‘Doctor Who’ giving Ruby Sunday her time is brilliant
For the last 2 seasons of Doctor Who, we’ve seen Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson) have an episode entirely her own. Season 1 featured “73 Yards” and now season 2 has “Lucky Day.”
“Lucky Day” takes us back to Ruby’s world as she meets Conrad Clark (Jonah Hauer-King). Conrad is charming, sweet, and remembers meeting the Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) as a young boy on New Year’s Eve. But not everything is as it seems for Ruby’s dive back into the dating world.
The episode itself is a great look at the world’s trust of UNIT, misinformation, and conspiracy theories but what I really loved was the focus on Ruby’s life outside of the Doctor. Much like “73 Yards,” Gatwa is briefly in the episode in glimpses with Ruby from the past or when he met Conrad as a child but otherwise, it is Ruby’s episode.
Right now on the show, the Doctor’s companion is Belinda Chandra (Varada Sethu) who was featured briefly in season 1. But Ruby took a break from traveling with the Doctor at the end of Season 1 and this episode was our first trip back to check in on her. And to see Ruby trying to move on and find her own love and happiness was both great and heartbreaking.
Ruby’s family is still there for her and supportive and she says multiple times throughout the episode how the Doctor is her best friend. What is special about “Lucky Day” though is to see how Ruby is still connected with UNIT and the world that the Doctor introduced her to. Kate Lethbridge-Stewart (Jemma Redgrave) is there when Ruby calls.
Let Ruby be happy!
One of the more upsetting parts of the episode was seeing Conrad’s twist. At first, it seemed like Ruby was going to have her Rory Williams (Arthur Darvill). He was kind, loving, and seemed like a great fit for Ruby. And then we saw what “Think Tank” really was and how Conrad was willing to use Ruby to get to UNIT.
For a brief moment, we got to see Ruby’s sadness over it. In a montage, we see Conrad doing interviews about the “lies” that UNIT is pushing and Ruby is crying on the couch with her mother and gran. But her sadness doesn’t last long and she uses her anger and her upset to help take down Conrad when the time comes.
Much like her arc in “73 Yards,” the episode allowed Ruby to grow and be her own person outside of her connection with the Doctor. And I like that we have this trend with her character. Many of the other companions have been completely dependent on their love and appreciation of the Doctor. But to get to see Ruby be her own person is a nice change of pace.
We had been promised that she’d be back and that season 1 wasn’t the end of Ruby and I’d love if we kept checking in on her life this because Ruby isn’t going to allow a man like Conrad Clark to keep her down for long.
(featured image: Disney+)
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