Review: Torchwood 3.2: Day Two

Ianto, Gwen and Rhys help free Jack.

Torchwood - Children of Earth, Day Two
Bit of a shorter one this week. Written 28/4/13

Questions running through my mind... I know that Frobisher doesn't want Jack bragging about the last time the 456 were here, but why kill them? Why destroy the goddamn Hub? The one person you want to get rid of is immortal, and you know it, and the other two members are just as clueless. It's almost as if some great godly figure wanted to make the scenario more tense by setting the world against Torchwood for no decent reason. Fancy that, eh?
     The hub destroyed, Ianto and Gwen get out alive, but "The Government", which appears to include day-to-day ambulance drivers, is out to get them both for reasons unknown. Agent Johnson tries to hunt both of them down, eventually giving up and taking Jack's body in pieces. In a cell, it re-arranges itself, leading her to fill the cell with concrete. Gwen and Rhys pop down to London and, after speaking with Lois Habiba, sneak into the place. Ianto helps bust Jack out by using a forklift truck to somehow lift the concrete block out of the wall and drop it down a cliff. Just as the new crew assemble, the Government have followed some 456 instructions and created a mysterious chamber on the top floor of Whitehall.
     This was very much an episode of going through the motions, moving characters away from Cardiff and into the bland, generic wasteland that is TV London. As the show's distinctive Welsh roots wither and die away, the only really decent moments came in the form of Rhys' utter badassery, considering that he's doing a pretty decent job of the whole "secret operative" thing on his second time out. I also loved the quiet conversations between him and Gwen, especially where she tells him that she's pregnant and doesn't even have to say the words.

"Mr. Dekker, please stop hugging the chamber..."

     The second day was one of story administration, laying out the canopés for the next day's first appearance from the enigmatic 456. It had a lot of cool character moments and I was glad to see the gang working together again, but I do get this overwhelming sense of loss as we not only lose the Hub which housed the series for two years but also lose Cardiff, the city that provided a lot of the series' distinct charm.

Thanks.