Torchwood: "Fragments" (S2, E12)

"It's the 21st century, Jack, and everything's going to change.  And we're not ready."

Fragments

Season Two, Episode Twelve ("When a booby-trapped building explodes we learn how each of the team was recruited to Torchwood.")

WHAT I LIKED

*  Starting off the episode with everyone inside a building when it blows up?  Can't complain about the hook.

*  Seeing the cruel, callous Victorian-era Torchwood that Jack joins.  I can never get enough of Alice & Emily.  Loved the caption "1,392 Deaths Earlier".

* Reinforcement that one of the reasons Jack stayed with Torchwood and in Cardiff is that he knew the TARDIS refueled from the rift from time to time so he was hoping to run into the Doctor again.

*  The scene in 1999 as we realize that Torchwood's head, Alex, has murdered the entire team and then shoots himself.  That's some dark SF right there . . .

*  Ianto's flashback and the mini-romantic comedy with the pterodactyl complication.

*  Owen's flashback--one of my favorite stories of the show.  Heartbreaking, and it explains so much about why Owen is the way he is.

*  The cliffhanger--Jack's brother!  Say what!?!?

WHAT I DIDN'T

*  The blowfish alien.  Even a century ago, still lame.

*  UNIT operating a Guantanamo Bay style prison for Tosh.  It's hard for me to root for a country or its government that does such things.

WHAT I'M NOT SURE ABOUT

*  The strange future-predicting young girl; still not sure who she is or how she gets her powers.

DELETED SCENES

*  A very brief scene of Tosh in prison, talking through the walls with a creepy fellow prisoner.

TORCHWOOD CONFIDENTIAL

*  Talking heads about shooting the flashbacks; nothing particularly new or interesting.