Johnson ( Children of Earth ) Agent Johnson was a British government operative tasked with investigating , and later assassinating , the members of Torchwood 3 . Her primary motivation was to " protect the state " , even if it required her to commit cold - blooded murder . Johnson placed Rupesh Patanjali in the field to masquerade as a potential new member for Torchwood . After months of perfect infiltration , the plan was abandoned when , following the reappearance of the 456 , she received orders from John Frobisher to terminate Captain Jack Harkness . Under Johnson ' s orders , Patanjali lured in Harkness and shot him . After confirming that Harkness did indeed recover from the seemingly fatal wound , Johnson had a bomb surgically placed in his abdomen , to destroy the Hub and sever Harkness ' s theoretical connection to the Rift , thinking it might be the key to his immortality . Deciding that Patanjali , having blown his cover , now was a security risk , she cold - bloodedly shot him in the back and had his corpse placed next to Harkness . ( TV : " " ) After the bomb inside Harkness ' stomach detonated , destroying the Torchwood Hub , Johnson positioned a team at Cardiff Bay to eliminate any survivors . They failed to catch Gwen Cooper and Ianto Jones , who made their separate escapes . She and her men coerced PC Andy Davidson into leading them to Gwen ' s home , who again eluded capture , shooting Johnson ' s vehicle ' s tires out . The next morning Johnson supervised the search for Jack ' s body and when remains were found , she ordered them sealed within a remote military compound . When Jack ' s body reassembled and regenerated , Johnson had him encased in cement to keep him contained . However , Gwen , Rhys , and Ianto infiltrated the base and smashed Jack out of the cell with a fork - lift truck . Johnson and her men pursued the group , but were cut off in their pursuit by an exploding lorry Gwen and Rhys placed in the middle of the road . She phoned Mr Frobisher and apologised for their failure . ( TV : " " ) The next day Johnson ' s team located Alice Carter by tracing her phone call to the authorities asking after Jack . Investigating her mysterious background , Johnson ' s team determined that Alice was Jack ' s daughter . Johnson led the team that stormed Alice ' s home and cornered her in an alley as she made her escape with her son , Steven . ( TV : " " ) Johnson grew agitated as she found herself kept increasingly out - of - the - loop . Nonetheless , she continued to pursue the Torchwood team . She led the strike force that confronted Gwen at the abandoned Torchwood One holding facility the team had been using as their temporary base . She was forced to stand down when Gwen revealed that Torchwood had blackmailed Johnson ' s superiors in the government . Gwen invited Johnson to join her in watching the meeting with the Prime Minister and the 456 ambassador . Along with everyone else , Johnson was horrified when the ambassador released a deadly virus into Thames House and there was nothing that they could do as dozens of people died . ( TV : " " ) After her encounter with Gwen Cooper and her realisation of what the government was doing , Johnson had a change of heart and helped Torchwood ' s efforts . She released Alice and protected her son ( occupying his time by having some of her team play football with him ) , and broke Jack out of prison . She provided him with equipment needed — as well as getting Dekker — to analyse the 456 ' s signature wave frequency . With these assets , Jack defeated the 456 , sacrificing his own grandson . Johnson was visibly upset by Steven ' s sacrifice . ( TV : " " ) Personality . Johnson believed that " the end justifies the means " . During the 456 crisis , she committed murder at least once without any hesitation and attempted to orchestrate the killing of Harkness , Cooper and Jones . ( TV : " " ) She also shot a man in the leg simply because she was irritated with him for saying that it was impossible to defeat the 456 . ( TV : " " ) Johnson initially exhibited a suitably cold - blooded personality , although she appeared to enter into a respectful relationship with Harkness ' daughter , Alice Carter , to the point where she agreed to keep from Steven the secret that Jack was his grandfather , not his uncle . Johnson was also kind enough to have her men keep Steven occupied doing things such as playing football with him . Johnson initially appeared apathetic in that she could be killing a child when capturing Alice , simply going " so " when Alice pointed out that Steven was a kid . However , immediately afterwards Johnson took the time to explain to Alice that they intended not to harm them and respected her threat if Steven was harmed rather than dismissing it outright . ( TV : " " , " " , " " ) While initially seeming cold and heartless , Johnson began displaying more genuine emotions as the crisis went on . When the 456 ambassador released a deadly virus into Thames House , Johnson was upset by the deaths of dozens of people and their inability to help them as well as the brutal death of Clement McDonald in front of her . Though she justified sacrificing Steven to save millions of children , his brutal death was too much even for her and she could not help but turn away from the sight and cry . ( TV : " " , " " )