*Spoilers for “The Legend of Ruby Sunday.” As far as this episode goes, I won’t discuss any of the big plot stuff until a later post, but you’re avoiding any talk of the finale, look away now.*
Okay, it’s the season finale! Did they do it??? Partially, I’d say. It’s the sort of gigantic episode where, while I was watching it, I was kind of awash in the excitement and big moments and emotions of everything, so the “wait—huh?” moments didn’t fully set in until later.
At the end of “The Legend of Ruby Sunday,” we didn’t discover the identity of Ruby’s birth mom, but we did get a major revelation about the mysterious woman the Doctor and Ruby keep seeing everywhere. In 2024 London, she’s a tech billionaire known as Susan Triad. But her fate is tied up with the reason the TARDIS has been making strange noises lately. It’s acquired a dark passenger: Sutekh, the Osiran who’s claimed the title of God of Death. Susan may think she’s just Susan, but she’s actually one of Sutekh’s “angels” of devastation. With Sutekh out to conquer life as we know it, it’s up to the Doctor, Ruby, and Mel to desperately search for a way to defeat him.
There are definite issues with this episode. I’ll get into the specifics on another day, but the handwaviness is strong with this one. Certain moments feel a little too manufactured, trying to force significance beyond their merit. Like many an RTD finale, this one goes BIG!!! In ways that are simply too much at times, reaching unsustainable stakes that would be all but impossible to give a truly satisfying conclusion to.
And yet, I still liked huge portions of the episode quite a lot. In terms of RTD finales, I’d probably rank it second or third, depending on whether we’re counting “The Giggle” as a finale. As usual, all my love to Fifteen and Ruby, always and forever, and I’ve loved Mel’s return throughout. The acting is stellar—Ncuti Gatwa, Millie Gibson, and Bonnie Langford all have incredible scenes at different points.
There’s just a lot of emotion going on here. The Doctor’s reaction to Sutekh and the reveal of his plan is devastating, and I like how he and the companions find a way to continue on in the face of such immense destruction. There’s a beautiful, bleak little interlude that I love, with a character who shows us the full reach of Sutekh’s power—throughout the scene, I kept trying to place the actress, and I was stunned afterward to realize it was Sian Clifford, who played Claire on Fleabag! Obviously, the threat of Sutekh is the biggest headline here, but the question of Ruby’s mom is still important, and Ruby goes through it in her own way. While I think there are some issues with how this storyline is handled, Gibson plays it wonderfully.
Oh, and apart from the big-ticket stuff like Sutekh and Mel, this is an episode with all kinds of nostalgic callback goodness. It has a ton of little touches that are brought out in a way that really makes sense, and they add to the episode without taking away from the scenes.
So that’s the end of the Fifteenth Doctor’s first season! I’ll have plenty more spoilery thoughts to share in the weeks to come, in between reviews of old Whoniverse episodes. For now, I’ll just say that I love these characters so much. I love the creativity and variety in the storylines and settings. There’s stuff that’s corny or illogical or unexplained, but on the whole, I still had a really great time. Now to come to terms with the fact that there’s really no more until Christmas!
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