History Recap / DoctorWhoS35E10FaceTheRaven

** The episode has a moody setting and involves a supernatural corvid and the notion that one should come to terms with a beloved person's death by other means than seeking and enacting revenge on the people responsible. [[Film/TheCrow Hm...]]

Written by Sarah Dollard, this episode's events [[http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/doctor-who/news/a774482/doctor-who-fans-the-bbc-has-revealed-how-tonights-episode-will-end-and-its-a-shocker/ open the three part Series 9 finale]], with Clara Oswald's fate the turning point of the entire season.

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* AmbiguouslyBi: Clara, reminiscing about her mutual pranks with Jane Austen, gushes, "She is the worst. I love her. ''(beat)'' Take that how you like."

** Mr. Rump, both disguised as a human and in his true form, bears a strong resemblance to [[Franchise/XMen Wolverine]].

** The item underneath has its identity given away by what the Aurebesh text reads. It's a [[Film/BackToTheFuture flux capacitor]] because the banner reads "[[http://why-is-a-mouse-when-it-spins.tumblr.com/post/133706552494/okay-so-i-just-finished-watching-doctor-who-with Delorean]]".

* FreezeFrameBonus: Just before Clara persuades Rigsy to give her the chronolock, a poster with [[Film/BackToTheFuture "Delorean"]] written on it in [[Franchise/StarWars Aurebesh]] can be seen in the background.

[[TonightSomeoneDies The one where Clara]] [[TheLostLenore went the way of Lenore...]] [[Creator/EdgarAllanPoe doomed to the fate of NEVERMORE.]]

* BatmanGambit: Ashildr (or, and more likely, the people behind her) engineered Rigsy's FrameUp to lure the Doctor to the Trap Street, because she knows he can't resist a mystery. It's all so she could deliver him to some unknown party. However it backfired -- because Clara took Ashildr's {{Jerkass}} facade at face value and took the deathlock off Rigsy, being confident Ashildr would never let her die, she unwittingly made it impossible to remove the deathlock and doomed herself needlessly.

* LoveMakesYouEvil: When the Doctor freaks out at Ashildr over Clara's impending demise, not only does he threaten to destroy her and everyone she loves (implying everyone on the trap street), he says he'll do so using the military (clearly indicated over the previous two series as ''not'' being his favourite people) ''and'' the ruthless Daleks and Cybermen who are his mortal enemies. To put a bow on it, he even momentarily denounces his own name, "The Doctor", which in the mythos of the series is A. Huge. Thing. (the last time he did so, he became the War Doctor and did things that made him try to bury the memory of that incarnation forever). Clara literally spends nearly all of the rest of her (natural, anyway) life talking him down... and once she's gone and he's teleported away there's literally ''no one'' to encourage him not to become a WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds.

* YouCalledMeXItMustBeSerious: Rigsy reacts in fear when the Doctor calls him "Rigsy" rather than using a nickname. [[AllThereInTheManual in the published script for the episode,]] a deleted scene after Clara's death has the Doctor asking Rigsy permission to call him that before requesting that he notify Clara's family and school of her death.

* EnemyMine: Although Clara calms him down before we find out if this was anything more than FreakOut-related bluster, the Doctor claims that not only is he capable of bringing recognized allies such as UNIT and the Zygons down upon Ashildr and trap street, but he's willing to bring in his mortal enemies the Daleks and Cybermen as well.

The Doctor and Clara arrive in Rigsy's flat, and meet his baby daughter Lucy. Rigsy doesn't remember the previous day at all. According to his girlfriend, he left before dawn, and came home after midnight, and the screen of his phone is now cracked. The Doctor is seriously alarmed at the sight of Rigsy's tattoo, and he is invited aboard the TARDIS, but told to leave the "new human" behind, because the Doctor might get distracted.

** Clara is fearless in her efforts to save Rigsy, even taking on his death sentence as part of her plan, sure that she'll be able to get it lifted. It helps her case that Rigsy was effectively her companion in "Flatline", where she had to be the Doctor for the day while he was trapped, and Rigsy calls ''her'' when he needs help now. Clara's not just a PluckyGirl, she's the Impossible Girl who survived the Doctor's own timestream and endured myriad perils and traumas with him. Clara can stand as the equal of the Doctor, down to his ChronicHeroSyndrome. And by the end of this episode, she is desperately whispering "Let me be brave..." as she faces her death, and goes to her grave fearing that her demise will turn her dearest friend and the greatest healer in the universe into a WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds.Cranked UpToEleven when viewed in concert with the later episode "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E12HellBent Hell Bent]]", in which we discover that the Clara we see who faces the raven, screams and dies is an untold number of years older than the one who walked into the street, who has experienced untold adventures... yet something in her future makes her eventually decide to return to meet her death.

* TranquilFury: After Clara's death, right before he's teleported, the Doctor tells Ashildr that, despite him trying his best to not seek revenge upon her, she should avoid him at all costs. "You'll find it's a very small universe when I'm angry with you." All without raising his voice. And it's utterly terrifying to watch. (UpToEleven when one recalls "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E6TheWomanWhoLived The Woman Who Lived]]" in which the Doctor points out that, despite being functionally immortal, it ''is'' possible for Ashildr to be killed.)

* NotSoDifferent: Ashildr believes the Trap Street is a preferable situation for the alien refugees compared to the Zygons' treaty with UNIT. But they're not; both of the arrangements are just powder kegs ready to go off (and the Zygon deal ''did'' blow up albeit temporarily). Rump even tells Clara the reason they all ''want'' Rigsy to be the killer is because, if it is an alien, all hell would break loose amongst them.

* RealityEnsues: After years of beating the odds with the Doctor, Clara thinks there's no life-threatening situation they can't escape. She's wrong. When the Doctor makes a fatal mistake, he can regenerate. Despite being portrayed as his DistaffCounterpart, that's one option Clara doesn't have.

Written by Sarah Dollard, this episode's events [[http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/doctor-who/news/a774482/doctor-who-fans-the-bbc-has-revealed-how-tonights-episode-will-end-and-its-a-shocker/ open the three part series 9 finale]], with Clara Oswald's fate the turning point of the entire season.

[[caption-width-right:350:[[TonightSomeoneDies Who will]] [[TitleDrop face the raven?]][[note]][[CaptainObvious Perhaps the person]] [[{{Foreshadowing}} in the center of the frame?]][[/note]]]]

* DeathIsDramatic: The final minutes of Clara's life play this trope to the hilt as they play out all of the FiveStagesOfGrief: The Doctor rages at Ashildr, Clara ponders her fate and gives him a loving FinalSpeech to motivate him ''not'' to seek revenge, he is driven to tears, they (in their own unique ways) express their love for each other one last time, and finally she heads out to face her fate. The death itself happens in slow motion with no sound effects, just background music (though Clara's scream can still be heard if you listen carefully), she dies with a CrucifiedHeroShot, and the Doctor, while promising to try and fulfill Clara's wish that he not become a monster, nonetheless ends the episode by putting the fear of god into an immortal.

** The Doctor told O'Donnell, who greatly admired him, to stay behind in the TARDIS when they traveled back to TheEighties in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E4BeforeTheFlood Before the Flood]]", but she was hot to go with him and Bennett and the Doctor didn't force the issue. For her recklessness, she ended up dead, and the Doctor (being a PragmaticHero) made the best of it, as it were, by having this confirm his theory on the message his ghost in the future was sending. Clara's death here is also attributable to recklessness inspired by the Doctor's example, and the Doctor not doing enough to discourage it though he was aware of it -- [[SenselessSacrifice and it doesn't even serve a greater purpose this time]], since Ashildr's plan could have wrapped up with no one dying at all had Clara not interfered.

* InTheEndYouAreOnYourOwn: As part of Clara's FinalSpeech, she warns the Doctor (about to be delivered into the hands of his enemies) that he will be alone in his coming ordeal. Knowing he tends to handle being alone poorly, she orders him to honor her memory by ''not'' becoming a warrior again. Moments later, she nearly invokes the trope by name by saying "in the end, everyone does this (dies) alone".

* MoralityChainBeyondTheGrave: Given her final speech, Clara clearly hopes to be this to the Doctor -- she knows he doesn't handle being alone well and has committed atrocious acts in his lives when in the throes of despair. She specifically calls back to her climactic speech to the Eleventh Doctor in "[[Recap/DoctorWho50thASTheDayOfTheDoctor The Day of the Doctor]]", urging the Twelfth to be a doctor, not a warrior. The Doctor's final speech to Ashildr, before he is teleported away, suggests that though he wants to honor Clara's memory by not giving in to anguish and rage, living up to his chosen name will be ''very, very'' difficult for him in the immediate future.

* TooHappyToLive: The Doctor and Clara spent the last two-plus seasons growing closer and closer to the point of being, per the actors themselves, in an old-fashioned romance, who found joy in traveling the universe, righting wrongs, and caring about each other; as this episode begins they've come back from their latest wacky adventure smiling and laughing. The entire remainder of Series 9 tears their happiness apart, but also plays with the trope in that, as previous episodes pointed out, they could never be happy forever anyway -- and unless they accept this sad reality, accept their codependence on each other as unhealthy, and move on to other people and adventures they'll never be the best people they can be.

* FamousLastWords: "Let me be brave... let me be brave..."