Some Kindness!

Got your TARDIS? Got your Sonic? Good!

The Girl Who Waited or “A Tale of Two Amys”

I felt bad for Robot Rory—even more than I felt for Wilson!

The Doctor says they couldn’t go to the planet of coffee shops but gives them sunsets, spires, etc. They end up staring at doors. Amy wants to find her phone because it’s a camera phone. The Doctor tells her where it is as the men proceed into the room. It has a magnifying glass. Amy pushes a different button. They are now in two different rooms. Rory tries to find his wife as the Doctor starts the magnifying glass. He spies Amy. They try to figure out where they are as a robot comes out to ask if they will be visiting long. They lose Amy but she comes back to say she has been waiting a week. The Doctor realizes time is moving faster with her as the robot advances on Rory.

DEAR BBC, LOSE THE STUPID AMY OPENING S’IL VOUS PLAIT!

Amy sits at the table as the robot scans Rory with his hand. He’s still a little freaked out. They realized Amy pushed the other button. He tries it, but the room is empty. But he’s able to get back to the Doctor. The robot tells them that they are in quarantine facility for a disease that could affect the Doctor. He realizes Amy is in a room for compressed time so that relatives could see the infected person live out their lives in the 24 hours they have left. The Doctor tells Amy to check in and she tells Rory she loves him. Then asks him to save her.

The Doctor takes the giant magnifying glass back to the TARDIS. He takes out…are those the brainy specs??? No, they’re just James Bond glasses camera so Rory can go in but the Doctor can still see everything.

Amy is welcomed to Two Streams by an interface. Who sounds American. Oh god, why does she look familiar? Amy spots a robot who wants to cure her of bacteria. She tells them that their medicine will kill her but they try to keep giving her a shot. She runs as alarms go off. The robots keep repeating that it is a kindness. Amy escapes into a cage, which throws off the robots. They walk away as we go to commercials.

In the TARDIS, the Doctor gets to the other room. It’s a weird museum, complete with the Mona Lisa. Amy meanwhile enters a room and asks the interface for help. Amy choses the garden and heads toward the light. No, Amy, it’s going to lead you to…Tim Burton’s Wonderland? She begins to explore the gardens and asks the interface for a place to hide from the robots. It doesn’t answer. It explains the vents were exhaust vents from the temporal engines, which threw off the robots. She asks the interface where the engines are located. It replies that they are held within. Robots show up and Amy touches their hands together. This seems to disable them much like trapping two Weeping Angels in a staring contest and she runs off. She finds the engines and leaves a message for the Doctor. Wait, isn’t she expecting Rory?

Speaking of him, he tries to figure out why he’s alone. The Doctor tries to send a signal to the sonic screwdriver. The Doctor spots the blurs of other time streams. Rory asks if they were happy before being attacked by a fencer. The person says they waited for him, revealing it to be an older Amy. She tells him to duck as she skewers a robot. She explains she figured out how to survive because Rory didn’t save her. He says that he is saving her but the Doctor got the time stream wrong. She reveals she’s been waiting 36 years and Rory says she looks good. Amy tells the Doctor that she hates him. He warns her about the robots. She touches the robots hands together. Rory tells her that he isn’t upset she got old but that they didn’t get old together. The Doctor wonders how she made a sonic screwdriver. She keeps insisting it’s a probe as we cut to commercials.

Amy brings Rory to her hideaway. There is one robot with a face drawn on. She tells Rory to sit down. Both the man and the robot do so as Rory realizes she named the robot after him. Amy says she disarmed it and he realizes that the hands are gone. She tells Rory not to get sentimental as it’s just a robot. She says she’s grown hard as her life as hell. She tells Rory to stay put as she goes to the gardens, but he insists on going. Rory is impressed by her hacking skills. The Doctor asks about the regulator valve. Rory gives Amy the glasses, who puts them on. They joke about the fez and Amy laughs. She says it was the first time she did so in 36 years.

They have a moment before Rory leaves her alone with the Doctor. The Doctor tells her there is still time to fix everything. Rory wonders the Wonderland gardens. He spots a door but no wall. It’s invisible. He’s attacked by a robot but Amy saves him. The Doctor says he can save Amy, but she refuses as the two head out. Rory finds her message on the door.

COMMERCIALS!

Amy says she doesn’t want to be saved because she’ll die. She’ll be a different Amy, an Amy not trapped. Rory has to choose between two Amys. He says he swore to protect her—Rory the Centurion, the Boy Who Waited. He can’t imagine her in here. Rory yells at the Doctor, throwing the glasses down. The Doctor hears crying and realizes it is young Amy. Rory can see her through the glass. He goes back to older Amy and asks her to tell him that she won’t help her to his face. She says she won’t. He asks her again, showing her younger self. Amy hears him and finally spots her older self. Robot Rory offers Human Rory something. Older Amy explains she stops them from helping Young Amy because Older Amy would cease to exist. Amy asks about Rory. Older Amy tells her about the robot. Younger one asks why she didn’t name it the Doctor or after their favorite cat. They reminisce as Older Amy realizes they only loved Rory. Amy gives a loving speech about getting to know someone and their face growing more beautiful. Amy asks her older self to do it for Rory, to fight time and space for him.

Older Amy steps out and tells Rory that she’s going to pull time apart for him. She then kisses him as Robot Rory watches.

COMMERCIALS!

Amy tells Rory to hold on to his spectacles. The Doctor says that time can be changed and Amy can do it. Older Amy though asks to be allowed to remain. The Doctor thinks he can keep Older Amy alive in the TARDIS. They use Older Amy’s screwdriver as the Doctor instructs the two Amys to think a very powerful thought—the same thought—that can rip through time. As Rory rewires and pulls lever, the Amys think of the Macarena. Apparently, they had their first kiss to it. And there are two Amys. Younger Amy embraces Rory before feeling awkward. They then start talking at the same time. The glasses start to spark and the TARDIS doesn’t seem too happy about the paradox.

The Doctor tells Rory he has eight minutes to get back to the TARDIS and is on his own. But then he says he’s got his wives. Older Amy tells her younger self to remember hockey. Robots close in as the two Amys argue. Older Amy says she’ll go traveling and pop back for holidays. Older Amy flirts with Rory, who is a bit weirded out. Older Amy fits the robots as Rory and Amy run past them, disabling some robots. Rory tells Older Amy to go on as she yells she has his back. The robot hits Younger Amy and she falls to the ground.

COMMERCIALS!

Rory uses the Mona Lisa to save Young Amy. He carries her as Older Amy pauses. The two enter the TARDIS and the Doctor rules that she’ll be fine. He goes to the doorway. The Doctor closes the door on her and says that only one Amy can be in the TARDIS. He leaves the choice to Rory, who thinks it isn’t fair. Amy yells for the Doctor before pleading with Rory. She talks about the face he made when he was carrying Younger Amy. She says she forget how much he loved her and how much she loved being her. Rory cries and unlocks the door. However, Older Amy tells him not to let her in as she won’t go down without a fight. They exchange “I love yous” and then Older Amy tells him to tell Young Amy that she’s giving her the days with Rory. He repeats “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry” (Hello, shades of Ten) and locks the door. 

The robots advance on Older Amy. Amy asks the interface to show her Earth. As she watches, she tells the interface the Rory-pretending-to-be-in-a-band story from earlier. The TARDIS leaves, basking the room in a white light.

In the TARDIS, Rory asks if the Doctor knew it would never work. The Doctor evades the question as Amy comes around. He sticks his tongue out at her before leaving the Ponds alone. Amy asks where Old Amy is as Rory and the Doctor share a look.

Waitaminute…Imelda Staunton was the voice of the interface? Huh.

What a tearjerker! It was an excellent episode, well-written and action-packed. Dear Harry Potter producers, that’s how you convincingly age someone. And good lord does Karen Gillan deserve an award for her acting in this one.

I wish I could say more, but this episode was just too heavy for me given today’s date. I could think of reasons why BBC-America was right for running the episode, including normalcy and keeping us on par with airings in the UK. However, I can think of reasons why it should have been delayed—we Americans are being bombarded with the traumatic images of a decade ago (God, a decade!) and need a little escapist fun like we did then.

Next week: The Stephen King Hotel!

By the way, I want to go to Disneyland Clom now.

Quote of the Episode:

“And what is the answer that won’t get us killed?” –Rory to the Doctor as the Robots approach