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The Doctor Who season 2 finale, The Reality War, premiered on Saturday, May 31, 2025, on Disney+ in the United States. The episode, with a runtime of 67 minutes, is written by Russell T Davies and directed by Alex Sanjiv Pillai.
The Doctor Who season 2 finale showcases the final battle between the Doctor and the Time Lady, who created the Wish World to release the founder of the Time Lords, Omega, from the Underverse.
After defeating her and ending the Wish World, the show's protagonist restores Earth and fulfills his promise of returning Belinda home on May 24.
Disclaimer: This article contains spoilers for the Doctor Who season 2 finale episode.
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The Doctor saves Poppy in the Doctor Who season 2 finale
The Doctor Who season 2 finale begins with the Doctor spiraling down the balcony. Anita from the Time Hotel (seen in the 2024 Christmas Special) arrives and yanks him out of the Wish World.
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The hotel receptionist-turned-manager informs him that the timeline gets reset to 7 am on May 23, 2025, every day at midnight and never goes to May 24 - the day Earth is destroyed.
As the clock resets, Belinda makes breakfast for Poppy at their suburban home, just like she did at the start of Doctor Who season 2 episode 7. The Doctor takes Belinda and Poppy to the UNIT headquarters and restores everyone's memories with Anita's help.
They bring Ruby, Shirley, and Melanie into the fray by using the biochip to reawaken their memories.
Together, they set off to fight against the Rani and erase the Wish World. After the mission is accomplished in the second half of the Doctor Who season 2 finale, Earth is restored.
May 24 finally arrives and the planet carries on, albeit with a few glitches, which include Conrad leaving his dark past behind and working as a chef and bottle washer at Lewisham.
Ruby celebrates with the Doctor, Belinda, and Poppy inside the TARDIS before the Time Lord and his companion plan their space-travel adventures across the galaxy.
However, Ruby soon notices that Poppy has vanished, with the Doctor and Belinda completely forgetting about her existence moments later.
Ruby convinces the Doctor to save Poppy as he had saved her, Belinda, and Susan Triad's lives in the past.
The Doctor realizes that the only way to achieve this is to change reality by one degree. He steps inside the TARDIS and uses his regeneration energy to blast a hole into the time vortex.
But before he can start the process of regeneration, he looks through all his previous incarnations and even gets a visit from the Thirteenth Doctor, Jodie Whittaker.
She pops into his timeline due to a time schism and warns him against rupturing the time vortex as it can end all of creation. But, the Doctor goes ahead with his plan and ends up on someone's backyard.
He reunites with Belinda and Poppy, who is revealed to be the daughter of Belinda's ex Ritchie Akingbola.
Turns out Belinda was reminding him to return to Earth at 7:30 am on May 24th all along to see her daughter Poppy.
The young girl was looked after all night by her grandmother, Lakshmi, who was set to leave for her concert in the morning.
The Doctor bids them goodbye, and regenerates inside the TARDIS while uttering his last words, Joy to the World.
Ncuti Gatwa's Doctor turns into Rose Tyler (Billie Piper), the companion to the ninth and tenth Doctors. With no formal announcement about the 16th Doctor, it remains to be seen if Piper will indeed take over the iconic role.
How does the Doctor defeat the Ranis in the Doctor Who season 2 finale?
The Rani set May 23 to keep repeating itself so that it gets thinner and thinner until it snaps and exposes the Underverse, where Omega - the most fearsome Time Lord in existence - is banished.
Her purpose in unleashing Omega is to use his genes to create a new race of Time Lords and rebuild her home planet, Gallifrey.
Since the Doctor and herself, the only surviving Time Lords, were rendered infertile by their planet's genetic explosion, Omega is her last hope for continuing the Time Lords race.
The Doctor and his team take a three-way approach to save Earth - defeat the God of Wishes (Desiderium), Conrad Clark, and the Time Lady. Ruby goes after Conrad, while the Doctor takes on the Ranis.
The UNIT headquarters is bombarded by the Bone Beasts from the Underverse, who loom large over London, and launch a full-scale attack in retaliation.
Furthermore, the Doctor faces a moral dilemma as destroying the Ranis' evil plan will erase the Wish World along with Poppy. She is a manifestation of the Doctor's desire to have a child in the Wish World.
However, both Belinda and the Doctor feel strongly that Poppy is real and are determined to save her at any cost.
To ensure the young child's safety, Belinda and Poppy step into the zero room, which exists beyond time and space and will likely help Poppy survive in the absence of the Wish World.
However, if things don't go as planned, the two are doomed to be stuck in limbo for eternity.
After seeing them off, the Doctor heads to the Bone Palace to confront the Ranis. He reluctantly agrees to meet Omega, who emerges through a portal as a gigantic skeletal monster, to everyone's shock.
He grabs the Rani and eats her up in a matter of seconds, while Mrs. Flood vanishes using her counterpart's time ring (a time travel device like the TARDIS).
As the monster moves towards the Doctor, he uses the Vindicator's powers (amounting to a billion supernovas) to blast it back into the underworld.
Meanwhile, Ruby transmats to Conrad's room inside the Bone Palace. Instead of fighting him, she thanks her ex-boyfriend for creating a peaceful world, which he attributes to the Doctor's influence.
Ruby uses Desiderium's powers to wish him a happy life before he vanishes. Soon, the Wish World starts disintegrating and Conrad's room is revealed to have been the TARDIS, which was missing all along.
Ruby rescues baby Desiderium from the Bone Palace and leaves him in the care of her mother and grandmother, who renames him Joseph Sunday after her late husband.
Watch the Doctor Who season 2 finale exclusively on Disney+ in the United States.
