All aboard the Feels Rollercoaster!

• Clara is the Doctor, again: This was actually a smart move on Clara’s part, even if it wasn’t entirely clear what she hoped to get out of this gambit, it did buy her time for something to happen.
• Selfies with the Cybermen: If you’re surprised by people taking pictures of those things instead of running for their lives, I’ve got some beachfront property in Arizona you might be interested in.
• U.N.I.T. Surprise: Damn guys, that’s some S.H.I.E.L.D. level sneakiness right there!
• Bowties are cool: You go, Osgood.  You go.
• Kate Introduces Herself: Can I just talk about how much we learn about Kate from her little speech?  Character Expansion done right, people.
• The Doctor: “Guard the Graveyards!”  Clara: *Wakes up in graveyard*  Me: …Oops.
• U.N.I.T. is looking a lot like the British version of S.H.I.E.L.D., can we say crossover?
• Clara in the Graveyard: This scene was just plain creepy, and I loved it.  More like this please!
• The Brig’s Goal: I really like how Kate keeps a portrait of her dad on the plane, a friendly reminder of how important he is to her.
• Hail to the Chief: Somehow I don’t think that you could get every country on the planet to agree on one President of Earth, even if it is the Doctor.
• It’s Raining Cybermen: Now, this doesn’t really fit with what we’ve seen of the Cybermen, but I think that Missy did some upgrading of her own.
• Danny the Cyberman: This can only end badly.
• The Death of Osgood: Excuse the unladylike language but; fuck you, Missy.
• The Inhibitor: See?!  What did I tell you?!
• Missy vs. The Doctor Part 1: Killing Osgood, bad move Missy.  Sending Kate out of the airplane, really bad move.  Blowing up Belgium, have you ever heard of overkill Missy?
• The Disintegration of Seb: Bye Seb, you won’t be missed.
• The Doctor’s Intervention: Ouch, I knew that was gonna hurt, I just didn’t know how bad.
• Missy vs. the Doctor Part 2: Okay, so Missy’s plan was to build a massive Cyber-army to give to the Doctor so he could use it to save people and worlds that he couldn’t on his own.  I know that Missy is nuts, but jeez, this is what she came up with to get him to pay attention to her?  Missy, you need some therapy girl.
• Danny Steps Up: Danny you beautiful idiot, you will be missed.
• A Salute for the Brig: Okay this?  This is where I teared up.  Where else would the Brig be indeed.
• One Trip: This is such a Danny thing, we almost should have seen it coming.
• The Parting of the Ways Redux: The more I think about this ending, the more sense it makes given everything we’ve seen from the these two.  Would they lie to each other just to keep the other one from worrying?  You bet they would.  And given the lies they told, it makes sense that they would see their partnership as over.  The lies will come to light eventually, at least I think they will, and when they do there’s going to be a lot of hurt feelings and explanations that are going to need to be made.
• Guess Who’s Coming to Town: If they can have a Robin Hood episode, why can’t Santa show up?

And that’s it ’till the Christmas Special!  A mixed season overall, but it did get better at the end.

So that happened!

• Wait, what?! : Not five minutes in, and we’ve already had a major character death.  This does not bode well.
• Clara’s Betrayal: Clara, nothing good ever comes from threatening the Doctor.  You should know that!
• The Doctor Cares: It would have been really nice to see a bit more of this before now, but it is nice to see that the Doctor really does care about what happens to his companions.
• I’m Exactly What You Deserve: Given what we saw in the previous scene, and what we’ve been seeing this whole series, I’d say that’s true.
• Danny’s Dead: *nods* Yup, that’s about the reaction you’d expect.
• Giving the Doctor Some Attitude: I think that the Doctor is a bit weirded out by Clara’s grief and her betrayal.  He’s far more used to her being right there with him and right now she isn’t.
• The Welcome Package: I…have no idea what to do with this.  And apparently the Doctor doesn’t either.
• It would be a serious problem if Clara was okay: I’m gonna agree with the Doctor on this one, what with the creepy skeletons in water and the snogging androids and all that.
• Ipads in the Afterlife: I don’t think that Steve Jobs had much to do with the Ipad, but whatever.
• Dark Water: You almost have to wonder what’s in those thanks that you can’t see…
• Clara Will Be Fine: Nothing really interesting to point out here, I just really liked Clara threatening to detach something from the Doctor if he spoke for her again.
• Danny and the kid: Oof, yeah, I can see how that might haunt someone.
• Three words: …damn.  If that were true, I would be changing my living will so fast!
• “Be Strong, Even if it Breaks Your Heart”: Uh-oh
• And in case you’ve managed to miss any hints about what’s really going on here, the doors are happy to give you a nice big hint.
• So yes, the Cybermen are back!  I’m actually glad about this, I like the Cybermen a villains and it’s nice to see a classic villain getting some love this series.
• Something Only Danny Would Say: Danny would say something that he knows will keep Clara out of danger, and that’s exactly what he did.
• Pesky Emotions: Oh shit…
• Missy is Short For…: CALLED IT!

So yeah, I really liked this episode.  It’s a nice, strong first part to a season finale, now let’s just hope that they can keep it up next week.