So here's the score heading into the last inning. Or more properly, here's my wish list with one episode to go, based on proving something to somebody or something. Or more properly, where the tightrope game I've been playing unspoiled not only dumps me on my face in front of everybody who reads this and already knows better, but also sets me up for unbelievable disappointment no matter what happens. I've got this feeling that the "Long Game" recap might be the best one, in addition to being my favorite episode, because I think that whoever re-created Satellite Five into the Gamestation, whoever installed the Jagrafess, is something amazing and scary, behind the unthinking Dalek. I just don't think we're there yet. They're not clever and when they are it's as bad-asses, from what I understand. Their whole thing is "obey" -- they don't have the ego necessary for this -- to be a god. Either somebody big, equal to/greater than the Dalek, or somebody small, like the Gelth. And that maybe there's somebody we don't know about, like Face of Boe, who is large, and has been mentioned twice. But here's what I'm thinking: we're not done with the Demiurge and Archon stuff. I think that it could be true that the evil prison guard "God" next week might even have forgotten his/her/their glory, and gotten trapped in his own creation. Like, Cathica could easily be what's above the Controller: something lovely become something ugly. How the Controller was something ugly and scary that turned out to be amazing and angelic. Or maybe it's a normal person going nuts and thinking he's God. (Adam somehow?) My Cylon-loving heart doesn't want to see Dalek at the disposal of something higher -- it dilutes their meaning. What happens if you draw the line from Mercy to Justice and then just keep drawing until you're off the page and then off your desk and on into the dark places. God as Wave of Mutilation.

So that's thing one: the God/Demiurge thing is going to come back with a vengeance, and Nine's already a God, so that means Rose has to do whatever it is, because Lynda's ass is grass and the Controller got zapped. I'd love her as a Sophia figure, somehow bringing the light of God into the paltry trap/matter/cage of the false reality. Taking it apart and restoring the divine. Seems unlikely given her pointlessness/suckiness the past few episodes. It would make me feel smart, anyhow. The reason I was so taken with my Gnostic and Zoroastrian stories in "Long Game" was because I like the subversive take on Lucifer as Redeemer: that if you're trapped in the maze with the Devil, and the Devil wants out, then who is the bad or good guy? And isn't "God" just a fake out for the real God? Ask Milton. But I doubt that's how it'll shake out, like I said. I can't see this show going to the Goddess of Truth vs. the Imperfect Watchmaker route. Still, it's nice to fantasize. Especially given this latest development of the Doctor setting himself up as the False God and seeing how wrong things went for his little insignificant ordinary people, that didn't manage to work it out. Things that go "click" make me feel very smart and I like to feel smart. Power over the narrative.