Children of Earth: Day Five (SPOILERS)

I thought Torchwood lost a little of its dark, edgy feel during Season Two. Well, Children of Earth was about as dark as it gets.

* World leaders agree on a plan to send 10% of Earth's children to aliens in order to stop an invasion--and the haunting thing is, their debates and discussion seemed realistic. First, ensuring that the leaders' own children would be safe; second, talking about random selection to ensure "fairness", and finally, deciding that the lowest scoring children on school aptitude tests should be selected.

* The UK government official (Frobisher) in charge of negotiating with the aliens is asked by the Prime Minister to sacrifice his own children in order to make it look like "the government suffered too" once the news of what is happening reaches the public. In order to keep his children from becoming grotesque alien slaves, Frobisher shoots his wife, his two children, and then himself.

* Gwen makes a recording to explain how the world ended and answers her own question about why the mysterious Doctor doesn't always show up when terrible things happen on Earth--"It's because he's ashamed of us," she says.

*Jack's first attempt to stop the aliens through sheer bravado and reputation results in Ianto and an entire building of government workers being murdered by the aliens, while his second attempt requires him to willingly sacrifice his own innocent grandson.


* Torchwood as an institution is pretty much destroyed and Jack leaves the planet out of guilt for all of those who've died under his leadership.


Dark, but amazingly well-written, courageous, and full of surprises. I really hope there's another season of what's quickly become my favorite t.v. drama.