"We've had a laugh though, haven't we?" says Mickey. Rose nods, snotty and lovely and sad. "Seen it all, been there and back. Who would have thought, me and you off the old estate, flying through the stars?" There's that kind of talk for, like, a million years, about how they used to imagine -- the thing that brings pain, he said, and that thing that brings enlightenment -- all kinds of things, but not this. Specifically, I guess, Rose has never imagined abandoning her boyfriend to bisexual curiosity in a parallel universe. They embrace, and then Mickey sends Rose on her way; she just clutches tighter, burying her head in his shoulder. Left by Peter, again, and now by Mickey, on the other side of Hell. We keep talking about how the Doctor talks like the Powell Estates, but he's not alone in feeling all alone; the life Rose started the story by abandoning, her childhood, is coming to an end, and on every side, she loses another connection, another unused path of love gone stagnant, until the Doctor's all that's left her, too. This is the danger of travel, even if Rose's strength is turning back when she shouldn't. Rose watches Mickey from the door and memorizes his face; she shuts the door. "Jake, you'll wanna watch this," says Mickey, and Jake joins him, watching as the TARDIS dematerializes. Jake's incredulous: "What the hell?" That's the Doctor, Mickey explains: "In the TARDIS. With Rose Tyler." And then they're gone, forever. But that was already true too, which is why he can do this. Easy as pie.

Jackie is filling her kettle at the kitchen sink when she hears the TARDIS VWORPing into her living room; Rose opens the door and tackles her: "You're alive. Oh, Mum." Jackie is happy, if confused, to see her daughter: "Well, I was the last time I looked..." Rose won't let go, can't speak, can't answer as Jackie asks her what's wrong. "That was...far away," the Doctor explains, and Jackie asks where Mickey is. The Doctor's eyes are sad, but proud. "Where's Mickey?" Jackie repeats. He's gone home, the Doctor says. Having burned off the last of what wasn't working. Jackie holds her daughter.