‘Doctor Who: Empire of Death’ Season 1, Episode 8 Review – An Explosive, Emotionally Charged Finale

The Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) and Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson) | Photo Credit: Bad Wolf/BBC Studios/Disney+

Last week’s episode of Doctor Who saw the return of Sutekh (Gabriel Woolf), the Lord of Death, and the impending destruction of the universe. As far as the first half of a two-part finale goes, “Legend of Ruby Sunday” was about as pitch-perfect as possible. This leaves this week’s final episode, “Empire of Death”, with a tall task: take all of those dangling plot threads and weave them into a coherent whole. And, for the most part, “Empire of Death” manages to do just that. Written by Russell T. Davies and directed by Jamie Donoughue, “Empire of Death” delivers a bombastic, emotionally charged, and surprisingly melancholy conclusion to Doctor Who‘s latest season. While a bit light on plot cohesion, “Empire of Death” doubles down on the emotional beats that have held this season together thus far. And, in that respect, it largely succeeds.

Please note: this review contains spoilers for Doctor Who: Empire of Death.

An Empire of Death Brought to Its Knees

It’s the end of the road for the Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa), Mel (Bonnie Langford), and Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson). With Sutekh reigning high and mighty and the world crumbling to dust at his hands, is there any hope left for the universe? Well, as it turns out, yes. And the survival of life itself rests squarely in the secrets of Ruby Sunday’s past. With our heroes backed into a corner, having retreated into the depths of the Time Window’s projection of Christmas Eve on Ruby Road in 2004, the Doctor and his friends take refuge in a half-remembered TARDIS. A mishmash of TARDISes of old cobbled together from memory itself and barely functional – yet the only place free from Sutekh’s influence. And inside this memory TARDIS, the Doctor and his friends hatch a plan to defeat the God of Death.

As the universe lies in dust and destruction, only the Doctor, Ruby, and Mel stand strong. But why has Sutekh left them alive? What secrets does he hope to uncover with their help? And why do all roads continue pointing toward Ruby Road on Christmas Eve, 2004? Perhaps the key to Sutekh’s defeat rests in the biggest mystery of Ruby Sunday’s life. Who is her mother? While last week’s “Legend of Ruby Sunday” offered a bombastic beginning to this two-part finale, “Empire of Death” strikes an entirely different tone. Sure, there are plenty of world-ending terrors and universe-spanning stakes. But at its heart, this is a story about Ruby Sunday. This episode, more than anything else, explores the legend of Ruby Sunday. And it’s her legend that will bring an empire of death to its knees.

A Surprisingly Lackadaisical Stroll Through Death

In that respect, “Empire of Death” plays out like a traditional Russell T. Davies finale – heavy on character beats and light on plot cohesion. If you entered this episode hoping to make sense of Sutekh’s plans, change those expectations at once. Almost every question left by the cliffhanger at the end of “The Legend of Ruby Sunday”  is answered with a mere “just because” and a shrug of the shoulders. Why did Sutekh wait this long to unleash his revenge? Just because. What is his ultimate endgame? Something, something, something the silence of death? A big shrug of the shoulders. And what about Susan Triad (Susan Twist) and her frequent appearances throughout the season? Well, that’s about as close as the episode comes to explaining part of Sutekh’s plan – and that explanation genuinely raises the stakes in a nail-biting way.

As for everything else, it’s all a little bit ho-hum for a finale. And a lot of that comes down to the episode’s strange pacing. Put simply, there’s no real sense of the passage of time here. Essentially, the episode is divided into three parts – three long scenes. And there’s some kind of a time jump between each of those parts; a time jump that robs the episode of a lot of its tension. Initially, Sutekh’s threat feels quite urgent and all-encompassing. But then the TARDIS team spends an indeterminate amount of time on the memory TARDIS, revisiting parts of Ruby’s past and the Fourth Doctor’s (Tom Baker) original encounter with Sutekh in “Pyramids of Mars”. And while all of these moments give Gatwa, Gibson, and Langford the chance to really dig into those characters, they don’t exactly make for blockbuster viewing.

The Legend of Ruby Sunday

What “Empire of Death” gets right, however, is its character drama. Namely, bringing the story of Ruby Sunday’s history to a satisfying conclusion. In fact, everything about “Empire of Death” revolves around Ruby’s search for her mother’s identity. It’s the very thing keeping her and the Doctor alive, as Sutekh craves the answer to a mystery even he doesn’t know the answer to. And the episode, finally, answers that question – but in a way that, perhaps, viewers might not be expecting. It’s a definitive answer and the most satisfying one possible given the circumstances. But, after an entire season’s worth of build-up, it ends up feeling a little bit anticlimactic. On the one hand, it’s emotionally honest in its starkness; immensely relatable, and genuinely emotional. Gibson plays those scenes brilliantly, bringing delight, sadness, melancholy, and hope in equal measures.

But there is a little bit of a sense of “that’s it?” to the whole thing. However, that’s Davies’ M.O., after all. Ruby’s mother was never going to be some mystery box of an answer. She was never going to be Clara Oswald, River Song, the Rani, or whatever other wild theory the fanbase could come up with. That’s never been Davies’ take on characters. In Davies’ version of Doctor Who – both now and back in 2005 – people are special because of who they are, their ordinaryness, and not because of their cosmic connections. And that remains true now for Ruby. This season has always been about the legend of Ruby Sunday – who she is, who she’s always been, and who she’s going to be. And “Empire of Death” brings that legend to an emotionally satisfying – if melancholic – conclusion. It’s not the end of the story, but a new beginning.

Final Thoughts

Overall, “Empire of Death” does an admirable job of bringing the season’s overarching storylines to some kind of conclusion. Choosing to focus on the emotional truth behind Ruby’s search for her mother over the cosmic mayhem of a god of death proves to be the episode’s greatest strength and its biggest weakness. While Sutekh and his machinations feel underdeveloped and often slip into the background, the emotional stakes of Ruby finally learning her mother’s identity help push this episode over the finish line. It’s an emotionally satisfying finale more than it is a narratively satisfying one. This isn’t a story about the Doctor defeating the lord of death; it’s a story about the Doctor helping his best friend discover the secrets of her past. And in that respect, it works perfectly.

That’s not to say, however, that there aren’t a ton of delightful little plot nuggets scattered throughout the episode – callbacks to past episodes (“73 Yards“, anyone?) and hints at future storylines to come with the enigmatic Mrs. Flood (Anita Dobson). But it all plays second fiddle to Ruby’s journey. Even the Doctor takes a bit of a backseat this time around. This is Ruby’s story, and “Empire of Death” brings her story to an emotionally satisfying end. As for the Fifteenth Doctor, there’s a cosmic joyride waiting just around the corner and he’s sure to seek it out as soon as those TARDIS doors close. But for now, “Empire of Death” brings the Legend of Ruby Sunday to an emotionally satisfying and bittersweet ending – and that, perhaps, is its best aspect.

All episodes of Doctor Who are available now on Disney+. Doctor Who returns this Holiday Season.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3v9ltaOWmJU]