Doctor Who: The Angels Take Manhattan

Is everyone okay? Y'all still with me? Yeah? Okay, good.

So that was HELL, right?! OMG, ALL THE FEELS!! SO MANY SOBS! I WAS A BALL OF TEARS ON THE FLOOR!!!

Yes, yes, there were plot holes and cheesy bits, but I'm more than satisfied with how we say goodbye to our Ponds.

So, the Weeping Angels have taken over Manhattan and they're using it as a 'farm'. Oh, that's not at ALL creepy!

The Ponds, older yet again when we see them now (Amy has 'lines' on her eyes), are with the Doctor in New York.

The Doctor is reading an old dime-store crime novel written by 'Melody Malone'. He rips out the last page because, "He hates endings".
Rory goes to get coffee, and the angels--BABY angels--send him back to 1938, where, luckily, River just happens to be investigating angels!
Oh, and by the way she's PROFESSOR Song now. Not Doctor...Who else caught that pause before the Doctor moved on in the conversation? Does he know she doesn't have much time left with him?

So, as Rory's getting the coffee, the Doctor realizes that the book he's reading is ABOUT THEM. They realize where Rory must be and they try to get there with the TARDIS but can't.
The angels have the city full of time distortions and they just bounce off and back to 2012...but into a graveyard this time...where we get a glimpse of a gravestone that reads, 'Rory Arthur Williams'.
Amy continues reading the dime-store novel and starts to read ahead. She tells the Doctor that he's going to break something and he freaks out. He explains that once you know what's coming, time is fixed.

The Doctor realizes that to get to Rory, he's going to need an EXACT time and location. If he's off by even a nano-second, the planet could explode!
He needs a signal to lock onto--and luckily River is able to send them one with her vortex manipulator!

Speaking of River, she and Rory are taken--at gunpoint--to some guy's house. The guy is obsessed with the angels--and even has one captured, in chains!
He wants River to tell him everything she knows about the them...

Rory is taken to a dark room and given to 'the babies'. The matches he's given don't last very long, and once again, he's touched by the baby angels.
This time he's sent to a different location only. Not a different time.
And River? Well, she gets caught by an angel as well...but it's not strong enough to zap her away.
Thank goodness that Doctor arrives to rescue her, "Sorry I'm late, honey. Traffic was hell."

River explains that she was pardoned from prison. Apparently the man she killed never existed.  It's then that we learn something that I'd suspected--The Doctor has been erasing himself from all of time and space!

The Doctor realizes that to free River, he's going to have to break her wrist. THAT was what Amy read in the book, and now he has no choice.
Amy realizes that the chapter titles might help them and they're also spoiler-free. The Doctor has a look.
Through those, they discover that Rory is in the cellar and Amy goes off to find him.
Then the Doctor sees one that literally makes him stagger. And then it makes him VERY angry. More angry than I think I've ever seen him!
The chapter is called, "Amelia's Last Farewell". (And this is the spot where I started crying in my rewatch)
He growls at River to get her wrist out on her own without breaking it and storms off.

Amy and the Doctor discover that they're too late, and that the baby angels have once again sent Rory elsewhere.
They're trying to figure out where he could be when River comes in and says she knows where he is. He's been moved in space, but not time.
The Doctor is very happy to see that she's gotten herself free and that her wrist is okay. He knows now that time can be changed and that there's hope!
....until he grabs River's hand as he dashes off to save Rory and she screams in pain.
Time hasn't changed after all.
He helps her heal with regeneration energy (yes, I'll talk more about this later), and River gets mad. It's a waste of regeneration energy.
She tells him he's a sentimental idiot and that he embarrasses her--which is a VERY similar statement to what HE said to HER in The Wedding of River Song, hmm?

Amy asks River why she lied and River replies, "Never let him see the damage. And never, ever let him see you age. He doesn't like endings." LOVED that bit!

Oh, and that guy who was obsessed with angels? Well, we don't need to bother with him anymore. He got exactly what he wanted. (Also, that guy was Mike McShane. You might remember him from the British version of Who's Line Is It Anyway? Yeah, he's lost a TON of weight!)

Meanwhile, Rory is in the same building we saw in the opening....and I believe we all knew what was coming here.
The Doctor, Amy and River catch up, just as Rory enters his older-self's apartment.
Older-Rory sees Amy, takes her hand and dies.

The Doctor realizes that the angels will zap anyone who tries to escape the building and feed off their time energy over and over again.
They need to get out to create a paradox that will kill all the angels.

Rory and Amy run, and the angels chase them to the roof of the building, where they're met by...the Statue of Liberty. (*facepalm* I'll go into that later, yep.)
Rory realizes that if he jumps off the building, the paradox will be created and the angels will die, which means that they'll be sent back to the correct timeline!
....but he's not certain if that's how it works.

Amy climbs up with him (this is where I started to cry during my first watch) and they jump together.
"Together...or not at all."
(The music was BRILLIANT in this scene!!)

The paradox works, and all four are sent back to the graveyard, 2012.
But...one angel survived. And it zaps Rory back.


Because the timelines are completely screwed up, the Doctor can't go back for him. Another paradox would rip the city apart.
Amy realizes that the only way she can be with Rory is to be zapped back to him.
She says goodbye to her daughter, "Melody, you look after him. And you be a good girl and you look after him."
The Doctor pleads with her, "You are creating a fixed time. I will never be able to see you again."
Amy just wants to be with her soulmate, "I'll be fine. I'll be with him."
The Doctor cries. Amy cries. River cries. I cry.

"Raggedy Man...Goodbye."

Amy blinks.

In the TARDIS, River pilots and tells the Doctor not to travel alone.
He asks her to go with him, and she says yes...but not all the time.
She mentions the book, and that she'll have to send it to Amy to be published. And that she'll tell Amy to write an afterword. For him.

The Doctor travels back to New York city, to the rock where he ripped out the last page of the book.


"Hello, old friend. And here we are. You and me, on the last page. By the time you read these words, Rory and I will be long gone, so know that we lived well, and were very happy. And above all else, know that we will love you, always.
"Sometimes I do worry about you, though. I think...once we're gone...you won't be coming back here for awhile, and you might be alone...which you should never be. Don't be alone, Doctor.
"And do one more thing for me...
"There's a little girl, waiting in a garden. She's going to wait a long while, so she's going to need a lot of hope.
Go to her. tell her a story. Tell her that if she's patient, the days are coming that she'll never forget.
"Tell her she'll go to sea and fight pirates. She'll fall in love with a man who'll wait 2000 years to keep her safe. Tell her she'll give hope to the greatest painter who ever lived. And save a whale in outer space. 
"Tell her...this is the story of Amelia Pond. And this is how it ends."

I LOVE the fact that, the WHOLE TIME they traveled together, Amy KNEW about many of the adventures that would happen...because he went back and TOLD HER when she was 12 years old!!

Amazing. Astounding. Brilliant. Emotional. Wonderful.
For me, this was the perfect send-off for our Ponds. They live. They're together. They live long, happy lives.
What more could we want for them?

Things I'm going to ignore:
-Amy's parents and Brian. Yes, I know they'll be devastated. I'm sure the Doctor will explain to Brian, and I'm just going to pretend Amy doesn't have parents.
-The Statue of Liberty-angel. No. Just...no. First, it would never be able to move because someone is ALWAYS watching it. Second, it would step on hundreds of people. Third, it's just stupid!
-The fact that River could have gone back to see her parents, Amy and Rory could have met the Doctor in another city or another time. I'm covering my ears and signing loudly. I CAN'T HEAR YOU, LALALALA.
-The regeneration energy. No, the Doctor has never really used that before. No, I don't care that it was a cop-out. No, I don't care that it's a misuse of what regenerating is. Shaddup!

You guys, it's a TV show. It's WHY I love TV. I can suspend belief. I can forget about laws and physics and just WATCH and FEEL.
Never forget why you love this show!

Now, if I may gloat here for a moment, I'd like to mention that 2 1/2 years of saying, "That scene in The Eleventh Hour HAD TO mean something!! The TARDIS noise, the smile...It HAD to!!", has FINALLY paid off.
YEAH, BABY! I KNEW IT!
Ahem...

Other theories I'd mentioned about The Angels Take Manhattan that came true:
-Rory getting zapped back in time and Amy having to witness him dying.
-Amy getting herself zapped back.
-Amy and Rory getting trapped in the past.
-The Doctor being unable to rescue them.
-Amy and Rory living a long, happy life together in the past.
-The stupid Statue of Liberty-angel (said that one after Blink, for God sake!)

Best parts of the episode:
-THE WHOLE THING!!
-Validation that River and the Doctor are indeed very married.
-The Rory/Amy scene on the roof.
-Matt Smith in the graveyard. MY GOD, HE's AMAZING.
-The music was brilliant all the way through.
-Matt filmed the scene on the bench where he's reading Amy's afterword in front of hundreds of onlookers in New York. It amazes me how much emotion he can show with so much distraction!
-"You think you'll just come back to life?"
"When don't I?"
-Karen in the graveyard. THAT'S what I've been waiting for since Vincent and the Doctor! THAT emotion from her. Brilliant job!
-That ending. That wonderful, wonderful ending. What an amazing payoff. Moffat, you brilliant man, having that planned for years!

And finally, what questions do we have after this episode?
-Will the Doctor be okay?
-How will he react?
-How will he manage?
-When will we see River again? (When the Doctor has a 'haircut and a new suit', right before she goes to the library?!?)
-How will the new companion be introduced?
-How will the Doctor accept her?
-How long will he travel alone before he meets her?

And lastly, the opening sequence this week was very dark, and then green (?!), there were TONS of flickering lights, but NO mention of Christmas.

And here's your Christmas teaser.

Now, I would really LOVE to hear your thoughts on the Pond's farewell episode, you guys!
Did you love it? Hate it? Bawl your eyes out?

Okay, everyone--That's it for me and Doctor Who until Christmas!
See you back here in 3 months!