The
4-5-6 have finally arrived on earth.
Goodness knows they like to make an entrance – you don’t possess all the
world’s children and make them speak in unison when you want to slip in
quietly. If they had their way, they’d
address the entire planet, but that’s one item on which they can’t call the
shots. All diplomacy is going on behind
closed doors, doors that Torchwood can’t get through.
For
those who don’t watch Torchwood, let
me give you an idea of the action of this episode: a gang of shadowy, gross-looking aliens
riding a pillar of fire down from the sky isn’t even the biggest moment. Translation?
There’s a lot going on – more on the secrets from Britain’s past, plenty
of creepy kids being creepy, and a pretty shocking revelation about one of the
Torchwood team.
Of
course, with Torchwood on the outside desperately trying to look in, the 4-5-6
problem is in the hands of the British government. The only trouble: everyone remotely important isn’t about to
touch this thing with a ten-pole foot.
So, while the prime minister, UNIT, and an international panel of
political players watch a live recording from a safe distance, John Frobisher
is the one marching into the lions’ den.
This is
where PC really starts getting a chance to sink his teeth in. He’s just pitch-perfect in all his scenes
with the 4-5-6 – he’s clinging to ambassadorial scripts and protocol, but his
face and his body language tell you the tension is ready to snap him in half. His expression when he realizes the prime
minister is sending him in again is quietly devastating, and all the
what-a-great-honor-this-is rationalizing can’t make him any less terrified.
Also,
there’s a phone call between Frobisher and Jack that reaffirms my belief that
we should’ve seen Torchwood interacting with the Home Office before all of this
starting going down. Even something
brief at the start of CoE, something to show what Frobisher and Jack’s
relationship is like, what the Home Office thinks of Torchwood. Scenes like this one would’ve been greatly
improved by seeing even a glimpse of their history.
Warnings
This
episode starts off the very dark subject matter that’s just going to get darker
through the rest of series 3.
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