History Recap / DoctorWho2015CSTheHusbandsOfRiverSong

The Doctor and River head for the TARDIS, parked in town. Hydroflax's robot body follows in pursuit, having taken Nardole's head hostage. At the TARDIS, River reveals she's "borrowed" the TARDIS without the Doctor's knowledge on many previous occasions, to his surprise. She also gives him the most unnecessary forewarning in the history of the show about the [[BiggerOnTheInside discrepancy]] between the inside and outside of the ship. The Doctor takes advantage of this, and River's continuing ignorance of his identity, to give the [[LargeHam hammiest]] ever "reaction" to the TARDIS' interior. He thinks that's how everyone ought to react. It also transpires that River has a liquor cabinet behind a roundelle in the console room he didn't know about.[[note]]In "Twice Upon A Time" we learn that the First Doctor had a similar one in his console room, so the Twelfth Doctor may just not have realized it was still there or that River knew about it.[[/note]]

* Perhaps most importantly, it brings the story of River Song full circle, depicting the circumstances of her and the Doctor's last night together before his tenth self met her in a certain Library.

!!Tropes:

-->''And they all lived happily ever after...''\\
''And they all lived happily''\\
''happily''

Written by Creator/StevenMoffat. The 2015 ''Series/DoctorWho'' ChristmasEpisode.

The one [[BookEnds that closes the book on the tale of River Song...]] [[WhereItAllBegan from where it all began.]]

* KillEmAll: The luxury starship ''Harmony and Redemption'' goes down with all hands and passengers lost. This may be the first time in ''Doctor Who'' history where an entire passenger vessel going down with no survivors unambiguously qualifies as a [[AssholeVictim happy ending.]]

* UnwillingRoboticisation: A humourous version of this happens when Nardole and Ramone have their heads removed and placed in Hydroflx's body. Years later they are still there, but have grown used to this.

** The Doctor's actions in the climax and denouement of this story reflect how the events of the final stretch of Series 9 changed him. As a man who doesn't like endings, he was long unwilling to see through his final night with River Song; indeed, had Clara not intervened in the climax of "[[Recap/DoctorWho2013CSTheTimeOfTheDoctor The Time of the Doctor]]", his previous self would have ''died'' having never having seen it through and likely caused a RealityBreakingParadox! Eventually he came to love and depend upon Clara all too much, was DrivenToMadness in the wake of her unjust death, and attempted to fulfill a TragicDream of bringing her back to life and perhaps staying with her forever -- which threatened the universe much the way River choosing not to shoot the Doctor in Series 7 did. But "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E12HellBent Hell Bent]]" ended with him understanding at last that the loss of loved ones can only be accepted; he even endured MindRape of his personal memories of Clara to be his best self again and regain his lost sanity. With this, upon realizing how much he's hurt River by never fully returning her love to the point that she doubts he's even capable of the emotion (and realizing that they're not as different as he might have once thought) he finally makes an effort to do so. Instead of trying to flee or change fate, he faces it and creates the best final night possible for them. Thus he is finally able to [[EarnYourHappyEnding earn his happy ending]].

* OhCrap: River is quite confident that her deal will go smoothly, despite the fact that the item she's trading is lodged inside a king's head... until she finds out that she is doing business with people ''working for that king'' and unaware she intended to kill him.

** The Doctor's actions in the climax and denouement of this story reflect how the events of the final stretch of Series 9 changed him. As a man who doesn't like endings, he was long unwilling to see through his final night with River Song; indeed, had Clara not intervened in the climax of "[[Recap/DoctorWho2013CSTheTimeOfTheDoctor The Time of the Doctor]]", his previous self would have ''died'' having never having seen it through and likely caused a RealityBreakingParadox! Eventually he came to love and depend upon Clara all too much, was DrivenToMadness in the wake of her unjust death, and attempted to fulfill a TragicDream of bringing her back to life and perhaps staying with her forever -- which threatened the universe much the way River choosing not to shoot the Doctor in Series 7 did. But "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E12HellBent Hell Bent]]" ended with him understanding at last that the loss of loved ones can only be accepted; he even endured MindRape of his personal memories of Clara to be his best self again and regain his lost sanity. With this, upon realizing how much he's hurt River by never fully returning her love to the point that she doubts he's even capable of the emotion (and realizing that they're NotSoDifferent as he might have once thought) he finally makes an effort to do so. Instead of trying to flee or change fate, he faces it and creates the best final night possible for them. Thus he is finally able to [[EarnYourHappyEnding earn his happy ending]].