‘Doctor Who’ Season 12 Episode 5 Recap: A Surprising Revelation
Doctor Who continues to excite sci-fi fans. Season 12 Episode 5 of the show, “Fugitive of the Judoon” has the Thirteenth Doctor and her friends trying to protect humanity from the alien police the Judoon. But who is the fugitive they’re searching for? And how did a woman named Ruth get involved in all of this?
Warning: there are spoilers ahead for Doctor Who season 12 episode 5, “Fugitive of the Judoon.” So for those of you who don’t want to know what happened, stop reading now. If you’ve already seen the episode, or want to know what happened anyway, keep reading!
A bunch of Judoon shake things up in Gloucester in ‘Doctor Who’ season 12 episode 5
Doctor Who season 12 episode 5 starts with a woman named Ruth Clayton going about her day. Ruth offers guided tours of Gloucester. She gets some coffee, and the owner of the cafe has a dossier on her husband Lee, which Ruth laughs at. The story then moves to the Doctor and her companions.
The Doctor is looking for something or someone and the companions are talking about how she thinks they don’t notice. Finally, they decide to ask her what or who she’s looking for. That’s when the Doctor reveals that she’s looking for the Master. Then the TARDIS picks up a transmission about the Judoon, rhinoceros-like space police for hire, on Earth in Gloucester.
Meanwhile, Ruth watches as an older woman is killed by the Judoon before running away from them herself. The Doctor and her companions then arrive on Earth to find the Judoon outside of Ruth’s apartment. She manages to convince the aliens to let her talk to the inhabitants of the apartment for 5 minutes. The Doctor, Ryan Sinclair, and Yasmin Khan all head in to talk to Ruth and Lee, Graham O’Brien having been teleported somewhere else.
Old friends and surprising abilities in ‘Doctor Who’ season 12 episode 5
Next in Doctor Who season 12 episode 5, Graham is transported to a ship where he is greeted by a young man known as Captain Jack Harkness. Of course, there’s one small problem. Captain Jack thinks that Graham is the Doctor. He proceeds to act like they are old friends as he is a friend of the Doctor’s.
Graham quickly corrects Jack and Jack finds out that the Doctor has regenerated into a woman. Meanwhile, back at Ruth and Lee’s apartment, the Doctor, Ryan, and Yasmin are doing some investigating. They find a strange box in the couple’s bedroom and the Doctor tries to figure out what is going on. In the end, Lee decides to stay behind with the box, giving the Doctor, Ryan, Yasmin, and Ruth a chance to escape.
Ryan and Yasmin distract the Judoon while the Doctor and Ruth head to the nearby cathedral. After getting a cryptic text from Lee, Ruth fights the Judoon, taking the horn off their captain’s head. The Doctor is surprised to see Ruth take on the Judoon like that and tries to help Ruth decipher the text message Lee sent her before he got killed by the Judoon.
An ominous message and a big reveal about the Doctor
In an effort to figure out what is going on, Ruth and the Doctor head to where Ruth grew up: an abandoned lighthouse. Meanwhile, Ryan and Yasmin have been transported onto the ship with Captain Jack and Graham. This time he thinks that Yasmin is the Doctor and guesses that the Judoon are stopping him from finding her. He gives the companions a message for the Doctor: beware the lone Cyberman and don’t give it what it wants.
While Jack is giving that ominous message, the Doctor is taking a look around the lighthouse where Ruth grew up. She finds Ruth’s parents’ graves which seem to not be graves. Curious about what could be under there, the Doctor starts digging until she is interrupted by Ruth, who it turns out is also the Doctor.
She was living on Earth as a human with Lee but after breaking some glass in the lighthouse, gets her true memories back. Afterward, she takes the Thirteenth Doctor into her TARDIS and they end up being transported onto the Judoon’s ship. Neither one can believe the situation. They are confronted by a Time Lord named Gat, who is working for someone from Gallifrey.
Except Gallifrey, as we saw in season 12 episode 2, is currently destroyed by the Master. Season 12 Episode 5 of Doctor Who continues with the Thirteenth Doctor showing Gat what she’s seen of Gallifrey. Gat tries to shoot the newly revealed version of the Doctor, but accidentally kills herself in the process. The two Doctors head back to the TARDIS and the Thirteenth Doctor is dropped off, and reunited with her companions.
After giving her Jack’s message, the Doctor tells her companions that something is coming for her. Her friends promise to stay by her side no matter what and they all get ready for their next adventure.
