ampersands-and-bowties:

I think this is among my top favorite scenes between Twelve and Clara, if not my very favorite. It’s such an understated moment, but just like so many other quiet moments between them, it defines their relationship so brilliantly.

Up until this exchange, I’m not sure either one of them realized how much the other person cared. Their relationship in series 8 was so often based around their miscommunication. About questioning how the other person ticks, about desperately trying to understand one another. And, at least in my view, it was also about how they innately did understand each other on an intimate level, but didn’t really know what to do with that information. Clara and Eleven were all about the veils they wore around each other. Clara and Twelve immediately had something so different–something raw and uncomfortably honest for two people who had sides to themselves they’d prefer to keep under wraps. 

But think about what that means. Clara, the control freak, started losing control of her normal life when Twelve entered the picture. Twelve, the Doctor without a veil, was older, gruffer, and much less charming than the man Clara first met. Together, they were at their most real and vulnerable. To them, that probably meant they were at their ugliest, too. I think the Doctor wondered why Clara would want to travel with a daft old man when she could have a normal life with her dashing, young soldier Danny instead. As for Clara– she likely doubted the Doctor would want to stick around and worry about the messes her double life created. So, they let each other go. Doing what they assumed was right for the other person.

It is astounding to watch them, in this moment, come to the mutual realization that their lies and communication issues led them to all this unnecessary hurt. That they actually both loved traveling with each other just as much, and so badly wanted to be together again. It’s like all at once, they realize how wildly dysfunctional their dynamic as become, but at the same time, are blown away by the lengths they’d go to in order to ensure the other person’s happiness. 

It’s such a simple scene, but the way it sums up all their beauty and brokenness is breathtaking.