So here’s my theory: They’re still dreaming.
I don’t think that Clara waking up that time was her final wake up into real time/life. Remember the first time The Doctor realized they were still dreaming and that it was a dream within a dream? Clara said, “There doesn’t seem to be any wound” and The Doctor agrees and goes on to explain that they’re obviously still dreaming. So where’s the wound when she wakes up this last time, and when The Doctor woke up? I mean The Doctor explained how the dream crabs work. He explained how the pain in your temple is from where the crab has punctured your head and is tapped directly into your brain. So there would HAVE to be a wound.
Also, when she wakes up this time, she’s not in her apartment where she has been shown to live ALL SEASON. Since when does she live in a huge house?! I have never seen her in that house before this episode. And it is clearly the same house that she woke up in the first time Danny woke her up, when she woke up old, and when she woke up this last time. The window that the TARDIS is shown through is the same from the time she woke up old to this “last” time she woke up. Also, the same fireplace is there with Danny that is there with the old Clara. If it was a dream with Danny and a dream with old clara, then it HAS to be a dream this time too.
Also, if Santa was only in their minds because they were still dreaming, then why the tangerine on the windowsill at the end? If Santa left a tangerine, then he’s still around…which means they’re still dreaming.
I’m so glad I’m not the only one who thought that volcano scene looked familiar!! I actually went back and watched Dark Water again to see if I was going crazy. But it does look SO SIMILAR. And in re-watching the episode, it wasn’t just the setting that was familiar. The whole scene of The Doctor waking up there, Clara throwing the keys, and the dream patch. It’s like it could have been pulled from Last Christmas. The way everything was disjointed it was so similar. And the fact that the dream patch and the dream crabs have the same effect…inducing a dream-like state…it’s all too familiar.
So what if the last two episodes never happened?! The “last” time we see The Doctor wake up takes him back to the same setting as Dark Water. What if everything from that point on is a dream. Or even before that?
I thought it was interesting that when The Doctor was communicating with Clara in the Danny dream sequence, his words showed up on a chalkboard. Does anyone remember The Doctor writing on a chalkboard previously in this season? How about in “Listen”? There’s the part where he’s writing on the chalkboard as he’s thinking about his theory of perfect hiding. He then sets his chalk down in the crease of a book, walks around talking to himself, then goes back to get the chalk. But it’s gone. And on the chalkboard, written in his own handwriting, is the word, “Listen”. But he doesn’t remember writing it! So what if he’s even dream as far back as then?! What if, somehow, when he does wake up for real, he goes back in time and tries to warn himself. And the writing appeared on the chalkboard because the future him wrote it to warn him. Not sure why he’d write “Listen”, but that’s one of the crazy theories my mind cooked up, haha.
I also think it’s weird in “Listen” that we never find out who or what was on the bed under the blanket. What if it was someone with a dream crab on their face or something that has to do with all of that?
Thoughts on all of this?
