October 31, 2015

5 Ideas On How Osgood Is Back

Guest contributor Rowan Wood offers some final theories.

After her brutal murder in Death in Heaven and Steven Moffat’s dream-crushing letter in Doctor Who Magazine, it seemed like Ingrid Oliver’s character would never return. Then, in early May 2015, Osgood’s return was surprisingly announced for a two-part story in Series 9 that would feature the return of the Zygons. The first part of the story airs this weekend, and I’m here to offer my thoughts on how she could be back.

Missy killed a Zygon

osgood-zygon-day

Yes, yes, I know that in DWM Moffat told a fan that the Osgood that Missy killed was not the Zygon double from The Day of the Doctor. But we all know that Rule #1 is that the Doctor lies, and there is no reason why this couldn’t apply to Moffat too, is there?

…Or it is simply the Zygon that is still living?

It is likely that the Zygon copy of Osgood (let’s call her Ozgood) simply retained her memories like the rest of the Zygons. As seen in the Next Time trailer, the Zygons kidnapped Os(z)good for purposes unknown. Perhaps it was actually Ozgood they kidnapped to use as bait for the humans and then revealing that she was actually a Zygon? That would explain the army of Zygons facing Clara and Jac didn’t include Os(z)good. Or maybe it could be the other way around.

As Moffat himself said: “The brilliant Ingrid Oliver is back in action. This time though, can the Doctor trust his number one fan?”

The Doctor saved Osgood

zygon-invasion-nightmare-scenario In the trailer, we see the Doctor received a ‘Nightmare Scenario’ message from Osgood. Maybe then, realizing that Osgood had to be in the present day to send him the message, he traveled back in time to before Missy killed Osgood and brought her back to the present day? If he did this, though, he would create a huge paradox, and, as any Doctor Who fan knows, they’re not as easy to escape from as you might think.

Missy did not kill Osgood

osgood-glasses-death I know this is a long shot, but it is possible that the Mistress of evil did not kill Osgood after all, but instead might have done a Delgado and shrunk her, or at least teleported her? Below I have my explanations for both theories.

While Roger Delgado’s Master used the Tissue Compression Eliminator and killed his victims while shrinking them, Missy might have just shrunk Osgood but left her glasses normal-sized for one reason or another (maybe just to step on them to illustrate the Mistress’s tendency to gloat)
In The Magician’s Apprentice, we were left with the apparent deaths of Clara, Missy and the TARDIS. However, in The Witch’s Familiar it was revealed that they all teleported in some way. Missy could have easily teleported Osgood to another location to get her off her hands, and just left the glasses to make the Doctor believe that she had killed her. This would seem more reasonable than the other explanation, but the only other piece of evidence that would go against this theory would be that Missy whispered to Osgood, “I’m going to kill you in a minute,” and we usually don’t argue with the words of the Mistress.

Osgood’s sister is her twin

osgoods-picture-zygon-invasion In The Day of the Doctor, Osgood’s Zygon duplicate taunted her, saying she was “jealous of her pretty sister.” Who exactly is Osgood’s sister? Is it safe to assume that her surname is Osgood as well? Dare we assume that they are twins???