"I’m your dad. It’s my job for it to be my fault"

I love this episode. I'm not sure I have much to say on the plot here, because the plot isn't that important. It's all about the characters and the emotions.

The plot is decent though. Rose creates a weak point in time by going back (twice) to the moment her dad died and impulsively decides to save his life, thus changing (and weakening) the timeline. With the Time Lords gone and nobody around to police such discrepancies, some flying lizard monsters called the Reapers appear to feed off this event, and the human race. Meanwhile our heroes converge on a wedding and hideout in a church with the wedding party. I usually enjoy a good paradox/life altering event stories with time travel, and I think it was smart to put a story about the dangers of altering timelines/events so early in the Revival's run. If for no other reason than to stop people on the internet complaining "why don't they just go in their time machine back earlier and change things" or other such complaints. But just because I think the show needed to include a story like this, they didn't need to go so hard with the Rose & Pete stuff. But I'm so very thankful they did.

I love the subversion that Pete (who died when Rose was a baby) has been built up as this remarkable man, loving husband and would've been a great dad. But when we meet him he's actually a bit of a screw up. Not even a particularly remarkable screw up. Just an ordinary screw up. The show gets some fun out of this situation, but then subverts this subversion by having Pete actually become a remarkable man, loving husband and great dad by the end of the story.

For someone so ordinary (and this episode does a great job of making the end of the world feel ordinary. It's all ordinary people, living ordinary lives, in an ordinary setting) Pete is also perceptive. It doesn't take him long to suspect that something's going on with Rose and the repeated appearances of the car that nearly ran him down. He's observant and works out who Rose, who he is (who he is not), and what he needs to do. He figures out that he was supposed to die, and then he doesn't hesitate to do so to protect the women he loves. But not before some truly touching conversations with Rose.

He's easily the third most important character in the story, but the Doctor is also really great in this episode as well. He feels betrayed and lashes out at Rose. But we all knew he was never truly going to leave her, all he needed was to calm down and hear her say sorry. I love the reveal that the Doctor figures out how to save the day pretty much immediately, but spends half the episode not doing it because although he disapproves of Rose saving her father (or at least the manner in which she did it), he still loves Rose and wants to spare her losing him again. Also the scene where he talks to the bride and groom is just lovely. When they ask if he'll save them even though they're not important, I love the speed and sweetness with which he asks "who said you're not important?". The genuine joy he feels when he hears the story about how they met and the slight wistfulness when he tells them he's never had a life like that.

But this is Rose and Pete's story. With both Billie Piper & Shaun Dingwell giving great performances. Pete has been mythologised in his death for 18 years by Jackie and Rose. The way Billie Piper sells each disappointment, when learning he wasn't this super reliable, enterpreneur. He was a bit of a Del Boy. The way they both sell you on a connection and affection that Pete cannot even explain for most of the episode. How Pete knows he was never going to be the perfect father that Rose believes he would've been. But it helps spur him on to make his sacrifice, it's both this extraordinary act of heroism, and an ordinary act of fatherhood. He wasn't great, but that's why he's great.