OH SHIT YOU GUYS

DID I JUST SEE
A) ELEVEN GIVING FUCKS?
B) THE PONDS STRIKING OUT ON THEIR OWN?
C) ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF HOW FUCKED UP THE LAST FEW ADVENTURES HAVE BEEN FOR THE PONDS?
D) THE DOCTOR ACKNOWLEDGING HIS BAD HISTORY WITH COMPANIONS?
E) THE TEXT ACKNOWLEDGING THE SKEWED AMY/ELEVEN RELATIONSHIP?

OH SHIIIII---

I did have a few complaints. For one, Amy's faith in the Doctor being as far unbroken even though he failed her explicitly all season long was a bit lol-worthy. I had a suspicion the Ponds would leave at the end of this episode and I wanted it to be on their own, though I liked how this worked too. Eleven's talk he gave Amy about why she shouldn't have faith in him was a great bit of self-awareness BUT COULD'VE USED MORE MELODY REFERENCES. And of course, Amy's "hey if you see my lost baby say hi lol" bit was fucked up lol are we seriously just moving away from that plot okay fine. I was pretty sure the Ponds had a sweet set-up in Leadworth based on TIA but alright, sweet car and flat somewhere upscale and in a bigger city, that works.

BUT I liked this episode a lot. ACTUAL CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT HAPPENED YOU GUYS. ELEVEN GAVE A SHIT ABOUT THINGS. And Rita was fucking awesome. The basic idea of a hotel full of boggarts that feeds on fear and then belief was also really interesting. The speeches about the Minotaur that doubled as speeches about the Doctor were pretty good. The title was very I C WUT U DID THAR.

Basically, well played. This episode FINALLY addressed a lot of things I've been waiting for the show to address. Even if we're all still pretending Melody was a drug-induced hallucination.