Somehow Sutekh Returned.
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The Dead Speak!
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Designing it that way is fine I guess, but it appears to have been done at the expense of good story telling.
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The Moment? That reminds me
Sutekh: Wow more than one Doctor!
Sutekh 2: Yeah I’m just over here dude.
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Tardis (to Sutekh): You’ve got red on you.
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That “this is how the bad wolf arc would be resolved in 2020s RTD” meme is a bit silly because the EoD Susan Triad arc ended very similarly to the Bad Wolf arc.
Bad Wolf: Everywhere they went, the words “Bad Wolf” appeared. Turns out it was Rose, who becomes the Bad Wolf, sending a message back to previous places she visited to warn herself (not sure how much good that did, although maybe it spurred her on to try and get into the TARDIS and return to the Doctor).
Susan Triad: Everywhere they went, a Susan appeared. Turns out it was Sutekh, riding the TARDIS, creating a life on every previous place the Doctor visited. It was a time bomb trap to kill everything in the universe.
The way I saw it, and I only saw this episode once at midnight so may have been mistaken, but her planet had never been visited by the Doctor (he said so himself), so somehow the dust has travelled across the universe to planets that he never visited, I guess it slowly travelled in space or in the vortex or something because eventually it wiped out everything, including her (and it’s timey wimey because it travelled up her family line).
So I don’t see this as a blunder, just a bit of a strange thing to happen.
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The full transcript for Empire of Death is now on the site!
Now that I’m home (for a few days) I’m going to get some quotes from the past few episodes up as well.
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This is definitely how I see it. It was the extra motivation she needed to go back, and once she had it was a closed loop where she always sent that message because that always brought her here. Yes, it’s not great as foreshadowing and the whole thing could have been skipped, but I personally feel it works. I also don’t have an issue with Suzan appearing everywhere, except for maybe in the way that RTD already did that, which seems to be a hallmark of this season.
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So here we are at the end, at last, 
Great finale overall. Ncuti, Millie, Bonnie, and Gabriel are all perfect. Sutekh was a bit underwhelming and too easily defeated (but the time vortex sequence looked amazing!).
Ruby’s mother is a normal human, and I love that. She’s special because she’s normal. Ruby isn’t another Clara, Rose, or Martha.
Ruby’s back next season, and RTD has confirmed there are still more revelations coming about her and her family.
Death x Death = Life. Two negatives make a positive. That’s math even I can understand.
Ruby’s dad is called William. We also see Roger ap Gwilliam again. “ap Gwilliam” means “son of William.” Could Ruby and Roger be related?
Mrs. Flood is left as a mystery. I’m seeing theories about her being The God of Stories (the only characters who have broken the fourth wall this season have been gods). That could make sense, since she addresses the audience in the last scene as if he is finishing a fairy tale.
I cried three times, a rare occurrence for me. The first time I shed tears was when Mel found Sixie’s coat. The second time was once Ruby found her mother and reunited with her. The third time was when she said goodbye to the Doctor. And this immediately impacts my rating because it hits my feelings.
It was emotional, exciting, and fun.
I love the Memory TARDIS origin and use.
74 Yards got addressed a bit, as the TARDIS perception filter covers 73 yards.
The Doctor cried and screamed but also took charge—finally!
The Doctor with a spoon is always fun, but the scene with the kind woman on the dead planet was a bit meh.
Speaking of planets, I loved all the references to familiar planets and past adventures (1999, 1066, 2005). I was very bummed when the Doctor’s victory brought back Vortis, because I could have done without that planet.
I would now rank Legend an 8/10 and this one a 9-/10.
Bring on the Christmas special!
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The Doc brought it with him & killed her & her baby! He should have stayed away! 
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I will do a rewatch and try to keep your positivity in mind as I had a very different reaction to this story that you did. 
1999 - TV Movie?
1066 - The Crusade?
2005 - Rose?
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This goes back to the 73 Yards of “coherent writing vs. vibes” where I simply don’t notice or care about plot holes or inconsistencies if I’m invested in the episode and the characters. Seeing people point out things that don’t make sense sometimes makes me feel stupid, because I don’t often think very deeply about these things (it’s a TV show!), and perhaps I should, so I could be more critical 
1999 and 2005 are correct, but 1066 should be The Time Meddler (the return of The Monk confirmed?? Mrs. Flood is the Monk? Her name is probably an anagram of a real-life 12th-century monk and no one has spotted this cleverly hidden clue yet!).
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I love the speculation about Mrs Flood, I especially think it could work if she is the Rani because of her dressing up as companions, but as I talk about here unless RTD has made a weird mistake, she cannot be anyone who has seen the TARDIS as a police box before:
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I’m one of the people who defended 73 Yards for being more about the vibes, but I feel like, for a finale especially, you can’t stake everything on that. Maybe it’s just that the vibes don’t work as much for me in this episode, but I found the thing that don’t make sense truly broke it, while in 73 Yards they were part of the vibe.
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Happy to confirm the exact same positivity from my household. My wife typically tolerates Doctor Who, although she was quite into it during the Eccleston, Tennant years and throughout Matt Smith’s first season. She has been properly engaged during this season (even left her phone alone during most episodes - which is saying something). My daughter hasn’t really ever been a Who fan, though she did avidly watch during the 10th Doctor’s era. She has absolutely loved this season and been very keen to chat/theorise/speculate.
Ditto. Neither watched the classic series at all.
Absolutely. Quite so.
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The problem with the Mrs Flood speculation is that we all speculated about Ruby’s mum & look how that turned out!
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I have a bit of the same reaction from the finale episodes as I had from 73 Yards. Pure “vibes based” media just does nothing for me, my brain is just wired differently
And yep, Time Meddler makes more sense 
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From my point of view, it turned out pretty well. I was unconvinced she was going to be super special or that her mother was. It seemed counter to RTD’s instincts regarding everyday relatable companions for any other resolution. I didn’t know, but I felt normality was a likely outcome throughout (and kind of the point). It was the event of Ruby’s abandonment, the myriad coincidences etc. (and Sutekh’s obsessive interest - probably heightened by being party to the fact that the Doctor has been drawn into the orbit of others who become hugely significant and foiled major universe ending plots before) that created the mystery. The myth become more than the fact.
Mrs Flood, on the other hand, she is definitively NOT going to be normal.
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