Torchwood retro review: Children of Earth – Day Five ends the series on a bleak note

All hell breaks loose, in the final bleak episode of Torchwood: Children of Earth.

(Image credit: Torchwood/BBC.

Image obtained from: official Torchwood website.)

As the government comes to take the children, all hell breaks loose in the bleak final episode of Torchwood: Children of Earth.

The final episode of Torchwood: Children of Earth begins with a rather chilling moment of Gwen describing “how the world ended”. It’s a very effective moment, particularly at how it addresses the Doctor. About why there are times when he saves the world and why other times he doesn’t. That opening gives us such a brilliant quote:

"Sometimes, the Doctor must look at this planet and turn his head in shame."

That’s a perfect way to begin the final episode of such an amazing story. And it only gets better than there.

There are so many truly shocking moments in Day Five. One of the first has to be what the 456 want the children for. Over the course of this series, we’ve slowly been learning more about the 456: what they want, what happened when they were here before etc. In the last episode, we found out what happened to the children of 1965. That was a horrifying enough moment.

But then we get to this episode, and find out why they want the children. Are they necessary to their survival? No: they use them for drugs. They keep the children in a kind of permanent living death for a “hit”. And they plan to do the same to ten per cent of Earth’s entire population of children.

Just when you thought that the 456 couldn’t get any worse, you then find out that there’s no morally complex reason for them to want the children. It isn’t that they need them. They just want them. It’s a moment that cements the 456 as one of Torchwood’s most horrifying enemies.

Ten years on, and Peter Capaldi’s brilliant performance as the tragic John Frobisher still stands out.

(Photo by Eamonn M. McCormack/Getty Images)

Frobisher’s tragic end

We finally see Torchwood and John Frobisher meet face to face in this episode. It’s a surprisingly quiet moment. After an entire series of hunting the team and trying to kill them, the fight ends rather quietly over a simple chat. It’s a bold way to resolve it, but at the same time, it lets you know just how bad things have become. By this point, its clear that no one’s going to win, that the world will shortly fall into chaos, and nothing Torchwood or the government can do will change that. In its own way, it adds to the feeling of despair for the final episode.

Of course, it isn’t over for Frobisher. When he sees the Prime Minister again, he’s told that – despite reassurances to the contrary – Frobisher’s children have been selected for “inoculation”. That they will be taken by the 456, so that the people in government are seen to be victims, too.

Watching Peter Capaldi as Frobisher in this moment is so difficult to watch. The look on his face when he’s given the news, and realizes his children have been sentenced with a fate worse than death, is both horrifying and heartbreaking. It’s another moment that made Capaldi one of my favorite actors, even before he was cast as the Doctor.

Which of course leads us to the next big shock of the episode. When Frobisher kills his wife and children dead, before killing himself. It’s one of Torchwood’s darkest and most horrific moments. Not least because it’s done essentially out of love. Even though his family didn’t know why he did it, he wanted to spare all of them something worse. It’s another moment that reminds us just how far Torchwood could go, and why it was such a brilliantly bold series.

Jack’s sacrifice

The last half of the episode is focused on the government coming for the kids. We see disturbing moments of soldiers breaking down doors and children taken from their parents. We see the worst of humanity in these moments. But we also see the best: fathers and mothers fighting back, and far more. Even PC Andy starts fighting to stop the soldiers taking the kids.

During this time, Johnson – who’s been steadily warming up over the past couple of episodes – finally realizes that the man she tried so hard to kill is the one person who could save everyone. And it takes him a while, but he does work out a way. However, it comes with a terrible price.

And so we reach the final shock of Children of Earth. Like Frobisher killing his own family, I’m sure we all remember this one. The moment when Jack saves almost all the children – except his own grandson.

More from Winter is Coming

Wow. Ten years on, and that moment still packs a punch. Children of Earth‘s bold resolution is one hell of a way to end the series, to say the least. We see the 456 destroyed, we see all the children safe and most of the team’s relief at that…but we also see a mother screaming with her son’s dead body in her arms. “Bittersweet” isn’t nearly close to describing the two extremes here.

Watching the final scenes, when Jack says goodbye to Gwen, it’s honestly not hard to imagine this scene working as a true ending to Torchwood. Things might have been a bit open-ended, but at the same time, with the Hub destroyed, Ianto dead, Jack disappearing and Gwen raising a family, this would’ve worked well as a final ending to Torchwood. Certainly, far better than what we got with Miracle Day. (Which of course, was meant to lead to further series on television, but it didn’t turn out that way.)

Rewatching Children of Earth has been an absolute pleasure. Ten years on, and it still holds up incredibly well. Not just as the best series of Torchwood, but as a fantastic piece of science-fiction. An absolutely phenomenal series.

What did you think of Children of Earth‘s final episode? Do you think it resolved the series well? What was your favorite moment? Let us know in the comments below.