Doctor Who Series 9 Episode 10: Face The Raven Recap With Spoilers

The Doctor and Clara return from their latest adventure. The phone rings. It’s Rigsy on the other end. He tells Clara that a mysterious tattoo has appeared on the back of his neck, and it’s counting down to zero.

The Doctor and Clara show up at Rigsy’s apartment. They admire Rigsy’s child, and then Rigsy show’s them his tattoo. He tells them yesterday is a total blank for him, and that he’s been told he missed work and his phone’s scree is cracked.

The Doctor brings Rigsy on board the TARDIS. He scans Rigsy and reveals that he’s been in contact with aliens within the last 24-hours. He was then retconned, given an amnesia drug, to forget the encounter. The Doctor looks for, and fails to find, a nice way to tell Rigsy he’s going to die. Rigsy tells the Doctor to fix him. The Doctor think for a moment, and then goes to work.

The TARDIS lands and they get out. They enter a map room and start looking for a trap street, someplace where aliens hide out in London.

They get back in the TARDIS and Calra hangs out the side with the sonic sunglasses to scan for the street they’re looking for. Afterwards, they have a map of the areas of the city that Clara was forced not to focus on. They walk to city looking for an area that is conspicuously unremarkable.

The three of them reunite. Clara can’t seem to remember where the stop she found was. Clara goes back to the TARDIS and notices it’s found encrypted data on his phone. Clara tells Rigsy that he got a call yesterday, and Rigsy has a flashback to when his phone broke. He sees a small crack in the alleyway, and points it out to Clara and the Doctor. The head inside.

Once in, they find themselves frozen to the street. Two apparent humans, Kabel and Rump, question them, but Rigsy can see through the disguise to their alien forms. They ask if the Doctor and company are aware this is a refugee camp. Ashildr appears, flanked by two police officers, and reintroduces herself. Rigsy takes off his hat, and the locals become agitated. Ashildr takes off her scarf and reveals shifting tattoos on her body. She’s the one who tattooed Rigsy. The Doctor wants to know what crime Rigsy committed to gain a death sentence, but asks for a guarantee of Clara’s safety first. Ashildr grants it. Rump calls Rigsy a murderer. Rigsy catches a glimpse of the police officers’ true Jidoon forms.

Ashildr is the mayor of this refugee city. Rigsy catches ugly glares on the street. Rigsy points out a person with two faces to Clara. Ashildr explains that there are alien light worms in the lamps that provide the misderection of the place. Ashildr points out an Ood working on a Cyberman in an alley.

Ashildr brings them to the body of a two-faced woman, the body they found Rigsy standing over. Rigsy wonders if he actually did this, but the Doctor reminds him that that he was called to the trap street for a reason.

A man charged with stealing medical rations begs for his life. Ashildr refuses to free him from the sentence. His wife begs him to give her the sentence, but he refuses. His tattoo hits zero, and the Quantum Shade that his bound to the sentence chases him down and kills him. Ashildr explains to the doctor that the strictness of their rules is the only thing that keeps the street safe. Ashildr grants the Doctor leave to question anyone and examine the body and the scene, but he needs to convince the people that Rigsy is innocent.

Clara asks Rump what the other man’s wife meant when she asked for the sentence. He tells her that the only ways to escape the sentence is for the Shade’s master to release the lock, or for a willing recipient to except it instead.

Clara tries to convince Rigsy to give her his tattoo. She thinks that Ashildr’s guaranteed protection will save her from the raven. Rigsy agrees. Clara touches Rigsy’s tattoo and it transfers to her neck.

The Doctor and Clara try to gather information. Rump explains that if one of the street’s denizens did it, it could turn the street into a warzone. Rump is willing to let Rigsy die for that. Kabel mentions that Rigsy asks for the Doctor, and the Doctor suspects something is wrong because Ashildr should have known what he meant, but lied to them anyway. Rigsy makes note of how everyone looks at him, and it makes Clara think of Ana’s child. They find Ana’s supposed son, and figure out he’s a girl. As a woman, she has precognitive powers. She seems confused around the Doctor and Clara because they’re futures cloud things. Ana’s daughter reveals that Ashildr created a mystery to attract the Doctor here.

The Doctor returns to Ana and figures out that she’s status locked, not dead. The Doctor relizes he can unlock Ana using his TARDIS key. He realizes it’s a trap, but he goes through with it anyway. He frees Ana, but finds himself with a teleporter on his arm. Ashildr is turning the Doctor over to someone to protect the street. Ashildr asks for the Doctor’s confession dial and he hands it over. Ashildr moves to free Rigsy from his chronolock, but Clara reveals that she now has it and tries to leverage it to free the Doctor. Ashildr is upset. She reveals she never intended this happen, that no one was meant to get hurt. She made a contract with the Shade for a soul, and only she could break it, but when Clara took the lock she broke the contract and cut Ashildr out. The lock can be transferred, but never cheated entirely, so even Ashildr’s protection won’t help.

Clara says they can fix this. The Doctor says he can’t, but Ashildr can. Ashildr says she can’t, but the Doctor tells her she will or this street is over, he’ll expose them all and turn it to war. The Doctor continues to threat Ashildr, and Clara tells him to stop, that he knows this isn’t him and that he cares too much. She says she did this. She says if this is the last she ever sees of him, she doesn’t want it to be like this. She asks if there’s anything Ashildr can do, but Ashildr says no. Clara tells the Doctor not to let this change him, not to be a warrior, to be a doctor. She makes him promise not to seek revenge or make anyone else suffer for her death. She hugs him. The Doctor tells her to stay with him until the Raven comes, but Clara says she’s going to face it alone. Clara walks outside. She walks to towards the Raven, and the Doctor watches from behind her. The Shade takes her, and she dies on the street.

The Doctor goes back inside. Ashildr says she’s truly sorry. The Doctor tells Ashildr that Clara said all that about revenge to save Ashildr. He says he’ll do his best, but strongly advises Ashildr to stay out of his way. The Doctor is teleported away.

Rigsy spray paints the TARDIS, which now has a picture of Clara on the side.