8. Begin With A Wound That Needs To Be Healed
We are in some ways defined by our scars. Each scorching mark of loss changes us, altering our perspective and thickening our skin. Clara is wounded by her mothers death. She still has not fully accepted it, as evidenced by her attempts to recreate the soufflé. Her actions are an echo of her mother, a way of salving the pain. Clara looks after the kids in an effort to reconstruct the role of the mother. River cannot rest until her loss is acknowledged by the Doctor. Until he lets her go she is left wounded on the battlefield, caught between life and death. When Clara tells the Doctor about the conference call it is Rivers name that causes him to cry. His inability to say good-bye leaves both of them unable to move on. After the Doctors bodies are used up he is left as raw and wounded energy. He has become the sum of his scars a final incarnation made up of the rips and tears he created in the fabric of the universe.