History Recap / DoctorWhoS34E4Listen

The Doctor has a theory--what if some creature, way out there in the starless dark, had evolved itself into the perfect hider? There are perfect hunters, after all, and creatures with a perfect defense. If that creature existed, how would you know it was there? Maybe it follows you around, constantly; but what would it ''want?'' And what does it have to do with that nightmare, that one nightmare everyone has, where you wake up in the night and there's something lurking underneath your bed...

* BadDate: Clara's first date with Danny goes rapidly downhill because of both of their emotional issues. Then it goes badly again after she time-travels back to it and mentions the name "Rupert".

** A ''very'' long one in the lurch. We are given hints of the black day that the Third Doctor told Jo about all the way back in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS9E5TheTimeMonster The Time Monster]]". Apparently, who we now know as the First Doctor was going to be forced to join the army, so he ran away to a mountaintop (probably due more to shame of not being able to make it into the Academy than any fear or dislike of the army), too sad for even tears, and happened to discover a hermit there who taught him about the beauty of life that could be found by giving anything a deeper look.

** The 22[[superscript:nd]] century having time-travel pioneers [[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E9Hide appears again]].

** Much like in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS34E1DeepBreath Deep Breath]]", Clara has no desire to hear how long she has to live.

** The premise of this episode is a giant continuity nod to the ''AudioPlay/BigFinishDoctorWho'' story "[[Recap/BigFinishDoctorWho050Zagreus Zagreus]]". Zagreus is an old Gallifreyan nursery rhyme used to scare little kids. The first verse? "Zagreus sits inside your head, Zagreus lives among the dead, Zagreus sees you in your bed and eats you when you're sleeping..." No wonder the Doctor's afraid of something at night.

** This isn't the first time the Doctor discusses the reasons for why everyone is [[PrimalFear afraid of the dark]]. Except this time, the cause isn't [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E8SilenceInTheLibrary tiny piranha-like creatures]].
** The Doctor mentions Clara becoming old and fatter -- in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS34E1DeepBreath Deep Breath]]", Strax said she'd live to a ripe old age but have serious fluid retention problems.

* DramaticIrony: "Well, he's not going to the Academy, is he, that boy? He'll never make a '''Time Lord'''." Mmhmm, really? Yeah, ''guess who made Timelord!?''
* DontTouchItYouIdiot: The "do not open" warning drawn above the locked door of Orson Pink's experimental timeship stuck at the end of time. He drew it there himself to keep from getting curious or desperate enough to open it and step out into the nothingness at the end of the universe.
* DopeSlap: Clara delivers one to the Doctor when the Doctor's 'reassurance' to Rupert is anything but.

* ForgottenFirstMeeting: Clara meets a young Danny Pink, but he will just remember the encounter as a dream. The Doctor has evidently forgotten ''his'' boyhood encounter with Clara, as there's no indication he recognizes her voice as the one that told him to "listen". On this occassion, the young Doctor also gets to hear the sound of his TARDIS departing, making it such a meeting for him and "Sexy" as well.

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: It is ''strongly'' implied that Clara and Danny spend the night together at one point during the closing montage in a brief sequence that is as close to a love scene as ''Doctor Who'' has ever been allowed to get. Remember that earlier in the episode it is implied that Orson is her descendant, so they have to start somewhere. Any other show but ''Doctor Who'' and this would barely pass notice.

-->'''Clara:''' ... Did we come here for a nursery rhyme?

** And meta example: the Doctor really is never alone. We are always watching.

** Do the Doctor's theoretical "perfect hiders" even exist? Or was it just childhood fears given more credence than they should have?
** Played for laughs when the Doctor is talking to the groundskeeper at the boys' home, pointing out that his coffee occasionally goes missing and the TV shuts itself off. The Doctor is the one that shut the TV off, and he steals the coffee while the groundskeeper is distracted.

* {{Narcissist}}: Played for laughs when the Doctor keeps bringing up Clara's triple-mirror in her room. Clara also appreciates the view of herself from behind after the Doctor drops her off at her date with Danny moments after she's stormed out of the restaurant.

** Kissing on the mouth is actually rather rare in ''Doctor Who'' as a whole, so the clinch between Clara and Danny at the end is an aversion to the general rule.
* NothingIsScarier: There are little to no special effects and hardly even the hint of a monster in this episode, because the monster is primarily in the imaginations of the characters (probably) and, by extension, the audience. The episode works all the better for it. Impressively, the episode never really gives us a reason to fear the monster that may or may not even be there in the first place. If it does exist, all it seems to do is hide and [[TitleDrop listen]]. Not knowing how real it is, however, somehow makes it ''[[ParanoiaFuel terrifying]]''.

* ScrewYourself: Clara checks out her earlier self [[ShakingTheRump striding away]] in a [[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E12NightmareInSilver skirt that's just a little bit too...tight]].

* WhamShot: When Clara grabs the young Doctor's leg, which speaks volumes without a word being uttered.
* YearInsideHourOutside: The Doctor returns Clara to the restaurant just after she left. Except Clara left her coat at home when she first entered the TARDIS, and Danny notices its sudden disappearance... which tips him off that something weird has just transpired and yanks the date back off the rails.

->''Out they'll come a'slithering, from underneath the bed!"''

** But the longest call back is when Clara tells the young Doctor-to-be that "Fear makes companions of us all," which is similar to something the First Doctor would tell Barbara in the first serial. See it [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUnMCGuvD9g here.]]

The one with a young one. [[ExactWords Seriously.]]

[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/listen_promo_pic_5009.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Perk your ears. [[FaceYourFears Face your fears]].]]

[[caption-width-right:400:[[labelnote:Click here to see the RadioTimes magazine poster for this episode:]]http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/listen_official_poster_7686.jpg The Doctor's TARDIS is [[BiggerOnTheInside bigger on the inside]]...but [[ParanoiaFuel how big is that bottomless shroud of darkness under your bed]]? Answer: big enough to hide one heck of a [[ThingsThatGoBumpInTheNight Boogeyman]].]][[/labelnote]]

The Doctor has a theory--what if some creature, way out there in the starless dark, had evolved itself into the perfect hider? There are perfect hunters, after all, and creatures with a perfect defense. If that creature existed, how would you know it was there? Maybe it follows you around, constantly; but what would it ''want?'' And what does it have to do with that nightmare, that one nightmare everyone has, where you wake up in the night and there's something lurking underneath your bed . . .

* BerserkButton: Danny has some . . . issues with people implying that all he did when he was a soldier was kill people.
* BedsheetGhost: Played with. Something's hiding under Rupert's bedspread in the classic form of a BedsheetGhost. It could be another boy trying to prank him . . . or something else . . .

* {{Bookends}}: Assuming the Curator from [[Recap/DoctorWho50thASTheDayOfTheDoctor "The Day of the Doctor"]] is who he's hinted to be, this episode plus that one makes Clara a bookend for his roster of companions: he encounters her as a little child ''and'' (briefly) long after his retirement.

** A ''very'' long one in the lurch. We are given hints of the black day that the Third Doctor told Jo about all the way back in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS9E5TheTimeMonster "The Time Monster"]]. Apparently, who we now know as the First Doctor was going to be forced to join the army, so he ran away to a mountaintop (probably due more to shame of not being able to make it into the Academy than any fear or dislike of the army), too sad for even tears, and happened to discover a hermit there who taught him about the beauty of life that could be found by giving anything a deeper look.

** The Fourth Doctor once mentioned that he used to be "frightened in childhood by a mythological horror . . ." Turns out said horror is short, dark-haired, and has a very wide face.
** Clara also gave the Doctor the [[BadassCreed creed]] for his namesake.
--->"Fear doesn't have to make you cruel or cowardly."
*** It should be noted that she learned that phrase and its significance [[StableTimeLoop from the Doctor himself]].
** The 22[[superscript:nd]] century having time travel pioneers [[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E9Hide appears again]].

* ChaosArchitecture: The barn from [[Recap/DoctorWho50thASTheDayOfTheDoctor "The Day of the Doctor"]] returns, chronologically earlier . . . so why's it got a loft?

** The episode opens with the Doctor sitting atop the TARDIS [[LotusPosition like a Buddhist monk]] ruminating on the puzzles of the universe. The Second Doctor did the same in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS5E5TheWebofFear "The Web of Fear"]], sitting alone on an Underground platform with legs crossed, having profound and and unknowable thoughts.

** "The TARDIS isn't supposed to come out this far, but [[Recap/DoctorWhoS21E3Frontios some]] [[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E11Utopia idiot]] turned the safeguards off . . ."
** "Sontarans! Perverting the course of human history!" is very similar to the [[Recap/DoctorWhoS12E1Robot opening words]] of the Fourth Doctor. Which was in itself a nod to [[Recap/DoctorWhoS11E1TheTimeWarrior "The Time Warrior"]].
** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E10Midnight "Midnight"]] was clearly a heavy influence on this episode: the rhythmic knocking on the spaceship door even when all logic dictates nothing can be out there, the constant use of NothingIsScarier rather than actually showing the monster, and the feeling of ThatOneCase, since the monster (if there even is one) comes extremely close to defeating the Doctor without being identified in any way.
** The Doctor telling young Rupert/Danny to not turn around is the same instruction the Beast gave to the unfortunate Toby in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E8TheImpossiblePlanet "The Impossible Planet"]].

** Much like in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS34E1DeepBreath "Deep Breath"]], Clara has no desire to hear how long she has to live.

** The Doctor is looking for creatures who can hide in plain sight as a perfect defence . . . which the Silence can do to some degree. You can catch them in the act, though, unlike the ones the Doctor is trying to find.
** The premise of this episode is a giant continuity nod to the ''AudioPlay/BigFinishDoctorWho'' story [[Recap/BigFinishDoctorWho050Zagreus "Zagreus"]]. Zagreus is an old Gallifreyan nursery rhyme used to scare little kids. The first verse? "Zagreus sits inside your head, Zagreus lives among the dead, Zagreus sees you in your bed and eats you when you're sleeping . . ." No wonder the Doctor's afraid of something at night.

** The Doctor mentions Clara becoming old and fatter -- in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS34E1DeepBreath "Deep Breath"]], Strax said she'd live to a ripe old age but have serious fluid retention problems.

-->'''Clara:''' . . . Did we come here for a nursery rhyme?

* ShipTease: Although this episode purports to mark the official start of Clara's relationship with Danny, with ShipSinking between Clara and the Doctor assumed to have taken place per the events of [[Recap/DoctorWhoS34E1DeepBreath "Deep Breath"]], this episode is the first of several to include hints that attraction still exists between Clara and the Doctor (which increases throughout the season). In this episode, Clara makes the Doctor do a double-take when she compares his accent to mood lighting. And of course, there's TheGlomp hug she gives him later on.

** Yet another moment of Clara being involved in the Doctor's history by way of the Doctor involving her in his adventures in the first place. Clara's pep talk features several concepts ("never cruel or cowardly", "fear is a superpower") that she learned from the Doctor . . . who learned them from her.

** The whole episode, if you go with the mundane explanation: the Doctor's theory/obsession stems from a childhood nightmare he once had about something under the bed that grabbed his ankle . . . which was Clara, who accidentally landed on Gallifrey because of his theory/obsession.

* ThinkingOutLoud: The episode opens with the Doctor doing this for the benefit of the audience that he believes is hiding somewhere in the TARDIS. Justified in that the topic is . . . thinking out loud.

* YearInsideHourOutside: The Doctor returns Clara to the restaurant just after she left. Except Clara left her coat at home when she first entered the TARDIS, and Danny notices its sudden disappearance . . . which tips him off that something weird has just transpired and yanks the date back off the rails.

The one where the Doctor steals a man's coffee.

* {{Bookends}}: Assuming the Curator from [[Recap/DoctorWho50thASTheDayOfTheDoctor "The Day of the Doctor"]] is whom he's hinted to be, this episode plus that one makes Clara a Bookend for his roster of companions: he encounters her as a little child ''and'' (briefly) long after his retirement.

** The 22nd century having time travel pioneers [[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E9Hide appears again]].

** It is never confirmed whether the Doctor-To-Be's barn is part of a children's home, but one of the authority figures is a jerkass who wants to force children to join the army.

* LotusPosition: When meditating on his "prefect hider" species, the Doctor assumes this position atop the TARDIS.

The Doctor has a theory--what if some creature, way out there in the starless dark, had evolved itself into the perfect hider? There are perfect hunters, after all, and creatures with a perfect defense. If that creature existed, how would you know it was there? Maybe it follows you around, constantly; but what would it ''want?'' And what does it have to do with that nightmare, that one nightmare everyone has, where you wake up in the night and there's something lurking underneath your bed...

* BerserkButton: Danny has some...issues with people implying that all he did when he was a soldier was kill people.
* BedsheetGhost: Played with. Something's hiding under Rupert's bedspread in the classic form of a BedsheetGhost. It could be another boy trying to prank him...or something else...

* BookEnds: Assuming the Curator from [[Recap/DoctorWho50thASTheDayOfTheDoctor "The Day of the Doctor"]] is whom he's hinted to be, this episode plus that one makes Clara a Book End for his roster of companions: he encounters her as a little child ''and'' (briefly) long after his retirement.

** The Fourth Doctor once mentioned that he used to be "frightened in childhood by a mythological horror..." Turns out said horror is short, dark-haired, and has a very wide face.

* CharacterTics: Danny gives an {{adorkable}} little wave when he sees Clara in the restaurant. The wave allows Clara to recognize him as a child.

** "The TARDIS isn't supposed to come out this far, but [[Recap/DoctorWhoS21E3Frontios some]] [[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E11Utopia idiot]] turned the safeguards off..."

** The premise of this episode is a giant continuity nod to the ''AudioPlay/BigFinishDoctorWho'' story [[Recap/BigFinishDoctorWho050Zagreus "Zagreus"]]. Zagreus is an old Gallifreyan nursery rhyme used to scare little kids. The first verse? "Zagreus sits inside your head, Zagreus lives among the dead, Zagreus sees you in your bed and eats you when you're sleeping..." No wonder the Doctor's afraid of something at night.

** The Doctor mentions Clara becoming old and fatter -- in "Deep Breath", Strax said she'd live to a ripe old age but have serious fluid retention problems.

* {{Deconstruction}}: Not only of ''Doctor Who'', but specifically of Steven Moffat's episodes:
** Like previous Moffat monsters (the Weeping Angels and the Silence), these ones play around with perception. Or do they? They might not even exist.

-->'''Clara:''' ...Did we come here for a nursery rhyme?

* NoHuggingNoKissing: The Doctor protests when Clara gives him TheGlomp.

* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: It's made abundantly clear that Orson Pink is an incredibly brave man journeying and surviving where no others could. He's terrified to tears of what might be outside his ship.

** Yet another moment of Clara being involved in the Doctor's history by way of the Doctor involving her in his adventures in the first place. Clara's pep talk features several concepts ("never cruel or cowardly", "fear is a superpower") that she learned from the Doctor...who learned them from her.
** The Doctor gives Rupert Pink a dream about being a soldier named Dan, who then ''becomes'' a soldier named Dan.
** The whole episode, if you go with the mundane explanation: the Doctor's theory/obsession stems from a childhood nightmare he once had about something under the bed that grabbed his ankle . . . which was Clara, who accidentally landed on Gallifrey because of his theory/obession.

* YearInsideHourOutside: The Doctor returns Clara to the restaurant just after she left. Except Clara left her coat at home when she first entered the TARDIS, and Danny notices its sudden disappearance...which tips him off that something weird has just transpired and yanks the date back off the rails.

-->'''Caretaker:''' How did you get in?
-->'''The Doctor:''' Your door must be faulty.

* ApocalypseHow: Orson Pink time-traveled by mistake all the way to the end of the universe. The planet he landed on is all that's left. Everything else has long since fallen to the ravages of time.

* BookEnds: Assuming the Curator from "Day of the Doctor" is whom he's hinted to be, this episode plus that one makes Clara a Book End for his roster of companions: he encounters her as a little child ''and'' (briefly) long after his retirement.

** A ''very'' long one in the lurch. We are given hints of the black day that the Third Doctor told Jo about all the way back in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS9E5TheTimeMonster The Time Monster]]". Apparently, who we now know as the First Doctor was going to be forced to join the army, so he ran away to a mountaintop (probably due more to shame of not being able to make it into the Academy than any fear or dislike of the army), too sad for even tears, and happened to discover a hermit there who taught him about the beauty of life that could be found by giving anything a deeper look.

** The episode opens with the Doctor sitting atop the TARDIS [[LotusPosition like a Buddhist monk]] ruminating on the puzzles of the universe. The Second Doctor did the same in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS5E5TheWebofFear The Web of Fear]]"; sitting alone on an Underground platform with legs crossed, having profound and and unknowable thoughts.

** "Sontarans! Perverting the course of human history!" is very similar to the [[Recap/DoctorWhoS12E1Robot opening words]] of the Fourth Doctor. Which was in itself a nod to "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS11E1TheTimeWarrior The Time Warrior]]".
** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E10Midnight Midnight]]" was clearly a heavy influence on this episode: the rhythmic knocking on the spaceship door even when all logic dictates nothing can be out there, the constant use of NothingIsScarier rather than actually showing the monster, and the feeling of ThatOneCase, since the monster (if there even is one) comes extremely close to defeating the Doctor without being identified in any way.
** The Doctor telling young Rupert/Danny to not turn around is the same instruction the Beast gave to the unfortunate Billy in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E8TheImpossiblePlanet The Impossible Planet]]".

** Much like in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS34E1DeepBreath Deep Breath]]", Clara has no desire to hear how long she has to live.

** The Doctor is looking for creatures who can hide in plain sight as a perfect defense...which the Silence can do to some degree. You can catch them in the act, though, unlike the ones the Doctor is trying to find.
** The premise of this episode is a giant continuity nod to the AudioPlay/BigFinishDoctorWho story "[[Recap/BigFinishDoctorWho050Zagreus Zagreus]]". Zagreus is an old Gallifrean nursery rhyme used to scare little kids. The first verse? "Zagreus sits inside your head, Zagreus lives among the dead, Zagreus sees you in your bed and eats you when you're sleeping..." No wonder the Doctor's afraid of something at night.

* CrazyJealousGuy: The Doctor parks his TARDIS inside Clara's bedroom in case she decides to bring Pink home.

* ForgottenFirstMeeting: Clara meets a young Danny Pink, but he will just remember the encounter as a dream. The Doctor had evidently forgotten ''his'' boyhood encounter with Clara, as there's no indication he recognizes her voice as the one that told him to "listen". On this occassion, the young Doctor also gets to hear the sound of his TARDIS departing, making it such a meeting for him and "Sexy" as well.

-->'''Doctor:''' No-no not the hugging, [[NoHuggingNoKissing I'm against the hugging, please!]]

* IdenticalGrandson: Danny's great grandson looks exactly like him, just with a different haircut.

* KidFromTheFuture: Great-grandkid, in this case, of Danny and--strongly implied--Clara.

-->'''Doctor:''' Question: why do we talk out loud even when we know we're alone? Conjecture: because we know we're not.

* LotusPosition: When meditating on his "prefect hider" species, the Doctor assumes this position atop the Tardis.

* MotorMouth: Jenna's skill that landed her the role of Clara is teased in good humor by means of a LampshadeHanging when she returns to her date with Danny. It has a mind of its own and just keeps going.

* NewPowersAsThePlotDemands: Clara is given the ability to fly the TARDIS with the power of her mind alone. The first time she does this is with the Doctor's supervision, but the second time she does so all by herself. This is an unprecedented ability for a companion and is a function of the TARDIS never before exhibited in this fashion. The safeties are usually on after all, and for good reason.

** It is never confirmed whether the Doctor-To-Be's barn is part of a children's home but one of the authority figures is a jerkass who wants to force children to join the army.

* ShipTease: Although this episode purports to mark the official start of Clara's relationship with Danny, with ShipSinking between Clara and the Doctor assumed to have taken place per the events of "Deep Breath", this episode is the first of several to include hints that attraction still exists between Clara and the Doctor (which increases throughout the season). In this episode, Clara makes the Doctor do a double-take when she compares his accent to mood lighting. And of course, there's TheGlomp hug she gives him later on.

** Seeing her past self, Clara asks "[[Film/HarryPotterAndThePrisonerOfAzkaban Is that really what I look like from the back]]?".

** The whole episode, if you go with the mundane explanation: the Doctor's theory/obsession stems from a childhood nightmare he once had about something under the bed that grabbed his ankle...which was Clara, who accidentally landed on Gallifrey because of his theory/obession.

* ThinkingOutLoud: The episode opens with the Doctor doing this for the benefit of the audience that he believes is hiding somewhere in the TARDIS. Justified in that the topic is...thinking out loud.

* WhamEpisode: After 51 years, we finally get to see the childhood of the Doctor--specifically, the ''young'' First Doctor.

* YourDoorWasOpen

-->'''Doctor:''' Your door must be faulty.

->''Fear makes companions of us all''

->''What's that, in the mirror and the corner of your eye?''

->''Out they'll come a'slithering, from underneath the bed!''

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: It is ''strongly'' implied that Clara and Danny spend the night together at one point during the closing montage in a brief sequence that is as close to a love scene as ''Doctor Who'' has ever been allowed to get. Remember that earlier in the episode it is implied that Orson is her descendant, so they have to start somewhere (even though [[spoiler: ultimately nothing comes of this plot thread]]). Any other show but ''Doctor Who'' and this would barely pass notice.

* NewPowersAsThePlotDemands: Clara is given the ability to fly the TARDIS with the power of her mind alone. The first time she does this is with the Doctor's supervision, but the second time she does so all by herself. This is an unprecedented ability for a companion and is a function of the TARDIS never before exhibited in this fashion. The safeties are usually on after all, and for good reason. (In the long term, however, [[spoiler: this is simply a further indication of Clara becoming a DistaffCounterpart to the Doctor, a subplot that continues throughout this season and the next.]])

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: It is ''strongly'' implied that Clara and Danny spend the night together at one point during the closing montage in a brief sequence that is as close to a love scene as ''Doctor Who'' has ever been allowed to get. Remember that earlier in the episode it is implied that Orson is her descendant, so they have to start somewhere. Any other show but ''Doctor Who'' and this would barely pass notice.

* NewPowersAsThePlotDemands: Clara is given the ability to fly the TARDIS with the power of her mind alone. The first time she does this is with the Doctor's supervision, but the second time she does so all by herself. This is an unprecedented ability for a companion and is a function of the TARDIS never before exhibited in this fashion. The safeties are usually on after all, and for good reason.

* RiddleForTheAges: In hindsight, the identities of Orson Pink's great-grandparents, who inspired him with stories about time travel, are this. At this point in Series 8 it can be assumed they were Danny and Clara, but Danny Pink dies at the end of the season, and Clara Oswald follows suit late in Series 9. Perhaps stories of their exploits with the Doctor were instead passed on to other members of Danny's family.

->''Whats that footstep following but never passing by?''

->''Perhaps their all just waiting. Perhaps when were all dead''

->''Question! Why do we talk out loud when we know we're alone? Conjecture: because we know we are not. Evolution perfects survival skills. There are perfect hunters. There is perfect defense. Question. Why is there no such thing as perfect hiding? Answer! How would you know? Logically, if evolution were to perfect a creature...whose primary skill were to hide...from view--how could you know it existed? It could be with us every second and we would never know. How would you detect it? Even '''sense''' it? Except in those moments when, for no clear reason, you choose to speak aloud. What would such a creature want? What would it '''do'''? Well...? WHAT WOULD YA DO!?!''
->''[sees the answer written on his chalkboard: "LISTEN"]''

->''What's that...in the mirror...or the corner of your eye? What's that footstep following, but never passing by? Perhaps they're all just waiting. Perhaps when we're all dead...[[ParanoiaFuel out they'll come a-slithering from underneath the bed]].''

** The Doctor's curiosity is shown not as something admirable and exciting, but as dangerous: he knowingly opens an airlock so that he can see if there is anything behind it. He risks his life just to see what's in the dark, to prove he's not afraid, even though he is.