History Recap / DoctorWhoS29E10Blink

* MemeticMutation: InUniverse with "The Angels have the phone box". This later [[{{Defictionalisation}} caught on]] in RealLife, JustAsPlanned.[[note]][[DontExplainTheJoke Yes, that last trope being dropped in is intended to imply that]] Creator/StevenMoffat is an EvilOverlord.[[/note]]

* JustIgnoreIt: Inverted. If you ignore a Weeping Angel, you will soon find yourself in the past.

'''The Doctor:''' ThatSoundsFamiliar Well, I ''can'' hear you.\\

--->'''The Doctor:''' [[ThatSoundsFamiliar ... it's more like a big ball of wibbly-wobbly... timey-wimey... stuff...]]\\

'''The Doctor:''' [[ThatSoundsFamiliar It... got away from me, yeah...]]\\

'''The Doctor:''' [[ThatSoundsFamiliar Well, I]] ''[[ThatSoundsFamiliar can]]'' [[ThatSoundsFamiliar hear you.]]\\

* AlasPoorVillain: After the angels are trapped forever from all looking at each other, Larry's face as he says "I don't think we need to" and his delivery of "They're never gonna move again" imply that he feels at least slightly bad for them as they didn't seem to have any outright malice towards him and they were just looking for energy, similar to how an eagle sees a rabbit.

-->"It was raining when we met."\\
"It's the same rain."

* TakeThat: When entering Wester Drumlins for the first time, Sally and Kathy suggest names for their little "investigation team". When Kathy comes up with "Sparrow and Nightingale", Sally dismisses it as a bit too ITV. This doesn't stop Sally and Larry from using it as the name of their shop.

It is at this moment, [[ForegoneConclusion of course]], that Sally and Larry realise that they've been so focused on getting the transcript down that neither of them has been looking at the Angel in the garden. After a moment's pause, they look up to see it standing only a few metres away, poised to attack. Sally goes to look for an exit, leaving Larry to stare at the Angel. The music gets more and more off-kilter as Larry stares at the Angel, trying not to blink. [[OhCrap He slowly feels the need to.]] His eyes water either from strain or sheer terror, and he sobs a tearful ''"Oh god..."'' He looks away for a moment to call to Sally to hurry up, while also getting in a split-second blink, and when he looks back the Angel's hands are inches away from his neck.

Sally finds the TARDIS in the mansion's basement, and she and Larry make their way down the stairs. However, the Angels follow them, and one creates intervals of darkness for the Angels to move by feeding on the electricity powering the single lightbulb. Sally and Larry make it inside the TARDIS just as the Angels reach them.

They then discover that Larry's DVD functions as a TARDIS-activation key, slot it into the TARDIS' handy [[PlotCoupon drive]] for a one way trip and then watch as the TARDIS dematerialises without them. The Angels have surrounded the TARDIS by this point, and when it disappears they're stuck looking at each other — forever. Whoops.

* RecurringCameraShot: Three times in the episode there is a slow zoom-in on someone's face followed by a close-up on their eyes as they blink. The first is Sally looking at the Angels from the police station and opening her eyes to find they've disappeared, the second is [[spoiler:Billy Shipton looking at the Angels before being disappeared to the 1960s]], and the third is [[spoiler: Larry desperately trying to resist blinking, though he actually survives]].

* TimeShiftedActor: Billy Shipton is played by Michael Obiora (young) and Louis Mahoney (old). It was planned for Michael to play both versions, but he didn't look convincing in old-age makeup.

When Billy opens his eyes again, he's in a back alleyway, where he is promptly greeted by the Doctor and Martha, who tell him that he's landed in 1969, having been sent back by the same Weeping Angel that sent them back. After rambling a bit about the Weeping Angels ("the only psychopaths in the universe to kill you nicely"), the Doctor explains that they found him via a [[TimeyWimeyBall Timey Wimey detector]] which detects when someone comes from a different time, "and can cook an egg from 20 paces, whether you want it to or not."[[note]]Because of this, he actively avoids chickens, as it's not pretty when they blow up.[[/note]] The Doctor asks Billy to give a message to Sally Sparrow, but apologetically warns him that [[TheSlowPath it's going to take him a long time]] to fulfill the task.

[[MindScrew The Doctor mentions that he has a copy of the transcript on his autocue, which is how he knows everything Sally is saying.]] He warns of creatures from another world, the "Lonely Assassins", aka the Weeping Angels. They are incredibly fast, and they can send people back in time, feeding off the days a person might have spent in the present while their victim dies in the past, which is how he and Martha have gotten stuck in 1969. These aliens have a unique defence mechanism: they are "quantum locked"; they do not exist when they are being watched. If any living thing looks at the Angels, they immediately turn to stone until they are no longer looked at. This explains the "weeping"; they cannot look at each other since it has the same effect. Since a statue can't look away or blink, the Angels who see each other never move again. Right now, [[MemeticMutation the Angels have the phone box]], and if they can get in it, they'll be able to feed on the time energy inside... and do enough damage to switch off the Sun. Sally has the key, so it's up to her to open the TARDIS first and send it back to the Doctor in 1969. When she asks how, he states that he has run out of transcript:

* ThatWasTheLastEntry: "And that's it, I'm afraid. There's no more from you on the transcript, that's the last I've got. I don't know what stopped you talking but I can guess. They're coming. The Angels are coming for you..."

When Sally gets to the DVD shop, she goes into the back to find Larry. She sees the man with glasses who gave her the blinking warning on a TV. Larry explains that the man is an Easter egg found on seventeen DVDs and no one, not even the manufacturers or the publishers, know how it got there, and he and his friends have dissected every line looking for answers. As they are talking, the DVD keeps un-pausing itself, and the Doctor says random phrases, [[TheTapeKnewYouWouldSayThat one of which shockingly fits with something Sally commented]]. In the end, Larry gives her a list of the seventeen DVDs that have the Easter egg on them. She leaves the shop, having gotten an idea from a comment said by Larry's co-worker (“[[PoliceAreUseless Go to the police]], you stupid woman! [[GenreBlindness Why does nobody ever just go to the police?]]”). Sally is startled, but relaxes when she sees that he's watching a B-Movie.

Young photographer [[Creator/CareyMulligan Sally Sparrow]] breaks into an old house called Wester Drumlins, and takes photos of fallen chandeliers and moss growing in fireplaces. Entering a room upstairs, she sees peeling wallpaper and the letters "BE" exposed underneath. She pulls back the corner and finds the whole message: "BEWARE OF THE WEEPING ANGELS". She tears off more wallpaper, revealing a message telling her to beware of the Weeping Angels, and telling her to "duck, Sally Sparrow." It is only when she reveals the words "duck now" that she actually does so, narrowly avoiding a rock that would have hit her head. She looks out the window, from where the rock was thrown and sees the statue of an angel with its hands covering its eyes. She peels the rest of the wallpaper off to reveal the writer of the message — "Love from the Doctor, 1969."

Sally appears to return home, looking into her living room; there are numerous televisions; they show the Doctor, although, on one screen, Martha Jones is butting into the scene. The Doctor is having a one-sided conversation with an invisible audience member, telling them not to turn away, not to look away, and not to blink. "Blink and you're dead." Sally calls her best friend Kathy Nightingale, despite the late hour; she answers, groggily, but refuses to leave her home.

It's then revealed that Sally is in ''Kathy's'' home, having been given a key. Annoyed, Kathy gets ready to greet her friend; however, upon hearing the toilet, Kathy asks if Sally has met her brother, warning her that she's about to. Sally turns to the hall to see Kathy's naked brother, Larry, who desperately hoped he was wearing pants. Kathy walks in, shouting at Larry to get to bed; she then notices Sally isn't concerned by this, asking her what's wrong.

The next morning, Kathy and Sally return to the house; Kathy has a laugh that they are acting like detectives, "Sparrow and Nightingale". Sally shows Kathy the message on the wall and the Weeping Angel, but thinks it is now closer to the house than before. Someone rings the doorbell; Sally answers it, and Kathy waits in the room where the writing on the wall is, "in case of incidents". Sally answers the door to discover a man who is looking for her. He says that he was told to come to this place on this exact date at this exact time and give Sally Sparrow [[WriteBackToTheFuture a letter]]. As Kathy spies on the conversation from in the room, she fails to notice the Weeping Angel advancing on her whenever it isn't in sight; lowering its hands from its eyes, and creeping into the room and upon Kathy from behind.

At Wester Drumlins, the man has become upset; he promised to fulfill this task for his grandmother, Kathy Wainwright, who died in 1987. This persuades Sally to take the letter, who reads it; this man is indeed Kathy's grandson, who swore to fulfil her last request. In anger, Sally flings down the letter and heads upstairs, only to find three more Weeping Angels. One of them has a Yale key in its hand. She takes it and heads out, only to find Kathy's grandson leaving with his promise fulfilled. As Sally leaves, she fails to notice the Angels uncovering their eyes and watching her as she takes the key and leaves.

In a coffee shop, Sally reads the letter fully, learning Kathy led a full and happy life, with Ben, the first person she met in Hull with a family. She includes photographs of her and her children (with her daughter named after Sally), and grandchildren. Sally reads Kathy's joke about living to an exceptionally old age and her request to tell Larry, who works at a local DVD shop; her parents are gone by this time, so he's really her only close family. After visiting Kathy's grave ("[[ReallySeventeenYearsOld You told him you were eighteen? You lying cow!]]"), Sally heads out to fulfill Kathy's last request and convey her love to Larry. Sally fails to notice one of the Angels from Wester Drumlins spying on her in the graveyard.

When Sally gets to the DVD shop, she goes into the back to find Larry. She sees the man with glasses who gave her the blinking warning on a TV. Larry explains that the man is an Easter egg found on seventeen DVDs and no one, not even the manufacturers or the publishers, knows how it got there, and he and his friends have dissected every line looking for answers. As they are talking, the DVD keeps un-pausing itself, and the Doctor says random phrases, [[TheTapeKnewYouWouldSayThat one of which shockingly fits with something Sally commented]]. In the end, Larry gives her a list of the seventeen DVDs that have the Easter egg on them. She leaves the shop, having gotten an idea from a comment said by Larry's co-worker (“[[PoliceAreUseless Go to the police]], you stupid woman! [[GenreBlindness Why does nobody ever just go to the police?]]”). Sally is startled, but relaxes when she sees that he's watching a B-Movie.

This explicit LampshadeHanging leads her to take the counter-jockey's inadvertent advice, and Sally heads over to the police station. While waiting, she sees two of the Angels on the church across the street. Watching them, she blinks and they have disappeared. She doesn't see that they are now above the window she is looking out of. She then meets DI Billy Shipton. He shows her a collection of cars with something strange in common: all of them were found outside the Wester Drumlins house (some with their engines still running) and all of their owners vanished without a trace. The prize of the collection is [[LeaningOnTheFourthWall an imitation police box built entirely to scale which nobody can manage to open despite having an ordinary Yale lock]] (they know it's fake because [[FandomNod the phone's just a dummy and the windows are the wrong size]]).

When Billy opens his eyes again, he's in a back alleyway, where he is promptly greeted by the Doctor and Martha, who tell him that he's landed in 1969, having been sent back by the same Weeping Angel that sent them back. After rambling a bit about the Weeping Angels ("the only psychopaths in the universe to kill you nicely"), the Doctor explains that they found him via a [[TimeyWimeyBall Timey Wimey detector]] which detects when someone comes from a different time, "and can cook an egg from 20 paces, whether you want it to or not."[[note]]Because of this, he actively avoids chickens, as it's not pretty when they blow up.[[/note]] The Doctor asks Billy to give a message to Sally Sparrow. He apologetically warns Billy, that [[TheSlowPath it's going to take him 38 years to do so]].

In the present, Sally gets a phone call. She goes to the hospital, where [[AlmostDeadGuy Billy Shipton is now an elderly man on his deathbed]]. They have a laugh that Billy managed to marry a woman named Sally, who has already passed away. He then passes on the Doctor's message: "look at the list". The list being Larry's list of [=DVDs=]. Billy explains that after meeting the Doctor, he got into video publishing and eventually [=DVDs=], putting the Doctor's Easter egg on the seventeen [=DVDs=]. He also says that she will understand one day why those 17 specific [=DVDs=] were picked...but that he won't, because the Doctor told him that this will be their last meeting and that he will die when the rain stops. Billy goes on to explain that he could have contacted her before tonight, but the Doctor advised him against it because the resulting temporal paradox could have severely damaged the universe. She decides to stay with him until the end.

As soon as Billy dies, she calls Larry to tell him what the [=DVDs=] have in common: they're all the [=DVDs=] she owns. Larry is incredulous to learn that Sally [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking only owns 17 DVDs]], but quickly agrees to meet Sally at Wester Drumlins, along with a DVD which has the Easter Egg.

Realising this, Sally thinks he can hear them, but Larry explains that he always says it and that he has got a transcript of the Easter egg with him. As the Doctor gives his message, everything Sally says seems to fit in, so Larry, now very excited, begins to add her words to the transcript.

[[MindScrew The Doctor mentions that he has a copy of the transcript on his autocue. That is how he knows everything Sally is saying.]] He warns of creatures from another world, the "Lonely Assassins", aka the Weeping Angels. They are incredibly fast, and they can send people back in time, feeding off the days a person might have spent in the present while their victim dies in the past, which is how he and Martha have gotten stuck in 1969. These aliens have a unique defence mechanism: they are "quantum locked"; they do not exist when they are being watched. If any living thing looks at the Angels, they immediately turn to stone until they are no longer looked at. This explains the "weeping"; they cannot look at each other since it has the same effect. Since a statue can't look away or blink, the Angels who see each other never move again. Right now, [[MemeticMutation the Angels have the phone box]], and if they can get in it, they'll be able to feed on the time energy inside... and do enough damage to switch off the Sun. Sally has the key, so it's up to her to open the TARDIS first and send it back to the Doctor in 1969.

When she asks how, he states that he has run out of transcript:

* FunTShirt: Larry has made T-shirts branded "The Angels Have the Phone Box" on it. [[{{Defictionalization}} You can get one too.]][[invoked]]

* MemeticMutation: InUniverse example with "The Angels have the phone box". This later [[{{Defictionalisation}} caught on]] in RealLife, JustAsPlanned.[[note]][[DontExplainTheJoke Yes, that last trope being dropped in is intended to imply that]] Creator/StevenMoffat is an EvilOverlord.[[/note]]

** The amount of time the two took to run towards and unlock the TARDIS after the lights went out. The angels should have logically got them within seconds. Though if the NoFourthWall is any indication, [[FridgeBrilliance the fact the viewers were able to see the Angels in the dark was what saved our heroes]].[[invoked]]

When Billy opens his eyes again, he's in a back alleyway, where he is promptly greeted by the Doctor and Martha, who tell him that he's landed in 1969, having been sent back by the same Weeping Angel that sent them back. After rambling a bit about the Weeping Angels ("the only psychopaths in the universe to kill you nicely"), the Doctor explains that they found him via a [[TimeyWimeyBall Timey Wimey detector]] which detects when someone comes from a different time, "and can cook an egg from 20 paces, whether you want it to or not."[[note]]Because of this, he actively avoids chickens, as it's not pretty when they blow up.[[/note]] The Doctor asks Billy to give a message to Sally Sparrow. He apologetically warns Billy, that [[TheSlowPath it's going to take him a very long while]] to do so.


Back in the present, Sally gets a phone call. She goes to the hospital, where [[AlmostDeadGuy Billy Shipton is now an elderly man on his deathbed]]. They have a laugh that Billy managed to marry a Sally, who has already passed away. He then passes on the Doctor's message: "look at the list". The list being Larry's list of [=DVDs=]. Billy reveals that he didn't stay a police officer back in the day. He instead got into video publishing and eventually [=DVDs=], putting the Doctor's Easter egg on the seventeen [=DVDs=]. He also says that she will understand one day why those 17 specific [=DVDs=] were picked, but that he won't, because the Doctor told him that this will be their last meeting and that he will die when the rain stops. Billy goes on to explain that he could have contacted her before tonight, but the Doctor advised him against it as the resulting temporal paradox could have severely damaged the universe. She decides to stay with him until the end.

[[MindScrew The Doctor mentions that he has a copy of the transcript on his autocue. That is how he knows what she is saying.]] He warns of creatures from another world, the "Lonely Assassins", aka the Weeping Angels. They are incredibly fast, and they can send people back in time, which is how he and Martha got stuck in 1969. These aliens have a unique defence mechanism: they are "quantum locked"; they do not exist when they are being watched. If any living thing looks at the Angels, they immediately turn to stone until they are no longer looked at. This explains the "weeping"; they cannot look at each other since it has the same effect. Since a statue can't look away or blink, the Angels who see each other never move again. The Angels send their victims back in time and feed off the days they never had. Right now, [[MemeticMutation the Angels have the phone box]], and if they can get in it, they'll be able to feed on the time energy inside... and do enough damage to switch off the Sun. Sally has the key, so it's up to her to open the TARDIS first and send it back to the Doctor in 1969.

Then a cab pulls up, and the Doctor and Martha get out, with [[NoodleImplements Martha carrying a quiver of arrows, and the Doctor carrying a bow]]. They are in a hurry to deal with — [[NoodleIncident well, four things and a lizard]]. Neither the Doctor nor Martha recognises Sally, which leads her to realise that for them, the events of the episode haven't taken place yet. She also realises that the folder containing Larry's complete transcript of the conversation and various other details regarding the "Weeping Angels" affair is [[StableTimeLoop the source of the Doctor's knowledge about the incident]]. She gives the Doctor the folder, and tells him to use it the next time he gets trapped in 1969.

Larry walks up just in time to see Martha and the Doctor off. Then he and Sally walk back into the store, their clasped hands hinting that they are about to have a RelationshipUpgrade. Then the camera lazily travels upwards... and halts on a statue on the roof above. The scene shifts to montage across the public statuary, punctuated with the Doctor's recorded warnings, [[ParanoiaFuel warning us that there might be other Angels lurking among the statues]]...

When Sally asks the mystery man who sent him, he replies that he was sent by his grandmother, Katherine Wainwright, who specified that he add that prior to marriage, she was known as [[WhamLine Kathy Nightingale]]. At that moment, the door to the room Kathy is in slams shut. Sally calls to Kathy, which the man assumes is her wondering if he said the right name; he restates her full name, Katherine Constello Nightingale, as confirmation. Sally presumes she has figured out the joke and calls for her friend, but Kathy does not answer. When she goes back into the room where she left her, Kathy has completely vanished, and the Angel is back in its original spot and position outside.

Meanwhile, Kathy gets up in a field and asks a local lad where she is. He replies that she is in Hull, but she refuses to believe it until he shows her the local newspaper, which not only confirms her location but also shows the year to be 1920.

At Wester Drumlins, the man has become upset; he promised to fulfil this task for his grandmother, Kathy Wainwright, who died in 1987. This persuades Sally to take the letter, who reads it; this man is indeed Kathy's grandson, who swore to fulfil her last request. In anger, Sally flings down the letter and heads upstairs, only to find three more Weeping Angels. One of them has a Yale key in its hand. She takes it and heads out, only to find Kathy's grandson leaving with his promise fulfilled. As Sally leaves, she fails to notice the Angels uncovering their eyes and watching her as she takes the key and leaves.

In a coffee shop, Sally reads the letter fully, learning Kathy led a full and happy life, with Ben, the first person she met in Hull with a family. She includes photographs of her and her children (with her daughter named after Sally), and grandchildren. Sally reads Kathy's joke about living to an exceptionally old age and her request to tell Larry, who works at a local DVD shop, something; her parents are gone by this time, so he's really her only close family. After visiting Kathy's grave ("[[ReallySeventeenYearsOld You told him you were eighteen? You lying cow!]]"), Sally heads out to fulfill Kathy's last request and convey her love to Larry. Sally fails to notice one of the Angels from Wester Drumlins spying on her in the graveyard.

When Sally gets to the DVD shop, she goes into the back to find Larry. She sees the man with glasses who gave her the blinking warning on a TV. Larry explains that the man is an Easter egg found on seventeen DVDs and no one, not even the manufacturers or the publishers, knows how it got there, and he and his friends have dissected every line looking for answers. As they are talking, the DVD keeps un-pausing itself, and the Doctor says random phrases, [[TheTapeKnewYouWouldSayThat one of which shockingly fits with something Sally commented]]. In the end, Larry gives her a list of the seventeen DVDs that have the Easter egg on them. She leaves the shop, having gotten an idea from a comment said by Larry's co-worker (“[[PoliceAreUseless Go to the police]], you stupid woman! [[GenreBlindness Why does nobody ever just go to the police?]]”) Sally is startled, but relaxes when she sees that he's watching a B-Movie.

Sally responds to Billy's come-ons by giving him her phone number — "Just a phone number" — and then leaves. Billy turns back to the garage to find it infested with four angelic statues, one of which is trying to open the door of the TARDIS. The camera zooms in on his face until he blinks, at which point he disappears.

When Billy gets up, he's in a back alleyway, where he is promptly greeted by the Doctor and Martha, who tell him he is in 1969 thanks to the touch of an Angel; most likely the same one as the one who sent them back. The Doctor explains that they found him via a [[TimeyWimeyBall Timey Wimey detector]] which detects when someone comes from a different time, "and can cook an egg from 20 paces, whether you want it to or not."[[note]]Because of this, he actively avoids chickens, as it's not pretty when they blow up.[[/note]] The Doctor asks Billy to give a message to Sally Sparrow. He apologetically warns Billy, that [[TheSlowPath it's going to take him a very long while]] to do so.


Back in the present, Sally gets a phone call. She goes to the hospital, where [[AlmostDeadGuy Billy Shipton is now an elderly man on his deathbed]]. They have a laugh that Billy managed to marry a Sally, who has already passed away. He then passes on the Doctor's message: "look at the list". The list being Larry's list of [=DVDs=]. Billy reveals that he didn't stay a police officer back in the day. He instead got into video publishing and eventually [=DVDs=], putting the Doctor's Easter egg on the seventeen [=DVDs=] that Sally owns. He also says that she will understand one day, but that he won't, because the Doctor told him that this will be their last meeting and that he will die when the rain stops. Billy goes on to explain that he could have contacted her before tonight, but the Doctor advised him against it as the resulting temporal paradox could have severely damaged the universe. She decides to stay with him until the end.

Larry walks up just in time to see Martha and the Doctor off. Then he and Sally walk back into the store, their clasped hands hinting that they are about to have a RelationshipUpgrade. Then the camera lazily travels upwards... and halts on a statue on the roof above. The scene shifts to montage across the public statuary, punctuated with the Doctor's recorded warnings, [[ParanoiaFuel warning us that there might be other Angels lurking among the statues...

* FunTShirt: DiscussedTrope. Larry has a t-shirt with "The Angels Have the Phone Box" on it. [[{{Defictionalization}} You can get one too.]][[invoked]]

* TheSlowPath: The Weeping Angels' favoured killing/eating method makes people do this. It particularly applies to Billy, who has to return to 2007 this way to deliver a message to Sally in order to resolve the time loop; the Doctor explicitly tells him that he would normally offer him a ride home, but can't in this case. Billy is reunited with Sally on his deathbed as an old man, from her perspective around an hour after they first met.

* StableTimeLoop: The episode revolves around creating one of these. The only reason that the Doctor can do all that stuff with the [=DVDs=] is because Sally gave him a record of the incident one year after it was over. This makes the ending a ForegoneConclusion. Yet, it's still terrifying.

We are introduced to Sally Sparrow (played by Creator/CareyMulligan), a clever, spunky young woman who visits an old mansion called Wester Drumlins in 2007 and finds a spookily-detailed message from the Doctor written in 1969. The message tells her to "beware the Weeping Angel" and "oh, and duck! no, seriously, duck!". She ducks, and a large rock smashes into the wall just above her head. Seeking the attacker, she sights an angel statue in the garden.

Sally leaves Wester Drumlins and, that night, goes to visit her friend, Kathy Nightingale. At Kathy's house, Sally finds several TV sets playing a DVD of the Doctor, apparently talking to thin air. She also meets Kathy's brother Lawrence ([[StealthPun Lawrence Nightingale, get it?]]), who has apparently discovered that sleeping in the nude helps with those tricky midnight leaks. You should [[JustForFun/HowToBecomeALoveInterest know what's coming next]], despite Moffat [[PlayingWithATrope trying to throw a curveball]] by reversing the genders of the protagonists.

Anyway, Sally persuades Kathy to accompany her to Wester Drumlins. When someone knocks on the door, Kathy stays behind in case of danger, while Sally investigates. [[OffscreenTeleportation Completely off-screen]], the angel from the garden approaches, appearing ever closer as the camera angle changes...

Meanwhile, at the door, a strange man approaches Sally with a letter, [[WriteBackToTheFuture written by his grandmother]], Katherine Costello Wainwright, who Sally knows by her maiden name, Kathy Nightingale. Sally opens the letter to find that it is indeed from Kathy, who has, during this conversation, mysteriously teleported to Hull in December 1920.

Sally takes one last look around Wester Drumlins, unable to find Kathy, and takes a key hanging from the hand of one of the stone angels. While her back is turned, one of the statues apparently moves, its hand grasping for her as she walks away.

After visiting Kathy's grave ("[[ReallySeventeenYearsOld You told him you were eighteen? You lying cow!]]"), Sally heads out to fulfil Kathy's last request and convey her love to Larry. At the DVD shop where he works, Sally gets into an argument with the same recording of the Doctor. Since he [[TheTapeKnewYouWouldSayThat appears to be talking directly to her]], she soon gets creeped out and yells at the Doctor to stop being so weird... at which point, Larry shows up. He tells her that the video of the Doctor is an EasterEgg on 17 apparently unconnected [=DVDs=], and that nobody seems to know what it's about, though he and his online friends have thoroughly dissected every line in search of answers.

Sally gives him an edited version of Kathy's message, collects [[ChekhovsGun a list of the DVDs]] with the Doctor's Easter Egg, and then steps out of the back room, her head still spinning. The man behind the counter shouts “[[PoliceAreUseless Go to the police]], you stupid woman! [[GenreBlindness Why does nobody ever just go to the police?]]” Sally is startled, but relaxes when she sees that he's watching a B-Movie. (You can practically see Moffat [[LeaningOnTheFourthWall winking at the audience]]).

This explicit LampshadeHanging leads her to take the counter-jockey's inadvertent advice, and Sally heads over to the police station — followed by the Weeping Angels. At the station, she meets a police inspector called Billy Shipton, who flirts with her shamelessly, encouraged by a FreudianSlip on her part. He also shows her a garage full of cars whose owners have disappeared in or around Wester Drumlins in the past few years. The prize of the collection is an imitation police box built entirely to scale which nobody can manage to open (they know it's fake because the phone's just a dummy and [[FandomNod the windows are the wrong size]]).

Sally responds to Billy's come-ons by giving him her phone number — "Just a phone number" — and then leaves. Billy turns back to the garage to find it infested with four angelic statues, one of which is trying the door of the TARDIS. The camera zooms in on his face until he blinks, at which point he disappears.

Minutes later, Sally receives a phone call from Billy. She follows his directions to a hospital, where she finds Billy Shipton, now elderly, [[AlmostDeadGuy and on his deathbed]]. He tells Sally that he met the Doctor in 1969, and the Doctor gave him a message for her. He also reveals that in the interim years he got into publishing, eventually DVD publishing. His company published all 17 [=DVDs=] with the Doctor's message on them, and asks if she's figured out the connection between them.

Sally stays with Billy until he dies. Then she calls Larry to tell him what the [=DVDs=] have in common: they're all the [=DVDs=] she owns. Larry is incredulous to learn that Sally [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking only owns 17 DVDs]], but quickly agrees to meet Sally at Wester Drumlins, along with a DVD which has the Easter Egg.

At Wester Drumlins they set up a portable DVD player and, on noticing an Angel in the garden, Sally tells Larry to keep an eye on it. The following sequence is one of the biggest TimeParadox {{Mind Screw}}s you will ever encounter, with Sally and the Doctor carrying on an extended conversation even though the Doctor is speaking to a video camera thirty-eight years in the past. The Doctor's attempt to explain the temporal mechanics of the situation gives us the TropeNamer for the TimeyWimeyBall. When asked how he knows what she's going to say, the Doctor responds "Look to your left." Sally does so — to find Larry scribbling her lines into his copy of the transcript of the Doctor's dialogue from the DVD Easter Egg (adding a necessary but slightly cool-dampening modicum of plausibility to the sequence). The Doctor reveals he has a copy of that completed transcript as he records his part.

The Doctor also explains the nature of the Weeping Angels: they feed on "potential energy", meaning the energy a person would have expended if they lived into the future, but do not expend if they live out the rest of their lives in the past. As he remarked earlier to Billy, they're the only psychopaths in the universe who kill you nicely; they send you back to the past and let you live yourself to death.

They've also evolved the ultimate defence mechanism:

->'''The Doctor:''' They're quantum locked. They don't exist when they're being observed. The moment they are seen by any other living creature, they freeze into rock. No choice, it's a fact of their biology. In the sight of any living thing they literally turn to stone. And you can't kill a stone. 'Course, a stone can't kill you either, but then you turn your head away. Then you ''[[TitleDrop blink]]'', and oh yes it can.

The Doctor tells Sally and Larry that [[MemeticMutation the Angels have the phone box]], and if they can get in it, they'll be able to feed on the time energy inside... and do enough damage to switch off the Sun. Sally has the key, so it's up to her to open the TARDIS first and send it back to the Doctor.

His explanation done, the Doctor, noting that his transcript has ended, gives Sally and Larry these last words of advice:

It is at this moment, [[ForegoneConclusion of course]], that Sally and Larry realise that neither of them has been looking at the Angel in the garden. After a moment's pause, they look up to see it standing only a few metres away, poised to attack. Sally goes to look for an exit, leaving Larry to stare at the Angel. The music gets more and more off-kilter as Larry stares at the Angel, trying not to blink. [[OhCrap He slowly feels the need to.]] His eyes water either from strain or sheer terror, and he sobs a tearful ''"Oh god..."'' He looks away for a moment to call to Sally to hurry up, while also getting in a split-second blink, and when he looks back the Angel's hands are inches away from his neck.

They then discover that Larry's DVD functions as a TARDIS-activation key, slot it into the TARDIS' handy PlotCoupon drive and then watch as the TARDIS dematerialises without them. The Angels have surrounded the TARDIS by this point, and when it disappears they're stuck looking at each other — forever. Whoops.

Fast forward one year. Sally and Larry now run an antiquarian book and rare DVD shop [[BrickJoke named "Sparrow and Nightingale"]], which Sally insists is [[JustFriends all there is between them]], at least partly because she's too focused on investigating what happened to them.

Then a cab pulls up, and the Doctor and Martha get out, with [[NoodleImplements Martha carrying a quiver of arrows, and the Doctor carrying a bow]]. They are in a hurry to deal with — [[NoodleIncident well, four things and a lizard]]. Neither the Doctor nor Martha recognises Sally, which leads her to realise that for them, the events of the episode haven't taken place yet. She also realises that the very convenient folder containing Larry's complete transcript of the conversation and various other details regarding the "Weeping Angels" affair is [[StableTimeLoop the source of the Doctor's knowledge about the incident]]. She gives the Doctor the folder, and tells him to use it the next time he gets trapped in 1969.

Larry walks up just in time to see Martha and the Doctor off. Then he and Sally walk back into the store, their clasped hands hinting that they are about to have a RelationshipUpgrade. Then the camera lazily travels upwards... and halts on a statue on the roof above.

What follows is 29 seconds of pure [[ParanoiaFuel paranoia-fuelled]] MindScrew, as we return to the last few seconds of the Doctor's video:

* ThatWasTheLastEntry:
-->'''The Doctor:''' And that's it, I'm afraid. There's no more from you on the transcript, that's the last I've got. I don't know what stopped you talking but I can guess. They're coming. The Angels are coming for you...

* TimeshiftedActor: Billy Shipton is played by Michael Obiora (young) and Louis Mahoney (old). It was planned for Michael to play both versions, but he didn't look convincing in old-age makeup.

Meanwhile, at the door, a strange man approaches Sally with a letter, [[WriteBackToTheFuture written by his grandmother]]: Katherine Costello Wainwright, formerly known as Katherine Nightingale. Sally opens the letter to find that it is indeed from Kathy, who had mysteriously teleported to 5 December 1920.

Minutes later, Sally receives a phone call from Billy. She follows his directions to a hospital, where she finds Billy Shipton, now elderly. [[AlmostDeadGuy Just before he dies]], he tells Sally that he met the Doctor in 1969, and the Doctor gave him a message for her. He also reveals that in the interim years he got into publishing, eventually DVD publishing. His company published all 17 [=DVDs=] with the Doctor's message on them, and asks if she's figured out the connection between them.

The one where DVD Easter eggs are crucially important.

* StableTimeLoop: The episode revolves around creating one of these. The only reason that the Doctor can do all that stuff with the [=DVDs=] is because Sally gave him a record of the incident one year after it was over. This makes the ending a ForegoneConclusion. Yet, it's still terrifying.
* StalkingIsLove: Ben is the first person Kathy sees when she gets sent back to 1920; they later get married.
-->'''Kathy:''' Are you following me?\\
'''Ben:''' Yeah.\\
'''Kathy:''' Are you going to stop following me?\\
'''Ben:''' No, I don't think so.

* TravelingAtTheSpeedOfPlot: For all the hype about the Angels being extremely fast, they sure can take their time sneaking up on people when no-one (including the audience) is watching. Some of it could be explained by the fact that the Angels like to mess with their victims.