Rose holds Mickey's hands on the park bench, as Mickey's explaining that he's not so very slow as to think that she'll leave the Doctor -- and that he knows damn well it would be a shitty, unfair request: "But I just need something, yeah? Some sort of promise that when you do come back, you're coming back for me." That's valid. I'm proud of this moment. There's a low rumble in the distance, and Rose perks up: "Is that thunder?" Mickey, still under the impression that he signifies: "Does it matter?" "No" and "More than you," respectively.

What were the movies about the gay dudes on the mountain? The Lord Of The Rings? My favorite book has always been The Two Towers, and here's why: It's Sam's prerogative to hate Gollum; he's there to protect Frodo, and that's like his entire function. Gollum's the Slitheen: he's there to show Frodo what happens if you're not careful, and what his future looks like, and why that's scary. But hating Gollum is not Frodo's responsibility: loving him is. And no matter how many times Frodo tries to explain this, people look at him like he's crazy, but that's Gollum to Frodo: how easy he could have been like that. How Gollum's a sign of the potential inside Frodo, growing stronger every day. And the quickest way to hurry that transition up is to ignore the truth of that fact -- pushing Gollum off a mountainside like Sam wants to do is just another way of praying for a blank slate, and Frodo's too strong for that, and that's why I love The Two Towers. Gollum stays Gollum; he's not redeemed -- the snake is still a snake no matter whose pocket it's in -- but that isn't the point. The point is that Frodo knows better, and couldn't tell you why, because he's the special one that can do the job, because he's visited by grace. (Albeit a certain kind of grace than ends with him committing elfin suicide.)