On Day II, the focus switched from the 456 to the Torchwood gang themselves - running from the authorities, hiding amongst the spuds and getting captured in cement, Han Solo style. Tonight things stepped up a gear and we started to learn just a little more about those aliens with designs on Britain - and even Captain Jack's past.
The team are now holed up in a warehouse and have turned to criminality in order to get things done - like getting hold of a new coat for Captain Jack, which is of course hugely important. They also spring Clem out of jail, which actually is hugely important, as he is somehow linked to the first meeting between the British and the 456 - and has been traumatised by it ever since.
And then the children stop once again, this time pointing towards the skies, at a pillar of fire aimed right over London. But then we already knew that's where the 456 were headed, because that's where the 456-ready box is. Not that the rest of the world knew - and the American president is, to quote, 'furious'.
One of the best scenes of the series so far is that in which Frobisher talks with the 456 for the first time - the creature or creatures deeply shrouded in fog, spraying gooey spit all over the place and speaking in a menacing but somehow rather bored voice.
Peter Capaldi is, as always, brilliant; conveying fear, awe, delusions of grandeur and a crushing dullness in equal measure. Importantly, Frobisher wants the previous meeting between Britain and the 456 kept quiet - why? Because in 1965, he and Captain Jack gave them 12 children as "a gift." And now they're back for 10% of the world's population of youngsters.
Things have been unravelling at a rather sedate pace up until now, but now that we know what happened forty years ago, and why the 456 have returned (though I suspect we still don't have the full story), it seems that this series is poised to step up several gears.
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