by Sarabeth Pollock:
Doctor Who Recap: “The Angels Take Manhattan”
Original Air Date (BBC): Saturday September 29, 2012
Series 7 Episode 5
Tonight we’re just going to jump right into the recap. We have a lot of ground to cover…and lots to talk about once we get through it.
New York. 1930s. The city of a million stories. The narrator talks about living statues, ones that move in the dark. A portly man named Mr. Grayle asks if Mr. Garner will take the “case,” even though he doesn’t believe what Grayle is telling him. Mr. Garner is willing to take the case…for the kind of money that Grayle is offering it doesn’t matter if he believes him or not. As Garner leaves, we look out the window to see that one of Grayle’s statues has left the podium it had been standing on.
Garner arrives at the Winter Quay building. There’s a familiar-looking weeping angel outside with its face covered, and a little girl in the window covers and uncovers her eyes mirroring the sinister statues we have all come to know and love. Garner goes inside and gets on the elevator. There’s a picture of the Statue of Liberty in the elevator. He walks down the hallway upstairs. The carpet is blood red. Garner sees a name plate on room 702: S. Garner. Wait, isn’t that…? He goes inside and finds a wallet on the table. Inside is an identification card that matches the one in his own identical wallet. There’s a man in the bedroom, an old man by the sound of it. Garner goes farther into the room and sees the man in bed. “They’re coming for you,” he says. “They’re gonna send you back in time.” The man comes into view, and he’s very old by the look of it. “I’m you!” he gasps. Garner backs out of the apartment and finds a Weeping Angel in the hallway. Then he gasps in disbelief. “You gotta be kidding me,” he mutters. The Statue of Liberty is leering at him from outside the window, her normally serene face twisted in rage. I knew the French were up to no good when they sent her to us. Now I know why.
Cue the opening credits. Tonight’s Doctor Who font is green, by the way.
Present Day New York, 2012. Our fearless trio is sitting in Central Park. The Doctor is reading a Melody Malone detective novel and Amy, bespectacled in Harry Potter-esque reading glasses, is reading the newspaper. She threatens the Doctor when he starts reading aloud, warning him not to utter the word “Yowza” again. He finally notices the reading glasses, which, he says, bring out the lines around her eyes. What lines? Rory, wisely, offers to get coffee rather than get involved in this conversation, but Amy won’t let her beloved centurion escape the coals just yet. She playfully offers to get a babysitter for the Doctor so that they can get some time alone. As they share a kiss, the Doctor grumbles that such PDA moments are “so humiliating.” He returns to his book as Rory departs for coffee (notice that they drink coffee in America instead of the traditional cuppa that we’d normally see them imbibing). After Rory is gone, the Doctor tears the last page of the book out with an exaggerated snap of his wrist. When Amy asks why he did it, the Doctor tells he that he always tears out the last page so that the story never ends. “I hate endings,” he declares.
The Doctor continues reading as we watch Rory walk through the city to get coffee. He spots several tiny cherubs adorning a fountain. They give him pause for a moment, but then he walks away. Once his back is turned, the little angel is gone. As the Doctor reads, it become clear that what he is reading is what is actually going on around them. The book describes Rory going to get coffee for the Amy and the Doctor. Rory starts to hear laughing when he enters a tunnel leading into the park. The laughing is coming from all around him, as if someone, or something, is playing with him. Amy and the Doctor return to the TARDIS and the Doctor wants to know when the events of the book are taking place. April 3, 1938, she replies. Amy wants to know where the Doctor got the book, and he replies that it was in his pocket, one of his never ending pockets. He has long since stopped questioning how things get in those pockets, he informs her.
Back in 1938, Rory hears someone behind him. It’s River. “Hello, Dad,” she greets him. She advises him to put his hands up, as they are surrounded by Grayle’s gun-toting henchmen. They get into the car, where River explains that she knows that Rory didn’t come there in the TARDIS because the whole city is full of temporal distortions. There’s no way the Doctor can land the TARDIS under these conditions. This gives the Doctor pause. Is she challenging him? When they try to land, the TARDIS is bounced back into the present. River explains to Rory that he has a vortex manipulator, which is easier to operate in the middle of the distortions.
The TARDIS lands in the cemetery outside of the city. Amy and the Doctor now know that Weeping Angels caught Rory and took him back in time. The Doctor ponders the situation while Amy flips ahead in the book. Things must work out, she muses, because they’re in the rest of the book. The Doctor is going to break something. Stop! The Doctor stops Amy from reading ahead. You can’t read ahead because everything in the book is their future, and the future is final and can’t change. Once they know what is coming, they can’t change it because it’s now set in stone.
Speaking of stone, Rory and River arrive at Grayle’s mansion. The statues watch their arrival from their place outside. Grayle knows that River is an esteemed archaeologist and wants her help understanding these statues. He’s a collector, you see (but he’s also connected), and his whole house is full of his treasures. River makes a comment about his vase collection that dates back to the Chin Dynasty. Rory looks at them and realizes that the TARDIS is translating the ancient Chinese script for him. Grayle doesn’t like Rory’s interference and orders his men to take him to the basement with “the babies.” The guard tosses a box of matches to Rory, perhaps in a final act of compassion. Once the lights are out, the matches will help him to last longer. The lights go out, and the tinkling laugher begins. The basement is full of cherubic, baby Weeping Angels.
Meanwhile, aboard the TARDIS, the Doctor takes particular note of the vase collection as Amy reads aloud. Next stop, China, 221 BC. The Doctor goes to a man who makes pottery and orders a special vase with a special message, purportedly under orders from the Emperor. At least, that’s what the psychic paper says.
River comes upon another vase. She smiles when she sees the message upon it: “Yowza.” That means her husband is coming. This puts a spring into River’s step. She knows that Grayle is hiding something. There’s a curtain, and behind it is a very angry Angel. It has been wrapped in chains and its face is contorted into a horrific snarl. It also looks like it has sustained some damage. That’s Grayle’s secret—he’s collecting these moving statues, and he knows that Melody Malone is the detective who knows how to conquer the living statues that are all over the city. But clearly Grayle can see that this Angel is screaming, calling to the others. Oh, wait…that’s why he has so many locks on his doors. Grayle commands River to tell him everything she knows about the angels…and quickly. Downstairs, Rory is trapped with lots of Angels and not-so-many matches. They’re moving all around him. When he gets to his last match, he turns to see a mischievous cherub beside him, lips puckered. It blows out the match.
Grayle clearly has an agenda with his collection. They’d give him lots of power if he can harness it. That’s why he needs River. River, however, is distracted by the sound of a materializing TARDIS. The temporal distortions are making the landing bumpier than usual. Grayle wants to know what is going on. What does it all mean? River smiles. “It means, Mr. Grayle, that my husband is home.” Grayle faints from the shock of seeing the TARDIS, and when River turns her head and the lights flicker, the angry Angel grabs her wrist in its vice-like grip.
Amy is at the door of the TARDIS, anxious to get to her husband. The Doctor needs to do some “final checks,” he tells her as he makes sure he looks good. “Since when?” Amy asks. The Doctor smiles. He steps out of the TARDIS and appears in the doorway. “Sorry I’m late, honey. Traffic was hell,” he drawls, looking as dapper as ever. Their reunion is a happy one, even though River is trapped. He wants to know how prison has been for her, but she surprises him with the news that she has been pardoned. As it turns out, the man she killed never existed. In fact, it’s like he’s been going around deleting himself from existence. The Doctor shrugs. After all, River was the one who said he was getting too big. But she was known as the woman who killed the Doctor. She grins impishly. “Doctor Who?” Classic little shout out to the underlying theme of the seventh season.
The Angel is holding River’s wrist very tight. The only way that she can escape is for one of their wrists to break. River’s face falls. Why does it have to be her wrist? The Doctor glances at Amy, who is standing in the doorway. It has to be River’s wrist, he explains, because Amy read that he would be forced to break something. But if the book hasn’t been written yet, how can the future be set? Amy suggests that they peek at chapter titles. They might serve more as guidance, without the detailed spoilers. The Doctor steals a quick glance at the table of contents and sends Amy to the basement to find Rory. She takes the sonic screwdriver to help guide the way. Once she’s gone, the Doctor takes another look at the chapter titles, and River immediately senses when his mood shifts. He becomes enraged, channeling the anger we used to see more with his ninth incarnation. The last chapter is titled “Amelia’s Last Farewell.” The Doctor tells River to get her wrist out without breaking it. “Change the future!” he shouts, rushing after Amy.
Amy arrives in the cellar to find a bunch of burnt-out matches, but no Rory. The Doctor appears behind her. The Angels have Rory.
Rory materializes outside the Winter Quay. But why there? What’s the connection?
Back at Grayle’s house, Amy and the Doctor come upstairs from the basement to find River. She explains that Rory moved in space, but not in time. He’s still in 1938 with them. The Doctor is elated that River got out of the Angel’s grasp because that means that she changed the future. “It’s called marriage, honey,” she deadpans. There is a car outside. River suggests that they steal it so they can go find Rory. The Doctor, still elated at the revelation, grabs her hand to pull her outside, and River gasps in pain. He looks down to see that her wrist is purple and bloodied. He hands the vortex manipulator to Amy and tells her what they’re looking for to lock onto Rory’s signal, then he sits beside his wife. He wants to know why she lied to him, and she explains that he’s an ageless god who looks twelve. It hurts. And her wrist hurts, too. The Doctor picks up on what she’s trying to say. He takes her wrist in his hand and their joined hands glow in a warm yellow light. She’s shocked at first, and when the light fades and he asks if her hand is better, she tests it out by slapping him. Amy’s eyes widen at her daughter’s fury. What a senseless waste of regeneration energy, she seethes. River storms out, followed by Amy, who tosses the gadget to the Doctor, telling him to “stick to science.”
Outside, River tells Amy that it’s better to lie than to let him see the damage, and no matter what, above all else, she should never let the Doctor see her age. The Doctor emerges from the house, telling the mother-daughter duo that he’s locked on to Rory’s signal at the Winter Quay. They drive away, but what they don’t know is that one of Grayle’s statues was listening. Inside the house, Grayle is returning to consciousness when he sees that they left the door open. Sure enough, there are Angels in the house. The two from the driveway are inside. It’s time for payback.
At the Winter Quay, Rory gets off the elevator and goes into a room. There’s an Angel in the hall observing him once he enters the room. Outside, River wants to know why they sent him to this building. Why didn’t they send him back in time the way they normally do? They won’t know until they find him, so off they go. They follow the now familiar path through the lobby to the elevator. They go down the hall until Amy comes upon an open door. Rory is inside. They rush into each other’s arms in a passionate embrace. In the hall, River looks at the Angel that is watching them. Why is it smiling at them?
The Doctor sees that the door is marked R. Williams. He hurries in and tells the couple to get out, now, but then Amy notices that they’re not alone. There’s a man in the bedroom, and when he sees her he becomes very animated and calls her name. He has a wedding ring on his finger, and he holds out his hands and says “please,” beckoning to her. She realizes that this old man is Rory. She turns behind her to see her Rory watching with sick fascination. River is rapt, but the Doctor is hunched over, not looking at them. The man lets out a final breath, and then he’s at peace. Present-day Rory demands to know what is going on. The Doctor turns and finally faces them. “I’m sorry, Rory, but you just died.”
That’s the key. The Winter Quay is being policed by Angels, and they’re feeding off of the time energy of their victims. It’s like a farm for them, where they hold their victims captive and feed off of their time energy. The Angels have taken over Manhattan because they can. Outside, there is a noise that sounds suspiciously like footsteps. The Doctor suspects that the Angels are coming for Rory so that they can send him back in time so that he will end up being the same man that just died in the bed before their eyes. Rory wants to know if Amy will be there, too; the Doctor doesn’t think so, because Old Rory was so happy to see her again. River speculates that if Rory could escape, it would cause a paradox that would “taint the well” and kill the Angels. The whole place would “unhappen” as if it never existed. The Doctor clearly doesn’t want to go down this path, saying that it would be “almost impossible.” He warns Rory that even if he could escape, he’d be running for the rest of his life. And the Doctor wouldn’t be able to protect him. Amy steps up and grasps her man’s hand. “He has me,” she states firmly. She opens the door. “Husband, run!” she commands. The Doctor and River move to follow, but now two Angels have appeared in their doorway. The Doctor says that he’s not sure this will work. “Husband, shut up,” River commands. Like mother, like daughter.
Rory and Amy run to the staircase, but their only option is to run up to the roof. The loud footsteps did indeed belong to the Statue of Liberty. As she glares at Rory, her sharp teeth bared, Rory looks at Amy with a bewildered expression. “I always wanted to visit the Statue of Liberty. I guess she got impatient.” Rory tells Amy to keep watching it while he looks for an escape. He runs to the ledge and looks down at the street. Amy wants to know if he found a way down. Not a way down, he says, but a way out. He steps onto the ledge. Amy can’t turn around, but she knows her husband all too well. She demands to know what he’s doing. If he dies, Rory reasons, then the paradox will be created that will kill the Angels. Imagine that, he laughs. He will die twice at the same building on the same night.
Amy turns and rushes to the ledge before Old Liberty can do anything (actually, they turn away from her a lot and she never actually moves…just saying….). Rory thinks it will work, but he admits that he’s terrified. He puts Amy’s hand on his chest, needing his help to push him off. They both know that they’d do anything for each other. Rory believes that if he falls, this place will cease to exist, but then what will he have fallen down from? Rory tells his wife that “to save you, I could do anything.” She steps on the ledge with him.
The Doctor and River burst onto the roof. “What the hell are you doing!” the Doctor exclaims angrily. But the Ponds have made up their minds. Amy is stubborn and Rory is willing to do anything to save her, so there is no stopping them. They jump, and time seems to stand still as we watch their embracing forms fall through the night’s sky. The Doctor watches them fall. Behind him, River watches as the time distortions pool around them. It’s working! The paradox is working!
Amy and Rory materialize in the cemetery outside of the city. The Doctor pops up out of nowhere, happily proclaiming that they did it! He hugs his humans fiercely and gives them each a kiss. Never do that again, he warns. After that paradox, they will never be able to travel back to that time ever again. It has been sealed off. River is wiping down the TARDIS, which looks like it needs a car wash after going through so many temporal distortions. She proposes a family outing to the nearby pub. As they all climb aboard the TARDIS, Rory pauses when he sees a tombstone with his name on it. “In loving memory, Rory Arthur Williams, Aged 82.” But what does that mean? As Amy comes to investigate, a rogue Angel appears and sends Rory back in time. She shrieks for the Doctor, who comes out to find the Angel and Amy locked in each other’s gazes. Amy knows what she must do. There’s room on the headstone for another name. She has to go back. She has to go back so that she’ll be with Rory and they’ll be together forever. The Doctor tries to reason with her, to get her to go back to the TARDIS so they can sort this all out. The look of desperation on his face is heartbreaking. Once she goes back, she’ll be creating a fixed point in time and he’ll never be able to see her again. River, however, knows what must happen. She encourages her mother to join Rory. Amy reaches her hand back, calling for her daughter, Melody. She tells Melody to watch after him, to never let him be alone.
Amy’s voice wavers as she says goodbye to her Doctor. “Raggedy Man,” she says, turning to face him. “Goodbye!” And then she disappears. The tombstone has changed. Underneath Rory’s epitaph is a new entry: “His Loving Wife, Amelia Williams, Aged 87.”
Back aboard the TARDIS, the Doctor apologizes to River, noting that they were her parents and they’re gone. River is happy knowing that they are together, and she reiterates to the Doctor that the most important thing is that the Doctor never travels alone. “Travel with me, then,” he pleads. She smiles. Not all the time, she tells him. “Only one psychopath per TARDIS.” She knows that her words have fallen on deaf ears, so she tells the Doctor that since she will give the book to Amy to be published, and since the book hasn’t been written yet, she’ll ask Amy to write the afterword. Maybe he’ll listen to Amy. The Doctor runs back to the park to find the page that he ripped from the book.
“Hello, Old Friend,” he reads. Amy’s voice fills the air. “You and me, on the last page.” The Doctor dons Amy’s glasses as he reads. She and Rory lived their lives in the past. They were together and they were happy. She worries about him, though. She warns him to never travel alone. He needs to have his companions. More than anything, she asks him to go back to the little girl who is sitting in her garden so that he can tell her about the adventures she will have in the future, and the man who will wait two thousand years for her. The scene freezes on an image of young Amy looking up into the sky. “This is the story of Amelia Pond, and this is how it ends.”
Of the five episodes that we saw this year, this was by far the most comprehensive. There were a few plot holes–What was the deal with Garner? Why did Grayle have baby Weeping Angels in the basement? Did it bother the older Angels that he was keeping them captive? It really didn’t matter because tonight was about saying goodbye to the Ponds. And in typical Steven Moffat fashion, we had to endure the death of the Ponds twice! It was a sweetly sentimental episode that really centered on family, so it will be interesting to see what the future holds now that the family has been separated.
Now is the time to start speculating about the future. Remember that next year marks the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who, so it will be very interesting to see what develops. Who will come back? How will it happen? This, my fellow Whovians, is what we get to think about now that we have some time on our hands until the Christmas special.
I bid you all a fond Geronimo and Allons-y. See you in a few months!
Sarabeth Pollock is a contributor for DarkMedia. She covers True Blood, Doctor Who, Fringe and American Horror Story, as well as the True Blood comics and whatever movies and books happen to catch her fancy. She’s an avid writer, reader, and pop culture fan, with interest in everything from True Blood to Doctor Who to Anne Rice to Deborah Harkness. Follow her on Twitter at @SarabethPollock and check out her blog at http://sarabethpollock.wordpress.com
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