Children of Earth: Day Two (TV Story)

Jennifer Ward

Piers Wenger

***Children of Earth: Day Two*** was the second serial of Series 6 of *The Pyramid*. It was written by John Fay, directed by Euros Lyn and starred Lisa Bowerman as Bernice Summerfield, Robert Bathurst as Chris Hector & Keeley Hawes as Jennifer Ward.

## Synopsis

The Pyramid base has been blown up by a bomb. Chris & Jennifer are on the run, while Bernice has been captured. Can they elude the government and save the planet from the 456?

## Plot

The base has blown up. As Jennifer emerges from the rubble she is seized by an assassination squad and is dragged into an ambulance. The men pin her flat on a stretcher. One prepares a needle, but they let go of her when she bites one of them. Leaping to her feet, she knocks them both out and takes their guns before noticing a red dot on her from a sniper. She jumps out of the way and the bullet kills one of the men who she knocked out. Jennifer then drives off in the ambulance with one of the men. After she stops, she holds him at gunpoint and is told that the government has ordered the destruction of the Pyramid, but he doesn't have any further information. He goes for the needle he tried to use earlier, but she shoots his foot and leaves him there.

At the explosion, Johnson arrives as does Andy Davidson with the police. Johnson surveys the area, understanding they need to ensure that Jennifer and Chris are dead.

Jennifer makes it home and begins to hurridly pack emergency supplies. Just then she gets a call from Chris, who has also survived, and tells him what she has learned. Neither can understand why the government has ordered their deaths; however they cannot set up a meeting point as the phones have likely been bugged. Jennifer is forced to leave when the assassination squad show up. Johnson orders Jennifer to come quietly, but Jennifer shoots out the tires on the squad's vehicle before driving off in her car.

Meanwhile, Jennifer drives a short distance away before dumping the car. Jennifer realises that she must now go on foot as cars are traceable with the license plates; she is now a rogue agent.

The next morning, Johnson finds Bernice's unconscious body in the ruins of the base (she managed to remove the bomb and susstain little damage. Bernice is taken to a warehouse in London, where she is placed in a cell and observed. Meanwhile, Chris sends a card to his sisterthrough their newspaper, asking her to meet him at the park where his leg was broken as a child and to bring a laptop computer. Her son, Steven knows Chris left it and warns his dad that they've probably been bugged. Typically, a car with two government agents is parked in the estate, and the men are listening to their conversations. Johnny decides to get back at the men by making them listen to obnoxious things, such as how Steven "pissed the bed" after the raid last night. Mica taunts her humiliated brother while he objects that his dad is lying. Alice gets annoyed and goes upstairs to read Ianto's message, soon joined by her husband after he drops the vulgar act. Meanwhile, Bernice begins to slowly come to.

Jennifer finds that her bank account has been frozen, and with nowhere else to go decides to head to London as that is where everything is happening. Jennifer sneaks aboard a lorry, which is full of potatoes;. At around the same time, Bernice fully regains consciousness. Johnson goes into the cell to question Bernice. Bernice demands to know what's going on, but Johnson tells her that she's the one asking the questions, and demands to know where Jennifer and Chris are, but Bernice says that she doesn't know and even if she did know, she wouldn't say.

Later on that day, Johnny cleverly rounds up a posse of children from the estate and they surround the agents' car. He accuses them of snooping, and when they deny it, he deems them perverts and rallies the kids to get the "paedos". The group swamps the vehicle and rocks it aggressively, obstructing the agents' view out the car windows. Given the unfriendly neighbourhood, this creates a believable and convenient distraction for Alice to drive away unnoticed. Alice meets with Chris in a park and discovers he has been wounded by the bases's explosion. While they speak, the kids in the park, along with the rest of the children in the world, suddenly stop moving again and declare another ominous message; "We are coming tomorrow." Chris approaches a girl in the park after the kids return to normal with the intent of learning what she felt during the moment she froze, but gets rebuffed by her protective mother, who thinks he's doing something perverted. Chris gives up on the kids and requests Johnny's car and his sister's laptop so he can track Bernice down.

In London, Jennifer tries to contact John Frobisher. Her call is taken by Lois Habiba. At MI5, Frobisher, Bridget and Lois see an unknown device being built by Mr Dekker to the 456's specifications. Lois meets with Jennifer and tells her it was Frobisher who issued the kill order on the team. The two meet up at a chippy where, after eating, Lois also gives Jennifer information about the compound where Bernice is being kept. She also suggests a way for Jennifer to gain entry.

Johnson finishes questioning Bernice, having gotten no information from her. Johnson locks the cell door in order to prevent Bernice's escape, who pragmatically refuses to reveal any information to her because she remains alive and a viable threat, which is why she has chosen to keep her contained. Jennifer, as Lois had suggested, poses as a funeral director, who has come to fetch Rupesh Patanjali's body, also held at the compound. Her plan initially works. The soldier who requested the retrieval, "Kodak" Camara, is friendly and does not suspect Jennifer to be an impostor.

When the group enters the cell with Patanjali's body bag, Jennifer disables the camera surveillance with the same pen she used in the mental care facility, then pistol whips Kodak to the back of the head while he isn't looking, rendering him unconscious. Jennifer snatches his keys and locks the guard inside the cell, while she starts opening the next one. Their disabling of the hallway camera attracts the suspicion of the guard watching the security footage. The second cell turns out to hold the body of the undercover soldier who was shot by the sniper attacking Jennifer. When she disables the camera in this cell, the guard at the desk sees the act perpetrated and sounds the alarms. Not willing to waste time on finding the key for the third lock, Jennifer breaks it open with several gunshots, finding Bernice inside. Bernice is relieved to see Jennifer and jokingly remarks that she took her time,

The soldiers in the compound surround Bernice and Jennifer and open fire. Jennifer empties her gun defending herself and Bernice as she declares they'll have to surrender, while Johnson calmly marches forward with a patrol unit to corral them. Jennifer discovers it was a mistake to waste her limited ammunition on the cell lock — her gun is out of bullets. Cornered, she lowers her weapons and kneels to the floor.

The room quakes and a pile of rubble begins falling from the ceiling as a digger smashes its way through the wall of Bernice's cell. Chris, who has also arrived in London and learned where Bernice was taken, has stolen a digger. Bernice and Jennifer escape with Chris in the digger, chased by Johnson and many soldiers. The digger isn't fast enough to outrun them. Chris gives Bernice his gun and she returns fire at the men shooting at the trio, Jennifer ducking for cover. They find themselves blocked by a truck. Jennifer hops out and drives the truck out of the way, then Bernice turns it into a barricade by shooting its gas tank, igniting the vehicle and allowing the group to get away without being pursued. Johnson informs Frobisher they have run into a roadblock. He replies that they cannot let the Pyramid personnel escape and tell someone of the situation at hand, or they'll be on the chopping block.

After parking the digger, the team share a propper reunion. Bernice and Jennifer learn about the new message the children have spoken from Chris. The Pyramid team departs in Johnny's car to figure out their next move.

Back at the MI5 headquarters, the mysterious device is completed: a sealed, glass-walled chamber filled with a concoction of gases poisonous to humans. Frobisher, Spears, and Dekker contemplate its purpose. Bridget wonders what could possibly live inside that gas, but Dekker informs her they don't have time to figure it out with the 456 arriving tomorrow. Frobisher indicates only Britain knows about the 456's contact with Earth and their return will not concern a global level. Dekker sees that the room for the 456 is like an ambassadorial suite or throne room. As his colleagues walk out of the room, Dekker huffs on the glass walls and embraces the tank with an unnatural sense of welcoming anticipation.

## Cast

* Bernice Summerfield - Lisa Bowerman
* Chris Hector - Robert Bathurst
* Jennifer Ward - Keeley Hawes
* Lois Habiba - Cush Jumbo
* Alice Davies - Lucy Cohu
* Steven Davies - Bear McCausland
* Bridget Spears - Susan Brown
* John Frobisher - Adrian Dunbar
* Mr Dekker - Ian Gelder
* Johnson - Liz May Brice
* Clem McDonald - Matt Smith
* Brian Green - Nicholas Farrell
* Johnny Davies - Rhodri Lewis
* Anna Frobisher - Hilary Maclean
* David Davies - Luke Perry
* Mica Davies - Aimee Davies
* Holly Frobisher - Julia Joyce
* Lilly Frobisher - Madeleine Rakic-Platt
* Recovery Worker - Ashley Hunt
* Kodak - Osi Okerafor
* Paramedic - Emmanuel Ighadaro
* Barmaid - Libby Liburd
* Sentry - Robert Shelly
* Guard - Quill Roberts
* Mother - Fay McDonald
* Newsreader - Louise Minchin

## References

* Windy Ridge Veg Ltd is a business in Cardiff.

### Individuals

* From the data file Lois pulls up on her computer, Jennifer has no recorded birth date.
* Johnny Davies sleeps in the nude.
* John Frobisher has kept information from his family by hiding behind the Official Secrets Act. Lois Habiba has also signed the act.

### Religion

* Lilly mocks the mass chanting of the children, themselves included, saying her father thought she and Holly were "possessed by the Devil".

## Continuity

* Whilst Lois is on the computer researching The Pyramid, the Little Caldwell safe-house is mentioned in the article (TV: *Return of the Living Dad*, *Planet of the Nestene*, *The Living Light*, *Natural Existence*).

## Home video releases

### DVD

* All serials of series 6 were included on *The Pyramid: Children of Earth* DVD, released in 2010
* This season alongside all previous episodes were included in *The Pyramid: The Complete Collection* box set, released in 2011

### Blu-ray

* All serials of Series 6 were included on *The Pyramid: Children of Earth* DVD on Blu-ray, released in 2010
* This season alongside all previous episodes were included in *The Pyramid: The Complete Collection* box set on Blu-ray, released in 2011