OH MY GOD!Jack Harkness is going to have to get the decorators in to repair the Torchwood office. It's been given a brand new skylight by the military force associated with the Home Office. And yet no-one's going to question this vast underground bunker under central Cardiff, are they?
Yet with the Torchwood HQ blasted wide open is the least of Jack and Co's problems. Here we go with my recap and review of Children Of Earth, Day 2.
Spoilers:Major spoilers ahead, so cover your eyes if you're a transatlantic type...
With Jack out of the way, most of the action in this episode focusses on Ianto and Gwen. Both are reeling from the attempt on their lives. It quickly becomes apparent that the government is somehow behind the attack, but Gwen still has faith in the Home Office.
She picks up Rhys and the two go on the run, heading for London in order to get the word to their Home Office contact. Along the way, Gwen proves herself to be far more capable than she's been in the last two series: she's ruthless, businesslike and an expert markswoman. Rhys, on the other hand, provides an excellent comic foil - his daft practicalities "let me hold your bag...so you have your hands free to shoot" and smuggling Gwen into a potato lorry bound for London were an excellent contrast to the severity of the situation.
They get unexpected help from Lois Habiba, a temp PA working for the nefarious John Frobisher. She tells them that Frobisher placed the kill order on Jack.
Meanwhile, Ianto is on the run. He gets a message to his sister to bring him a laptop, and the sister uses some classic Cardiff sink estate tactics to evade the people who are watching her house - sending her husband and a bunch of neighbours out to challenge them.
And while Jack doesn't get much screen time in this episode, we are shown some pretty impressive ability to regenerate from just a handful of body parts that were scavenged from the wreckage of Torchwood. It's OK when he's a skeleton, but when his tissue starts to regrow, he screams in agony. His trials become a lot worse when Agent Johnson decides to contain him...in a huge block of cement! Effective, but in no way subtle.
However, Gwen and Ianto hatch a plan to rescue Jack. Gwen and Rhys infiltrate the compound where Jack is being held, but on the verge of being captured, Ianto bursts through the wall in a forklift and makes off with concrete Jack. After eluding the agents, they tip Jack's concrete block off the edge of a quarry, freeing him. Hooray!
Elsewhere, the impending alien invasion seems to be going ahead as planned, despite the aliens foolishly asking the British government to build something for them. Haven't they read about government projects? Fortunately, this one comes in on time and presumably within budget - the aliens (the 456?) have requested a glass chamber filled with a poisonous gas.
Anyway, now that Jack and the team are reunited, we can get on with the serious business of this strange invasion. We can ask "Who are the 456?" and "Why are the British government so keen to do their bidding?" and "Why communicate via all the children on Earth?"
So many questions, looking forward to tomorrow's big episode. Roll out the red carpet for our new alien overlords...