Warning: Spoilers ahead forDoctor Whoseason 15, episode 8, “The Reality War.“Doctor Whoseason 15, episode 8,“The Reality War,” ended the Wish of Conrad Clark(Jonah Hauer-King) and briefly scrubbed Poppy (Sienna-Robyn Mavanga-Phipps) from the timeline, but it’s never fully explained why Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson) is the only character who retains the memory of Belinda Chandra’s (Varada Sethu) daughter. However, there are a couple of very salient theories that can account for how Ruby was able to retain her memories of Poppy. Interestingly, my main theory goes back to the time Gibson led theDoctor Whoseason 14 cast.
Ncuti Gatwa’s regeneration scene that brought Billie Piper backto the show remains the biggest talking point of “The Reality War,” but the mystery of whetherPoppy is the Fifteenth Doctor’s daughterruns throughout Gatwa’s farewell episode. Even after she’s restored by Fifteen’s self-sacrificing plan,I’m still not convinced that Poppy isn’t the Doctor’s offspring. Either way, if it weren’t for Ruby’s unique ability to remember Poppy, Fifteen wouldn’t have had a chance to save Mavanga-Phipps' character at all.
Ruby Sunday’s Experience In “73 Yards” Gave Her A Different Perspective Of Time
Ruby experienced an alternate timeline inDoctor Whoseason 14, episode 4, “73 Yards.“It allowed her to see decades into the future, albeit after the disappearance of Gatwa’s character. As such,Ruby had already lived through a full version of 2025 in “73 Yards,“and this is even referenced inDoctor Who’s penultimate episode, “Wish World.” So, together withDoctor Who’s prime timeline, Conrad’s Wish World is the third version of 2025 that Ruby has witnessed, whereas everyone else has only lived in two different iterations of 2025.
“There’s this man called the Doctor, and he’s connected somehow. Because it feels like I’ve lived through this before. I’ve seen 2025, and it was different.”
- Ruby Sunday inDoctor Whoseason 15, episode 7, “Wish World.”
Ruby’s experience in “73 Yards” probably anchored her somehow and made her especially aware of the differences between realities. If so, it would make sense that Ruby could hold onto the memory of Poppy, whether she was always real or only created as part of the Wish.Her memory of Poppy is referred to as a “glitch,“but none of the other glitches are associated with fabrications. Instead, they simply represented subtle changes to the world after the Wish had ended.
Ruby herself had once been erased from the timeline, as shown in her debut episode, 2023’s “The Church on Ruby Road.”
Ruby did very well to speak up so passionately for Poppy, and not to be convinced by the Doctor and the others that she was still harboring false memories. Ruby herself had once been erased from the timeline, as shown in her debut episode, 2023’s “The Church on Ruby Road.” So, she felt a kinship to Poppy and felt especially strongly that the Doctor should do everything in his power to do what he did for Ruby and restore Belinda’s daughters to the universe.
The Other Reason Ruby Might Be Able To Remember Poppy In Doctor Who
Ruby was the one who ended the Wish itself
Although the most likely explanation for Ruby being able to remember Poppy is the experiences of Gibson’s character in “73 Yards,” I do have an alternate theory.Ruby Sunday was the one to end Conrad’s Wish. Using the teleporter given to her by UNIT - a piece of kit that was last seen used by Freema Agyeman’s Martha Jones in its development phase in 2008’s “The Stolen Earth” - Ruby infiltrates the Bone Palace in an attempt to stop Conrad from conjuring his idealized and problematic version of Earth.
UsingDesiderium’s powers,Ruby wishes for Conrad’s happiness, then also ends the Wish he’d put in place. Conrad looks to fade from existence, but he’s later revealed to now have a wholesome job in hospitality and is free of his villainous ways. So, because Ruby ended the wish, it’s possible she was more immune than most to the phenomenon of forgetting parts of the illusion, like Poppy. Of course, neither theory here is confirmed inDoctor Whocanon, but they both make sense.
