Rose creeps closer for a better look at Cassandra's overall flatness as Cassandra explains that her father was a Texan and her mother was "from the Arctic Desert." Get it? Global warning? Not just a myth? Get it? Do you? "They were born on the Earth and were the last to be buried in the soil. I have come to honor them," sniff, "and say goodbye." Cassandra is horrified by the tears she's faking, and one of the mummy-gasmask bodyguards, her "surgeons," wipes her eyes. Underneath her metal frame is a jar with her brain in it. She produces her gifts: "From Earth itself -- the last remaining ostrich egg. Legend says it had a wingspan of fifty feet and blew fire from its nostrils." Rose looks mildly confused. "Or was that my third husband?" Rose rolls her eyes, the Doctor laughs, I don't even know what the joke is meant to be there. "Who knows! Oh, don't laugh!" No worries. "I'll get laughter lines!" Cassandra laughs and mumbles to herself for a few seconds, and then they wheel out a gigantic jukebox behind her. More hilarity yet to come: "According to the archives, this was called an iPod. It stores classical music from humanity's greatest composers." Rose looks amazed, and then the jukebox starts playing Soft Cell, and the Doctor dances around embarrassingly, and I wish to do myself ill so that this scene will end. Earth Death in thirty minutes. It's not that I'm unkindly disposed toward the desperately unhip -- Ryan Seacrest is my favorite thing -- but what bugs me is failing the attempt at relevance. "I haven't left my house in ten years, but I hear they have 'memes' now, let's have some of those in." That's how you end up with the lesbian vampire subculture somebody told The L Word is all the rage.

Rose looks around at all the aliens, mingling, and even the Doctor is a possible treefucker, and Earth Death is in thirty minutes, and that's it, she's all alone. Even Cassandra is a freak, obviously, and that's...not just because of the timeline they're in. Rose made her choice at the end of "Rose," but now we're looking at the consequences. It's not Earth we're talking about when we say "The End Of The World": it's Rose's. She's been initiated, on her quest, into the fraternity of the world of the Doctor, and that makes her all alone. Just like him. Adrift and alone and the only one of her kind, out here in the madness of the TARDIS and the Doctor. That's heavy. It's not really change if it doesn't hurt. She takes off as the rest of the aliens have fun, the music still playing, her experience tainted. The Doctor starts to follow her, but is stopped by Jabe, who snaps a picture of him with her tiny handheld computer before letting him go. "A gift of peace, in all good faith." The Adherents offer an egg to the Steward, but he begs off, since he's just the Steward, but they repeat their offer: "A gift of peace, in all good faith." Their claws are long. The Steward takes the egg.