At the point I completed watching this episode I had taken a cumulative 3,302,141 steps on the treadmill as a part of this ridiculous project. How insane is that? When I started in February of 2017 I had no idea how long it would take or how far I would end up walking, but I never imagined this. As I barrel towards the completion of this project in just over two weeks, it's hard to comprehend just how much this stupid thing has changed me. I feel better, I look better, I have become more successful creatively, it has just been an amazing experience. I figure I have roughly 120k more steps to go, so this is the last big numerical milestone I will hit before the end. I just need to take a moment here and marvel at quite literally how far I have come in the last eighteen months.

Ok, so, now that that's done, let's talk about the first actual death of a companion since Adric helped kill off the dinosaurs in Earthshock.

Face the Raven

(TARDIS Data Core recap)

Remember Riggsy, the graffiti artist from last season's Flatline? Well, it turns out that since his adventure with the Doctor and Clara he wound up getting married, having a kid, and moving to London. Oh, and he got a tattoo on the back of his neck.

Dude! Sweet!!

Like most unfortunate tattoos, he can't remember how or where he got it. He is also for some reason disturbed the the fact that the tattoo is actually a number that is slowly counting down. So he calls Clara (like you do), the Doctor recognizes the mark as being from a Quantum Shade, and Riggsy finds out that he only has a few hours to live. Oops. This leads to a quest to find a hidden street in London, which of course they find after a montage, and then the story becomes a murder mystery. The hidden street is an alien refuge presided over by Ashildr, who nos goes by Mayor Me, and the Doctor & Clara have something like an hour to figure out Who Is The Real Killer.

Oh, and then DeathWishClara gets a Very Clever Idea that winds up getting herself killed. She learns that the mark of the Quantum Shade can be passed on to any willing recipient, and she figures if she takes it from Riggsy then he will be safe and so will she since Ashildr has already sworn to protect Clara from any harm. Clever! Except, you know, not. The whole thing turns out to be a ruse to capture the Doctor and teleport him to some unknown villain (it's totally Rassillon), and Ashildr had specifically set up the mystery in order to entice the Doctor and catch him without injuring anyone else. Only, once the Quantum Shade was passed along to Clara it became impossible for Ashildr to intervene. 

Clara will absolutely, positively die and there is nothing that anyone can do about it.

To her credit, Clara accepts full responsibility for her impeding doom, and them becomes laser focused on ensuring that the Doctor will not sully her memory by going all Lonely Vindictive God on the universe. And then she bravely meets her fate, and exits the show on a high note.

I have never particularly warmed to Clara, which has nothing to do with Jenna Coleman and everything to do with Steven Moffat's problematic writing when it comes to female characters. That being said, this is an absolutely beautiful moment. Having appeared in 40 individual episodes, she is the longest-running companion of the modern series (beating out Amy Pond by one episode), and it is nice that she got the send-off she deserved. And yes, Clara will appear again briefly in a few episodes. But no, her death will not be averted, only postponed. Her death scene here is genuine and permanent. That's a rare thing in this show.

Maisie Williams is also particularly good in this story, as one would expect. Her character of Ashildr / Mayor Me is surprisingly complex. Although she is ultimately the antagonist of the story, she is in no way a villain. She is trying to do right by the people she cares for, and while she certainly sells out the Doctor she does so because she genuinely (and not-unfoundedly) believes he is a danger.

The entire concept in this story of the Trap Street is a great one, taking an old cartographer's copyrighting trick and turning it into an alien misdirection. I love it when the show does these kind of clever things, taking fairly mundane minutiae and turning them into plot points. I love the setting, and I think it was beautifully executed.

So that's it for Clara. Now we get the bit season finale two-parter where we find out What's Really Going On, then we spend Christmas wrapping up the River Song storyline, and then another Christmas doing a Superhero Story, and then we are into the final season of this ridiculous project.  Yay!

STATS:

Doctor(s): Twelfth
Companion(s): Clara Oswald, Riggsy, Ashildr
Episode(s): Face the Raven
Steps Walked: 7,698 today, 3,502,141 total
Distance Walked: 4.21 miles today, 1,831.65 miles total
Push-ups Completed: 0 today, 6,687 total
Sit-ups Completed: 0 today, 1,029 total
Weight: 246.48 lbs (five day moving average), net change -60.82 lbs