The Doctor (Peter Capaldi) and Clara (Jenna Coleman) race back to the TARDIS cos she's got him into some more trouble as he says he can't go back to some of the most beautiful gardens around. In what will be one of their last adventures together. Clara gets a call on the emergency phone number from Rigsy (Jovian Wade) [last seen in Flatline] and the Doctor complaining she gave out his private number. He says he's got a tattoo and it's couting down. Arriving at his place, the Doctor is fascinated with the 'new human' baby and he can't see anything exciting about the tattoo, until he sees it count down. Back in the TARDIS he talks of Rigsy being drugged, "ret-conned," so he's forgotten what happened to him, but somewhere part of his frontal lobe must be remember something.
A memory which is triggered after he heads to the British Library and the map room, looking for missing streets in London, those that the cartographers called 'trap streets.' As Clara says. When they drew maps they'd put in one street which wasn't real so they'd know if someone else stole their map. The Doctor saying they were just preoccupied with copyright. He says they won't find the street in the library and head tot he TARDIS taking aerial photographs of London. With Clara almost falling out of it when looking through the door with the Sonic shades on. Rigsy saying she enjoyed that a little too much.
They search for the missing street by counting steps and all meet up in the same place. Rigsy recalls a woman falling onto the ground and the street, which they all get o see. The street is one from medieval times at least and Rigsy tells them the men that appear aren't really humans but alien. As one of them sniffs the doctor saying he doesn't smell human. They're here for asylum and Ashildr (Masie Williams) appears. Only she's Mayor Me now, how selfishly apt! She protects it and everyone there is at peace. She tells them Rigsy is a murderer and she placed him under a sentence of death. She still hasn't learnt anything about living and about life has she for all the number of years she's been alive. Better she shouldn't have been saved at all! Yes I said that then and I say it now cos she's nothing but trouble.
Clara recalls her and then she shows him the photo on the phone again, he didn't find her, she made him see her or some such nonsense. Couldn't really care much about her whatever she calls herself now. Also telling Clara the Doctor reads about her in his own special room in the TARDIS. Everyone calls Rigsy a murderer and he says he didn't kill anyone. She placed the counter on him and at the end of it he'll be killed by the quantum shadow. Which basically is a crow which enters the body and then leaves in a smoky form taking life, as we're later demonstrated when a man stole medicine for his wife ad is killed for it. Mayor Me has no sense of justice either.
Ashildr shows them Jen (Naomi Ackie) who was found dead and Rigsy was leaning over her which doesn't mean he killed her and what right did she have anyway to play judge, jury and executioner. He's not part of her world/street. When they showed her in statis she wasn't dead and it's funny the Doctor didn't realize that, nor did he put on his shades to analyze the pod even further. If they can convince the people he's innocent then can save Rigsy, the Doctor says they don't actually have to find out who killed her. Rigsy and Clara see a boy who has two heads just like Jen. The Doctor explains she can see the future and the past and females are gifted for this reason.
Clara sees the boy again and she tells Rigsy that they should swap. He can give her the tattoo if she asks for it, just as the old woman said he should give to her so she wants it. Rump (Simon Paisley Day) tells her this, but also that once you have it, you can't cheat it or escape from it. Which she doesn't tell Rigsy. Anyway as soon as she took the tat from Rigsy we knew this was going to be Clara's swansong, doing something she always did, save people. Always in her nature and more importantly wanting to be like the Doctor. Whereas in the past we got the Doctor having to say goodbye to his friends and companions before he regenerated, we now get the Doctor having to say goodbye to Clara. Who always made him a better person.
Clara talks Rigsy around by saying that she has the protection of the mayor and nothing will happen to Clara and he reluctantly agrees. The Doctor finds out that he was actually summoned by Mayor. Rigsy called and specifically asked for THE Doctor, not A Doctor when he came across Jen. Clara finds her son who is really a boy and Anahson (Letitia Wright) tells them it's safer for her that way. Also that Mayor wanted the Doctor here but she doesn't know why, she can't see it in his future or his past and once again I said this was about him and not about Rigsy.
Heading back the Doctor finds it's actually a statis pod and she's alive. Rigsy notices the keyhole at the side, but Mayor has the key. She wanted the key to the TARDIS, which is what they think, but he puts his own key into it anyway and rescues her. As he gets a bracelet slapped onto his wrist. Cue Mayor who was hiding out all this time. She tells him she did it to save this place since it would've been destroyed. The bracelet is a transporter and he tells her to release Rigsy. Until Clara tells him she's got the tattoo. And they can make it all better, which they can't. Mayor says the deal to save Rigsy was with her and Clara stepped in so there's nothing she can do now.
Clara accepts her fate and selflessly thinks of him. She tells him to promise not to hurt anyone or destroy anyone or anything after she's gone, cos she doesn't want him to. She knows him and what he's like when he's alone. He can be destructive and so she orders him not to do it. As she says her farewells to him. If Danny could face it, then so can she. She doesn't want to stay here with him and has to be brave she says, as he meets her end (or does she?) Well I had to get that in. Can't lose a companion like that and definitely not cos of bloomin' Mayor! "Let me be brave," she repeats as she has the life sucked out of her and the Doctor can only watch. Which would've hardened him even more.
The Doctor tells Mayor to stay away from him, she knows what he's like and what he's capable of. That Clara said all of that cos she was thinking of her. One reason Clara was just looking for adventure and getting it any way she could, throwing herself into danger, as we saw when she was dangling out of the TARDIS. It's like she expected it and knew it was coming, as did the Doctor and he couldn't help her. Yet in some ways, is it really what she wanted especially whenever she said they can change it, can't they, that they can always change what happens.
The Doctor realizes what Clara's done and then she realizes there's no coming back from it, resilience and then finally accepting her fate. Just watch the scene at the end with both Jenna and Peter was so emotionally charged. They didn't really need words. "You listen to me, you're going to be alone now and you're very bad at that." And as she took those final steps we were taking them with her. Until she was gone and was no more! Though cheesily could've said "nevermore" quoth the raven!! (Edgar Allen Poe: The Raven.) Bu it was true. Of course it was expected but it doesn't make it any better or easier to accept when you actually watch it and Clara was actually one of the better companions and it was sad seeing her go in that way. Then there's the question of how else would she go anyway, especially seeing as when most of the companions leave they aren't quite themselves.
The Doctor equally poignant when he says, "what's the point of being a Doctor if I can't cure you." Yes, especially since he can manage to 'cure' most everyone else in some way. Yet we can't really blame the Doctor for what happened to Clara, he may have shown her how things can be changed, either going back in time, or just by helping someone, but it wasn't his fault. Not really, he wasn't the one who brought her here.
Clara Oswald the Impossible Girl, is one companion I will most definitely miss!
As for a future companion, hope it isn't Maisie Williams, no thanks! How about just getting a male one instead and see how that works!
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