In the latest episode of Doctor Who, fans around the
world witnessed Clara Oswald’s Swan Song.
Unless Moffat decides to revisit
Rory’s constant dying/resurrection plot line, Clara is dead.
For the most part, Whovians were shedding tears over the
Doctor’s companion’s demise; and after watching Face the Raven for a second
time, I also got a little teary eyed.
But it wasn’t over Clara’s death.
The sadness I felt was more for the Doctor.
Don’t get me wrong – I really loved the character of
Clara and felt that her characterization really blossomed with Capaldi’s
regeneration especially in Season 9. Unfortunately,
her constant recklessness led to her inevitable death. During the first few minutes of Face the
Raven, we learned of all the chances Clara took and that the Doctor was not
really happy about it. This was further emphasized
when she almost fell out of the Tardis and was enjoying every adrenaline
rushing moment that came with facing death.
However, she also felt that no matter how many death defying chances she
took, she will always be ok because the Doctor would fix it. And I think this was the message: Never think you are invincible.
The way I saw it, when Clara offered to take away the “countdown
to death” from Rigsy, she wasn’t doing it to sacrifice her life to save
him. Instead, she thought she was being
clever and strategic; giving the Doctor more time to solve the problem of the
day. She did not think about what she
was really doing. On the flip side, when
Cyber-Danny ignited himself along with the other Cyber-dead at the end of Dark
Water, he knew he was going to die in order to save the world. So I refuse to believe that Clara sacrificed herself
to save Rigsy. Instead, she was being
reckless.
Now, where she redeemed herself in my eyes is after
realizing she completely messed up and was going to die. She gave the Doctor a wonderful speech and
willingly faced the raven – aka Death - without running away. Personally, I would have preferred that as
soon as the Raven went into her, she died instantly. Instead they did this slow-motion repeat
thing for dramatic effect that kind of reminded me of those old cowboy movie
death scenes. But that is neither here
or there. Clara’s death was effective in
showing that she faced the consequences of her actions with bravery.
As I stated already, I did not shed a tear over Clara’s
death but for the Doctor. The look on
his face both while Clara was saying her final goodbyes and when he saw Clara’s
dead body was as if he said a thousand tear-jerking words. It is going to be interesting to see how he
deals with the loss of Clara in the next two episodes.
Finally, let me just say that Jenna Coleman really showed her acting abilities in Season 9 and in
this episode. Her performance is a
PERFECT TEN! I hope to see her in future performances.
Peter
Capadi of course gave another PERFECT TEN performance. I am actually starting to rank him in with
Harrison Ford, Al Pacino and Robert De Niro.
His ability to say a thousand words with just his facial expressions is
a rare gift.
Face
the Raven – I enjoyed it.
It was a big surprise to see Maisie Williams again, who gave a great
performance. I also loved the
cinematography and Diagon/Knockturn Alley feel.
I give this episode a solid 8.5.
#DoctorWho #JennaColeman #ClaraisDead #PeterCapaldi
