WARNING: SPOILERS, sweetie
In which an alien invasion is thwarted by pictures of Bill’s
mom.
The Monks have taken over the Earth, brainwashing the entire
human race into believing they’ve been on Earth since the beginning of human
civilization, when in reality, it’s only been a few months. Those who defy this
new truth are oppressed. Bill – the cause of the Monks’ takeover – is
struggling to remember what’s real. Along with Nardole, they scheme to take the
Monks down and restore the Earth to normalcy. But it proves to be quite the
challenge, as the Doctor has seemingly joined the Monks’ cause.
The concept of false memories has always been a terrifying
prospect for me. Your mind tells you things have happened, you have vivid
memories of events that have transpired, but in the real world, none of it was
real. It would really make one lose trust in themselves. After all, if you
can’t trust your own mind, what else can you believe in?
The Monks’ plan does seem to run into a contradiction from
the previous episode, however. Last episode, they said they wanted to be loved,
as ruling through love is more effective than ruling through fear. And while
brainwashing humanity into believing that the Monks have been helping them
throughout their history does add to the adoration factor, I’m not sure if
violently detaining people who know the truth is helping matters. They do have
a scene where people are cheering at an execution, and these people are
probably viewed as criminals in the brainwashed society, but I feel like this
kind of pseudo-dictatorship should raise a few more concerns than it does.
Not much comes from the plot point of Bill being the one who
made the deal with the Monks. She’s made an important figure by being the
“lynchpin” of the Monk’s brainwashing, but she doesn’t really show much guilt
over how everything in this episode is her fault. There’s only one scene where
someone – the Doctor – calls her out on how selfish her deal ended up being,
but after that, everyone seems to forgive her as they work to stop the Monks.
Even though they wouldn’t have to stop the Monks if Bill didn’t try to restore
the Doctor’s sight.
It’s also established that because Bill has basically become
the center of the Monks’ brainwashing, killing her would break the link, and
everything would go back to normal. Does this create a moral dilemma with the
Doctor over what’s more important, the life of his companion or the saving of
Earth? Briefly, but it doesn’t create as much moral friction as I had hoped.
Instead of the Doctor being forced to make a hard life-or-death decision, the
Monks are defeated with the power of love or something.
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| Uh-oh, Grandpa fell asleep in the La-Z-Boy again. |
And the Monks – this big threat of the season’s three-part
story – are defeated entirely too easy. For an enemy that was able to set up a
sophisticated simulation that proves that they know humanity inside and out,
and who were able to accurately predict the potential end of the world, the
Monks are defeated by simply broadcasting happy thoughts into the minds of
everyone on Earth to break their brainwashing. The episode does establish that
there’s only twelve Monks, so their numbers and resources and fairly minimal,
but for the build-up they got, their undoing was a disappointment.
Oh, and speaking of disappointments, let’s talk about that
totally stupid fake-out regeneration. This fake-out had been teased since the
second trailer for Series 10, and everyone knew it was a fake-out. But,
everyone wanted to see exactly what would come of it. Maybe it would be a way
to restore the Doctor’s sight. Maybe him regenerating would end the Monks’
brainwashing. This could have been the emotional climax of the episode, with
Bill being forced to shoot her friend to save the world. But what really
happens? The Doctor is testing Bill to make sure she’s not brainwashed, with
her gun being full of blanks and the regeneration just to make it look
authentic. But my question is: Why did it need to look authentic? Why couldn’t
Bill have shot him with blanks and then the Doctor reveals it’s all been a
test? The fake regeneration is particularly unnecessary because, as far as I
know, the Doctor never told Bill about regeneration. So who was he trying to
trick? It wasn’t the other soldiers or Nardole. They were in on the plan. The
only possible answer is that the show was trying to trick us, the audience.
Meaning that the Doctor wasted regenerative energy for absolutely no reason
other than a cheap fake-out to an audience he doesn’t even know exists. At
least when Ten did his fake regeneration, it was left as a cliffhanger leading
into the next episode, and it actually started out as a real regeneration.
Missy is also in this episode, but her role isn’t as big as
I predicted. She does help out the protagonists greatly in telling them exactly
how to stop the Monks and conflicting the Doctor over what to do, but then
she’s gone. She doesn’t even get to leave the vault. There’s a scene at the end
with her and the Doctor talking, and Missy reveals that she genuinely feels
remorse over all the people she’s killed. I understand that that the scene was
meant to show Missy’s character development, but the scene is inserted into the
episode so awkwardly that it doesn’t flow. It’s over too quick, and leaves the
episode without a really satisfying punch.
For all the build-up, “The Lie of the Land” was a bit of a letdown.
I mostly enjoyed the Monks Trilogy for the interesting ideas it presented, and
the Monks themselves were creepy and competent enough to keep my interest. But
this final part just didn’t hold up to the rest. There was potential, and there’s
some good emotional acting from Pearl Mackie and Peter Capaldi. But overall, it
did not live up to the hype of the previous episodes. Out of these three
episodes, I think “Extremis” is the strongest one. Sad that it’s the first part
that’s the best, though.
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| It's as if millions of fans cried out in anger, and then were suddenly silenced. |
Final verdict: 7/10.
NEXT WEEK: Victorian-era soldiers…on Mars?
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