Doctor Who – The Well ending explained: How did the creature survive?

The newest instalment saw Ncuti Gatwa's Fifteenth Doctor and Varada Sethu's Belinda Chandra find themselves on a hostile planet with a whole mining colony wiped out - apart from one survivor, played by Rose-Ayling Ellis.

But when they encounter a mysterious entity that strikes the Doctor as rather familiar, he realises he's been to this planet before, in another lifetime - in iconic season 4 episode Midnight, no less.

The end of the episode reveals what happened to the creature - and shows that the Doctor's plans haven't quite worked out this time, potentially leaving the door open for another story. Here's everything you need to know.

Doctor Who – The Well ending explained: How did the creature survive?

The end of the episode reveals that the Midnight creature actually survived despite the Doctor ordering the entire site to be "nuked from orbit" - but how? That's left a little ambiguous - but we can speculate.

One theory is that the creature attached itself to one of the Troopers escorting Aliss to safety - and there's a clue to support this. When Aliss and the two Troopers step into the lift taking them out of the base, a small lift panel indicates that there are four personnel in the lift, not three.

Could this mean the creature is the fourth one, and the three of them inadvertently took it to safety?

Another possibility is that there's more than one Midnight creature - who's to say this isn't a species rather than an individual creature?

Another theory is simply that nuking the planet wouldn't have had any effect on the creature. After all, it's unknowable and, at times, unseeable. Who says something as man-made as a nuclear weapon would have any effect on it at all?

What we do know is this: the final scene confirms that the creature has made its way to Bethany Antonia's Mo Gilliben, with Amy Tyger's Val Vivo noticing something behind her back - a reveal that presumably dooms her to certain death.

When Aliss was saved, the creature made Belinda its host. Then, squad leader Shaya Costallion saved Belinda by shooting her in the chest and bringing her as close to death as possible. Shaya then sacrificed herself, throwing herself into the well, meaning the creature was technically without a host.

So, why Mo? Earlier in the episode, it's revealed that whoever kills the creature's current host becomes its next host, and while Aliss wasn't the first host the creature picked on the mining colony, she was left as its only survivor, meaning she had to become its host.

Perhaps it was a random choice. Or maybe if Mo was the one to nuke the planet, the creature picked Mo as the one who destroyed its chances of entering a new living host on Midnight, making her the logical next choice.

Either way, it's a dark end to the new episode, and one that has left the door open for the Midnight creature to potentially haunt us again another day.

Why is the Midnight creature different in The Well?

In The Well, the Midnight creature manifests in a very different way, killing anyone that ventures directly behind its host.

Ncuti Gatwa said: "The monster has grown, the monster has learned, the monster has been waiting for a chance to get out and cause trouble, so I loved that it was a bit of a continuation from Midnight."

Meanwhile, The Well's director Amanda Brotchie also opened up on the monster's return, confirming that it is definitely the same creature we saw previously, but that it has now "sort of morphed".

She continued: "It’s behaving slightly differently, it messes with you, it plays games."

How did Belinda survive?

Belinda survived as a result of Shaya bringing her as close to death as possible by shooting her in the chest to entice the creature away from her - and then the Doctor using the medicine of the time to resuscitate her.

The Doctor then tells her about Shaya's sacrifice and reassures her that the creature is gone - although we know by the end of the episode that that's not quite true.

What's happened to Earth?

Throughout the episode, it's revealed that none of the troopers have ever heard of Earth or the human race.

That indicates something is very wrong because, as the Doctor says at the beginning of the episode, "There is always a human race. You voyage out there and own it, far and wide, across the stars."

So, why doesn't anyone know about Earth or the human race? It stands to reason that something's gone very wrong on Earth in the year 2025 on the day that Belinda and the Doctor can't return to.

It's looking more and more like something has destroyed Earth on that day, with the ripples being felt throughout time, even 500,000 years in the future.

Mrs Flood's (Anita Dobson) new cameo suggests that she has something to do with it, as she follows the Doctor and Belinda through time and space, spying on them and gathering intel about the vindicator.

Plus, previous episodes have showed monuments and landmarks from Earth, including the Eiffel Tower and the Statue of Liberty, being destroyed and floating into space.

As for what that destruction involves, we'll have to wait and see - but, surely, something terrible awaits us in the season finale.

Doctor Who season 15 continues on 3rd May 2025, coming to BBC iPlayer at 8am and later that day on BBC One.

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