Spoiler Alert!

We got a whole lot of plot and character development this week! Surprises, and drama, and twists, oh my! 😀

Once Upon a Time

“The Bear and the Bow”

In the past, Merlin and the Storybrooke crew rescue Lancelot and Merida from their cells. Merida notices Belle’s skill with magic, and kidnaps her to help in the rescue of her brothers. She was determined to use magic, believing that she can’t accomplish her goal without it. That goes into the death of her father, which Merida blames herself for, having failed to kill the enemy knight with her arrow first. So she goes for the spell that changes people into a huge bear. But Belle tricks her and pushed her towards doing things the right way. With one arrow, she knocks three arrows out of flight as they fly toward her brothers. That act impresses the clansmen to the point that they all kneel before her, their rightful queen.

In the present, Belle and Merida meet, memories wiped, under less auspicious circumstances. Rumple escapes, even breaking their precious chipped cup to cut his ropes with, and Emma sends Merida to kill Belle, hoping to force Rumple to be a hero. Rumple tries to run and hide again, his old reflex, but Belle will have none of that. Mind you, there’s some legitimacy to running away this time if it stops Emma’s plans, but, as Belle knows, it would be the same as abandoning the people they love to her wrath. So Rumple turns back, facing Merida, now a giant bear, and defeating her by changing her back.

Being very well acquainted with the nature of the Dark One, Rumple goes back, and pulls Excalibur from the stone, dropping it at Emma’s feet in exchange for Merida’s heart. Rumple leaves with Belle and Merida, but with a warning for Emma. Rumple’s a hero now, and he intends to stop her. Oh, and he has one advantage the other heroes do not: he’s Rumple, a former Dark One.

Meanwhile, Regina and the rest try to communicate with Merlin, now knowing he was freed from the tree. They need someone chosen by Merlin to use the magic mushroom in a spell, but Rumple is missing, Emma is the Dark One, the Apprentice is dead, and Arthur tries to sabotage the spell by burning the mushroom. Fortunately, magic toadstools don’t burn so well, and they manage to catch his lie, without his knowledge. And there is one more person chosen by Merlin: the Author, Henry.

Back in the past, Emma, who we now know has been going dark, is told by Merlin, for a second time, that she must leave Excalibur alone. And with things currently going so well for the heroes, what with freeing Merlin, Lancelot, and Merida, we know that things are just going to be that much worse for them soon enough. What happening to Lancelot? How did Merida get caught up in the curse? And what happened to Merlin?

Judging from the message Henry manages to get from Merlin, a mystical voice mail of sorts, something terrible happened which we have yet to see. Things are even worse than he feared, if this message is being received. Their only hope now is Nimue. Something about her makes it possible to defeat the Darkness. I’m still guessing she was the first Dark One, and as she is at the root of the Darkness’ consciousness, somehow reaching her will upset things. I could wrong of course.

You know, it is getting a little repetitive to have them now scrambling to find Nimue, right after scrambling to find Merlin, right after scrambling to find the Author and the Apprentice, etc. It seems they’re always looking for someone to save them!

I am intrigued by the back and forth between Emma and Zalina. We finally see that Zalina is simply back in her cell, and she’s choosing to stay there instead of help Emma. Still, Emma is certain she’ll come around to her way of thinking soon enough. That should be interesting! Villains interacting with villains can be so much fun! Mwahahah!

Gotham

“Mommy’s Little Monster”

I was right about Butch’s intel being a trap. Tabitha successfully helped Butch break Zasz’s conditioning, and while I wouldn’t say Butch is Galvan’s ally, he was understandably glad for the chance to take out Penguin. And Galavan, having no more use for the Cobblepots, made to be rid of them both, and, just for some fun, killed Penguin’s mother even as she was in her son’s arms. She was a creepy, annoying character, and I half-expected Penguin to kill her himself more than once, but she was the only one figure in his life he could say he loved. Like any good son, he is now very angry. But he’s also clever, ruthless, manipulative. His little escape from that dire situation was brilliant. I never thought I’d say this, but that scene had me going, “Go, Penguin, go, Penguin, go!”

The war between villains escalates very quickly, as Zasz tries to kill Butch and then Galavan’s party, celebrating his election, is crashed by a lot of men dressed up like Penguin. The Penguin Army wreaks havoc, leaving bodies from both sides and civilian bystanders littering the grounds. Among them is Martinez, another member of the Strike Force, killed by Tabitha as he got in her way. That’s half the Strike Force already gone to their graves, and barely out of the Academy.

In response to Penguin’s impending hostilities, Galavan simply mobilizes the whole of the GCPD. Interestingly, remember how Barnes was all “legal limits” last episode? Yet now he’s perfectly willing to enforce Galavan’s impending martial law, which, after Penguin’s massacre and with Penguin still on the loose, will hardly be openly opposed. I was starting to hope Barnes was on the level, but I still suspect he’s part of the Court of Owls.

Fortunately, between the martial law and Galavan’s smug comment about Gordon having come to him, Gordon finally sees through Galavan’s mask. Or, rather, Galavan lets it slip for a split second. Gordon puts the circumstantial evidence together, how Galavan’s meteoric rise in Gotham is due entirely to the criminal activities taking place around him, and guesses that it was all theater and manipulation. Butch confirms that, but without any real evidence to back it up, and he escapes to get clear of Zasz and Penguin. Gordon can’t let Penguin kill Galavan, but he severs ties with the latter by the end of the episode. Hopefully, Penguin will reveal what he was talking about, with Galavan’s endgame involving “someone he cares about,” which we know is Bruce Wayne.

Speaking of, Silver meets Selina. Normally, I’d call it hilarious, but as the Galavans do not want anyone else “whispering in Bruce’s ear” as they convince him to give them Wayne Enterprises, that makes Selina an obstacle to be removed. As such, Silver removes her mask to threaten Selina, which does not go over too well. But that, too, I think may have been a ploy. Selina reacted strongly, too strongly, not only losing Bruce’s trust but driving him all the more strongly towards Silver, who leads him towards his own destruction. At this point, Selina’s only option is to somehow convince Alfred and/or Gordon of the danger Bruce is in. Except, she thinks Silver is after Bruce’s money, not his life, so she’s got nothing to work with.

So the Riddler’s first victim was himself, his alter-ego… his own fleeting humanity. That’s a twist I didn’t see coming. Yet it’s brilliantly poetic, especially as Penguin’s only real connection to humanity, is mother, is also lost. The more insane personality within Nygma dominates him, makes him run in circles in a desperate bid to cover up his crime, endangering himself and Thompkins, forcing a rush brought on by the risk of it all and basking in the high of triumph. At last, the two personalities merge, humanity murdered, and the Riddler makes his grand entrance… as he disposes of the body of his second victim, the woman he claimed to love.

Not only is this a riveting tale, but it’s such a good case study of serial killers!

Agents of Shield

“Among Us Hide…”

…huh…

Ok, beginning of episode: Oh, sweet mercy, Garner’s alive! Whew! And WHOO!

End of episode: …oh…holy…crap… I did not see that one coming! Andrew Garner is Lash! Wh-wh-what?!

What the heck is going on?! Why is GARNER hunting and killing Inhumans? Why?!

In other news, May gets Morse back into the field, and this pair of “world’s most dangerous women” do lay waste their enemies! Really, it was great fun watching these two work together. They manage to follow the Werner von Strucker lead and get there just in time for 1) Morse to defeat a strong enemy, getting over her post-traumatic combat-shy stage and emerge strong as ever and 2) May questions Werner about Ward and learns about Garner instead, much to her shocked surprise. I would be too, of course.

I guess now we know what Garner did when he ran off on May during their little vacation. One of many questions: did he turn Inhuman during that vacation?

Daisy (I still think of her as Skye, and I probably always will), Mac, and Hunter – very cagey now that he’s been benched after pulling the trigger on Ward, endangering Garner, and still failing – go out hunting Lash. Like myself, they suspect Banks, but that proves a dead end, proven as Hunter knocks him out and collects a blood sample. He has some anger issues to work out. The trio follow a new lead to discover the ATCU’s facility for storing Inhumans, put into artificial comas and stored in boxes just big enough to hold them, like merchandise in a warehouse.

Coulson sees this, after Rosalind tries to divert him away. They have some bonding moments, or so it at least seems. Rosalind justifies what she does to the Inhumans by calling it a disease for which they are searching for and so close to a cure. She lost her husband to cancer, and would give anything for the chance to do this for him, so she does it for others.

Except… there’s no evidence of her doing so with their knowledge or consent, which means she is making that choice and depriving them of the chance to make if for themselves. I don’t care what “good” that she thinks she can do, she’s playing God with people’s lives, and she already told Coulson that she wouldn’t hold killing Inhumans against him, so I can’t help but question her motives. No, she knows she’s doing something wrong, and Daisy knows very well that being an Inhuman is not a disease. If Coulson accepts this, they will come to blows, I am certain.

Especially since Coulson already knows there’s another option to Rosalind’s approach. If they were to get informed consent of what they were doing from the new Inhumans, with the option of, say, being trained by more experienced Inhumans, that would be one thing. But what they’re doing right now? No. Intolerable.

At the moment, Lincoln is very right not to trust Shield. Coulson’s already betrayed him once, he could be handed over to the ATCU and put in one of their boxes, and Garner is right there, waiting for him. It’s very dangerous there, ya know?

Finally, Fitz is working on bringing Will back, but he’s also looking into Will’s history. Dangerous waters, those. And speaking of, I think we’ve just met the “tail” of Hydra, whom Werner went running to for help and was betrayed by. I’ve mentioned how I like interactions between villains? This was good! The first time Ward and this mysterious “tail,” whoever he is, speak to one another, and the latter says he’s choosing Ward’s side. Most intriguing!

…also, “What?! Garner is Lash?! What?!”

The Flash

“The Darkness and the Light”

So, Wells 2.0 turns out to be on Barry’s side. He’s used to being in charge and he pushes everyone, certain he knows the best way to do things, and he doesn’t listen very easily. So, not very friendly, but on the right side, and he pushes straight through everyone’s experiences with his double, though, in Joe’s case, Barry had to intercept three bullets before they could explain what was going on.

Wells, who Cisco is calling “Harry,” and Jay Garrick have some history, all of it highly unpleasant. Wells apparently ducked responsibility for the metahumans in his world, while also profiting off of them, so not the most upstanding of citizens. He confronts Garrick with the truth of his own cowardice in the face of Zoom’s continuous attempts to kill him. Mind you, I’m certain due caution is warranted when dealing with Zoom, but that just means they need to find a balance between two extremes. And Garrick is right to question Wells’ motivation.

But, apparently, Zoom has Wells’ daughter. I can easily see a father, especially a man so driven as Wells, doing whatever it took to rescue his daughter and destroy the monster hurting her, no matter the cost. That is good, but also dangerous for the team.

Also a somber note, another reporter, an editor this time, dies at the hands of a metahuman. This one is Dr. Light, and she turns out to be Linda’s double. If that was as deliberate as it seems, and considering Zoom sent someone who had never killed before to do exactly that, that means Zoom actually knows about the Flash’s connection to her, which means he knows about Barry, and he knows about the people important to him. There will be more doubles, won’t there? Among them… Killer Frost! 😀

Garrick and Wells both coach Barry through taking Light down, but Garrick outright fears Zoom, and believes helping Barry would be helping him towards his own demise. So… he leaves. And right after that touching moment with Cait as they staked out Linda’s office (to absolutely no avail). Too bad.

Barry finally asks Patty out, which, of course, they cannot just let Barry have a normal first date. He’s temporarily blinded by Light, and it’s fairly easy for her to figure it out. Kudos for not canceling, showing that even being blinded won’t keep him from dating her! This is good! And they have their first kiss too! Awww, so adorable! 😉

Wells outs Cisco as a metahuman for the sake of finding Light and stopping Zoom. It’s a bit awkward, but, of course, his friends are… well, his friends! They even pick out a nickname for him, based on a word he’s kept using to describe his visions: Vibe. He likes it! (It’s certainly better than Golden Glider) And he gets the number of that cute girl who works the register at Jitters, a girl by the name of Kendra Saunders.

Hang on, isn’t that Hawkgirl? So, Cisco has a sort-of thing with Golden Glider and a potential thing with Hawkgirl, who is going off to Legends pretty soon? I’m guessing that’s not gonna last very long! Oh well!

Oh, and I just have to say, now that we finally get a first look at Zoom, they made his appearance and his voice terrifyingly demonic! Oooh, I love it! 😀

Arrow

“Haunted”

I am probably going to be the stick in the mud on this one. I found Constantine’s introduction this episode to feel like it was just slapped on and rushed. I wasn’t really interested in watching his show, and while I found him somewhat intriguing, it didn’t make me eager to change my mind. And for such important details like “Olly’s mystical tattoo” and “restoring Sara’s soul,” that lackluster presentation was kind of disappointing.

I did like how they inserted Constantine onto Lian Yu five years ago, on one of his mystic quests, and how he and Olly worked together to get what he needed while also maintaining Olly’s cover. That mystical tattoo is probably going to prove important fairly soon, and as Olly saved Constantine’s life, he was able to just call the man up and have him come a running to help out. And, being in the mystical know, he’s heard of Damien, and fears him, advising Olly to run away while he can. Shame. His mystic know-how would likely have proven useful, but he probably has another apocalypse to avert somewhere.

I also liked the detail of having Sara’s soul be trapped in the Pit, in need of rescue. Pretty perfect, that. It’s precisely what happens when one is baptized in its waters: the soul is taken away, trapped. Which explains the blood lust both Sara and Thea are going through. Sara has nothing but that lust. Speaking of which…

Called it! I said she was going after Thea, and I was right! 🙂 Thea, knowing her own blood lust will return until she kills someone, and knowing Sara’s will be sated as Thea’s never can be if Sara kills her, not to mention her guilt over being Merlyn’s tool for killing her in the first place… well, she didn’t put up that much of a fight. She even tried to accept it, and tell Sara, “It’s okay.” Laurel and Olly rather disagreed with Thea on that count.

Speaking of, Laurel and Olly have really not had many scenes with just the two of them as of late, have they? It was nice seeing them finally have some time together. Granted, Laurel’s character growth felt a bit confined to angry outbursts, but at least there was finally a moment of realization that her mistakes were having repercussions, including several deaths.

Olly has done a lot of growing himself. He does not judge Thea or Laurel very harshly, understanding and working with them. The patched-up relationship with Laurel is a perfect answer to Olly’s now political strategist suggesting that he distance himself from Laurel. Answer: no. 🙂

Lance had a lot on his plate this episode. Keeping in with Damien and HIVE, he was given a strange mission to enter a federal facility and insert a thumb drive. Diggle helps him, the two of them making a fairly good team, open, honest, respectful, and effective. And, providentially, they figure out what they’re doing while in the middle of doing it: deleting the records of a number of military men. Including that of one Andrew Diggle.

Wait, what?! Why erase a dead man’s record? Lance takes a bit of a chance in asking Damien about it, but gets an answer, at long last, as to why HIVE killed the younger Diggle. They deleted his record to cover it up, but they still have a hard copy of their own on him. It heavily indicates that Diggle’s brother was a criminal, maybe even a captain among drug dealers. Whatever the truth is, it promises to be powerful and dramatic, especially as Diggle finally finds the end to his years-long search.

Finally, Felicity listened to Ray’s message. But there was some significant interference, which she asked Curtis Holt to clean up. A large number of energy drinks later, he is successful and talking very fast. Message is: “I’m alive and I’m in trouble.”

…dun, dun, dun!

Heroes Reborn

“June 13^th, Part 2”

Wow. They really know how to twist the heart strings.

Well, that explains Tommy teleporting like Hiro. As a baby Petrelli, he absorbed Hiro’s power. Right after the first time it was used on him. That’s how Claire died before the artificial eclipse depowered everyone else. And, to keep him from taking his sister Malina’s powers, Angela elected to separate the two. Angela raised Malina, and hired Farrah to take her to the Arctic shortly after the bombing, while Hiro raised Nathan/Tommy, meeting and marrying a wonderful woman along the way. But when the past catches up to the day of the bombing, tragedy strikes again and again.

Some of this is due entirely to Noah trying to kill Erica in a fit of anger, not to mention, another part, Noah’s past self stopping him to prevent him from stepping on a butterfly, as they put it. Erica is put on her guard and moves against Noah, both of them.

Irony, “She’s been good to my family,” says Matt Parkman, referring to the woman who set up Mohinder and will hook Molly up to a machine until she takes her own life. The man apparently sold out, at least for now, but Casper’s mind mojo keeps Renautus from learning anything more than “Claire died giving birth.” Now, with Molly dead in the present and Mohinder missing and presumably dead, I have to wonder who is running “Hero Truther.” Might that be Matt, come to his senses?

However, as Noah and the gang manage to set things in motion in the past, Renautus closes in on them. Hiro sends his family away with Casper, while he stays to fight the enemy. (…why not just go with them? I do not know.) To keep Tommy from going back for Hiro, Casper and his mother erase everything he ever knew, resulting in the present version of Tommy, who is ignorant, moody, and vulnerable. We don’t see what happened to Hiro, but the odds were definitely not in his favor.

We see the terrible moment when Luke and Joanne killed their first Evo. The poor man came by to thank Luke for saving his life, at which point Joanne flipped out and attacked him for daring to be alive while her son is dead. He defended himself, then Luke reacted by attacking him to, and he defended himself again, very careful not to seriously hurt either of them. But Joanne stabbed him in the back of the neck with some scissors, over and over. And thus, the birth of a murderous psychopath.

Otomo, we see, took action the moment he realized he’d been used and betrayed (like all the rest). He couldn’t release Hiro himself, so he created Miko to do it for him. He was just beginning to teach her what she needed to know to survive, but then Harris knocked on the door. He had no choice but to go with him, to keep him away from Miko. He said something about the both of them meeting again after fulfilling their destinies. That’s either the afterlife or, optimistically, they’re both somehow still alive.

We could really use some good news, ya know? Especially when it’s revealed that Quentin still works for Erica. A year ago, he helped Erica after she was shot, and was rewarded with a reunion with his sister. A year later, he brings Noah back onto the case that leads to the trail that leads to the twins, and the whole “being killed by his sister” thing was apparently faked.

I’m wondering if Noah is really not suspicious of Quentin, or if he’s really let his emotions get the better of him for the moment. We’ll see.

Finally, more connections amongst the heroes: apparently Carlos and Farrah were an item once, while they were in the military. Carlos’ medal should have been hers, but her Evo status had to be kept hidden. So, here’s hoping for a reunion! And many more!

Grimm

“Clear and Wesen Danger”

They’re really good at keeping everything going smoothly from one episode to the next.

Nick and the boys go back to the scene of the slaughter, to investigate, only to find it all cleaned up, like happened at Nick’s house. Speaking of, I think I mistook that guy from before. He has a certain resemblance to Meisner, and I’m terribly with names and faces, but I don’t think that was him. Whoeer he is, and whatever group he works with, they clearly know how to cover things up. The team was left with only the mark of four lines. They can guess it represents some wesen group bent on mayhem, but that’s about it.

No sooner do they come across the mark once than they find it again in connection to this week’s case. A businessman realized that his company finances were being embezzled by someone, but the timid little man he alerted to this was the embezzler in question. Just as the honest man is calling the police, the timid little man rips out his throat. Poor guy. Of course, being so “timid” and little, he’s able to fool most of the authorities, outside those who know about the wesen, and he brutally kills two US marshalls to escape. It turns out, he and the office assistant were both wesen, stealing on behalf of a group which they are fanatically, and violently, devoted to, whose symbol is the four-lines mark.

One of them gives Nick, Hank, and Wu a serious fight before they put him down, while the other deletes everything off their computers – I caught a brief glimpse of an image of Renard before it was deleted, but he’s got so many strings attached to him it’s difficult to tell which role of his has earned their attention – before chanting something in Latin (I think) and throwing herself out the window. Clearly, whoever this group is, their members are fanatics. What she said roughly translates to “reveal what is hidden” or “the hidden are revealed” or “free the hidden,” something like that.

I’m guessing they’re enemies of the Wesen Council and want to reveal their existence to the public at large. That’s a serious uprising in the works.

In addition to the case, as Nick is technically on suspension, Hank has a temporary partner. We’ve met Pogue once or twice before, but now he’s orbiting a whole new kind of weird. Hank and Wu both get clever to advance the investigation without tipping what they know to Pogue. Poor guy, he’s not handling the weird stuff very well. Hank and Nick were a much better team, even when Hank knew nothing about Grimms and wesen.

Finally, on top of everything: Adalind brings Kelly to live with Nick, the three of them together. That is riveting on a number of levels. Nick and Adalind have this very strange balance to find, and watching them without all the hostility is… kind of touching, ya know. They’ve spent so much time fighting each other, but only now are they getting to know each other. Adalind has a lot of anxieties, but somewhere in all of this, she’s decided that she wants the simple life, not as a hexenbiest, but as a normal person, with her son. She’s able to talk about that with Rosalee, who is now… well, her only friend. And super kudos to Rosalee for not running away from that.

Meanwhile, Nick, through Adalind’s fears, is learning that he can’t go straight into danger without any second thoughts. He has a family to provide for, a son to protect and raise, and while Adalind seems to be a good mother right now, she can’t do this alone, not by any means. He’s also hearing what Munroe says about too many bad things happening in this house, so he should move. Make a fresh start. It would be perfect, leaving all the pain behind for something better, something new.

Of course, that will go better if the FBI, who is investigating Chavez’s disappearance, does not finger Nick for it. Here’s hoping they do not find her phone with her bloody fingerprints on it in his possession.

Munroe and Rosalee, of course, can’t help but consider having some cubs of their own as they help Nick and Adalind. Oooh, can you imagine the cuteness?

And what was that at the end? What is Chavez’s group up to? What’s inside those cells? What’s “going better?”

And where is Trubel?!

Doctor Who

“The Zygon Inversion”

There are times when the Doctor is so very right, and yet so very full of crap at the same time.

This was a very intense and pointed episode. In the wake of all the slaughter, and in the shadow of an impending all-out war between humans and zygons, the Doctor, Osgood, and Clara fight to restore the truce. Most zygons are perfectly happy with the truce, but there are no depths to which the war-mongers will not sink, including forcibly revealing all of their kind throughout the world, ripping away their peaceful lives to thrust them into a slaughter only one species can survive.

It was a bit off-putting to see the normal people of London behaving like statues. I didn’t really follow what was going on there. Were they the zygon splinter group? Were they under some sort of mental suppressant that made them go about their tasks in mute routine? I was expecting something there, and it did not happen. But beside that detail…

Clara and the zygon “Bonnie” have a mental contest. It turns out, Osgood and the Doctor survived the plane attack because Clara managed to influence Bonnie’s aim just enough to make her miss. When Clara is able to send a message to the Doctor without Bonnie noticing, the Doctor arranges for them to go “head-to-head,” so to speak (sorry, it was too good!). Then, as the surviving players, including one Kate Stewart (who survived by killing her enemy, Doctor) converge on the two Osgood boxes, they find that the Doctor has rigged the game… because it’s not a game.

He goes into an extended tirade that cuts straight to and through the heart of the matter, several times. In the end, he manages to convince Bonnie to stand down, even convert her to his way of thinking. Of course, she realizes, just before the end, that the Osgood Boxes are just boxes with buttons in them, nothing dangerous at all. The truce is restored, peace continues.

Though, as he managed to name the two buttons “Truth” and “Consequences,” it would appear he managed to think much farther ahead than anyone ever imagined. Yet he’s still caught by surprise? He even mentioned to Kate that she’s made the same comment, about not forgetting the emptiness of the boxes, fifteen times. Just how many times has this happened? Has it actually happened more than once? Clearly, something about this is not working!

Also, while the Doctor is right in many respects, about how two sides will fight until they sit down and talk, and about how peace can never be achieved without forgiveness, he’s ignoring a few vital truths himself. He was once in a similar position he puts the zygon Bonnie in, with absolute destruction waiting within a box and only a button to push to unleash it, but there are worlds of differences between the two of them.

The Doctor was doing it to stop the war, end the Dalek threat, end the rampage of Time Lords gone mad, and not out of hatred or fear, only because there was truly no other way (until the Moment provided one, which he seized). But Bonnie and her ilk? They are motivated by fear and anger.

They have murdered entire towns of innocent people and whole regiments of brave soldiers. What was done to them that excuses this? I’m sorry, but “forgiveness” is not the same as “a lack of justice,” and all those murdered people deserve justice. But Bonnie is magically converted, so she gets off scot-free? There are so many things wrong with that! And what about the rest of the splinter faction? Are they converted too, or are they just stewing until the next chance they have to act up?

Finally, the Doctor well knows there is true evil in the universe, bent on destruction, yet he talks about two sides sitting down to talk like its a magical solution? Is he going to try that with the Daleks, the Cybermen, and all the rest? Yes, making peace requires talk, but it requires an alignment of priorities and each side accepting the existence of the other. The Doctor managed to bring things to a standstill with his Osgood Box trick, but, again, the zygons already have a large body count to their credit, and they have the means to kill many more. When the other side is actively trying to kill you, you do as Kate Stewart did and shoot them. It’s not about who’s right and who’s wrong, it’s about protecting your right to live.

I don’t mean to overdo it, and there are a number of things the Doctor got right. He is right, he may have been reckless, but Bonnie and her subordinates are the ones responsible for everything they’ve done. He is right, life is not fair, get over it. He is right, Bonnie is only trying to beget cruelty, and she has no plan for the future, for after the war, if she wins. He is right, she’s just a child throwing a tantrum, not even knowing what she’s trying to achieve. He is right, there are always troublemakers to upset any “utopia,” and nothing remains exactly the way you want for very long. He is right, every war begins without anyone truly knowing who will win, lose, live, die, or anything else, no matter how good and superior they feel when that first shot is fired, so don’t engage in it lightly. He is right, not thinking, not being open to changing your mind, means you die, and die stupid and ignorant. He is right, we always think, once we’ve done terrible things, that there is no turning back, under any circumstances, and we are wrong about that. He is right, the people who say, “You don’t understand,” tend to be very wrong, not knowing what the other person, often the older person, has gone through, and, quite often, the other guy understands far more than they can possibly imagine.

As I said, there are times when the Doctor is so very full of it, and yet so very right at the same time.