Warning: Spoilers ahead for Doctor Who season 14, episode 4, "73 Yards."

Summary

• "73 Yards" presents an ambiguous future for Ruby Sunday, hinting at multiple timelines and magical elements in Doctor Who's Disney era.
• The episode explores the concept of time loops and alternate timelines, suggesting that certain events may never have actually happened.
• Ruby's connection to the fairy circle and her ability to alter the timeline raise questions about the nature of her powers and the show's direction.

Doctor Who season 14 cast, with Ncuti Gatwa stepping aside for an enormous portion of the episode. This compelling change to the show's formula shows one possible timeline for Ruby Sunday right up until the moment of her death, but the episode's ending strongly implies almost every event shown will now never happen.

Jinkx Monsoon's Maestro are essentially gods whose inexplicable powers cause a real threat to the Doctor. "73 Yards" takes Doctor Who's new fantastical approach and doubles down on specific elements, creating a narrative that becomes as difficult to quantify as it is to ignore.

How Old Ruby Traveled Back To Her Past In Doctor Who Season 14, Episode 4's Ending

"73 Yards" shows one possible future for Ruby Sunday

The biggest reveal in "73 Yards" is that the woman who remains the titular distance away from Ruby Sunday at all times is actually an elderly version of Millie Gibson's character. At the end of the episode, Old Ruby is shown on her deathbed, moments before somehow traveling back to the moment on the Welsh coastline when the Doctor stepped on the fairy circle, and preventing it from ever happening. While the episode doesn't include an explanation of how Ruby was able to do this, there are two main possibilities.

Firstly, it's clear that there's something special about Ruby Sunday. The fact that Ruby's snow flashbacks is another clue, as well as the complete lack of information regarding her origin. Her musical connection to The One Who Waits that Maestro uncovers in "The Devil's Chord" compounds Ruby's importance and her potential hidden power. So, it's conceivable that Ruby's ability to travel back in time and stop the Doctor breaking the circle was unconsciously activated as she neared the end of her life.

Alternatively, the broken fairy circle could have allowed Ruby the chance to change her history after her death. If there is nothing mysterious about Ruby, then any companion could have achieved what she did in "73 Yards." The magic in the episode could have been enhanced by the circle's proximity to the TARDIS and its perception filter. This theory is teased as being somewhere near correct by Kate Lethbridge-Stewart's comments during her conversation with Ruby: "[I wonder] if landing a perception filter on top of that circle has affected things."

Old Ruby has a perception filter too, as no one can initially notice her with any ease.

Does The Ending Mean Doctor Who's "73 Yards" Never Happened?

Ruby's future may never have unfolded in the way that's shown

As far as the show is concerned, the version of Ruby's future shown in "73 Yards" is essentially scrubbed from existence when Old Ruby successfully prevents the Doctor from stepping into the fairy circle. Having said that, a comment from Kate suggests that both timelines are just as relevant, with the UNIT leader telling Ruby, "I think this timeline might be suspended along your event." If so, there's now a timeline where the Fifteenth Doctor vanished and never returned, with the TARDIS sitting forever as a tribute to his memory.

Doctor Who's Disney era has made a habit of toying with the timeline much more than usual, so "73 Yards" aligns with this theme. For example, David Tennant's Fourteenth Doctor accidentally caused gravity to be renamed as "mavity" in "Wild Blue Yonder." In Doctor Who season 14, episode 1, "Space Babies," Ruby changes the evolutionary line of humanity by standing on a butterfly, and Maestro succeeds in making the world go to war in 2024 during the events of "The Devil's Chord."

However, many of these alterations to the timeline snapped back after the Doctor intervened, with the mavity change being the outlier. So, it becomes especially difficult to definitively answer whether the events of "73 Yards" remain canon in some corner of the Doctor Who universe. Although, interestingly, the mavity situation and Ruby's alternate timeline of being haunted by her future self were both caused by the Doctor making mistakes that he was then unable to rectify.

At the beginning of "73 Yards", Ruby says she has been to Wales twice, whereas she says she's been three times at the end. Although she can't the specifics of her third Welsh trip when pushed by the Doctor, it's a hint that some memory of her erased timeline remains.

Ruby's Timeline In Doctor Who Season 14, Episode 4 Explained (Chronologically)

The course of Millie Gibson's charcter's life creates a broken time loop

"73 Yards" begins in present-day Wales. From Ruby's initial perspective, she sees the Doctor break the fairy circle, and then Ruby reads some of the scrolls it contains. What follows is a decades-long tale compressed into the runtime of a single episode. By the end of "73 Yards," Ruby Sunday is much older, and even dies. However, while most of the story is linear, it circles back and erases most of the episode's events.

• Ruby and The Doctor land the TARDIS in present-day Wales.
• The Doctor steps in the circle.
• Ruby reads the messages: "I miss you," & "Rest in peace, Mad Jack."
• The Doctor vanishes, and the TARDIS fails to respond to Ruby's Key.
• Ruby spots the mysterious woman for the first time.
• It's revealed that whoever speaks with the woman, flees in fear.
• After waiting for the Doctor for a few days, Ruby returns home by train.
• Ruby's mother attempts to speak with the woman, but succumbs to her influence.
• A year later, Ruby meets with Kate Lethbridge-Stewart, with UNIT refusing to help.
• Years , with the old woman still always 73 yards away from Ruby.
• In 2046, Ruby identifies Roger ap Gwilliam as Mad Jack and s his campaign team.
• Ruby stands 73 yards away from Gwilliam and forces an interaction between him and the woman.
• Gwilliam resigns but refuses to explain why, simply saying: "Ask her." This prevents nuclear war.
• Ruby dies 40 years later, becoming the old woman she saw in Wales.
• Old Ruby warns, "Don't step," causing Young Ruby to stop the Doctor stepping into the circle.
• Old Ruby vanishes back in the present day, and the circle is left untouched.

Ruby lives an entire life that is then suggested to be reset to the point where she first spotted her older self on the hillside. Therefore, the Doctor never vanishes, and he's unaware of his near-miss with being erased from reality for good. Despite the Welsh locals near the beginning of the episode teasing Ruby for believing the fairy circle held real power, the episode all but confirms that the circle does indeed harbor something that very closely resembles magic.

Why Ruby Sunday Saw Her Future Self For Over 60 Years

Ruby's motives were always to save the Doctor

"Space Babies" proves that Ruby Sunday can - unknowingly or otherwise - bring elements of her past through to the present. The omnipresence of falling snow from the night of her birth is evidence of this. So, she may boast a similar power that enables her to pull her future into the present too. If so, this would explain why the older version of herself is in the distance throughout "73 Yards."

However, this theory ignores the presence of the fairy circle altogether. What's perhaps more likely is that some form of magical force is at play throughout the episode due to the Doctor crossing the circle's perimeter. So, Ruby's time loop may not have a sci-fi explanation as is so traditionally the case. Instead, "73 Yards" could just be the latest example of Doctor Who's recent focus on all things magical. This is ed by Kate Lethbridge-Stewart telling Ruby that UNIT's workload is becoming more about supernatural events than it is extraterrestrial: "Things seem to be turning that way these days."

Why Old Ruby Always Stood 73 Yards Away From Her Younger Self

The older Ruby never approaches or increases the distance between them

73 Yards may seem like an arbitrary distance for the two versions of Ruby to remain apart, but it makes sense given the setting of their first encounter. At the beginning (and the end) of the episode, the older Ruby is standing 73 yards away from the younger Ruby, and this is how the younger counterpart re the encounter. The future version of the character looks to be making the same handful of gestures over and over again, so she is likely living out the same moment as Young Ruby re from the Welsh cliff.

If the older Ruby is an echo of the episode's opening scene, it would make sense why her younger self can't approach her. To Millie Gibson's Ruby, the mysterious woman is nothing more than a memory, and she never saw what the figure looked like up close. So, even if those nearby (such as Ruby's mother) can see her, then they'd initially only see her from 73 yards away.

What's slightly more confusing is the fact that others can and do approach Old Ruby throughout the episode - once they've been apprised of her presence, which means it must be possible to see what she looks like up close.

What's slightly more confusing is the fact that others can and do approach Old Ruby throughout the episode - once they've been apprised of her presence, which means it must be possible to see what she looks like up close. However, there's no evidence to suggest that Old Ruby can ever be seen clearly, even from a few feet away. UNIT even tries top-of-the-range technology to take photos, but they're never completely successful.

What Was Old Ruby Saying That Made Everyone Run Away?

The older woman terrified various Doctor Who characters

Once Ruby dies and becomes the woman on the hill, the only words that her younger self hears her speak are, "Don't step." However, this is still from 73 yards away, and it doesn't cause Ruby to be terrified as it does others who speak directly with the older woman. While several characters are shown to directly interact with Old Ruby, it's impossible to hear what she says to them that instills such fear and causes them to flee.

The reaction to the mysterious message (if it's the same one each time) changes depending on who hears it. For example, Susan Twist's "73 Yards" character - the walker - runs away from Old Ruby after approaching, as does the Welsh local who leaves the pub. On the other hand, Ruby's mother and Kate Lethbridge-Stewart both immediately leave and turn cold toward Ruby. It's unclear what defines how each person will interpret the words of the enigmatic lady in black.

Doctor Who Season 14, Episode 4's "Mad Jack" Connection Explained

Old Ruby's solution could mean Roger ap Gwilliam never becomes a villain

Mad Jack is a name that's mentioned early into in the events of "73 Yards," with the legitimacy of a man existing by that name ebbing and flowing throughout the episode. However, Ruby finally hears the name being uttered by the aspiring British Prime Minister, Roger ap Gwilliam. Speaking on TV in 2046, Gwilliam declares Mad Jack to be his nickname. Ruby immediately makes the connection to the name she read in the fairy circle in 2024, and assumes the woman who's been following her wants Ruby to stop the politician.

The Doctor mentions Gwilliam in the episode's opening moments, describing him as a, "Bad example of the Welsh," and "The most dangerous Prime Minister in history."

As it turns out, all the older Ruby is trying to do is stop the Doctor from standing in the fairy circle - which she achieved. However, the connection between the name "Mad Jack" from the circle also being applied to a figure in one of Ruby's futures cannot be ignored. With the timeline reset, it's unclear whether Gwilliam will now follow a similar path, or if the Mad Jack persona is left confined to the circle. One thing is obvious: Doctor Who season 14 just added yet another mystery.