Searching for Clara Clues in The Woman Who Lived

Guest contributor Sam White examines whether any clues to Clara’s fate can be learned.

The Woman Who Lived can be seen as a taster, a glimpse into the future, into a life beyond the days of the Doctor and Clara Oswald in the TARDIS and while I found it to be a tiny bit less appealing than The Girl Who Died, it is still one of the best episodes of Capaldi’s run for me. Being a companion-lite episode, Clara’s time on screen was reduced to only a couple of minutes. So what’s this article? Well, it’s a sort of challenge I set for myself. To salvage a whole article worth of discussion on Clara from what seems like a ridiculously small time to base any substantial arguments upon.

You see while Clara may not have been present in person, her presence in the narrative was quite pronounced in spirit. Consequently it would have been a complete waste of an opportunity to not write this article. Quite a challenge I know, but let’s not waste any more time and get down to business.

Why haven’t you made her immortal?

Ah, a question which had been perplexing fans ever since The Girl Who Died, but while the Doctor’s response – “Well, look how you turned out.”(Pointed towards Ashildr) – might seem like a deflection, it’s actually not when you think about it. There are two factors that come into play here. First is the means, because of course the Doctor doesn’t have immortality chips lying around like loose change. The second and more important reason is himself, because even if he did have access to a lifetime supply of immortality chips, the fact that he can travel in time and thus can inadvertently cause devastating tidal waves should be enough to stop him from using it on Clara. As time travellers, immortality can probably be a bigger burden to Clara and the Doctor. Imagine if either of them goes off the rails like Ashildr.

She’ll blow away like smoke.

I can’t seem to do anything but flinch at Ashildr’s remarks concerning Clara and the rest of the Doctor’s companions. While there’s truth to her words, her tone conveyed a sense of superiority and condescension that had perhaps become ingrained in her personality due to the unwelcomed gift of immortality. What is even more worrying is the direct insinuation of Clara’s death that these remarks carry. The show runners couldn’t have been more direct with regard to Clara’s fate, which makes me think whether it’s just a bluff and Moffat has something else in store for our Impossible Girl. Then again it could be a double bluff and death really is what awaits her. In any case, these lines, for the first time in the Series provided something other than subtle foreshadowing. No, this was a direct indication that we’re about to reach the final page of the chapter called Clara Oswald.

See, the mayflies, they know more than we do. They know how beautiful and precious life is because it’s fleeting.

It’s funny how the Doctor describes this defining quality of all his companions and why he chooses them, when on the other hand Clara herself seems to be growing more reckless and unconcerned about her own mortality. For the first time in Doctor Who we’ll be able to witness (hopefully) what happens to a mayfly when it dances too close to the light of an almost eternal flame. It can be argued that Clara’s character progression is a direct consequence of her realizing that life is fleeting (remember Danny Pink and Ellie Oswald), and understanding the futility of earthly ties, much like the Doctor. What’s fascinating here is that the Doctor is only telling the half-truth, carefully concealing the other end of the bargain from Ashildr, something that has been a growing cause for his concern for Clara. What effect does the Doctor have on the metaphorical mayflies?

Enemies are never a problem. It’s your friends you have to watch out for.

What does this exactly mean? Well for once I have no idea whatsoever. The closest thing the Doctor has to friends, in his knowledge at this point are Clara and Missy (bear with me, please). In any sense, the words immediately conjure a foreboding undertone, one which seems to carry subtle foreshadowing while simultaneously being indicative of extreme repercussions in the long run. Given that we already know that Clara’s time aboard the TARDIS is about to come to an end, I wonder whether and how this will tie into her arc. More to the point, it would be a shame not to tie this to her arc, especially because all the ingredients for a successful dish are already present in the narrative. Pile this one with “The friend inside the enemy, the enemy inside the friend.” thing they have going on this series. Of course a lot can be speculated based on the words alone but what I find most intriguing here is the degree to which they can stretch this theme. Just how big of an enemy can be inside a friend?

Did you miss me?

The dialogues that follow are light-hearted and whimsical or at least they appear to be so on a casual viewing but with the amount of foreshadowing going on around this series, even they are subject to heavier interpretations. The scene opens with the Doctor and his guitar in the TARDIS as he is seen absent-mindedly contemplating something, when Clara pops in and asks him the aforementioned question, in the process breaking his trance. Maybe he’s thinking about Ashildr, maybe Clara, who knows, but what struck me the most was his response “Be more specific. Who are you?”. Now envisage this, what if the Doctor forgets Clara in the end! I say this because Hell Bent (the final episode of Series 9) features the line “I think it’s called Clara.” which itself is indicative of a tone of uncertainty and unfamiliarity. Assuming the Doctor says these lines, this may very well turn out to be true. In any case, it’s something that caught my attention and I thought why not put it out there, bragging rights and all that.

Okay, Evie Hubbard? Year Seven, you helped her out with her homework?

This scene felt a bit out of place after half a series of pure other-worldly adventures away from Clara’s personal life. By bringing the focus back to her life as a teacher in Coal Hill and then highlighting the Doctor’s involvement, this scene is reminding of the relatively simpler times that were glimpsed in The Caretaker, Kill the Moon and In the Forest of the Night during Series 8. While it does provide a good amount of nostalgia, it also in the process makes Clara’s development in the Series so far, a bit questionable. It’s the normalcy of the scene which bothers me, as it does nothing to underline the progression of her arc. It would have been nice to see how she’d changed as a teacher because of the events of Series 8, perhaps something that could’ve emphasized her growing detachment from the mundane.

Are you never going to travel with me again, because I said a thing?

First of all, nice reference to Kill the Moon. What follows is the usual TARDIS banter between Clara and the Doctor and for all intents and purposes, the scene does what it’s supposed to do and it does it well. There’s intrigue in the form of Ashildr’s presence in Clara’s selfie. And there’s poignancy and warmth in the form of a hug, which is initiated by Clara this time around and gracefully accepted by the Doctor. It’s quite compelling to see just how far Clara and the Doctor have come, especially if you recall his extreme aversion to even Clara’s hugs early on Series 8. There’s no pretence in their relationship anymore, or it would appear to be so, because we know that both of them are still denying each other’s vulnerabilities, Clara in her quest for adventure and dependence on the Doctor and the Doctor in his concern for Clara.

I’m not going anywhere.

There’s even a nice parallel drawn with The Rings of Akhaten where Clara describes their next travel destination using simple adjectives and the Doctor takes the cue (Somewhere new, somewhere magical/Something awesome). But it’s the final moments, just after the hug, in which the Doctor admits to Clara that he really did miss her, and Clara assures him that she’s not going anywhere, that really form the icing on the cake. It’s reminiscent of a similar exchange between Rose and Ten in Fear Her, which was used to a similar effect, i.e. foreshadowing Rose’s departure. The episode ends with Clara awaiting their next adventure with wonder and delight, and the Doctor gazing at her, his eyes purveying thoughtfulness and pathos as he contemplates her fleeting life, realizing all too well that no matter how good, everything must come to an end.

At this point it’s quite hard to predict how things will go down and when and where will the Doctor and Clara be torn apart but with Clara’s suspiciously raven-ish necklace and Ashildr’s surprise involvement in Episode 10 – Face the Raven, all bets are off…