Lois gives them a map of where Jack is being held, and the route of a mortician they can waylay and take the place of to infiltrate the bunker. Gwen is impressed, and offers Lois a job with Torchwood once all the smoke clears.

Torchwood: Children of Earth -- The Great Escape

Rhys is frantic for Gwen's safety, especially now that she's told him she's pregnant, but he agrees to help her get Jack. Posing as the morticians to pick up Patanjali's body, they manage to infiltrate the stronghold and subdue one of the guards. Unfortunately they discover a solid steel wall in the doorway to Jack's cell, and then get pinned down by Johnson's troops.

It's looking bad for Gwen and Rhys until the entirety of Jack's cell suddenly rips out of the wall. It's Ianto to the rescue, with a forklift that pulled up the entire block of concrete. Once again, I'm not sure exactly how feasible this is, but it makes for great TV as Gwen and Rhys run out of the gaping hole that used to be Jack's cell. Gwen lays down gunfire as Ianto gets them all away in the forklift. They form a blockade by blowing up a parked truck in the roadway, narrowly escaping Johnson and her team.

Torchwood: Children of Earth -- Torchwood Team Reunion

Torchwood alien wrangler/office manager Ianto always has a plan, and he's got a car waiting in a nearby quarry. Like a scene from Bugs Bunny, Ianto drops the concrete block of Jack's cell to the bottom of the quarry, where it crumbles apart and releases Jack. Gwen, Ianto, and Rhys pile into the car and drive down to pick up Jack, who's regenerated yet again.

This time we get a lovely extended view of Jack's backside as he walks to the new Torchwood team car, his arms still shackled. Gwen gets an eyeful before doing her best to look away, and tells Jack he's got work to do. Rhys offers his jacket to help Jack cover up, and in true Captain Jack style, he merely throws it over his shoulder. The man's not known for his shyness.

Time is critical, and the aliens are coming tomorrow, so I understand the urgency of the Torchwood team. But considering what happened to Jack, and that he might have truly been killed, it seemed strange that there wasn't a warmer reunion. Perhaps hugging a naked man out in the open air might have been a bit awkward. I'm hoping that Ianto at least snogged him once they got into the car.

Torchwood: Children of Earth -- A Room of Poison

Mr. Decker (Ian Gelder) seems a little too gleeful over the imminent arrival of the "4-5-6". When Frobisher and Spears join him to view the finished project that the aliens requested, it turns out to be an airtight room filled with poisonous gases. They try to conjecture what the room is for, if it's an ambassador's room or throne, as Dekker suggests, or something even more ominous.

Frobisher tries to play off to Spears that this same thing could be happening in other countries, but Dekker calls him on it. He says they're coming for Britain, and indicates that Frobisher knows why. Frobisher leaves with a guilty look, a confused Spears trailing after him. Frobisher then embraces the tank of poisonous gas, exhaling an excited bit of steam against the glass.

I didn't feel this Torchwood episode was quite as solid as the first, with a few questionable plot elements. Nonetheless, the Children of Earth series is exciting, and it's fun getting to see Gwen really kick some butt with both her fighting and shooting skills. Captain Jack remains our handsome unstoppable hero, and Ianto gets to prove he's more than just the meticulous office manager.

Torchwood: Children of Earth is also still strong on suspense. Who are the "4-5-6", what do they want, why were they on Earth before, and who in the government knows about it? Will Jack recognize the other names on that hit list? Were these aliens someone he dealt with before?

We'll have to see if Children of Earth: Day 3 gives us any answers, or merely more questions for the Torchwood team to unravel.

Check out Torchwood: Children of Earth screencaps.

Watch the remaining episodes of Torchwood: Children of Earth on BBC America, Wednesday through Friday night at 9/8c. Visit the official Torchwood: Children of Earth website.