Doctor Who Recap: Pod Complex

Breaking up with the Doctor is never easy, even if there are no romantic feelings involved. This week, we’re hitting pause on the Doctor and Belinda’s adventures to see how former companion Ruby Sunday is holding up. (Spoiler: not so great.) Ruby left the TARDIS last season to focus on her own life and newly expanded family, but she still hasn’t been able to shake off the stress of everything she experienced. Jonah Hauer-King’s Conrad Clark is initially presented to us as a nice rebound who’s helping her reintegrate into everyday society by allowing her to be vulnerable, validating her, and generally just not putting her life in danger when they hang out. This episode is, in part, a story about dealing with PTSD, but the idea that Ruby should relax or let her guard down is complicated by the fact that it actually makes sense that a past companion with a direct line to UNIT could still in be danger … and not necessarily only from gods or predator aliens. Humans can be cruel and dangerous all on their own.

The episode opens in London on New Year’s Day 2007. Belinda, the Doctor, and his vindicator are still bouncing through time trying to get back to 2025. When they meet a little boy named Conrad, the Doctor says it’s his lucky day and gives him a 50-pence coin. Conrad, who has been unsettlingly blank-faced so far, finally gets excited when he tries to get his mother to come see this mysterious blue box. But she just scoffs. “Enough with the lies,” she says, and smacks him on the head.

Conrad grows up to become a man with a podcast mic, which honestly maybe should’ve been the first red flag. But at first, we’re supposed to believe that he’s a nice guy who’s just breathlessly curious about the Doctor and UFOs. Last year, he saw the TARDIS on the street and heard snarling from a nearby shop. Instead of acting like someone who would survive a horror movie and sprint out of the creepy mannequin-filled room, he stays long enough for a Shreek to mark him with what appears to be slime from the Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards.

The Doctor rounds the corner with Ruby — still an active companion at this point, fresh off of meeting Maestro and the Beatles — and explains that the green goo is essentially vomit that identifies the future prey of a Shreek. The red-eyed alien in question is zapped back to its hive, and the Doctor gives Ruby an antidote to drink so that she can’t be tracked.

Conrad snaps a picture of Ruby getting into the TARDIS, and starts looking for her. Their meet-cute happens a year later when she shows up to guest on his podcast (which has plenty of listeners, including a UNIT employee named Jordan). Conrad mentions that some trolls online believe UNIT is covering up a secret agenda, noting that the organization has been ignoring his calls to be on the pod for years. But these comments are quick; more time is spent on building Conrad up as a clumsy, inadvertently charming guy who has a crush on Ruby.

At a café, Ruby shows Conrad a video of a Shreek and explains that they hunt once a year. One of them has left its pocket dimension and found a way back to the same place on Earth where Conrad was marked … which suggests that it’s now hunting him. The café lights flicker to supplement her description of a Shreek’s ability to interfere with electricity. He uses the coin he got from the Doctor to flirt, telling her that he thinks today is actually his lucky day, and that he’ll take the antidote she gave him if she goes on a dinner date with him.

The Sundays have been wanting Ruby to move on, and they’re thrilled about Conrad. Carla tells Cherry how to find his shirtless pictures on Instagram, and I feel sure that she’s also texted Ruby’s biological mom, Louise, about the thirst traps. I love this family.

On their first date, Conrad tells Ruby that his mom died of cancer and apologizes for not being “as cool as the Doctor.” When he asks if she and the Doctor dated, Ruby winks and says that the Doctor would be flirting with him if he were there. Unlike Ruby’s friends, Conrad tells her she’s not crazy when she describes her time with the Doctor. After five dates, they make their relationship official during a trip to an English village, where she meets his friends at a pub.

Flickering lights have her on edge, and she eventually calls UNIT. Kate, apparently now in a full-blown covert workplace romance with Colonel Ibrahim, verifies that there are no Shreek in the area. She even later double-checks that the one they captured is still locked up. Back at the pub, Ruby tearfully tells Conrad that she’s realizing that she’s experiencing some level of PTSD. But she doesn’t get much time to enjoy being comforted by her new boyfriend, because it’s not long before Ruby sees several Shreek outside. Conrad confesses that he didn’t take the antidote because he wanted to be brave like the Doctor. What kind of stupid reasoning is that? He follows Ruby outside despite being told not to. They find some of his friend Sparky’s clothes outside on the ground, and Conrad says, “This is all because of me.” Well, yes!

UNIT and a team of soldiers arrive as backup, only for the Shreek to reveal themselves as humans in suits. Conrad’s entire demeanor changes as he insults Ruby and reveals that their entire relationship was a ploy so that his Think Tank podcast could livestream him accusing UNIT of lying. “It has been a chore getting to know you,” he says, and you can see Ruby’s heartbreak in real time. Okay, so Conrad might not be stupid; he’s just evil. Et tu, Prince Eric? Just in case we don’t hate him enough yet, he accuses scientific adviser and wheelchair user Shirley of “collecting benefits” and “stealing our taxes.” After getting in a final jab about Ruby’s name, he and his protester friends are arrested.

Recurring American news anchor Trinity Wells suggests that what happened amounts to fascism in the streets of Britain (mmm … maybe we should focus on what’s going on at home first, girl). Social media is on Think Tank’s side, and most people seem to be praising Conrad for his bravery in the face of armed soldiers. He goes on to dox UNIT employees, and UNIT’s funding and security status are both threatened in the wake of public protests. UNIT’s technology is even at risk of going public.

Shirley has discovered that Conrad was rejected for a job at UNIT eight years ago. The guy who is supposedly so concerned with how his taxpayer money is being used is actually dodging taxes himself, and he lied about his mom being dead. He is quick to shoot his own inside man to get into the building, and doesn’t even remember Jordan’s name afterward. It’s getting to a point where Conrad feels more like a caricature of a supervillain than a real person.

Colonel Ibrahim advises Kate to seal off the level, but she would rather confront Conrad, who is once again livestreaming. Kate has been reminded that she once interviewed him for a job, and tells him that she went back and checked her notes to find that she had written, “Don’t trust him.” He starts ranting about monster costumes, points a gun at Ruby, and insults Kate’s father.

Kate says she’s glad the Doctor isn’t here, because he would have stopped her from what she chooses to do in response: set the real Shreek on Conrad as his followers watch. “How committed are you to the lies you’ve told?” asks Kate, who is visibly enjoying watching him freak out. She wants to prove that he’s the one with a disguise on, masking the fact that what he really cares about is the power and attention he gets from fearmongering. Ruby, who wanted to help Conrad this entire time, is the one who finally steps in after Conrad begs for help and admits that he lied. He thanks her for stunning the Shreek, and she tells him to go to hell. When he starts pretending like he wasn’t scared and that this was all fake, the “special effects” in question jump up to chomp on his arm. The Shreek has good comedic timing, I’ll give it that.

Ultimately, both Conrad and Jordan survive. The fickle public is back on UNIT’s side, “hot taser lady” is trending online, and Conrad is in prison. Ruby also admits to Kate that she’s not okay, and needs time away to be on her own. Kate tells her to call when she’s ready to talk, and Shirley quips that Ruby now has three moms.

The Doctor, who has clearly been keeping tabs on Earth, brings Conrad into the TARDIS to reprimand him for betraying Ruby and using people’s fears and insecurity for his own gain. “You are exhausting,” the Doctor says. A remorseless Conrad catches him off guard by mentioning Belinda (so this is who told the Doctor her name before they met), but the Doctor regroups by telling Conrad that in the future, he dies alone in a cell at 49. Conrad rejects this reality, and annoyingly, it seems like he might not have to live it — in the final scene, Mrs. Flood identifies herself as the Governor and jangles keys in front of his bars. Bringing the episode full circle, she tells him, “It’s your lucky day.”

Cut for Time (Lord)

• Ugh, how come someone who’s actually good boyfriend material like Rogue gets booted to an unknown alternate dimension while Conrad gets to stick around? I’m not looking forward to seeing him again, but it seems fairly likely.

• Kate mentions over the phone that Mel is on her way to Sydney because there’s “something strange happening in the harbor.” Could this have anything to do with the upcoming UNIT spinoff, The War Between the Land and the Sea?

• Honestly, it is kind of impressive that Conrad went off of his memory and a video that Ruby showed him to orchestrate that entire fake Shreek trap. How did he make those costumes and give the pub lighting directions? For all his moaning about how UNIT uses actors and special effects, it seems like he’s the one with a repressed passion for filmmaking.

• I’m glad that Ruby’s moms were there to comfort her when Conrad was doing his little press tour on TV. I imagine that his picture was ripped off the fridge expeditiously. I do wonder if we’ll ever meet Ruby’s dad, whom she mentioned briefly on Conrad’s podcast.

• The Vlinx’s scan reveals that Jordan follows radical blogs, listens to revisionist podcasts, and has been using false identities. Honestly, this doesn’t reflect very well on UNIT’s background check system. You would think that having one of your employees turn out to be the harbinger of the god of death would make you examine employees more.

• We’re officially halfway through the season! It was nice to see Ruby, but I’m glad that the preview has the Doctor and Belinda together. See you next week in Nigeria!