Editor's Note: The following contains spoilers for the season finale of Doctor Who.
The big picture
- The
Doctor Who
The season finale reveals that Ruby Sunday's mother is Louise Miller, a human teenager who wanted to protect her son. - Sutekh destroys the universe, having become a god by hiding in the TARDIS for decades and planting his omens across time and space.
- The Doctor and Ruby part ways after undoing Sutekh's apocalypse, but promise to meet again one day.
After last week's wild ride of a cliffhanger, Doctor WhoThe season finale of, “Empire of Death”, finally solves the central mystery that has cast a shadow over the Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) and Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson). All season long: Who is Ruby's mother and why is she so important? Answers to the other questions that proliferated in Season 1: Where did Sutekh (Gabriel Woolf) I come from? Why are there so many Susan triads (Susan Twist)? As does Mrs. Flood (Anita Dobson) recognize a TARDIS? — are more complicated than anyone could have guessed, with one that remains tantalizingly unanswered ahead of Season 2. And there is perhaps the most important question of all: how do a Time Lord and a human girl defeat such an indomitable enemy as the god of death?
Where did 'Doctor Who's Sutekh come from?
“Empire of Death” picks up right where “The Legend of Ruby Sunday” left off, with Sutekh the Destroyer, an ancient alien being, unleashing his “gift of death” on Earth: a giant wave of sand that kills all what's up Dr. and Melanie Bush (Bonnie Langford) overcome the initial onslaught of carnage, but by the time they return to UNIT HQ, it's too late. Everyone in the control room, including Kate Lethbridge-Stewart (Jemma Redgrave) and Donna Noble's daughter Rose (Yasmin Finney), has evaporated into dust as definitively as the conclusion of Avengers: Infinity War.
Desperate to reconstruct her mother's identity, Ruby programs the time window to the night of her birth. The Doctor and Mel meet with Ruby, and Sutekh, the party crasher that she is, joins their meeting. The last time the Doctor and Sutekh faced off, the Doctor kicked him into a temporal vortex. In truth, Sutekh set his sights on the TARDIS. The god of death has been hidden inside the blue box all this time, gathering enough power to ascend to godhood and planting his sleeper agents everywhere the Doctor visited. These agents (Sutekh's “Angels of Death”) are beings with personalities and lives, until Sutekh possesses them psychically. Giving each the same face, the Doctor couldn't help but be intrigued. Naming Susan Triad after the Doctor's grandfather just made it the perfect trap.
To add insult to injury, Sutekh has hijacked and corrupted the TARDIS, leaving the Doctor, Ruby and Melanie stranded. Fortunately, since Ruby's memories power the Time Window, Ruby manifests a “Memory TARDIS”, a much smaller and less powerful TARDIS powered by various memories. The trio dodge Sutekh's death wave, but watch as it eradicates all life across time and space. The dejected Doctor blames himself for the destruction of the universe.
How do the doctor and Ruby Sunday find Ruby's mother?
Grasping at straws, the Doctor notices that the time window display shows certain memories whenever Ruby thinks of her mother. Ruby doesn't recognize one, a live broadcast of a politician's interview, because it's from the alternate future she lived in and forgot about in the “73 Yards” episode. In 2046, Prime Minister Roger ap Gwilliam (Aneurin Barnard) instituted mandatory DNA testing. If Ruby's mother was still alive then, her DNA would be on file. They take the Memory TARDIS to a “dead” future, scan the system for Ruby's blood, and find a match.
Unfortunately, no one can escape the death god's reach. Sutekh possesses Mel through the dead skin cells on his body, though the Doctor's former companion bravely resists. Sutekh summons the Doctor and Ruby to 2024, where, ironically, Sutekh is equally puzzled by the mystery of Ruby's mother how are we She's the one person in the universe he can't identify, and he won't.
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Ruby agrees to name Sutekh after her mother, stopping inches from his giant jackal nose. Just as she is about to reveal Doctor WhoThe twist of the entire season, throws a rope from the Memory TARDIS around Sutekh's neck. The Doctor picks up the rope in his smart glove from “The Church on Ruby Road” and attaches it to the actual TARDIS console. together, the pair drag Sutekh on another journey through time and space.
Who is Ruby Sunday's mother in “Doctor Who”?
Pulling back Sutekh's Deathwave counters its effects. Everyone comes back to life, albeit a little dusty. The Doctor takes no joy from the occasion; he soberly tells Sutekh that since Sutekh joined the TARDIS, he essentially made the Doctor the god of death. Metaphorical or not, after the Doctor's guilty plea, Sutekh fades to ash in the time vortex, a karmic ending for the Doctor Who villain who played the long con better than anyone.
After all this time, the answer about Ruby's mother is simple: her name is Louise Allison Miller (Faye McKeever). In 2004, Louise was 15, alone, terrified and pregnant. She put her daughter in Ruby Road because she knew a church was safer for her child than living with Louise's terrible father. Because Ruby and the Doctor “invest[ed her] with meaning,” evolved into a concept powerful enough to terrify a god. “The most important person in the universe was the most normal,” declares the Doctor. As for why he pointed out the Doctor?''Louise pointed to Ruby Road.''She named her daughter before leaving.
After a heartbeat of hesitation, Ruby introduces herself to Louise inside a coffee shop. The women share a tender moment, hugging each other as they cry. Later, as Louise integrates well with Carla (Michelle Greenidge) and cherry (Angela Wynter) On Sunday, it is the Doctor who, once again, remains emotionally aloof. Unlike his predecessor, the Fourteenth Doctor (David Tennant), Quinze is not yet able to form a family and stay in one place. The two friends understand this is the beginning of Ruby's journey with her family and the end of their adventures together – For now, at least. Ruby healed the Doctor's heart, and he promises to honor that bond.
Who is Mrs. Flood and how is she connected to “Doctor Who” season 2?
The Doctor departs for galaxies unknown, and the curtain closes on the legend of Ruby's wonderful Sunday and her normal, but extraordinary, biological mother. Ncuti Gatwa returns in December for the year Doctor Who Christmas Special (written by former showrunner Steven Moffat), who have been joined this time by none other than BridgertonLady Whistledown herself, Nicola Coughlan. All appearances indicate that Millie Gibson will return for Season 2 in addition to guest star from “Boom.” Stranded Sethu joining the TARDIS full time.
But one question lingers: What about Mrs. Flood? On this front, Russell T Davies offers no answers, only tantalizing clues. Before she and Carla dissolve into Sutekh's death wave, she eludes her “true name” and the “plans” she failed to fulfill, not to mention the ominous declaration: “Tell your maker that I will come to storm its golden gates.” He returns to narrate Ruby's happy ending before appearing on the roof of the building holding a suitcase and an umbrella and wrapped in a luxurious white fur coat. He breaks the fourth wall and speaks directly to the camera for the second time this season. cheerfully warning about the Doctor's “terrible” ending and bidding us good night like the bedtime story of the world. Whatever Davies has in store for Season 2, it's best to leave some mysteries unsolved, until next time.
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