Doctor Who season 2 episode 4 ending explained: Who frees Conrad from prison?

Doctor Who season 2 episode 4, titled Lucky Day, premiered on May 3, 2025, on Disney+ for American audiences. Peter Hoar directed the episode from a screenplay written by Pete McTighe. It features the return of Ruby Sunday, the Doctor's companion from season 1, and follows her adventures with her boyfriend, Conrad Clark, on Earth.

The latest episode showcases the dark side of influencer culture as Conrad goes to great lengths to malign the UNIT, a military organization that works tirelessly to protect Earth from hostile alien invasion. Conrad's actions of spreading disinformation and disrupting the UNIT land him in jail. But he is freed from prison by Mrs. Flood, a mysterious character.

Disclaimer: This article contains spoilers for Doctor Who season 2 episode 4.

What happens to Conrad in Doctor Who season 2 episode 4?

An image of Ruby Sunday and Conrad Clark from Doctor Who season 2 episode 4 (Image via Disney+)

The Doctor and Belinda land on Earth at the start of Doctor Who season 2 episode 4 and wonder what year it is. Upon asking a young boy named Conrad, they learn that it's New Year's Day in 2007. The Doctor presents Conrad with a coin, telling him that it's his "lucky day." When Conrad happily shows the coin to his mother, she gets annoyed and shooes him away.

Adult Conrad has another sighting of the TARDIS in 2024, 17 years after his first encounter. He secretly watches as the Doctor steps out with a different female companion, Ruby Sunday. However, his attention is diverted to a loud shriek coming from an abandoned mall nearby, and he goes to investigate it.

A mysterious creature called the Shreek sprays smelly green goop on Conrad and follows him around. But before he can cause any harm, the Doctor steps in and sends Shreek back to its home dimension. Ruby also gets marked with green goop in the ensuing chaos, and Conrad watches as the Doctor hands her an antidote.

He captures Ruby's picture before she heads back into the TARDIS and posts it online, prompting Ruby to contact him and agree to speak on his podcast. Ruby talks about her experience with the Doctor, without divulging any secrets and praises the UNIT for keeping Earth safe from extraterrestrial threats. However, it does not go well with the conspiracy theory-spewing Conrad and his followers.

Ncuti Gatwa as seen in Doctor Who season 2 (Image via Disney+)

In the second half of Doctor Who season 2 episode 4, Conrad stirs up a disinformation campaign to malign the UNIT. The resulting media storm forces a debate about the UNIT's importance in parliament. He also doxes the employees at UNIT, opening them up to harassment from the radicalized public.

Through a newly-recruited analyst at UNIT, Conrad receives secret information that he uses to tarnish the organization's reputation online. He enters the building, armed with a gun for a final showdown, and live streams the encounter to expose the UNIT's allegedly bogus activities.

After a heated confrontation with Kate and Ruby, the latter releases Shreek from its containment chamber. The monster immediately goes after Conrad and starts biting off his arm. All of this gets live-streamed to his followers, who see Conrad's fake bravado crumble when faced with a real monster. In the end, Ruby tasers the monster to save his life and hands him over to the police.

While recovering in prison, Conrad gets a visit from the Doctor, who takes him inside the TARDIS and strongly rebukes his actions. However, Conrad stays unrepentant. The Doctor leaves, but not before telling him that he will die alone and unloved in prison at age 49.

Conrad gets another visitor in the form of the mysterious Mrs. Flood in the final moments of Doctor Who season 2 episode 4. She introduces herself as the mayor, tells him that it's his lucky day, and sets him free, seemingly to recruit him in her war against the Doctor.

Ruby and Conrad go on a date in Doctor Who season 2 episode 4

A still from the sci-fi series Doctor Who season 2 episode 4 (Image via Disney+)

After their first meeting, Conrad and Ruby go on a coffee date, where she informs him that he has a target on his back. Shreek has marked him as its prey and the alien monster psychologically tortures its victims before killing them, as it likes to taste their fears.

She explains in detail that Shreek will initially mess with the lights to frustrate him, then reveal itself ever so slightly to build a degree of suspense and dread, and finally strike when he least expects it. Ruby gives him the antidote that can save his life, asking him to drink it before bed.

Conrad opens up about his first encounter with the Doctor and tells Ruby that he wears the coin he received as a necklace to honor that special moment. Ruby is delighted that she can talk about her crazy space adventures with Conrad, and it's not long before the two start dating. Her home life is also going great as she now has a relationship with her birth mother, Louise, along with her adoptive mother Carla and grandmother Cherry.

Conrad shows his true colors in Doctor Who season 2 episode 4

Jonah Hauer-King seen as Conrad in Doctor Who season 2 episode 4 (Image via Disney+)

Conrad takes Ruby to visit his friends at the pub, but she suddenly becomes alerted to Shreek's presence when the electricity starts to fluctuate. She hastily calls the UNIT to ensure that the creature was not released by accident. Kate from the UNIT assures Ruby that her location is safe from any suspicious activity. She even physically checks on the monster inside the containment chamber herself to be sure.

But when the lights go off in the pub and two monsters emerge in the distance, Ruby quickly jumps into action. She swiftly calls UNIT for assistance; however, the monsters remove their masks and reveal themselves to be part of a ruse orchestrated by Conrad.

She listens in stunned silence as Conrad rails against science and falsely claims that the UNIT is conning people by pretending to save them from made-up aliens. He gets especially cruel towards Ruby, calling their time together the "most disgusting chore of his life." The UNIT arrests Conrad and his friends for causing a disruption, and Ruby is left heartbroken by the ordeal.

Catch all episodes of Doctor Who season 2 on Disney+ in the United States and BBC iPlayer and BBC One in the United Kingdom.

About the author

Deepti is an entertainment writer at Sportskeeda. She comes with more than 6 years of experience in the creative writing field and has written extensively for the entertainment and travel domains.

She holds a degree in Chemistry, but her true interest always lay in the creative field. A passion for reading from a young age fueled her desire to make a career change later in life and take up writing as her profession.

Apart from reading, her hobbies include watching movies, listening to music, and going to the beach. In her free time, she can be found looking up reviews of new and old films to add to her watchlist. She also enjoys watching foreign language films that help expand her knowledge base regarding different cultures around the world.

Asked to describe herself, she would promptly mention that she is a die-hard Swiftie and enjoys nothing more than listening to Taylor Swift songs on loop while writing.

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Edited by Meenakshi Ajith