I find media that tries very hard to appear edgy to usually be very annoying. On that note this episode has a pedophile and ends with Jack sacrificing a child.

But even without the 'edginess' that is prevalant in this episode, I don't really know what this was. I understand the plot, but it just left me at the end of the episode feeling very "Huh! Really?". It's not a terrible idea, fairies are real but are actually an ancient and malevolent race. They usually keep to themselves but have a tendency to latch onto a child who they deem 'the chosen one'. If anyone is mean to 'the chosen one' they then decide to kill them.

You could build a solid episode from that idea, but this doesn't work for me at all. I don't find the fairies interesting, either in design or how they're characterised. I don't find what they do fun to watch. I don't really understand the lore, for example I don't get why they need a chosen one. I also don't like that the ending is essentially just do nothing, just let them complete their plan and take the child then they'll go away. Torchwood don't really do anything in this episode, except investigate the fairies and explain (poorly) what is happening. If you took Torchwood out of the episode, basically everything would happen exactly the same. We just wouldn't have any characters to provide exposition.

Just a real dud of an story for me, which is disappointing because I thought this series was getting better every week until this episode.