Doctor Who unmasks The One Who Waits – major twist explained

One major mystery, the identity of The One Who Waits, was actually revealed in the penultimate episode, The Legend of Ruby Sunday, after first being teased way back in 2023's The Giggle.

In that episode, Neil Patrick Harris' The Toymaker told David Tennant's Fourteenth Doctor (David Tennant) that there was only one player he didn't dare face – The One Who Waits.

He confessed that he "saw it hiding" and he "ran". But what being could be so powerful and so frightening that even The Toymaker, the God of Games, would flee?

Well, now that we know the enigmatic figure's true identity, read on for everything you need to know about who are they, what their history is with the Doctor, and what happened to them in the two-part season 14 finale.

Doctor Who: The Legend of Ruby Sunday ending explained

Seeking to solve twin mysteries – the identity of Ruby's mother, and the secret of a woman (played by Susan Twist) who keeps appearing across time and space in different guises – the Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) and Ruby (Millie Gibson) arrive at UNIT HQ in 2024.

The pair use UNIT's time window – a device that allows you to experience, though not interfere with, moments from the past, "like 3D history" – to enter a virtual representation of Christmas Eve, 2004, the night an infant Ruby was abandoned outside the church on Ruby Road.

Though their efforts to identify Ruby's birth mother are unsuccessful, something else appears in the projection – a dark, reddish cloud with malevolent intent that consumes UNIT colonel Chidozie (Tachia Newall). "I am lost," says a disembodied Chidozie. "I am in hell.

"It’s seen me – it’s seen right into my soul… and it’s so old. Waiting… it’s been waiting for so long..."

The evil force is revealed at the episode's climax to be Sutekh, the "god of all gods" who serves as "mother and father and other" of the Gods of Chaos, a pantheon of supernatural beings.

Sutekh materialises inside UNIT HQ, promising Kate Stewart (Jemma Redgrave) and her assembled forces that "all life will perish at my hand."

Who is Sutekh?

The Legend of Ruby Sunday marks a dramatic return for Sutekh, a character who last appeared in Doctor Who almost 50 years ago.

In 1975 serial Pyramids of Mars, the Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker) and Sarah Jane Smith (Elisabeth Sladen) first encountered Sutekh, one of a race of Osirans, beings of God-like power who are worshipped by many cultures across the universe, including on Earth in ancient Egypt.

When the archaeologist Professor Marcus Scarman excavated the inner chamber of the pyramid beneath which Sutekh was imprisoned, it allowed the villain an opportunity to escape – Sutekh controlled Scarman's corpse, using it to construct a war missile aimed at the Eye of Horus on Mars, which was beaming a signal to suppress Sutekh's powers and hold him prisoner.

The Eye of Horus is destroyed, unleashing Sutekh – but in a final showdown on Mars, the Doctor is able to extend the terminus of the time tunnel down which Sutekh is travelling into the far future. The end result? Sutekh appears to age rapidly and eventually perish, with the Doctor suggesting that he may have lived for as long as 7000 years before meeting his demise.

Why was the TARDIS groaning?

Recent episodes of Doctor Who have seen the TARDIS behaving peculiarly, making odd groaning sounds – in The Devil's Chord, Ruby assumes that the noise is a result of the Doctor freeing his ship from Maestro's control, but the Time Lord tells her that "something else" is responsible.

The Legend of Ruby Sunday reveals the cause of the grumbles – Sutekh survived his apparent expiration by weaving himself "into the fabric" of the TARDIS.

"He has hidden in the howling void," explains Sutekh's harbinger, Harriet (Genesis Lynea). "He has hidden within the tempest. He’s braved the storm and the darkness and pain and he whispered to the vessel. All this time he whispered and delighted and seduced and the vessel did obey.

"The Lord of Time was blind and vain and knew nothing."

Is Sutekh the One Who Waits?

Yes – The Legend of Ruby Sunday confirms that Sutekh is the One Who Waits, courtesy of Ruby's neighbour Mrs. Flood (Anita Dobson).

"There’s a storm coming in," says Flood, delivering one of her now-trademark looks to camera. "He waits no more."

Who exactly Mrs. Flood is, how she apparently has the ability to bend reality, and how she knows about the threat posed by Sutekh, remains unclear.

Who are the Gods of Chaos?

Doctor Who showrunner Russell T Davies had previously teased that Ncuti Gatwa's Doctor would be going up against a fantastical "pantheon" of gods and later confirmed that, despite appearances, the Toymaker was not "the supreme being" of the pantheon, known as the Gods of Chaos.

Instead, it is Sutekh who commands the collective – and The Legend of Ruby Sunday also reveals the identities of the rest of the group.

They are as follows..

• the Toymaker, the God of Games
• the Trickster, the God of Traps – as previously seen in The Sarah Jane Adventures
• Maestro, the God of Music
• Reprobate, the God of Spite
• the Mara, the God of Beasts – as previously seen in Kinda and Snakedance
• the threefold deity of Malice and Mischief and Misery
• Incensor, the God of Disaster, and her children called Doubt and Dread

Reference is also made to "gods of skin and shame and secrets" – so it's possible that the above does not cover the Pantheon's entire membership.

What happened to Sutekh in Empire of Death?

In Empire of Death, it was revealed that Sutekh survived being cast into the vortex by the Fourth Doctor, and being sent forward to his own, death, by clinging to the TARDIS and hiding himself ever since. During this time, Sutekh evolved into his "true Godhood".

Sutekh only finally revealed himself in The Legend of Ruby Sunday because of his own desperation to see the face of Ruby Sunday's mother, and learn her identity.

Once unleashed, Sutekh used the being that was once Susan Triad to unleash his "dust of death" across the entire universe and across all of time, anywhere and anytime that the Doctor had landed since Sutekh had been clinging to the TARDIS.

The dust of death extinguished all life it came into contact with, including Kate Stewart and all UNIT personnel, Ruby's adoptive mother Carla Sunday, Carla's mother Cherry and the enigmatic Mrs Flood.

Sutekh reigned over his empire of death, but allowed the Doctor and Ruby to live, so he could uncover the truth.

The duo used a DNA testing programme established in 2046 by prime minister Roger ap Gwilliam to finally establish a familial link, and Ruby distracted Sutekh with the knowledge.

During this time she lassoed Sutekh with "intelligent rope", taken from the time window's remembered TARDIS, while the Doctor used a whistle to unleash the heart of the TARDIS, killing Sutekh's harbinger and giving him back control of the ship.

The TARDIS dragged Sutekh into the vortex, with his gift of death being enacted upon all of the death he had brought across time and space. As the Doctor said, he brought "death to death", in actually giving life and reviving all of who had perished from Sutekh's dust. The Doctor then left Sutekh in the vortex to burn and perish.

Doctor Who will return Christmas 2024 on BBC iPlayer and BBC One. Previous seasons are available to stream on BBC iPlayer.

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