Well, tomorrow’s the big finale of Torchwood: Children of Earth, so let’s check in again to see how things are going. I couldn’t let last night’s climactic moment go undiscussed. But before we get into that, there’s been a lot going on. It’s been a hell of a few days for Jack, Gwen and Ianto.
The writers have done an amazing job of making the 456 one of the most menacing alien threats ever seen on Torchwood or Doctor Who. We still barely know what they look like, or even how many of them there are. We didn’t get to see their alien spaceships, but none of that matters. The communicating through Earth’s children is chilling enough that we can infer the rest … and be scared out of our minds.I can’t even imagine the impossible situation the 456 put the world leaders in with their demand of 10% of the world’s children. How could anyone just give children away to an alien race as a “gift?” That the cabinet could sit around so coolly while figuring out how to give away the world’s children to an alien race was just disturbing on so many levels.
And then there’s Jack. Jack has a dark side, and many elements of his past remain shrouded in mystery, but how could he have given children away? There’s nothing more sacred to humanity than its children.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Jack has lost some of his humanity over the years; it’s hard to think of yourself as the same as these people you will watch grow old and die while you just keep going on and on and on. It’s one of the things that makes Captain Jack one of the best characters ever created for television. And I even like that he did give away those children as it adds more layers to his complexity.
Frobisher continues to be a powerhouse presence in the show, despite being a sniveling bureaucrat. I’m also growing to like Lois Habiba more and more. If the team survives this mini-series, and comes back, I have a feeling she might just be joining the team.
Hopefully she has more skills than the amazing ability to log into a computer system with a username and password and find information. She needs to bring something besides a good moral center and initiative … oh and short-hand, which comes in much handier when Ianto is around.
Speaking of which, with Team Torchwood down to three members, I really thought they’d beef up their roster before eliminating another. It looks like this series is designed to push Jack about as far as he can go to see if we can crack him. He’s mellowed a lot in the course of the series, so I suspect they’re now making him pay for that.
Poor Ianto, he was just becoming a full-fledged member of the team, and now he’s gone. Poor Jack, who was finally allowing himself to love again. Poor Gwen, this job kind of sucks even while it’s brilliant, doesn’t it?
And there’s still the threat of the 456 to deal with. Did you see that kid in the tank? How can you reasonably sit around and negotiate 10% of the world’s kids into that fate? Sure, the 456 could probably wipe us out with a plague or something, but that would kill those precious children, too.
How can Torchwood, in this state, swoop in and save the day? It seems an almost impossible task, but in the end they have to do it, don’t they? We’ve only got one night left and the stakes have never been higher.
Clacked by Jason Hughes 
on Jul 24, 2009 @ 17:00 EST5EDT
