meta: Dark Mirror - A Town Called Mercy
Some meta on A Town Called Mercy. Looking at: some of the recurring motifs so far this series and exploring how they might link; the idea of the Monster within and Kahler-Jex as a dark mirror of the Doctor; where the Doctor is right now in his life, and what's wrong with that; eye symbolism, and other odds and ends.
First I just want to draw links between the minisodes and the three episodes we've seen so far, because some motifs are really starting to emerge. Let's talk about Christmas, Eggs and Lightbulbs.
Pond Life: The Doctor is changing the lightbulb on top of the Tardis
Asylum
Doctor:(to the Daleks) Well come on then, you've got me. What are you waiting for. It's christmas!
There's a flickering lightbulb around her mirror as Amy is transported to the Dalek ship.
Egg-sterminate. Dalek eggs. Eggs for souffle.
Dinosaurs
Rory: Dad, I'm 31, I don't have a christmas list.
Doctor: I do!
There's a lightbulb Brian is changing as the Tardis materialises around them. It also appears at the end, with Rory.
There are Broken dinosaur eggs on the floor of the ship. The Silurian's records held in a white spherical egg-like object. Brian's balls.
Mercy
Doctor: Anachronistic electricity, keep out signs, aggressive stares. Has someone been peeking at my Christmas list?
Flickering lightbulbs all around, which are connected to and powered by the egg shaped ship (more on that later.)
The egg shaped spacecraft. (more on that later too.)
What could it mean...or what can we read from it?
Christmas
First off it's a reference to the Christmas special when we meet the new companion. We don't know yet whether Oswin as we saw her in Asylum is the new companion - but, if she is, then Asylum suggests that she ends her life sacrificing herself in order to allow the Doctor to save himself, and to allow the Asylum to be destroyed. In both Christian and Pagan mythologies, Christmas or Yule is the time when a child is born that will be sacrificed in order to "save" others - the time when we see the new companion's symbolic birth into the show.
Secondly - and entirely another theory on it - what is a Christmas list? It's things that we want, that we desire. What does the Doctor desire most in the world? I can't answer that question, but I can make some guesses. Forgiveness? Family? I do wonder if the new companion is going to be something that the Doctor has wanted for a long time. A relative, a family member.
Lightbulbs
The most common thing a lightbulb represents as a symbol is the sparking off of a new idea. It's a symbol of newness, emergence, of realisation and resurrection. Light is a symbol of life- in the way that dark is a symbol of death. We put lights on the tree at Christmas - and it's related to Yule (the Winter Solstice,) the shortest darkest day after which the light will gradually begin to return. It's the rebirth of the sun/son. There's link to Christmas and to different mythological versions of Saviour Gods.
Eggs
Eggs are a symbol of new life, of conception and birthing, or rebirthing. Their presence in the eps can be read partially as a link to the issue of Amy's fertility, but there's a link to be made with Christmas too, via the idea of Easter and Saviour Gods.In this particular ep, we have the egg shaped ship, which is the source of the light in the town. It is literally the generator that brings the light, that makes the lightbulbs glow.
There's also a real focus on the idea of parenting this series, which is linked to the idea of eggs. There'sAmy's fertility issues and references to parenting in Asylum, the presence of Brian and the tension in how the Doctor prevents the Ponds from living by acting like an absent parent in Dinosaurs. Now, in this episode, the Cyborg as the child of Khaler-Jex and references to Amy as a mother.
All of the above - rebirth, sacrifice, resurrection, are common themes in a show about an alien who can regenerate and who often acts as a God. The Doctor as Saviour God is a well worn groove. But I'm very interested in how this links to the new companion too.
*
Stories and reading Who as myth
My favourite story was about a man who lived forever, but whose eyes were heavy with the weight of all he'd seen. A man who fell from the stars.
I loved that this episode was framed by a story, and by someone narrating something that has become myth to them in their lifetime. It says to me: this show is myth, that Who can and should be read as myth. One of the main points of stories, of mythologies, is that they reflect the human experience and the mysteries of the natural world. Myth holds up a mirror to us, helps us to look at our own lives and the bigger issues. This is not just a TV show. This is a modern mythology, something that fills the void that has been left as science explains away the natural world and religion, and as traditional forms of transmitting myth have become less used.
*
The Monster Within
But the next time you're in Mercy, ask someone why they don't have a marshall or a policeman or a sheriff there. "We've got our own arrangement" they'll say. Then they'll smile like they've got their own special angel watching out for them. Their very own angel who fell from the sky.
This episode is all about the Monster that lies within - within the Doctor, but if we're reading this as myth, then it's also about the potential monster inside all of us. Thanks to janie_airefor this:
Man is neither angel nor beast; and the misfortune is that he who would act the angel, acts the beast
Blaise PascalFirst off, in this ep we have the use of horns as a symbol. The symbolism of horns is manifold, but here my reading of it is that they are used to denote the presence of the Monster - the Monster within, or the Shadow Self; the dark side of the characters (and of ourselves) comprised bad things from the past and all the things that we and they would rather not acknowledge about the self.
The gateway to the town itself is marked by a horned skull above it. Here's our warning that there is someone living in the town who has manifested their Monster. We have the line of wood and rocks demarcating the boundaries of the town. One one level it denotes that through the gateway in the town is where the good people are, and that out on the other side, beyond the boundary is where the Monster is. It divides, makes people and monster separate Except it's not straightforward - as the episode progresses we find out that there are monsters inside the town in the form of Kahler-Jex and the Doctor who, as well as an angel outside it (the cyborg as protector.) Characters cross that line at the entrance to the town, they step over the boundary frequently during the episode, both literally and metaphorically. This is Who being myth, because this is like life. There is no line where good lies on one side or evil on the other, where man and monster can be separated completely. The Monster is an aspect of the Self, it cannot be completely denied. Just as the Doctor, the Cyborg and Kahler-Jex do, we can step across line, and that boundary can become blurred.
The Cyborg is our most obvious monster, his outward appearance and his nature tells us that. His hat is very suggestive of horns as well (see the image next to it below for comparison). He too is a monster - a war machine fitted with the ability to discern the enemy and destroy, he is something that seems not quite human. But he also represents the inner monster of both Khaler-Jex and the Doctor. He is the creation of the Monstrousness within Kahler-Jex and reflects the horror of his deeds back to him. He avoids risk to civilians where possible, calculating the likelihood of them getting hurt. This seemed very Doctor-ish to me, particularly when Amy made reference in Asylum to the Doctor making calculations inside his head.
Ultimately he is a product of war, reflecting back the dark sides of the Doctor and Kahler-Jex that are also products of war. His fate, in becoming the guardian of the town, is also the same as that of Kahler-Jex and the Doctor. Kahler-Jex dies in order to bring peace and ensure war isn't brought down anywhere else. The Doctor tries maintain the peace wherever he goes.
Cyborg: I'm a creature of war. I've no role to play during peace.
Doctor: Except perhaps protecting it.
In the opening scenes, the craft or mobile gunship (or whatever it was) which the other Kahler is using, and that the Cyborg destroys, has a horned shape on the top of it. Here is our initial sign that all is not straightforward with the Kahler, that they too are manifesting aspects of the Monster.
The Doctor is also portrayed with horns. Appropriate since his own Monster side rears its head dramatically in this ep. The moment with the Doctor framed with horns above his head was actually very reminiscent of The God Complex, the last Toby Whithouse episode. The Greek mythology of the Minotaur was riffed upon in The God Complex, to express the idea of the hero/Doctor making the journey into the centre of the Labyrinth/hotel/self in order to meet and confront the monster within. In that ep we had this shot below on the left (note that he's also eating an apple in this shot, symbolic of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge.) The shot is very similar - right down to the colouring - to the shot from A Town Called Mercy, below right. Also, I've talked about the use of the X or Cross symbol in my previous meta on Dinosaurs, as hasjanie_aire - here. The X or Cross suggests mirroring is about to take place, some kind of meeting of polarities, or crossing over of energies. The Doctor's line immediately before being positioned with the "horns" is: I think it's about time I met him, don't you......
He's just about to look in the dark mirror:
Kahler-Jex, Dark Mirror
Kahler -Jex is the mirror of the Doctor, a very obvious one. He's an adopted member of the human race, who helps them in an attempt to atone for his crimes. He crash lands there and then stays on in an attempt to "repay his debt"/atone.
The mirror is very explicitly stated in the dialogue.
Kahler-Jex: Looking at you Docotr, it's like looking into a mirror - almost. There's rage there, like me. Guilt, like me. Solitude. Everything but the nerve to do what needs to be done. Thank the Gods my people weren't relying on you to save them .
This particular piece of dialogue rattles the Doctor - because it brings up the things he has done in the past. He does have the nerve. He had it once, and he too committed atrocities, and has now learned and moved on from that. But that dark side, that inner monster that is capable of doing that is still there, and looking into the dark mirror of Jex brings it out of him. It's after this dialogue, that the Doctor marches Kahler-Jex out and across the border of the town. X motifs abound in the background en-route to Jex meeting the gunslinger, symbolising a big mirror moment.
Kahler-Jex confronts his own monstrousness in the form of the cyborg. The Doctor confronts his own monstrousness in the form of his actions - Amy mirrors his behaviour back to him, first waving a gun around and then holding him to account. The cyborg, who has previously avoided hurting civilians manifests his full monster with a threat to come back and kill everyone.
There's a whole bunch of dialogue that mirrors Jex to the Doctor, such as:
Kahler-Jex: I would have died if Isaac and his friends hadn't saved me from the wreckage.
and
Kahler-Jex: Here, I could start afresh, could remember myself and help people. That's all I ever wanted to do. End suffering.
While the Doctor Who revival doesn't begin with the Doctor literally crash landing, the 9th is a damaged man who is mired in emotional wreckage. Rose and his other companions are the ones who save him from the wreckage of action he took in the Time War. He starts afresh. He seeks redemption by ending suffering where he can.
But our current Doctor is so lost at the moment. He struggling without the traditional formula of a companion travelling by his side all the time. This situation with the Ponds isn't working - for either the Ponds or for him. We can see now why he never goes back; why it's bad for him to go back. Because this is where it's ended up: with the Doctor pointing a gun into someone's face.This isn't how he and his companions roll. He should know that. But he actually symbolically denies his own inner monstrousness while acting it out by placing Jex on the other side of the line, the side of the monster, while he stands on the side of the innocent.
Even after he is confronted by Amy, later on, this following exchange takes place which makes me feel that either he doesn't really get the ways in which Jex mirrors him, or else that he is transferring his own guilt over the ways in which he is mirrored onto Jex:
Kahler-Jex: It would be so much simpler if I was just one thing, wouldn't it? The mad scientist who made that killing machine - or the physician who's dedicated his life to serving this town. The fact that i'm both bewilders you.
Doctor: Oh, I know exactly what you are, and I see this reformation for what it really is. You committed an atrocity and chose this as your punishment....Justice doesn't work like that, you don't get to decide when and how your debt is paid.
He's lost - he's losing his name and his identity without companions to mirror the wonders of the universe back to him. Just as the cyborg has caught up with Jex, his past is catching up with him. The monster within us will follow us around, until we stand and face it.a_phoenixdragon puts it perfectly in her reaction post:
"The more he loses himself and his name - the further he travels by himself, the more his Name is wiped from the stars, the further he falls. And he is learning he cannot escape his past. He thought he had dealt with it - but the farther he drifts to the fringes, the more he sees himself and his deeds mirrored over and over...
the Doctor is within his own prison and it isn't just his morality. It's his immortality, it's his fame, it's his loneliness, it's the way the body count keeps stacking up, whether he is there or not."
Amy is ever a mirror of the Doctor, and here she is mirrored by Khaler-Jex too. He asks her if she is a mother, because she can see kindness, sadness and ferocity in her eyes. She gave birth to someone who was schooled and trained to be a killing machine. He recognises some kind of kinship with her, as Khaler-Jex, the owner of the egg-spaceship/fertility symbol gave birth to the cyborg killing machine.
EyesWe have theme and the symbol of eyes in this ep again (see my previous meta on Asylum and Dinosaurs for discussion of this theme leading up to this ep.) There is the perspective of the Cyborg, which reminiscent of a Dalek's eyestalk view and of many scenes in Asylum. He has a special eye, which is also remniscent of an eyestalk. He hones in on people's eyes as a means of identifying targets. The end of his gun is circular and glowing, like his eyes.
We see shots of both the Doctor's eyes when he discovers the truth about who created the cyborg. janie_aire picked up on this on Gallifreybase, that within the egg the Doctor has a reversal of perspective. Before he sees the information, he is manifesting his angel side, acting as the rescuer and the saviour, on his way to pick up the Tardis. By the time he's viewed the info, we see another eye, another side of him. The monster is coming out to play.
Lastly, the Khaler have some type of tattoo or identifying mark around their eyes.
Odds and Ends
We've got a circle in a square in the form of the town clock. It's a symbol which which comes up a lot in Moffat era Who, and which represents unification of opposites. Here, it's the opposites of Angel and Beast/Monster. The Doctor is seen next to it in one shot. It's nearly 12pm - we're in the 11th's incarnation but he's slowly moving towards his 12th, maybe towards the fall of the 11th. Then - the clock is blown away into nothing, there's just a hollow where time was, no more unification, no more balance, suggestive of the destructive path he's currently on. He's losing time, just like the Ponds are currently losing time from the point of view of their friends (or at least they're concerned that may happen.) Every moment he spends without companions to reflect the Universe back to him, he loses a little more of the Timelord he wants to be.
When the Doctor enter's the white egg/ship, there's a shot that really reminded me of one in Asylum of the Daleks, just before he enters the right room where the Oslek is. Interesting.
And lastly,
Amy: The Doctor was taking us to see the Day of the Dead festival.
Now, that feels like a really worrying bit of foreshadowing.
Thanks for reading.
First I just want to draw links between the minisodes and the three episodes we've seen so far, because some motifs are really starting to emerge. Let's talk about Christmas, Eggs and Lightbulbs.
Pond Life: The Doctor is changing the lightbulb on top of the Tardis
Asylum
Doctor:(to the Daleks) Well come on then, you've got me. What are you waiting for. It's christmas!
There's a flickering lightbulb around her mirror as Amy is transported to the Dalek ship.
Egg-sterminate. Dalek eggs. Eggs for souffle.
Dinosaurs
Rory: Dad, I'm 31, I don't have a christmas list.
Doctor: I do!
There's a lightbulb Brian is changing as the Tardis materialises around them. It also appears at the end, with Rory.
There are Broken dinosaur eggs on the floor of the ship. The Silurian's records held in a white spherical egg-like object. Brian's balls.
Mercy
Doctor: Anachronistic electricity, keep out signs, aggressive stares. Has someone been peeking at my Christmas list?
Flickering lightbulbs all around, which are connected to and powered by the egg shaped ship (more on that later.)
The egg shaped spacecraft. (more on that later too.)
What could it mean...or what can we read from it?
Christmas
First off it's a reference to the Christmas special when we meet the new companion. We don't know yet whether Oswin as we saw her in Asylum is the new companion - but, if she is, then Asylum suggests that she ends her life sacrificing herself in order to allow the Doctor to save himself, and to allow the Asylum to be destroyed. In both Christian and Pagan mythologies, Christmas or Yule is the time when a child is born that will be sacrificed in order to "save" others - the time when we see the new companion's symbolic birth into the show.
Secondly - and entirely another theory on it - what is a Christmas list? It's things that we want, that we desire. What does the Doctor desire most in the world? I can't answer that question, but I can make some guesses. Forgiveness? Family? I do wonder if the new companion is going to be something that the Doctor has wanted for a long time. A relative, a family member.
Lightbulbs
The most common thing a lightbulb represents as a symbol is the sparking off of a new idea. It's a symbol of newness, emergence, of realisation and resurrection. Light is a symbol of life- in the way that dark is a symbol of death. We put lights on the tree at Christmas - and it's related to Yule (the Winter Solstice,) the shortest darkest day after which the light will gradually begin to return. It's the rebirth of the sun/son. There's link to Christmas and to different mythological versions of Saviour Gods.
Eggs
Eggs are a symbol of new life, of conception and birthing, or rebirthing. Their presence in the eps can be read partially as a link to the issue of Amy's fertility, but there's a link to be made with Christmas too, via the idea of Easter and Saviour Gods.In this particular ep, we have the egg shaped ship, which is the source of the light in the town. It is literally the generator that brings the light, that makes the lightbulbs glow.
There's also a real focus on the idea of parenting this series, which is linked to the idea of eggs. There'sAmy's fertility issues and references to parenting in Asylum, the presence of Brian and the tension in how the Doctor prevents the Ponds from living by acting like an absent parent in Dinosaurs. Now, in this episode, the Cyborg as the child of Khaler-Jex and references to Amy as a mother.
All of the above - rebirth, sacrifice, resurrection, are common themes in a show about an alien who can regenerate and who often acts as a God. The Doctor as Saviour God is a well worn groove. But I'm very interested in how this links to the new companion too.
*
Stories and reading Who as myth
My favourite story was about a man who lived forever, but whose eyes were heavy with the weight of all he'd seen. A man who fell from the stars.
I loved that this episode was framed by a story, and by someone narrating something that has become myth to them in their lifetime. It says to me: this show is myth, that Who can and should be read as myth. One of the main points of stories, of mythologies, is that they reflect the human experience and the mysteries of the natural world. Myth holds up a mirror to us, helps us to look at our own lives and the bigger issues. This is not just a TV show. This is a modern mythology, something that fills the void that has been left as science explains away the natural world and religion, and as traditional forms of transmitting myth have become less used.
*
The Monster Within
But the next time you're in Mercy, ask someone why they don't have a marshall or a policeman or a sheriff there. "We've got our own arrangement" they'll say. Then they'll smile like they've got their own special angel watching out for them. Their very own angel who fell from the sky.
This episode is all about the Monster that lies within - within the Doctor, but if we're reading this as myth, then it's also about the potential monster inside all of us. Thanks to janie_airefor this:
Man is neither angel nor beast; and the misfortune is that he who would act the angel, acts the beast
Blaise PascalFirst off, in this ep we have the use of horns as a symbol. The symbolism of horns is manifold, but here my reading of it is that they are used to denote the presence of the Monster - the Monster within, or the Shadow Self; the dark side of the characters (and of ourselves) comprised bad things from the past and all the things that we and they would rather not acknowledge about the self.
The gateway to the town itself is marked by a horned skull above it. Here's our warning that there is someone living in the town who has manifested their Monster. We have the line of wood and rocks demarcating the boundaries of the town. One one level it denotes that through the gateway in the town is where the good people are, and that out on the other side, beyond the boundary is where the Monster is. It divides, makes people and monster separate Except it's not straightforward - as the episode progresses we find out that there are monsters inside the town in the form of Kahler-Jex and the Doctor who, as well as an angel outside it (the cyborg as protector.) Characters cross that line at the entrance to the town, they step over the boundary frequently during the episode, both literally and metaphorically. This is Who being myth, because this is like life. There is no line where good lies on one side or evil on the other, where man and monster can be separated completely. The Monster is an aspect of the Self, it cannot be completely denied. Just as the Doctor, the Cyborg and Kahler-Jex do, we can step across line, and that boundary can become blurred.
The Cyborg is our most obvious monster, his outward appearance and his nature tells us that. His hat is very suggestive of horns as well (see the image next to it below for comparison). He too is a monster - a war machine fitted with the ability to discern the enemy and destroy, he is something that seems not quite human. But he also represents the inner monster of both Khaler-Jex and the Doctor. He is the creation of the Monstrousness within Kahler-Jex and reflects the horror of his deeds back to him. He avoids risk to civilians where possible, calculating the likelihood of them getting hurt. This seemed very Doctor-ish to me, particularly when Amy made reference in Asylum to the Doctor making calculations inside his head.
Ultimately he is a product of war, reflecting back the dark sides of the Doctor and Kahler-Jex that are also products of war. His fate, in becoming the guardian of the town, is also the same as that of Kahler-Jex and the Doctor. Kahler-Jex dies in order to bring peace and ensure war isn't brought down anywhere else. The Doctor tries maintain the peace wherever he goes.
Cyborg: I'm a creature of war. I've no role to play during peace.
Doctor: Except perhaps protecting it.
In the opening scenes, the craft or mobile gunship (or whatever it was) which the other Kahler is using, and that the Cyborg destroys, has a horned shape on the top of it. Here is our initial sign that all is not straightforward with the Kahler, that they too are manifesting aspects of the Monster.
The Doctor is also portrayed with horns. Appropriate since his own Monster side rears its head dramatically in this ep. The moment with the Doctor framed with horns above his head was actually very reminiscent of The God Complex, the last Toby Whithouse episode. The Greek mythology of the Minotaur was riffed upon in The God Complex, to express the idea of the hero/Doctor making the journey into the centre of the Labyrinth/hotel/self in order to meet and confront the monster within. In that ep we had this shot below on the left (note that he's also eating an apple in this shot, symbolic of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge.) The shot is very similar - right down to the colouring - to the shot from A Town Called Mercy, below right. Also, I've talked about the use of the X or Cross symbol in my previous meta on Dinosaurs, as hasjanie_aire - here. The X or Cross suggests mirroring is about to take place, some kind of meeting of polarities, or crossing over of energies. The Doctor's line immediately before being positioned with the "horns" is: I think it's about time I met him, don't you......
He's just about to look in the dark mirror:
Kahler-Jex, Dark Mirror
Kahler -Jex is the mirror of the Doctor, a very obvious one. He's an adopted member of the human race, who helps them in an attempt to atone for his crimes. He crash lands there and then stays on in an attempt to "repay his debt"/atone.
The mirror is very explicitly stated in the dialogue.
Kahler-Jex: Looking at you Docotr, it's like looking into a mirror - almost. There's rage there, like me. Guilt, like me. Solitude. Everything but the nerve to do what needs to be done. Thank the Gods my people weren't relying on you to save them .
This particular piece of dialogue rattles the Doctor - because it brings up the things he has done in the past. He does have the nerve. He had it once, and he too committed atrocities, and has now learned and moved on from that. But that dark side, that inner monster that is capable of doing that is still there, and looking into the dark mirror of Jex brings it out of him. It's after this dialogue, that the Doctor marches Kahler-Jex out and across the border of the town. X motifs abound in the background en-route to Jex meeting the gunslinger, symbolising a big mirror moment.
Kahler-Jex confronts his own monstrousness in the form of the cyborg. The Doctor confronts his own monstrousness in the form of his actions - Amy mirrors his behaviour back to him, first waving a gun around and then holding him to account. The cyborg, who has previously avoided hurting civilians manifests his full monster with a threat to come back and kill everyone.
There's a whole bunch of dialogue that mirrors Jex to the Doctor, such as:
Kahler-Jex: I would have died if Isaac and his friends hadn't saved me from the wreckage.
and
Kahler-Jex: Here, I could start afresh, could remember myself and help people. That's all I ever wanted to do. End suffering.
While the Doctor Who revival doesn't begin with the Doctor literally crash landing, the 9th is a damaged man who is mired in emotional wreckage. Rose and his other companions are the ones who save him from the wreckage of action he took in the Time War. He starts afresh. He seeks redemption by ending suffering where he can.
But our current Doctor is so lost at the moment. He struggling without the traditional formula of a companion travelling by his side all the time. This situation with the Ponds isn't working - for either the Ponds or for him. We can see now why he never goes back; why it's bad for him to go back. Because this is where it's ended up: with the Doctor pointing a gun into someone's face.This isn't how he and his companions roll. He should know that. But he actually symbolically denies his own inner monstrousness while acting it out by placing Jex on the other side of the line, the side of the monster, while he stands on the side of the innocent.
Even after he is confronted by Amy, later on, this following exchange takes place which makes me feel that either he doesn't really get the ways in which Jex mirrors him, or else that he is transferring his own guilt over the ways in which he is mirrored onto Jex:
Kahler-Jex: It would be so much simpler if I was just one thing, wouldn't it? The mad scientist who made that killing machine - or the physician who's dedicated his life to serving this town. The fact that i'm both bewilders you.
Doctor: Oh, I know exactly what you are, and I see this reformation for what it really is. You committed an atrocity and chose this as your punishment....Justice doesn't work like that, you don't get to decide when and how your debt is paid.
He's lost - he's losing his name and his identity without companions to mirror the wonders of the universe back to him. Just as the cyborg has caught up with Jex, his past is catching up with him. The monster within us will follow us around, until we stand and face it.a_phoenixdragon puts it perfectly in her reaction post:
"The more he loses himself and his name - the further he travels by himself, the more his Name is wiped from the stars, the further he falls. And he is learning he cannot escape his past. He thought he had dealt with it - but the farther he drifts to the fringes, the more he sees himself and his deeds mirrored over and over...
the Doctor is within his own prison and it isn't just his morality. It's his immortality, it's his fame, it's his loneliness, it's the way the body count keeps stacking up, whether he is there or not."
Amy is ever a mirror of the Doctor, and here she is mirrored by Khaler-Jex too. He asks her if she is a mother, because she can see kindness, sadness and ferocity in her eyes. She gave birth to someone who was schooled and trained to be a killing machine. He recognises some kind of kinship with her, as Khaler-Jex, the owner of the egg-spaceship/fertility symbol gave birth to the cyborg killing machine.
EyesWe have theme and the symbol of eyes in this ep again (see my previous meta on Asylum and Dinosaurs for discussion of this theme leading up to this ep.) There is the perspective of the Cyborg, which reminiscent of a Dalek's eyestalk view and of many scenes in Asylum. He has a special eye, which is also remniscent of an eyestalk. He hones in on people's eyes as a means of identifying targets. The end of his gun is circular and glowing, like his eyes.
We see shots of both the Doctor's eyes when he discovers the truth about who created the cyborg. janie_aire picked up on this on Gallifreybase, that within the egg the Doctor has a reversal of perspective. Before he sees the information, he is manifesting his angel side, acting as the rescuer and the saviour, on his way to pick up the Tardis. By the time he's viewed the info, we see another eye, another side of him. The monster is coming out to play.
Lastly, the Khaler have some type of tattoo or identifying mark around their eyes.
Odds and Ends
We've got a circle in a square in the form of the town clock. It's a symbol which which comes up a lot in Moffat era Who, and which represents unification of opposites. Here, it's the opposites of Angel and Beast/Monster. The Doctor is seen next to it in one shot. It's nearly 12pm - we're in the 11th's incarnation but he's slowly moving towards his 12th, maybe towards the fall of the 11th. Then - the clock is blown away into nothing, there's just a hollow where time was, no more unification, no more balance, suggestive of the destructive path he's currently on. He's losing time, just like the Ponds are currently losing time from the point of view of their friends (or at least they're concerned that may happen.) Every moment he spends without companions to reflect the Universe back to him, he loses a little more of the Timelord he wants to be.
When the Doctor enter's the white egg/ship, there's a shot that really reminded me of one in Asylum of the Daleks, just before he enters the right room where the Oslek is. Interesting.
And lastly,
Amy: The Doctor was taking us to see the Day of the Dead festival.
Now, that feels like a really worrying bit of foreshadowing.
Thanks for reading.